Friday, January 23, 2009

PRAISE SONG FOR THE DAY


Folks ... have I made it clear? I AM FEELING SOOOOOOOO GOOD. I AM STILL IN HONEYMOON LAND. Oh, yeah, there was Rick Warren. But go on YouTube and type in "Obama dancing" and watch him dance with Ellen DeGeneris ... and then watch Michelle dance with DeGeneris ... some change is gonna happen. And I'm not just interested in change for *my* people ... I have always been interested in change for everybody. How can you enjoy life ... truly enjoy it ... when others are suffering? That thing that gets so many children all riled up "IT'S NOT FAIR !!!!!!" ... that has just stayed with me (and so many others).

And, isn't it a blast to see Michelle as First Lady!!! Oh, oh oh oh, I love it.


The inaugural poem ...


Praise Song for the Day
-- Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Book Lists - Part III

So, this was in August and we had a handsome (not manageable, but handsome, nonetheless) list that we might have made a dent in by year's end. When lo and behold, there descended upon as as the Mighty Fist of Justice those purported friends who think they'll make use of our copious spare time by — yeah, you guessed it. Lending or giving us books.

This is what the list looked like in August after additions:


Book List 2008, Revised
  1. A History of Cambodia - Chandler
  2. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
  3. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
  4. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
  5. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
  6. Anathem - Neal Stephenson
  7. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
  8. Baumgartner's Bombay - Anita Desai
  9. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
  10. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
  11. Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell
  12. Blood on the Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
  13. Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan
  14. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
  15. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
  16. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
  17. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
  18. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
  19. Famous People of PNG: Bishop Sir Louis Vangeke - Eric Johns
  20. Famous People of PNG: Lady Carol Kidu - Eric Johns
  21. Famous People of PNG: Dame Alice Wedega - Eric Johns
  22. Famous People of PNG: Dame Rose Kekedo - Eric Johns
  23. Famous People of PNG: Tui of Gorendu - Eric Johns
  24. Famous People of PNG: Maino of Moata - Eric Johns
  25. Famous People of PNG: Pipi Gari of Elevala - Eric Johns
  26. Famous People of PNG: Ligeremaluoga of Kono - Eric Johns
  27. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
  28. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
  29. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
  30. Grass - Sherri S. Tepper
  31. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
  32. In The Time Of The Butterflies - Alvarez
  33. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
  34. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
  35. Kempeitai, Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
  36. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
  37. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
  38. Kranji - Romen Bose
  39. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
  40. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
  41. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
  42. Living Hell - Goh Chor Boon
  43. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
  44. Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
  45. Memory in Mind and Brain - Norton Reiser
  46. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
  47. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
  48. My Island in the Sun - Khor Cheang Kee
  49. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vols. 1-4 - Hayao Miyazaki
  50. Niels Lyhne - Jens Peter Jacobsen
  51. No Cowardly Past - James Puthucheary
  52. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
  53. Orientalism - Edward Said
  54. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
  55. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
  56. Padma River Boatman - Manik Bandhopadhyay
  57. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
  58. Patchwork Shawl - Shamita Das Dasgupta
  59. People's War, People's Army - Vo Nguyen Giap
  60. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
  61. Primitive Art - Franz Boas
  62. Raffles - Maurice Collis
  63. Raising the Stones - Sherri S. Tepper
  64. Red Star Over Malaya - Cheah Boon Kheng
  65. Rethinking Raffles - Syed Muhd Khairuddin Aljunied
  66. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
  67. Rosie - Anne Lamott
  68. Satyajit Ray - Andrew Robinson
  69. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
  70. Shadow's End - Sheri S. Tepper
  71. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
  72. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry Ortner
  73. Shut Up, I'm Talking - Gregory Levey
  74. Sideshow - Sheri S. Tepper
  75. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
  76. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
  77. Six Moon Dance - Sherri S. Tepper
  78. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
  79. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, I - Anthony Reid
  80. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, II - Anthony Reid
  81. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
  82. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
  83. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
  84. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
  85. The Bengal Muslims - R. Ahmed
  86. The Birth of Vietnam - Keith Weller Taylor
  87. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence Blackburn
  88. The Companions - Sheri S. Tepper
  89. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
  90. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Silkin, Eds.
  91. The Dutch Seaborne Empire - C.R. Boxer
  92. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
  93. The Family Tree - Sherri S. Tepper
  94. The March of Folly - Barbara Tuchman
  95. The End of the War - Romen Bose
  96. The Eye Over The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
  97. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
  98. The Gravedigger's Daughter - Joyce Carol Oates
  99. The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
  100. The Margarets - Sheri S. Tepper
  101. The Nanking Massacre - M.E.Sharpe
  102. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
  103. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
  104. The Phor Tor Festival In Penang:Deities, Ghosts, and Chinese Ethnicity - Tan Sooi Beng
  105. The Plague - Albert Camus
  106. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
  107. The Prince - Machiavelli
  108. The Rabbi's Cat - Joann Sfar
  109. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
  110. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
  111. The Right To Die - Humphry & Wickett
  112. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
  113. The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie - Malu Halasa & Rana Salam
  114. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
  115. The Vintage Book of Indian Writing - Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth West, Eds.
  116. The War in Malaya - A.E. Percival
  117. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
  118. Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
  119. Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin
  120. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
  121. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
  122. Tumbuna Stories 1, The Creation of Animal Life/As Bilong Animal - Thomas H. Slone and Jada Wilson
  123. Tumbuna Stories 2,The Origin of People and Society/As Bilong Manmeri Na Sosaiti - Thomas H. Slone and Peter Leo Ella
  124. Twentieth Century Chinese Stories - C.T. Hsia
  125. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
  126. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
  127. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
  128. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
  129. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
  130. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
  131. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
  132. A Choice of Evils - Meira Chand
  133. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
  134. King Rat - James Clavell
  135. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
  136. No Dram of Mercy - Sybil Kathigasu
  137. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon, Yap Hong Kuan
  138. Singa, Lion of Malaya - Gurchan Singh
  139. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
  140. Sinister Twilight - Noel Barber
  141. Sold For Silver - Janet Lim
  142. Syonan - My Story (The Japanese Occupation of Singapore) - Mamoru Shinozaki
  143. The Fall of Shanghai - Noel Barber
  144. The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman
  145. The War Of The Running Dogs - Noel Barber
  146. You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson
This is what the list looked like yesterday.

