Fair Game by Valerie Plame Wilson & Courage For The Earth edited by Peter Matthiessen

Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government

This was a surprisingly quick and easy read, made even quicker by the large swaths of blacked-out writing representing the text the CIA would not let Plame put into print in her own name. The afterword by Laura Rozen contains all the information blacked-out of Plame’s account, and demonstrates that it was all in the public domain. Plame is just telling a (more personable) side of the story which everyone already knows.

It is rather disturbing to think the Office of the President would blame a faulty military strategy on the “failure” of the intelligence community in general. How is that supposed to reassure the American people? Well, the President’s plan didn’t work, but that was nobody knew what they were talking about. ? It’s disturbing that this is the plan they came up with, and it’s even more disturbing how they tried to silence their detractors by actively undermining agents in the field and therefore the intelligence community itself. What part of the system did they not understand? Or, more likely, what part of the system did they think they were so powerful that they didn’t even need anymore?

I wish I could say I was surprised much by the government fiasco in general, but, not really. Those in charge, those few with power, often twist and distort things until it matches up with their version of reality. Which brings us to:

Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson

This is a brilliant collection of essays and excerpts on one of the most important writers of literature of the 20th century. She is most famous for Silent Spring, which brought into public awareness the origins, dangers, and careless wide-spread use of pesticides, and which prompted brutal and personal attacks on her from all sides of government, industry, and the scientific community. The facts of the matter vindicated her and her firm resolve to make a stand, and thankfully the facts did come out before her death by cancer two years after Silent Spring was published.

But she was even more than the author of Silent Spring. She was one of the writers who made science accessible to the average person, who made it interesting and relevant. Her trilogy on ocean life (Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, and The Edge of the Sea) were incredibly popular. She was a talented writer who refused to think of science as something in a little box on the shelf to be taken down and used during experiments. Science was part of our everyday life.

She said that “the aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.”

She also refused to think of spirituality as something in a little box on the shelf to be taken down and used during church. She saw no need for science or modern life to be sterile and mechanical.

“The winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities. If they are not there, science cannot create them. If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it in there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”

The essays in this collection show her influence on the world, person by person. Today many people who do not even know the name Rachel Carson believe in what she stood for and have taken her message to heart. She helped make the nation (and the world) aware of us all “as a very tiny part of a vast and incredible universe, a universe that is distinguished above all else by a mysterious and wonderful unity that we flout at our peril.” But she knew it wouldn’t be that simple, and, after all these years, we are still not fully awake. Oh, reading this book was very emotional for me. Many of her warnings- many of her scientifically documented cases of the poisons in our air, water, food, and environment- have been pushed aside, swept under the rug, covered up by those who don’t want to hear it, those who don’t want us to think about it, because they make too much money from the way things are. Try to go through the day without ingesting bleach, plastic, or pharmaceuticals. It should be easy, right? And yet, no. We are doing it everyday, and we aren’t even aware of the fact. It is hardly safe or sane to continue on this path. So why are we still on it, after almost 50 years?

If there is any hope for us at all, it may well come from a wish Rachel Carson made for the world herself,

that every child in the world have “a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”

I, too, wish that we reconnect with the real, living world around us, and see through our illusions of independent power and grandeur, and be made whole again by the very world we have demeaned and seem hell-bent on destroying. Let us understand what our everyday choices mean, let us choose our future more carefully. Let us have courage for the earth.

_{There is a whole trove of other books mentioned in this book that I need to go find now. And I want to reread her work again as well.}

right now I am reading

Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life

and

Courage for the Earth

don’t you like how the titles go together?

brief mentions of relatively recent reads, and commentary on A Short, Sharp Shock by Kim Stanley Robinson

brief mentions of relatively recent reads, and commentary on A Short, Sharp Shock by Kim Stanley Robinson. 6 days ago

Let’s see… I know I’ve read Eragon, Cloud’s Rider by C.J. Cherryh, and oh yes The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram (5 stars! and a longer review later, probably after discussion with Kalibebti, who is reading it now). Eragon is great writing for a fifteen year old. Cloud’s Rider (sequel to Rider at the Gate) is interesting and compelling… if you can get past the set-up of the story, which drove me crazy.

me: “What? Don’t do that! You know what will happen if you do that! Oh well…”

That kills me.


