Christian Love

A student asked for help. He was writing a paper on
Christian love and why its superior to love based on mere physicality.

I struggled to find anything that would help. I knew of Jason Evert's Pure Love (something not available at the library). Christopher West has some titles but I struggled to find any non-Catholic titles since most patrons are not Catholic.

I gave him C.S. Lewis' Four Loves but that had me thinking: why aren't there more titles like this?

New Contest

Instructables encourages everyone to make something glow.

http://www.instructables.com/contest/glow/

A similar site to this one,
http://makezine.com

Make something this holiday season instead of buying.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I remember when this book came out in 2007-2008. I wasn't terribly interested in the premise except for the fact that it is a "pandora box" story. A mysterious box left on someone's porch turns out to have great import.

The book's official website has a map (supposedly drawn by Hannah) which is cool.

www.thirteenreasonswhy.com

Chaucer

For out of olde feldes, as men seyth,
Cometh al this newe corn from yer to yere,
And out of olde bokes, in good feyth,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere.
– Geoffrey Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls.

For out of old fields, as men say,
comes all this new corn from year to year,
And out of old books, in good faith,
Comes all this new science that men learn.


Here Chaucer is speaking of the legacy of the written word. His work is a product of his own imagination but its also a product of everything he's read.

I'm fascinated by this because in the digital age this fact tends to be lost. Anything older than a few years is considered passe and obsolete.

An Artist Who Finds Beauty in Bound Periodicals

For years librarian have lamented how ugly bound periodicals can be and why they generally sit untouched on library shelves. Now, artist Mickey Smith located and photographs bound periodcals. Part of the beauty is that these bound periodical are ephemeral and will soon be replaced by digital texts. This is a little like finding a typewriter in a garage sale. If you have a good camera and eye for photography, start right away.

From http://www.20x200.com.


Collocation No. 14 (NATURE) Left Panel
by Mickey Smith ARTIST STATEMENT
Volume documents bound periodicals and journals in public libraries. Most of these publications are being replaced by their online counterparts. Several titles photographed in the process of this project have been destroyed. Searching endless rows of utilitarian text, I am struck by the physical mass of knowledge and the tenuousness of printed work as it fades from public consciousness.

The act of hunting for and photographing these objects is fundamental to my process. I do not touch, light or manipulate the books and words—preferring to document them as found in the stacks, created by the librarian and positioned by the last unknown reader. I focus on simple, provocative titles that transcend the spines on which they appear to create conceptual, language-based, anthropological works.

Recent works in this series are multiple panel installations, called Collocations. Collocation is defined as "the act or result of placing or arranging together, specifically: a noticeable arrangement or conjoining of linguistic elements (as words)."

Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love, Ed. by Trisha Telep

Teens will be drawn to the goregous cover art and the tales contained therein. What's happening though in YA is very exciting because there's a lot of crossover. Adults are reading YA and YA is reading adult.

Vanishing of Katharina Linden

In Helen Grant's debut novel a precocious narrator, Pia Kolvenbach, ponders the strange disappearances of several children in post World War II Germany. Pia has more than most ten year old's share of problems.

Her grandmother dies in a freak accident, her parents argue, her classmates tease her, and the medieval town is divided against itself. Most of the town is quite willing to believe idle gossip--that Herr Dussel has been kidnapping several young girls. Her only friend, Stefan, wants her to investigate the disappearances.

Grant lived in Germany for six years and she brings a unique perspective--that of an English woman writing about a German town. Notably Pia is half-English. To Pia's dismay her mother wants to take Pia back to Middlesex, England to discover the "English" side of herself.

Despite being ostracized in school, Pia wants to stay in Germany to find out what happened to the missing girls. Ghost stories and fables, mostly unique to Bad Munstereifel, act as a backdrop to the main story. Pia's elderly friend and town historian, Herr Schiller, keeps her well stocked with spine-chilling stories. Pia and Stefan feel compelled to investigate any connection between the town's ghostly tales and the missing girls.

This is a first-rate debut by an author who is worth watching.

For more information about Helen Grant, www.helengrantbooks.com

Ghost story competition

Here's a ghost story competition that I found on Helen Grant's blog.

Ghost story competition
As I've mentioned before, I'm a great fan of the classic English ghost story writer Montague Rhodes James, and a contributor to the Ghosts & Scholars M.R.James Newsletter, which is all about MRJ and his contemporaries. I recently received issue 20 of the Newsletter and I was very excited to see that it includes details of a new competition, so I thought I'd post them here too!