So, friends? Acquaintances? Beloveds? I know I'm a book-pig but we already found that last year's experiment, wherein I was reading every second of every day that I wasn't doing something requiring both hands yielded a pretty pathetic result. Admittedly some of that was the pain pills. It's hard to read when your eyeballs are describing circles in differing directions. But let's not forget that surgery + PT will take up 17 weeks this year. That's 17 weeks on different drugs during which I will undoubtedly be asleep half the time and non compos mentis the rest. So bag the books, OKAY? At least till 2010. Even if I beg and grovel and promise to read them only under the covers with a flashlight (C'mon you believe that story?).

At any rate, I did get some of them read. I'm putting out last year's book reviews and this year's reading list next.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Book Lists - Part II


So I read a ton of books from that list and felt all happy and satisfied. For a while. A very small while. Here's what the list looked like after I totted up what I'd read:

Book List 2008
  1. A Cloistered War - Maisie Duncan
  2. A Field Guide To Writing Fiction - A.B. Guthrie Jr.
  3. A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
  4. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
  5. A History of Selangor - J. M. Gullick
  6. A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton
  7. A Place Where The Sea Remembers - Sandra Benitez
  8. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
  9. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
  10. A Tagore Reader - Amiya Chakravarty
  11. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
  12. Abraham's Promise - Philip Jeyaretnam
  13. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
  14. Anthology of Japanese Literature - Donald Keene
  15. Art & Fear - David Bayles & Ted Orland
  16. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
  17. Baba Nonnie Goes To War - Ron Mitchell
  18. Bang Bang in Ampang - Norman Cleaveland
  19. Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers - Vendela Vida, Ed.
  20. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
  21. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
  22. Buffalo Gals - Ursula K. LeGuin
  23. Burglars can't be Choosers - Lawrence Block
  24. Busman's Honeymoon - Dorothy Sayers
  25. Captives of Shanghai - David H. & Gretchen G. Grover
  26. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
  27. Chinese Blue and White - Ann Frank
  28. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
  29. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
  30. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
  31. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
  32. Early Views of Indonesia/Pemandangan Indonesia di Masa Lampau - Annabel Teh Gallop
  33. Encyclopedia of China - Dorothy Perkins
  34. Fantasies of the Six Dynasties - Tsai Chih Chung
  35. Faster - James Gleick
  36. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
  37. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
  38. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
  39. Fu Lu Shou - Jeffrey Seow
  40. Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers
  41. Golden Boy and Other Stories from Burma - Saw Wai Lwyn Moe
  42. Golden Gate - Vikram Seth
  43. Glory - Vladimir Nabokov
  44. Have His Carcase - Dorothy Sayers
  45. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
  46. How To Write A Damn Good Novel - James N. Frey
  47. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
  48. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
  49. In the Midst of Death - Lawrence Block
  50. Kempeitai, Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
  51. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
  52. Kim - Rudyard Kipling
  53. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
  54. Kranji - Romen Bose
  55. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
  56. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
  57. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
  58. Living Hell - Goh Chor Boon
  59. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
  60. Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
  61. Malaysia - R. Emerson
  62. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
  63. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
  64. Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy Sayers
  65. Night Butterfly - Tan Guan Heng
  66. No Cowardly Past - James Puthucheary
  67. Old Filth - Jane Gardam
  68. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
  69. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
  70. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
    Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
  71. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
  72. Prehistory of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago - Peter Bellwood
