Memoirs, true or false
The latest book news was Oprah being duped by another memoir. I just wish people would write fiction and then there is much less to worry about. Apparently the love story between Herman Rosenblat and his wife Roma has been embellished. They are still Holocaust survivors and very much in love, but the sweet but non-existent story of her throwing apples to him while he was in the concentration camp, just didn’t happen. 
I really don’t know what to think about all this memoir fact checking. I’m sure most auto-biographies are embellished to some degree. Oklahomans have their own fictionalized autobiography of our folk hero, Woody Guthrie. Does it diminish the book Bound for Glory, or Woody? I know that sometimes we call it autobiographical rather than autobiography but who are we kidding, go to any library in Oklahoma and it’s shelved as biography and considered nonfiction. 
While I think authors who write biographies of others should check their facts, and provide accurate accounts of the lives of the people they write about, I don’t think we can expect the same adherence to facts when people relay their own stories. They become storytellers rather than historians, and perhaps the reader should either accept or reject improbabilities and judge for themselves the validity of the story.
Couple of things, Angels & Demons movie coming out, Dr. Feaver
Day after Christmas, the morning news is all abuzz with the new tech toys eveyone received as presents. The one that caught my ear was one newsperson complaining about how to get her Kindle up and running. I felt quite superior since I had no trouble getting my book opened this morning. The joy of being a Luddite.
Also much ado about the new Angels & Demons movie starring Tom Hanks, with Ron Howard directing.
Angels & Demons was written before the DaVinci Code. If you haven’t read it yet, go back and get the introduction to the fictional professor, Robert Langdon. It looks like the movie won’t be out until May 2009, so you’ve got plenty of time.
I’ve been thinking about where I could use some improvement for the coming year. Notice, I’m not about to call it resolutions, that would be asking for failure. And I remembered an old college philosophy professor who I greatly respected, Dr. J. Clayton Feaver. Unfortunately I only had one short course under him. We went to his house one day, and I remember gathering around him and hanging on each word, a Plato delivering lectures to dull headed Aristotles. He was my first introduction to people like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. But the one thing I was particularly taken with and still remember all these years later, was when he said we should read at least one book a day, anyone can ingest a 200 to 300 page book in a day. At the time it seems like some sort of impossibility, and I wonder at all the words he read and wished to be able to do the same, still do.
So if I could accomplish one feat for the coming year it would be to read more, maybe a book a day, and remember kind interesting people that inspire and attempt to make us better.
Couple of things, Angels & Demons movie coming out, Dr. Feaver
Day after Christmas, the morning news is all abuzz with the new tech toys eveyone received as presents. The one that caught my ear was one newsperson complaining about how to get her Kindle up and running. I felt quite superior since I had no trouble getting my book opened this morning. The joy of being a Luddite.
Also much ado about the new Angels & Demons movie starring Tom Hanks, with Ron Howard directing.
Angels & Demons was written before the DaVinci Code. If you haven’t read it yet, go back and get the introduction to the fictional professor, Robert Langdon. It looks like the movie won’t be out until May 2009, so you’ve got plenty of time.
I’ve been thinking about where I could use some improvement for the coming year. Notice, I’m not about to call it resolutions, that would be asking for failure. And I remembered an old college philosophy professor who I greatly respected, Dr. J. Clayton Feaver. Unfortunately I only had one short course under him. We went to his house one day, and I remember gathering around him and hanging on each word, a Plato delivering lectures to dull headed Aristotles. He was my first introduction to people like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. But the one thing I was particularly taken with and still remember all these years later, was when he said we should read at least one book a day, anyone can ingest a 200 to 300 page book in a day. At the time it seems like some sort of impossibility, and I wonder at all the words he read and wished to be able to do the same, still do.
So if I could accomplish one feat for the coming year it would be to read more, maybe a book a day, and remember kind interesting people that inspire and attempt to make us better.
Stacy Nyikos, Dragon Wishes on BAM’s Blog
Go check out the review of Stacy Nyikos’ Dragon Wishes on BAM’s Blog, and see what entertainment blogger Brandy McDonnell has to say about her new book. For Stacy’s childrens books, check out Squirt, Shelby, and Dizzy. These books are suggested for ages 4-8, highlighting different aquatic life; squid, dolphins and sharks.
