My Low GPA Kept Me Out of Hogwarts. Where Can I Turn for Instruction?
If I do a subject search in our catalog for “magic” and limit the format to “Fiction, Printed, Adult” and insist on books published in 2009 or 2010, I retrieve 125 titles. Isn´t that rather a lot?
The titles on order don´t yet know if they´re fiction for adults, but even if you get rid of a few of those, you´ve got at least a hundred novels for grown-ups involving magic.
I’m reading three of these books at once. All three of them have bewildering preludes, and each involves some sort of battle between good and evil, but beyond that each of them has a very different feel.
When I looked at the jacket for Laura Anne Gilman’s Flesh and Fire (it was on our holiday gift list), and saw that her magic was combined with winemaking, I thought, Oh, please. But I’m two hundred pages into it, now, and I’m quite involved with her alternate world. Jerzy is a slave working for Malech, Master Vineart of the House of Malech. The magic in this novel is indeed involved with the growing of grapes and the making of wine–different kinds of wine for different kinds of magic–and a Vineart is a vine-mage, a chief of wine-magic. Malech takes his young slave aside and introduces him (and the reader) to the inner, secret ways . . . okay, I can’t describe this without sounding dopey, but Publishers Weekly gave Gilman credit for “a unique, pleasingly consistent magic system,” and I’m with them. The novel also offers an interesting variation on the separation of Church and State.
Charles de Lint’s The Mystery of Grace is a whole different bunch of grapes. Altagracia “Grace” Quintero lives in the American Southwest, has lots of tattoos and loves to work on hot rod cars, so she doesn’t seem to have much in common with Jerzy, the vine-mage’s slave. But she too is introduced into a world where magic controls certain aspects of life. Her new world, in fact, has more or less been created by magic, though it takes her a while to figure that out.
I’ve already finished The Mystery of Grace–it’s shorter than the other two novels featured here–and I have to say that it’s quite satisfying, and that the closing pages are moving. De Lint’s success depends on his continually enriching the “non-magical” Southwestern town, adding new characters and new background up through the final episodes, at the same time he’s building the strange new dimension into which Grace stumbles.
With Lamentation by Ken Scholes we move to a far-future world, though not necessarily a future version of the planet Earth. I’m only a little over a hundred pages into this one, and it’s the first of a projected five-novel series, so my toes are barely wet.
Chapters are short, and the reader hops around among the points of view of four different characters–an orphan, an ex-Pope, the Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses, and the consort of the deranged Overseer of the . . . well, I don’t want to lose you before you get started.
I was worried at first that I wouldn’t be able to keep up. Here and there a paragraph is packed with historical info about Ken Scholes’s world, and I wondered if I was supposed to be taking notes. But Scholes knows what he’s doing, and he allows his characters, whose paths cross in interesting ways, to gradually fill us in on what’s going on–and what’s been happening for the past few thousand years.
The magic in Lamentation is being practiced pretty widely. In Flesh and Fire, it is largely controlled by the vine-mages, and I might get magicked in a bad way if I tell you who’s running the show in The Mystery of Grace. But all sorts of people in the far-future Lamentation have access to pouches of magic stuff–actually created through far-future science, of course–which, among its other properties, makes you invisible.
The magicks had not only enhanced her speed and strength, but also her sight and her sense of smell. The trade-off was the buzzing in her ears and the shifting headache. Her father had seen to it that she was trained in all manner of subterfuge, including the use of stealth magic even though it was considered unseemly for a noble to use the Elder Ways.
In conclusion: If you’ve been away from Hogwarts and are suffering from Alma Mater- sickness, or like me you were never admitted in the first place, rest assured. There’s plenty of magic being practiced in our fiction.
Ghazal, by Patricia Smith, and a Short Course on Ghazals
A four-time champion in the National Poetry Slam, Patricia Smith has also been featured on HBO´s “Def Poetry Jam,” and has performed three one-woman plays.
She will appear at the Lilly Auditorium in IUPUI´s University Library on Thursday, February 25th at 7:30 p.m.
Blood Dazzler (©2008) is a sequence of poems that tracks the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina, who is herself the chilling speaker in some of the poems.
“Ghazal” is used with the permission of Coffee House Press.
Ghazal
There were early indications that this was no mere rain
when the B-boys stopped their ballin´ to shout Yo! You hear rain?
