Book Review

About a week overdue at the library, I finally finished The Singer and the Song by Gene Lees.  It started to drag a little around the ninth chapter, but I am so glad I stayed with it, because the last chapter was magic.  It describes in loving detail, the development of a musical produced in the 80s, starring Sarah Vaughn singing poems written by the Pope. 

All in all, this little compilation is a bit gossipy complete with name-dropping, a bit of history and biography, and musical education.  The author, who was a lyricist, wielded his pen like an old-time storyteller slaving lovingly over flowery details on every aspect. In this day and age, I found it charming, as well as engrossing.  He explains how songs were put together, about the people who played the music and sang, and what they were like in real life. He died in 2010, but I wish I had known of him before, because I would have liked to hear his music.  He does have a Wikipedia page, so some information is accessible, but his albums aren’t at this time.  It was worth having to pay a fine to be able to finish all the chapters in this great little book.

BOOK REVIEW

BEAR by Marian Engel

WARNING:  SPOILER ALERT  

I really enjoyed the wonderful, “folksy” writing style of Ms. Engel.  She uses precision and ease in her use of reveal as the story unfolds about a spinster who takes a job on an isolated island to account for a large house and contents donated to the historical trust.  

Her back story and the way she grows from there is very well done, but I feel really strongly that Ms. Engel gratuitously describes bestiality with the residential bear when she could have stayed with the original theme and overall feeling of the book by hinting and leaving it to the reader’s imagination rather than describing it in gory and unsavory detail.  It is disturbing and provocative, which perhaps was what she was aiming to do, but again, I suggest she could have left it out and the story would have been better for it.

BOOK REVIEW

-->

BEFORE I FALL  by Lauren Oliver

WARNING:  SPOILER ALERT

This lengthy novel is an engaging and deeply engrossing story about a high schooler experiencing an other-worldly event that teaches her lessons about courage, loyalty, compassion and selflessness.  I loved Ms. Oliver's expert plotting and development of characters, description and mood-setting.  This is definitely a page-turner. 

The only quarrel I have with the book is the hugely unsatisfying ending. 

Spoiler alert:  Presenting suicide as a lofty conclusion is not just unhealthy, it is misleading. 

Book Review

-->

SCRATCH:  Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living  by Manjula Martin

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this compilation of writers’ personal accounts of how they come by their money.  If you’re new to the publishing game, then it is an eye-opener, and if you’ve been at it a long time, it still carries some surprises, but better yet, innovative ideas for getting one’s ideas into print.  Very nice read.

#30 THE LAST GO-AROUND

Here it is!

the last round-up

the last go-around

the end of a chapter

the straw that broke my back

Your lack of love

your lack of caring or anything

remotely resembling gratitude

You have pilfered away your good health

your legacy and

your economic wealth

for the immediate pleasures of

Booze

Tobacco

and the lack of awareness they bring

I know it’s an illness

I know you can’t help it

I know the treatments didn’t work for you

But know this

Watching you go the same way as our parents

watching you in and out of hospitals

with life-threatening crises

bankruptcy and foreclosure

And the total disregard you have

for the consequences of your actions

has pushed my compassion to the brink

forced my psyche to go numb

and out of self-survival

made this

the last go-around for us

PAD 2014 #29 TWO FOR TUESDAY

MAGICAL AND REALISM POEMS

Magical Words

Sometimes what I consider magical

others decide is just coincidence

It behooves them not to believe in miracles

perhaps for fear of being disappointed

Magic happens in writing three pages a day

Poems show themselves, ideas, even

how to handle difficult relatives

Magic happened when I first started this

and wrote “Dear God” at the top

Then I didn’t need to,

because I knew He knew to Whom I was writing

Writing is often a 3-D printer from my head

I conceived the notion that I should play music

even though I was ‘too old’

used my credit card to buy a violin at 30

a sax at 50

and a full-sized harp at 59

in spite of arthritis and lack of education

and never once regretted those purchases

I complain about the weather, about my figure

about being pissed off at anybody and everybody

without the risk of having to defend it and

magically the rancor often disappears!

I write psalms about gratitude

unexpected prosperity, hopes, dreams

disappointments, failures, poor health

and depression

The magic is not in making them disappear

but in seeing it outside myself

and realizing each new challenge on my page

is merely the universe’s way of

giving me an opportunity for growth

REALISM POEM

WHAT’S REAL?

When I was a kid with a burst appendix

They gave me ether to remove it

The operation was a success

but the flashbacks from the drug lingered

and sometimes for no apparent reason

I would have spells where things didn’t feel

REAL

I would be conscious

I would feel pain

But I would be so distant from things

that they didn’t feel REAL

Thanks to Madeleine L’Engle

I can imagine a fourth dimension

without too much academic clutter-talk  

matter vibrating at different speeds

and the idea that life as we know it

might just be an illusion

This sweet illusion gives us experience

and distance from the experience

gives us objectivity and choices

But

reality is that

falling down a flight of stairs still hurts

hunger pangs are not fun

and you can get an ice-cream headache

if you eat it too fast

Still, escape from reality even if

only in our head

is sometimes better than what

IS

PAD 2014 #28 SETTLED

Like a big bag of potatoes

the weight of my body

has settled into lumps and bumps

that should never be there

My brain has settled into a rhythm

satisfied that I wake up every morning still

and gratified when the steam from

my first cup of coffee hits my nose

I read that the job of typist is extinct

so, no worries that my arthritic hands

will never type 100 words per minute again

and being basically unemployable

is a settlement I can live with

What I won’t settle for though

is a chair instead of a dance floor

someone hired to clean my house

silent musical instruments accusing me

that I skipped practice

and the lack of a voice to put things right!