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Archive for the ‘Books I Love’ Category

Sunday Musings …

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, Music, Nature Notes on March 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This Sunday, I find myself consumed with thoughts of math, music, science, and art — and oh, what a tangled web they weave.  As I sit at the computer right now, I have open beside me a copy of Douglas Hofstadter’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Godel, Escher, Bach:  An Eternal Golden Braid.  On the left page is Figure 104. Castrovalva, by M.C. Escher. On the right page, a crab, tortoise and Achilles are having a conversation about mathematics.  It’s a book that I know is great, but my goodness, it does tax my brain.  In a good way. 😉

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Paying Attention to the Song of a Single Bird

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged , , , on March 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

So when I first saw the book, Altar in the World, in hardback I didn’t even crack the spine.  Then it came out in paperback, with the cover image of a blue bird on a blue branch set against a soft beige-cream background. And, in red scrolling text, the title of the book just off center.  Kudos to the designers because quite frankly I am a sucker for packaging and I am so happy I opened the book.

There’s a quote on the cover from The Dallas Morning News that says, “Not a page turner, it is a page lingerer.”  So true.  It is a book about one woman’s journey dealing with faith.  Whatever one’s beliefs, I think it is a beautiful read.  Here is a passage that had me lingering this morning:

“The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people … To see takes time, like having a friend takes time.  It is as simple as turning off the television to learn the song of a single bird.

I have yet to learn the song of a bird, but I did pay attention to the birds as I walked from the parking lot to my office building.  I saw 5 pigeons, 3 robins, 2 blue jays, a rock dove and at least 1 starling.  As I entered the building, behind me I did hear a beautiful song.  Though I scanned the nearby tree branches and rooftops, I could not spy the bird.  Next time.

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Old Books with New Resonance: Little House on the Prairie

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, tagged , , , on January 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I recently stumbled upon a series of books I had not thought about in years. Little girls everywhere love an adventure. That’s why, regardless of race, class and even chronological age, girls everywhere have enjoyed the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder depicting her family’s journey across the American midwest in the late 1800s. I certainly did as an African American girl growing up in southern Virginia.

I remember reading the books in elementary school. Even after I got tired of the series (my attention captured by Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web), I continued to bring books home because my mother was reading them. It may be nostalgic embellishment, but I’d swear that I remember seeing her finish one, close the cover gently, and sigh. That sigh was filled with pleasure at a lovely read and sadness that the read was done.

There are numerous books in the series, some published during Wilder’s lifetime and others posthumously. My favorite versions are the early editions illustrated by Garth Williams.

The books are widely available in bookstores. You can learn more about Laura Ingalls Wilder here and about illustrator Garth Williams here.

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Beautiful Book Covers (and Great Content!)

Posted in Books I Love, tagged on January 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

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The White Deer Illustrations

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, tagged , , , on January 24, 2010| 1 Comment »

I forgot to mention in my previous post — the words of The White Deer are lovey, but so are the illustrations done by Thurber and Don Freeman.

“rabbits here can tip their heads as men now tip their hats, removing them with their paws and putting them back again.”

Read more about Don Freeman here:  http://www.bookstallsf.com/freeman.html#BIOGRAPHY

Read more about James Thurber here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thurber

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A Book To Be Read Aloud: The White Deer

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged , on January 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“If you should walk and wind and wander far enough on one of those afternoons in April when smoke goes down instead of up, and nearby things sound far away and far things near, you are more than likely to come at last to the enchanted forest that lies between the Moonstone Mines and Centaurs Mountain.  You’ll know the woods when you are still a long way off by virtue of a fragrance you can never quite forget and never quite remember.  And there’ll be a distant bell that causes boys to run and laugh and girls to stand and tremble. If you pluck one of the ten thousand toadstools that grow in the emerald grass … it will feel as heavy as a hammer in your hand, but if you let it go it will sail away over the trees like a tiny parachute …”

— the beginning of The White Deer by James Thurber (1945)

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Books Jumping Off the Shelf

Posted in Books I Love, tagged , on January 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In a horribly, wonderfully, weak moment, I recently walked into a children’s book store empty-handed and walked out with a bag full of books.  With a growing cadre of nieces and nephews, not to mention many good friends having children, I haven’t quite decided which child (or adult!) will be the recipient of which books. After reading and re-reading them, I hope I can let them go!  The covers and content of these two books particularly stick with me:  The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney, and Blues Journey by Walter Dean Myers.

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A New Inspiration: The Photography of Andy Rouse

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged , , on January 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Because I work part-time in a bookstore, people often ask me if I’ve read anything good lately.  My favorite book of the past year had about 3 pages of text in total as an introduction.  The rest of the several hundred page book is portraits — animal portraits by UK photographer Andy Rouse.

There are traditional wildlife photos of the big cats, great apes, and so forth.  But then there are the images that took my breath away as I tried to figure out what was happening in the picture or understand how such emotion could be captured on a page.  In particular look for the mammoth head of an East African Cape buffalo covered by insect-eating birds or the red-eyed lepilemur blending into the multicolored bark of a Madagascar tree.

I found the book on a remainder’s shelf for just a couple of bucks, but I would have happily paid full price.  Seek it out in a bookstore or at your public library.

Andy Rouse’s website: http://www.andyrouse.co.uk/

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Speaking of Butterflies: Shay Youngblood’s Black Girl in Paris

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, tagged , on November 25, 2009| 2 Comments »

Years ago, when I was at a different crossroads in my life, a colleague suggested I read a book by one of her former students.  The book was Shay Youngblood’s A Black Girl in Paris.  As the title suggests, it’s about a young American woman who packs her bags and moves to the City of Lights.  I greatly enjoyed the book and even shared it with friends who then shared it with their friends.  Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Youngblood.  She spoke during an evening event about taking a break from writing, trying her hand at painting on large canvases, and creating small bookmarks.  And, I was inspired and reminded that sometimes the only people pigeonholing us as “just a writer” or “just a painter” are ourselves.

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Rediscovery: The Africa Diaries

Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, tagged , , , , on November 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Not to be cliche, but I have indeed always dreamed of traveling to Africa.  To this day, I remember as a child watching on network television shows like Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and National Geographic.  At first I wanted to be one of the researchers on the ground studying the animals and the people.  That interest influenced my decisions to study subjects like biology, environmental history and geography.  Over time my interest evolved to include the people behind the scenes, shooting the footage that influenced my life so much.  I’m sure that’s why I picked up the book, The Africa Diaries, An Illustrated Memoir of Life in the Bush by Dereck & Beverly Joubert.

It is a beautiful book of words by Derek Joubert and images by Beverly Joubert, of the landscape, the animals, the local people, and mostly, of the relationship between a husband and wife with a common passion for Africa. I highly recommend.

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