Dreaming with Linda

Recently I read and enjoyed Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir by Linda Ronstadt. Her descriptions, especially of the Arizona desert where she grew up, are vivid, her portrait of the California Folk and Rock scene in the late '60s and early '70s, equally clear and engaging. This is not one of those dreadful tell-all books. Her friends and romantic interests make brief appearances if at all, though she does tell a funny anecdote involving Jerry Brown and a dinner invitation to Rosemary Cluney's house. Instead, Linda concentrates on her music and the career path it led her on, though not without one or two insights into her inner self, such as her interest in Berlin between the Wars. Warm, gentle, serious yet with a lighthearted touch, Simple Dreams is an easy yet absorbing read.

Bleak House

Currently I’m rereading Bleak House by Charles Dickens for the empteenth time – I really have lost count. Other than The Lord of the Rings, it’s my favorite book of all time. How it came to be so is rather curious.

It was assigned for a Dickens course I was taking, taught by Prof. Clement, my favorite professor. He loves Dickens and Bleak House in particular. I don’t know if I ever saw him as animated as during the classes devoted to this novel. “Connections,” he used to say, leaning forward intently and waving his hands, “it’s all about connections!”

I’d already read Little Dorritt a couple of times through the years and had at least a passing familiarity with most of the other books assigned for the course, but had never before read Bleak House. I read it before the start of the course...and hated it! It was tedious and confusing and made no sense to me whatsoever. In class, though, it was obvious that Prof. Clement loved the wretched book. There must be some merit in it somewhere.

When the semester was over, I doggedly began the book again, determined to find out what was so special about it and again, like Lady Deadlock, was bored to death. I like to consider myself a reasonably intelligent person; so, it puzzled and downright exasperated me that I couldn’t see what my professor – someone I admired – saw in the novel. So, I started it again! I didn’t keep a journal and don’t remember at what point the penny finally dropped, the book finally clicked in my mind and I saw, well, the light. But it did. The plot, with all its myriad of interwoven tributaries of minor characters and subplots is dazzling. But it’s the language that gets me every time, the sheer lyricism and descriptive power, particularly in the chapters with the third person, omniscient narrator. How I ever could have disliked the book is completely beyond me. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Reading and listening.

Current bedtime reading/listening (both being commercial audiobooks from Audible) is Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs and The Farthest Shore: the Earthsea Cycle, Book Three by Ursula K. Le Guin. Each is enjoyable in it's own way, though they are very different.

Burroughs was a fine writer. His early books reflect their pulp origins, but his later books show sophistication of both craft and thought. As to Le Guin, what can I say? She has long been one of my favorite writers from the reader's standpoint and one of my heroes from the writer's standpoint. The Earthsea Cycle, so far, is a wholly lovely series, engaging and absorbing. Recorded Books' choice of Rob Englis, narrator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to read The Earthsea Cycle shows sensitivity and discernment; for Le Guin's work is very much in the spirit of Tolkien's, though different and distinctive. Both Earthsea and Middle-earth are worlds one can imagine living in which, to me, is the mark of a gifted storyteller.

I've also been listening to two new, to me, LPs that arrived over the weekend, The Very Best of Engelbert Humperdink and I Wish You Love, also an Engelbert compilation. I Wish You Love is a particularly excellent record. The first cut on Side One is "After the Lovin'" - How much better can it get than that? The record also includes "quiet Nights," "Winter World of Love" and "Quando, Quando, Quando," to name a scant handful, as well, of course, as the title song. The compilers might have created this record just for me. It's not on RYM though, so I'll have to add it. Irritatingly, my scanner isn't large enough to accomodate LPs, which means I won't be able to upload the album cover. But, you can't have everything. *sigh*

The Cave Girl

Yesterday afternoon and evening I read Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Cave Girl, a thrilling tale of how a pusillanimous ninety-pound weakling becomes a man under the influence of a good woman and the hearty outdoors life. The young lady of the title is no slouch either. 8) In fact, not only is she beautiful, athletic and spunky, she turns out to be not quite what she initially appears.

The Dark Is Rising Sequence

I’ve been reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising sequence. Finished the fifth and final book, Silver On The Tree last night. They are delightful books, vaguely Arthurian (and I’m a pushover for anything Arthurian, however vaguely), wholly delightful Fantasy Adventure novels.

