Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Abi at 4 the Love of Books is hosting in May. Please visit her fun, inspirational blog.

I got a nice stack of books last week, mostly because I stopped by my favorite Second Glance Books where Rachelle had some set aside for me. 

I also got a copy of an interesting book when I went to hear the author/editor speak.  If you would have told me that I could sit and listen to a two-hour lecture on the history of, and predictions for, the modern welfare states of Europe and America,  I would have scoffed.  But Tom Palmer was a riveting speaker.  I am looking forward to reading his book:



After the Welfare State, edited by Tom G. Palmer, featuring essays by himself, David Beito, Piercamillo Falasca (Italian),  David Green(English),  Aristides Hatzis (Greek), Johan Norberg (Swedish),  and Michael Tanner.  I like the international perspectives.

My books from Second Glance are:



Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet.  I also have her book, Wicked Autumn, on my TBR shelf.



The Japanese Cat at Home by Nobuo Honda, because it is too adorable!



Morgan's Passing by Anne Tyler




Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill, which is on the College Board's Top 101 list.



McTeague by Frank Norris



Promised Land by Robert B. Parker, which won the Edgar Award.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Eleven: Appliances!

The appliances are in! They aren't hooked up yet, but it is starting to look like a kitchen.

Better yet, now that the dusty work is finished, the door between the dining room and the kitchen has been unsealed, so we can get to the kitchen -- and more important, the basement -- from inside.  For the past months, we've had to go around the outside of the house to see progress on the kitchen or get downstairs.  Hauling baskets of laundry around the yard to the cellar door got tired fast.

The cats love exploring the new room. So many smells! Here is Ella Fitzgerald admiring the island before a leaping circuit of all the counters.


I haven't read any food books this week, but I did just buy one yesterday.  And, yes, I bought it because of the title: Spotted Dick, S'il Vous Plait: An English Restaurant in France by Tom Higgins.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: The Tin Drum

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Granted: I'm an inmate in a mental institution; my keeper watches me, scarcely lets me out of sight, for there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can't see through blue-eyed types like me.

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass.

I've had a copy of The Tin Drum on my TBR shelf forever, but it daunts me.  The whole notion of German literature daunts me, although I'm of 100% German stock, so I feel I should appreciate it, and I've read hardly any, so don't have a basis for my opinion.

Then I read about the new translation of this Nobel Laureate's classic, and decided to go that route.  My library had an unabridged audio version, so I can read it with my ears.  I figure I can just keep listening, even when I don't get it, like with this opening sentence.  Sometimes you just have to let art flow over you. 

Book Notes: Audio Books

• Do you read audio books?
• Do you enjoy particular types of book in audio editions?
• Where do you get your audio books?

I've listened to audio books on and off all my adult life, but I really became a fan when I got an iPod and discovered how to load audio cds from the library onto my iTunes library, then on to my iPod.  I could keep 20 or more books in my purse!  More recently, my library expanded its list of iPod-compatible audio books available for automatic download, so I no longer have to mess around with the cds.

I still read the majority of my books with my eyes, but there are plenty that I read with my ears.  I bristle at the argument that listening to an audio book does not "count" as reading the book.  An unabridged audio book puts every single word of the book into your head, just like reading a paper book does -- it just gets into your brain via your ears instead of your eyes.  But it is the same information getting to your brain -- just like reading a book in Braille puts the book into your brain through your fingertips.  The difference is sensory, not substantive.  It is not like watching a play or a movie or listening to a radio program because an audio book is not an adaptation -- it is the real book, read aloud.

There are a couple of genres I enjoy best in an audio format.  First, memoirs read by the author, because they can be superior to the paper format.  You hear exactly how the author intended the words to sound -- you get inside the author's head.  For example, I always know who listened Frank McCourt read Angela's Ashes and who read it with their eyes.  The first group, including me, thought the book was heartwarming and very funny.  The second group thought it was heartbreaking and incredibly sad.  The difference is in the cadence and inflection McCourt put into the words when he read them.

Likewise, Ayaan Hirisi Ali reading her biography Infidel was mind blowing.  I cannot imagine getting the same impact from the printed page.  On a lighter note, I came close to abandoning David Sedaris until I listened to Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and became a devoted fan.

The second genre I prefer in audio is classic literature.  I am listening to The Tin Drum now.  I've listened to, among others, The Count of Monte Cristo, Moll Flanders, Silas Marner, Hard Times, Madame Bovary, and Moby Dick.  And, yes, even the passages on cetology and the meaning of "white" were entertaining when read out loud.

Listening to these classics is more rewarding for me that reading them with my eyes.  Instead of facing dense, page-long paragraphs of prose, some professional has parsed the phrasing and figured out every nuance of intonation.  That, along with different voices for characters, makes some of these older books come alive.  In that way, I agree with the idea that audio books are like a play -- listening to them is satisfying in the same way that watching a Shakespeare play makes more sense than trying to read it on the page.

So while I will continue to flip pages, you can often find me plugged into my iPod, listening to a book.  And I definitely count every one of those audio books as I scratch the titles off my various book lists.

Review: Word Up! by Marcia Riefer Johnston

Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) 

by Marcia Riefer Johnston

 
Trying to review Marcia Riefer Johnston’s Word Up! daunts me. She starts with a chapter advising vigorous deletion of all “to be” verbs. Ack! Good advice, but it stymies my ability to write a review, lest a stray is, am, was, or are bogs down my prose.

But it must be done. So I’ll offer my opinions and risk straying from the path Johnston’s advice, with a reminder to myself that good writing is a continual process of practice and honing.

Word Up! takes a holistic approach to strong writing, rather than rehashing the same old rules about grammar and punctuation. Johnston covers a lot of ground, but always focuses on getting the most out of every word and sentence. She preaches energetic and repeated editing – to eliminate bloat and flab, make sentences punchy, and create compositions that resonate with readers.

There is just enough jargon and technical guidance in the book to appeal to grammar geeks and punctuation buffs. But the strength of Word Up! lies in Johnston’s enthusiasm for teaching powerful writing. This is a book to turn to again and again for guidance and inspiration.

OTHER REVIEWS

You would like your review of Word Up! or any other guide to good writing listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.