But air just danced wrong around them. Doomed brick and wood shivered
a little. Children saw no reason not to go near rain–
storms had roared through their little lives, cleansing and slamming shut
whole seasons, putting on a lushness show. Should they fear rain?
Never. They tilted faces up, giggled and swooned beneath
the battering wet, felt denims slog with weight, with sheer rain.
To punctuate their flailing dance, gusts swirled and grew heavy
with stone. Sparks slapped tree sides, chaos roared its loud and clear rain.
Everyone else tried hard to vanish the sight of dripping
nomads rowing cardboard boxes. No, this was not mere rain.
Knowing it wouldn’t end, mothers pulled whole lives to rooftops
and wailed for light, wept a blue note we won’t know. A tear? Rain?
Still they are there, gasping for new sky, while the B-boys search
the soggy wreckage for game. They curse the disappeared rain.
If the poem’s title confuses you, or its weird rhyming scheme has you baffled–if you’re anywhere near as ignorant as I am about ghazals, in other words, read on.
The ghazal (pronounced ghuzzle, not gah-zaal, so among my other ignorances I’m always mispronouning the word) is a traditional Arabic form of poetry, and whenever you write one, you’re supposed to give it the generic label, “Ghazal.” Lots of Western poets don’t do this, just as they don’t call every sonnet “Sonnet,” but Smith has stuck to the rule.
She also adheres fairly strictly to the rhyme-scheme rules, as laid out by the late Agha Shahid Ali, in his introduction to Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English, The opening couplet (called matla) sets up a scheme (of rhyme–called qafia; and refrain–called radif) by having it occur in both lines–the rhyme IMMEDIATELY preceding the refrain–and then this scheme occurs only in the second line of each succeeding couplet. That is, once a poet establishes the scheme–with total freedom, I might add–she or he becomes its slave. What results in the rest of the poem is the alluring tension of a slave trying to master the master. A ghazal has five couplets at least; there is no maximum limit. Theoretically, a ghazal could go on forever (in practice, poets have usually not gone beyond twelve couplets.)
If this isn’t clear, read John Hollander’s ghazal from his book Rhyme’s Reason: A Guide to English Verse. You’ll see that his qafia-rhyme is set up in the first couplet with the rhyme-words “prime” and “chime,” and that his refrain, or radif, is “at the end.” Watching him pull qafia-words out of his hat is a riot.
Copies of the Third Edition (©2001) of Rhyme’s Reason can be purchased from the Yale University Press, and with their permission we are using the poem.
For couplets, the ghazal is prime: at the end
Of each one’s a refrain like a chime: “at the end.”
But in subsequent couplets throughout the whole poem,
It’s this second line only will rhyme at the end.
On a string of such strange, unpronouncable fruits,
How fine the familiar old lime at the end!
All our writing is silent, the dance of the hand,
So that what it comes down to’s all mine, at the end.
Dust and ashes? How dainty and dry! We decay
To our messy primordial slime at the end.
Two frail arms of your delicate form I pursue,
Inaccessible, vibrant, sublime at the end.
You gathered all manner of flowers all day,
But your hands were most fragrant of thyme, at the end.
There are so many sounds! A poem having one rhyme?
–A good life with a sad, minor crime at the end.
Each couplet’s a different ascent: no great peak,
But a low hill quite easy to climb a the end.
Two-armed bandits: start out with a great wad of green
Thoughts, but you’re left with a dime at the end.
Each assertion’s a knot which must shorten, alas,
This long-worded rope of which I’m at the end.
Now Qafia Radif has grown weary, like life,
At the game he’s been wasting his time at. THE END.
Most of Hollander’s couplets might strike you as oddly independent of each other, like lobsters clacking away in a trap, and that’s because he’s following another rule of ghazals, as desribed by Ali: The ghazal is made up of couplets, each autonomous, thematically and emotionally complete in itself. One couplet may be comic, another tragic, another romantic, another religious, another political . . . a couplet may be quoted by itself without in any way violating a context . . . One should at any time be able to pluck a couplet like a stone from a necklace, and it should continue to shine in that vivid isolation, though it would have a different lustre among and with the other stones.
Patricia Smith’s Katrina-related ghazal is a particular kind of ghazal, a continuous one called a qata. The arrangements of her couplets are determined by the story she’s telling–which is perhaps unavoidable in book like Blood Dazzler in which all the poems are part of a story. She also refrains understandably from closing with a traditional “signature couplet” (Hollander uses a pseudonym based on the ghazal’s components, qadia and radif).
