Thursday, March 13, 2014

March Newsletter!


Ecova Book Club

Issue #25 Wednesday, March 12th, 2014

 Spring?! Well, the childhood chant of March “Arriving like a Lion and Leaving like a Lamb” comes to mind. With new snowfall and then warm days mixing beautifully so far this month, I am eager to see the bountiful Spring we are sure to enjoy!

Of course, with Spring in the air, it is about time to do the dreaded Spring Cleaning. Dreaded? Yep. This means it is time to clean out the corners and make sure the mud doesn’t set in! But it also means, JOY! Joy? YES! This means there are many yard sales about to explode into existence! And with those yard sales come the discovery of many new books to explore!

This year, I have decided to dedicate myself to exploring new avenues of devotion and renewal. My first devotion has manifested in jiu-jitsu and the art of juggling three very eager children! My second is to take advantage of that brief daily window to read insightful texts on wisdom, charity, strength, and insight. What change have you made this year in your daily reading? What avenue of interest has drawn you at this point in your life? Do you seek to enrich your thinking patterns? Are you drawn to discover a genre that has been undesirable in the past? While I may not be drawn to the ancient texts of China just yet, I am definitely discovering new and delightful reading! Thanks to Roberta and Rose we have a delightful selection for you this month! And I may have thrown a title too!

Happy reading!
 
 

What we were reading in February 2014
February Featured Title:
Serendipity (Southern Comfort #1) by Lisa Clark O’Neill
February Titles:
            Where the Bodies are Buried (Sharp Investigations #1)
by Christopher Brookmyre
            Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
            Practical Duct Tape Projects by Instructables
            The Tyrant’s Daughter by J. C. Carleson
            Everneath (Everneath #1) by Brodi Ashton
            He Died with His Eyes Open (Factory Series #1) by Derek Raymond
            American Assassin (Mitch Rapp #1) by Vince Flynn
            Forever Black (Forever Trilogy #1) by Sandi Lynn
 
 
 
March Feature…

 

 


O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy #1)
By Willa Cather
One of America's greatest women writers, Willa Cather established her talent and her reputation with this extraordinary novel, the first of her books set on the Nebraska frontier. A tale of the prairie land encountered by America's Swedish, Czech, Bohemian, and French immigrants, as well as a story of how the land challenged them, changed them, and, in some cases, defeated them, Cather's novel is a uniquely American epic.

Alexandra Bergson, a young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father's farm and must transform it from raw prairie into a prosperous enterprise, is the first of Cather's great heroines, all of them women of strong will and an even stronger desire to overcome adversity and succeed. But the wild land itself is an equally important character in Cather's books, and her descriptions of it are so evocative, lush, and moving that they provoked writer Rebecca West to say of her: "The most sensuous of writers, Willa Cather builds her imagined world almost as solidly as our five senses build the universe around us."

Willa Cather, perhaps more than any other American writer, was able to re-create the real drama of the pioneers, capturing for later generations a time, a place, and a spirit that has become part of our national heritage.
 

 
 

 
March Picks…
Where would we be without the Irish?
“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!” 
 Bram Stoker
Throughout history the Irish have been vilified and reviled.  They have starved and have helped hew a nation from their own soil and new nations from the soil of their adopted lands.  They have been seen as drunkards, associated with religious wars, they have fought, loved, laughed….and written some of the most memorable creations in literature while doing so.  They have changed the landscape of the known, the unknown and the unknowable.  They have created memorable characters; characters that have changed our lives and the lives of others, scared us in the dark of the night, lead us to safety and taught us to never take a nap in areas inhabited by little people.  So Let Us Begin…..
 
GOTHIC HORROR AND CREATOR OF AN ENTIRE GENRE OF LITERATURE THAT EXISTS TO THIS DAY
 
 
Abraham (Bram) Stoker was born on the north side of Dublin in 1847.  As a young man he was educated at the famous Trinity College, Dublin. While he was president of the University Philosophical Society his first paper was on "Sensationalism in Fiction and Society".  (Imagine!)  Later, while a London resident, he wrote the one book that scared me so thoroughly that I have yet to finish: Dracula.  While not the first to write of the Vampire in literature his book is one of the most remembered, influencing both stage and screen, though I imagine that not even Bram Stoker would have thought of making his vampires sparkle.
A synopsis of the beginning:  Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, travels to Castle Dracula in the Eastern European country of Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with a nobleman named Count Dracula.  As Harker wends his way through the picturesque countryside, the local peasants warn him about his destination, giving him crucifixes and other charms against evil and uttering strange words that Harker later translates into “vampire.”  Frightened but no less determined, Harker meets the count’s carriage as planned.  The journey to the castle is harrowing, and the carriage is nearly attacked by angry wolves along the way.  Upon arriving at the crumbling old castle, Harker finds that the elderly Dracula is a well-educated and hospitable gentleman.  After only a few days, however, Harker realizes that he is effectively a prisoner in the Castle.  The more Harker investigates the nature of his confinement, the more uneasy he becomes.  He realizes the count possesses supernatural powers and diabolical ambitions.  One evening Harker is nearly attacked by three beautiful and seductive female vampires, but the count staves them off, telling the vampires that Harker belongs to him.  Fearing for his life, Harker attempts to escape from the castle by climbing down the walls….You will have to read on by yourself to find out what happens next!

