Weather: overcast and threatening to rain. The weather turned this past week from sunny and warm to rainy, cold, and wet. This typical for this time of year in the Northwest, but no one likes it.
Scouts honor: yesterday we attended an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for a friend's son who was earning his Eagle Scout award. In all my years I have never attended one of these events, nor have I really paid attention to the Scout Law by which they govern themselves. I was really touched by the whole ceremony and especially when their code was called out and explained. (See photo above.) Scouts are: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. If only we would all conduct ourselves this way.
The Boys in the Boat: the culmination for Pierce County Reads was an event with the author, Daniel James Brown, on Friday night. Brown was an excellent speaker, very knowledgeable and articulate. Don and I co-authored a blog post about the event. Please click the link to read about it. (If you haven't read the book yet, I hope it will encourage you to give it a go.)
SBAC testing (Smarter Balanced Assessment test): partially closed the library this week. With fewer kids in the library, except for those taking the test, we had another quiet week. Sigh. Quiet libraries often mean low circulation.
Prayers for: my friend who lost her brother to an accidental death. She and her family are all deeply grieving.
Books read this week: One only, The Art of Barbie Book by Craig Yoe. I picked this book up on the sale table at the public library for $4. Fifty artists and designers were asked to design a piece of work about or with Barbie. Being a big fan of the doll as I was growing up I just HAD to have it and loved it.
Currently reading:
What's So Amazing about Grace by Philip Yancey---this is for the adult Sunday School class I am co-teaching. insightful.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins---I am making good progress on this Classics Club challenge selection. The plot is very tense at this point.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach---my current audio selection.
Speaking of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: we rented the 1st movie last night so that we could go see the Second Exotic Marigold Hotel today at the Grand Cinema (an independent theater.) The book is quite different than the movie but I am enjoying it, too.
Left to Right, Top: Barbie in Beatsville by JD King; B-Girl in A-Line by D. Madeleine Coates; Housebroken by William Wegman; Barbie by Andy Warhol Bottom: Jazzed by James Flora; Deco Doll by Tim Lewis; The Color of the Evening by Nerio Gussoni
The 1936 U.S. Olympic rowing team from the University of Washington. From left: Don Hume, Joseph Rantz, George E. Hunt, James B. McMillin, John G. White, Gordon B. Adam, Charles Day, and Roger Morris. At center front is coxswain Robert G. Moch.Photo:University of Washington Libraries, Special Collection
We arrived early yesterday evening at the Clover Park Technical College conference center to secure good seats to hear Daniel James Brown talk about his book, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The author event, hosted by the Pierce County Library System and sponsored by The News Tribune (Tacoma's daily newspaper), was the culmination of the 2015 Pierce County Reads. Now in its 8th year, the library selects a title each spring for Pierce County Reads, then promotes reading and discussion by book groups, school and community groups, as well as sponsoring other special happenings related to the book's subjects and the pinnacle event with the book's author. We've attended many of these annual author evenings, but it's a good thing we arrived early last night because the place was packed with over 1400 readers waiting to hear Brown talk about his phenomenal book and the people and stories we shared through his writing.
Georgia Lomax, executive director of the Pierce County Library System, kicked off the evening talking about her reaction to the book. "I knew how the book ended up," she said, "but as I was reading it I wasn't so sure because the action was so tense." Everyone in the audience chuckled. We all felt the same way. We all knew the boys in the American boat were going to win their event at the Berlin Olympics -- it is in the history books after all -- but it sure didn't seem possible as we read the incredible details of the gold medal race.
David Zeeck, publisher of The News Tribune, offered some context for Boys in the Boat and what it tells us about being from the Pacific Northwest. He reminded us what a special thing these young men; from Puyallup, Anacortes, Montesano, Sequim, and Deming; had accomplished. Especially important because Seattle seemed like such a remote outpost to most people in America in the 1930s (and perhaps still does for many today!).
Daniel James Brown began his remarks describing a homeowner's association meeting. This seemed like a weird way to begin talking about his book, but we soon learned that's where he met Judy, the daughter of Joe Rantz, one of the nine members of the 1936 US Olympic crew team. Joe, who was over 90 at the time and on hospice care, had read one of Brown's earlier works and wanted to meet the author. Not long after meeting Joe started talking about his rowing experiences and Daniel wondered aloud if he could write Joe's story. "But not just about me. It has to be about the boat," he told the author. By "the boat" he didn't mean the crew shell -- The Husky Clipper -- he meant the boys in the boat, his teammates.