Editor Rosemary Pardoe writes:
"Following the very satisfying level of interest in the 'Merfield Hall' and 'Game of Bear' story competitions, I'd been considering the possibility of a third competition when Dan McGachey came up with the suggestion that writers might like to produce sequels to MRJ's completed tales. All the people I've sounded out about this agree with me that it's a fine idea, but I want to extend it to include prequels too. Of course there have already been examples of sequels - David Sutton's 'Return to the Runes' in the second issue of G&S for instance - but there are still plenty of possibilities. What happened to the 'satyr' (or 'satyrs') after the end of 'An episode of Cathedral History'? Are the lanes of Islington still frequented by whatever it was that Dr. Abell encountered in 'Two Doctors'? What is left of the residue of the atrocities in 'An Evening's Entertainment'; and do Count Magnus and his little friend still lurk at a certain crossroads in Essex? As for prequels, I for one would like to know what sort of treasure Canon Alberic found, how it was guarded, and the details of his death in bed of a sudden seizure. And what exactly was James Wilson's belief system, which prompted him to have his ashes placed in the globe in the centre of Mr. Humphrey's maze: what is the significance of the figures on the globe - was Wilson a member of a Gnostic sect? Need I go on? I'm sure you can think of many more mysteries and questions that demand to be solved and answered.
I must emphasise that any competition entry which is just a revamp or parody of the plot of the chosen story is unlikely to be placed very highly. I'm looking for something more original than that. There is no necessity to confine yourself to Jamesian pastiche or to attempt to write in the James style. But there are no other rules aside from the usual ones: I will not look kindly on entries which have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere; the word count is entirely up to you (within reason!); and you can send your manuscript either in hard-copy or preferably as a Word (pre-Vista) or Rich Text file on e-mail attachment or CD-Rom*. The competition is open to everyone, not just Newsletter readers.
The winning story will be published in the first Newsletter of 2012, and there will be a £40 prize for the author, along with a one-year subscription or extension. If I receive enough good, publishable entries, Robert Morgan of Sarob Press has expressed considerable interest in producing a hardback book containing all the best ones (to be edited and introduced by me). This is exciting news, but it's up to you to make it happen. If there are not enough quality stories to fill a book, then the best runners-up will appear in the Newsletter (and receive a one-year sub extension) as with previous competitions.
The competition deadline is December 31st, 2011."


*Mailed entries to: Rosemary Pardoe, Flat One, 36 Hamilton Street, Hoole, Chester CH2 3JQ, UK.
e-mailed entries to: pardos@globalnet.co.uk


If you are already familiar with the stories of M.R.James then hopefully by now you are rubbing your hands! If not, and you'd like to enter the competition, you need to lay hands on a copy of his Collected Ghost Stories. Many of them are available online too but personally I'd buy a copy to read and re-read (I'm on my third copy, the other two having fallen to pieces).


Do consider subscribing to the Newsletter too if you are interested in classic ghost stories - it's not expensive. It contains all sorts of interesting bits and pieces including previously unpublished work by the great M.R.James himself, news of related books, film adaptations etc and sometimes descriptions of visits to the scenes of his stories (I have contributed a number of those myself).
Details are here: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/BackIssue.html#anchor23566

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

Jacob Portman is a well-to-do teen who is traumatized when he witnesses his grandfather die. Jacob is convinced his grandfather's dying words are portents rather than an old man's ramblings or dementia.

Most intriguing of all, however, are the bizarre photographs of apparently real people that illustrate the book. Ransom Riggs, a film maker who also writes photo essays for magazines, inserts photographs of people doing unusal things e.g. levitating in the air or creating balls of fire.

The photographs become part of the fictional world Riggs creates in Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children. Jacob assumes the photographs his grandfather shows him are fake, as most people would. He concludes that his Grandfather's stories of a war-time escape and a home for peculiar children are fairy tales.

After watching his Grandfather die, however, Jacob begins having nightmares and even believes that he can see monsters. Are his Grandfather's stories true? Jacob travels to Wales with his father to find out and that is only the beginning of his adventures.

Ransom Rigg's first novel is a gothic coming-of-age like no other. The otherwordly setting--a dilapidated house on an isolated Welsh island, time loops, and a school for mysterious students--will immediately capture a reader's interest. Marketed for young adults, this novel also will also appeal to adults who are intrigued by supernatural mysteries.

Review by Chantal Walvoord

Scrappy Startups by Melanie Keveles

Scrappy Startups: How 15 Ordinary Women Turned Their Unique Ideas Into Profitable Businesses.

