Killing the White Man's Indian

By Fergus M. Bordewich...
a recent find at, of all places, the Peace River Center Thrift Shoppe.
I really enjoyed this one and learned some Native American history that I was unaware of. The author explored a variety of issues, including history, racial identity, reparations, tribal sovereignty.Of these I have always been intrigued most by the concept of tribal sovereignty. There are so many shades to how it can work. The work was well researched with lots of examples of how different tribes have lived and survived. There are heartbreaking stories as well. It is a topic that I wish more people would read about.

Reading About Reading

In my quest to talk about books, I have ended up reading about what other people are saying about them. This new hobby takes so much time I don't seem to have any left for reading books. I added a new link in "more things i read." I like her reviews and also Books 4 Breakfast has a long list of literary links that could keep a person blog hopping for days.

Moving Into the Book Club World

I've joined a couple of book clubs from goodreads.com. I've ordered one book, but think I'll go back to One Million Books at the Gadsden Mall to see if I can pick up the Delillo one. I've never read him before, so I might as well. Maybe having a couple of books going will keep me from turning on the TV. Last night I watched parts of 4 movies flicking through channels and woke up feeling gross.

Oh Where Have All My Favorite Blogs Gone?

I recently added Elyse Sewell's Live Journal to my list "more things I read." She takes great pictures of food. I found her through Sassmaster and used to visit occassionally.

I feel the need to beef up my list, because it has gotten shorter due to the discontinuation of some and to the new trend of making blogs private. My Tango Year and Superblogmuch were old favorites of mine, but I missed the invitation list. Joe had a good explanation for making his Appalachian Trail adventure private, but I have not heard any reasons from the others. I hope it's not because of annoying spammers. Anybody know what's up with this unsettling trend? Synonym Master, got any for "trend?"

Talking With Ghosts in Mexico

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo is an odd little book that I liked a lot. It begins with a son travelling to the village of his birth to meet his father to fulfill his dying mother's request. You think it's going to go one direction, and then it goes somewhere else. Even after you get used to most of the characters being ghosts and you start to get a hang of the time jumping, you have to pay close attention in order to keep up.

The book came out in Mexico in 1955 and was not particularly well received. While he'd written a book of short stories prior to Pedro Paramo, Rulfo never wrote another book. He did live to see it gain popularity and be credited with beginning the movement of Magical Realism. (I would credit that source, but I've already lost track of it.) I was kind of suprised by this because I think everything I ever read by a latin american author had surreal qualities. Maybe they were all later than 1955. I find myself wondering what Rulfo did for a living since he wasn't writing books. Looks like a trip to Wikepedia.

According to reviews, the later translation is far superior to the one I read which was translated by Lysander Kemp. I still liked the book a lot. I would even consider reading it again, but only because it is so short besides being good.

Betrayal and Heartbreak In Senegal

I picked up this book last fall in Laramie when I was knocking around town with Erika before our climbing adventures in Grand Junction and Moab. It appealed to me because it was only 89 pages long. I thought it would be a good book for the road, but I couldn't seem to concentrate well enough for it. Being lightweight helped it make the cut and the moves from SD, MI, FL, and MI again. Being sick in a motel room in Alabama allowed me the quiet I seemed to need to read it. I'm glad I did.

The book, So Long a Letter, by Mariama Ba, translated by Modupe Bode-Thomas, is written in epistolary style. It takes place in Senegal, I would guess in the late 1970's. Ramatoulaye, a recent widow, writes a very long letter to her lifelong friend, Aissatou.

From the first page:

If over the years, and passing through the realities of life, dreams die, I still keep intact my memories, the salt of remembrance.

I conjure you up. The past is reborn, along with its procession of emotions. I close my eyes. Ebb and tide of feeling: heat and dazzlement, the woodfires, the sharp green mango, bitten into in turns, a delicacy in our greedy mouths. I close my eyes. Ebb and tide of images drops of sweat beading your mother's ochre-coloured face as she emerges from the kitchen, the procession of young wet girls chattering on the way back from the springs.

We walked the same paths from adolesence to maturity, where the past begets the present.

My friend, my friend, my friend, I call on you three times.

Both women were educated, professionals married to men they loved. Both had their lives torn apart by polygamy. Their situations were not the same and their reactions differed.

