The Hidden Life of Trees

Twitter: @burns_nancy

#List of Challenges 2018

Genre:   non-fiction (natural history)
Rating: B+

Review:
Usually when I walk to the train station I keep my eyes glued to the pavement. Today while listening to The Hidden Life of Trees I just kept looking up!
When I heard that trees can communicate sending warnings for danger to other trees, feed other trees via a root system if one is needing support and can even ‘murmurer’….every time I let out an audible “Oh!”

But really made me laugh was my uncontrollable urge to touch the bark of the trees on the way home. People must have thought I was crazy.
Natural history is a genre that I often forget about…but this year I am going to try to read many more books about the wonders of the world …right under my eyes.

I listened to the audio book 7,5 hours….and it was so interesting that I would listen to it again!
#MustListen #MustRead

Why Poetry?

• Author: M. Zapruder
• Title: Why Poetry?
• Published: 2017
• Trivia: Zapruder doesn’t think poetry should be dissected
• ….in a search for its meaning.
• Instead, an understanding of a poem comes to life anew
• “in the mind of each half-dreaming reader.” (Ecco)

Conclusion:

1. I had the sudden urge to listen to  a poem
2. while making my breakfast oatmeal: ‘Twas the night before Christmas“.
3. It made me laugh.
4. I tried to recite it by heart…but faltered after the first 8 lines.
5. I watched the birds this morning ….and they watched me!
6. A food critic is a ‘thing with feathers’ !
7. I put some blueberries on the birdfeeding table
8. …and just earned my first Michelin star!
9. Time to listen to Thomas Hardy’s  ‘The Darkling Thrush‘ once again.
10. While reading ‘Why Poetry’ by M. Zapruder
11. I stumbled upon Amiri Baraka (1934-2014).
12. His poem ‘Who Blew Up America‘  ( political activist!).
13. I listened to the poem…and it was very powerful. It is a 9 minute video
14. …but the ending did surprise me.
15. Then I found  a poem that reminded me of
16. …the seasons changing and the coming of winter:
17. I listened to Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening‘.
18. Now it was time to listen to my favorite Robert Frost poem: A Road Not Taken.
19. I drift off to that ‘poetic state’ and relive
20. …the moment I decided to ….leave my home,
21. ….venture to a new country
22. ….not knowing if I would ever come back.

Last thoughts:

1. Zapruder’s goal was to bring people closer
2. …to the experience of poetry without destroying it.
3. This book  taught me not to be afraid of poetry....but to
4. open my mind and heart to it.
5. It is true what Anne Carson (Canadian poet, 1950) says:
6. Reading a poem is:
7. “..a movement of yourself through a thought…
8. by the time you get to the end you’re different
9. …than you were at the beginning
10. …and you feel the difference”
11. #MustRead

The Best Australian Essays 2016

• Editor: G. Williamson
• Title: The Best Australian Essays 2016
• Published: 2016

Geordie Williamson (editor)

1. He was for several years chief literary critic of he former chief literary critic of the Australian.
2. He is now the Publisher at Picador Australia.
3. Geordie Williamson won the 2011 Pascall Prize for Criticism.
4. He edited the 2015 and 2016 editions of The Best Australian Essays.

Conclusion:

1. Australia has much to celebrate in its non-fiction writing.
2. This is a collection of personal experiences, culture and politics.
3. The writing is very good!
4. Strongest point of this book:
5. Introduced me to some extraordinary writers!
6. …that I would never have discovered!
7. The essays I liked the most were ‘personal essays’.
8. Essays are more real than fiction….
9. The personal essay is like an offering, a hand
10. ….reaching out in a gesture of connection.
11. Maggie Mackellar – Willie Wagtail…..that help with Mackellar’s grief!
12. Tegan Bennett Daylight – clever metaphor…is the  solution to the problem!
13. Anna Spargo-Ryan: – heartwarming essay that gave me a ‘good feeling’ !

