FreeVerse is hosted on Wednesdays by Cara at Ooh…Books!
I had a hard time deciding what to feature for today’s FreeVerse. I looked through the few poetry books I have and nothing really seemed quite right, especially for the mood I’ve been in lately (mostly bleh). Then I pulled “Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000″ by Lucille Clifton off the shelf, and was reminded again of how much I like this poet.
I discovered Lucille Clifton last year when I borrowed “Blessing the Boats” from the library and was so compelled, that I bought a copy for myself soon after. One of her poems in this collection, “Adam Thinking”, I had included in a blog post done last April.
Here are two poems, side by side (page 38 and 39):
What do you think of the above poems? I like the first one, “why some people be mad at me sometimes”, because every person has their unique memories of incidents that happen. Even in the same family, siblings will not remember the same things. Parents don’t remember things the same way that children eventually will.
The second poem, “sorrow song” is profoundly sad. I can’t imagine anyone not being touched by this poem.
Any thoughts? Be sure to follow the links above for more poetry by Lucille Clifton. She writes on a wide variety of subjects and there are many more poems I wanted to to include here.
Most of us know that the month of February is African American History month. “African American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America”, (Revised Edition), by Joan Potter, would be an excellent book to dip into and read throughout this month, or at any time of the year. Yes, this Revised Edition includes Barack Obama as First African American President of the United States – and of course he is on the cover, along with illustrious people such as Lena Horne (first African American vocalist to sing with a white orchestra, in the 1930s) and Richard Wright (first African American to have a novel that became a Book-of-the-Month Club selection: “Native Son”, published in 1940).
“African American Firsts” is divided in several wide-ranging sections, which include Entertainment, Law and Government, Military, Religion, Literature, Sports, and more. Therefore, there is at least one section in this book that would hold almost anybody’s interest.
Each person is introduced in a question and answer format. Each answer is presented with a few paragraphs. There are pictures throughout, but not for every person featured. To give you an idea of what the format is like — and since this is African American History month, I’ll choose this person:
“ Who Created the First Black History Week?
Carter G. Woodson, born in 1875, was known by many as the “father of black history”. Forced to work in the coal mines of West Virginia as a teenager, Woodson was unable to attend high school until he was twenty. A brilliant student, he went on to study at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Working as a public school teacher and principal in Washington, D.C., Woodson saw that his students had little knowledge of the contributions made by African Americans to the country’s history and culture. To help fill this void in American education, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, and a year later he began publishing the Journal of Negro History, for which he wrote hundreds of articles and book reviews.
In 1926 Woodson created the first of what was to be an annual celebration of African American achievement. In the beginning, the celebration lasted for one week and was called Negro History Week. In 1976 it was extended to last for the entire month of February, and is now known as African American History Month”.
I had not heard of Woodson until I read this. It is him we have to thank for African American History Month.
I admit I have not yet read all of “African American Firsts”, but I know I will eventually. I have been first reading through what interests me the most, such as the section on Literature. From that section, I’ve learned a few things (and more books I want to add to my TBR pile, or to re-read!). Some facts:
The first African American to publish a novel was William Wells Brown in London, 1853. It was titled “Clotel, or the President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States”. This novel was the story of a girl fathered by President Jefferson and born to his African American housekeeper.
The first (published) mystery novel by an African American was “The Conjure Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem” in 1932 by Rudolph Fisher, a physician. He passed away just a few years later at the age of 37.
The first novel written by an African American woman to sell over a million copies was “The Street” by Ann Petry, published in 1946 and is the story of a young woman struggling to raise her son in Harlem.
Alice Walker was the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for “The Color Purple” in 1983.
“African American Firsts” would be an excellent addition to the reference section of any library, and would be well-suited for middle school age and up. At 458 pages total (including index, etc), there are many, many African Americans featured in this book. My copy is in paperback format. I like books that teach me interesting facts, and this one is no exception.
Disclosure: This book was sent to me free, for review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
Additionally, although I’m not participating in The Classics Circuit this month, please visit the blogs that are touring February’s “Harlem Renaissance Tour” .
of my second blogiversary giveaway….from a drawing where I put names of those entered, in a bowl, and then had my younger son close his eyes and draw from that bowl…..
“Six Suspects” is Vikas Swarup’s second novel. He is the author of “Q & A” (later titled “Slumdog Millionaire” — the movie is loosely based on this first novel).