That is why I can’t watch horror movies.

me: No, DON’T go investigate that growling sound outside your window on the full moon, carrying nothing but a plastic flashlight and/or a fly swatter. Hello??? Recent slayings in the neighborhood???”

But the rest of the story is so good… I think I’d give it a 3.5.

I finished A Short, Sharp Shock by Kim Stanley Robinson last night, and I have to wonder… Is it like The Wizard of Oz, full of symbolic political and social commentary (that I didn’t pick up on)? Is it a side story from another novel of his (that I haven’t read yet), that he explores more fully here? Or what?

It reminds me of a certain French movie I saw (I’m drawing a blank on the title) where some sort of apocalytpic collapse of civilization had occurred (you never find out what), and the main characters spend the entire movie trying to get to a safe place, interacting with other people as they come across them, and then the movie just ends, with absolutely nothing resolved and no one the wiser. Only, the movie was set in France. ;)

If it is a comment on the absurdity of life, I have to say I much prefer The Trial. That was just as bizarre in many respects, and yet I enjoyed it greatly. This book, I have no idea why anybody did anything that they did (except when Thel and co tried to reunite or escape murderous foes). SSS seemed very formulaic and convenient; the antagonists did what they did because it was what the author wanted them to do. I have to say I don’t think I cared for it very much at all. So, maybe I am missing something?

I really loved his Mars trilogy (4-5), which was very different, but I wasn’t expecting anything like that in this little book. Still, I wasn’t expecting what I read, either.

As my understanding of it is right now, I would give A Short, Sharp Shock two stars. and I haven’t rated anything that low since The Life of Pi.

:\

the allure of Cherryh's Assassins

those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, god bless you. those of you who do know what I’m talking about, god bless you.

I am quite taken with C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series, space opera though it may be, for several reasons. one is the main character, Bren, who is an ENFJ and therefore very similar to me sometimes. so is his situation, at least symbolically. but one very important reason is the Assassin’s Guild.

and WHY, you ask, WHY?

part of it is the alien other. but, after struggling to define it, I came across a passage I had marked wherein Bren explains why the assassins fascinate him, and it’s perfect. Bren and I do have a lot in common.

I just feel like quoting it today:

There seemed a quality to people the Assassin’s Guild let in and licensed. He didn’t know what they had in common, except perhaps an integrity that touched chords in his shades -of -gray soul, a feeling, maybe, that one could do things that rattled one’s conscience to the walls and foundations and still – still own a sense of equilibrium.

Banichi was going to teach him about doors. It wasn’t what he wanted to learn from Banichi. What he wanted to understand was something far more basic. Invader, 388

there are other books I’ve read since my last entry, btw, I just haven’t logged them in yet. I’m sooo behind.

The Far Side of the World, by Patrick O'Brian: 5 stars

I have grown to realize that everything I am reading these days just gets sucked down immediately under the surface of my being, down into the bubbly depths, to be more fully digested and understood. My reading appetite is insatiable whereas I find any thoughts I have on what I’ve just read rather unformed, even though I’ve finished reading it.

I have decided to blame it on the changing of the seasons. Now that the harvest is over, it might be a long winter before I start writing anything much useful in the spring.

Treason's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian: 5 stars

finished this one last night.

started the next in the series, The Far Side Of The World, this afternoon.

_{I’ve decided not to review or try and summarize the books in this series the first time around. but they are AWESOME}

About Love by Robert Solomon (5 stars)

it has taken me over a month to read this book. why? every page, every half-page, every sentence of this book made me stop and think. and no, I wasn’t looking up all the words to see what he meant- the language is precise and candid. none of the puritanical jargon one expects from academia although he does mention phenomenology , and none of the oversimplified patter often offered up by relationship gurus or other love pundits, either. just a clear, sane voice, illuminating love in a way that reveals both new things and things you already knew but took for granted. and, by illuminating love, it illuminated everything from conversations I’ve had to whole portions of my life in a new light.

it is a fabulous read. a life-improving read, no doubt.

