Editor's note:
What do you know about the history of reading out of books? In the days of Kindle's, Nooks, Tablets, and Smart Phones, we take the book for granted.
Showing posts with label Book of the week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book of the week. Show all posts
Friday, September 13, 2013
Written for readers 12 and up, and with a foreword by Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core and a member of the President's Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships, this beautiful book will educate and inspire youth and adults of all faiths.
Friday, September 6, 2013
The Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship monthly book group, which is open to the public, will be meeting next Tuesday (Sept. 10th) at 6 p.m. at 58 North Main for supper and a discussion about John Wood's book "Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy."
We will then go the SUNY Brockport SERC to attend the reading by the author who will be speaking at the College at 7:30 that evening as part of the Freshman Summer Reading Program.
John Woods left a lucrative career at Microsoft to found the nonprofit organization Room to Read. This book shares the challenges, such as raising money in a collapsing economy, as well as the moving stories of the children in Africa and Asia whose educations would otherwise have been sacrificed to war or natural disaster. Join us!
For more about the Freshman Summer Reading Program and Wood's book, click here.
For more about the Freshman Summer Reading Program and Wood's book, click here.
Editor's note:
The Brockporter book of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter online news magazine which usually appears on Fridays. If you have a book review of 250 words or less you would like to share with the readers of the Brockporter, please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com
Friday, August 30, 2013
The creative tension is built around the conflict between the haves and the have nots and the story is told from an observation of the banal perspective of daily life which towards the end of its almost 500 pages gets tedious. The moral of the story seems to be that nice guys indeed finish last as well as those who do them in. It seems that in the long run no matter what side you're on, you lose and die.
I read the whole book and enjoyed the character development which seems honest and accurate, but overall I don't think I would recommend it unless you have nothing better to do and enjoy voyeuristically watching other people struggle with their problems of daily living.
I give it a 3 on my 5 point scale.
Editor's note:
The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you have a book review you would like to share with the Brockporter readers please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com
Friday, August 23, 2013
New York state began seeing the light around the turn of the millenium when a growing group began to understand that the Rockefeller Drug Laws had been a big mistake because the citizens of New York could no longer afford to house nonviolent drug offenders in State prisons at the cost of about $60,000.00 per year per inmate. The drug offender could have been sent to the U of R for that kind of money with his room and board paid in addition to private college tuition. New Yorkers spend over $3 billion supervising 54,600 inmates in 60 facilities and 36,800 parolees in 7 regional parole offices.
There are many reasons for the problem of crime in our society many of which stem from our very poor social policies compared to other developed countries. I will be writing more about our criminal justice policies in coming weeks and months because they have a very heavy impact on us as Brockporters and New York Staters and Americans even though most Brockporters, New York Staters, and Americans are dismally unaware unless they or someone they love have been caught up in the system.
Dr. Currie writes in the preface to the 2013 edition, "The bottom line after Crime and Punishment In America warned that our dominant strategies against crime weren't working well, the United States is still distinguished by having both the world's highest level of imprisonment and the advanced world's worst levels of serious criminal violence. And we are still, for the most part, relying all too heavily on an approach to crime control that is ineffective, costly, and destructive." p.xiv
For a good over view of our criminal justice management of offenders in America I highly recommend Elliott Currie's book.
Friday, July 5, 2013
"Mom and Rich got me a G35 (a car) for my graduation."
"That was nice of them."
"Mom's still compensating for you. I milk it a little."
"I would. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why'd you come to me?"
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"I care less about letting you down."
And it is the story of Silver's life, deeply loved by his family but never measuring up to their expectations. Silver is a doofus and he has become accustomed to playing the part.
In another part of the novel, after Silver has been admitted to the hospital after a mini stroke his younger brother, Chuck, comes to visit.
Chuck looks concerned. "You're in the hospital," he says, slow and loud, like Silver is an elderly man.
"I know that," Silver says. "I'm just wondering why you're here."
"You're my brother," Chuck says.
Silver says, "We're not really that close."
And so the novel goes with glib and occasionally snarky remarks between the characters which make the text funny and poignant at the same time. Silver, it seems, is always the underdog, but an underdog we root for even if he is a self sabotaging slacker.
The creative tension comes from the seeming inneptness of the hero, Silver, and the expected next bad thing to happen to him, but he is a likable character and we want things to turn out for him. Will they?