As Brown talked about his research and writing, he also shared reactions from fans who send him e-mail. Several people informed him they thought reading a book about rowing would be really boring. But anyone who has read this book knows it's about so much more than rowing and crew races. In fact, Brown said, many themes exist in the book along side the incredible crew rowing story: life during the Great Depression; Joe Rantz's personal story of abandonment as a child and how he overcame his feelings of inadequacy; George Pocock, the best racing-shell builder of the day; building the Grand Coulee Dam; Joseph Goebbels and the German Ministry of Propaganda; and Leni Riefenstahl and her powerful propaganda films for the Third Reich.
Midway through his talk, Brown showed us film footage from the Olympic finals race. The eight-man crew race begins at about 1:00 and the American boat is in the outer lane farthest from the camera. Shots taken inside the boats were filmed the day after the race and spliced into the footage. As the German and Italian crews approach the finish line, the American boat appears at the top of the frame, right at the end of the race, nosing out the narrowest margin of victory.
Brown read us two selections from his book. The first described the action from the 1936 Poughkeepsie Regatta, where Washington beat the University of California and other crews on their march toward the Berlin Olympics.
The second selection was from the end of the book where Brown reflects on the exceptional group of boys they were and what they represented. Brown visited Grunau, the site of the 1936 Olympic crew races.
“Standing there, watching them, it occurred to me that when Hitler watched Joe and the boys fight their way back from the rear of the field to sweep ahead of Italy and Germany seventy-five years ago, he saw, but did not recognize, heralds of his doom. He could not have known that one day hundreds of thousands of boys just like them, boys who shared their essential natures—decent and unassuming, not privileged or favored by anything in particular, just loyal, committed, and perseverant—would return to Germany dressed in olive drab, hunting him down.” ― Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
The passage goes on to describe birds dipping their wings in the sun-glistened water, flying low, and then gone. Brown equates that image to all the young men (and women) of the Greatest Generation who accomplished the unimaginable, but went on about ordinary lives raising families, working at their careers, and then passed from this earth and into our memories. I don't know if there was a dry eye in the auditorium at that moment. I know we were both in tears as thoughts of grandfathers, favorite uncles, and dear friends now gone filled our hearts.
The Boys in the Boat is much more than a sports book about crew racing, this is an inspiring story about determination, friendship, and teamwork. And ultimately it is a story about love. We both recommend The Boys in the Boat wholeheartedly.
Yay! SYNC Free Audiobook Program is back for another summer of listening to great books. Word to the wise however, since I've missed the kick-off for two years running, set your calendar to download the first two books the week of May 7th! The books are only available for one week to download. But once you download them they are yours forever. FREE! Sign up to received TEXT alerts to help you remember to download the books. Can't wait! (Watch the little gif above for the text info!)
I realize the poster is hard to read. Go to the SYNC website for better viewing and audio-clips. Get psyched!
Book Beginningson Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted atFreda's Voice. Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't
select their favorite, coolest or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. This is the book I'm reading right now: Title: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach Book Beginnings:
Muriel Donnelly, an old girl in her seventies, was left in a hospital cubicle for forty-eight hours.
Friday 56:
Dorothy started making breakfast. No oranges. Yesterday she had hobbled out to her greengrocer's only to find it had turned into a Snappy Snaps. Her own face, in the mirror, had been replaced by that of an old woman.
Comment: I enjoyed the movie and didn't even know it was made from a book .until I was perusing a list of book club kits at my library. The book is actually quite different than the movie so I am not able to predict upcoming action.
Writing a review for The Neverending Story by Michael Ende feels a little like writing a review for a Harry Potter book. Many people who haven't read the book have seen the movie (and remember it fondly) and, therefore, have no intention of going back to read the book. With this in mind I will give you the barest of summaries, in case you are the only other person in the world who hasn't seen the movie besides me, then I will focus the rest of this review on information on the author and what symbolism I could glean out of it.
Summary: A young boy named Bastian Balthazar Bux is chased by his tormentors from school in to a bookstore. While there his is enticed to steal a very pretty book, The Neverending Story. He hides out in an attic at his school and begins reading the book. The plot then jumps to the story and back to Bastian. In the story we are introduced to a young hero, Atreyu, who is tasked with saving Fantastica from the NOTHING by locating a human child willing to enter the magical land to give the Childlike Empress a new name. The NOTHING is taking away all dreams and fantasy from the land.
