My Fresh Hell
Life in Scribbletown.

More Book Chat

2005-06-28
As promised, book reviews. Below are two of the books I�ve read this year that I can recommend.

Banvard�s Folly by Paul Collins.

This is described on the cover as �Thirteen tales of people who didn�t change the world.� But, this isn�t exactly the case. I�d say that each of the people written about made some impact, no matter how small. There is a chapter on John Banvard, an artist in the 1850�s who became famous for painting the longest painting in the world � a moving panorama of the entire length of the Mississippi River. Mounted on two scrolling rods, Banvard painted the three thousand miles of the Mississippi. The painting rolled across, like a backdrop, on a stage and Banvard gave a lecture of the river. He made millions. Astonishing. Also, William Henry Ireland who, in the 1770�s faked a series of Shakespeare documents to win his father�s love. His father was a Shakespeare fan and a collector of original documents signed by the Bard. The book also introduces a number of well-meaning kooks like John Symmes who believed the earth was hollow and habitable inside, and Jean Francois Sudre who invented a universal language with musical notes: Solresol. It is an entire language based on the seven one-syllable words: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si. Of most interest was Psalmanazar, an unknown man in the 1840�s who passed himself off as Formosan and fooled people for a number of years due to people�s general lack of knowledge of Asia. No one knows his true identity. Banvard�s Folly is a great summer read since each chapter covers a different person so you can pick it up, read a chapter, and put it down without losing the thread. Since there isn�t one.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

I did not read much Steinbeck, in depth, in college. Only a few scattered short stories and The Grapes of Wrath. What I like best about Steinbeck is how readable he is, even now. His style is so modern and straightforward and his characters are believable and interesting in a mini-series saga kind of way. I�d never read East of Eden until this year, though I think I�ve seen the movie in the misty past. I don�t even know which character James Dean played. I might have to seek it out now. If I have seen it, it was so long ago I�d forgotten everything about the story so I didn�t waste a lot of brain power comparing one to the other. Try it. You�ll like it. Evil mother who begins life as the Bad Seed and ends up the wealthiest Madam in the town, her twins � one good, one bad, ineffective father, California. How bad could it be?


That�s all I got today. Most of my spare time has been spent plotting ways to keep Dusty�s preschool from closing � and fretting about having to possibly find an alternative place for her in the fall.

Red had her one-year well baby check up today and got a million vaccinations as well as a series of measurements done. She hated every aspect of it. Naturally. She�s developing quite a hatred of nurses, I must say. Dusty was such a stoic patient (still is) that this wailing and thrashing is hard to get used to. Could any two children, with identical parents, be any different? Sigh.

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2:59 p.m. ::
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