Reviews of this book point out the highlighting of the inequality of women in Senegalese society and the mixing of european and traditional values. It does do this, but the real strength of the book is in the very human quality of the characters. They seem like real people with distinctive personalities, strengths and foibles. They are not cardboard cutouts used to make a point. In fact, I had sympathy for everyone, even the dweeb who abandoned his wife and 12 children to chase a young skirt, who happened to be his oldest daughter's best friend. Ok, I didn't have any sympathy for one particularly treacherous mother-in-law, and I did despise the mother that more or less sold her daughter off to the old guy, but I did have sympathy for her.

It was a good read and got me thinking about human relations in general and how life doesn't necessarily turn out how one expects, but how worth it it is.

I have regained my powers

Reading Brin

I like David Brin. If I hadn't lost the ability to post images, I would show the cover of his book that I read recently, Startide Rising. It was a good read, a fine adventure in outer space. It involves a stranded spaceship with its crew of dolphins and humans. Upstarts and underdogs, this crew is being hunted by galactic zealots while struggling with mutiny in their own ranks. Really, I don't need to say anymore since I mentioned the dolphin astronauts.

another thing i have read and now will share with you

One of the hardest things in life is to be happy. Why? Because we feel that certain attributes cause happiness, and therefore we lose touch with what actual happiness signifies out side of ourselves-a sense of joy, of inner freedom. From Everyday Tao by Leonard Willougby.

I read this book last year, when, surprise, it came into the store. I am reading it again. It gives a good working sense of taoist philosophy in fairly plain language. Even so, i find i have to re-read some of the passages, not due to the writing style, but because the concepts are so simple that it is hard to grasp them, they just float up into your brain somewhere. but maybe a couple days later you will be doing something and wham, you think of it in the context of your activity, and it all makes sense. Until you realize that it doesn't.

I fininished 2 books recently

that I had picked up from the thrift store, you may recall the pictoral I did....I liked them. I am not much of a book reviewer, so I am going to just pick a few lines from each that will give a taste of the book.

from Hot Damn-by James W. Hall-a collection of essays he wrote as a regular feature for the Miami Herald. It made me wish I could live even further south,(sock-free 24-7) He writes on all things Florida, with some insight, amazement at the weirdness, and lots of affection.

Though I didn't have words for it then, I knew the light was different too.
It had an almost romantic, twilight rosiness, a quiet light, yet far more vivid and precise than any I had known before. A painterly January light. And while I had been on the platform of the Hollywood train station for less than a minute, I knew with utter certainty that I had taken a mortal wound.

From Tomcat In Love-by Tim O'Brien- a novel, very funny, about a linguistics professor with a bit of a wandering eye...divorce, revenge, betrayal, more revenge. Playful and thoughtful language, great characters. The footnotes are awesome.

If commitment comes undone, was such commitment ever commitment? By what slippery standard? What small print? What fickle sliding scale? The betrayal of love, in other words, seems also to entail a fundamental betrayal of language and logic and human reason, a subversion of meaning, a practical joke directed against the very meaning of meaning.
My mood in any case, was far from peppy.

From Linus on Life, an inspirational little tome about the philosphies of Linus (includes cartoons)

No problem is so big or complicated that it can't be run away from.

What I Am Reading Today

A little late. Hey, I was reading other things...

Grrr.

from Raymond Carver

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on earth.

What is One Heart Dancing Reading?

I am reading the captions in my Caption This! contest. Boomer's beer caption is the winner so far, but YOU could be another winner!

Since we at Boomer's Booklist are sooooo erudite, I will change the prize just for Boomer's friends to $10 toward the book purchase of your choice ...

PLUS I will send you a FREE book!

Deadline is Sunday! Don't delay! Enter TODAY!

Go to www.mytangoyear.blogspot.com.

!!!!!

Yeah, I spent a few years in cheesy marketing jobs.

PS I'm also reading the edited version of my next book, The Teen-Centered Writing Club. Blech. Who wrote that thing?

What's Joe Reading?

Joe is probably reading maps. And trail signs. And looking for shuttle-hostel schedules. I've been reading is blog daily. They're on Day 8 and almost to North Carolina, leaving Georgia and Tennessee behind them.

What is Sundaymorn Reading?

Being Tuesday, I would guess she's reading classnotes. Or student papers. At home there will be a couple of novels on the kitchen counter. One or two in the bedroom. Something very contemporary and cutting edge, something I've never heard of. And then there will be something like 'the architecture of southeast asia,' research for a short story.

Today I am reading this....

http://www.feralchildren.com

You might be wondering, who is molldoll's favorite feral child?
It is the gazelle boy.

I read an entire book yesterday.

Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell. It is an Oprah's book club selection. It is a book that would be an example of why to stay away from Oprah's book club books. That said, it had a narrative that went along, I did feel compelled to finish it, but by the time I did finish it, I just felt wrong and cheated at the same time. Books about abuse and survivors of it, can turn out to be just exploitative.

Chasing Vermeer

Boomer's mom took me to the library and I bought this book: Chasing Vermeer. It's a kids book, probably for 10 year olds, but it was great fun to read. OK writing, good mystery, full of puzzles and codes clues hidden in the illustrations and coincidences ... and this great quote:

We shall pick up an existence by its frogs.

Wise men have tried other ways. They have tried to understand our state of being by grasping at its stars, or its arts, or its economics. But, if there is an underlying oneness of all thngs, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle beginning anywhere.

I have collected 294 records of showers of living things. [As in, it's raining frogs and fishes.] ...

It is the profound conviction of most of us that there never has been a shower of living things. But some of us have ... been educated by surprises out of much that we were "absolutely sure" of ...

I have never heard of any standard, in any religion, philosophy, science, or complication of household affairs that could not be made to fit any requirement. We fit standards to judgments or break any law that it please us to break. ... We have conclusions, which are the products of senility or incompetence or credulity, and then argue from them to premises, and then argue from the premises, thinking we began there.

From the book Lo! by Charles Hoy Fort

Unearthing Roots In a Jungle

Running In the Family by Michael Ondaatje is a small, rich, beautiful book. Ondaatje took a couple of trips back to the land of his early childhood. He collects family stories from interviews, journals, and public records. This is not, however, a chronological listing of major events.

I have so much to say about this book that I am having trouble saying anything at all.

There are so many wild stories and great tropical images I can't choose which to share. Here then is a picture of an aunt that I like:

My Aunt Dolly stands 5 feet tall, weighing 70 pounds.She has not stopped smoking since the age of 15 and her 80-year-old brain leaps like a spark plug bringing this year that year to life...she greets me with 'I never thought I'd see you again' and suddenly all these journeys are worth it, just to be able to hug this thin woman who throws her cane onto the table in order to embrace me.

Kathleen Must Read About Rocks

I'm not sure what the Kat's dragging in for books these days, but I'm going to bet she's reading about rocks. And maybe something political. I can't remember what classes she has so I better not guess too hard, but I'm sure there's lots of reading involved. Even if spring is showing signs in northern Minnesota I suspect she is not yet reading outside by the lake.

I Know what Sassmaster's Been Reading

And she says it's pretty good, for a love story. Find out more about Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story by Rachel Kadish.

Now, my dear friends, which one of these should I read first?

I just read a poem by an irish guy on a blog about tango

I know most people hate poems, but check this out anyway: Lesson From the Irish Peace

A reader's confession

I have purchased and read Oprah's book club books. Some of them I have even enjoyed. Others I thought were pretty lame.

Which of my new books should I read first?

Please, tell me.

Yet Another Mystery

A lady at the pool suggested Elizabeth George. I picked up A Traitor to Memory at the library for my mom. She could use it for a weight-lifting program. It's got to be at least 800 pages long. I picked out the abridged version (4 cassettes) of the same title for my drive to the new job. There were a lot of characters to keep straight, but I soon got into it.

It was alright, but I'm going to stay away from mysteries for awhile.

I must quit bringing these books home! Sometimes we get some books in that are just too intruiging. These are the ones I bought today.

a tale of a ladies man falling for a married woman, actually it sounds like he may fall for alot of things.



You had me at alien abduction, what sealed it though was that the author wrote Thank You For Smoking, which I did not read, but I loved the movie.

Travel book about Australia, which I have seen before and been intrigued by.


Bestselling nonfiction from awhile ago, have always been curious about it, but will probably put it near the bottom of this pile.


Humorous essays about how weird and screwed up Florida is.

I fell for the title. Then on the back cover I read this:
"the ensuing drama involves blood, money, sex, vengeance, and a cross-dressing rancher.
Since those are my favorite things, naturally I will read this one first.

A book I bought in 2007, and have yet to read.

Where the Lightning Strikes, The lives of American Indian Sacred Places, by Peter Nabokov.
I bought it at the bookstore at Wall Drug when I was not busy posing with the statues of cowboys, whores, and jackalopes.
It sounded interesting, the author writes of the history of many places many of us would be somewhat familiar with, and quite a few that are more obscure. I will get back to you on this one, should I read it. I really should read it, it is probably very good.

When I need some wisdom, and I need it fast...