I am not sure I can sum it up nicely… the book builds from the first page to the very end, and there are so many important details. I will try maybe quoting bits and pieces, to just give you a brief, kaleidoscope idea of it all. although looking at all the poor pages I dogeared for that purpose, I doubt I can quote from all of them.

oh, and yes, I must point out, this book is on romantic love. he does briefly contrast it against other types of love, but he focuses on what romantic love is and how/why it works.

...[L]ove is not a mysterious “union” of two otherwise separate and isolated selves but rather a special instance of the mutually-defined creation of selves. Who and how we love ultimately determines what we are. (24)

We too easily tend to conclude that great feeling constitutes love, and the greater the feeling, even if incapacitating, the greater the love. But this is dangerous nonsense. Feelings follow, they do not lead the psyche. They are the body’s attempt to keep up with the mind and its intentions. Feelings are not the whole nor even the measure of love. (81)

Perhaps this is also the place to say something about the familiar query, whether it is better to love or be loved. My answer, very quickly, is that to be loved is not an emotion or an experience at all. Without loving, it is at best a compliment or a convenience, often an unwanted obligation, and at worst a burden or a curse. It is loving that counts, and then being loved is the most important thing in the world. (85)

It is tragic and absurd that our idealized storybook romance should be so different and so detached from the real story of love and our conception of love should, consequently, be so divided into two wholly separate parts, one romantic and exciting but unrealistic and the other a dull tale of domesticity and endurance, devoid of the excitement that many of us now insist upon to make life worthwhile… The romantic story is all about the thrill of newfound love, but it is so filled with suspense and excitement or pathos that it cannot bear the weight of the future. “Forever” is thus an evasion of time rather than a celebration of it. The infinitely less romantic part of the story is about the formation and working out of a partnership, legally defined as such by marriage. It is a topic fit for accountants, advisers and counselors, in which the market virtues of honest and fair exchange and the business skills of negotiation and compromise are of great value… In other words, first there is the thrill, then there is the coping. (100-1)

Fantasy is an extension, an embellishment, an enrichment of reality, not an alternative to it. Fantasy should be opposed only to that dull, practical planning that is too often rationalized as “realism.” Love, like music, lives in the imagination, but it is no less real for that. (163)

The essential thing to remember is that it is the identity itself that is crucial to love and its lasting and not one or two of the dimensions that may contribute to it. Sex may hold love together for a certain period but then get superseded by less passionate shared experiences and roles which nevertheless bind love with no less success, and it is tragic that we should so often confine our definitions of love to sexual passion and ignore the fact that the bond of love may be equally served by any number of shared and reciprocal activities and attitudes. (238)

We have said a great deal about the creation of self, but the simplest formula for self-creation is that, insofar as we create ourselves, we do so by caring… Life has meaning not because of what we have or what we know or what we are “in ourselves” but because we care about something. (260-1)

Intimacy is an experience of mutual availability. It is not just openness of expression but an openness of the self to share and to change. (278)

The need to rethink the rules of love and reinvent love for ourselves is in fact one of the most powerful inspirations of love. Love thrives by being thought about; it is not just a feeling that goes on its way whether we pay attention to it or not. .... Love must be reinvented, but it is being so right now, by all of us, two at a time. (349)

I am sad all over again that I never got to meet him. I had the chance but as usual didn’t realize how short time is for us. I wish he were still in the world; it needs people like him, I think.

ब्रेइफ्ली

The Pursuit of Loneliness 8/15-8/24
The Ionian Mission 8/25-8/30
The Vulnerable Observer8/31-9/02
Weapons of Choice 9/03-9/06

started Kinship and Gender on 9/07

I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers, by Tim Madigan. 3-1/2 stars.