Tropper's novel is entertaining, engaging, funny, and yet poignantly insightful into the human condition at the same time.
I recommend the novel and it is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport at 45 Main Street at one of America's best independent book stores.
Editor's note: The Brockporter book of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you would like my copy of One Last Thing Before I Go it is available first come, first serve by requesting it from davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Friday, May 24, 2013
The story centers around Jeremiah and Margaret Buckley as they raise their children in the late 1800s the years of political unrest focusing on land reform so that tenant farmers could own their own land instead of rent it from rich Englishman.
The creative tension in the novel, based on historical facts, centers around the love and grief of the Buckley family and their neighbors.
I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it. A book discussion meeting was held at Lift Bridge Book Shop on May 14th and Elizabeth Osta, the author, was present giving the background of her writing of the book and her many trips to Ireland.
The book is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main Street, Brockport, NY.
Editor's Note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine and appears most Fridays.
Friday, April 5, 2013
When fifteen-year-old Del Parsons' parents rob a North Dakota bank, his normal life is altered forever, and a threshold is crossed that can never be uncrossed. His parents' imprisonment threatens a turbulent and uncertain future for Del and his twin sister, Berner. Fierce with resentment, Berner flees their Montana home for California. But Del is not completely abandoned. A family friend spirits him across the Canadian border toward safety and a better life. There, afloat on the Saskatchewan prairie, Del finds only cold refuge from Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and alluring American fugitive with a dark and violent past.
Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery, Del struggles to remake himself. But his search for grace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with the forces of darkness that shadow us all.
A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic.
Canada is a coming of age book with 15 year old Del Parsons as the narrator, an unusually introspective, reflective, and insightful adolescent. I liked Del and was rooting for him and his twin sister, Berner, as they were forced to cope with and manage circumstances that most adolescents, I hope, don't have to deal with.
Del's parents rob a bank in North Dakota, get arrested, and Del gets spirited away to Canada by an acquaintance of Del's mother to avoid being taken by Child Protective authorities . Del is apprenticed to Arthur Remlinger, a hotel owner in Saskatchewan, who also is an American ex-patriot.
The creative tension in the book is developed from Del's trying to make sense of his experiences never quite knowing what god awful thing might happen to him next. The kid is resilient, observant, and purposeful in dealing the circumstances which life places in his path.
I liked this book a lot and a great deal of my interest was in caring about what becomes of Del and his sister, Berner, who ran away to California instead of going to Canada with Del according to her mother's plan.
Literature should teach us about life and how do manage the moral dilemmas that we are often faced with. The dysfunction in Del's family and the world he encounters is in some ways nonsensical, "crazy", which so much of human life entails. The dysfunction is banal, unnecessary, and involves self-inflicted suffering which could have been avoided had one chosen a different path, but "chosen" doesn't quite seem the right word because it seems that some situations that we create and get involved in are, in some ways, our destinies, and were "accidents waiting to happen".
This novel has a spiritual quality in that it asks a basic and sub conscious question which is "What is the meaning of life?" The underlying question this novel deals with is "Given the absurd things that happen in Del's life what will be it's meaning? Del lives the question and it is an honor and privilege for the reader to witness this and be invited to live the question with him.
I recommend this novel.
The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. The book is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main St., Brockport, NY, one of America's best independent book stores, or from the Brockporter/Amazon widget below. Please support the Brockporter by making a donation through the PayPal button in the right hand column of the web page or by buying products through the Amazon widgets at no additional cost to the buyer. The Brockporter appreciates your support.
Friday, March 29, 2013
From Amazon web site:
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
Wild works on multiple levels. First, it is the story of the hike itself and what Cheyrl encounters along the trail. Second, Cheyrl tests herself and learns what she is capable of in terms of physical and emotional endurance. Third, it is a story of a spiritual quest in which she comes to terms with the demons of grief, addiction, and narcissism, and must create a more satisfying and fulfilling life of peace and love.
I loved this book and think it is one of the more important books I have read in the last 10 years. It is one of those books I find myself mentioning and recommending to people I care about and even buying copies and giving them away. What makes the story so interesting and inspiring is how with this self imposed purification, Cheyrl finds herself. She was lost and during this arduous, self imposed journey, finds herself.
The Brockporter Book of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. Wild is available from the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport, or you can support the Brockporter by buying it through the Brockporter/ Amazon widget bellow.