I turn to these adorable "Springs" books. This is the one I have turned to most recently. The books are lovely in appearance, and at only 3x5 inches, quite portable. Perfect for to carry with you in case of a wisdom emergency, or just to gain some extra wisdom while you are waiting to get your teeth cleaned. This volume features luminous rice paper and illustrations on each page. The wisdom is in the quotes that are offered. A few of my favorites include:

The day of decision is the day to act upon it.....

After 3 years even disaster can prove a blessing.....

For those few days, the hills are bright with cherry-blossom. Longer, and we would not prize them so.....

Love lives in cottage or castle......

What? Another Ondaatje Writer?

Reading up on Michael Ondaatje, I discovered he had a brother, Christopher. What an interesting character. Christopher emigrated to Canada in 1954 after his alcoholic father lost the family fortune, causing Christopher to forego his final year at University. He proceeds to become a stockbroker, owner than seller of a Pulishing company, olympic bobsledder, millionaire, adventurer, writer, and philanthropist. Darn it. Now I'm going to have to read one of his books, too.

Remembering the English Patient

Punching "Ondaatje" into google search brought me to this interview with Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient. I considered that one of the best books I ever read at the time. I remember liking the movie, but feeling like too much was missed. This interview touches on the differences of film and print as media in general and on Ondaatje's story in particular.

I also remember my friend Charles, in an apartment in Sarajevo, who had just seen Casablanca again not long after viewing The English Patient, saying the difference was (forgive me for messing up the quote) "The problems of 3 people don't add up to a hill of beans." and "Compare to the problems of 3 people, the rest of the world doesn't add up to a hill of beans."

Nice Story in the Port Charlotte Herald

A male bald eagle was found uncounscious on the ground. He was treated, got better and was released. He flew back the nest to help with fledgling care. This was a good thing, not just for him, but for the whole eagle family. Had he not been able to return, the mother eagle may have ended up having to abandon her offspring.

So...Wha' Chyall Reading?

Me, I've been reading lots of street signs and addresses. I had a 2 1/2 day gig delivering phone books in Venice. It sounds a little more glamorous than it was. Really.

Thanks for joining, now tell me what you're reading. If you feel like it, you can tell me what you think of it, too. Or not.

My favorite book so far for 2008....

If you like the sound of words in your head, or thinking about things that are the same and not the same, this is the book for you.
Another great thing about this book is that the synonyms and antonyms are instant. It is also a great way to learn new words and remember old favorites. I will have to warn that sometimes there are no antonyms listed for certain words, quixotic for example, now it seems like it would not be too hard to list some antonyms for this little charmer of a word. Also sometimes it seems like they are really reaching with some of the synonyms. Those criticisms aside, it is a lovely book. If you don't have access to a copy feel free to visit it at
http://instantsynonymsandantonyms.blogspot.com

Those were the salad days....

for a couple years I managed a shoe department at a Steinmart in Lincoln, NE. This job had alot of benefits. Because I worked for the shoe company that rented the space from Steinmart, I had no supervision. It was a boring job, the store was slow(it ended up closing down), but as long as no one complained about me or my lovely staff of high school girls, I was able to often use my time quite creatively. Perhaps you are asking yourself.."OK, what does that have to do with books and the reading of them?" Well, I am getting to that. What that meant for me most days was that I stood at my shoe department counter, and I read. some times I read a book a day. I read a book called The Devil and Sonny Liston,(a book that I will review here on Boomer's Booklist) which rekindled my love of Ali, so then I read every Ali biography the Lincoln public library had. I read a book on girl's high school basketball on a Crow reservation. I read several books on Elvis Presley, I was mostly into non-fiction then. I read so much stuff, I can't even remember all the stuff I read. All I know if for 2 years I was making $10 an hour to read. That was pretty sweet.

Twardowski

I'm looking for a folk tale I read years ago about a character named Twardowski or something like that. It was supposed to be a folk tale from Poland. I loved the story, and would like to read it again. Any help in finding it would be appreciated.

I found lots of stuff on Pan Twardowski and the devil online so I think that was his name except Pan Twardowski was a character in literature. I see no reference to Twardowski and folk tales online.

Twardowski in the story was a trickster like Jack. The story I'm looking for was about Twardowski falling into hell and being forced to work for the devil. The devil put iron shoes on Twardowski so he could not escape. Judas was in a special place in hell, and Twardowski was ordered to beat Judas with an iron rod. If he failed to beat Judas, the devil was going to beat Twardowski. The story ended when Twardowski showed mercy to Judas, and Judas used his long finger nails to rip through the iron shoes that held Twardowski in hell.

I would love to read this story again. Has anyone ever heard of this story or know where I can find it?

