Form-3 Books

It's always timely to have an international issue, but especially during a time of war, when borders are tightened, and focal points are narrowed. Literature tends to be able to leap over the checkpoints, and the stories in Reading Room/4 perform these acrobatics. The most striking piece that makes the leap for me is "Awakening," by Kenyan writer Julie Obaso. The story is centered on a child's initiation into brutality. The story's concern is the child's reaction to having to wring the neck of his pet, Old Rooster, for dinner. What is of interest is how the boy denies himself as a way of coping with the violence, and how he sees this denial, at different levels, in those around him.

A new translation of Joseph Roth's story, "Strawberries" opens the journal. Roth describes the people in a rural, poor, European town who survive on "miracles" and the generosity of a rich count. One character complains -- after selling the last bit of "lucky" rope from a man who hung himself -- "Life is like a prison, and we have to wait for God to let us out." Among other things, it's a story about getting by on bits of luck and scraps of work - definitely worth the read.

It's notable that the cover of this issue is a Larry Rivers portrait of Roth. The artist died in September of this year, around the time the journal was being distributed. His portrait of Roth would have been one of his last works. Serendipitously, his work is part of the editor's lusty essay on Marcel Duchamp and the conceptual artists' struggle with "the pesky body thing." In this essay, Barbara Probst Solomon probes the influence of Duchamp's 5-year affair with Maria Martins on his ideas about art's remove and on his long secrecy surrounding his work, "Etant Donnes" and "Woman with Open [word]." Rivers' work is brought in as a challenge to Duchamp's restrained gaze.

As usual in The Reading Room, there's an exciting blend of emerging and established voices. South African writer Anthony Schneider is one of the newer ones whose story, "An Uninhabited Place" is written in haunting and seductive prose about a different kind of desire than the one Duchamp strugged with. The author links a "dry and disconsolate" land to a struggle with infertility, in a beautiful rendering of a thing hoped for but unattained. I find myself linking this story to the drought we've been having in the east, and the infertility of the economy and the White house. But that's what's on my mind as I read it. Each reader will bring a new association.

These stories and the others are good for reading by a fire, or at least some incense. Or if no incense, than crack the book to Donald Maggin's "Gray Smoke of Incense" and imagine!

I've read all three issues of The Reading Room, and Issue Three continues the inspiring path set by One and Two. Barbara Probst Solomon, the editor, in her own essay included in each issue, has a way of exploring an author as if she's in deep with them. In the case of Saul Bellow, in this issue, she is actually an old friend - she'd befriended his first wife in Europe, and then Bellow, too. (Probst Solomon was also friends with John Updike, with whom she has a lavish conversation in the first issue). With Bellow, it's a conversation that starts with the memoir material of their friendship and moves onto the influences of Don Quixote and Ulysses on his work, and his argument with intellectuals ("We like to celebrate our nihilism....The fact is that in the morning, factory gates open, and people go to work"). It's a jaunty, enlightening read.

For those interested in things `70's, which seems to be everyone these days, check out the piece on a primal scream therapy cult, written by one of its recuperating daughters, Judith Kellem. For people who are nostalgic for disco duck and bell bottoms, it's a little shock-treatment to be inside the walls of one of the more dodgy components of the decade.

A special element of The Reading Room is its embrace of writers from Europe and other countries. Theme headings help you navigate through the many offerings of each issue, and one such theme in this issue is "Sex and the Ultimate French Novel." Here is a work that will help satisfy the literary scene's new hunger for sex workers' stories. It's a new translation of Charles-Louis Philippe's novel, based on the author's real-life failed attempts to "save" a teenage prostitute, at the turn of the last century.

Aside from being international in flavor, this journal is on the eclectic tilt, with artwork that follows suit (William Anthony and Spanish artist Gonzalo Torne in this volume). At a full 300 some pages, The Reading Room is large enough (and expansive enough) to invite not only writers of national and international renown but a few new kids on the block, too. The mix makes this "room" energetic, a place where you want to hang out for a while and see what happens next.

What a pleasure to come upon literary review of real quality. This is a wonderful collection of writers -- comfortable, funny, edgy, and stimulating. They have been brought together in a plain chunky book that smells good and is handsomely (and cleverly) printed. I sipped this morning's coffee as slowly as possible, ignored the phone, and read (into mid-morning) Juan Goytisolo, Daphne Merkin, Madison Smartt Bell, and Julian Rios. The best part is that when it's over, it's not over. There'll be more "Reading Rooms". The new year is looking pretty nice after all!

I was truly blessed at an early age to have this and Gymkhana in my room when I first began to ride. This is a marvelous and loving look at children and horseback riding. Any parent with a child, particularly a daughter, beginning Enlgish riding instruction ought to make every effort to find this book. Like my tattered copy, it will become an heirloom. PCK, NJ.

Everything you ever experienced at a riding academy with a chuckle on every page. Or if you've never been to a riding academy, you'll want to after looking this over. Angie Lohman

This is one of my favorite books from childhood. A tongue-in-cheek riding instruction manual, it is filled with cartoons about the antics of girls and their sometimes-naughty ponies. Add subtle British humor to the mix, and it's a must for girls in that "horsey" stage . . . my 10-year-old adores it!

America's favorite lazy, fat-cat is back. And, as always, he's sleeping.

It's fun to sit back, read, and take a stroll down memory lane with some of the characters we haven't seen in a while in the recent strips. There's Lyman (Odie's master), Arlene (Garfield's sometime girlfriend), Nermal (the world's cutese kitten), and the veterinarian (the only human being to go out with Jon more than once).