Madigan shares some of the most trying times of his life and his most difficult hurdles to overcome, and celebrates the friend who was there with him through it all: Fred Rogers. unlikely as it seemed to him, a newspaper reporter who had never watched the Mister Rogers children’s show but who was sent to interview the icon, Tim and Fred bonded almost instantly and remained very close until Fred’s death in 2003. by honestly and openly telling of his marital problems, difficulties with his father, minor setbacks, the slow death of his brother to cancer- and how it affected him and how he, with Rogers as his mentor, made it through them all a better person, he touches on the deep common humanity in us all and gives us hope.

and in this way he continues the work of Fred Rogers. as one reviewer put it: Fred Rogers inspired people because he saw the good in them; he challenged people because he wanted them to see the good in themselves. even just reading about Rogers’ friendship with Madigan reinforces the idea that there is good in you, and that at least one someone out there somewhere knows that, and will believe in you no matter what happens.

the style is straightforward prose, much like one would expect from a newspaper article, but the story is moving and revealing as well.

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists, type them up in my reading journal, and catalog them with LibraryThing

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson: 5 stars

Housekeeping was a very haunting book. Gilead certainly seems haunting at times, and Robinson’s main character is leaving this life, which lends palpably to its ethereal quality. but Gilead seems more revealing and mature somehow, and, whereas I lent my copy of Housekeeping back out to the world, I’m keeping Gilead for a reread or two, right here on my shelf.

John Ames is a preacher who married young, but lost his wife and child young too. he remarried very late in life, and now he is 80 years old and dying, with a 7 year old son. this book is written as if a letter to that son, who otherwise will never know his father.

it tells about his [John Ames’] childhood, and his father the pacifist (who was also a preacher), his grandfather the radical abolitionist (who was a preacher as well), and his best friend (you guessed it- also a preacher)’s son, who was named John Ames in his honor and grew up to break the hearts of all who loved him. three wars are encompassed in this tale, as well as the Great Depression, the advent of television, and the ending of a way of life.

John Ames’ reflection on all of this, his personal struggles with all of this, and his all-encompassing joy and love of life, even with its terrible sufferings and inexplicable turnings, is highly original and ultimately universal at the same time.

Gilead is earthier and more hopeful really than Housekeeping, with greater insight (if possible), and evokes shades of Faulkner while written in that resounding poetic bliss that is Robinson’s style.

I have so many pages marked for quotes that I cannot possibly type them all out here, but opening the book randomly to one of those pages, this is what I will share:

In every important way we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable- which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, untransversable, and utterly vast spaces between us. (page 198)

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists, type them up in my reading journal, and catalog them with LibraryThing

The Surgeon's Mate, by Patrick O'Brian: 5 stars

this is a novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series, which just gets better and better. I am trying so hard not to read them all in a row, as I can only read them for the first time once, and I will have the rest of my life to reread them in a row if I wish (and I bet I could do that forever). I’m trying to make the excitable tension of wondering what comes next last as long as possible, and O’Brian never fails me.

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists, type them up in my reading journal, and catalog them with LibraryThing

since last entry I have read Watership Down, The Surgeon's Mate, Gilead, and I'm Proud of You.

Watership Down: 5 stars

honestly, I put off reading this for a long time. not outright, but I always had other books higher in the to-read pile. that and somebody once told me that they had to read it for school and absolutely hated it; but there is no way they were talking about this book. and I wonder how much attention they were paying in school, as I went back and asked someone else in the class, and they said the book they had read was Animal Farm!

I did not know what the book was about, except that it had to do with rabbits, and perhaps a boat. there is a boat, of sorts I guess, but that’s not where the “Ship” in the title comes from. for moon-calf Americans like myself, I will explain that Watership Down is a place name. it’s a hill.

so the book is about rabbits on a hill? well, yes, but no, of course not. honestly this is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I immediately went out and ordered it in hardcover as I know I will be rereading it at least once every two years for the rest of my life. that’s how amazing it is. so, no, not just rabbits on a hill.

and the rabbits are not Disney rabbits, or Lewis Carrol rabbits, wearing waistcoats and top hats or helping a princess with the household chores. Adams, with fantastic storytelling, weaves you into the world of real rabbits in a delightful, astonishing, and sometimes quite harrowing way. oh, if you only know rabbits to be fluffy little poopsies, you can think again. and you might not feel so comfortable wearing bunny slippers after this, either!

this book is an adventure unlike anything I was expecting. I was laughing; I was on the edge of the bed with my eyes wide open; I was even crying, and it takes one hell of a story to make me cry. I was practically blissful at the end of the book, even though it was over.

yay, Watership Down :D

I'd give it 7 stars, but my rating system only goes up to 5.

