Read: Uncertainty Principle by Mark Kraushaar, 2011, 9781904130505.
I've heard Kraushaar read a few of these poems (and others) aloud. I feel like I am at an advantage because I know the cadence and voice her prefers. I can use the memory of his performance while reading and catch the meaning.
Some poems I understand and some I do not. Kraushaar writes about fate and future; how lives are random and change in unexpected ways. Kraushaar writes about the sky. Kraushaar has several pieces about fathers - or his father. Kraushaar writes about people he observes. Kraushaar writes about biking Jefferson County.
Comments:
1. While reading these I was thinking I should ask Kraushaar if he wants to do another video. I think I will propose that I pick 2-3 poems from here and read them aloud. Kraushaar could then give explanation or background about the poem's story and then read the work as he intended.
2. The difficulty here, as in all poetry, is that intent and meaning have to be crammed into such a small space. A spoken performance makes all the difference to me in understanding feeling. Or catching humor. Or irony. Or sarcasm. I do not have the needed experience as a reader to catch all that.
3. I do think I have gotten better at understanding what a poet is writing. But, I have to take my time and think, digest, and ponder. I do not enjoy using time that way. After reading Razor Days and thinking about the poems for the library video I got to understand them even better.
4. I liked this much better than the other poetry books I read for the committee.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Quit: "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" by Susan Vreeland
Quit: Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland, 2011, 9781400068166.
Boring. I read 97 of the 400 pages. Clara runs the glass selection department of the Tiffany glass company. Her women only department selects and organizes the thousands of glass pieces for windows. Tiffany does not allow married women. Clara is widowed but young and has a proposal from a second dude.
Nothing interesting was happening. The hisotrical aspects of life in 1897 NYC were okay but not enough to keep reading.
Boring. I read 97 of the 400 pages. Clara runs the glass selection department of the Tiffany glass company. Her women only department selects and organizes the thousands of glass pieces for windows. Tiffany does not allow married women. Clara is widowed but young and has a proposal from a second dude.
Nothing interesting was happening. The hisotrical aspects of life in 1897 NYC were okay but not enough to keep reading.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Done: "Mothers and Daughters" by Rae Meadows
Done: Mothers and Daughters by Rae Meadows, 2011, 9780805093834.
Chick book? Not, not exactly. But, yeah. Meadows had thank yous to several people including fellow writing program Cheeseheads Susanna Daniel and Emma Straub.
Three generation story told across a century of time. Each character told during a specific time of life. Grandmother as an 11-year-old street urchin in (circa) 1900 NYC. Mom as 70-something dying of cancer in 1999-or-so. Granddaughter as 30-year-old helping her dying mom and, a year later, dealing with a 9-month-old daughter.
I'm not sure if there was an overarching point to the whole thing. I suppose it is just how kids forget or do not realize the complex lives their parents live. Grandmother never told her relatives she was given up by her mother in New York and sent out on a orphan train.
Mom never expected to have daughter after already having a 10-year-old son. Mom would likely have aborted except unable to find a place for the procedure in 1970 Chicago. Mom had affair with married man after moving to Florida.
Daughter did abort her first child when finding out the fetus would have [something I do not recall]. Daughter helped mom commit suicide with pills. Daughter carries guilt while also adjusting to the emotional swings of early motherhood.
Comments:
1. The story of the grandmom, Iris, was most interesting. Iris and her mother fled Iris's angry dad in Kentucky for NYC. Iris's mom started hooking or mistressing upon arrival. Iris's mom becomes opium junkie. Iris loves her mother and wished her mother would straighten out. Iris still chooses orphan train over going to home for kids.
2. Daughter lives in Madison. Much mention UW students and native WI students versus "Coasties". How the Coasties are more refined and do not wear coats - implying that Coasties want to look good, to show off rather than be smart and stay warm.
3. Gratuitous Madison weirdness and hippies.
Chick book? Not, not exactly. But, yeah. Meadows had thank yous to several people including fellow writing program Cheeseheads Susanna Daniel and Emma Straub.
