by Richard Subber | Dec 24, 2023 | American history, Book reviews, Books, History
strange men are shooting…
Book review:
The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
From June 15 to July 15, 1863
by Pennsylvania Lady of Gettysburg
Ithaca, NY: The Cornell University Library Digital Collections, 2023
29 pages
There is not much fireworks in The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Rather, this largely muted account of a civilian lady in Gettysburg during the famous battle is a compelling tribute to the civilians and combatants who unhappily endured the terrible fighting and killing that could have effectively ended the American Civil War, but didn’t.
A devastating insight into the civilians’ stress and suffering is this: during most of the battle, they really didn’t know very much about what was going on. The civilians who stayed in the town (most of them) repeatedly hunkered down in their cellars and waited until the artillery bombardments ceased. The civilians repeatedly talked with both Union and Confederate soldiers who were in or moving through the town. The civilians, in the main, tried to care for the wounded men of both sides who happened to be nearby.
The battle of Gettysburg was terrifying for the civilian residents of the town, and, luckily for them, it didn’t last too long.
Try to imagine hiding in your house for four or five days, desperately wondering what’s going on, while strange men are walking and running through the streets, shooting at everything, and cannon balls are hitting buildings every so often.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Sea Runners
…it informs, it does not soar…
by Ivan Doig
Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Dec 21, 2023 | Human Nature, Tidbits
folly and stuff…
“Answer not a fool according to his folly”
Proverbs 26:4, King James Version
Don’t always say what you’re thinking…
…think about what you’re saying.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Proud Tower
…a lot more than a history book…
by Barbara Tuchman
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Dec 19, 2023 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
I’m waiting…
Upon a time
For now time is my world.
My world of things exists in time,
my world of places gives the things a spot,
allotted time gives up
the passing lifetime things renew,
to keep a place
in pace with me.
I know not how to stop nor when nor where,
nor do I care to know.
I conjure places, hold a thing,
and snatch the time for it to be.
They all belong to me when I’m alone.
But soon each place
will bear your stance and mine,
we’ll share our hoarded time.
We’ve cached secure in clouds a thing called love
and, then, two smiles will burn the clouds away.
November 18, 1967
Bethlehem, PA
For my dearest one
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
Book review: Ethan Frome
not being satisfied with less…
by Edith Wharton
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Seeing far: Selected poems with 47 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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Here’s what you’ll find on my website:
my poetry in free verse and 5-7-5 haiku format—nature poems, love poems, poems about grandchildren, and poems for reading aloud—written in a way that invites you to know, as precisely as possible, what’s going on in my mind and in my imagination;
thoughtful book reviews that offer an exceptional critique of the book instead of a simple book summary;
my reflections on the words, art, and wisdom of famous and not-so-famous people, and occasional comments on human nature, and
luscious examples of my love affair with words.
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by Richard Subber | Dec 16, 2023 | Book reviews, Books, Joys of reading, Language
…think “Larry McMurtry”
Book review:
The View from the Cheap Seats
by Neil Gaiman (b1960)
New York: William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2016
522 pages
I realize it’s a bit outré to mention that I recently “discovered” the very satisfying writing style of Neil Gaiman.
Gaiman writes with panache about Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling’s horror (!) stories, Dracula, and more.
I’ve read The View from the Cheap Seats and loved it!
The “Four Bookshops” piece is rare earth for me. Reading Gaiman is giving me flavor and overtones of reading Larry McMurtry (viz., Literary Life: A Second Memoir).
Gaiman recounts this anecdote:
“Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. ‘If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” (15)
Gaiman also says “There’s a brotherhood of people who read and who care about books.” (29) He’s one of those folks, and so am I.
….viz., Fahrenheit 451
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
“…and dipped in folly…”
only Poe knows how to say it…
My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 53 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Dec 14, 2023 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
not much to talk about
torpor
the fen is shrouded,
fogged, under a wan sky,
green huddled among the brown,
token of a pallid day,
subdued, stilled, mute…
October 11, 2022
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2023 All rights reserved.
The Liberty Bell, a book review
Historian Gary Nash tells it all
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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