While “Slumdog Millionaire” has the story told through answers that are based on questions asked during a game show, ”Six Suspects” is a murder mystery told through the viewpoints of each of the six suspects. Some of the viewpoints are first-person, others are told through the third-person narrative.
At the beginning of the story, we know that an extremely unlikeable character, Vivek “Vicky” Rai has been murdered. Vicky is a rich playboy who has been constantly bailed out of his troubles out by his father. At the time Vicky is murdered, he is holding a party celebrating his acquittal from a trial — he had shot and killed a cocktail waitress because she refused to serve him one more drink. After Vicky’s murder has occurred, the next six chapters are each focused on introducing the six people who become suspects. After this introduction, the following chapters of the story takes twists and turns and I was never really sure “whodunit” until the very end.
The six suspects are diverse: The Bureaucrat, The Actress, The Tribal, The Thief, The Politician, and The American. I felt that each of these characters had the touch of stereotype or cariacture about them. Perhaps Vikas Swarup intended this novel to have a touch of satire throughout.
With the American, Swarup does not completely manage to pull off a convincing sound to him — this character is from the “Great State of Texas” and is portrayed as a rube — he says things like “I felt as mad as a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest”; but yet he will say “My plane wasn’t scheduled to leave until 5 December”. Americans wouldn’t say that; they’d say December 5th.
There were a few incidents where I had to suspend disbelief (I don’t want to include them so that the story isn’t partially given away).
Overall, though, this book did keep me reading until the end. You may enjoy it also, if you don’t take it too seriously. I liked “Slumdog Millionaire” much more (for my post comparing the book and the movie, see here).
I’ll close with the beginning paragraph of the book:
“Not all deaths are equal. There’s a caste system even in murder. The stabbing of an impoverished rickshaw-puller is nothing more than a statistic, buried in the inside pages of the newspaper. But the murder of a celebrity instantly becomes headline news. Because the rich and famous rarely get murdered. They lead five-star lives, and unless they overdose on cocaine or meet with a freak accident, generally die a five-star death at a nice grey age, having augmented both lineage and lucre”.
Has anyone read this book yet? I don’t recall seeing any reviews on this one.
Disclosure: This trade paperback was purchased using QPB’s bonus points, so I didn’t pay very much for it.
FreeVerse is hosted by Cara at Ooh…Books! on Wednesdays.
The poem I’m featuring today is from “Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond”. I enjoy this book for its’ breadth of poems and poetry styles. My only complaint would be that I don’t think any poet in this book has more than one poem featured in it — but it’s a great springboard for doing more research on a poet that intrigues me. Chen Li is one of them.
“War Symphony” by the Taiwanese Chen Li is presented as a visual poem in this book. I’ve photographed the page:
The picture is large, but it should allow you to read the Author’s Note at the bottom of the poem.
Not only that, there is an animated/ audio version of “War Symphony” which I’ve embedded below (from YouTube):
Many of Chen Li’s poems are available/translated in English; and several can be found at this website: Selected Poems of Chen Li. I plan to go back and read more of them; the few I’ve already read are very striking.
What do you think of this visual poem? Do you you know of any similiar instances done with English characters? If so, let me know!
I started “Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World” by Diana Preston a while ago, and introduced it in this blog post here. However, after repeated renewals, I finally had to return it to the library, unfinished –so I purchased this book when it became available in trade paperback through QPB.com. I’m surprised that I started this book back in September; where did the time go? It wasn’t due to the quality of writing that took me so long to get back to this book; it just happened that way. This is a good book.
Before reading “Cleopatra and Antony”, my knowledge about Cleopatra was basically this:
She was ruler of Egypt.
She was romantically involved with Julius Caesar. This romance ended when he was killed during the Ides of March.
She was romantically involved with Marc Antony. This ended when he died and when she also died shortly afterwards. Her death was apparently a suicide by snake.
This biography of Cleopatra was very informative and readable. Although a few political details went over my head, I was able to grasp the big picture. I learned much more about the relationships she had with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Other significant figures during the era are also covered, such as Octavian (later Caesar Augustus). Interestingly, these three men: Julius Caesar, Antony, and Octavian each were married to at least one powerful woman that all had strong political influences in Rome.
The author clearly is sympathetic towards Cleopatra. Preston states that although Cleopatra was reputed to have become involved with both men for beneficial political alliances, Cleopatra also developed a deep love for each one. She married neither one; but bore children from each. She had a son, Caesarion, by Julius Caesar; and three children by Antony (boy and girl twins, and then a few years later, a son).
