Sand on the Desert and the Seashore

That last post was long-winded so for this post I'll comment on two books by the same author (and they are both quick reads). A Desert Scrapbook: Dawn to Dusk in the Sonoran Desert and An Island Scrapbook: Dawn to Dusk on a Barrier Island are both by Virginia Wright-Frierson. They combine sketchbooks, scientist's notes, and a story in enjoyable reads that give a taste of what spending one day outside being observant is like. Since observation is a skill artists, scientists and writers all share that makes sense.

Take a few minutes and read these, then go outside and think about what a scrapbook for where you live would look like. Collect your observations and try writing your own volume (hard work, but it would be cool).

Check the link to the author's website. She has a number of beautiful pieces of art you can see including a mural that was installed in the Columbine School in Colorado.

Mom's City Singing

All across Alaska bubbles are being filled, scratch paper scratched, and heads scratched too... it is state testing week and the pressure is on.

Meanwhile, the teacher has time to read. I forgot the book I am in the middle of at home so I am reading Never a City So Real
A Walk in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz. It is from the Crown Journeys series that I got interested in after reading Lost in My Own Backyard last month. They are not travel books, but snapshots of thoughts on home by authors from many different places. This one is about Chicago, my mom's hometown.

Jack's character gets the book moving along. He is the author's father-in-law and someone you would be proud to be related to. He is a bit of a salesman, stands up for what he believes in and defied the social norms of his day standing up for equal rights. The author goes on to describe Chicago as a "tribal" about their neighborhood identity and says there are more than 200 neighborhoods in Chicago.

When I think of the Chicago I saw when I was little, it was small. In fact it was so small it fit in my grandparent's backyard. They lived in Palatine (a suburb) and when we visited our days were filled with playing in the backyard beneath the branches of a giant weeping willow tree and in the company of cousins, hippity-hops, Cher with-the-amazing-growing-hair dolls, and breaks indoors with Romper Room and Bozo the Clown (which I don't think I ever saw in Montana). Grandpa and Grandma always had a very tidy house and though I don't recall ever meeting their friends they had a social life that involved playing bridge for grandma and poker for grandpa. More importantly they were active in church. I thought Chicago was small because we just stayed at my grandparents. I was wrong.

Kotlowitz contends that Chicagoans "look at their city from the vantage point of outsiders." How odd. The people that live there still feel like they are from somewhere else? Maybe he means they don't have any romantic preconceived idea about what a Chicagoan is. I guess most of the places I have lived I have felt some disconnect. In Yellowstone it is nature's home... we are all intruding in some way, in Montana we were town kids when the ranch kids seemed to have the roots deep into the place, and in Billings we lived in suburbs. It felt illsuited to the deer hunting in the breaks just a few miles from town and designed to drive through... not walk. I guess we all feel that way sometimes.

Back to Chicago. Of course there are stories about unions and industry, greasy diners, murals, mobsters and of course the blues.

There is an interesting look at how the projects and poverty affect the crime rate. The defendants arrive for their trials and court hearings dressed casually... "They're making a statement:'I don't respect this setting enough to pull out my best outfit.'" But it is understood that the circumstances that can place someone in trouble are very close. "The line is thin, and anyone can cross it. Anyone. I used to think, 'I'm a nice loving person. There's no way I could ever commit a violent act.' But you do this long enough, you know anyone can kill. Anyone. Under the right circumstances. If you understand that, then maybe you have a little more appreciation for the freedoms you have here. It isn't someone else's problem."97 So I will enjoy my circumstances, and hope that they will improve for others. A good read if you are interested in Chicago, America's "Second City."

Lost in the Jungle Without Cities

Currently I am bushwhacking my way through The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. It just came in through an Amazon order placed after seeing an interview on The Daily Show (I only mention the company since it's namesake is in the title).

The beginning of the book was a little difficult to get into but now I am having fun alternately being grossed out by stories about cannibalism and scared by the many ways to die in the Amazon. It amazes me anyone had the tenacity to explore so many difficult places, survive and then head back for more. I guess I am just an armchair explorer type. What cracks me up about this book is the author is kind of like me, then he gets interested in this mystery of what happened to Faucet (a Victorian era explorer) and he ends up going there himself trying to solve the riddle of Faucett's life.