I’ve allowed this to turn into Ghazals 101, so I should steer you back to Patricia Smith, who will be at IUPUI on Thursday, February 25th. There’s only one ghazal in her book, if you’re not sure you like the form. National Book Award-winning poet Mark Doty has said of Blood Dazzler : This riveting sequence gives voice to a wild raw whirlwind that ruined a city and brought on, in turn, a storm of neglect and murderous indifference. With her radiant powers of empathy, her fiercely acute ear for the musical possibilities of American speech, and her undiluted rage, Patricia Smith makes in Katrina’s wake a sorrowful, unflinching and glorious book.
Eight Million Pounds of Guacamole! Super Bowl XLIV . . . and XLVI . . . and Remembering XLI
Indianapolis is involved with a couple of upcoming Super Bowls. SB44 happens in a week and a half in south Florida, and SB46 will happen at the Lucas Oil Stadium in 2012.
I heard Mayor Greg Ballard interviewed on WFYI, recently, and he spoke of ways that the city would be preparing for the 2012 event. (A click on the image to the left will take you to the 2012 Super Bowl website.) IMCPL will host its first preparatory event at the Glendale Branch on Saturday, February 6th. It’s called Super Scarves: Knitting for Beginners, and attendees will knit scarves to be used by volunteers at You-Know-What.
Now about these half dozen books. Did the New Orleans Saints really "put New Orleans on the road to recovery," as is claimed below? I don’t know, and I need to warn you that for most of these books, in lieu of reviews from our usual sources, I’m reprinting comments from publishers & booksellers.
I certainly wish the Saints all the best in the Super Bowl, as long as they stop short of winning.
Wisconsin sportswriter McGinn is widely hailed as perhaps the best football beat man in the business. His analytic study of game replays and his intelligent interviewing enable him to write knowledgably about the inside game–the design of plays and the techniques and responsibilities of players. McGinn has interviewed players, assistant coaches, and head coaches from all 43 Super Bowls . . . to determine the reasons that things went right or wrong on all the key plays in these championship games . . . In particular, his interviews with a variety of position coaches often pinpoint the fine line between success and failure in the ultimate pressurized environment of the Super Bowl. The book also features complete player rosters, comprehensive team and individual statistics, and a thorough listing of Super Bowl records. – Library Journal
The Billion Dollar Game : Behind the Scenes of the Greatest Day in American Sport : Super Bowl Sunday by Allen St. John
More Americans watch the Super Bowl than vote in presidential elections . . . Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday for sports fans, who purchase 1.5 million large-screen TVs in the week before the game, attend one of 7.5 million parties, and eat more food than on any day other than Thanksgiving (according to the California Avocado Commission, Americans consume more than eight million pounds of guacamole on this single day).
In The Billion Dollar Game, New York Times bestselling author Allen St. John gets rare access to the people and corporations that mastermind this iconic event. — Random House, Inc.
Patron Saints : How the Saints Gave New Orleans a Reason to Believe by Alan Donnes
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, devastating not only buildings and homes, but the hope, spirit and faith of its people. The Saints were cast out on the road, not knowing when they would return home, and faltered to a losing 3-13 season amidst the chaos. People wondered whether the city could even sustain an NFL team anymore.
Then, a funny thing happened on the way to economic devastation. The city of New Orleans, its population cut in half and its local industry in tatters, rallied to buy up the first season-ticket sellout in franchise history. Led by coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees, coming off a near-career-ending shoulder injury, the Saints engineered a worst-to-first season that gave their fans a reason to believe, both in the team and in themselves. Together they inspired each other to do the impossible: put the Saints in the NFC Championship game, and put New Orleans on the road to recovery. — Hachette Book Group
The Saints, the Superdome, and the Scandal by Dave Dixon
This autobiography offers a fascinating view of the remarkable life of Dave Dixon, who revolutionized the sports world and especially the sports world of New Orleans. He was instrumental in bringing the Saints NFL franchise to town and in getting the Louisiana Superdome built, and even had an insider’s perspective of at least one national political scandal. — Barnes & Noble
The Unofficial Colts Trivia Book by Dale Ratermann
Peyton Manning was born two days before what Academy Award-winning actress?
Which member of the 2006 team won the Mackey Award as the top college tight end while a junior at Iowa?
What was Alan Ameche’s animal nickname?