  73. Red Star Over Malaya - Cheah Boon Kheng
  74. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
  75. Rhymes of Li Yu Tsai - Chao Shu Li
  76. Robert van Gulik - Janwillem van de Wetering
  77. Rosie - Anne Lamott
  78. Rouge of the North - Chang Ai Ling
  79. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
  80. Shantung Compound - Langdon Gilkey
  81. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
  82. Sisters and Strangers (Women in the Shanghai Cotton Mills) - Emily Honig
  83. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
  84. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
  85. Strange Tales of Liao Zhai - Tsai Chih Chung
  86. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
  87. Strong Poison - Dorothy Sayers
  88. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
  89. Tao Te Ching - Ursula K. LeGuin
  90. That Fellow Kanda - AUPE
  91. The Age of Diminished Expectations - Paul Krugman
  92. The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgman
  93. The Art of Fiction - John Gardner
  94. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
  95. The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
  96. The Bafut Beagles - Gerald Durrell
  97. The Beatitudes - Lyn LeJeune
  98. The Book of Tea - Okakura Kazuko
  99. The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
  100. The Burglar In The Library - Lawrence Block
  101. The Burglar In The Rye - Lawrence Block
  102. The Burglar Who Liked To Quote Kipling - Lawrence Block
  103. The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
  104. The Crippled Tree - Han Suyin
  105. The Death of Woman Wang - Jonathan D. Spence
  106. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
  107. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Silkin, Eds.
  108. The End of the War - Romen Bose
  109. The Family: They Fuck You Up - Granta
  110. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
  111. The Grand Guignol - Mel Gordon
  112. The Life of an Amorous Woman - Saikaku Ihara
  113. The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki
  114. The Malay Archipelago - Alfred Russell Wallace
  115. The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
  116. The Marquis - A Tale of Syonan-To - S.J.H. Conner
  117. The Nanking Massacre - M.E.Sharpe
  118. The Nine Tailors - Dorothy Sayers
  119. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
  120. The Other Side of War - Zainab Salbi, Ed.
  121. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
  122. The Plague - Albert Camus
  123. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
  124. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
  125. The Sabahan: The Life and Death of Tun Fuad Stephens - P.J. Granville-Edge
  126. The Singapore Grip - J.G. Farrell
  127. The Sins of the Fathers - Lawrence Block
  128. The Situation and The Story - Vivian Gornick
  129. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
  130. The Unabomber Manifesto - Ted Kaczynski
  131. The War in Malaya - A.E. Percival
  132. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
  133. The World of the Shining Prince - Ivan Morris
  134. Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
  135. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
  136. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
  137. Totto-chan - Kuroyanagi Tetsuko
  138. Travels in Siam - Henri Mouhot
  139. Tripmaster Monkey His Fake Book - Maxine Hong Kingston
  140. Vietnamese Traditional Water Puppetry - Nguyen Huy Hong
  141. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
  142. Woman of the Inner Sea - Thomas Kenneally
  143. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
  144. Women of China - Bobby Siu
  145. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
  146. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
  147. Writing Fiction - A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
  148. Writing Past Dark - Bonnie Friedman
  149. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
  150. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
  151. A Choice of Evils - Meira Chand
  152. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
  153. King Rat - James Clavell
  154. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
  155. No Dram of Mercy - Sybil Kathigasu
  156. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon, Yap Hong Kuan
  157. Singa, Lion of Malaya - Gurchan Singh
  158. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
  159. Sinister Twilight - Noel Barber
  160. Sold For Silver - Janet Lim
  161. Syonan - My Story (The Japanese Occupation of Singapore) - Mamoru Shinozaki
  162. The Fall of Shanghai - Noel Barber
  163. The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman
  164. The War Of The Running Dogs - Noel Barber
  165. You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson


Not too shabby, wouldn't you say? In some eight months or so of dedicated reading, interspersed with film, writing, and beratement of beasties? Cooking? Gardening? Cleaning house? Visiting parental units, even. Not too shabby. We start out with 165 books (an idiot's hopeless dream by any standards), read 83 of them and end with 82:

Book List 2008, Revised
  1. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
  2. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
  3. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
  4. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
  5. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
  6. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
  7. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
  8. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
  9. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
  10. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
  11. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
  12. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
  13. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
  14. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
  15. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
  16. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
  17. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
  18. Kempeitai, Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
  19. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
  20. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
  21. Kranji - Romen Bose
  22. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
  23. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
    Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
  24. Living Hell - Goh Chor Boon
  25. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
  26. Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
  27. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
  28. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
  29. No Cowardly Past - James Puthucheary
  30. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
  31. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
  32. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
  33. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
  34. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
  35. Red Star Over Malaya - Cheah Boon Kheng
  36. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
  37. Rosie - Anne Lamott
  38. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
  39. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
  40. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
  41. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
  42. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
  43. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
  44. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
  45. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
  46. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Silkin, Eds.
  47. The End of the War - Romen Bose
  48. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
  49. The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
  50. The Nanking Massacre - M.E.Sharpe
  51. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
  52. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
  53. The Plague - Albert Camus
  54. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
  55. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
  56. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
  57. The War in Malaya - A.E. Percival
  58. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
  59. Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
  60. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
  61. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
  62. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
  63. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
  64. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
  65. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
  66. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
  67. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
  68. A Choice of Evils - Meira Chand
  69. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
  70. King Rat - James Clavell
  71. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
  72. No Dram of Mercy - Sybil Kathigasu
  73. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon, Yap Hong Kuan
  74. Singa, Lion of Malaya - Gurchan Singh
  75. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
  76. Sinister Twilight - Noel Barber
  77. Sold For Silver - Janet Lim
  78. Syonan - My Story (The Japanese Occupation of Singapore) - Mamoru Shinozaki
  79. The Fall of Shanghai - Noel Barber
  80. The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman
  81. The War Of The Running Dogs - Noel Barber
  82. You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson

But are your hosts at this fine blog happy and satisfied with that? Hell, no. What, you ask, did the stupid buggers do?

What else but add another fucking mountain of books to the list. By way of excuse, I offer the following: there really is a gigantoshitload of books in this fucking house and it's getting really tiresome having to wend one's way between them. And furthermore: I really do get rid of some of them, sell, donate, give away, and like that, so there actually is a possibility that I will, someday see my floor.

But, on to the next piece of self-excoriation.

Critic

Friday, January 9, 2009

Happy Birthday, Joan Baez!