Boomer's Booklist Expands to Include the Things Her Friends Read

I have an idea. How about if some of my friends write a little something about what they're reading? I just sent out some invitations to people I know read. I won't be offended if you'd rather not be a writer for this blog; you can still comment. And don't forget, Sassmaster already does this on her blog. Just follow the listed link to find her reviewss. If you think you'd like to contribute, let me know and I'll send you an invite. If you have accepted an invitation, you now can invite whomever you would like.

What Was That Again?

I'm reading/studying Somatics by Thomas Hannah. This morning I covered the section on aging and the loss (or not) of mental capacities. In some ways the basic message is the same: "Use it or lose it." The thing I found interesting was that a couple of long term studies indicate some people continue to gain in mental capacity as they age.

I know very well that I'm not nearly as smart as I used to be. I also know very well that I have not been "using" what I did have these many years. Is it too late to redirect this trend? And what, pray tell, would be the best method in which to work this brain of mine?

Love, War, Despair, Redemption and the Wild Beauty of Life

It is rare that I read a book more than once, but my third book of 2008 was just such a happy accident. Halfway through the first page I realized that the characters seemed awfully familiar. Jarring the memories loose, I remembered A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin in a stack of library books in the room across from the bathroom in Hermosa. This places the time of reading at sometime before I got seriously into rock climbing and before I went to Rome. These are both topics that figure heavily in the story, but knowledge of them is hardly necessary to become completely possessed by the book. I remember it as a marathon read; I pulled all-nighters because I had to know what happened next.

This time I took nearly a month to read it. It's a great story worth savoring. While Helprin’s language is exquisite, his images vivid and gorgeous, the thing I appreciate so much about the book is its vitality. Being a war story, of course there is much death and destruction and everyone who survives suffers tremendous losses and is left deeply scarred. Yet love and lust for life continue. It’s beautiful. Really. I don't know if everybody should read it, but somebody should so I can talk about it with them.

The Many Faces of a Great Novel

I Sent a Fan Letter to Mark Helprin Once,

but it came back to me. I guess the way to reach an author is not through their publisher. Duh. What was I thinking? It's the only fan letter I ever wrote. I wrote it because I love Mark Helprin. Reading his book Winter's Tale was such a gift, I wanted to thank him. I probably picked it up on impulse in a used book store, needing something in the evenings while working on the road. I remember less about the story line than the experience of reading it. The book was beautiful, fanciful, and rich with wintry images. Cold seeped through every page, which was good, because it was brutally hot while I was reading it. We were digging fireline near Lake Koocanusa, MT on steep slopes, and camping near the lake in a shadeless area. We would swim every night. It stayed light until after 9 and there was little chance of sleeping before dark. In my memory it was a magical time, it was the right combination of the book, the lake, and probable near sunstroke.

I only bring this all up to help explain why, when walking by the used bookstore while taking the shortcut through the strip mall from my parents' condo to the library, I felt compelled to buy the 50 cent copy of A Soldier of the Great War which was sitting on the table outside, practically blocking my path. If you'd been around when I was going through the painful process of unloading 90% of my library in South Dakota, or during one of my tirades against books longer than 200 pages, you might wonder why I felt it so necessary to purchase this 700+ page book.

Mark Helprin wrote it. I love him.

I'm all about the bunnies

and I blame the Abeln sisters for that, although they're not responsible for this:

The 2nd book in 2008 that I read was Tales From Watership Down by Richard Adams. I liked it. It's a collection of stories and general rabbit lore involving characters from the incredible novel, Watership Down . Having just read that this past summer, i thouroughly enjoyed the stories. I'm not sure how they would read without that background.

The Weedless Widow: An Antique Lover's Mystery by Deborah Morgan

I don't usually read mysteries although I love listening to them while I'm driving. I don't give a hoot about antiques. The title of this book should have given me a clue how much interest I might have in it.

This book is geared towards antique lovers first, fishing enthusiasts second, people who love someone suffering from agoraphobia third, and mysteries lovers last, if at all. Catering to those three special interest groups in a 180 page book left precious little room to develop a good mystery.

While the set-up and the ensuing detective work seemed reasonable enough, the solution was a bit disappointing. I did not find the murderer believable. The motive was lame, the cover-up lamer, and the totally illogical last ditch desperate effort to escape not plausible.

If you are into antiques or fishing (I'm not) you may find this enjoyable. So why did I pick this out of all the 25 cent choices at Molly's thrift store to be the first book to read in 2008?

I liked the cover art.