The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D.

_{and “happiness” doesn’t mean a cheerful facade or mindless puppylike feelings. it means real happiness; joy.}
.

the site

In this book, a typical western psychiatrist (Cutler) comes to understand the philosophy of the Dalai Lama, through a series of personal meetings with, and by attending teachings and lectures of, the Dalai Lama over the years. he doesn’t become a Buddhist or change any religious views as far as I can tell, but then again the Dalai Lama is committed to religious toleration and the working together of people of all faiths.

Cutler was trained in the Hobbesian tradition so pervasive in western society, which basically states that the nature of a human being is like that of a cornered wild animal: hateful, fearful, and vicious. We are miserable, guilty wretches. Self hatred is rampant and inborn, and you have to accept your anger and fear and misery and just try and make it less unbearable. Until the very recent movement of Positive Psychology in 2000, this was basically what most psychologists and psychiatrists were taught. Of course there are exceptions (this is a very broad picture I paint), but this is the underlying theme of most of western thought.

the Dalai Lama, on the other hand, obviously comes from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition: where it is a given that the nature of a human being is good and kind, and that suffering, in terms of how you deal with the circumstances you have, can be completely eliminated through awareness of the situation and changing of negative patterns of thought/cultivating positive patterns of thought. the Dalai Lama himself had never heard of self hatred at all, and wondered if he had understood the concept correctly because it was antithetical to anything he’d ever experienced.

so it was interesting to see Cutler start to come around. of course he was curious about the philosophy in the first place, and rather open, but he still had his reservations and wanted to be convinced.

the Dalai Lama comes across as a very warm and open person, very honest and self-assured yet not afraid to admit his faults. this is so refreshing. (and inspiring, personally.) the basic philosophy (towards attaining happiness and living a happy life) is simple, pragmatic, and powerful. the book takes special care with how to apply the philosophy to real life, regardless of your religious preferences, and also to show how this eastern philosophy is being supported more and more by western medical and scientific studies (even as the more traditional theories based on mechanistic or hydraulic views of the self are overturned).

The art of happiness has many components. As we’ve seen, it begins with developing an understanding of the truest sources of happiness and setting our priorities in life based on the cultivation of those sources. It involves an inner discipline, a gradual process of rooting out destructive mental states and replacing them with positive, constructive states of mind, such as kindness, tolerance, and forgiveness. In identifying the factors that lead to a full and satisfying life, we conclude with a discussion of the final component: spirituality. (293)

The Art of Happiness has strains in common with some of the books on Toltec tradition (Carlos Castaneda’s books and The Four Agreements), especially on seeing your enemies positively as opportunities for personal growth. (I am not really surprised, as such ideas might be much more common in non western philosophies in general; I don’t know.) however, I think The Art is by far a much more inspiring yet practical guide, and also easier to apply to life than those books.

the book is written by Cutler, with excerpts from the Dalai Lama’s speeches and their dialogue together. the wording is not particularly graceful or imaginative, but it is clear and precise. it communicates the material quite well.

I know there are those who roll their eyes at “the power of positive thinking”, but when it’s based on a fearlessly honest and realistic view of life, it does wonders. it does wonders for me. I am by no means very advanced in this kind of thing, but I started making consistent efforts down this road several years ago, and I am much happier and calmer and balanced now than before. (and we won’t even talk about when I was a teen.) a lot of life really is the way you see it. The Art of Happiness goes into this in more detail than I’d ever thought about before, and makes some very elegant points (which point out areas I still need to work on, but that I’d been completely unaware of before now).

a bit more here .

