Minerva

The Truths of Fiction

April 6, 2012 by rurugby 1 Comment

I used to be someone that read a lot more non-fiction then fiction. Like someone I know at work, I tried to read more literature and what was good for me. I think I did this in my 20s to some extent.

It’s funny though, I really grew up just reading what was around, which was a ton of books in my house, many of which were excellent. Grew up with parents who LOVED books, which is a gift to any child.

But, I have been realizing more and more that there are truths in fiction. You are able to reach depths, try ideas of the future, talk about loss, love, etc. far easier in fiction then truth.

In non-fiction you can be bound to footnotes, research, style of your field (ie History, Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Biography, Sociology, etc.) And sometimes ideas that are best in a 10-20 page article become rather boring 500 page books. Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History” is a brilliant “Foreign Affairs” article but a boring book, for example.

In fiction, your characters can go as far as your imagination. Limitless places, new worlds, new futures. If David Simpson wants to create a Post-Humanity that has robots that make humans, super human, why not? If Colleen Hoover wants to create an amazing if problematic romance in “Slammed” she can. If Hugh Howey’s wants to have dystopian world in a silo in the “Wool Omnibus” he can. If Mark Twain wants to explore racism on the Mississippi River he can in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Fiction is limitless, which gives it a truth fiction can’t match.

From the muckracking of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”, to tales of class in “The Great Gatsby”, seeing the world from a teenager that everyone is phony in “Catcher in the Rye”, and the racism of the South in “To Kill a Mockingbird; fiction can take you anywhere. So I challenge those who don’t think the need to read fiction to look again and see the wonder.

Books this week:

Finished: The Sons of Liberty (Vol. 1) ***1/2 (yesterday’s post.)

Signal to Noise: Story: Neil Gaiman, Artwork and Design: Dave McKean: Very cool, very surreal graphic novel. Definitely has the noise of an artist seeing the end of life. Trippy and fun. *** (4 GR/Minerva)

The Sons of Liberty by Felix Sutton: Well done juvenile history, got it because had same name as the Lagos Brothers graphic novel. **1/2 (3 GR/Minerva)

What Work Is by Philip Levine: Excellent poetry of working class America. Really enjoyed this and planning to pass it around the Portland poetry community. May have less ownership since was part of a $3 bag of books at the Walker Library sale. ***1/2 (4 GR)

Who You Are by Nancy Henry: Featured in last week’s #FridayReads column, brave book about those thrown out by society. Excellent. **** (5 GR/Minerva)

Wool 3 by Hugh Howey: Slowed down and left this back on my Kindle and then rushed through it again in a few days. Beautiful, heartbreaking end. In Wool 4 now. One of the best science fiction series I have ever read. **** (5 GR) (Kindle)

Checked out this week:

Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines: Seth Hahne of the “Good Ok Bad” Graphic Novel rating site has this as his all time favorite graphic novel. Fascinating stuff. Just scratched the surface. pg 58 of 390 (Minerva/Lithgow PL)

Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba: Seth Hahne’s #2 Graphic Novel of all time. Went to Minerva site while looking at Hahne’s blog. (Minerva/ Lewiston Library)

Diving Into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972: Got with Adrienne Rich’s death. Solid, but not hitting my soul. *** (3 GR) pg 20 of 62. (Walker/Still reserved through Minerva, since only 1 copy)

The Sons of Liberty #1 (discussed earlier). (Minerva/Gardiner PL)

Jimmy Corrigan or The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware: Keep hearing this is Ware’s fundamental book. Since I did a whole blogpost on him, I guess I should read it. (Minerva/Rice PL) Just started.

Books purchased:

Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich: I really enjoyed Mezrich’s “Sex on the Moon” and curious about this tale of MIT math geeks and blackjack. A book that was on my list.

The Paris Review: Beat Writers at Work (ed. George Plimpton): Interviews, articles with the beats from the Paris Review. The Beats is one of my favorite literary periods. Looking forward to geeking out.

And for a third time: The Sons of Liberty #1 by the Lagos Brothers. This may earn a fifth Goodreads star yet.