 
 

The irish influence on stage – and later screen and music
George Bernard Shaw was another Dubliner whose creations have also taken on a life of their own – mostly after his death.  Shaw was an Irish playwright, novelist, journalist, essayist and critic on both music and literature.  His play, Pygmalion, is the basis of a more likely to be known musical called “My Fair Lady”.  The title, Pymalion, refers to a Greek myth about a sculptor who fell in love with one of his sculptures.  In the play Shaw has professor of phonetic Henry Higgins make a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility-the most important part of which is impeccable speech.  The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women’s independence.  Shaw won both a Nobel award in Literature for Pygmalion and an Oscar for his film adaptation of the same name, still being the only person to win both prestigious awards. Shaw had once allowed another musical adaptation of one of his works to be created.  He was so disenchanted by the results that he never allowed another, hence “My Fair Lady” came about after Shaw’s death. 



Making a lot out of little things

– a lion, a witch and a wardrobe




Clive Staples Lewis. Is that a name you know?  Or is he better known to you under the sobriquet C.S. Lewis?  This Belfast born and bred man has introduced ages of children and adults alike to many memorable characters:  Aslan the Lion, The Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve-better known as Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund Pevensie, Tumnus the Faun, Prince Caspian, Reepicheep and others.  Many of us had our imaginations captured as children by these books, but they are a worthwhile read even as adults.  There are arguments for an against these books being Christian Allegory, but whether you decide to intrepret them as such or not, they are still a good, fantastical read.  Even better is to gather around with your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or friends and have a reading party to introduce a new age of children to the wonderful land of Narnia. 



learning not to take a nap without checking your environs first

 
Another Irishman whose creation has influenced us through the ages is Jonathan Swift – a satirist, political pamphleteer, essayist, novelist, poet and cleric.  His was a prolific pen who gave us characters and terms that are still used in modern linguistics.  If something is “Lilliputian” it is very small. If something is “brobdingnagian” it is very large.  But do you know what a person represents if that person is a “Yahoo”?  If not, it is time to revist Gulliver’s Travels.  According to Swift, a Yahoo is a person that Swift describes as being filthy and with unpleasant habits.  The Yahoos are obsessed with finding “pretty stones” in the mud, thus representing the materialism and elitism Swift found in British society at the time he was writing. Gulliver’s Travels is an essay in time, travel and the human condition.  Shipwrecked castaway Lemuel Gulliver’s encounters with the petty, diminutive Lilliputians, the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the abstracted scientists of Laputa, the philosophical Houyhnhnms, and the brutish Yahoos give him new, bitter insights into human behavior. Swift’s fantastic and subversive book remains supremely relevant in our own age of distortion, hypocrisy, and irony.

 
And if you enjoy a good bit of satire check out Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” – one of my favorites!



Socs and Greasers

An excerpt from the memoir

   Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

Rob Lowe is of Irish, German, English, Welsh and Scottish descent

Taken from one of the most beloved 80s movies The Outsiders, Rob Lowe breaks down in layman’s terms what it was like working with the star-studded cast of this popular classic film, which was taken from the even more popular classic book written by S.E. Hinton.

Not only is there inside info on how certain scenes were shot, but Mr. Lowe writes what it’s  like to be a “no name kid” actor who kind of thinks he knows what he’s doing, but with the help of fellow actors along the way, he learns a lot more about the business and friendship.

I found his conversation with Francis Ford Coppola about the Godfather films to be quite enlightening and his experience on the South Side of Chicago one night with a young actor by the name of Andrew McCarthy to be extremely humorous.

This particular story is a two chapter excerpt that was taken from his own memoir written a few years ago, was a free download from an app called ShoutCast, but you can get it for Kindle also.

I think I would like to get the entire book eventually just so that I can read what else went on back then, sometimes when you read the “tabloids” they don’t tell you everything that’s happening, just the so called “drama” of it all.

Word on the street has it that Mr. Lowe is working on another memoir where he discusses all of the women he has been involved with, and he says for that one, he is going to put away a “legal fund” because it may cause some backlash. 