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists, type them up in my reading journal, and catalog them with LibraryThing

The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli

it’s a remarkably short book. the whole thing with introduction by translator and glossary of important people to know is less than 150 pages. and reading it in the modern age, it doesn’t seem near the scandal that it caused previously. if Machiavelli was a devil, he was at least an honest devil.

nothing very surprising in it, infamy and distortion aside _{much of it I already read quoted anyway. a related book is The 48 Laws of Power – wonderful read}. I read it to know firsthand what it says, and as a counterpoint for the next book up: The Art of Happiness.

Yvgenie, by C.J. Cherryh, and The Professional Stranger, by Michael H. Agar, and Colleges That Change Lives, by Loren Pope

I finished Yvgenie (the third in the trilogy) towards the end of June, just as I was coming down with a cold. I think this may have affected my brain because I’m still not quite sure about the ending.

and I want to reread it a bit later before I do a review or anything.

I went ahead and read The Professional Stranger, which is an informal introduction to ethnography/how to go about writing an ethnography, directed towards anthropology students, and those who wonder about the methods anthropologists use when learning about a group to whom they’re a complete stranger.

it was written in the 70s, and I haven’t read many other such books yet, so I don’t know how up to date or comparable it is. it was recommended, though, and pretty interesting.

I skimmed through Colleges That Change Lives (I read the main premise and skimmed through the actual colleges) last night. it was really eye-opening, and I wish I had read it twenty years ago! (sadly, none of the colleges mentioned were in California. the only ones on the west coast were in Oregon and Washington.) I had no idea there were colleges like St. John’s and Reed and Antioch out there. if you’re interested, the web site is: http://www.ctcl.com/

The City of Dreaming Books, by Walter Moers. 3-1/2

The City of Dreaming Books reads like an overnight collaboration between Dr. Seuss Theodore Geisel, Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl, and maybe even Robin Williams. Wacky and whimsical, this parody of everything to do with books is inspired and sometimes extremely bizarre. Moers recounts the adventures of a prospective young Zamonian author on his quest to the legendary city of Bookholm to find the world’s greatest writer, personal fame, and the ever-elusive Orm.

A humorous delight for all who like to spend their time reading, or writing too.

The Fortune of War, by Patrick OBrian: 5

I finished this book May 30, but just now got around to typing anything in। I want so much to share these books with you but I don’t want to disclose any of the plot, as there are so many twists and turns along the way, so I hope the following is a somewhat satisfactory summary of why I believe them to be wonderful:

O’Brian pulled off another sensational book, a tale set during the Napoleonic wars but which engenders such a strong human connection to the characters one would never think of the story happening long ago and far away। With that in mind, all the more amazing then is the attention to historical detail and accuracy:

It seems to me that where the Royal Navy and indeed the infant United States Navy are concerned there is very little point in trying to improve the record … and the only liberty I have taken is to place my heroes aboard. And even so, although they are not quite as peripheral as Fabrice on the field of Waterloo, they do not play a decisive part nor bend the course of history in any way. [Author’s note]

As much as microscopic interactions between atoms are what constitute the chair you sit upon, and as interaction between subatomical particles constitute those atoms, and all of these levels _{chair, atoms, subatomic particles} exist at the same time and to the same extent of importance, so the Aubrey-Maturin novels can indeed serve as a reminder that personal experiences _{adventures, calamities, and otherwise- plenty of all!} of individual people are indeed what make up any kind of historical event, and that intrapersonal conflict, struggles, and growth make up those individual people. Layers upon splendid, splendid layers.

O’Brian is a master of the English language, and I always thoroughly enjoy how he administers it and how the characters themselves play around with it _{especially Aubrey and Maturin, who often mix metaphors in jest}. Also I love the shipspeak almost as much as the plot and the characters, which are all so well done- but the shipspeak to me is a new and vibrant way of using language to describe and communicate, and therefore it is poetry. Quoting a section for you here, with Captain Jack Aubrey and the surgeon and intelligence agent _{but not mariner!} Stephen Maturin:

“Boat your oars,” said Jack. “Clap on to the halliard- no, the halliard. God’s death- haul away. Bear a hand, Stephen. Belay. Catch a couple of turns around the kevel- the kevel.”

