Bad Monkeys

My son is taking an advanced placement English class this year. His teacher assigned the novel Bad Monkeys by Mark Ruff for summer reading.  Naturally, I had a chance to pick up the book from the coffee table and read it since my son tends to wait until the last minute for his reading assignments.

Not too bad at all.  If you like conspiracy stories, then you'll love this book. I can see why an English teacher at an all-boys school picked it.  The book is relatively short, easy to read, fast-paced, and full of action. Parents might want to brace themselves since this book has plenty of drug use, sex, and violence.  Jesuits seem to have a higher tolerance for artistic license than most high school administrators.

It is not the type of book I normally read, but it is a great summer novel.  The alternatives were lawn care, painting the basement, or taking the kids to the pool yet again. A soft couch and a good novel won the day.

Out Stealing Horses

This isn't one of our book forum choices, but that's okay.  I'd like to recommend it anyway.

Are you in the mood for a quiet book? Try Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. To be honest, the only reason I picked it up is because my grandmother was Norwegian-American. I wanted to get a glimpse of Norwegian culture. I did. Great book.

I should warn you that my talkative Irish-American wife was highly frustrated by a Norwegian-American novel called Giants in the Earth. She'll pull her hair out if she reads Out Stealing Horses. Norwegians are not a chatty bunch. The book is meandering and reflective, much like our thoughts when we are alone for awhile. If you are in that mood, then you'll love the book. 

My family has traced its Norwegian roots back to the 1700s. We have 3rd cousins by the dozens in Norway. This book makes me want to take a trip there, but it also prepares me for what would probably be a rather understated welcome back to the home turf.

Loving Frank

Well, I didn't love Frank.  I never met Frank.  He died before my time. However, the book Loving Frank is an excellent choice for our book forum on Friday, June 23rd at 3:00 in Humanities 202.

Frank is Frank Lloyd Wright. He ran off with the wife of a client, and this is their story. It is quite a story. I had forgotten how smothering life could be for an intelligent and intellectually ambitious woman in the early 1900s in the USA.  My mom told me stories from her childhood in the 1930s in South Dakota.  Those stories remind me in a childhood way of the grown-up stories in Loving Frank.

The good old days?  You can have them. I like today despite the various trials and tribulations of post-modern life. I am curious to hear the thoughts of our university community on the characters and events in this story.

By the way, Frank was a famous architect. You might want to use Google and look at his work. He was definitely a trendsetter in his field. The story is not about his architecture, but it helps to know a bit about his fame.

A small change this year:  Send your $5 to Lorraine Patrick in the library. This ensures you a copy of the book and some great refreshments at the forum.

Let's Pick Some Books

Well, we need to pick three books for the 2010-2011 academic year.  This is never an easy task.  Here are some suggestions so far from the university community. Other inputs will come from the committee at our next meeting.  As usual, we'll need to sort through lots of possibilities.

 

By the way, the criteria are:

1. A book worthy of attention by a university (no beach books, please).
2. Not too long (War and Peace is not on the list).
3. Readable by a diverse set of people.
4. Capable of attacting a good crowd since our purpose is community-building.

Suggestions so far include:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
• I Am a Man, by Joe Starita
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon
• Self-Made Man, by Norah Vincent
• Working in the Shadows, by Gabriel Thompson

Any other suggestions?  Leave a comment and we'll take a look.

The Devil in the White City doesn't have a lot of pictures for a book that focuses on a visual event such as architecture at the 1893 World's Fair. That is a little frustrating for me since I like visuals.

Fortunately, lots of images survive from those days. Here are a few to help keep your interest level up as you read the book and prepare for our book forum.

The guy to the left is Daniel Burnham, the hero of the book. Well, he is the hero of the book if you like the architecture which characterized the fair. Some folks frown upon the neoclassical stuff, but I like it.

This next picture is Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape architect. Some might say that he was quite a hero of the fair, too. His landscaping efforts certainly were a star of the show. Personally, I am surprised that Olmstead was able to accomplich as much as he did since we Americans don't seem to pay much attention to the lay of the land. We just sort of cram in as much stuff as will fit.

The Ferris wheel was a big hit at the fair. The engineer who built the darn thing must have been quite a risk-taker. Can you imagine getting into one of the cars for the first ride? Apparently, this was how engineers tested their inventions back then? I enjoyed the passages in the book which described nuts and bolts raining down on the roofs of the passenger cars during the test run.

At any rate, the picture compares the Ferris wheel of 1893 with the current one on the Navy Pier in Chicago. I didn't realize how ambitions Ferris had been until I saw this comparison.

If you want to look at the buildings and grounds of the fair, then a quick search on Google will give you lots of results. Here is one picture that features the large statue. You can see the main buildings surrounding the Grand Basin.

I sympathize with the fans of the fair who were sad to see these temporary buildings torn down. However, I am not as big a fan of the large scale of the buildings as the people of 1893 Chicago. Things seem huge and impersonal. I noticed the same thing when I visited Chicago recently and sat down by a fountain in Lincoln Park. It was enormous. I prefer a smaller fountain in a nice, quiet courtyard.

The last picture is of a building in Tacoma, Washington. It was designed by the firm of Burnham and Root. Apparently, it is one of just a few surviving buildings on the west coast by this firm. I was struck by how sad the little building looks. It seems a fitting end for this blog entry since the last few pages of the book remind me of this building.

Hopefully you are enjoying the book or are preparing to enjoy it. The snow days allowed me to finish up today. We'll see you in April at our book forum.

Devil in the White CIty

Devil in the White City? The 1893 World's Fair? What is going on here?

Well, the going's on are an intriguing selection for our book forum. Devil in the White City is our selection for One Book One BU this April. Be sure to contact Melissa Flannery if you want a copy. We'll have an early order for the Christmas readers and another order this spring.

Here is a nice set of discussion questions in case you finish the book early and like to think big thoughts. It is a good sign for a me when a book is popular with book clubs. For me, it means that the book is readable and worthwhile at the same time. Check the guide at http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/devil_white_city1.asp


Here is the publisher's web page for the book. It is actually a pretty cool-looking page. The title of the book may have inspired a web designer: http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/home.html

Next up for One Book One BU is a mercy by Toni Morrison. We meet on Friday, October 16 at 2:30 pm in the Humanities Training Room 202. Remember to eat a light lunch on that day since great food and drink will be served.

Morrison's biography is available at http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tmorris.htm in case you are curious about this winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature. I have heard much about her, but I have not read her work before. I look forward to this forum.

Curious to see if this book deserves your time and attention? As usual, the Christian Science Monitor does a nice job of keeping us informed. Check their book review of a mercy at http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2008/11/04/a-mercy/

I don't think we can afford to bring Morrison to campus for our forum. Here is the next best thing - she reads from a mercy on this video at YouTube. Enjoy! And, don't forget to give your $5 to Melissa Flannery for your copy of the book. We'll see you in October.