Three generation story told across a century of time. Each character told during a specific time of life. Grandmother as an 11-year-old street urchin in (circa) 1900 NYC. Mom as 70-something dying of cancer in 1999-or-so. Granddaughter as 30-year-old helping her dying mom and, a year later, dealing with a 9-month-old daughter.
I'm not sure if there was an overarching point to the whole thing. I suppose it is just how kids forget or do not realize the complex lives their parents live. Grandmother never told her relatives she was given up by her mother in New York and sent out on a orphan train.
Mom never expected to have daughter after already having a 10-year-old son. Mom would likely have aborted except unable to find a place for the procedure in 1970 Chicago. Mom had affair with married man after moving to Florida.
Daughter did abort her first child when finding out the fetus would have [something I do not recall]. Daughter helped mom commit suicide with pills. Daughter carries guilt while also adjusting to the emotional swings of early motherhood.
Comments:
1. The story of the grandmom, Iris, was most interesting. Iris and her mother fled Iris's angry dad in Kentucky for NYC. Iris's mom started hooking or mistressing upon arrival. Iris's mom becomes opium junkie. Iris loves her mother and wished her mother would straighten out. Iris still chooses orphan train over going to home for kids.
2. Daughter lives in Madison. Much mention UW students and native WI students versus "Coasties". How the Coasties are more refined and do not wear coats - implying that Coasties want to look good, to show off rather than be smart and stay warm.
3. Gratuitous Madison weirdness and hippies.
Listened: "The Specialists" by Lawrence Block
Listened: The Specialists by Lawrence Block, 1969 (2011 audio by AudioGo).
Quick read. Was there a point in Block's career where he was getting published but his work was kinda lousy? I have not run across any books that are.
Eddie Manso is spending time with a hooker in Las Vegas. The hooker is not a girlfriend but they are good buddies. Hooker comes around to complain about a mobster who threatened her. Manso gets info about the Mobster and finds out the guy owns a bank, the bank was robbed, Mobster collected the insurance. Hmmm.
Manso is a gambler. Manso used to be in the U.S. Army. Manso does more than gamble. Manso is more than a former soldier. Manso's gambling is more like a hobby. Manso used to be in the Special Forces and served in Laos. On occasion Manso sets aside his gambling work to answer the call of his former Special Forces Colonel in Tarrytown, NY. Manso and his former Special Forces comrades join together on those occasions and specialize in robbing crooks.
Manso brings the opportunity to the Colonel. The Colonel is wheelchair bound from a war injury but is still a fine planner. Manso and four other guys (whose names I do not recall because I rarely recall character names when listening to novels) get together to pull a heist of one Mobster's banks. You know it's a heist because this is a heist novel.
Block-like introduction to various characters. Characters have character. Characters have different ways of thinking and feeling. Block draws out emotions and behaviors in a short amount of space using different activities and events to illustrate the characters. There must be a literary name for this. Maybe it is called the Blockensian Method.
Part of the robbery planning involves one guy pretending to be an unknown, illegitimate son of the Mobster so can get inside the Mobster's home and grounds. Another guy woos a bank clerk for inside information. Inside Guy is found out when he won't bone the Mobster's wife and she tells on him. The heist goes on with one man short. The bank clerk returns early to the bank and sees Wooer. Bank Clerk kidnapped. Inside Man rescued and various mobsters, Mobster, and Mobster's Wife are murdered.
Wooer has to decide whether to kill Bank Clerk or continue to pitch woo since she is a witness. Wooer travels with Bank Clerk to the Caribbean. bank Clerk has left her young children and her own parents. They can only assume she was murdered and secretly buried by the bank robbers. Bank Clerk does not care, she is having fun.
Comments:
1. The army guys do specialize in robbing "bad guys" but they are doing robberies with innocent people all around. The army guys will use violence against anyone who gets in their way. During the botched getaway they say that if a cop pulls them over they'll have to kill the cop. Wooer and Colonel talk shortly after the heist about what to do with Bank Clerk and Wooer at first is adament against not killing her. Wooer changes his mind when faced with having to marry someone.