Wild works on multiple levels. First, it is the story of the hike itself and what Cheyrl encounters along the trail. Second, Cheyrl tests herself and learns what she is capable of in terms of physical and emotional endurance. Third, it is a story of a spiritual quest in which she comes to terms with the demons of grief, addiction, and narcissism, and must create a more satisfying and fulfilling life of peace and love.
I loved this book and think it is one of the more important books I have read in the last 10 years. It is one of those books I find myself mentioning and recommending to people I care about and even buying copies and giving them away. What makes the story so interesting and inspiring is how with this self imposed purification, Cheyrl finds herself. She was lost and during this arduous, self imposed journey, finds herself.
The Brockporter Book of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. Wild is available from the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport, or you can support the Brockporter by buying it through the Brockporter/ Amazon widget bellow.
Friday, March 22, 2013
From the Amazon web site:
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
Editor's note: I loved Wild. It's a great read about a 22 year old woman who has lost her way after her mother's death, using heroin, involved in promiscuous sex, having abortions, and deteriorating rapidly into a hell of heartache and pain. She gets the notion to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in the West similar to the Appalachian Trail in the East. She subjects herself to the fears and physically grueling ordeal and in the process comes to terms with her grief and fears, and finds herself.
Wild is a marvelous memoir of self redemption in which a young woman faces her demons and triumphs. I highly recommend it.
Wild is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport or through The Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column. The paperback edition will be released on March 26th.
The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays.
Editor's note: I loved Wild. It's a great read about a 22 year old woman who has lost her way after her mother's death, using heroin, involved in promiscuous sex, having abortions, and deteriorating rapidly into a hell of heartache and pain. She gets the notion to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in the West similar to the Appalachian Trail in the East. She subjects herself to the fears and physically grueling ordeal and in the process comes to terms with her grief and fears, and finds herself.
Wild is a marvelous memoir of self redemption in which a young woman faces her demons and triumphs. I highly recommend it.
Wild is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport or through The Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column. The paperback edition will be released on March 26th.
The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays.
Friday, March 15, 2013
From the Amazon web site:
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel about loss and recovery, pierced throughout with her humor, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.
Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron grew up fending off a sister who constantly wanted to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, an outspoken, independent young woman, she’s like a breath of fresh air. He marries her without hesitation, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. Aaron works at his family’s vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy’s unexpected appearances from the dead—in their house, on the roadway, in the market—help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Gradually, Aaron discovers that maybe for this beginner there is indeed a way to say goodbye.
Editor's note: I fell in love with Anne Tyler's novels back in the 80s when I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Since then I have read most of her novels and liked most of them and loved a couple. Her characters and the situations they find themselves in are all a bit quirky which makes the mundane interesting.
In The Beginner's Goodbye, Aaron, the main character, works with his sister in a small vanity press they inherited from their father, and a part from editing books by amateurs for self publication, they publish a series of beginners books. Aaron loses his wife, Dorothy, in a freak accident when a tree falls on their house and crushes through the roof of their house killing Dorothy. Aaron's life suddenly changes and at first he is in shock and denial, and finally moves in with his sister Nadinia. Then, his wife, Dorothy, starts appearing to him in various places which he finds very comforting. The story becomes one of a widower dealing with his grief over the loss of his wife and former life. Aaron's situation is nothing dramatic or special, but very interesting in an intimate way.
I loved The Beginner's Goodbye and recommend it. It is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY and on the Brockporter Amazon Book Carousel. The Brockporter Book of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you have a book review which you would like to share with the readers of The Brockporter please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron grew up fending off a sister who constantly wanted to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, an outspoken, independent young woman, she’s like a breath of fresh air. He marries her without hesitation, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. Aaron works at his family’s vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy’s unexpected appearances from the dead—in their house, on the roadway, in the market—help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Gradually, Aaron discovers that maybe for this beginner there is indeed a way to say goodbye.
Editor's note: I fell in love with Anne Tyler's novels back in the 80s when I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Since then I have read most of her novels and liked most of them and loved a couple. Her characters and the situations they find themselves in are all a bit quirky which makes the mundane interesting.