Here is a passage where Preston describes the relationship between Cleopatra and Antony:
“But if much of what Cleopatra did to fascinate Antony was conscious and contrived, as in this early stage of their relationship it must have been, it could not have been so successful had it not touched something deep in them both. They shared a hunger for life……Their appetites were well matched, their ambitions on a similarly grand scale, and instinctively responded to one another. Nobody else would ever be as close to either of them as they would become to the other, although the mutual realization of that truth still lay some way in the future.”
This book also weaves information throughout of daily life in either Egypt and Rome; and draws upon contemporary accounts by Plutarch and Ovid and others which makes it very tempting for me to attempt to read Plutarch (I’ve had his “Makers of Rome” for like forever, and still have not read it) and to investigate more of Ovid’s poetry and writings.
Preston states that it most likely was not an asp that killed Cleopatra (as commonly believed) but a type of Egyptian cobra; that is, if she actually did commit suicide by snakebite. No one knows to this day exactly how Cleopatra died.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I wish this book had a family tree (for Egypt) and succession charts (for Rome) included. Rulers in Egypt had the same names over and over again and even using their nicknames, it got confusing for me. There is a map, however, which was helpful.
If you are looking for an interesting biography and/or want to learn more about ancient Egypt and Rome, I recommend this book. Diana Preston has other books (some co-written by her husband, Michael Preston) that I’d like to look up. They include:
“The Road to Culloden Moor: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the ‘45 Rebellion”
“The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900″
“Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy”
“Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima”
“Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire”
Wow, which one of these would I want to pick up first? Perhaps the one on the Boxer Rebellion since I know nothing about that. What do you think?
(P.S. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my book give-away here. Deadline is this Thursday).
Many years ago, I was a big fan of Edith Wharton. I have several of her books, and one of them has the date June 1995 written in it; meaning I probably read that one while pregnant with my oldest son ( born in September 1995). Some of the Wharton novels I own are still unread. I planned to read them, but got distracted with having a baby (and then later, more babies). For a time, most of my reading efforts concentrated on parenting and baby magazines and books. When I was able to gradually become a more diverse and frequent reader again, other books entered my life– and the unread Whartons have been waiting since.
So, when The Classics Circuit announced this month would feature Edith Wharton, I jumped at the chance to participate, so that I’d be motivated to read one of my unread books by her. The book I’m featuring for this blog tour is ”The Glimpses of the Moon”.
After my long hiatus from Edith Wharton, was this book worth reading? Yes and no. Yes, because it reminded me of what a good writer and story-teller Wharton can be. No, because in my opinion, “The Glimpses of the Moon” is not one of her stronger books. However, this 1922 book, written two years after the Pulitzer Prize winning ”The Age of Innocence” , was an “international bestseller” at the time of publication.
The basic plot of this book seems familiar to me– although I really can’t recall where I’ve heard it before (Another book? A movie?): a young man and woman agree to marry in order to live off their rich friends’ wedding gifts and generosity for as long as they can. Actually, the newlyweds, Susy and Nick Lansing, have also agreed that if either of them meets someone who can advance them financially and socially, then one will let the other go. But is it really going to be that simple?
As with some of Wharton’s other works, her cynicism about love and marriage shows through in this book. For example, when Susy is talking with the young daughter (who is only about 8 years old) of a rich friend, the girl asks Susy shortly after Susy’s marriage whether she is getting divorced. Susy says:
“Going to be divorced? Of course not! What in the world made you think so?”
“Because you look so awfully happy,” said Clarissa Vanderlyn simply.
Soon after Nick and Susy are married, he has second thoughts of the terms under which they are to take advantage of their rich friends. Nick finds that Susy had aided a female friend in covering up her affair. Even though Susy had been uncomfortable helping her, Nick becomes very angry. As Nick says to Susy:
“By God, but it is [wrong],” he exclaimed, flushing. “And that’s the difference — the fundamental difference…..Between you and me. I’ve never in my life done people’s dirty work for them– least of all for favours in return. I suppose you guessed it, or you wouldn’t have hidden this beastly business from me”.
However, Susy isn’t exactly a calculating, hard-headed woman:
“But how could she tell him that under his influence her standard had become stricter too, and that it was as much to hide her humiliation from herself as to escape his anger that she had held her tongue?”