Stacy Nyikos, Dragon Wishes on BAM’s Blog
Go check out the review of Stacy Nyikos’ Dragon Wishes on BAM’s Blog, and see what entertainment blogger Brandy McDonnell has to say about her new book. For Stacy’s childrens books, check out Squirt, Shelby, and Dizzy. These books are suggested for ages 4-8, highlighting different aquatic life; squid, dolphins and sharks.
More Wit and Whimsy for the Holidays
Christmas time and the livin’ is stressful! Elves are jumpin’ and the holiday neuroses are high. You need some good theme-relevant reads to take a break from all of the seasonal insanity.
Start with David Sedaris’s Holidays on Ice,
a collection of essays to appeal to both your inner grinch and your inner Santa. Included are stories about Sedaris’s job as a Macy’s elf, and a holiday letter that goes way off topic. His essay “Six to Eight Black Men” addresses the cultural differences between America and other parts of the world when it comes to the celebration of Christmas. I’ve heard him do this story on CD, and it’s fall-down-funny hilarious.
Follow up with a helping of Connie Willis’s Miracle and Other Christmas Stories.
After Sedaris, you’ll appreciate this author’s sweet but irreverent tone. Willis is an author of wonderful science fiction stories, and she absolutely adores Christmas. She weaves her two loves into some of the most original holiday stories ever published. There’s a murder mystery, a tale of alien invasion, and an homage to the author’s favorite movie, “Miracle on 34th Street.” (Willis detests “It’s a Wonderful Life,” by the way, and that movie takes a number of funny hits in the story.) All of them delivered with good will and a dose of humor.
OK, I’ve given you bitter (Sedaris), and I’ve given you sweet (Willis).
Don’t forget an essential course on Christmas Eve: Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas. Be sure and find an edition that has the correct name for the seventh reindeer. (It’s Donder, folks, not
Donner!) After all, your nerves will be really frazzled by then, and the last thing you need is an argument over a reindeer’s name!
10 Best Christmas Books from the BookExaminer
I’m glad the Christmas Carol, came out on top. See the Book Examiner’s take on the top 10 Christmas Books.
New title from Full Circle Press
From the Full Circle Bookstore website:
Juxtapositions
by Christiane Faris and Margaret Flansburg and award-winning graphic designer Carl Brune
Full Circle Press, is proud to announce its latest release–Juxtapositions, a retrospective of the life of artist and instructor Brunel Faris and his contribution to the visual arts community in Oklahoma City from the late 1960s until his death in 2005. Brunel Faris’s life and career as an artist, teacher and administrator was uniquely entwined with the growth and development of an increasingly confident visual arts community in Oklahoma City. For ordering information, please contact Full Circle by email at customerservice@fullcirclebooks.com or by phone at (405)842-2900 or (800) 683-READ.
For more book reviews to peruse for the holidays go to the Oklahoma Gazette Book Review section.
A Christmas Carol, or it’s okay to be sappy
Every year around Christmas, I go back and read the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, usually followed by several versions of it in movies. I know what could be more sappy but we all have a Christmas idiosyncrasy, mine just involves Scrooge. Sample this wikipedia entry to get the spirit:
“Contemporaries noted that the story’s popularity played a critical role in redefining the importance of Christmas and the major sentiments associated with the holiday. A Christmas Carol was written during a time of decline in the old Christmas traditions.[4] “If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease”, said English poet Thomas Hood.[5"]]
This year I think I could use a new lease more than ever so enjoy.
A Christmas Carol, or it’s okay to be sappy
Every year around Christmas, I go back and read the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, usually followed by several versions of it in movies. I know what could be more sappy but we all have a Christmas idiosyncrasy, mine just involves Scrooge. Sample this wikipedia entry to get the spirit:
“Contemporaries noted that the story’s popularity played a critical role in redefining the importance of Christmas and the major sentiments associated with the holiday. A Christmas Carol was written during a time of decline in the old Christmas traditions.[4] “If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease”, said English poet Thomas Hood.[5"]]
This year I think I could use a new lease more than ever so enjoy.