At some point while reading the book Bastian enters the story and he starts to recognize himself. He thinks it is an hallucination. But eventually he realizes that he is the human child who must go to Fantastica to save it. And after he figures out how to get in he finally does enter the realm where all kinds of fantastic adventures of his own making await him.
The book is divided in two parts: before and after Bastian enters Fantastica. Apparently the movie ends after part one so if you have only seen the movie then you really should read the book to get the full story! There. That is my plug for reading!
The author, Michael Ende was German. The book was first published in Germany in 1979 and translated in to English in the early 1980s. Though Ende was one of the most celebrated German authors of the 20th century he was often felt diminshed when people referred to him as just a children's writer." In 1985 he wrote,
One may enter the literary parlor via just about any door, be it the
prison door, the madhouse door, or the brothel door. There is but one
door one may not enter it through, which is the nursery door. The
critics will never forgive you such. The great Rudyard Kipling
is one to have suffered this. I keep wondering to myself what this
peculiar contempt towards anything related to childhood is all about.[1]
Ende wanted his work to speak to the human condition, issues that children aged 8-80 grapple with. Born in Germany in 1929 he lived through the Nazi era. He was horrified by the war and action of the Nazis. His father, a surrealist painter, was deemed a degenerate by the party and so had to paint and work in secret. By the end of the war, though he was only 14, Ende was drafted but tore up his papers and worked for the resistance in the Munich area. Up until his death in 1995, from stomach cancer, Ende used his writing to shine a light on cultural and spiritual problems in the world, drawing upon his experiences from the war years.
"Rich with symbolism, The Neverending Story is a classic
children's tale designed to teach young people to come of age
emotionally." [2] Children might miss all the lessons because they are painlessly presented in fantastical imagery and wild tales of adventure.
The story is an important contribution to
literature because it addresses the dangers of tyranny. While Adolf
Hitler and his Nazis are not directly mentioned in the story, the tale
nonetheless reveals an understanding of the emotionally stunted mindset
that leads dictators to hunger for power. Through the character of young
Bastian Balthazar Bux, the reader gains an intuitive understanding of
how life's tragedies can lead one to commit atrocious acts. The author,
through Bastian, is reaching out to the youth of the world, telling them
that the journey from pain to joy is achievable. [2]
Bastian learns eventually that he has to accept himself and has to give up any preconceived ideas about himself (both good and bad) if he is able to move on and actually be any help to his world.
The last chapters of the book are sublime. They are so full of symbolism and important messages we should all heed. For these messages alone the whole book, even the slow bits in the middle, make the book worth a second look. I originally selected the book because it was referenced in another book: 501-Must Reads by Emma Beare, where the concluding sentence hooked me. "This is a wonderfully satisfying and uplifting novel for readers of all ages." [3]
I listened to the audiobook which was magically narrated by Gerard Doyle, who, if I am not mistaken, was the reader of the Eragon series. I have all kinds of pleasant associations with his voice, that is for sure! I wholeheartedly recommend it in this format, though, be sure to go back and look at the print edition which is divided into 26 chapters and each chapter begins with the corresponding letter of the alphabet. Very clever.
Example chapter heading, The Neverending Story. Photo source [4]
Rating 4.5/5
Audio Edition: Tantor Audio, 2012. Borrowed from my public library.
Weekly goal: I'm feeling pretty confident and accomplished. I met my goal of reading at least 17 pages per day on average. Surprisingly, it is a very manageable number of pages to read and I never felt like I had to read them but I did think, "Oh good, I get to read The Woman in White right now."
What I have learned so far:
I mentioned this last week but It was very evident in the sections I read this week, because the book was serialized each chapter ends on a bit of a cliffhanger or something that made me want to keep reading. Very clever.
Wilkie Collins was most proud of this book and directed that the epitaph on his tombstone read: "In memory of Wilkie Collins, author of 'The Woman in White' and other novels." He was most proud of this novel, though he wrote many others.
His novels are very atmospheric and he uses nature as symbols and signs for upcoming troubles. I am just at the part where the character talks about the suffocating effect of trees. I like trees but not if they are portents of death.
What pleases me: The book is surprisingly readable and I'm enjoying my time with it.