From today's Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of the folk singer and activist Joan Baez, born on Staten Island in 1941. Her mother was from Scotland, and her father was a physicist from Mexico. She grew up in California, playing rock and roll on the guitar. When Joan was a teenager, the Baez family moved to Boston, and she started hanging out with folk singers and learning their ballads. She was 18 years old when she performed at the Newport Folk Festival for an audience of 13,000.

The first song I ever heard Joan Baez sing is this one ... and I loved it ...




Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word
by Bob Dylan

Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Cafe
With a friend of a friend of mine
She sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed to the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut, too
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word

I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
Searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more
Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word

Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I can only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be
Assured that love is just a four-letter word

Copyright ©1967; renewed 1995 Special Rider Music

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Ms. Manitoba: Books Read in 2008

Keeping a list like this started a couple of years ago. My dear dear friend, PolCat, suggested that, at the beginning of the year, I make a list of all the books I’d like to read in that year. The list I make at the beginning is a guide and I shouldn’t be rigid about it. Read with freedom -- read anything I like ... but there’s the list to guide me when I want that. Then, at the end of the year, make a list of the books I actually have read. So this is the list of books I read in 2008. In this list I give a short critique but I rarely tell what the book is about. I figure you can look it up on amazon.com. But sometimes I do because I want to say something about the story or plot.

I am NOT including my list BOOKS TO READ IN 2008 that I sent out in January 2008. It’s just too humiliating. Yes, I know, that list is just a guide. But ... I only read four ... count them ... four measly books from the list!!!! My goal is to make my January 2009 list much more reasonable. [If you really do want to check my list from last January, go here.]

One thing that I’m happy with is that I read more satisfying books this year ... especially in the last six months.

My biggest failure: The Fate of Elephants by Doug Chadwick. Why? I’ve been trying to finish this book for four years now. Folks, it is just too sad. I just can’t take it. And my biggest fear is that this book is at least 15 years old ... and I fear that the fate of elephants has gone from bad to worse. I think of it as a failure because it’s an interesting book on the behavior of elephants. But the sad stuff outweighs the interesting stuff in my mind.

Note: Do not judge me harshly ... I am a slow reader. It's like I'm making a movie of the book in my head ... it's *that* slow!


Prep: A Novel - Curtis Sittenfeld
Didn’t finish
Not sure what to say. The writing was good. I think the main character just got on my nerves too much. Her insecurities really bugged me. Funny thing is that the way she dealt with her insecurities was the way I dealt with mine when I was an older teenager and in my early 20’s. I guess the main character just hit too many nerves attached to things in myself that I despised.

Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich
I loved it. It was a page turner. It was a nice balance of serious ... serious stuff about work lives of the full-time, barely-making-it workers ... mixed with Ehrenreich’s biting sense of humor. Oh, and it brought back memories of all those jobs (I’ve had a million of ‘em!) that paid shit and humiliated you at least 8 times a day. Highly recommended.

At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays - Anne Fadiman
I love Fadiman. I loved her Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader -- an excellent book about reading. At Large and At Small was very good too. But Ex Libris was the better book. Still: Recommended without hesitation.

Granny Torrelli Makes Soup - Sharon Creech
Creech is a good writer. This one was so-so. Pleasant. Not that interesting or well-written or funny, though. Do I recommend it? No. Don’t waste your time. Okay, if you’re 10 go ahead ... you probably have plenty of time to waste. But me, no.

Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
Oh, my god. What do I say about this? It’s just a rich, excellently written story with lots of interesting action and characters. Bonus: Rushdie has a wicked wicked WICKED sense of humor. And, did I say that the writing is to die for? Envy the size of an elephant inhabited my body as I was reading this ... however, it didn’t take any pleasure away from the reading of it. Okay, I’m gonna get bossy now: Put it on your to-do list.

A Bird in the House - Margaret Laurence
Interesting inter-related stories. Set in Manitoba. However, this is a tricky one to recommend ... would someone NOT from Manitoba think it was as interesting? Dunno. I would guess not. Although Laurence did get a lot of acclaim by folks in the U.S. for her books. I wish the NY Times reviewers would say that to us when they review books: “Would somone NOT from Manitoba think it was interesting?” They never say that. They always assume that we will be as interested in a book as they are. [Okay, I’m guilty of that too. See my entry for Midnight’s Children.]