In The Beginner's Goodbye, Aaron, the main character, works with his sister in a small vanity press they inherited from their father, and a part from editing books by amateurs for self publication, they publish a series of beginners books. Aaron loses his wife, Dorothy, in a freak accident when a tree falls on their house and crushes through the roof of their house killing Dorothy. Aaron's life suddenly changes and at first he is in shock and denial, and finally moves in with his sister Nadinia. Then, his wife, Dorothy, starts appearing to him in various places which he finds very comforting. The story becomes one of a widower dealing with his grief over the loss of his wife and former life. Aaron's situation is nothing dramatic or special, but very interesting in an intimate way.
I loved The Beginner's Goodbye and recommend it. It is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY and on the Brockporter Amazon Book Carousel. The Brockporter Book of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you have a book review which you would like to share with the readers of The Brockporter please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Even though I love books and am always interested in the All Rochester Reads book selection somehow this fact didn't register on my radar screen although it might have at the time which is why I bought the book in the first place, but obviously never read it until two years later. It was the All Rochester Reads book selection for 2011.
At any rate, I finally got around to it, and I enjoyed it for the most part, but another part of me was disappointed. But first some background from Writers and Books.
From the Writers and Books web site:
Richly imagined, gothically spooky and replete with the ingenious storytelling ability of a born novelist, The Good Thief introduces one of the most appealing young heroes in contemporary fiction and ratifies Hannah Tinti as one of our most exciting new talents.
Twelve-year-old Ren is missing his left hand. How it was lost is a mystery that Ren has been trying to solve for his entire life, as well as who his parents are, and why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. He longs for a family to call his own and is terrified of the day he will be sent alone into the world.
But then a young man named Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother, and his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand and his parents persuades the monks at the orphanage to release the boy and to give Ren some hope. But is Benjamin really who he says he is? Journeying through a New England of whaling towns and meadowed farmlands, Ren is introduced to a vibrant world of hardscrabble adventure filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers and petty thieves. If he stays, Ren becomes one of them. If he goes, he’s lost once again. As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage he comes to suspect that Benjamin not only holds the key to his future, but to his past as well.
The Good Thief was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award, winner of the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, and a recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, given annually to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18. The novel was on the “Best of 2008” lists of the San Antonio Express, the Florida Sun Sentinel, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Washington Post. Kirkus Review selected The Good Thief for its “Best Fiction of 2008” list and the San Francisco Chronicle picked The Good Thief for its “Best 50 Fiction & Poetry of 2008″ list. In 2011, The Good Thief made the longlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
While Ren is a very sympathetic and likable character the question of right and wrong, good and evil, the end justifying the means, in short, questions about moral psychology and behavior are never resolved in any satisfying way. In this realm the book is fanciful and borders at time upon farce. Would Tinti have had a better book if she had dealt with these quandaries more seriously? I think so.
I wish I had read the book back at the time everyone else was reading it back in 2011 so I could have participated in the book discussions and learned other people's thoughts, and feelings about the book. Perhaps, if you read it you would leave a comment about your experience.
Bottom line, I recommend The Good Thief.
Friday, March 1, 2013
by Monica Beck
In Life After Death Damien Echols writes an account of his life as a boy growing up in Arkansas during the 1970’s. Raised in a dysfunctional family in debilitating poverty. The house he grew up in was so cold that the water in the toilet would freeze. With his background it’s amazing that he never got into much trouble. Since he wasn’t an avid student and received little encouragement from home, he didn’t graduate from high school. He wasn’t an average teenager, and at the age of 18, he and his three friends were charged and convicted of the murder of three young boys. Law enforcement decided the murders were related to some sort of a Satanist ritual because bite marks were found on the bodies (years later forensics decided the bites were due to animal predation).
Unfortunately for Echols, he fit their profile to a tee. While in his teens, he wore black almost exclusively, listened to heavy metal, and therefore was considered the ring leader of the group. For this reason he was the only one to receive the death penalty. All three were considered social outcasts, and poor as well, making them perfect prey for backwoods justice. The courts had little definitive evidence in the case, but nevertheless all three were railroaded and convicted of murder. For more information about the case, labeled by the media the West Memphis Three, you can see several HBO documentaries made about them. Media attention including celebrity support by Johnny Depp, Harry Rollins and Eddie Vedder helped to popularize their cause which eventually led to their release. The latest documentary, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Fran Walsh, was aired at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals this year. It’s titled West of Memphis see http://www.sonyclassics.com/westofmemphis/
The book begins as an auto-biographical look at Echols’ life from birth till the age of 18 when his legal troubles began. The second half of the book is written like a journal with regular entries. When all he could see from his tiny concrete cell was death, despair, and insanity he decided that he could no longer abide in a state of ‘hope’. Like Henry Miller asserts in The Cosmological Eye: “Hope is a bad thing. It means that you are not what you want to be. It means that part of you is dead, if not all of you.” Echols embraced this attitude and learned how to survive and even thrive on Death Row, intellectually and spiritually for many years, creating an identity for himself. Minus the illusion of hope, he spent his days and nights transcending the abysmal environment he was trapped in. He is an inspiration to all.