Books reading:

Readings for Remembrance: A Collection for Funerals and Memorial Services selected by Eleanor Munro: Got this while Walter was sick. Not bad, would like to like more. Not grabbing me. Too scattered. **1/2 (3 GR)

Words I Wish I Wrote by Garrison Keillor: Been going through this a little at time. Nice little book. Will have to finish it before Wednesday. May read some this weekend. pg 92 of 221. *** (4 GR)

Quiet by Susan Cain: Enjoying this, slower read. Due back Wednesday as well. Unlikely to be renewable since it is new and in demand. pg. 162 of 270. Finding this really interesting. May need to do a lot of reading on Sunday before the Haiku slam. ***1/2 (4 GR)

And Kindle Updates:

Seems like sometimes my Kindle books I read a little at a time at work. Reading some great stuff right now.

Wool 4 by Hugh Howey: Fascinating book, the world keeps getting richer. Really, really curious where this is going. **** (5 GR) (approx 50% — reading with Wool Omnibus, better text size then for Wool 4).

Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White: Fascinating tales of becoming a chef in London. One of Anthony Bourdain’s heroes. ***1/2 (4 GR) (31%)

The Mind Tree by Tito Mukhopadhyay: Disbelieving these stories could be written by any 8 or 11 year old child, let alone written by a non-speaking autistic child. Reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Gives me an idea of how it be to be autistic. Think of how hard some new things can be for you and make that ANY change in your life. This book may make a blog post. Heck this short review is already longer than some of my blog posts. (12%) **** (yes, already) (5 GR)

The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds by Pete Axthelm: Very cool book that compares the tales of the legendary 1971-72 Knicks team to the playground heroes of NYC. Pretty cool, think will chip at for a while. *** (3 GR)

That’s almost 1100 words for the night, and over 2,000 including tomorrow’s post I have written since I have been home. I love writing these. I hope you like reading them. It’s my favorite post of the week.

Edmund

2 Amazing Graphic Novels: Habibi/ BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

March 2, 2012 by rurugby 2 Comments

This week for my book of the week/what I have been reading column I want to talk about not one but two books, both amazing graphic novels.

The first I checked out again for the 2nd time on Wednesday and read twice in one day, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs by JD Arnold/illus. by Richard Koslowski …. This is a brilliant book. It tells a story of the racism of the Jim Crow south, the KKK and the dawn of the blues starting in Money, Mississippi in 1920.

The wolves are a proxy for black people, the pigs for rich white America, aka the Man. It’s a revenge tale, it well told, and it’s devastating in a way. Amazing story using the memes of the story of the big bad wolf and the 3 little pigs. In the words of Colleen Hoover it’s bemazing (ie beautiful and amazing) ****1/2 (5 GR)

The next book I want to talk about is Craig Thompson’s beautiful and much longer (600 vs. 85 pages) “Habibi”. This is an amazing, and extremely rich book. It is told through the tale of a child married into a Islamic calligropher and then orphaned with a small boy.

It tells tales of Islam, slavery, racism, greed, water …. It’s an extraordinarily rich book and there is a great discussion about it on one of my favorite websites, goodreads.com. ****1/2 (5 GR)

There is also a book that meant a lot to me I read this week, Colleen Hoover’s follow up to Slammed, Point of Retreat. This is special to me because my poem “Write Poorly” is in the book and I am in acknowledgements, it means a lot. **** (5 GR)

I also read this week the Kindle Single “The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks” by Joe Kloc, which was fun, interesting but not as rich as “Sex on the Moon.” This is my Goodreads review:

Enjoyable little book and a former NASA investigator who becomes obsessed with moon rocks.

Not as great as “Sex on the Moon”, but a fascinating tale of someone who wants to find out the whereabouts of all of the moon rocks that Nixon gave out around the world.

**1/2 (3 GR)

I also finished “Mile 81” by Stephen King — Goodreads review:

This took a long, long, long time for me to read.

I am really not a fan of the horror genre and empty rest stops (this is set in Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike near Lewiston, ME) are very, very creepy places.

I think there is a reason I don’t read much horror.

But I did enjoy it. *** (4 GR)

(Kindle)

And I read a lovely short book of Haiku called “Reflection Haiku: Living Modern Lives the Simple Way – Lily Wang’s English and Chines Zen Shorts” … The title is longer than the poems, but I really enjoyed it, look forward to reading more Haiku books for a very appropriate $1 cost (GR 4) (Kindle)

I also checked out a TON of books at the library on Wednesday:

From Minerva (ie other libraries throughout Maine)

3 from Chris Ware after reading the amazing Acme Novelty #20

Acme #17, #18 and untitled/numbered … Have started #18 so far, only a third the way though .. another tale of someone’s life, this one of a female character. Chris Ware is a distinctive voice in graphic novel, very, very distinct style.

