FiberTribe: Sustenance & Desire

Feed My Head 2010

Andrea Camilleri: The Wings of the Sphinx (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)
The wonderful, irascible Inspector Montalbano of Vigata, Sicily is at it again. Did I mention he's wonderful? And there are 10 earlier ones in the series.
Ariana Franklin: The Serpent's Tale
The very wonderful Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar (prepare to die!) continues her work. Who knew that the wretched pit that is present day Salerno once housed an amazing and Europe-reknowned medical school? Where even women were allowed to become doctors...
Ariana Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death
Wonderful. And amazing as a first novel. There are some inevitably cringe-worthy scenes (if you're going to be true to the middle ages) but Franklin's ability to bring those times to life is spot-on. And she is amazing with the first of the Plantagenets. Makes me want to jump his unsavory little bones.
Nicholas Blake: The Worm of Death
Vintage 1960 British murder mystery. Good if you'd like to learn quayside shipping vocabulary for the docks at Greenwich...
Kent Haruf: Where You Once Belonged
Well written but depressing. Very depressing. His others are better.
Kent Haruf: Eventide
the sequel, sort of, to the wonderful Plainsong. I know that he's the father someone related to a knitblogger I read regularly. She mentioned him one time and the prior book Plainsong. Who? dunno. I'm not sure I would have appreciated Haruf as much had I not moved to a small, rural town. Go find him. He's quietly wonderful.
Ray Kurzweil Ph.D.: Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever
Another state-of-the-research book from Kurzweil and the longevity physician, Terry Grossman. I liked Fantastic Voyage better, but for sheer quality of information relevant to our health today, it's hard to beat. You can get a free (but for the shipping cost) copy at Ray and Terry's, their website that sells the supplements key to the program. As they say, they don't care if you get the supplements from them or not, just get them, take them and make the lifestyle changes. Then we'll be around to benefit from the next geometric progression of the health research paradigm.
Mehmet Oz M.D.: Healing from the Heart: A Leading Heart Surgeon Explores the Power of Complementary Medicine
so far so good. the ego required to succeed in the star-system world of cardio-thoracic surgery is only minimally present at the half way point in this book. In his world this is no doubt radical, radical stuff. Interesting to see the highest towers of traditional western medicine allow alternative therapies in.
Diane Ackerman: The Zookeeper's Wife
Love Diane Ackerman. Just started this, I'll get back to you...
Dana Stabenow: Whisper to the Blood: A Kate Shugak Novel (Kate Shugak Novels)
Another keeper. All is not well in The Park. The Aunties have taken matters into their own hands. Be afraid. another bit of wonderfulness from Dana Stabenow. Once again I'll be tapping my fingers for another year till the next Kate Shugak mystery shows up. Sigh.
Byron Katie: A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are
Loving What Is continued on...tough Work but is there really a choice about it? heh.
Greg Mortenson: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Alrighty, I'm late to this game but if you haven't read this, go forth and read it NOW. It's a wonderful tale and it's not over yet. As we ramp up the war in Afghanistan why not join the Dept. of Defense and do your required reading? As Rep. Mary Bono (yes, that one) says, you'll learn more about the region from this book than you will from months of Pentagon briefings. Go Dr. Greg!
Andrea Camilleri: August Heat
Camilleri's latest Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicilia. Just wonderful. Now I have to wait a year for the next one. Crap.
Janwillem van de Wetering: The Japanese Corpse (Soho crime)
Two Dutch cops sent to Kyoto to solve a murder in Amsterdam involving the Yakusa. Van de Wetering is a 'voice' like no other. He spent several years in a Zen monastery in Kyoto himself. The entire series has been re-issued by Soho Crime and is totally wonderful. And the cover design by Cheryl Cipriani is awesome. Yes, I'm a cover art ho.
Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)
Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic
The hardback has an illustration taken from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Proserpine. Much nicer. Hoffman's a great storyteller. And I always want her characters to go forward to the next book. But they never do. Go read this one anyway. You're welcome.
Tony Hillerman: The Mysterious West
This is a REALLY wonderful short story collection edited by Hillerman. Lord, I'm going to miss that man. All of the stories are set in the west or midwest, small towns and large. They're quirky and somewhat unexpected, especially relative to the usual work of the authors like J.A. Jance, Dana Stabenow (a bit darker), Lia Matera (chilling), etc. The true find for me is Wendy Hornsby. One of the best written stories, independent of genre, I've ever read. I've never read a more skillfully built exposition of the backstory built into the actual story. wow. I'm off to see what else of hers I can find.
Charles de Lint: The Wild Wood
Re-reading this bit of loveliness from de Lint. Among other things, it's about an artist who's lost her mojo. It's apropos given that I've re-started The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
Elizabeth A. Lynn: Chronicles of Tornor 3: The Northern Girl (Chronicles of Tornor)
Found this as I was repacking ancient boxes of books. It was written in the late 70s and is flat out wonderful. It's the third book of a trilogy (the 2nd one is Dancers of Arun) I highly recommend all of them. It's Fantasy with an incredibly drawn world worth of an Ursula LeGuin, deep and quirky characters, and stay-up-all-night story telling. go. find them.
Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]
A birthday gift from the Gomez. Starting this once again after years of hiatus. Wonderful.