2.a. A take on racial identity and politics. One army guy is black. Discussion about his status as an Army officer and what it means to be black, follow black vs. white culture, how soul food is lousy and leftovers from black people had the worst things to eat.
2.b. Kinda like lutefisk. John Kieraldo (B.A. Scandinavian Studies) mentioned to me how lutefisk is peasant food. It's the gross stuff that was left voer at the end of winter so everyone did not starve. And yet people eat it for holidays and special events and treat it as something special.
2.c. Anyway, Block can write anything and it seems to make sense. How accurate would this view have been among middle-class black family's in 1969? Answer: It all depends.
3. Very good narrator, Fred Sullivan, who does well with Block books. Sullivan brings out a lot of humor.
4. Let me use this last note as an opportunity to suck up a little more. Mr. Block, you are so handsome and intelligent and witty and skilled and virile.
Quick read. Was there a point in Block's career where he was getting published but his work was kinda lousy? I have not run across any books that are.
Eddie Manso is spending time with a hooker in Las Vegas. The hooker is not a girlfriend but they are good buddies. Hooker comes around to complain about a mobster who threatened her. Manso gets info about the Mobster and finds out the guy owns a bank, the bank was robbed, Mobster collected the insurance. Hmmm.
Manso is a gambler. Manso used to be in the U.S. Army. Manso does more than gamble. Manso is more than a former soldier. Manso's gambling is more like a hobby. Manso used to be in the Special Forces and served in Laos. On occasion Manso sets aside his gambling work to answer the call of his former Special Forces Colonel in Tarrytown, NY. Manso and his former Special Forces comrades join together on those occasions and specialize in robbing crooks.
Manso brings the opportunity to the Colonel. The Colonel is wheelchair bound from a war injury but is still a fine planner. Manso and four other guys (whose names I do not recall because I rarely recall character names when listening to novels) get together to pull a heist of one Mobster's banks. You know it's a heist because this is a heist novel.
Block-like introduction to various characters. Characters have character. Characters have different ways of thinking and feeling. Block draws out emotions and behaviors in a short amount of space using different activities and events to illustrate the characters. There must be a literary name for this. Maybe it is called the Blockensian Method.
Part of the robbery planning involves one guy pretending to be an unknown, illegitimate son of the Mobster so can get inside the Mobster's home and grounds. Another guy woos a bank clerk for inside information. Inside Guy is found out when he won't bone the Mobster's wife and she tells on him. The heist goes on with one man short. The bank clerk returns early to the bank and sees Wooer. Bank Clerk kidnapped. Inside Man rescued and various mobsters, Mobster, and Mobster's Wife are murdered.
Wooer has to decide whether to kill Bank Clerk or continue to pitch woo since she is a witness. Wooer travels with Bank Clerk to the Caribbean. bank Clerk has left her young children and her own parents. They can only assume she was murdered and secretly buried by the bank robbers. Bank Clerk does not care, she is having fun.
Comments:
1. The army guys do specialize in robbing "bad guys" but they are doing robberies with innocent people all around. The army guys will use violence against anyone who gets in their way. During the botched getaway they say that if a cop pulls them over they'll have to kill the cop. Wooer and Colonel talk shortly after the heist about what to do with Bank Clerk and Wooer at first is adament against not killing her. Wooer changes his mind when faced with having to marry someone.
2.a. A take on racial identity and politics. One army guy is black. Discussion about his status as an Army officer and what it means to be black, follow black vs. white culture, how soul food is lousy and leftovers from black people had the worst things to eat.
2.b. Kinda like lutefisk. John Kieraldo (B.A. Scandinavian Studies) mentioned to me how lutefisk is peasant food. It's the gross stuff that was left voer at the end of winter so everyone did not starve. And yet people eat it for holidays and special events and treat it as something special.
2.c. Anyway, Block can write anything and it seems to make sense. How accurate would this view have been among middle-class black family's in 1969? Answer: It all depends.