However, towards the end of his time on Death Row his tone changes. Desperation oozes out of the text. After 18 years on death row, and 19 birthdays, fatigue was setting in. Who wouldn’t become despondent under these conditions? In 2011 he and the West Memphis Three were released, but not exonerated. Echols is a free man today. He lives with his wife in the northeast. Echols’ well written narrative will keep your attention. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit against all odds, and includes a scathing look at how law enforcement, the corrections system, and the legal system in this country are twisted and in need of serious overhaul.
Editor's note: Life After Death is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main St. in Brockport, NY and on The Brockporter Amazon Book Carousel in the right hand column. The Brockporter book of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you have a book review you would like published as part of this feature please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Friday, February 22, 2013
From the Amazon web site:
Even among authors, Jeffrey Eugenides possesses a rare talent for being able to inhabit his characters. In The Marriage Plot, his third novel and first in ten years (following the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex), Eugenides describes a year or so in the lives of three college seniors at Brown in the early 80s. There is Madeleine, a self-described “incurable romantic” who is slightly embarrassed at being so normal. There is Leonard, a brilliant, temperamental student from the Pacific Northwest. And completing the triangle is Mitchell, a Religious Studies major from Eugenides’ own Detroit. What follows is a book delivered in sincere and genuine prose, tracing the end of the students’ college days and continuing into those first, tentative steps toward true adulthood. This is a thoughtful and at times disarming novel about life, love, and discovery, set during a time when so much of life seems filled with deep portent.
I loved Jeffrey Eugenides Pulitzer prize winning book, Middlesex, and so I was looking forward to The Marriage Plot which I finally got around to reading. It is a coming of age story of three college seniors who are leaving the artificial cocoon of college life to join adult society.
The developmental task of young 20 somethings is to find a mate and procreate and yet our postmodern life has made the achievement of this task more complicated. This major life challenge is not as easy as it used to be because people have so many more choices than our grandparents did. Marriage is no longer primarily an economic institution but one sought out for its emotional and psychological satisfactions. As 50% of people in first time marriages and 65% of people in second marriages find out love (infatuation) is not enough to build a lasting relationship on.
Madeline, an English major, struggles between choosing Leonard or Mitchell two people who are quite different. Leonard is a biological science major who also has manic depressive illness, now days called bi-polar, and Mitchell is an introverted religious studies major who asks the big questions and approaches life with a degree of earnestness and introspection more typical of a medievalist than a young man in 1980s America.
Madeline chooses Leonard and chooses wrong. Leonard becomes a lost soul, and Mitchell comes to his better senses and realizes that love is not enough to build a life on.
This book reads along enjoyably depicting college life at Brown in Rhode Island, and the character development of the three main characters is very interesting. The dynamics of bi-polar illness are intimately described allowing the reader an appreciation of the impact the illness has on the person suffering from it as well as the impact on relationships and families.
The Marriage Plot is well worth reading if you are interested in the dilemmas and drama of young serious love which can have an impact on a life time.
Editor's note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you have a book review you would like to share please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com
I loved Jeffrey Eugenides Pulitzer prize winning book, Middlesex, and so I was looking forward to The Marriage Plot which I finally got around to reading. It is a coming of age story of three college seniors who are leaving the artificial cocoon of college life to join adult society.
The developmental task of young 20 somethings is to find a mate and procreate and yet our postmodern life has made the achievement of this task more complicated. This major life challenge is not as easy as it used to be because people have so many more choices than our grandparents did. Marriage is no longer primarily an economic institution but one sought out for its emotional and psychological satisfactions. As 50% of people in first time marriages and 65% of people in second marriages find out love (infatuation) is not enough to build a lasting relationship on.