Esperanza Rising - Pam Munoz Ryan
Oh, this was good. Very good. Recommended. It was really successful in placing the reader right there in the midst of a labor camp.

Mortal Stakes - Robert B. Parker
Plot thin and, therefore, unmemorable. I’ll probably be able to read it again in 6 months and not remember what happened in the plot. He’s good at dialog though and that’s why I kept reading it.

Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood - Kate Simon
Part of my New York City research for my story ... that I haven’t written a word of this year, by the way. But, I’m still doing the “research” ... which means reading books about NYCity, Ireland, and Canada (especially about French Canadians) ... things I’d want to read anyway.

Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of ARTMAKING - David Bayles and Ted Orland
Another so-so one. PolCat was reading it so, of course, I wanted to read it too ... because I follow her around like a puppy dog. I heard her praise it and now I wonder if she really liked it all the way through? It’s a thin book and I did get something from it. It’s very encouraging to artists of various stripes and plaids and dots: just do it. So, I did take away this message in my brain to keep working at it -- my photography, videography, writing. But, I guess I wanted more.

The Carniverous Carnival - Lemony Snicket [audio cd]
Wonderful. So good. Highly Recommended. See next one.

The Grim Grotto- Lemony Snicket [audio cd]
Wonderful. So good. Highly Recommended. See next one.

The Penultimate Peril - Lemony Snicket [audio cd]
I think the writer Lemony Snicket is very very good. He makes allusions to other stories or parts of stories in literature that fit so nicely in the story he is creating. So it adds this rich layer. I am a champion of children’s literature. An ex of mine is the person who really showed me how wonderful children’s literature can be. I often enjoy children’s books better than mainstream “adult” novels. On top of the author’s creativity, this audio cd series is read by Tim Curry. Tim Curry is so talented! He is such a good reader for this series. The voices he invents are interesting and often hilarious. PolCat, break through this prejudice you have! Listening to a book on tape/cd can be even richer than moving your eyeballs across a page. Come on, Babe, shake up those 100 billion neurons and come over to the dark side.

Map of Ireland: A Novel - Stephanie Grant
Complex story of a 16 year old Irish American working class girl in South Boston. Very well written. Complex story about race and class ... and being a lesbian. The characters were finely defined. Highly recommended.

Riding in Cars with Boys - Beverly D’Onofrio
This book -- like many books these days -- could have used a few more drafts. I expected more from Beverly D'Onofrio ... and I really wanted to like this book. I grew up near D'Onofrio around the same time. So, I enjoyed reading about that time and place. But Ms. D'Onofrio could have gone deeper. She wrote about all her wildness, drinking, drug abuse. But what got her out of all that? Just going to college? Just growing up? I wanted more. Plus, I didn't think the writing was very good. I think part of the problem with a lot of books these days is that publishing houses don't have the staff they used to. So, writers really do not get edited like they used to. Books are being released when really they could use two or three (or more) drafts.

Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man - Wendelin Van Draanen
It was fun but not more than that.

The Great Gilly Hopkins - Katherine Paterson
My daughter recommended this book. And, we listened to it in the car to and fro. We loved it! The story is fascinating and the characters are wonderful. It’s the story of an 11 or 12 year-old girl who has become hardened and deceitful because of her experiences as a foster child that is moved around to different families. She’s white and has grown up racist ... but this changes ... not in a sudden epiphany (how rare those are!) ... slowly ... organically. I highly recommend this book. Yes, yes, PolCat, we didn’t read it with our eyes ... we listened to it on cd from the library. It’s a great story to listen to on a trip. [Berkeley to Oakland and back again is not what I would really call a “trip” ... but if I were going on a trip, it would be perfect.]

