Forging an Art

Up, only at BSCreview.   Speaking of Azumanga Daioh, the lovely interlude where the girls discuss the possibilities of a cafe for the class festival, and the idea of a monster cafe, with the girls dressed like different monsters in order to serve the patrons, made me think of Team Fortress 2′s Prop Hunt.  An umbrella monster is one thing, but a wall monster?  For those who are deprived of the experience of the TF2PH, here you go.

Team Fortress 2 Prop Hunt

Forget Cliff’s Notes and SparkNotes – breeze through the classics with Sarah Schmelling’s Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don’t Float.  This looked amusing as a title, but the book in hand is hilarious.  The treatment of the traditional school reading list torture, including Moby Dick and Little Women, is instructive, with valuable insight regarding characterization in particular, while maintaining snort-inducing humor.  Yes, snort-inducing.  The connections, which are key to the Facebook mindset, make real people out of some pretty cardboard characters, as Schmelling imagines interactions that never could or would happen between a variety of characters and authors.  Where else can you find references to Henry James, Jerry Seinfeld, and Mr. Roper – of Three’s Company fame/infamy – in one volume?  Actually, I don’t think I have ever seen Mr. Roper referenced before, except in TV Guide, and I don’t think that counts.

The Adventures of Amir Hamza.  This was required reading, and a long tale to boot, as are most epics.  It is rather repetitive, again, as some epics, with the usual battle, triumph, marriage/feast.  There is a particularly strange line/translation that I just can’t make sense of – “her eyebrows shot out the arrows of her eyelashes and deeply pierced his heart” and one phrase that I really like – “the crocodile of their swords.”  What a great image, and one I have not yet encountered.  I like the dust clouds that, while contrived, magically appear before or during a battle to offer an intermission, if you will, for discussion and consideration between armies and enemies.

How to Take Over Teh Wurld – this is an absolute scream.  Beyond snorting, in fact.  I can’t get enough of these great cat pictures, tagged with brilliantly hysterical captions in LOL-speak.  For someone like me, who responds to my son’s “ROFL” with “MAO” – not via email, but in everyday passing conversation, as if such an exchange could be considered conversation – this is like manna from the sky.  This sort of business keeps me sane, or insane, take your pick.  I need to get my hands on its predecessor, I Can Has Cheezburger? in order to make my life complete.

I made the mistake of re-reading Rebecca West’s Henry James. I really can’t stand Rebecca West, but I know I need to – and want to – know what others think of my man Henry.  As my coworker Miss Terri says, it’s best to know your enemy.  What an obnoxious, self-centered person this one was, too.

More required reading in the form of Efuru, the very concise tale of an African woman that leaves so much unsaid.  Nwapa’s no-nonsense prose is reminiscent of Hemingway and the iceberg; so much under the surface.  This book could be ten times as long as it is, but there is no reason for an expansion.  Efuru’s experience is understood, and the lack of bemoaning her plight or celebrating her triumph – if it is a triumph, and isn’t it pretty to think so – only adds to that which the reader can imagine.

Just finished Jacqueline Kolosov’s A Sweet Disorder, which was, well, sweet, but not as good as The Red Queen’s Daughter.  It was a bit slow to start but I knew that Kolosov would make the time investment worthwhile, and she did.  The focus on needlework made this romance particularly interesting to me, along with the relationship between embroidery and healing, both of which require strong observation and creative skills: “a man must study life if he is to master even a fraction of its complexity,” one of Miranda’s suitors notes, and in this case, it is attention to detail that allows her and other strong female characters to greater agency in their fates. 

Who else can accuse a character of “excessive barbering” but Scott Donaldson?  Just in love with his collection of essays, Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Works and Days.

Here at Book View Cafe.

This is hysterical.  Yes, you must have a certain sense of humor to appreciate what is in this book, and I’ll admit that it’s not the most socially acceptable sort of sense of humor, but with it, these comic strips are incomparably amusing.  Some of them take a few moments for the full effect to take over; it’s one of those “aha!” moments before I start snorting at an embarassing volume – read “loud” - that is uncontrollable once it begins.  This title is not for the squeamish or easily offended – in a way, it is like South Park.  You must be able to laugh at yourself as well as others, because there are certainly some pages that may speak to you personally, and not in a flattering way.  Suck it up and have a laugh with Nicholas Gurewitch, creator of the PBF.

  Bits and pieces off the shelf . . .