Madeline, an English major, struggles between choosing Leonard or Mitchell two people who are quite different. Leonard is a biological science major who also has manic depressive illness, now days called bi-polar, and Mitchell is an introverted religious studies major who asks the big questions and approaches life with a degree of earnestness and introspection more typical of a medievalist than a young man in 1980s America.
Madeline chooses Leonard and chooses wrong. Leonard becomes a lost soul, and Mitchell comes to his better senses and realizes that love is not enough to build a life on.
This book reads along enjoyably depicting college life at Brown in Rhode Island, and the character development of the three main characters is very interesting. The dynamics of bi-polar illness are intimately described allowing the reader an appreciation of the impact the illness has on the person suffering from it as well as the impact on relationships and families.
The Marriage Plot is well worth reading if you are interested in the dilemmas and drama of young serious love which can have an impact on a life time.
Editor's note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. If you have a book review you would like to share please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com
Friday, February 8, 2013
by Cody Steffen
Peter S. Beagle's novel The Last Unicorn (published 1968) is a fantasy classic. As the title suggests, the protagonist is a unicorn - the last of its kind. However, in the beginning she's unaware of this. She goes about existing in her lovely forest, paying no mind to time or the world outside, until she overhears a couple of hunters discussing the extinction of her race.
The question raised is an important one. Are we able to leave comfort behind when confronted with reality? And are willing to seek the unknown? Like Bilbo Baggins of the Shire or Luke Skywalker of Tattooine, the unicorn leaves home.
This first step is a jolt. The forest, kept perfect and vibrant by the mere presence of its most singular inhabitant, gives way to an imperfect world with roads, cages, and greed.
On the unicorn's travels, she meets several distinct characters including a butterfly who only speaks in overheard poetry and lyrics, a wizard named Schmendrick who's incapable of performing even the most basic of spells without an embarrassing hiccup, and Molly Grue, woman whose presence is felt more through her own struggle and resourcefulness than any goofy tics.
While the unicorn is the driving force of the plot, it's Schmendrick and Molly who are the heart of the story. Upon meeting the unicorn for the first time, Molly is distraught because she's middle-aged and has been waiting her entire life for the accompanying majestic relief from the harrowing toil of her everyday life. Similarly, the unicorn's journey allows the magician to leave his life of meaningless (poorly executed) parlor tricks behind for something real.
With the help of her friends, the unicorn is able to overcome peril as she seeks to shed some light on the mystery whose horns wrenched her away from an infinitely comfortable existence. The unicorn soon learns of a fabled King Haggard who may have the answers she's looking for, but no one seems entirely sure he still exists, either. Still, she and her small band of cohorts have a direction - into the abyss.
The reason The Last Unicorn works so well is that the style and substance are inseparable. Beagle's prose - as full of wonder as the world he's created - helps illuminate the differences and similarities between the world he's created and ours, between perfection and humanity. Like a clock, every piece - every character, every scene - serves the greater purpose; and it's fully functional. The reason the book's so remarkable, so transcendent is how effortlessly all of this slides into place in one sweeping, resonant narrative.
A Part of the power of fantasy lies in its ability to take us to other worlds while holding a mirror up to our own. The Last Unicorn shows us a world that is petty, violent, selfish, romantic, free-wheeling, altruistic, and funny, all at once. The humanity, foibles and all, reverberates poignantly like an old song. An old song sung by a butterfly.
Editor's Note: The Last Unicorn is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main St., Brockport, NY where Mr. Steffen is a book seller.
Friday, January 25, 2013
"Eschatology" for example is simply the study of end times, the final culmination of human evolution, the point towards which we are traveling on this journey of life. The Fundamentalists have seized the public's imagination around eschatological concerns with their vivid and dramatic stories of apocalyptic end times when the saved will be assumed into heaven in a rapture while the rest of us sinners will be left on earth which will turn into a hell of suffering. Progressive theological perspectives don't see things this way and in fact argue that such negative stories, justified as coming from the Book of Revelations, do more harm than good. The Progressive view is that we are to create heaven on earth as Jesus pointed out in the prayer He suggested, The Our Father, where he said "...thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
It is written on the fly leaf of the book
"The impact of liberal religion is richer and more far-reaching than many know - a force for good that has inspired the supported two centuries of American social progress, from abolition of slavery and the securing of women's rights to the present day struggles for marriage equality, ecological responsibility, and global peace. In order to sustain our spirits and advance positive social change, progressive people need to claim the transforming power of our theological heritage."