3. Very good narrator, Fred Sullivan, who does well with Block books. Sullivan brings out a lot of humor.
4. Let me use this last note as an opportunity to suck up a little more. Mr. Block, you are so handsome and intelligent and witty and skilled and virile.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Done: "[sic]: a memoir by Joshua Cody
Done: [sic]: a memoir by Joshua Cody, 2011, 9780393081060.
A title designed to annoy catalogers.
Meh. Some parts were okay but Cody's style is not for me. Cody kind of rambles on as though chatting with you in a bar, with tangents and casual asides stuck in.
Cody's neck hurt. Cody went to doctor. Cody had biopsy. Cody had cancer. Cody had chemotherapy. Cody still had cancer. Cody gets radiated. Cody gets bone-marrow transplant. Cody almost dies. Cody lives. Cody dates bat-shit crazy doctor. Cody survives bat-shit crazy doctor. Cody writes a book sitting lakeside in Vermont. Or was that New Hampshire?
Comments:
1. Cody covers several different parts of his life including his mom, his deceased father, a couple romances, hallucinations during illness.
2. Not one of those blow-by-blow books about disease and treatment. Cody has a couple details on what his body went through but talks more about life and the things he likes.
3. Cocaine.
4. Tightly wound girlfriend trying hard to stay away from pills, powders, alcohol, etc.
5. Brett Favre love.
6. Milwaukee love.
7. Manhattan love.
8. Gratuitous Golden Ratio.
A title designed to annoy catalogers.
Meh. Some parts were okay but Cody's style is not for me. Cody kind of rambles on as though chatting with you in a bar, with tangents and casual asides stuck in.
Cody's neck hurt. Cody went to doctor. Cody had biopsy. Cody had cancer. Cody had chemotherapy. Cody still had cancer. Cody gets radiated. Cody gets bone-marrow transplant. Cody almost dies. Cody lives. Cody dates bat-shit crazy doctor. Cody survives bat-shit crazy doctor. Cody writes a book sitting lakeside in Vermont. Or was that New Hampshire?
Comments:
1. Cody covers several different parts of his life including his mom, his deceased father, a couple romances, hallucinations during illness.
2. Not one of those blow-by-blow books about disease and treatment. Cody has a couple details on what his body went through but talks more about life and the things he likes.
3. Cocaine.
4. Tightly wound girlfriend trying hard to stay away from pills, powders, alcohol, etc.
5. Brett Favre love.
6. Milwaukee love.
7. Manhattan love.
8. Gratuitous Golden Ratio.
Listened: "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain
Listened: The Paris Wife by Paula McClain, 2011, downloaded off a OneClickDigital trial, I think.
Not so bad. I enjoyed the book. A neat look into people and places I am only faintly familiar with.
I know little to nothing about the literary types who gathered in 1920s Paris. What I do know is that they were young, drank a lot, socialized a lot, and that some people find this fascinating. To those fans of the '20s the title must be a quick tip-off to the story.
Paris Wife is Hemingway's first wife (of four), Hadley Richardson. Except for three or four short passages about Hemingway's feelings the whole story is by Hadley. Hadley was raised in St. Louis. Hadley never had any romances until she was about 30-years-old and visiting a pal in Chicago. Hadley meets Hemingway, eight years her junior, they fall for each other. She returns to St. Louis. They write one another. She returns to Chicago. They marry. They end up going to Paris to give him a chance to write.
Hemingway can be a real dickhead. After a time he rejects those who help him and he is controlling of Hadley. Hemingway keeps journals on various daily chores and routines, including keeping track of Hadley's menstrual cycle. That's weird, man.
Haldey and Hemingway meet famous people. HadleyandHemingway drink a lot. HadleyHemingway travel Europe. HadHem want have pet names and want Hemingway to write. HH are very close. Cracks appear. Hemingway digs chicks but keeps it in his pants.
Hemingway starts porking Hadley's best pal in Paris, Pauline. Hadley finds out. Hadley tries - what is she trying, and how? To stay with Hemingway I suppose, even though Pauline inserts herself into the marriage, a a fait accompli menage a trois. How's that for some Frenchy talk?