Other essays……

1. Rebecca Giggs: I’ll never look at a whale in the same way.
2. Melinda Harvey – insights about…the E. Ferrante novels.
3. Helen Garner – interesting fragments from iconic writer.
4. Jennifer Mills – well-researched…environment warning to us all
5. Ashley Hay – weather has the power to change people’s lives.
6. M. de Kretser – my first introduction to Randolph Stow
7. Jo Chandler – …amazing Great Barrier Coral Reef!
8. Gregory Day and Peter Goldsworthy – review of poem collections
9. J.M. Coetzee (Nobel Prize winner 2003) ‘ introduction to book The Good Soldier.
10. James Bradley – essay David Bowie
11. …music is the way we remember ourselves
12. ……to the connection to the people we once were.”
13. Julian Burnside – barrister…...was “no holds barred” !
14. His essay:  “What Kind of a Country are We?”

Last thoughts:

1.  There are many writers I have yet to discover.
2. Editor G. Williamson has made some hard decisions and
3. narrowed his selections to 29 TOP Australian essays 2016.
4. This is a perfect Xmas gift for the
5. person on your shopping list that keeps saying:
6. “I don’t have time to read a long book!”
7. You can read an essay….with your morning coffee!

Cardinal

• Title: Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell
• Author: Louise Milligan
• Published: 2017
• Trivia: #AWW  (Australian Women Writers)
• Trivia: Awarded Walkley Book of Year 2017 ( Australian journalism prizes)

Review:

1. The winner of the 2017 Walkley Book Award is Louise Milligan.
2. This her explosive book about…. “Cardinal: The rise and fall of George Pell”.
3. Louise Milligan’s book examines Australia’s
4. …most senior Catholic through the lens of the child abuse saga
5. …which has dogged the Catholic Church.
6. She tells how George Pell rose from Ballarat boy to Oxford.
7. He rose through the ranks to become the Vatican’s indispensable “treasurer”.
8. Louise Milligan  is an excellent investigative journalist
9. …who has followed the story doggedly
   
10. She pieced together the story with sensitivity and care
11. ….from thousands of pages of historical documents
12. ….and interviews with hundreds of people.
13. The book has had an enormous impact.
14. Last thoughts:
15. I discovered this book by accident:
16. …winner of the Walkley Book of the Year Award 2017
17. The investigation is ongoing….
18. …Cardinal Pell will appear in court on 05 March 2018.
19. This book is groundbreaking
20. ….and nerve wracking for the Vatican.
21. It is impossible to add anything else to this review.
22. My mind is exhausted and I am stunned and speechless 
23. …about  the cover-ups concerning  George Pell and child abuse by the
24. …Catholic Church.
25. #MustRead

#AusReadingMonth Wrap Up

Summer in Australia…..

1. Life happens….when you made other plans.
2. I don’t know who said that but  this adage is so true.
3. That is what happened to Brona
4. ….during her fifth #AusReadingMonth challenge.
5. A family loss, arrangements to be made comforting others while you need
6. …so much comfort yourself.
7. And then trying to pull yourself together and  get on with life.
8. But that is sometimes easier said than done.

1. I discovered #AusReadingMonth 4 years ago.
2. I progressed from one book, to 1 massive Australian classic, to 6 books
3. …and this year 16 books!
4. I read short stories , crime fiction, classics, non-fiction, fiction
5. …and even a paranormal/speculative fiction (1)!
6. I was in the Tanami Desert and on the Silk Road (dark web) searching for drugs.
7. I was in WA with the most lovable families the Lambs and the Pickles.
8. I saw ghosts! I rode with the Kelly gang,
9. …wrote political satire poems with C.J. Dennis.
10. I solved a murder…finally found Tasmania on the map.
11. My finest moments were learning more about the aboriginals
12. …and meeting some old friends, Thea Astley and Nevil Shute.
13. I pushed myself….to read, read and read some more.
14. Why?
15. I did it for Brona.
16. When a friend stumbles you support them in any way you can.
17. I’m not close to Australia….actually on the other side of the world.
18. But I had to be there for Brona, that’s what ‘reading friends’ are for.
19. I had energy for two….and I read for both of us.

1. There will come a time in 2018  when I stumble
2. ....a reading ‘burn out’.
3. I know I will get an encouraging  ‘twitter’  message that will comfort me.
4. Brona,  November….
5. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
6. …as Dickens would say.
7. I had the BEST  #AusReadingMonth….ever,  thanks.