A Freewheelin’ Time - Suze Rotolo
This book is for the most part, but not entirely, about the time that Rotolo was lovers with Bob Dylan. She's an interesting person so I was also interested in the stories about her time in Italy, her life as an artist, her upbringing as a working class red diaper baby, her experiences in Greenwich Village, the people she knew in the folksinging world there in the Village. Then, of course, there's Dylan. Interesting stuff. However, her writing was often flat and the ending was disappointing. She skips chunks of time. I would have liked to know more about her evolution as an artist and the ways she may have struggled to keep being a creative person. I do recommend it to those of you who are interested in that period of time and Greenwich Village.
28 Feb 2011 - Update: The New York Times ArtBeat blog is reporting that Suze Rotolo has died. May she rest in peace. Our sincere condolences to her loved ones. To read more, go here.


Proof a play - David Auburn
A really interesting play. I wish I’d seen it in the theater; nonetheless, it was a pleasure to read. Not great super quote-filled writing, in my humble opinion. But a very interesting plot. And, with the right cast, it could have made good theater.

Lush Life - Richard Price
I thought it was very good at plunking you down in this particular group of settings. He’s good at characterization. Very good at dialog. It’s set in NYCity so I love that. I”m not recommending though ... the ending is a bit of a let down. I’m not sure why I say that because in many ways the end was satisfying. In a novel, dénouement is tricky ... it’s a very tricky part of the book. Maybe my letdown was just a natural letdown due to the dénouement ... after you read a story that absorbed you. Here’s another thing: I didn’t like any of the characters. That bothers me when I read.

Is it a sign of true maturity when you can really like a book even though you don’t like any of the characters? Dunno. I think it’s a sign of maturity when you can recognize that a writer is really good at writing even though you dislike the characters. For example, I thought the plotting and writing in Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter was really good. Really good. But I intensely disliked everyone. And, ultimately, that means I wouldn’t recommend a book I felt that way about. Maybe I’m being unfair ... because what if that was Porter’s intention all along ... to portray these characters so that we wouldn’t like them? Back to Lush Life: I’m not recommending it because the further away from reading the book I am, I’ve been thinking: yeah, so what was so great? There was something large that was missing for me.

All is Well - John McGahern
This was a painful book to read. Extremely painful. But so very well-written. I feel that I’ve really lucked out this year -- I’ve really read a lot of good books. And, I must say, I’ve needed them. What’s so painful in this book? The father is so cruel. Unbearably cruel at times. I had a very hard time getting through those parts. Cruel fathers. They get to me. Too close to me own experience. But this book is so good and there is so much love in it too. And the protagonist is such a strong human being -- flawed, yes, but strong. I have a lot of admiration for McGahern. Highly recommended.

The Burglar on the Prowl - Lawrence Block
Very good as usual. Block is one of my favorite mystery writers. There was one line in it that I didn’t like about date rape -- it was too flip. Other than that, I enjoyed it very much.

In the Midst of Death - Lawrence Block
Another good one by Block. This one is in the Matt Scudder series. Recommended.

Housekeeping vs. The Dirt - Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is a national treasure. However, he’s not *our* national treasure. He’s from the UK. I haven’t read any of his novels so I don’t know about those. But I’ve read The Polysyllabic Spree last year which has the same form and setup as Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. These are all essays that have been published in Believer ... the magazine published by those strongly opinionated young folk in the City by the Fey -- Hornby calls them “The Polysyllabic Spree”. Each chapter is a month’s essay. The chapter starts with a list of Books Bought on the left side of the page. On the right side of the page is a list called Books Read. And they never match up. Then Hornby goes off and describes books he’s read or heard about and wants to read .... and anything else that is related to those two things that he wants to talk about. He’s funny too. This is like a perfect book for me. Highly recommended. Now I want to read his novels.

Wounded - Percival Everett
I recommend it. First, the writing is so very very good. The writing is so good you are there in the action, living and breathing and walking with the characters. Plus, the characters are so interesting and well-formed -- so much so, that you don't even feel that they are characters -- they're real people. At least I wished they were and I wished I could go visit them. Right now. Mr. Everett is also tackling some tough subjects: an anti-gay hate crime and a prickly gay man; racism in Wyoming and the rest of America; disappointment and betrayal in marriage; cruelty towards animals. Big topics. And he treats them with sensitivity, respect, and intelligence.

