Friday 56: Symbols

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This week's selection comes from the Dictionary of Symbols by Tom Chetwynd. It is based mainly on Jungian psychology which is only partly why I bought it. Why it's the closest to me right now is because I looked up in the sky the other day and saw two clouds next to each other that looked like frogs. Exactly like frogs. I was curious was Jung had to say about the symbology of frogs! So here's my 56:

This is under the symbology of the Body.

Youth juxtaposed with Old Age, or the Child with Man or Woman occur frequently in symbolism to depict the crises of change in the process of living through the different PERIODS of life.

Short Stories: More from Sacks

This Saturday I am continuing with Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. I'm doing chapters since they are arranged in short story like manner. Here's the first post if you want more info.

Chapters 2 and 3 both deal with music in relation to epilepsy. Chapter 2 titled A Strangley Familiar Feeling: Musical Seizures, relates how some people have musical auras, that is, they hear a certain type of music before going into a seizure. They get recognize that if they hear this piece of music, they are most likely only hearing in their heads and are going to have a seizure soon. Some people with this type of aura feel that the music is very familiar but can never quite place it. Others recognize immediately the song they are hearing. The most interesting of these stories was of a mother who diagnosed her son with seizures before the doctors. She heard him humming Pop Goes The Weasel one morning, the same tune she hears just before she has a seizure.

Chapter 3 is titled Fear of Music: Musicogenic Epilepsy. I found this one terribly sad. It tells of people who's seizures are brought on by music. Sometimes any kind of music and sometimes one particular style or piece of music. It seems to be related to the emotions; the more emotional the type of music the more likely it is to cause a seizure. The saddest case was of the 19th music critic Nokonov. At first it was itermitent but gradually any type of music would bring on a seizure. He had to give up his career and actually began to fear all types of music.

Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Ok, it is very possible it is me since I just read a Charles de Lint book I didn't particularly care for (and I LOVE him) so take this review with a grain of salt.

The only reason I began reading the Sookie Stackhouse books was because I really liked the first season of True Blood, which is based on these books. However, I am just not finding too much I like about the books. I'm too thrilled with the writing itself. Harris' style is very choppy and childish. Maybe childish is the wrong way to decribe it but I feel like I'm reading something written by someone who doesn't know much about writing a novel. The storyline is interesting but I can't get around the fact that I just don't think she's a very good author. I will admit I didn't finish this one. Usually I don't review a book if I don't finish it but I want to know if anyone else is reading these and feeling the same way I do. Again I feel let down by a vampire novel that I feel has taken the things I love about vampire novels and completely done away with them. For example, where's the lure of the vampire itself. Yeah, she talks about people being enamored with vampires but you don't really feel it and Sookie appears to be the only one we've encountered who is enamored with a vampire who's not utterly crazy. What about the dark mysterious and sexual quality of vampire literature? I'm not really into erotica but even Dracula had quite a bit of sexual undertones. That's why we love vampires, the represent the dark side of our sexual fantasies. Harris just glosses over it. She talks about it, but again I don't feel it. It's like it's a part of someone else's story that Sookie talk about but never really experiences for herself.

Not sure why I'm having such a hard time getting into my books lately. Maybe I just need a change of pace. Maybe I should go pick up another Kelly Armstrong book. I haven't read anything by her in awhile. I've read a lot of the Anita Blake series and am tired of that too. Someone got some other suggestions by someone who knows how to write?

Friday 56: Frost

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY

The book closest to me is an Anthology of Robert Frost's poems. This is from Wild Grapes.

"Hold on with all you might when I let go."
I said I had the tree. It wasn't true.
The opposite was true. The tree had me.

Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint

Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint is the sequel to a wonderful novel I read not too long ago, Moonheart. Though it is a sequel in the strictest sense, it is not necessary to read Moonheart to be able to understand the goings on in Spiritwalk. Most of the characters that the newer book deals with are new to the Tamson House, where both books spend a great deal of time. Tamson House is a magical place that draws the odd characters of society, artists, musicians, magicians, religious of all kinds, and just the general outcast but the house has a way rejecting those that might be there be nefarious reasons and drawing closer in those that are seeking something beautiful from life.

While I loved Moonheart and had that I-can't-put-this-down feeling, I just had the hardest time getting into Spiritwalk. Part of the reason may be that it was originally 4 different short stories. Just as I was getting into it, it was over and something new was happening. I didn't know this before I picked up the book and it was fairly annoying. Maybe knowing this, it would have been a more enjoyable read. I do like short stories. But I picked this up looking forward to another de Lint novel and instead I got some serious repetition when the new story began. I hate repetition in novels. It makes me feel as if the author thinks his audience is stupid and doesn't remember when he said that 10 pages ago. I've know other short stories that have been made into novels and didn't get this feeling. I wonder why de Lint and his editor didn't make the stories flow better when they decided to put them together as one novel. Maybe they thought all they had to do was bind them in one book and say "He ya go, the sequel to Moonheart!" If so, that's just laziness. I can't say that I've absolutely loved every single de Lint book I've read, though I do tend to go on and on about them, but this is the first that I feel seriously let me down.

Audio: Good Grief by Lolly Winston

Good Grief by Lolly Winston is the story of Sophie Stanton, a 36 year old widow desperately trying to be a good widow - you know, like Jackie Kennedy, but quickly finding out she's more like a Jack Daniels kind of widow. Her life starts to take a turn for the worst when she stops showing up for work on a regular basis and on the day she does go, doesn't bother changing out of her robe and bunny slippers (as the picture on the cover shows). In an effort to reinvent herself, Sophie moves to be near a friend in Ashland, Oregon but not everything goes as planned there either.

