Books

Wow, thanks for all your comments on the previous post - I will reply to them soon, but basically it seems like we all make wishlists somewhere or other, and I'm very impressed by how organised some of you are!And I thought I'd treat you with a little pile of books which have recently come to Stuck-in-a-Book Towers... let's work from the bottom up, shall we? (I hadn't realised until I put these together for the photo quite how blue books have dominated of late...)London War Notes 1939-1945 by Mollie Panter-DownesI thought this book was absolutely brilliant, and essential WW2 reading, when I reviewed it earlier in the year - but I didn't actually own a copy. When an affordable one came up in my abebooks alerts, I high-tailed it to... well, the internet. But the book is mine now, and I'm thrilled!Selected Poems by Anthony ThwaiteThe Norman Church by A.A. MilneThe Man in the Bowler Hat by A.A. MilneThese all came via a connection Claire/The Captive Reader brought to my attention - as you might know, A.A. Milne is one of my favourite authors, and the first one I loved wholeheartedly in my adult reading. 2012 was Claire's year of discovering AAM, and she read many of his books - and Ann Thwaite's exceptionally good biography A.A. Milne: His Life. I've read it a few times, in pre-blog days, but haven't posted about it yet. Anyway, Ann Thwaite spotted Claire's review and commented on it that she's looking to sell some of AAM books - read her comment on this post - and I got in touch with her. We had a chat on the phone, and she was lovely - and I bought the Milne books mentioned here. The collection of poetry by her husband came as a surprise bonus, and I must write to thank her soon :) I can't tell you have special it feels to have these books come from the author of a biography which affected my reading so much.The Maiden Dinosaur by Janet McNeillThis one was a recommendation by a SiaB reader, Tina, as mentioned in my previous post.Symposium by Muriel SparkOne of the few Spark novels I didn't already own. very kindly given to me by Karen. It might well be my next Spark read...The Towers of Trebizond by Rose MacaulayComing Up For Air by George OrwellWhat Was Lost by Catherine O'FlynnBy Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept by Elizabeth SmartI bought these in the brilliant Amnesty Book Shop in Bristol last weekend - I did already have a copy of the Macaulay, but not in this gorgeous NYRB Classics edition... I'm not the sort of person who could resist that, as well we all know. Mel recommended the Catherine O'Flynn, and the other two are books I've been intending to read for ages. Well, actually I just want to read more Orwell in general, and had hoped to find The Clergyman's Daughter, but this will more than do.Letters of Lewis CarrollWell, why on earth not? (Also timely, as I am going to see Judi Dench in Peter and Alice this weekend. Can't wait!)

At first I was going to title this post “I blame Ana..” but that seemed a little harsh. And really, she did not make me buy the books. Actually, it was nice to have someone encouraging me to buy books instead of making me feel weird about buying that many. Although I admit, by the end of the day she was laughing at me as well.. 21 books in the few days I have been in the UK is crazy! But they were so tempting! And Ana made some of these sound SO good. Take a look for yourself. I did well, right? I like to think so. Even if at the same time I want to hide in shame because of how many books I ended up buying! I wonder if they’ll fit into my suitcase..

From The Hollywood Museum:Harry Potter’s legendary wizardry lives on at The Hollywood Museum, the official museum of Hollywood, located in the Historic Max Factor Building. The Museum’s new collection of sorcery includes acquisitions from the Harry Potter film franchise, considered among the highest-grossing films of all-time. Spotlighted are new items from noted Harry Potter historian Christopher Knoll, President of Ovation Productions. The ultimate broom used by Harry Potter in the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and his quill and inkbottle used while at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry enhance the exhibit. Potter’s wands are also part of the permanent procurement.  A black wand box signed by Maggie Smith and a series of wand boxes with their coordinating wands are displayed, highlighted by Harry’s black handle instruction wand and Dumbledore’s purple handle wand, both in their ‘dragon skin’ boxes.  Other items also on exhibit are Harry’s robe, costumes, signed blueprints of rooms at Hogwarts School, photos, posters, and more.  In addition, Daniel Radcliffe’s tennis shoes are displayed, as well as Rupert Grint’s and Emma Watson’s shoes and the writing stylus’ used by all three when they were honored with foot and hand prints at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. “We salute the thrilling Harry Potter movies as a part of Hollywood legendary history,“ says Museum Founder and President Donelle Dadigan. “We are excited to present these famous items for fans to experience up close and personal!“