Hadley has enough. Hadley skips France. Hadley returns to France and marries a US journalist. Hadley only talks to Hemingway a couple more times over the next 40 years.
Comments:
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary types appear as pals and party acquaintances.
2. Many people spending lavishly and living beyond their means. Many people living off family wealth. Hemingway does not like the rich.
3. Jack 'Bumby' Hemingway is always shunted off to a maid or sitter.
4. Post-war Paris is free wheeling.
5. Gratuitous Ezra Pound.
6. Bullfighting.
Not so bad. I enjoyed the book. A neat look into people and places I am only faintly familiar with.
I know little to nothing about the literary types who gathered in 1920s Paris. What I do know is that they were young, drank a lot, socialized a lot, and that some people find this fascinating. To those fans of the '20s the title must be a quick tip-off to the story.
Paris Wife is Hemingway's first wife (of four), Hadley Richardson. Except for three or four short passages about Hemingway's feelings the whole story is by Hadley. Hadley was raised in St. Louis. Hadley never had any romances until she was about 30-years-old and visiting a pal in Chicago. Hadley meets Hemingway, eight years her junior, they fall for each other. She returns to St. Louis. They write one another. She returns to Chicago. They marry. They end up going to Paris to give him a chance to write.
Hemingway can be a real dickhead. After a time he rejects those who help him and he is controlling of Hadley. Hemingway keeps journals on various daily chores and routines, including keeping track of Hadley's menstrual cycle. That's weird, man.
Haldey and Hemingway meet famous people. HadleyandHemingway drink a lot. HadleyHemingway travel Europe. HadHem want have pet names and want Hemingway to write. HH are very close. Cracks appear. Hemingway digs chicks but keeps it in his pants.
Hemingway starts porking Hadley's best pal in Paris, Pauline. Hadley finds out. Hadley tries - what is she trying, and how? To stay with Hemingway I suppose, even though Pauline inserts herself into the marriage, a a fait accompli menage a trois. How's that for some Frenchy talk?
Hadley has enough. Hadley skips France. Hadley returns to France and marries a US journalist. Hadley only talks to Hemingway a couple more times over the next 40 years.
Comments:
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary types appear as pals and party acquaintances.
2. Many people spending lavishly and living beyond their means. Many people living off family wealth. Hemingway does not like the rich.
3. Jack 'Bumby' Hemingway is always shunted off to a maid or sitter.
4. Post-war Paris is free wheeling.
5. Gratuitous Ezra Pound.
6. Bullfighting.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
DNF: "Death of Dracula" by Victor Gischler, et al
DNF: The Death of Dracula by Victor Gischler, et al, 2011, 9780785156161 (comics compilation).
When a book says Gischler on the cover it should be all Gischler and not filled with other Dracual stuff from 1976. Damn it.
I read the Gischler story, Death of Dracula, and skipped the others. Gischler may have done this as a one-off - I don't know - but the story does not end. Plot: Dracula has two sons, one good and one bad. Bad one kills dad. Good one does not want to join the insurrection. Intrigue and counterplots amongst the vampire clans. Good son escapes death.
Comments:
1. The vampire gals in Gischler's tale have big boobs and skimpy dresses. I approve.
2. I don't like that mid-'70s style artwork anyway unless it is in Tales From the Crypt.
3. None of that "vampyre" crap.
4. The vampires are cruel and violent, not "sparkly" and lovelorn.
When a book says Gischler on the cover it should be all Gischler and not filled with other Dracual stuff from 1976. Damn it.
I read the Gischler story, Death of Dracula, and skipped the others. Gischler may have done this as a one-off - I don't know - but the story does not end. Plot: Dracula has two sons, one good and one bad. Bad one kills dad. Good one does not want to join the insurrection. Intrigue and counterplots amongst the vampire clans. Good son escapes death.
Comments:
1. The vampire gals in Gischler's tale have big boobs and skimpy dresses. I approve.
2. I don't like that mid-'70s style artwork anyway unless it is in Tales From the Crypt.
3. None of that "vampyre" crap.
4. The vampires are cruel and violent, not "sparkly" and lovelorn.
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