The scow gave a violent lurch. Jack dropped all, scrambled forward, caught two turns round the kevel and slid back to the tiller. The sail filled, he brought the wind a little abaft the beam, and the scow headed out to sea.

“You are cursed snappish tonight, Jack,” said Stephen. “How do you expect me to understand your altumal cant, without pondering on it? I do not expect you to understand medical jargon, without giving you time to consider the etymology, for all love.”

“Not to know the odds between a halliard and a sheet after all these years at sea: it passes human understanding,” said Jack.

“You are a reasonably civil, complaisant creature on dry land,” said Stephen, “but the moment you are afloat you become pragmatical and absolute, a bashaw- do this, do that, gluppit the prawling strangles, there…” (p. 272)

The Arm of the Starfish, by Madeleine L'Engle.

a gifted American sixteen year-old named Adam gets the opportunity to work for a prominent scientist whose lab is on a little island south of Portugal. his innocence (along with his ability) is the reason he has been chosen for such an internship, but it’s also the reason other forces target him as a way to get to the scientist’s secretive work. dangerous and baffling events keep him wondering who is telling him the truth, what is really going on, and what he should do next.

sometimes I found it a little incredible that the adults in charge of him would let him into some of those situations at all, or leave him alone and unattended as often as they did. sure, it is a coming of age story, but he is a sixteen year old boy in their care.

the story is not particularly amazing, and certainly it does not compare very well to the Time Quartet or even And Both Were Young, but the plot is fast-paced and should keep the younger readers surprised and suspenseful until the dramatic conclusion.

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists, type them up in my reading journal, and catalog them with LibraryThing

Desolation Island, by Patrick O'Brian. rating= 5

http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobtitles.htm#aubrey

I finished Desolation Island today.

Makes me happy, and sad. I am always happy to be reading such books but never want them to end- even when I have the sequel right there on the shelf and know it already to be a great one.

O’Brian has such descriptive powers and plumbs the depth of the human soul as well as he weaves his myriad threads of war, espionage, family life, politics, the natural world, and survival at sea. Honestly, he blows me away every time. I feel a resounding urge to visit the harbour.

Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson: 5

this is a stunning book, ostensibly about two sisters being raised by their eccentric aunt. the language and story-telling is simply brilliant: amazingly poignant, natural, surprising, and poetic.

a quote to show what I mean:

Water is almost nothing, after all. It is conspicuously different from air only in its tendency to flood and founder and drown, and even that difference may be relative rather than absolute.

The morning that my grandmother did not awaken, Lucille and I had found her crouched on her side with her feet braced against a rumple of bedclothes, her arms flung up, her head flung back, her pigtail trailing across the pillows. It was as if, drowning in air, she had leaped toward ether. What glee there must have been among the few officials who lingered, what a tossing of crepe-banded hats, what a hearty clapping of gloved hands, when my grandmother burst through the spume, so very long after the clouds had closed over the disaster, so long after all hope of rescue had been forgotten. And how they must have rushed to wrap their coats around her, and perhaps embrace her, all of them no doubt flushed with a sense of the considerable significance of the occasion. And my grandmother would scan the shores to see how nearly the state of grace resembled the state of Idaho, and to search the growing crowds for familiar faces. (p. 164-165)

the story itself starts as matter-of-fact as the small Idaho town it is set in, and proceeds (in a manner immeasurably disconcerting to me and as strange as that same small Idaho town) towards a counterintuitively inevitable conclusion. the themes of life and death, loss and memory, reality and imagination are beautifully interwoven and expressed amid an otherworldly sense of nature.

this book should be read and experienced like a poem:

Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

_{From The Apple that Astonished Paris by Billy Collins.
Copyright © 1996 by Billy Collins.}