Ecclesiology is the study of church, the "assembly" of God's people, the faith community. It is written in A House For Hope, "And how can we approach religious community in ways that promote not competitive parochialism but authentic interfaith engagement and cooperation?" p.xii This is an excellent question for the churches of Brockport which is rich with its many churches and denominations. The churches of Brockport at times work together on community projects and to lift up the people in the community whether it be in support of the food shelf, the clothing shelf, the Crop Walk, the Bienvendia etc., but so much more could be done. One of the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism is to covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. UUs also covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The idea is to facilitate the empowerment of a people of faith to work together to care for and love one another in an inclusive way that inspires hope for the future of human kind and the well being of all life on our planet.
I loved A House For Hope and highly recommend it to people willing to consider how religion can be a force for good in our sometimes weary world.
According to the Pew research on religion study, the "nones", those people who say they have no religious identification and/or affiliation are the fastest growing group (denomination) in the country. Especially among younger adults under 50 many more people say they are "spiritual" but not "religious". Attendance and membership in churches in United States are in decline and yet religious affiliation is a very beneficial factor enhancing health, happiness, and social well being. If churches are to survive into the Twenty-first century they will have to transform themselves into organizations which contribute more meaning and relevance to the lives of their members and the communities in which their members live if they are to continue as social organizations of value. Buehrens and Parker in their book, A House For Hope: The Promise Of Progressive Religion For The Twenty-first Century are on to something.
Editor's note: This book is not available at Lift Bridge but can be ordered through The Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column.
Friday, January 18, 2013
My daughter, Kelly, gave me the book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, for Christmas. I enjoyed it immensely, and highly recommend it.
Editor's note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears on most Fridays. The book is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main Street, Brockport, NY or from the Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column. If you have a book review for this feature please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Editor's note: The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears on most Fridays. The book is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop at 45 Main Street, Brockport, NY or from the Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column. If you have a book review for this feature please send it to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
Friday, December 28, 2012
In fiction, Ursula Hegi gives us some understanding of answers to these questions. Her first book in the Burgdorf cycle (referring to the fictitious village where her characters live and the action occurs), Stones From The River, begins the story of how fascism fueled by fear and propaganda can insinuate itself into a population and turn them to extreme evil which becomes so common place and widely accepted that it becomes banal.
The setting for the fourth book in the Burgdorf cycle is February 27, 1934, the first anniversary of the staged burning of the Reichstag, the Parliament building in Berlin, Germany. Similar to 9/11 in the United States, this event gives the Nazi government, the excuse it needs to begin its burning of books, its propagandizing the youth, its increasing demonization and discrimination against its Jewish citizens, and its increasing militarization.
The story is about Thelka Jansen who becomes the teacher of 10 year old boys in a Catholic Parochial school. Her young students, whom she tries to protect from the consequences of these misguided policies, become recruited to serve in Hitler's Nazi youth program the "Hilter-Jugend". Thelka justifies her cooperation thinking that Hitler's regime is only a temporary phenomenon and he will pass from power as quickly as he came into power.
As the story continues, Thelka, the result of an out of wedlock pregnancy, learns that her biological father is Jewish. As she has to produce a family geneology she stumbles across the fact that her father is her adoptive father who married her mother to save her from the stigma of being an unmarried mother and having to give up her child to adoption.
Thelka struggles with her ethical sensibilities in the face of societal pressures towards evil policies and the seduction of her students, whom she genuinely loves, into acting out dynamics which those policies not only encourage, but require, in order to avoid significant censure.
The narrative reminded me of Brockport where we have Hometown Heroes banners hanging from our light poles extolling the virtues of the community's young people who have become not only pawns but the agents of immoral policies of torture, pre-emptive invasion, and killing of people demonized as "terrorists" for political purposes advancing the agenda of capitalistic corporations whose bottom line has become more important that human lives and sustaining and promoting a civilization on values of peace, liberty, and justice.
Hegi's books in the Burgdorf cycle are not only enjoyable fiction, but stories with important lessons about how good people do bad things.
I highly recommend Children and Fire by Ursula Hegi which is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport and on the Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column.
The Brockporter Book Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine and appears most Fridays.
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