February 20, 2006

Sustenance & Desire

...is the name of a most wonderful book by an artist with one name, Bascove. Her work is lovely and is featured throughout. The cover is one of her paintings. It is a book containing art, poetry, and prose all on the theme of Sustenance & Desire. I love books, works of art, movies, performance art that breaks or combines artforms, boundaries, genres. If there is a theme to my life, and lord I do hope there is, all evidence to the contrary right now, it might surely be a visceral loathing of and crossing of all borders and boundaries. Be they nation-state, interpersonal, political, you name it. ahem. back to the book. She apparently has several books out that cross boundaries. If you go to the usual website (hint, hint) you'll even be able to page through a bit of it.

If I had the money I'd buy it and send it as a gift to everyone I know RIGHT NOW. It's that wonderful. Mari? Neena? Margene? Edge? Jayne? Shobhana? Mary in England? Catherine, Ellen, Kirsten, Iris, Mindy? Rachael, Daisy-Winifred, Michelle? Siow-Chin? Oh, christ, I'm forgetting so many names but to find a book like this makes me realize how blessed (yes, I mean blessed) to know so many friends who will not only get but love this book. And I don't care if I'm screwing up my future gift-giving surprises but you better tell me if you buy this for yourself because you sure as hell are getting it from me at the next gift giving occasion.

And to the point of all this, underneath the beauty and the luminous in her book, on page 95 you will find a poem by Mohja Kahf called: Pears in the Time of Burnished Gold. If ever I marry, I will speak her words as my vows. and those of you who know me and/or know my thoughts on marriage will know that says a lot. Leave a comment if you'd like an excerpt.

An alternate title to today's post could have been, "Mama Said (There'd be Days Like This), Mama Said".
eh. not a good day today. lost in many senses of the word. I knew going into this period, much like the time when you let go of one trapeze but haven't yet laid hands on the other, that there'd be bad days and good. but dayum, this lost bit is strange. I'm thinking I need to travel, like NOW. And on top of everything, and for no reason I can discern, I began getting slightly dizzy or off balance around noon today, just sitting down tapping away on the computer. I mean, what the fuck is that? le sigh.

Posted at 06:16 PM | Permalink

Comments

Holy Moly! You're going to break my bank ; ) -- I just ordered Confessions of an Economic Hitman from Amazon on Friday and this is now next on the list. I love enthusiastic book reviews, this one sounds fabulous, thanks for the strong endorsement!

Posted by: Jayne | February 20, 2006 at 09:50 PM

I want an excerpt please. Heading off to look.

Posted by: Edge | February 21, 2006 at 08:45 AM

Definitely an excerpt, please. AND thank you for the recommendation, AGAIN. Oh, and PLEASE come see us...

Posted by: Neena | February 21, 2006 at 10:36 AM

Excerpt, please! ;)

This sounds like fascinating. I'm so with you on the genre-bending thing...my class was talking about that today, actually, about the future of opera being something outside of the traditional operatic stage and something that can encompass multimedia, etc. Sort of like "thinking outside the box"...except, wouldn't it be better if we could get rid of the boxes?

Posted by: Michelle | February 21, 2006 at 06:39 PM