Books:

1. My Place – S. Morgan
   
2. Cloudstreet – T. Winton                                      
3. True History of the Kelly Gang – P. Carey
4. Silk Road – E. Ormsby –
   
5. The Grief Hole – K. Warren     
6. The Hands – S. Orr
7. The Life and Work of C.J. Dennis – P. Butterss
8. A Boat Load of Home Folk – T. Astley                           
   
9. A Town Like Alice – N. Shute
10. Essay:  Why She Broke – H. Garner -Walkley Award 2017 Feature Writing
    
11. Position Doubtful – K. Mahood
12. Into the Heart of Tasmania – R. Taylor
13. Portable Curiosities – J. Koh 
14. Salt Water – C. McLennan – READ
15. Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell  – L. Milligan  2017 Walkley Award          

L’ami

• Author: Gao Xingjian (1940)
  
• Title: L’ami
• Genre: memoir ….only 22 pages
• Published: 2001
• Trivia: List Reading Challenges 2017
• Trivia: Nobel Prize Reading Challenge

What could I find about the author Gao Xingjian?

1. Gao Xingjian is a Chinese émigré novelist, playwright, and critic .
2. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2000.
3. He is also a noted translator screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter.
4. In 1998, Gao was granted French citizenship.

Conclusion:

1. I’m careful about embarking on a long book by a Chinese writer.
2. Sometimes I’m lucky, sometimes I’m not.
3. I read L’Ami to give myself a ‘taste’ of Gao Xingjian’s writing.
4. I want to read more of Xingjian’s books….but in English!
5. This book  is written in such a simple style
6. …..it feels complex.
7. Tone:  nostalgic – two old friends (60+) meet again after 13 years.

I knew it was you…your hair is white.
Why didn’t you write?’
Tell me exactly what happened that day.
Are you oke?’

Last thoughts:

1. I enjoyed reading this very simple story
2. …and must admit it lingered in my mind longer than
3. some 500+ page novels!

Classics Club Spin #16

” I can’t look…..what is the number for #16 CC spin?”

What is the spin?

1. Before next Friday, November 17th, create a post to list your choice of any
2. twenty books that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.
3. Try to challenge yourself.
4. This is your Spin List. 
5. On Friday, November 17th, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20.
6. The challenge: read whatever book falls under that number
7. on your Spin List by December 31, 2017.
8. Check is in here in January!

• I have selected 20 classic plays…..on my TBR.
• Here is the list:
  

1.  Death of a Salesman (1949) by Arthur Miller

2. A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams

3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: (1962) by Edward Albee

4. Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956) by Eugene O’Neill –   READING !!

5. Fences (1985) by August Wilson

6. The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) by Martin McDonagh

7. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (1953) by Samuel Beckett

8. Pygmalion (1913) by George Bernard Shaw

9. A Raisin in the Sun (1959) by Lorraine Hansberry

10. Our Town (1938) by Thornton Wilder

11. Present Laughter (1942) by Noel Coward

12. The Glass Menagerie (1944) by Tennessee Williams

13. Glengarry Glen Ross(1984) by David Mamet

14. August: Osage County (2007) by Tracy Letts

15. Ruined (2008) by Lynn Nottage

16. The Iceman Cometh (1946) by Eugene O’Neill

17. Look Back in Anger (1956) by John Osborne

18. Master Harold and the Boys (1982) by Athol Fugard

19. The Little Foxes. (1939) by Lillian Hellman

20. The Real Thing (1982) by Tom Stoppard

Essays of E.B. White

• Author:  E.B. White (1899-1985)
• Title: Essays of E.B. White
• Published: 1977
  
• Table of contents: 7 chapters, 364 pages  – 31 essays
  
• Trivia: Elwyn Brooks  White  American writer, a contributor to The New Yorker.
• List Reading Challenges 2017
• #DealMeIn2017

The Eye of Edna – (September 1954)

White  is poking fun at the radio broadcasting pre-storm. The radio messages come out of the SW and as soon as the storm leaves the area and tears into NE (Maine…) there are no more warnings or news!

The cook, Mrs. Freely who takes her hurricanes where she finds them….”Heard from Edna?”

I visit the barn, my peaceable kingdom.  Pond seemed bereft without the geese…they are in the barn.The rain eased  (Edna’s Eye) and we let the dachshund out. Unlike the geese she had no use for rough weather. She had obey the radio faithfully all day: stay put under the stove.

I took a stroll, the hurricane yet to come. My stroll turned out to be a strange one. I found the bridge under water! I entered the woods and took the path to the spring. I came back into the house, kicked off my boots and sank once again into radio-land. The trees bent low as to pray for salvation.