Loads of laughs and heartwarming anecdotes for the nostalgic at heart, it’s a short read but definitely worth the time.—GUEST REVIEW BY ROSE FULLERTON, OLYMPIA

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST…AND HAVING A PORTRAIT OF YOURSELF THAT NEVER AGES

Students of drama or attendees of the theatre will know of the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, a still performed romp by the Dublin born Oscar Wilde.  A farce of mistaken identities, trying to dodge social obligations and satire poking fun at elitist notions, this play is a standard in many a theatre.  But the Oscar Wilde piece we are going to concern ourselves with has a darker, more Faustian theme.  Who would equate the writer of a comedic play as the same author of The Picture of Dorian Gray?  This story, according to Goodreads,  is “The tale of a youth whose features, year after year, retain the same appearance of innocent beauty while the shame of his abhorrent vices becomes mirrored on the features of his portrait.”  This theme has been mirrored over and over, in writing, in film, in many other venues, but this was the first.  If you have ever seen the film, who can forget the horrific sight of the portrait that portrays the vice-ridden Dorian, hidden in the attic?  Check out this tale of how giving in to shallowness, vanity, casual cruelty can affect the decisions one makes and how the thought processes of one who can get away with heinous actions influences the actions they take.


when irish eyes are smiling…..
 
 

 
 
But don’t stop there on your Irish journey!
James Joyce-the father of “stream of consciousness” -A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Frank McCourt-the man who does not know how to use punctuation -‘Tis, Angela’s Ashes
Cecelia Ahern-a fresh voice in women’s fiction -P. S. I Love You
John Boyne-historical fiction also on film -The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Maeve Binchy-known for her humorous take on small-town Irish life-Circle of Friends
And many, many more!
 
 
~ READ! It feeds the mind! ~

 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

February Feature



Serendipity (Southern Comfort #1)

By Lisa Clark O’Neill
It’s a dog eat dog world for Ava Martinez. On the surface her life seems charmed – beauty, brains, a successful veterinary practice – but Ava harbors a secret. And one rash act on a foggy night threatens to destroy it all. The niece of one of the most ruthless crime lords in the country, Ava has lived her life as an unwilling pawn in her uncle’s illegal game. When Ava accidentally stumbles upon an unknown man lying unconscious in the trunk of a car – a man destined for death at the hands of her uncle’s men – she risks her life to get him to safety and to thwart her uncle’s nefarious scheme. Little does she know that lifting the lid of that trunk will be like opening Pandora’s box. When Assistant District Attorney Jordan Wellington – the man she rescued – brings his dog to the door of her veterinary clinic, she does her best to thwart his amorous intentions, but fate has a different idea. When a walk in the park, a friend’s blind date, seemingly everything throws them together, the normally strong-willed Ava finds herself irrevocably drawn into a seductive and deadly game. Because if Jordan ever regains his memory of that night, both of their lives could be in danger.

Where the Bodies are Buried (Sharp Investigations #1) by Christopher Brookmyre




Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don't do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge. They do can't-miss-whodunit. It's a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it, she recognizes that the discovery of a dead drug-dealer in a back alley is merely a portent of further deaths to come. Elsewhere in the city, aspiring actress Jasmine Sharp is reluctantly - and incompetently - earning a crust working for her Uncle Jim's private investigation business. When Jim goes missing, Jasmine has to take on the investigator mantle for real, and her only lead points to Glen Fallan, a gangland enforcer and professional assassin whose reputation is rendered only slightly less terrifying by having been dead for twenty years. Cautiously tracing an accomplished killer's footsteps, Jasmine stumbles into a web of corruption and decades-hidden secrets that could tear apart an entire police force - if she can stay alive long enough to tell the tale.


Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku



A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.

Practical Duct Tape Projects




Practical Duct Tape Projects gives you full step-by-step instructions for 21 amazing uses for duct tape. Learn how to use duct tape to make snowshoes, a wallet, an apron, scratch pads, a hammock, an insulated winter coat, and even a D20 computer server! All projects come from Instructables.com, are written by duct tape experts, and contain pictures for each step so you can learn how to do it yourself. Make it stick.


The Tyrant's Daughter by J. C. Carleson



When her father is killed in a coup, 15-year-old Laila flees from the war-torn Middle East to a life of exile and anonymity in the U.S. Gradually she adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new culture, but while Laila sees opportunity in her new life, her mother is focused on the past. She’s conspiring with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the throne their family lost. Laila can’t bear to stand still as an international crisis takes shape around her, but how can one girl stop a conflict that spans generations?

Everneath (Everneath #1) by Brodi Ashton





Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned-to her old life, her family, her boyfriend-before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance-and the one person she loves more than anything. But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's queen.