To catch thought as it flies has long been an ambition of the high-end literary novel. From one point of view, it is possible to see the form’s history as an incremental refinement of the means by which consciousness is represented on the page. Jane Austen’s free indirect speech, the folding of soliloquy into third-person narration (“She had no hope, nothing to deserve the name of hope, that he could have that sort of affection for herself which was now in question”), marked the first significant breakthrough. Flaubert, James, Tolstoy, and others took this technique and ran with it. In the climactic chapters of “Anna Karenina,” Anna’s mind, overwrought by the crisis of her deteriorating affair with Vronsky, seems to commandeer the narrative altogether (“How proud and happy he’ll be when he gets my note! But I’ll show him … What a terrible smell that paint has”), so that mind and narrative become hard to tell apart. ...read more

“Battleborn,” the astonishingly wise début story collection by Claire Vaye Watkins, takes its title from the tattoo-worthy nickname of her home state, Nevada; the stories are set in the beautiful, treacherous territory of the desert, and are populated by characters drawn to its dry washes, their psychotic delusions or lucky-strike fantasies hazily glimmering before them. Raw, fearless, and often very funny, these are stories remarkable for the risky dynamism of their language, the scope of their field of vision. The collection’s blistering opening, “Ghosts, Cowboys” merges the boom-time founding of Reno with the story of Watkins’s own family (her father, Paul Watkins, was once one of Charles Manson’s most trusted followers: a guitar-playing eighteen-year-old with Gram Parsons good looks, who lured girls to Spahn Ranch but broke away from the Manson family before the murders and provided key testimony for the prosecution; he died when Claire was a child). “Ghosts,” even as it concedes its own impossible weight (“But the story was too much, wherever I began: the borrowed revolver on the floor of a cabin near Bozeman, Montana … My parents’ own toxic and silver-gilded love”) can be read as a key to the rest of the book. Watkins works in the intersections between public history, private memory, and imagination, the known and the far more alluring unknown. In the desert, where abandoned buildings and ghost towns give way to movie sets, time and space can seem to shrink; Watkin’s narratives mimic this sense of elasticity and compression. The reader can sense her vital and deeply felt love for the place, for its wildness, “the grace and the violence.” ...read more

… Quid plura? | “When I’ve walked in the garden, when I’m walking offstage…”

… 1994 Video Predicts iPad | davidrothman.net. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

No One Else to Kill is book 5 of the Jim West Mysteries. Since this was my first Jim West book, I expected to feel as though I was missing something. I am pleased to say that I was not, and this is definitely a stand-alone book. Jim West travels to a remote hunting lodge in New Mexico with the intent of meeting up with an old friend to do some therapeutic hiking. The friend is a no-show, but before he can head for home a murder occurs at the lodge. Not yet twenty four hours later, another murder occurs. While Jim could have been one of the suspects, the police recognize his problem solving talents and enlist his help in solving the crime. Although he wants no part of it, he agrees to be their man on the inside and keep his eyes on everyone.Jim is a likable character, not really wanting to get involved, but realizing his unique talents and opportunity to be among the suspects. We are introduced to a variety of characters and suspects at the lodge. Things get out of control and brought back to an exciting conclusion. It is an interesting story with a variety of possible suspects.No One Else to Kill won First Runner-Up in the Commercial Fiction category for the 2013 Eric Hoffer Award.

… Calls for Chinua Achebe Nobel prize 'obscene', says Wole Soyinka | Books | guardian.co.uk. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

...from the NYT