For a half an hour or so Edna held us in her full embrace.

• Getting ready for a hurricane….was a great read while the news is
• filled with CAT 5 hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria 2017!

Coon Tree – (June 1956)

Neighbor: – Raccoon is having her kittens in a tree  penthouse 35 feet from the ground…..at the same height of White’s bedroom window. White describes the coon’s nighttime comings and goings.  In the tree the coon looks dainty and charming….the circles uner her eyes make her look slightly dissapated and deserving of sympathy. Once she hits the ground she is a predator and close to evil in nature, which contains no evil, can be.

She washes her face as a cat does. If the kittens are young and quiet…she finishes her bath and descends the tree. Like a mother with no babysitter and a firm date at the theater…she takes her leave regretfully, hesitantly.

Because she is a lover of sweet corn her economic status is precarious. She will take my corn in season and for every ear she eats she will ruin 5. I keep planting corn, some for her and what’s left for me and mine surroundin the patch with all sorts of coon baffles.

I like the taste of corn….but like the nearness  coon better.

Kitchen: I elected to let my old kitchen in this house live. It is a rich intoxicating blend of the past, present and future. The room teems with life. It is a cookery, bakery, horticulture, canning, planning. It is an arsenal, greenhouse, doghouse, a surgical dressing station, bath house, lounge, library and bar.

On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen the place you can find it.

A Report in January: (1958)

New England: What have you been doing lately?

Just  living in New England in winter is a full time job!  You don’t have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side…in favor of living itself.

I’m trying to keep a fox from my door! Yesterday he carried one of my  hens who was testing her snow shoes.  One of the most time consuming past times is having an enemy, the fox is mine.

Winter: The days are short as any dream. I like to come in from chores and find the early dark in the rooms when the only gleam is a single lamp over an amaryllis bulb on which my wife is practicing some sort of deception.

I like  groping my way into the barn cellar at 6 am where my two white face heffers are feeding at the rack. Their great white heads visible, their dark bodies invisible. Just 2 heads suspended in air as neatly as John the Baptist’s.

Conclusion:

• Part one:   ‘The Farm’ was the best part of the book.
• These 11 stories are filled with…
• nostalgia, humor about barnyard animals
• ….and the ups and downs of a hobby farmer in Downeast Maine.
• E. B. White said the years on his farm in Maine were the happiest.
• Part 2: I literally fell asleep listening to  ‘The Planet’
• Part 3:  ‘The City ( NYC) at least kept me awake, barely.
• I didn’t feel that these were White’s best essays.

• Children’s books: He later wrote 3 classic children’s books ….about animals:
• Stuart Little (boy mouse), Charlotte the spider and piglet Wilbur
• …and Louis the swan.
• Stuart Little is one of my favorite of all children’s books.

• Part 5: The section on ‘Memories’ was delightful.
• ‘Memories’ are filled with enchanting and funny essays:
• — White’s trip to Alaska 1923 on the steamer Buford
• — nostalgic stories about his beloved sail boat  in Maine
• — his longing for better train travel in Maine.
• The passengers disappeared, the tower on Bangor Union Station
• …was demolished in 1961 and
• ….E.B. White could feel the wrecking ball in the pit of his stomach.
• Great writing…. !

Johan Maelwael

• Author: P. Roelofs
• Titel: Johan Maelwael  (1370 – 1415)
• Published: October 2017
• Trivia:  P. Roelofs is conservator 17th C Dutch Art at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Conclusion:

1. I visited this exposition on the opening day 06 October 2017
2. Catalogue of fifty breathtaking medieval treasures –
3. paintings, illuminated manuscripts, precious metalwork and sculpture –
4. united in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (06 Oct 2017 – 07 Jan 2018)
5. to tell the story of Dutch artist Johan Maelwael.

Exceptional loan:

1. The absolute center piece of the exhibition is “La Grande Pietà Ronde”
2. from the collection of the Musée du Louvre.
3. This Lamentation of Christ, painted for Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1363-1404),
4. combines the subject of the Suffering Christ with that of the Holy Trinity.
5. The round panel, preserved in a pristine condition,
6. is one of the rare works attributed to Johan Maelwael to have survived.
7. Purchased by the Louvre in 1864
8. ….it has never left Paris since 1962.

“La Grande Pietà Ronde”

Close up: