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Sometimes a reader is graced with what I like to call:
The right book at the right time.
LIFE OF PI is that book.
If you are in the appetite for a plot driven tale of survival you will find that here.
And if you hunger for a spiritual journey revealing the inner workings of human nature... that's also available at this banquet of fiction.
I read a few reviews of LIFE OF PI... and I am thinking that some of the reviewers did not read the whole book.
Truly.
What a shame.
I love books like this one.
You are taken on a journey, you enter the world of the author, and putting the book down is difficult because you do not want to leave that world.
And the best is yet to come...
I found this to be one of those books that changed me.
His words resonated in my soul.
In a few sentences, Martel gave voice to things I sensed in my life, but could not place into words.
When we read for something beyond mere entertainment...
isn't that what we hunger for?
A chance to see life from a new point of view.
To feel renewed.
A book that will follow you after you have finished it.
A book that MUST stay with you on your bookshelf.
LIFE OF PI is my silent friend now, on a shelf of honor in my book collection.
A new friend who will be there with me on this life's journey...
ready to speak to my heart any time I lift it from the shelf, open the pages, and invite the author to speak to me, yet again.
***********************************************
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Yann Martel
Here is an excellent resource about the birth of this novel written by Yann Martel (and just fascinating in general to any writer about the process of preparing oneself to create a work of fiction). If you plan on reading LIFE OF PI, read the author's notes AFTER completing the book:
http://www.powells.com/fromtheauthor/martel.html
The year of the Titanic.
1997.
We saw the movie THREE times at the theater. Film lovers that we are... even still, this was excessive for us. And when the video came out... bam... we bought it. I can not tell you how many times we have watched that ship sink.
What is the fixation?
We were living in the world before September 11th.
The story of the Titanic asks that great question...
How would you behave if you knew you only had moments left to live?
Would you panic?
Would you fight tooth and nail to survive?
Would you be the villian or the hero?
And the love story brought to life in James Cameron's magnificent film reignited that wonderful spark that my husband and I share. We were Jack and Rose. I was in a suffocatingly rigid life that was killing me inside. My husband was, and continues to be, the scamp who rescued me from that world and opened the door of a life of adventure to this day.
So the passion for the Titanic lives in our home.
Wanting to please my husband I bought him this book for the Christmas of 1997.
He is a gourmand, and the thought of preparing a meal worthy of the first class of many decades ago was irresistable.
He prepared the lobster thermadore from the recipes, and the vegetables... exotic to our modern tastes with an unusual combination of flavors that were the common fare of the wealthy in the turn of the last centruy.
That feast was our New Year's meal for the dawning of 1998.
We never ate one more recipe from that book.
I don't know... if you really think about the whole... it is rather morbid to be feasting on something that was literally the last meal on Earth for a bunch of folks.
I am not the first one to mention that in regards to this book.
The plight of the 1500 hundred passengers has been dimmed by post September 11th.
The Twin Towers, the Titanic of the modern era, came tumbling down on that firey day. Along with the symbol of this nation's military power at the Pentagon. And those trapped in Flight 93... I mean wouldpeople be writing recipe books about their last airline meal?
No.
But, I still recommend this book.
And, yes, do try some of the meals.
Reading about an era gone by is one thing, but to actually experience the sensations of that time through the power of taste and smell is an indescribable experience.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TITANIC: Titanic [Article] - World Book Online Reference Center (American English)
THE AUTHORS:
RICK ARCHBOLD: Powell's Books - Search Results
DANA McCAULY: Dana McCauley and Associates - food trends, cookbooks, concept architecture
MORE BOOKS ABOUT THE TITANIC:
Amazon.com Books: titanic
Titanic [Article] - World Book Online Reference Center (American English)
FILMS:
Titanic (1943)
Titanic (1953)
Titanic (1997)
Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)
VIDEO:
Titanic (1993) (V)
TELEVISION:
Titanic (1996) (TV)
Beyond Titanic (1998) (TV) : Details the culture of Titanicana and the films
POSTSCRIPT.... OOPSIE.
After I published this entry, much to my embarassment, my husband informed me that we have eaten SEVERAL meals from the Last Dinner on the Titanic!
Firthermore, the lobster thermadore did happen, but not the year I thought I recalled the occurence.
Such is the spongy memory of a drifty reader.
:)
One of the joys of teaching is being able to revisit with fresh eyes the joys of childhood.
I spent my childhood living in the wonderful world of books.
So returning to that life as a teacher was great fun.
During the summer of 1994, I took up tutoring some children as I prepared for graduate school and a career change.
One student was getting ready for a local private high school. So I got to read the school's assigned summer reading list.
How young and foolish I was!
I knew nothing of the author but, commenced to plough my way through this book attempting to help my struggling student make the connections in order to "gel" with this book.
Maybe I should have started with the book's author?
Esther Forbes grew up in a family of six children. That in and of itself is enough to create a few creative kids out of the bunch. You have to really work at getting your parents' attention when you are part of a large family.
Esther Forbes struggled throughout her years with poor eyesight and dyslexia.
And she took up being an author with all of that to overcome!
Good thing she was persistent.
She was persistent enough to be awarded the John Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution of the year to children's literature. (1943).
This book was published within two years after Pearl Harbor.
An author witnessing one war, while contemplating the war that birthed this nation into what it has become today.
I have to wonder if September 11th will give birth to some authors who can provide insight to children about the realities of war?
I wish I had been introduced to Johnny Tremain as a youth.
History was dull... full of facts and figures with no life.
The passion that grew in me for history arrived in my first years of college under the tutelage of a magnificent professor who made the flat facts on the page jump into exciting life. He could paint a portrait with his words. The people on the page were living, breathing, and often quite entertaining people. People like us, people we would love to meet.
Esther Forbes is good at painting word portraits too.
And so I really enjoyed her work.
How did that student of mine do?
Well, not so enthralled by the whole Johnny Tremaine thing, but did well enough to pass the intake requirements.
I had wanted to be a beacon of light leading that child into the excitement of learning for learning's sake... but, that's so hard to do. We both finished the summer, though, happy. The child got the admission and I found a renewed friendship with children's novels.
Ignite the child within yourself, and pop into this book to remember the joys of juvenile historical fiction.
Author Biography
: Worcester Area Writers - Esther Forbes - Bio
Study Guide: SparkNotes: Johnny Tremain
Film:
Johnny Tremain (1957)
Bookreporter.com - Author Profile: Frank Mccourt
July 1999.
That summer was blistering hot and full of anticipation. Waiting for my beautiful son to arrive into our arms from Korea.
I had just finished up working full time in a children's Day Treatment program. I wanted the summer to "nest"...
to prepare for my son's arrival.
I spent the past two years of my social work career, day after day, listening to the stories of children.
Suffering.
And when permitted the children would allow me to enter their world and join them on their healing journey.
This work provided the daily miracles that can so easily be missed in any other setting.
Kids laugh, they pull pranks, they love to open gifts, they are still just kids in spite of the worst that humanity can toss at them.
Not even three weeks out from this counseling job, I picked up Angela's Ashes.
I don't know why... I just did.
In Frank McCourt's book, I found comfort. I found that optimism grows like a lotus flower out of the mud. I found the voice of an angel in the poverty stricken dirty streets of Limerick. I found the voices of all those kids who spilled their secrets behind my closed office door... lightening their load while I tried my best to make their world better... one kid at a time.
Frank McCourt is a ruddy angel with an acerbic wit and a gift for seeing things as they truly are.
I love ruddy angels.
This is a book that needs to be on everyone's to read list.
Yes, it is that good.
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Heaven has itself a ruddy angel... Frank McCourt died today, July 19, 2009. Thank you, Mr. McCourt for sharing your life and your wisdom, you will truly be missed.
NEWS REPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8158451.stm
BOOK SUMMARY:
Bookreporter.com - ANGELA'S ASHES by Frank McCourt
READING GUIDE:
Reading Group Guide ANGELA'S ASHES by Frank McCourt
FILM:
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Author, Philip K. Dick is best known for his substantial body of work in the science fiction genre.
I became acquainted with DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP by viewing (several times) the now cult classic sci-fi film, BLADE RUNNER.
Philip K. Dick has the talent for addressing and questioning the dualities of our existence.
Born a twin, his sibling tragically died six weeks after their birth. This event and the emotional challenges of growing up in a conflicted family created the backdrop Dick's work.
He did not consider himself so much a story teller as one who utilized plots to express his ideas.
The dilemma presented in "Electric Sheep" which was translated onto the big screen in Blade Runner is:
Can androids be human?
The story explores how we humans treat species separate from ourselves. Enslaving androids who look, act and on some levels feel like humans... could this be right?
Read the story to find out.
Don't just rely on the film... "Electric Sheep" will take you on a page turning journey that veers from the script of Blade Runner.
You will see the core concepts that have influenced so many current science fiction films. TOTAL RECALL and MINORITY REPORT (starring Tom Cruise) are both based on Dick's work.
KERNEL OF WISDOM FROM THE BOOK:
"He thought too about his need for a real animal; within him an actual hatred once manifested itself towards his electric sheep, which he had to tend, had to care about, as if it lived. The tyranny of an object, he thought. It doesn't know I exist."
(p.37, Blade Runner :Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep, a novel by Philip K. Dick, copyright 1968)
PLOT SUMMARY: Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
STUDY GUIDE: Study Guide for Philip K. Dick: Blade Runner (1968)
FILM: Blade Runner (1982)
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