A Sense of Wonder (book review)

A Sense of Wonder (book review)

Milking cows and dad music…

 

 

Book review:

A Sense of Wonder:

The World’s Best Writers

on the Sacred, the Profane, & the Ordinary

 

Edited by Brian James Patrick Doyle (1956-2017)

Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016

192 pages

 

If Brian Doyle thinks you’re a good writer, ‘nuff said.

Most likely you’ll recognize at least a few names among Doyle’s collection of “the world’s best writers.”

In A Sense of Wonder, you can go straight to Mary Oliver (“Do You Think There Is Anything Not Attached by Its Unbreakable Cord to Everything Else”), or Pico Iyer (“A Chapel Is Where You Can Hear Something Beating Below Your Heart: I Came to the Chapel at the University as the Light Was Failing…”), or Paul Hawken (“Healing or Stealing? The Best Commencement Address Ever”), or, of course, Doyle himself (“The Late Mister Bin Laden: A Note”).

I especially like Connor Doe’s “Perfect Time: A Note on the Music of Being a Dad,” and if you’re not a dad, and you read it, you’ll start wishing right away that you could be one.

My choice for best “feel good” selection is
“An Elevator in Utah: On How Children Make Despair Look Stupid.”
Reading it creates the strangest urge to learn how to milk cows.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Shantung Compound

They didn’t care much

   about each other…

by Langdon Gilkey

click here

 

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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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“…turn the unspeakable into words…”

 

 

Book review:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

 

by Anne Lamott

New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1994

239 pages

 

I prefer to think of Anne Lamott’s free-spirited commentary on writing as “some encouragement” and “some guidance.”

If you want to be a writer and don’t have a clue about how or why you want it, I guess that reading Bird by Bird may be entertaining but I think probably it won’t give you the mojo.

Lamott is talking to fellow writers when she’s probing the yin and the yang of the whole messy, oh so personal business of committing the right words to paper. Her tidbits about life will be mostly familiar to just about anybody, and sometimes they seem like they originated in post-it notes on her fabulous collection of index cards that she uses to jot down those special words and insights and dream talking.

Bird by Bird seems to be an appealing excuse to feel good about the tribulations and the ecstasies of writing, and all the stuff that happens in between. It’s a gossipy, comfortable walk through Lamott’s life of writing. She mentions this: “John Gardner wrote that the writer is creating a dream into which he or she invites the reader, and that the dream must be vivid and continuous.”

Her passion for writing is mostly obvious, and motivational if you’re inclined to be motivated.

I think this line is as good a summary as the reader can hope for: “…the writer’s job is to see what’s behind [the closed door], to see the bleak unspeakable stuff, and to turn the unspeakable into words—not just into any words but if we can, into rhythm and blues.”

Did you hear the drum riff?

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

“…and dipped in folly…”

only Poe knows how to say it…

click here

 

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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Heart of Darkness…book review

Heart of Darkness…book review

soul talking…

 

 

Book review:

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Edinburgh, Scotland: William Blackwood and Sons, 1902

 

Recently I re-read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It’s short, quite readable, and sombre, of course.

You may think you know the story because you saw Apocalypse Now. The book is more exploratory. It has more of humanity in it.

The protagonist Marlowe (picture Mickey Rourke in a Panama hat) dives pretty deep into the abyss of human nature…

Give the book a shot if you’re not looking for light reading.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Forced Founders

by Woody Holton

The so-called “Founding Fathers”

weren’t the only ones

who helped to shape our independence…

click here

 

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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“…a siren’s song…”…a new book, my poem

“…a siren’s song…”…a new book, my poem

the soprano’s tear-stained kyrie

 

 

Symphony

 

A new book

   somehow sings a siren’s song,

a symphony of words

   that make a new tune,

such delight to open any page,

and hear the mezzo’s lilt,

the soprano’s tear-stained kyrie,

and nod as the basso

   closes a chapter

      with words worth repeating,

and let the chorus turn you

   to another page,

for more words

   that suddenly are not strangers,

such old words

   that make a new song.

 

May 30, 2023

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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

“Boil up” and other good manners…

The “Hobo Ethical Code” is worth a quick read.

click here

In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 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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Scaramouche…boy gets girl…book review

Scaramouche…boy gets girl…book review

the good old way…

 

 

Book review:

Scaramouche

 

Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950)

New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1921

392 pages

 

These people talk to each other. It’s face-to-face communications. They pay attention to body language and what you do with your face.

Scaramouche ends the way you think it’s going to end: boy gets girl.

But there’s a lot of road to travel before we get to that ending—I think there’s only one reference to a heaving bosom—there is fastidious bad language, and lots of casual use of Latin—there’s a lot of hand kissing, which is something we could do more of these days.

Sabatini was a prolific writer and he wrote this romance novel the way it should be written. The reader gets an eyeful and an earful and a heartful of genuine romance, with all the words that make it work.

It’s still possible to make love in the good old way they did it in the 18th century. Read all about it.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

The Scarlet Letter, victim of Hollywood

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s version is best

click here

 

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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She, a great lady…book review

She, a great lady…book review

“She Who Must Be Obeyed”

 

 

Book review:

She

 

by H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925)

New York: Books, Inc., 1930

first published 1887

384 pages

 

She is an adventure story that Indiana Jones never imagined.

Most of the action is in an unknowable part of Africa. The protagonist is a 2,000-year-old lady—“She Who Must Be Obeyed”—who is beautiful beyond understanding, all too aware of her great powers, and indefatigably committed to getting what she wants.

She is not a very lovable character, but every man who sees her falls in love with her.

Haggard has created ripe ritual, grand history, a fantastic walkabout, and dabbles of credibility in this incredibly enticing story.

If you even suspect that you might get bored while reading She, you’ve got another think coming.

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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2024 All rights reserved.

 

Book review: Ethan Frome

not being satisfied with less…

by Edith Wharton

click here

 –

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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