Garbo Laughs - Elizabeth Hay
Elizabeth Hay is my new discovery. I recommend her highly. I fear saying that because people then have such high expectations. (Oh, look at me, thinkin’ that my opinion matters!!) What Hay does so well is take ordinary people and make them so interesting. She finds their quirks and writes about them really well. And, as a bonus, she’s Canadian -- woohoo!

Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay
This one is set in the small town of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories -- a province in Canada. Most of the characters work late at night for a government-sponsored radio station where they can play about anything they like. It’s set in the 70’s. Well written. Characters are very interesting -- real people with interesting problems. I really liked this book. Hay is very good at characterization.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
This is as close to a perfect book as can be. Do I need to say more?

Pegasus Descending - James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is so good. I love how he makes me feel like I’m right there in New Iberia, Louisiana. Recommended. He’s a very good writer.

A Thanksgiving Memory - Truman Capote
I love to read this around Thanksgiving. What really turned me on to this was an unabridged recording that I had years ago narrated by Celeste Holm. Her narration transformed you into the world. It’s one of the best narrations I’ve ever listened to. I’ve searched for it on the web and it’s out of print. Dang!! I’d love to have it again. I remember there was a Thanksgiving or two in my life years ago when I felt so alone in the world and listening to this story just eased that pain. It connected me to something greater. Don’t ask what that was. This story reminds me of what a great writer Capote could be. Too bad his addictions got to him.

Ghosting: A Double Life - Jennie Erdal
This is a nonfiction story about Erdal’s experiences being a ghostwriter for an extremely demanding and flamboyant London-based Palestinian-born publisher (Naim Attallah) whom she calls “Tiger.” Her description of Tiger’s attire: "The plumage is a wonder to behold, a large sapphire in the lapel of a bold striped suit, a vivid silk tie so bright that it dazzles, and when he flaps his wings the lining of his jacket glints and glistens like a prism." She wrote blurbs, articles, press releases, love letters, newspaper columns, and two highly acclaimed literary novels -- for him, under his name. Love letters!!!! I found the first half very entertaining, funny, and interesting. However, after a while I just felt tense while reading it. Her complaints and descriptions about his demands grew tiresome. I just kept muttering to myself: Quit, for god’s sake, quit!!!! Here’s an example of how he ruled her life: He had a “hotline” installed in her home. It was a phone that she used only in communicating with him. When it rang, everything stopped in her household -- no matter the time -- so that she could talk to Tiger and satisfy his needs. Luckily, none of these needs were sexual. Amazingly, she worked for him for 20 years. To defend him just a little: He was very very generous to her and helped her save her home when her first husband deserted her early on in her career. If you’re like me though, you’ll just get exhausted with the story in the last half. So, here’s what I’ll do: I’ll recommend it for the first half of the book. But no further. Her writing is very good. I hope she goes on to be a successful writer on her own projects.

Seen It All and Done the Rest - Pearl Cleage
I got this one out of the library and, at first, was put off by the cover art -- it made the book look fluffy to me. But this story is a damn good read. I love the characters. And the characters are actually doing interesting things in their lives and connecting. Connecting is a big thing with me. If you don’t connect with other people, what good is life? The writing is smooth and engaging. I want to read more from Pearl Cleage. This was the first book of hers that I’ve read even though I’ve read about her for years.

The Cater Street Hangman - Anne Perry
Friends of mine have recommended Anne Perry for years. She has a couple of series. This is the first in Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. I am so very lucky that my friend, P., sent me a stack of them to read as I recover from my knee surgery. I thought this novel was soooooooooo good! Definitely recommended. Perry builds up tension very artfully. The rapport between Charlotte and Thomas is great -- they first meet in this story. It’s a great look at what happens to a community when they realize that there’s a serial killer in their midst. Plus, lots of good stuff about class: Charlotte comes from an upper middle class family while Thomas is “common.”

Callendar Square - Anne Perry
Continuation in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. Very good. Class differences come out even more. Of course, recommended.

Th ... th ... th ... that's all folks!!!