I was looking at the title and thought the sub-title (A Tale of Deadly Obsession Into the Amazon) may have not only referred to Fawcett's demise, but also the biographer's obsession with the subject. Since the author survived I guess it is only about Fawcett but it must take a bit of an obsession to really write a biography well. Janet Malcolm compares a biographer to a "professional burglar, breaking into a house, rifling through certain drawers that he has good reason to think contain jewelry and money, and triumphantly bearing his loot away." This book is very entertaining and makes me interested in a subject I thought I only had a small interest in. I am mid-way through the book and currently I am obsessed with finding out if the mystery behind what happened to Fawcett will be answered; either way, I am enjoying the ride.

Check out David Grann's website for more information on him (plus the Daily Show interview as well as a slide show about his book).

Memory's Helper

Writing Her Own Life by Mary Clearman Blew

Writing is not just a plot, the facts, or even a character study. Well written pieces open the reader's imagination inviting a sort of Spock-like mind meld with another time and place. This book is a conversation between the author and her aunt's journal (kept in the mid 1930's through the 40's). She questions her aunt's choices, marvels at her strength and quietly listens to her wisdom.

This book reminds me Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It." I think the time period is similar and they are both about memories and growing up in the west at that time.
"After all, memory occupies no space. memory lives in its own small realm of bone and brain, and it worries, not about some measureless past which somehow exists behind us, but about the frayed edges of a dimensionless map whose markings of roads and rivers and events are overlaid, like a series of transparencies, upon the shifting present. Memory starts nowhere, starts anywhere, radiates perhaps from some asterisked city of the mind. Explores and abandons its trails. Writes down lies in indelible ink. Erases the truth. A diary may correspond to a timeline, days following days, but memory toes nobody's line."

Learn more about Mary Clearman Blew by checking this link to an interview with the author.

My Own Backyard

Digging my way through Nonfiction Matters inspired me to take a look at some nonfiction in my life. I turned to Lost in My Own Backyard by Tim Cahill which I have been meaning to read for a while now — procrastinators always have a to read list handy.

The author contends that Yellowstone is America's backyard... but even though metaphorically that is true it literally was my backyard for a good portion of my life. Cahill writes like a local who wants to share Yellowstone and tells about his experiences in the park in a friendly informal voice.

I think anyone remotely interested in Yellowstone Park would find this a great read. He describes the wonders of Yellowstone and the things that just make you wonder. There is a sprinkling of history (Thomas Moran's paintings of Yellowstone "shredded the fabric of doubt" about whether a place like it existed) with much about geology and wildlife. Cahill made me curious about our earth which is "mighty beyond our imagining."

Mount Redoubt just left a dusting of ash across our fair state... imagine what it would be like if 37 miles worth of mountains just blew up in a matter of hours and buried Idaho in an eight foot thick blanket of ash. That is the furnace that burns Yellowstone. The fires are still burning.

Nonfiction Does Matter

"Life is nonfiction." Bevery Kobrin as quoted in the book I'm reading.

I am reading Nonfiction Matters by Stephanie Harvey. Sometimes during reading time I think to myself how odd it is that I rarely see my students writing notes or copying passages from the books they are reading. Even books they really like rarely get the treatment of noting the information, ideas, or plays on words during our time to read. Blogging does happen, but I wonder if the blogs would carry more of how the reading is going if they are written from notes taken while reading.

I note this because I am reading a book about ideas to help me teach more effectively, so I am taking notes. I also tend to stop and copy quotations from books when I really like what they say. My sketchbooks are littered with wise words I wish I had thought of but some author said just right. Some of the quotations are there because I just want to think about them a bit longer... they challenge me. So, think on these things... take notes while you read and you will hold those words with you longer. Enjoy.

Professional Development

On Saturday I was reading professional development materials... you often have to read for your job. Even when I worked at Wall Mart I had to read and understand the instructions the manager of the department I worked in left for me. There are also important papers you need to understand about your benefits, taxes and how to get reimbursements. You may not get all of the money you have due you if you don't understand these forms and the policies well enough to follow them.