I found this story to be just the right mix of sadness and comic relief. Sophie shows a good sense of humor even when she is at her most depressed. The only problem I have is not with the book itself - as far as I know. The audio I was listening to was an abridged version. I don't normally like listening to abridged books but it's really difficult to find too many unabridged audios and when I do, they're very expensive. Most of the time I don't feel like I missing anything. The story still flows so it's apparently been well edited. This was not the case in this book. I constantly felt like I had missed something. I'm not sure if the book was just written that way, with parts of her life glossed over and talked about later or if they left out some fairly important parts in the abridged audio. I hate that I'll never know unless I go back and read the full book.

Short Story Saturdays: First Post

I'm beginning this Short Story Saturdays for me to share short stories and chapters of books that are like short stories. I decided to do this when I picked up Oliver Sacks' book Musicophilia this afternoon and noticed that it was written in a sort of short story format. I like the idea of sharing so much more of this book than I would in a normal review but over a longer period of time. Many of you may not know that I am a music therapist. I've been meaning to read this book for a long time and finally, while at the bookstore today, said to myself "What are you waiting for? Buy it already!"

If anyone would like to join me in sharing some of their favorite short stories, feel free to do so here or on your blog but there are so many daily memes out there already that I'm not really expecting it. I have been so happy (and surprised!) that so many people are participating in my Friday 56 that I couldn't imagine being greedy and starting another one! I simply want to do this to make myself read those books of short stories I have sitting around my house looking at me and to share this wonderful book by Oliver Sacks.


Oliver Sacks is the famous neurologist who wrote the book Awakenings which the movie of the same name was based on (Robin Williams played him). Sacks is also a huge advocate for music therapy. Often when you hear him speak, he spends most of his time talking about the profound affect music can have on the brain. I was very excited when this book came out. So now I will stop blabbering and tell you about the first chapter.

A Bolt From The Blue: Sudden Musicophilia
This chapter is mainly about Tony Cicoria, a surgeon who is one day hit by a bolt of lightning. After a brief two week recovery period in which he has a few memory problems, everything seems to go back to normal. Then he suddenly is struck by the profound need to listen to piano music, specifically Chopin. He then feels the need to learn to play the piano and while he is learning Chopin, he begins to hear his own music. It becomes almost a compulsion for him to learn how to write down this music he hears. He does not stop being a surgeon but all his free time is now consumed by playing and writing his own music. Before the lightning strike he did not know how to play and was never interested in learning, much less composing his own music.

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Friday 56: Spiritwalk

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The closest book to me today is Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint because that's the one I'm reading. Pay no attention to the books on the side! I've been pretty lazy about keeping up with the blog lately.

Bogans and other unsainly creatures haunted it in the years that followed until the recent arrival of a new Mistress of the Night to the continent that Faerie named Loimauch Og, the West Fields of the Young. Her name was Glamorgana and she took that holt for her own.

WTF Google?

So, apparently Google thinks my computer is sending automatic queries! I can't look at my own blog or anyone else's all the sudden!

Friday 56: Campbell

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This week the closest book to me is The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. For those of you who are not familiar with Campbell's work, his books discuss the different mythologies of the world in a way that relates to each other. He find the common themes among them and shows how they are more similar than different. That is a very concise explanation of his very broad work. Also, this book was the one that many of the themes from Star Wars were based upon. I was reading some passages to a friend the other who is not familiar with the book and it has stayed out.

This particular line comes the section on Departure-The Call to Adventure

But these only served to advance the inevitable; for while still relatively young, the youth exhausted for himself the fields of fleshly joy and became ripe for the other experience.

Audio: The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant is the story of Sister Lucrezia, who has left her life story for her daughter to read after dying in her convent. She has been a part of this convent for the better part of her life and when she dies of breast cancer she leaves an odd set of instructions for the nuns who will have to prepare her body. She states she does not want to be cleaned and put in a new shift. The one she wore to serve God will do her just fine. However, with an outbreak of the plague, it is decided that her old clothes must be burned. As the sisters remove the clothes from her corpse they are surprised to find that the tumor that has been such a cause of pain for Sister Lucrezia is no more than a pig's bladder held to her breast. Ripping off her garments fully, reveals a long, sensuous silver snake tattoo running the length of her body and ending with the tip of its tongue at the tip of "her sex." The story beginning on the following pages is of Allessandra Cecchi, Sister Lecrezia's name before joining the convent. This is how we find out how this nun came to be in the convent, why she would lie about her manner of death, and where this tattoo came from.

I can't say I'm giving much away here, it's simply the intro the story that got me hooked and I wanted to share this part with everyone. It is not what's on the back of the book, I feel that gives too much away. I enjoyed this story. I was fascinated by Allessandra. She's a modern woman in a backward time in Florence but also in a time when the world was changing and learning new things (if you happened to be a man). This book deals with a lot of historical events in periphery to Allessandra's life but could not be considered historical fiction as it doesn't deal directly with historical figures, except one known painter. Who knows where Dunant got the idea for this but it's ingenious really. I like what she's done with this painter. That's all I'm going to say on that subject! You just have to read it.

Like I said I enjoyed this book and it has me interested in reading other books by Dunant. It was a nice change of pace from what I normally read.