The action (no spoilers): The plot just keeps getting thicker and the plot more and more sinister. Nothing terrifying has happened yet but I keep getting the feeling that it will at any minute. I am struck anew about the powerlessness of women in the 1850s. Decisions that are made that dramatically affect them yet their opinion is not considered. Collins writes as if this is normal.
Comments: I'm starting to sound like a disciple but let me say this---the hardest part of reading classics in getting started. Just pick up one you've been wanting to read, set yourself smallish daily goals, and go!
In the garden: yesterday we spent the better part of the day cleaning up three flower bends. Don had to put on sunscreen and I should have done so, too. The day was gloriously warm. We cleaned up the concrete debris from our the slab we had poured last November. Don rototilled the beds. Today we will plant two new azaleas (one white, the other dark pink) and a few sweet pea seeds. Ah. I love this time of year.
In the library: this is National Poetry month so out come the volumes of poetry for students to peruse. This last week was National Library Week in the Bethel SD. I was honored several times by my administration team and the school leadership team. It was a first for our district and for me personally. Unfortunately my clerk was out due to a family emergency so she didn't get to partake in the festivities. Our school is gearing up to become an iPad school next year---every child will be assigned an iPad for the year. We are still at the stage of planning how to implement this.
Grace: A friend and I are teaching an adult Sunday School class on the topic of grace. Grace is love and mercy given to us by God as an undeserved free gift. We can do nothing to earn or deserve this gift. We just started the class today and will continue into June. We hope as Christians we learn ways to express God's grace and to extend it out in to the world at large.
100 best books of the decade so far: from the editors of the Oyster. I've read 16 of them but want to read many more. How about you? Have you read any of them? Which are your favorites? While they were at it they also listed 16 YA Titles that should appeal to just about every teen. I've only read five of these books but would concur about their general appeal.
Books read this week:
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende---a classic children's tale of acceptance and finding oneself. Set in Fantastica. It is a marvelous story made popular by a movie in the early 1980s which I've never seen.
Poisoned Apple: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann---a collection of poems of modern retellings of fairy tales.
Currently reading:
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins---my Classics Club selection. I'm enjoying it.
Becoming Billie Holiday by Carol Boston Weatherford---a fictional account of the making of Billie Holiday, the famous jazz singer. It is written in verse.
Upcoming book clubs: this coming week both clubs meet. The SOTH club will be discussing the All-Pierce County Reads book, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. The RHS Book Club will be discussing The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
Dog walks, dog baths, dog kisses, dog love...Muffy is the special dog in our lives. Here is a favorite poem in honor of Muffy and her doggie love!
LITTLE DOG'S RHAPSODY IN THE NIGHT
He puts his cheek against mine and makes small, expressive sounds. And when I'm awake, or awake enough
he turns upside down, his four paws in the air and his eyes dark and fervent.
Tell me you love me, he says.
Tell me again.
Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over he gets to ask it. I get to tell.
---Mary Oliver, Dog Songs
Happy week! Happy Spring (or Happy Fall to my friends Down Under!)
I am recently read a book calledDear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves, edited by Miranda Kenneally and E. Kristin Anderson. Most of the 70 authors included in the project wrote letters not to give their teen self advise on what to change but just words of encouragement about how everything will turn out OK. Each letter is written by a different YA author and all of them include a photo taken sometime during their teen years (hence the photo of me as a teenager.) Some of the letters really moved me because the author had really lived through some horrific events (bullying, rape, eating disorder, death of parent, etc.) while others just spoke about issues that weren't quite as serious (shyness, getting into college, friends, etc.) The average person reading this book would probably find three or four letters that really spoke to their situations. Acceptance, forgiveness, healing, and patience were overarching themes. As I read the letters I keep thinking about things I'd like to tell my teen self to stop or start doing. I added a feature to my weekly Sunday Salon post called "Dear Teen Me" where I gave myself a bit of advice to make things better for the me of today. I have compiled and reprinted these pieces of advice here in hopes that they may also speak to you.
Dear Teen Me: Remember how you keep cheating in Mr. Luarca's typing class by sneaking a look at your fingers while you type? Stop it! Don't peek anymore! Keep on practicing the skill of typing without looking at your fingers. You will not believe how much typing you will be doing in the future and you will be grateful everyday that you mastered the skill of typing without looking at your fingers. Help me out. Stop looking at your fingers even though you are just learning to type. The skill is more important than the grade.