Eudora Welty as Photographer
Pearl Amelia McHaney, Sandra S. Phillips and Deborah Willis contribute very informative essays to surround this collection of thoughtful photographs by this great Southern writer.  Of great interest is the discussion on Welty’s use of light as she captures moments in time, moments when flickers of interest pass through a man and a woman’s face as they meet on the street, or as tomato pickers on a break talk amongst themselves, a few noticing the camera and gazing at what? The device, the photographer?  What do they think as they are frozen in time, carried forever into the future and the gaze of readers like me?  They may be lost to us, but their expressions become familiar as we recognize them as our own.  Welty the photographer shines through the black and white of these pages in a must-see collection of Americana.

The Du Mauriers
When one’s family history is as fascinating as Daphne Du Maurier’s, what else can a great writer do but fictionalize it?  First published in 1937, this no holds barred account of her, um, more interesting predecessors shows no shame or pity on the part of the author.  She weaves her great-great grandmother into a caricature of motherhood, a woman devoid of morals and obsessed with pleasure.  Her daughter Ellen is a serious child, embarassed by her mother and eventually disappointed in her husband and her children.  George, or “Kicky,” her eldest and the author’s grandfather, stumbles on his way to becoming the writer we remember him to be.  This is quite a soap opera, and since, as we say, the truth is often stranger than fiction, it is the more charming for it.

Mouse Noses on Toast
Oh, the cleverness of an insane Tinby! 

A Gift of Grace
First time author Amy Clipston has penned a complicated story that makes it clear that in spite of the simplicity of the Amish way of life, members of the Amish community struggle with the same relationship problems and emotional issues as the rest of the world.  When Rebecca’s sister Grace, who left the community and the faith years earlier, dies along with her husband in a car accident, she becomes guardian to her two nieces.  Lindsay finds comfort in Amish traditions and beliefs, but Jessica wrestles with her aunt and uncle, insisting that she doesn’t belong with them.  Rebecca wants to fulfill her sister’s wish to raise the girls, but her insistence may be blinding her to God’s will.  I was sorry to reach the end of this well-written story, and will be happy to see the next book in this series.

Crowned in a Far Country
This is more than a series of facts about eight royal brides; Princess Michael of Kent reveals the distinct personalities of each woman as she fulfills her duties as a monarch.  Some had voracious appetites for men or for jewels; others longed mostly for their homeland and their families.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Catherine the Great, known for her many lovers, was patron of her new country’s literary culture.  She founded the Russian Academy of Letters and charged them with producing a dictionary and a grammar for the Russian language, both of which did not exist before Catherine determined the need.  The other seven contributed in some way to their new culture, making the best of what, in some cases, were frightening and unwelcome situations.

This picture book is a bright, imaginative, and just plain fun take on the classic “The Night Before Christmas,” complete with a CD of dinosaur-inspired Christmas songs.  Anne Muecke, author and lyricist of said story and songs, was inspired to her prehistoric task by her work as a docent at the American Museum of Natural History.  Nathan Hale, illustrator of this and author/illustrator of several other picture books, also creates murals for museums across the country.  Muecke and Hale together have worked a clever and catchy mix of colors, music, and poetry to bring dinosaurs to life.  I love love love dinosaurs – and this title is a real treat for dino fans.

Superfun new titles that I have come across very lately, and would be remiss if I did not share:

Brides Behaving Badly - those of us who love My Big Redneck Wedding can appreciate this one.  It is off-the-hook hysterical, a bit nasty, and moderately offensive. 

Some people have no pride, and yet, it must be nice to be comfortable with yourself, even when you look and act like these people do.  If you can’t understand Junior‘s drawl during the post-race interview, don’t bother picking this one up, but if you have ever been to a wedding where both the bride and groom held a cigarette and a beer for formal pictures, it’s all good. 

Appetite for Detention - oh-so-cute chicks pose for those oh-so-common high school moments when you wish your mom would have let you stay home in bed with the heating pad and a bottle of Pamprin.  Back in the day, I didn’t have to worry about my mom reading my Facebook page, like poor Edgar, but she did go through my desk drawers. 

 She’ll deny it forever, but really, there are some things she could not have known if she hadn’t, so I feel for Ed.  And should Caitlin suggest Botox because her mother doesn’t look as “fresh” as Madonna?  That would be a no.  While there was no Botox available to the masses back in the 80s, I did make some mistakes in suggesting anti-aging processes to my mother, who absolutely did not appreciate it.  Just say no, Cait!  Great for teens as well as us old folks.  The next one is, too.

All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem – I love love love this book.  Where else can you get in-your-face brutal honesty that is socially acceptable from obnoxious teenagers but not from those of us who still kick and scream over stuff that other grown ups, well, think that we should just get over?  I am not a big Darwin fan (yeah, go ahead, I’m used to that), but in the Laurie Rosenwald world, I could totally sit beside him on a plane.  A must have. 