“Feynman” by Ottavian & Myrick … a YA graphic novel based on the lives on Cal Tech phyiscist and character Richard Fenyman .. I am very intrigued.

“American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now” ed. by Peter Straub … I heard Harlan Ellison’s greatest short story is “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” from his documentary “Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth” Library of America (Lewiston PL)

From Walker Library Westbrook, ME

BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

“Koula” by Menis Koumandareas — Looks like a fascinating novella, haven’t started yet

Still reading:

“Cannery Row” by John Steinbeck .. need to finish this week, due back next week. Excellent writing but finding it slow. (4 GR) (Rockland Library/Minerva)

“Growgirl” by Heather Donahue .. Enjoying it, but again a slower read and lot of other stuff jumping ahead of it (ie Habibi, BB Wolf, Point of Retreat) .. It’s good, it’s interesting, tells tales about tales of Northern Californians growing medical marijuana. I recommend it but it’s likely I won’t finish it. (4 GR) And yes it’s Heather Donahue from the Blair Witch Project.

I love public libraries

February 1, 2012 by rurugby Leave a Comment

I just want to say I love public libraries.

Books are amazing, as our librarians who can recommend books and help you find things in the library or online.

I love that I can use Minerva to find books all over the state.

I love I can find graphic novels there.

I love giving out comic books, and hoping the kids who take them like them.

I love finding new fiction.

I love talking to the librarians.

Libraries make me happy.

And if you haven’t been to one in a while come back, they miss you. And if you ask you can get a library card, and some amazing books, or CDs, or audiobooks or DVDs. And if you don’t see what you are looking for just ask and use those magicians of information, librarians.

BOTW: Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness

January 6, 2012 by rurugby 2 Comments

Seems like I have done less reading and more writing this week.

Books Finished:

The Roald Dahl Treasury — Very cool coffee table book for Dahl fans. Lots of interesting features, poems, letters, etc. The snippets of his stories are interesting but would rather read them in full. (4 stars — Goodreads)

Chicago Poems — Carl Sandburg – Amazing and awesome book. Alive, active, muscular terse poetry. Freaking loved it. Would love suggestions of similar poets. I think poetry may be one of the most individual forms for reading. (5 Stars — GR)

A Boy’s Will — Robert Frost — Nice, short poetry book .. Didn’t come close to grabbing me .. Think may attempt it again. Pretty, but didn’t speak to me. (3)

The Graduate — – My books of the week last week. Benjamin Braddock is one of the only characters I can think of that is richer in the movie then the book. I have absolutely no idea why Elaine! Elaine! would choose to run away with him. There is a word for who he is today, stalker. (4)

Books started: (both could end as future BOTW)

Dirty Minds — Kayt Sukel — Wonderful book so far about the neuroscience of love, attraction and sex. Kayt is a high school classmate at Montgomery HS (NJ) class of 1992, and so proud of her. I like that she has a journalist’s and a neuroscientist’s background. Very readable, expect this to be next week’s BOTW.

The Hunger Games — Suzanne Collins — My wife lannalee’s (http://lannaleemaheux.com) books of the week.. Barely started .. Lanna stayed up late 3 consecutive nights reading the trilogy. One of the big books right now. Fun writing so far.

Still reading:

Sex on the Moon — Ben Herzlich — Really fun story, and crazy story about a NASA co-op student who stole moon rocks to impress someone. Love Herzlich’s writing style .. “Accidental Billionaire” the book that inspired “The Social Network” movie should be one of my books of 2012. (4)

The Beats: A Graphic History — Harvey Pekar et al .. Very cool and interesting look at the lives of the Beats. Rich work. Harvey Pekar’s voice is one I like. I think his “A Cancer Year” will be something I read in 2012. (4)

Love is a Dog From Hell — Charles Bukowski — Reading this book of poems slow but a lot of fun. To me the poet of drunks, very direct poems. I wonder what Bukowski would be without the drink. (4)

And the BOTW: Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackeness — Toure — I have been following @toure on Twitter for a while and been reading his reviews and feature in Rolling Stone for a while. This book gave me some idea of what it is like to black in America in 2012.

