Another Country

Why I love Reading the RA favorite books is because they vary so much in depth and topical area.  Another Country by James Baldwin is the story of an African American male living in the Greenwich Village-area (circa 1970s) that is fighting something within himself, especially his race and his sexuality.  This is the theme of the book throughout, finding oneself and dealing with the various stages of friendship, admiration of others, the demons within, infatuation and the urge to act on it. Rufus is a complex character, as are all of Baldwin’s characters in this story.  Rufus falls in love with a white woman who recently left the South after escaping a failed marriage.  Rufus is overcome by past relationship issues and eventually falls into a ritual of physically hurting the ones he loves.  Rufus has a core group of friends, all artists of some sort (actors, writers, and musicians).   Rufus, after losing his latest love to an asylum, determines life is not worth living and jumps to his death via the George Washington Bridge.  His remaining living friends, including his sister Ida, come to each others' support trying to figure it all out.  What happens is a series of love trysts between women and men, men and men, crossing race and breaking up marriages and alliances.  What a very complicated read strewn with characters that do have some level of reality and despair.  The characters are actually pretty intriguing though their motivations and drive seem somewhat inconsistent with their development by the author.   It reads as if it should have been set on some commune where the characters are “taught” this is the way we live to succeed.  While this in no way was a book one could have guessed how the story would end up, it led me to say “ok, so what?”  I understand the timing and how the era makes for a fitting story, I just didn’t get to feel a sense of care when it wrapped up.  Probably would have made it as a made-for-TV weekly movie.  Certainly not a boring read, but somewhat unbelievable.  Wasn’t really sure what the author wanted the reader to get out of this one.  Not my favorite read, but could see how this would be a good read for people questioning sexuality or even how to commit themselves in a relationship.    

Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind

It takes all kind of books to make you feel like a well-rounded reader… for instance, Charles Nicholl’s Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind which tells the story of the life of da Vinci.  This is a historical review of da Vinci’s life.  Not having much background, only surface material from history courses, I learned a great deal about the complex artist and inventor.  da Vinci’s life had humble beginnings, raised by his father from a one-night love affair, da Vinci never met his mother.  The author scoured many literary sources to piece together the latest book on the life of the man.  From Milan, Mantua, and Venice and finally back home again, da Vinci was a private man, could have been because of his sexuality (deemed punishable by death for some who were known to be homosexual at the time, c. 1470s – 1519).  Nicholls shares stories from his youth, the people who influenced his art and thinking about life, his apprenticeships, travels around Italy, his alleged affairs, his works of art, and various other thinkings that affected the world in his time.  I had no idea his drawings helped with the creation of airplanes and other mechanical devices which did not come to fruition until centuries after his life.  da Vinci was a Renaissance man who “hung” with the artists and deep thinkers of the time.   I loved how the author presented all of his art work and drawings in the book with the “back story” on how and why each was created.  I often forget how brilliant and influential da Vinci was to art from his Mona Lisa, The Vitruvian Ma, The Last Supper, St. John the Baptist, Virgin of the Rocks, and Madonna (to name a few).  da Vinci had numerous jokes written throughout his notebooks, some he may have penned himself!  Freud had a field day thinking about the life of da Vinci, probably loved this particular joke penned in one of his books: 

A woman was washing clothes, and her feet were red with cold.  A priest who was   passing by was amazed by this and asked her where the redness came from, to which the woman immediately replied that it was caused by a fire she had underneath her.  Then the priest took in hand that part of him which made him more priest than nun, and drawing near to her, asked her very politely if she would be kind enough to light his candle. 

Funny guy with a brain for seeing the beauty in things.  da Vinci turned back to the church upon his death bed.  Life has a way for some coming full circle.  His impact in the world of art is seen today and lives forever.  While the book was quite dense, art historians will revel in the stories and his experiences.  For me though, a bit too many anecdotes and connections to things that just are not that interesting to me.  I’d take a pass on this rather long and, at times, sleeper.

Ready Player One

Imagine being in 2044 and living in a time where the top 1% have it all, and everyone else lives in trash and has limited food supplies, etc.  Yet there is one BIG jackpot out there to be had for the person who can solve the mystery of the video game, which was created by James Halliday who died a billionaire.  In Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, you get a sci-fi real life action packed adventure.  Start with James Halliday, a “gamer,” who wrote a complex gaming system called OASIS (which most everyone in the universe subscribes to) and in doing so whomever can collect three keys (Copper, Jade, and Crystal) that are hidden throughout the universe of OASIS and pass through the matching gates (and find the golden egg) will receive his fortune and controlling stake in his company (worth 240 billion dollars!).  After four years of no one coming even close to finding anything, a young 18 year old, Wade Owen Watts (his on-screen name is Parzival), hits gold by opening the first gate, gaining national attention.  Unfortunately for Wade, I mean Parzival, he has many more steps to take and simultaneously ward off Innovative Online Industries, the multinational corporation that serves as an Internet service provider for most of the world and hopes to take over and monetize the OASIS.  The OIs (as they are known) are putting in big bucks to buy anything standing in their way, including Wade and his 4 “vagabond” friends.  The story includes 1980s and early computer culture games (Pac-man, Galaga, and Zork) and movie anecdotes (Risky Business, Real Genius, and Blade Runner).  The OIs vs. the five pack makes for great adventure, intrigue, and thrills.  At every step there is excitement up the very last page.  Who will win, the big almighty corporation or the upstart young tech kids?  Throw in a love story, embattled friendships, and clues that you might remember from your childhood (if you are 40 something!).  What a great story!  I can see this one becoming a movie, though I hope not!  Pick this one up, a very fast read and well worth your time.  It has it all!

Sister Outsider

Always good to learn where theoretical constructs develop in our society and clearly Audre Lorde, author of Sister Outsider, had something to do with the beginnings of “intersectionality.”  Well, what is “intersectionality?”  As Lorde discusses her understanding of who she identifies as a person, the reader begins to learn about Lorde’s upbringing and how she begins to think about herself through gender, orientation, race, and socio-economic backgrounds that merge to a complex being.  The book is a series of essays and speeches that Lorde writes/speaks about over the course of a fifteen year period, beginning in the late 1960s through the early 1980s.  Lorde was born in New York City to mixed immigrant parents.  Her parents emigrated from the Caribbean yet were born in Grenada (which is the focus of the closing article).  Lorde was married to a man and had two children before she met her eventual life partner, a white female.  This love combination added one more “identity” to her complex understanding of self.  Lorde uses some of the challenges her children met from classmates and their parents while being in school.  They were ridiculed for not only being black, but children of a lesbian and mixed race family.  Lorde tells of her anger at society’s inability to embrace differences in her interview with Adrienne Rich and other various short interviews and essays.  Not being “white enough” compared to her two siblings and trying to bleach her skin to “fit” into society were a couple of her childhood memories.  The level of hatred and bigotry that Lorde faced fueled her desire to speak out as an adult even though she faced attacks from fellow feminists, blacks, and lesbians not clearly appreciating the depth of the various identities of the author.  The book provides a brilliant perspective of the 1980s and how our society was on the precipice of the debate for gay marriage and acceptance of those outside society’s “privileged” groups.  This will be seen as a precursor to what our society will look back on 100 years from now and say, what was the big issue? (Or at least let’s hope).  Brash, angry and capable of holding her own against the fiercest of enemies, including a fourteen year battle with cancer, Lorde is afraid of no one.  This book is a nice mix of readings that captures a woman ahead of her time.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Historical books are always fun to read and learn about great events that I missed out on from long ago.  This book is no different.  In Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand, the reader is brought back to the grand old days of the racing world, when it was one of the most exciting sporting events around (editorial note: I’m thinking those days are long gone, I don’t know anyone who speaks about horse racing, well maybe the Kentucky Derby, I guess).  Seabiscuit was a horse for the ages and came at the perfect time for the American people to rally around, the Great Depression era.  Imagine being named after a cracker eaten by soldiers, well, this horse was not “crumby” at all (humor – just a  little, huh?).  The horse was short and stocky and no one would have any idea of the fame that would come to him, but that changed when the right trainer (Tom Smith) was paired with the right owner (Charles Howard) and the right jockeys (primarily Red Pollard and George Woolf), especially after very little support under his first owner.  The book chronicles the early beginnings of the horse and how he rose to fame, changing the face of racing and the attention that American people paid during the time period.  Most fascinating was the hyped races, the best was the one-on-one race called the “match of the century” with War Admiral at the Pimlico Race Track in Maryland with 40,000 attendees and over 40 million listeners on the radio on November 1, 1938.  Even reading the description of the wire-to-wire finishes got my juices flowing, hoping to place my own $2 bet on the winner. Seabiscuit was not destined to be a winner based on his frame, yet through the dedication of the trainers and his thoughtful jockey who realized that Seabiscuit was a curmudgeon, motivated the horse to be a winner.  The author also painted a colorful picture of the times and the various personalities in the horse racing industry, where cheating among the jockeys and trainers to give their horse an advantage was commonplace.  The lifetime of a horse goes quickly so running in 89 races is actually pretty amazing in those days where train transportation was the best way to get to your destination coast to coast.  This was an area of expertise I had little knowledge of, so I did appreciate the perspective and story very much.  The story is as much about the rise of Seabiscuit as it is a commentary on the times.  I’d add to your list of readings.  Compelling story.    

The Phantom Tollbooth

It’s always fun to read a children’s book that reminds you of how you used your imagination!  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster is one of those all-time good ones, though I had not read it, when I asked others about it, they certainly had heard of it (I guess I wasn’t a reader in my youth).  Imagination and “play on words” were the strategy of this author in getting one to learn about how to use double-entendres and English language idioms.  Milo, the lead character of this story, enters a tollbooth and finds a journey similar to Alice in Alice in Wonderland when she enters the looking glass.  This story is not as daunting as Alice’s journey, but as much fun for sure.  When Milo drives through the tollbooth in his room, he finds a dog named Tock (Tick’s brother) and Humbug (yes a bug) and together they try to bring “Rhyme and Reason” to the Kingdom of Wisdom.  Driving through Dictiononopolis and Digitopolis, Milo and his colleagues need to identify which is more important, words or numbers?  The group goes through the Doldrums, a royal banquet where the more you eat the hungrier you get, the “Which” who used to choose words, not the “witch” you and I would think of, an old lady placed in jail.  Each character is usually an opposite of what one would think and challenges Milo and his crew as they try to attain the Castle in the Air that will release the two beautiful princesses who will give Wisdom what it needs most, Rhyme and Reason.  Of course Milo accomplishes his goal and all ends in the way all good fairy tales end.  He wakes up and even with that long journey, it ended up only being an hour nap.  How I wish my dreams were as action packed as Milo’s.  This is a great book to give a nephew or niece.  Have fun with it!

Third Year Blog Anniversary!

Wow, it has been three years of blogging about RA favorite books!  I hope some of my Favorite RAs are continuing to read and gaining perspective on this thing called life.  Stay motivated and never forget where you spent some of the best years of your life... at NYU!  I wish all of you health, happiness, and the ability to be taken away in someone else's journey through reading!  Peace.

Tell No One

Sometimes we read a mystery thriller book that you think you know what is around the corner, not with Tell No One by Harlan Coben.  Eight years ago Dr. David Beck, a pediatrician who works with patients in lower socio-economic communities, wakes up in a hospital room after being hit on the head with a baseball bat lying face down in water.  Fast-forward eight years when we learn his wife Elizabeth was killed during this incident.  Who did it?  Now Dr. Beck begins receiving mysterious emails from someone who is sending him cryptic notes that only his wife would know the meaning of, but how is that possible?  Elizabeth is dead? Or is she?  This thriller has twists and turns at every corner involving Elizabeth's father (the local sheriff), Beck's sister, one of his patient’s father, Elizabeth's best friend, and of course the murdered colleague of Elizabeth who died months before her "death."  I really enjoyed the retelling of the story, the intrigue, the search and rescue, and other elements of the book.  An added pleasure of the book was the setting, mostly in New Jersey, but a chase/capture/escape scene outside my office window, yes Washington Square Park!  Love scenes when they occur so vividly on the benches in the Park.  Coben does have his character dis NYU's ever growing presence in the West Village (shame on you, did you not get accepted to NYU and headed to Amherst College?), oh well.  A fast-paced read, though I really, really disliked the ending of the book (just the last 3 minutes). I won't explain, but if you read it, I think you'll agree.  Just one too many twists.  Overall outstanding read, except for the very last twist!

A Child's Garden of Verses

Think about what it was like to be a kid trying to fall asleep, full of energy and thoughts from the day?  Well, settle back and read the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson in his A Child’s Garden of Verses with special illustrations by Brian Wildsmith (which leaves nothing to your imagination!).  I can remember nights where I laid in the bed and had so many things running through my head from a day in the playground, hanging in the yard, or walking my dog Spot through the neighborhood but at night stories (read by my parents) brought me to another world, a world like the one that Stephenson creates in his book of poems.  The poems are exactly the right “length” – short verse – sometimes only 12 lines, all the way up to two pages, nothing longer.  The poems center around a little boy who experiences life through a detailed and brilliant lens.  Nature (the sun, the weather outside, the moon, rivers, and gardens) are the main foci that the young boy explores in his dreams while in bed.  The boy paints beautiful pictures always cognizant of his surroundings, while in bed sleeping, or traveling throughout the world.  The poems are so uplifting and positive, great to end your day.  For example, “Happy Thought”: “The world is full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be happy as kings.”  The poem on the boy not sure what to make of his growing shadow as the day goes on is one of my favorites where a child never is alone when he has a shadow following him.  Animals also play a big part in the poems: cows, birds, and bees float in  and out of the boys consciousness and all play a role in how he lives his life.  “Time to Rise” illustrates it best:” A birdie with a yellow bill hopped upon the window sill, cocked his shining eye and said: Ain’t you ‘shamed, you sleepy-head?”  Yes, there is a time to be awake but there is also a time to sleep and allow dreams to enter your world.  What a nice read…  I guess it’s time for a rest and pick this book of poems up.

Exile and the Kingdom

Short stories are fun to read especially when they leave you hanging.  This is the case in Albert Camus’ “The Guest” written in 1957, part of Camus’ collection of stories called Exile and the Kingdom.  The story is set in Algeria, a northern rural area, in early Fall after the first snowfall of the season.  Two men are climbing a rocky slope while the main character, Daru (a schoolmaster), watches from his schoolhouse as they walk toward him.  Daru notices the gendarme, Balducci, walking a captive with hands tied coming toward his schoolhouse.  Balducci explains that the Arab captive needs to be brought to the other side of the county to prison for killing his own cousin.  Balducci is unable to bring the captive any further and informs Daru he must bring him to the jailer.  Daru refuses and yet is given an ultimatum by Balducci.  After Balducci leaves, Daru feeds the Arab and engages him in dialogue.  They sleep next to each other that evening and the next day Daru gives him food and money and tells him to walk to the prison himself.  What will the Arab do?  Will he do as requested, or will he interpret Daru’s kind actions of money and food and go another route?  The reader will never know.  But when Daru returns home he finds an eerie message of revenge for not doing the delivery as requested.  What will happen to the kind schoolmaster?  Hard to say what will happen but the reader knows the masterful author once again leaves his reader to reflect on good/bad and human choice, what would you do?  It is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t – as is many ethical choices in life.  Camus is a quintessential writer who gives the reader the question and we have the obligation to reflect… what would we do?  A great short read.  You have 20 minutes, you gotta read this.