Who are the only two Colts players to wear No. 19 besides Johnny Unitas?
Prior to the publication of this book in 2007, Mr. Raterman was the only human being who knew the answers to these questions. Check out a copy, and you’ll be ready to spit out all the answers through your mouthful of guacamole.
Blue Heaven: Indianapolis Colts, 2007 Super Bowl Champions
The book is packed with color photos of the team and its many players and fan favorites in action, along with columns, stories, stats, and profiles first found in the pages of the winning team’s local newspaper. — Ingram Publishing Services
I held up the College Avenue copy of this book, yesterday, and flipped the pages to see if it looked like a game was being played. It didn’t quite work, but you get the idea.
Book Discussions at the Library February 2010
During this last week in January, there will be three discussions of our One Book One City title Some Buried Caesar, by Rex Stout.
Southport Library: Monday, January 25th, 7:00 p.m.
Pike Library: Tuesday, January 26th, 6:30 p.m.
Spades Park Library: Thursday, January 28th, 6:00 p.m.
It has been years since the orchid-growing eccentric Nero Wolfe has been outside his beloved home. Stout’s sixth novel in the series finds Wolfe in upstate New York with Archie Goodwin where he must endure poor food, uncomfortable chairs, warm beer, and three dead bodies. A family feud over the fate of a prize bull (send him to the stud farm or a steak house) plus tacky publicity stunts and blackmail all fit into the situation, told from Archie’s point of view.–Library Journal
And on Thursday, January 28th, Lisa Genova’s Still Alice will be discussed at the Franklin Road Library will be discussed at 6:30 p.m.
In a highly readable form of bibliotherapy, first-time novelist Genova, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, meticulously traces the downward spiral of a woman suffering from early-onset Alzheimer s disease. In September of 2003, 50-year-old Alice Howland leads a very busy, productive life as a psychology professor at Harvard, the spouse of a biology professor, and the mother of two grown daughters. But a series of memory problems, ranging from forgetting where she put her Blackberry to becoming disoriented on her daily run, sends her to the doctor. She learns that she is suffering from Alzheimer s, and the subsequent months and years see a steady decline in her abilities. By September of 2005, the accomplished professional can barely remember her own daughters names. Still Alice, however, is far from bleak as it depicts both the unalterable course of the disease and the various ways family members can cope with it. Clearly explaining the testing, treatment options, and symptoms of the disease within the context of an absorbing family drama, Genova has written an ideal primer for anyone touched by Alzheimer’s — Booklist
February’s discussions get started at the Wayne Library. On Monday the 1st, James L. Swanson’s Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer will be discussed at 7:00 p.m.
In the early days of April 1865, with the bloody war to preserve the union finished, Swanson tells us, Abraham Lincoln was “jubilant.” Elsewhere in Washington, the other player in the coming drama of the president’s assassination was miserable. Hearing Lincoln’s April 10 victory speech, famed actor and Confederate die-hard John Wilkes Booth turned to a friend and remarked with seething hatred, “That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, I’ll put him through.” On April 14, Booth did just that. With great power, passion and at a thrilling, breakneck pace, Swanson conjures up an exhausted yet jubilant nation ruptured by grief, stunned by tragedy and hell-bent on revenge. For 12 days, assisted by family and some women smitten by his legendary physical beauty, Booth relied on smarts, stealth and luck to elude the best detectives, military officers and local police the federal government could muster. Taking the reader into the action, the story is shot through with breathless, vivid, even gory detail. With a deft, probing style and no small amount of swagger, Swanson . . . has crafted pure narrative pleasure, sure to satisfy the casual reader and Civil War aficionado alike. — Publishers Weekly
Steve Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think about Love, Relationships, Intimacy and Commitment will be discussed twice in February.
Brightwood Library Tuesday, February 2nd at 6:00 p.m.
Flanner House Library Monday, February 8th at 6:30 p.m.