Fascinating tales of what blackness means, what is means to be called to be “acting white”; tales of the most racist thing you have ever seen, dealt with; how keeping it real is a prison; and the 40 million ways to be black in America.

The challenge of reading about racism slowed me down with this book, the fact that it is overdue is causing me to finish it today (wrote on Thursday morning). Fascianting book makes me want to read more African-American stories. I am not a believer in anti-racism, or white guilt expressed in the academic left. But, I am very interested in American studies of all colors, shapes, genders and ethnicities.

Powerful book, and a hard read. Chapter that resonated the most is about the Chappelle Show, which is a wonderful metaphor for post-Blackness, that both shows a knowledge of the black experience, and is able to tweak it. I can see why now more then ever Chappelle decided to end his show.

And loved that he worked with 105 of the most interesting black people in America. Well worth reading (4).

Books purchased: (All Kindle)

Dirty Minds
11/22/1963 by Stephen King (both ones me and my life are interested in)

Beethoven’s Shadow — Jonathan Bliss — Kindle Single — Kindle Singles are short works (usually 40-60) pages about a topic. Often very rich and interesting. I would much rather an author have a dense and interesting 50 pages, then a long winded 400. I think this is something eBooks are good at.

Anyway, the book is about a classical pianist tackling all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Fascinating book about the preperation involved in being a classical musician. Very interesting. (1.99 on Kindle)

Books checked out:

City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology — ed. Lawrence Ferlinghetti .. I have been a beat poetry fan for a long time. Trying to read more of it. I think the style definitely influenced my poems. (Minerva, Auburn Public Library)

Murder for Love: 16 New Original Stories — Shel Silverstein, et al. .. I will admit it, got it for the Shel Silverstein short story. (Walker ML)

Cain x 3 .. James M. Cain — 3 Novel collection with “The Postman Always Rings Twice”, “Mildred Pierce” and Double Indemnity .. curious to read Double Indemnity the most.

I Was a Potato Oligarch — John Mole .. About to buy for Kindle but got sample on sale for $2.99, by time I wanted to buy it was up to $9.99 .. so Minerva time .. (Scarborough PL)

A Coney Island of the Mind — Lawrence Ferlinghetti — Another poetry book .. Beat time! (Minerva, Thomas ML, Cape Elizabeth)

A Little Friendly Advice — Siobhan Vivian … Used Minerva for it .. although part of my local library Walker ML .. I like reading YA books.

Also had a lovely discussion with the librarian there about Minerva and how 6 crates go back and forth a day and how it encourages borrowing. Minerva is one of my favorite things and I blogged about it 3-4 weeks ago. http://ed2dq.com/2011/12/07/walker-library-and-minerva/

Well that’s it for now. Keep reading!

Walker Library and Minerva

December 7, 2011 by rurugby 1 Comment

My favorite place in Westbrook, Maine is the Walker Memorial Library on Main Street.

When I first got here 6 years ago there was actually two libraries in our small city of 17,494. The Warren library was a mile down the street, started by the SD Warren mill but that was lost due to endowment losses, so it’s just one. Walker library is a block away, and one of my weekly rituals is to go over and both return and get books.

Walker library has a gorgeous older section, that under renovation, but I mainly use the newer section and have been taking a lot from the juvenile and young adult sections, including graphic novels the last few months including Roald Dahl and Shel Silverstein.

One of my other favorite things about Walker Library is the Minerva system at http://minerva.maine.edu that lets me get books throughout the state at participating libraries. Through it I have gotten the complete Dark Knight, as sorts of graphic novels, and lots of books of interest that Walker Library doesn’t have. Currently this includes several books by Toure including “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness” and Colin Woodward’s “American Nations”; two of the more interesting books I have out. And it makes what I can get from Walker library so much more vast.

For instance I have “Four Novels by Philip K. Dick” (includes Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and “Between hope and history : meeting America’s challenges for the 21st century” by Bill Clinton. I love reading and being able to get all sorts of amazing books from my local library has made my ability to get books much more vast. I have used Minerva easily 20+ times this year, and it has been one of my favorite things of 2011.

I would also love funding so this can go to every library in the state, especially the small town libraries of Maine that could use books from larger libraries like Walker, Portland, Bangor, etc.

How do you use the library?

—- Edmund