Astronomical Observations

Halfway through Mike Brown’s How I Killed Pluto, my son is still enthralled by the story of discovery of Kuiper-belt objects. Kudos to Mr. Brown for his skill in making this astronomy accessible and interesting enough to hold the attention of a stubbornly non-book 11-year-old boy. And his mother. (Will you lose all respect for me, dear reader, if I admit I did not know what the Kuiper belt was until I read about it in this book? I even had to look it up so I could pronounce it correctly.)

Meanwhile, I am halfway through Edith Pargeter’s massive Brothers of Gwynedd. More than once, as the dramatic story thread has seemed to get lost in more prosaic history retelling (and hey, I’m a big fan of history), I have worried I might just put the book down. (Dear reader, I have done this many times before. My attention span is not what it once was.) But I haven’t! I feel compelled to keep turning the page (or in this case, pushing the “Next Page” button on my Kindle). I even know what will happen, having recently read Marc Morris’s biography of Edward I, and it isn’t nice. All this to say, I can’t give enough credit to Pargeter’s masterly writing style. She’s just that good.

Writing (again)

One week and counting since I’ve been back to a morning writing routine. To say it feels wonderful would be an understatement. I’m working on what I’m cautiously telling myself is a “short story.” It’s enough. I have no idea how long this will last, but am so incredibly grateful for the gift of wanting to write. Again.

Meanwhile, I passed a milestone in my e-book sales: I have now earned enough in royalties to be sent real money. And I have been book-living my favorite historical era through Edith Pargeter’s The Brothers of Gwynedd. As a counterpoint, I’m reading Mike Brown’s How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming with my son. A little 13th century, a little 21st century. That gives me an average of, um, Shakespeare?

Also the garden is looking good, the kids are healthy, and it’s officially summer. Life is good.

Book Bounty

Joy of joys, I received new books for Christmas presents. As I tried to explain to my husband (who was giving me strange looks all the while, though by now—we’ll be married 18 years tomorrow—he should be used to it), it isn’t just what is inside them, it’s the paper, the covers, the colors, the smell, the whole physical experience of books…of being surrounded by books…

Ahem. Anyway, the first book I received was Bernard Meehan’s beautifully illustrated work on The Book of Kells. Now I can indulge my passion for illuminated medieval manuscripts at will.

Next, I received a facsimile copy of the 1862 edition of Catherine Winkworth’s Lyra Germanica, which contains her English translations of German hymns. Especially nice about this volume is the old-timey typeface with the Ss that look like Fs (which generally puts me in more of a Revolutionary than Victorian mood, but good nonetheless). I think this book will definitely help keep me inspired to learn/write about that fascinating Victorian lady.

Finally, I received the slow-cooker cookbook Fix-It and Forget-It 5-Ingredient Favorites, by Phyllis Pellman Good, so that even on those nights when Princess Two has ballet class and my son has Lutheran Pioneers, and my husband has a meeting, we can still eat!

The above are all mine (all mine!), but to just mention the library: I finished reading the two Maureen Ash Templar Knight mysteries The Alehouse Murders and Murder for Christ’s Mass. Though I did make it all the way to the end of both books, I don’t think I’ll be seeking out any more of Ash’s titles. The mysteries were interesting, and the historical setting (13th-century England) one of my favorites, but in the end the writing was too plodding and tedious. So, I am moving forward to the 15th century for Margaret Frazer’s The Reeve’s Tale.

Feeling Medieval-ish

When am I not? A writing friend once said I must have been a medieval princess in a former life. Which might make a lot of sense if I actually believed in reincarnation. Which I don’t. So perhaps I should look back into my childhood to account for this fascination with all things middle ages. Too many fairy tales? Too many King Arthur stories? I can hardly explain the thrill—nearing giddiness—I experience when I come across a book like Laura Amy Schlitz’s Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (a Newbery winner, no less; and I absolutely swoon over the two-voice poems) or the bargain-bin tome Art of the Middle Ages by Riccardo Belcari and Giulia Marrucchi.

I have been perusing the latter of late. I have been especially transfixed by the beautiful photos of ruined Irish monasteries and the stone crosses dating from the 800s or so. Then there were the pages from the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels. I have a definite weakness for illuminated manuscripts. The colors! The gorgeous Latin script! (I recently picked up a library book on Vikings and right there on page 5 or so read about their raid on the Lindisfarne monastery in the late 700s. Coincidence? Hmm…)

Speaking of the library. A couple of days ago I had an hour to myself in the grown-up section and while wandering around in bliss, I came across a paperback copy of Maureen Ash’s Murder for Christ’s Mass, which led me into the stacks to find the first of her Templar Knight mysteries, The Alehouse Murders. Now I’ll say right off that Ash is no Ellis Peters, but so far I’m having fun getting to know the denizens of Lincoln in the year 1200, including the former Crusader Sir Bascot de Marins. (My nightly read-aloud with Number One Daughter, Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Arthur and the Seeing Stone, also is set in 1199/1200. Coincidence? Hmm…)

Midweek updates #8

1. Reading update:

I’ve been enjoying Tony Horwitz’s Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. I’m a big fan of 18th century history in general, and blue-water sailing adventures in particular, which is why I chose this Horwitz volume over Confederates in the Attic, recommended by my good friend and book connoisseur Wendy. (I’m sure I’ll get to that one, too, someday. The American Civil War is maybe my third-favorite historical period.)