Nick leaves Susy to go on a long cruise with yet other rich friends–they have a daughter that Nick becomes attracted to. Meanwhile, Susy finds solace with a (rich, also!) friend who has always carried a torch for her. She hangs out with this guy more and more often. Yet, Nick and Susy just can’t get over each other.
Will Nick and Susy be able to overcome the moral dilemmas they realize they will often have to face with their wealthy friends? Will they be able to reconcile? And, if so, on what terms will it be — will they try to live on the modest salary he plans on making from writing books? The book does answer all that, but I don’t want to provide spoilers :-).
As in many of Wharton’s other books, here she tears down “society”, which means wealthy, upper-class people of the era. According to Wharton, it seems impossible to be both rich and happy. She was considered ground-breaking and controversial; having written at a time when people strived to be rich and successful at whatever costs — even entering in planned and potentially unhappy marriages. Not that this social-climbing doesn’t still happen today; but this was a time where women felt they had no choice but to try to marry well (a common theme in other classic works; see Jane Austen for example).
Even with these similar themes running through most of Wharton’s works, I feel compelled to read (maybe this year sometime) the other books of hers that I haven’t yet read — especially the ones I already own: “The Reef” and “The Gods Arrive”. I also would like to re-read some of her books eventually!
I have enjoyed reading thoughts by participants in the Wharton Classics Circuit (see entire tour schedule here), even though sometimes I had to do quick read-throughs without always commenting, due to being pressed for time.
Thanks for stopping by on the tour!
Disclosure: “The Glimpes of the Moon” was purchased many years ago; my copy is a 1994 edition published by Collier Books.
My pick for FreeVerse this week is from the July/August issue of Poetry magazine. I picked this issue up at my local Barnes and Noble last summer. Since then, I think they have stopped carrying this magazine at their newsstand; because I haven’t seen any new issues since. Poetry Magazine does have an online magazine version, at this link: The Poetry Foundation. I would like to subscribe to the print version eventually, though!
I chose this poem for this week’s FreeVerse because it has a mix of humor, poignancy, and also because I see interesting double meanings in this poem.
I’ve decided to join this challenge because I already had the on-going goal of reading more poetry; and it’ll be good to share this goal with others! While I haven’t yet specifically selected what I plan to read for this challenge, I will try for the Sonnet Level: read at least 8 poetry books and finish two badges (see the website for details on the different levels).
Here are some other poetry blog events I currently enjoy: Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit has a Virtual Poetry Circle every week — on Saturdays, I believe. She shares a poem weekly for all readers to ponder and discuss.
An additional weekly event to read and discuss is ”Poetry Wednesday” by Lu at Regular Rumination (co-host of the challenge mentioned above). This week’s Poetry Wednesday features a poem by Elizabeth Bishop.
If you are not already aware of these poetry-related events and challenges, I encourage you to check them out!
I have long been fascinated by Andy Warhol’s art work, but knew very little about his life, and what made him tick. Although reading his “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)” provided a bit of insight, he still remained elusive to me personality-wise.
Now that I have read “Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol” by Tony Scherman and David Dalton, my curiosity about Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is now mostly satisfied. Even though this book concentrates strictly on Andy Warhol in the 1960s, this time period was his heyday as an artist. There is a prologue; then Chapter One is titled “Beginnings”; so the reader is able to understand how Warhol got to where he was at the beginning of the 1960s. There is no need to wonder what happens to Warhol after the 1960s, because there is a brief epilogue at the end. In between, each chapter is organized by year: Chapter Two is 1961; Chapter Three is 1962; and so on.
It was fascinating to read what the art world was like in the 1950s and 1960s when Andy was trying to make a name for himself. This book acknowledges Warhol’s homosexuality and the difficulties of being “out” back then. Within art circles, he and other artists (such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, who were a couple for a time) formed somewhat of a solidarity regarding their sexuality– but the press could not, or would not, see this as existing. So, people such as Edie Sedgwick were often dubbed as “Andy’s girlfriend” whenever he was in the public eye.
I liked reading about how Warhol’s art techniques progressed. He failed some of his art classes in college but managed to finish; and then he went on to commercial design. He wasn’t recognized right away as an artist, so he definitely wasn’t an overnight success. Being very fastidious, he eventually found silk screening to be his natural medium (he felt painting was too messy). After that innovation in his art, he became more recognized, but not necessarily rich and successful. Many of his early but now famous works, such as his Campbell Soup Cans, failed to sell well– but are now worth multi-millions of dollars today.