Dear Teen Me: In a few days you will break up with your 9th grade boyfriend, DB. It will be very hard on him and he will do an alarming thing: he and his friends will hang a dummy from a noose from the edge of the school building dressed in his clothes, to make it look like he committed suicide over your break up. It is not your fault that he is so distraught, nor is it your fault that he did something so inappropriate. But this time I want you to tell an adult what happened and what you know instead of keeping it to yourself. You see, as an adult DB does commit suicide. In his 30's his suicide is completely unrelated to you but you will wonder IF you had done something earlier he may have gotten some help and wonder whether it would have saved him in the future. I have thought many times if I had said something to an adult back in 9th grade things could have changed for him. Trust me on this one. You don't want this burden. Talk to an adult who can help.
Anne: Hold in your head how much fun it is to play tennis and eventually racquetball. Right now you enjoy playing tennis with your brother and several other friends. Why don't you go out for the tennis team. You won't be a champion but you could have a hoot playing with other people and gaining more friends. Your first year in college you will take a tennis class which really hones your skills. Your second year you take a racquetball class and playing it becomes an obsession for several years. Keep it up. Remind yourself everyday that these are two sports you can do as you age. Make sports and fitness a part of your daily routine.
Dear Teen me---in a few years you will follow a diet craze which centers around eating only low-fat foods. It will be a very popular diet nationally. Everyone will talk about the virtues of eating low fat without good science behind the effects of such a diet on metabolisms. It also involves using artificial ingredients, bad oils, and lots of preservatives. Please, please, please do not follow the mob. Avoid this diet at all costs. Eat healthy, natural ingredients. Explore your taste pallet and learn to eat a variety of healthy foods. Just eat less if you want to lose weight. Saturated fats are not the enemy...avoid trans fats. Look into it! Trust me on this one and you will feel a whole lot better.
Dear Teen Me- Boys. Let me tell you that you will have your heart broken a few times. Learn from your experiences and you will eventually meet a man who treats you the way you deserve to be treated. I'm married to him right now. Don't ever do things for or with boys that will diminish your own self-worth. And when the break-ups do come just love yourself. Don't worry, you will be OK.
Horsing around with friends Lori and Andy
What would you tell your teen self if you could go back and have a talk? Leave a comment here on my blog.
It's National Poetry month. Time to kick into high gear, dust off the poetry volumes and get my inner poet juices flowing.
First up, no need to dust this one off since it is a new book, Poisoned Apples by Christine Heppermann.
All the poems in this slim little volume take a modern spin off the theme of fairy tales, so are charming, some funny, others completely disturbing, but all thought-provoking.
The book begins with a very sad, alarming poem about anorexia, "The Never-Ending Story" reminiscent of all fairy tales tat begin with Once upon a time:
Once there was a girl who wore her bones outside her body. Once there was a girl who thought bones looked nice...
In "Sleeping Beauty's Wedding Day" she has so much to do after the initial kiss before she gets married, in the end she has this reaction:
No wonder that hundred-year nap just doesn't seem long enough.
My favorite, "Prince Charming" is about a boy who arrives for his date. He is kind to the girl's mother, jokes with the girl's father, gives a small gift to the girl's sister, then says a totally rude, oblivious comment to the girl about the size of her boobs. I thought it was hilarious and read to both my husband and my daughter, at different times. Neither of them thought it was funny even after I explained it to them. Guess poetry is about personal taste.
I read the "SHAPE MAGAZINE Fairy Tale" to my hairdresser. It is a re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood story but this one focuses on hair, face, and body fitness. The beginning is the part my hairdresser appreciated:
Once upon a time there was a girl who had a good hair week! Seven cute looks she could do at home, and their names were Waves, Bob, Bun, Bangs, Braid, Sleek, and Party-Ready Ponytail.
In "First Semester Haiku" there are haiku poems about the science project, another about virgin math (don't ask), and a third about art history. My favorite is about World Lit:
Jane Eyre fan fiction. Under her demure wool dress 'Mad Woman' tattoo.
"Big Bad Spa Treatment" is a twist on Hansel and Gretel which begins with
YOU are the most important ingredient in the scrumptious day of pampering!
and ends with
400 degrees. Close your eyes. Feel the heat deep in your bones. We'll come and get you when you are done.
There are 50 poems. I enjoyed most of them and had fun sharing them
Happy Poetry month. Read a poem today. Do it for your soul.
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