As a popular comedian, radio host and red-blooded male, Harvey doesn’t have the bona fides typical to most women’s relationship self-help, but he still manages a thorough, witty guide to the modern man. Harvey undertakes the task because “women are clueless about men,” because “men get away with a whole lot of stuff” and because he has “some valuable information to change all of that.” Harvey makes a game effort, taking a bold but familiar men-are-dogs approach: if you’re “cutting back” on sex, “he will have another woman lined up and waiting to give him what he needs and wants-the cookie.” several chapters later, however, he introduces the “ninety-day rule,” asserting that, actually, he won’t always have another woman lined up-and the only way to make sure is a three month vetting period. Harvey also tackles mama’s boys, “independent-and lonely-women,” and the matter of children in the dating world (”if he’s meeting the kids after you decide he’s the one, it’s too late”). Feminists and the easily offended probably won’t take to Harvey’s blanket statements and blunt advice, but Harvey’s fans and those in need of tough (but ticklish) love advice should check it out (especially the hysterical last-chapter q&a). — Publishers Weekly
Boris Pasternak’s classic novel Doctor Zhivago will be discussed at Central Library on Tuesday, February 2nd at 6:00 p.m.
In the grand tradition of the epic novel, Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece brings to life the drama and immensity of the Russian Revolution through the story of the gifted physician-poet, Zhivago; the revolutionary, Strelnikov; and Lara, the passionate woman they both love. Caught up in the great events of politics and war that eventually destroy him and millions of others, Zhivago clings to the private world of family life and love, embodied especially in the magical Lara.
First published in Italy in 1957, Doctor Zhivago was not allowed to appear in the Soviet Union until 1987, twenty-seven years after the author’s death. — Publisher’s note
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch will be discussed at the Warren Library on Thursday, February 4th at 10:30 a.m.
When Randy Pausch learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he found himself in quite a dilemma: at the top of his professional game, with a beautiful wife and three young children, how should he check out of life? A computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pausch . . . has worked with such companies as Google, Electronic Arts and Walt Disney Imagineering. “I love thinking I might find a way to beat this late-stage cancer,” he writes in The Last Lecture. “Because even if I don’t, it’s a better mindset to help me get through each day.” . . . Ultimately, this insightful nerd-optimist-dreamer abandons the idea of a “bucket list,” reflecting instead his father’s lifelong dedication to sharing intellectual and emotional wealth with others. “Time is all you have,” Pausch writes, “And you may find one day that you have less than you think.” — BookPage
John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas will be discussed at the East 38th Street Library on Monday, February 8th at 6:00 p.m.
Some of the most thought-provoking Holocaust books are about bystanders, including those who say they did not know what was happening. This first novel tells the bystander story from the viewpoint of an innocent child. Bruno is nine when his family moves from their luxurious Berlin home to the country, where “the Fury” has appointed Bruno’s father commandant. Lost and lonely, the child hates the upheaval, while his stern but kind father celebrates his success because he has learned to follow orders. Bruno can see a concentration camp in the distance, but he has no idea what is going on, even when he eventually meets and makes friends with Shmuel, a boy from Cracow, who lives on the other side of the camp fence. The boys meet every day. They even discover that they have the same birthday . . . Shmuel is Bruno’s alternative self, and as the story builds to a horrifying climax, the innocent’s experience brings home the unimaginable horror. — Booklist
The Sugarbook Book Club at College Avenue Library will try to warm up February with a discussion of Christina Feehan’s Street Game on Tuesday the 9th at 6:00 p.m.
Mack McKinley, the leader of a team of GhostWalker killing machines, has perfected the art of urban warfare, but is unable to control his own feelings when he encounters Jaimie, a spy with a potent sapphire stare with whom he had once been in love. — Baker & Taylor
Fred D. Cavinder’s Forgotten Hoosiers: Profiles from Indiana’s Hidden History will be discussed at the Irvington Library on Wednesday, February 10th at 1:30 p.m.
Entertaining brief profiles of Hoosiers who were once famous and now forgotten by most people. These include poets, humorists, reporters, generals, reformers, the first coast-to-coast racer, the first movie Tarzan, and even Colonel Sanders. Cavinder is a retired Indianapolis Star reporter.
Haven Kimmel’s Something Rising (Light and Swift) will be discussed at the Fountain Square Library on Thursday, February 11th at 1:30 p.m.
After a memoir (A Girl Named Zippy) and a debut novel (The Solace of Leaving Early), both well-received works with a lyrical bent, Kimmel attempts something different: the rough-and-tough story of a teenaged girl who helps support her family by working construction and shooting pool for money. Cassie does her best after her shark/hustler father abandons the family in small-town Indiana. The going-nowhere losers, the phobic and reclusive older sister, the seemingly passive mother, and the tender grandfather are all carefully drawn. Better yet is Uncle Bud, proprietor of the local pool hall, who teaches Cassie what she needs to know, supports her emotionally and sometimes financially, and shepherds her into adulthood. Cassie has two men to conquer: her father and the rich New Orleans doctor her mother might have married. — Library Journal
The Lawrence Library will host a discussion of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca on Tuesday, February 16th at 10:15 a.m.