Warhol also delved into the art of film-making. As described in this book, the movies he made seem very plot-less (for example, he made a five-hour art movie depicting someone sleeping–and doing nothing else). Quite a bit of time is devoted to Warhol’s film-making experiences, which did not hold my attention as much as other parts of the book.
Because Warhol was a very early example of artist-as-celebrity, he had a lot of hanger-ons and people who would work for him but getting very little money in return. This book spends a lot of time mentioning these people, too. For the most part, I found this interesting, because it revealed to me aspects of Warhol’s personality — his ability, or inability, to relate to others.
As the authors state in the epilogue: “Of course, all innovators start, by definition, as outsiders….But Andy Warhol was an outsider among outsiders. His marginality was not merely aesthetic; it was sociological”.
I would have liked to see more examples of Warhol’s art work included in this book –it was frustrating to read about a certain art work discussed at length, and not know what it looked like– so Google came into handy during those times. However, there were plenty of pictures throughout the book of Warhol’s associates and “friends”. During one of my googling moments, I found this website Warholstars which supplies pictures and information on these people, the movies Warhol made, and more.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and the reading was fast-paced (except for a few times, when film-making was discussed into deep detail). If you are interested in recent art history and/or Andy Warhol, you will probably enjoy this book.
I know one other blogger, C.B., has read and reviewed this book: his review is here. ”Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol” is a recent release; has anyone else yet read this or considering reading this in the near future? Are there any art history books, or biographies of artists, that you have recently read and enjoyed?
Disclosure: purchased from Barnes and Noble’s website.
Did you know that Winston Churchill wrote several novels that were best-sellers in the 1900 and 1910s? I wonder if any were actually that good, or if it was his name that sold them?
(edited to add: the guy above, the British Winston Churchill, actually wrote only one novel, but he did write a lot of non-fiction. I wasn’t aware that there was an American with the same name who was a best-selling novelist back then! Thanks to Rebecca for informing me of this, and providing a link; see the comments section below).
Or that, in 1923, a book called “Diet and Health” by Lulu Hunt Peters made the non-fiction bestseller list? Some things never change — a book on diet or health always seems to hit the best-seller list every year.
How about “The Book of the Month Club” — everyone has heard about it. It started back in the 1930s and among its first book-of-the month selections were “Out of Africa” by Isak Dinesen, “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings… and…”Fanny Kemble: Passionate Victorian” by Margaret Armstrong.
The 1970s were interesting, too. 1972 had both these books as non-fiction best-sellers: “Open Marriage” by Nena and George O’Neill, and “The Living Bible” by Kenneth Taylor. The top fiction best seller in 1974 (was it really that long ago?) was “Jaws” by Peter Benchley.
Fascinating, isn’t it? I learned all this from Books of the Century, an exhaustive list (compiled by Daniel Immerwahr) of best-sellers, critically acclaimed books, and Book-of-the-Month Club selections. Tim of A Progressive on the Prairie brought this website to my attention when he announced an ongoing challenge that he is hosting:
We pick whatever we want to read from the list; the number of books read depends on what level we choose. Now here’s the chance, and motivation, for me to read the like-new hardcover copy of “All the President’s Men” by Woodward and Bernstein (best-seller in 1974) that I found a couple months ago for 50 cents at my local library’s sale shelf. Since the books in this list were all published between 1900 and 1999, it should be easy to find them either free online (if it is pre-1920s, I believe), or to purchase them used.
Now, if you have read my blog for a while, you may have noticed I’m not really much of a challenge joiner. But, I’m fascinated by the list of books and books that were best-sellers of their time but now seems obscure (what was Robert Lansing’s “Peace Negotiations”, published in 1921, about exactly?). And, I like that this is an ongoing challenge without deadlines…I hate deadlines. I don’t know which level I’ll join at yet, but I’ll decide soon.
Check out Tim’s reading challenge; at the very least be sure to look at the Books of the Century website. I found it fascinating, but maybe I’m a geek that way :-).
FreeVerse is hosted on Wednesdays by Cara at Ooh…Books!
“Six Suspects” is Vikas Swarup’s second novel. He is the author of “Q & A” (later titled “Slumdog Millionaire” — the movie is loosely based on this first novel). 
FreeVerse is hosted by Cara at 
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