Don’t miss Dave in his Peruvian chullo hat (he is so bad!), excellent McCullers references, warnings about foreign dinner conversation, and advice to boys on eating soup.  Way cool and very informative.  This should be used as a textbook for, um, something or other.

This graphic novel from Minx, which is a fresh and fun take on high school drama set in my high school era (1987), tackles some big issues in such a small volume.  Author Alisa Kwitney and illustrator Joelle Jones make a great team, combining Kwitney’s sarcasm with Jones’ simple but expressive art.  Fifteen/sixteen year old Shira doesn’t fit in with the other students at her Jewish school, but at least she has her dad and her grandma for support, along with her grandmother’s friend Minerva.  Unfortunately, her dad starts to date his secretary (how prime time soap opera is that?) and the world stops turning.  Shira is the odd man out but finds solace in the arms of bad boy Rafael, who teaches her the finer arts of shoplifing and kissing.  I wish I had this to read when I was in high school.

These are too fun.  I might actually be able to understand math now.  I won’t hold my breath or anything, but still . . .
There are several of these adorable and helpful titles available.  The first, The Manga Guide to Statistics, just came across my desk yesterday.  It has a section in the back dedicated to the use of Excel to calculate statistics, which seems pretty practical.  Excel makes me nervous and I only use it to complete my timesheet at work, but this is readable.
Those of us who need a little help with stats can learn by graphing ramen noodle prices on a histogram, determining the probability of getting an A on a math test (okay, so I am laughing out loud at that one, because I already know the answer), calculate the Cramer’s coefficient to determine how boys and girls prefer to be asked out, and (now this could be interesting, as I have never understood how this works) learn how standard score is used to change tests results when teachers grade on a curve.  That’s just a few of the fun ways author Shin Takahashi teaches the scary stuff. I wish I would have had this book back in high school, when my pet pterodactyl cawed at my side as I wrote on the cave walls.
Others in this series include:
The Manga Guide to Calculus
The Manga Guide to Databases
The Manga Guide to Electricity
The Manga Guide to Physics-Dynamics
The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology

The B has developed a fascination with the Babymouse graphic novel series.  It started yesterday when I brought the new Halloween title in the car to pick her up at school.  Within a few minutes, she was cracking up in the backseat, and asked me to bring home all the other Babymouse books I could find today.  I pulled them all from the shelf and have enough to keep her busy the next few days.

As if the title isn’t intriguing enough, I was drawn to this deceptively small well of thought purported as children’s fiction by the back cover endorsement from Joyce Carol Oates: “untimely in the way of a Grimm fairy tale recast by Franz Kafka.”  A Batchelder Honor Book, The Cat comes to us from Germany by the hand of Jutta Richter, translated by Anna Brailovsky, and is illustrated with, indeed, a dry humor reminiscent of Kafka by Rotraut Susanne Berner.
Christine makes her way to and from school, to and from and in and out of relations with her peers, family, and teachers with help of an old white cat whose judgment and advice might not always be relied upon.  Christine finally considers what readers might suspect all along: “The cat was wicked.  She knew no pity.  She knew only herself and the mice.”

This is so funny that I had to buy it instead of read it at Borders, because I was laughing and snorting so obnoxiously that I thought the other store patrons would run me out.  I was impressed that James had two shout outs during this amusing tirade against lemming-ness (my term, not Lander’s, thank you very much):
1. number four on the ‘white annotated bibliography:’ Henry James, all books. “If you send me to a desert island, just make sure I have a page of James’s delicate prose in my back pocket.  I promise you it can keep me entertained and thinking for months.”
2. under ‘liberal arts degrees,’ specifically as to how such a degree can help one sound smart at parties: it all begins by saying, “Reading Henry James was the most rewarding part of undergrad.”

I did find something utterly unbelievable within this fine text, again referring to higher education as a means to becoming the star of the party:  ”They can also impress their friends at parties by referencing Jacques Lacan or Slavoj Zizek in a conversation about American Idol.”  I would run screaming from anyone who mentioned these names outside of an academic context (and even then, I would be nervous) but then again, if the other partygoers have no idea that the one attempting to impress them is referring to frightening figures of French psychoanalysis/philosophy (emphasis on the ‘psycho’) and Slovenian philosophy/Marxism/Stalinism/psychoanalysis (once again, emphasis on the ‘psycho’) they might be impressed or merely annoyed, thinking that the speaker is making such names up.

(keep up on the stuff white people like a la email)