And speaking of 18th century, I picked up two books at the library this morning. First, The Adams Chronicles, by Jack Shepherd, about the clan of John Adams the American founding father and second U.S. President. Second, a newer picture book, Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak, written by Kay Winters and illustrated by Larry Day. Both books are research material for a certain writing project (see #3).

Yes, I know I’m already in the midst of reading two other library books (Blue Latitudes and Robin McKinley’s Chalice), and there’s another I requested through interlibrary loan waiting for me (The Devil to Play: One Man’s Year-long Quest to Master the Orchestra’s Most Difficult Instrument [i.e., French horn], by Jasper Rees), and then there’s the pristine paperback of The Mabinogion Tetralogy, by Evangeline Walton. Oh, and a book called Me to We, by Alan Nelson, that I’m supposed to be reading for a church-team thing. This may be the literary equivalent of emotional overeating. Or indication of some other psychological disorder in which having piles of books all over the house makes me feel secure and happy.

2. Hubris update:

Speaking of too many books and not enough time, I received my Chronicles of Narnia piano-vocal-guitar books. I sat down at the keyboard and realized within ten seconds that there will be no “just sitting down to play these songs for fun.” I will have to work at them before they sound like anything, just as I am having to hack my way through the French horn part for Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (to be performed with our high school/community band in May).

3. Writing update:

Out of yesterday’s dreary gray sky, I had a glimmer of insight into a story I back-burnered sometime last summer. As I sat down to make follow-up notes this morning, it occurred to me that perchance I’d had the wrong character as protagonist all along. Does this sudden insight have anything to do with a discussion on optimism and unwatched kettles boiling that I’d had with itsybitsyblogsy via her blog? Hmm. Anyhow, as critique-group sister Kim would say, I intend to “follow the whisper.”

4. Mixed metaphor update:

My apologies for the preceding paragraph. It just came out like that. I can’t fix it right now because I have books to read and instruments to practice!

Reading update

I realize that I have been acting something like a tease. I wrote about how I ordered and almost finished Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Crossing to Paradise and how I checked out Jean Ferris’s Twice Upon a Marigold, but I didn’t write about how I finished both books or how I felt about them once I was done.

So, here’s the report. I enjoyed both books very much, and finished them in pretty good time considering the sad lack of time I have for reading these days. (Maybe I’m spending too much time blogging???) Crossing to Paradise was not as stirring as the earlier, related Arthur series (oh, how I missed Arthur—one of the most endearing characters I’ve ever read); but it makes a nice stand-alone, historical novel. I was tickled at how it referred back to the Arthur series, and how the ending satisfyingly tied up some loose ends in the Arthur series. I breezed through Twice Upon a Marigold, and found Ferris’s humor just as good as in the previous book, Once Upon a Marigold. At first I kept thinking to myself, “What a nice job she does getting a Message across through her charming story and humor,” but by the end of the book I began to feel that maybe the candy-coating on the message was wearing a bit thin. Overall, still an enjoyable read.

I have now entered a more “serious” phase of reading, having begun David Starkey’s Six Wives, about the queens of England’s Henry VIII. I keep hearing Starkey’s voice in my head as I read, having recently watched most of the PBS series Monarchy (ack, I have one last episode to go—thank goodness for Netflix and no due dates). I admit I am a history buff; but I have to say that for interest and readability, novels have nothing on the best popular history books of the last several years. Today I also picked up my inter-library loan copies of two books about Christopher Marlowe. I began reading the first in the dentist’s office just this afternoon. I promise to write reports on these books when I finish, though it may be a while, as Six Wives alone has more than 700 pages. To paraphrase Scarlett O’Hara: I won’t go hungry for quite some time.

What to read?

I’m on the brink of finishing Crossing to Paradise by Kevin Crossley-Holland, so naturally on my weekly trip to the public library today, I had to stock up on future reading materials. Just like most people would never want to run out of food staples like milk or bread, so I get nervous when I’m approaching the last sliver of pages in a good book. I want to know where my next meal is coming from.

Truth be told, I have shelves full or at least stacks of books in every room in my house (OK, not the bathrooms). I am not going to starve. There are dozens of these books I have never even read. Many more that I would gladly read again and again. But going to the library is like walking into the grocery store when you’re hungry. And then you see the bakery case.

So what goodies did I bring home? After watching those crafty, power-hungry, and masterful monarchs in the David Starkey DVD series, Monarchy, I decided to continue feeding my Anglophilia. I checked out Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl and David Starkey’s Six Wives, about the queens of Henry VIII. Then, for good measure, I hopped onto the computer and requested History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe, by Rodney Bolt, and The World of Christopher Marlowe, by David Riggs, through interlibrary loan.

Let the feast begin!