Two of the books are set in Cornwall, two in Wales and one in the author’s native Buckinghamshire, which is where I lived during my three years in England. Five children are brought together over the course of the sequence, under the direction of Prof. Merriman Lion, to help him in his long fight against the Dark. It very soon becomes clear that Great Uncle Merry is rather more than he seems, and by the end, all the children know him for who he really is, and they understand exactly what he is fighting.

The charm of these books lies not only in the “magic,” and the ancient lore, most of it Celtic, Cooper weaves into the narrative, but also in her descriptions of landscapes and of ordinary life, especially family life. The people and places are vividly drawn. Though I’ve never been to Wales, I could see the mountainsides with their granite outcrops and hear the baahing of the sheep and the high call of the curlews. Though I’ve never been to Cornwall, I could see the grassy headlands and the golden sanded beaches. The characters, too, are well drawn. They are individuals, each doing what is appropriate for him or her. The reader understands them and cares about what happens to them.

And, quite a lot happens to them during the course of the sequence, both in the here and now and in other times and other places, some of which are historical, some out of the mists of legend.

The NLS notice on each book says, “For grades four through seven and older readers. I don’t hesitate to recommend them to readers of all ages.

The Dark Is Rising Sequence
Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dark Is Rising
Greenwitch
The Grey King
Silver On The Tree

The Green Hills of Earth

I'm currently reading The Green Hills of Earth, a story collection by Robert A. Heinlein. I'd read a few of the stories before, and the title story is one of my all time favorites. It makes me cry every time I read it.Containing some top notch poetry, "The Green Hills of Earth" tells the tale of Rhysling, sometimes baudy troubadour of the spaceways, and how in the end he became both a poet and a hero. The other stories of this volume don't rise to the lovely heights of "Green Hills," though "The Long Watch" comes close, but they are well worth reading, clunky old fashioned tech and sometimes equally old fashioned ideas of social relations not withstanding.

Uncertainty

I just finished Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley, a concise and accessible, indeed enjoyable, account of Quantum Theory's antecedents and of the ferment surrounding its development and early years. Lindley brings the personalities involved to life, not only those of the subtitle but also Max Born, Erwin Schrodinger and others. To my mind, he doesn't give Paul Dirac nearly enough credit or space. On the other hand, apart from Bohr he concentrates primarily on German speaking scientists.

As well as a useful history on its own account, Uncertainty serves as a helpful backgrounder for the interested layman whose grasp on the actual Science and Math of Quantum Mechanics is a bit vague. Thanks to Lindley's book, I have returned to The Strangest Man with some hope of being able to follow Dirac's discoveries.

Double Star

Overnight I read Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein. Mind you, I would have preferred to sleep overnight. However, since that was not possible - Heaven only knows why! - reading this tale of a young actor who is, not entirely by his own consent, drawn into the performance of his life was a rewarding alternative activity.

The Riddle of the Sands

I'm just finishing up The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. It's a wonderful book with engaging characters and an absorbing, exciting storyline.

Two young Englishman, Davies and Carruthers explore the islands, sands and sholes of Germany's North Sea coast in Davis' small yacht, the Dulcibella. The sailing and geographical details in and of themselves make the tale enthralling, but there is much more to The Riddle of the Sands than a tale of daring seamanship. This is also a story of mystery, intrigue and romance.

The Black Arrow

I've just read The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. Can't think why I never read this adventure story set during the Wars of the Roses before, since that historical period has always interested me. The hero, Richard Shelton, is brave if unworldly, sometimes to the point of silliness and recklessness. Still, his struggles with divided loyalties, adventures with outlaws in the wildwood, participation in an all too grownup and deadly if relatively small battle and, above all, his determination to rescue and marry his pretty sweetheart, Joanna Sedley should please readers of all ages.

The only major drawback to the book is Stevenson's treatment of Richard Plantagenet. In accordance with the calumny so effectively propagated by the Tudors and not finally discredited till the mid to late Twentieth Century, Stevenson depicts Richard as a villain, an ugly and bitter hunchback, ruthless and ambitious. In this view, Richard's undeniable nobility and courage serve only as spurs to his wickedness. It is highly to be regretted that an intelligent, sensitive man and fine writer such as Stevenson accepted these lies as historical fact. He did accept them, though, and using them he paints a vivid picture of "Richard Crookback," as he is called in the novel. Briefly though he appears, Crookback is a formidable figure against whom the hero, Richard Shelton shows both to good and to bad advantage. That is, young Master Shelton is, to be blunt, no warrior. At the same time, he has a true and loyal heart and, the reader is sure, has learned from his youthful mistakes and will grow into both a goodhearted and a sensible man.