Melanie Keveles profiles fifteen women who started their own businesses from scratch. Nancy Gruver started a media company, New Moon, that lets tween girls write articles for girls in their age group. Bev Halisky started a driving service for the elderly because she saw a need. Many seniors had no one to drive them to their doctor's appointments. Halisky's Canadian-based business has generated several franchises.

Possibly the most impressive business, however, is the one started in a war zone. Sarah Chayes, a journalist for National Public Radio, started an Arghand Cooperative in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Hoping to spur economic development in the area, Sarah started a high-end soap company. She uses native agriculture e.g. pomegranate seeds and pistachios to create natural soaps and then exports them as luxury products. Though Sarah's business is successful, it is also a personal mission.

Scrappy Startups is full of wonderful businesses started by women who did not necesarily have a business background. Many of these businesses were started by women who saw a social need e.g. Cherry Brook Kitchen, 29 Gifts, Eco-Me, Arghand Cooperative. Questions at the end of each chapter may help budding entrepreneurs realize their business dreams.

The Blind Contessa's New Machine

The Blind Contessa's New Machine
Is this novel really about the machine as the title suggests? Since the machine, a typewriter, is what allows the blind Contessa to communicate with her lover its obviously pretty important.

But frustratingly, the novel doesn't tell us (or maybe its not meant to) what Pellegrini Turri's last letter relays. The Countess leaves his last missive on the bed even though a girl offers to read it to

her. We also don't know how much Antonio knows when he burns the typewriter. Typewriters at this time were apparently made almost entirely out of wood, except for the "type" plates.

The ending and the setting instantly remind me of a Henry Jamesian novel. The reader is left in the "dark" on purpose. What we don't know about characters is just as important as what we do know.

The novel does make me eager to learn the Carolina Fantoni and Pellegrini Turri's history. It leaves readers with a delightful scent of lemons, winding rivers, and fanciful dreams. Though Carolina's fate is tragic the novel also leaves readers with a new appreciation for the lengths someone will go through to find a chance of happiness.

Becasue there are so many open ended questions, this novel would make a wonderful book club selection.

Out Stealing Horses

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.

Out Stealing Horses is a novel that immediately grabs hold of readers's attention. I was hooked from the moment Petterson describes Trond's friend, Jon:

Jon came often to our door, at all hours, wanting me to go out with him: shooting hares, walking through the forest in the pale moonlight...balancing on yellow logs...it was risky... He never knocked, just came quietly up the path from the river...Even in the morning early when I was still asleep, I might feel a restlessness far into my dream...He smiled his little smiled and squinted...'Are you coming?' he said. 'We're going out stealing horses.'

The phrase "out stealing horses," has a double meaning, one for the son and quite a different one for the father. Stealth is an important element in the novel, though there's no actual stealing: the boys never intend to take Barkald's horses.

The point-of-view, expertly executed by Petterson, moves back and forth in time. Readers see Trond as a fifteen-year-old, enjoying his last summer of  innocence, and Trond as a sixty-seven year-old man vexed with a neighbor that could be his doppelganger.

Though Trond would rather not revisit his past, the summer he played "out stealing horses" comes back to him in his older years and in his dreams. As a teenager, Trond is blissfully unaware of  anything beyond the beauty of the woods and the game he plays with his friend, Jon. Two unrelated accidents, a shooting and a fall, soon set a whole different series of events in motion that are as irreversible as the stacked timber that  falls in the Glomma river.

Trond's father is not the man Trond thinks him to be--not the man he trusts and admires. The pair, Trond and his father, have been staying in a rented cabin in the furthermost reaches of Norway. Though their time cutting trees bonds father and son together; sadly, it is also a precursor to betrayal. Petterson won one of the highest literary awards, the Dublin IMPAC award, for this evocative novel.



Review by Chantal Walvoord

David Mitchell's Black Swan Green

Jason Taylor is a “middle-ranking” boy who watches his position in the school yard fall perilously into “leper” status, before bobbing back to “middle-rank.” Jason is comfortable exploring the woods outside his home, yet finds himself at odds with his mother, father, and know-it-all sister. Jason doesn’t realize the vanity of labels or name-calling until close to the end of the novel, when he triumphs over local bullies and overcomes his strange fixation with cruel Dawn Madden. As usual Mitchell employs innovative narrative techniques. Jason Taylor hears voices in his head, “Unborn Twin” and “Maggot,” that speak up at various times in the novel. Hangman, the personification of his speech impediment, also takes control of the exasperated Jason at humorously inappropriate times.

David Mitchell might become popular again now that a movie version of Cloud Atlas is forthcoming.