It is no exaggeration to say that du Maurier was the 20th century’s Charlotte Bronte and “Rebecca” the 20th century’s “Jane Eyre.” The parallels between the two authors and the two books are obvious. Though Bronte’s childhood circumstances were straitened and du Maurier’s privileged, both girls lived essentially interior lives in which imagination, storytelling and fantasy were central. Both published early (Bronte under the pseudonym Currer Bell) and both became wildly successful . . . “Rebecca” is . . . a work of immense intelligence and wit, elegantly written, thematically solid, suspenseful even a second time around. Indeed, one of the pleasures of a second reading is that though one (mostly!) remembers a book’s story and characters, invariably one discovers aspects of it that were missed the first time through. Utterly caught up in the novel’s plot when first I read it, I simply didn’t understand that this isn’t just a novel about a lovesick girl’s obsessive jealousy of her husband’s dead first wife, it is also a book about the interweaving of past and present. Du Maurier treats memory with what can only be called delicacy and tenderness. — Jonathan Yardley, The Wall Street Journal
Shobhan Bantwal’s The Sari Shop Widow will be discussed at the Southport Library on Monday, February 22nd at 7:00 p.m.
Anjali poured her entire life into her family’s sari shop in suburban New Jersey after her husband’s sudden death. Now, several years later, the shop is in serious financial trouble, and her father must turn to his elder brother for help. When Anjali’s uncle arrives, he brings along his mysterious younger associate, Rishi, to evaluate the shop’s potential. The men decide to invest in expanding the shop, building on Anjali’s vision. After several weeks of working side-by-side, Anjali and Rishi begin to see each other as more than simply colleagues. Bantwal, author of The Dowry Bride (2007) and Forbidden Daughter (2008), writes for the first time about the Indian immigrant experience in the U.S. — Booklist
There will be a discussion of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help at the Pike Library on Tuesday, February 23rd at 6:30 p.m.
What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel . . . set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing “about what disturbs you.” The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies–and mistrusts–enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who’s raised 17 children, and Aibileen’s best friend Minny, who’s found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. — Publishers Weekly
Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope will be discussed at the Spades Park Library on Thursday, February 25th at 6:00 p.m.
Reporters and politicians continually use the word authenticity to describe Mr. Obama, pointing to his ability to come across to voters as a regular person, not a prepackaged pol. And in these pages he often speaks to the reader as if he were an old friend from back in the day, salting policy recommendations with colorful asides about the absurdities of political life . . . This volume does not possess the searching candor of the author’s first book. But Mr. Obama strives in these pages to ground his policy thinking in simple common sense. — The New York Times, October 2006
The Franklin Road Library will host a discussion of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s Wind, Sand and Stars on Thursday, February 25th at 6:30 p.m.
“Saint Ex” was a pioneering pilot for Aéropostale in the 1920s, carrying mail over the deadly Sahara on the Toulouse-Dakar route, encountering cyclones, marauding Moors, and lonely nights: “So in the heart of the desert, on the naked rind of the planet, in an isolation like that of the beginnings of the world, we built a village of men. Sitting in the flickering light of the candles on this kerchief of sand, on this village square, we waited out the night.” Whatever his skills as a pilot—said to be extraordinary—as a writer he is effortlessly sublime . . . No writer before or since has distilled the sheer spirit of adventure so beautifully. True, in his excitement he can be righteous, almost irksome—like someone who’s just gotten religion. But that youthful excess is part of his charm. Philosophical yet gritty, sincere yet never earnest, utterly devoid of the postmodern cop-outs of cynicism, sarcasm, and spite, Saint-Exupéry’s prose is a lot like the bracing gusts of fresh air that greet him in his open cockpit. He shows us what it’s like to be subject—and king—of infinite space. — Outside Online
Reading in Indianapolis February 2010
Meet the Artists XXII–the opening gala at Central Library on February 6th and the exhibit that will be on display there through February 28th–are featured in this month’s cover story.
Click on the image at the left to open an e-copy of the newsletter. Paper copies of Reading in Indianapolis can be picked up at any library location, and at the locations listed at the bottom of page 8.