"The Second Garfield Treasury" is a collection of Sunday comic strips from July 1980 through August 1982. In this collection you will see the evolution of the drawing of the characters into what we see today.

So make a pan of lasagna, sit back, and watch everyone's favorite cat gulp it down right before your eyes.

After the success of The Garfield treasury, a sort of sequel book was inevitable. So, this is The Second Garfield Treasury. While not quite as good as the original, this book dishes up on plenty of laughs, with Garfield kicking, eating and sleeping through his kitty-life (he finds time to get locked in a dog pound, however), but making sure to never forget to joke.

Recommended.

Jim Davis is a hillarious man and I hope he won't stop making Garfield books. I have all 35 garfield books and am waiting for the 36th to come out. I recomened this book to all Garfield lovers.

Lynn Phillips' new book is so witty and sharp in its observations. It's laugh-out-loud heady. I particularly enjoyed the range of references, from the highbrow to the lowbrow and everywhere between. It's a great tonic
compared to so many of the self-congratulating self-help books.
Wayne Lavender, Psychologist

Lynn Phillips is one of the funniest, creative, and savvy living writers out there. Her Kitty Lyons piece in nerve was one of the sexiest, intelligent columns out there. 'Self Loathing' is a hilarious take on self help books- tackling all things for which we beat ourself up for: diet, relationships, porn...
Great gift & great read!


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the apple sisters

An invaluable contribution to the canon of self-help books that drive us all to despair. Finally someone gets it. So Beginners and experts alike - Get it. Share it with others who suffer from self doubt or should. We should start a campaign to get it into the hands of most of the 24 hour news agencies and FOX. They have not begun to tap into the self-loathing they ought to be feeling.

I have another book by these authors, so when I saw this I bought it, and my friends at work and I have been laughing at it every day since. It's true what it says- it makes you feel better- it's total comic relief and smart & helpful at the same time like no other book I've seen. It's not just one of those other books that has stupid observations and really says nothing- it really addresses the need/problem you might have and provides a solution- even if it's tongue-in-cheek. This is great for an uplifting and fun gift, or even to keep at home or on your desk for a good boost during the dull work day- try it, you'll definitely " really feel better!"

I have another book by these authors, so when I saw this I bought it, and my friends at work and I have been laughing at it every day since. It's true what it says- it makes you feel better- it's total comic relief and smart & helpful at the same time like no other book I've seen. It's not just one of those other books that has stupid observations and really says nothing- it really addresses the need/problem you might have and provides a solution- even if it's tongue-in-cheek. This is great for an uplifting and fun gift, or even to keep at home or on your desk for a good boost during the dull work day- try it, you'll definitely " really feel better!"

Forget Dr. Phil, if you truly are down-in-the-dumps what you need is a good laugh. And this little book delivers!!! I don't know who the ladies who wrote 'I love my hair!' are, but they sure know how to put a smile on your face. My girlfriends and I sat around all night reading the affirmations & exercises out loud to each other until we were falling out of our chairs laughing. Hadn't had that much fun in a while...definitely a recommended read & gift!

Aileen Campbells Wee Scot Book is one that kids from 1 to 100 years old will enjoy. As you read the ancient Doric script (along with the English translation), your immediately wisked away to the Highlands of Scotland. The tape on which she reads her poems and other verses as well as sings with accompanyists on the bagpipes and dulcimer, is perfect to listen to as you enjoy her warm and beautiful watercolors that illustrate the words. A must have for anyone who enjoys a touch of good old fashioned nursery rhymes whether your a Scot or not!

Aileen Campbell, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland has collected and illustrated, as only she could, many familiar poems and stories with deep roots in Scottish heritage. "Wee Willy Winky" and the like, put down with love and care by her hand will live as long children need bedtime stories. This item is highly recommended for young parents and "young" grandparents alike who want to pass along to their prodigy the favorite stories of their childhood. If you want to really get crazy, check out her cassette version of the book...her beautiful, lilting Scottish brogue will aboslutely melt your heart

The Wee Scot is a beautiful book that, with its lilting poens and comforting illustrations, really captures the heart of Scotland.It really made me fall in love with the country and my Scottish heritage. I would reccomend it for anybody who wishes to learn about their heritage, or who wishes to visit Scotland but can't. This book is the next best thing.

In Eamon Grennan's Still Life with Waterfall, agitated swoops and scuttlings of animal life are stilled in a language as sensuous as the bright colors of Bonnard's "Sunset" (on the book's cover). Grennan's observations of the natural world are inextricably bound to the ineluctable experiences of death and loss, resulting in a poetry that gnaws its way toward basic realizations about what it means to be a human animal. On a primal level, we identify with the rage for survival in the plights of the carnivorous marsh hawk and sparrowhawk (in the book's first and last poems respectively), as well as the pathos of the "stopped robin" in "Detail," and the flight instinct of the deer in "Grid," who "stares till he sees what you are, then... he's dolphining green waves/ to a safer distance." Grennan also contemplates animal instinct in search of a model for more complex human behaviors. For example, "Up Against It" is a poem that functions on both a literal and metaphorical level, in which frustrated bees who "cannot understand the window... fling their bodies against... [the] fact of glass--and can only go on/ making the sound that tethers their electric/ fury to what's impossible."

So many of these poems speak to the way in which fundamental human impulses are felt and remembered not only by the brain, but by the body. Weather fluctuations are experienced both internally and externally. "To Grasp the Nettle" treats the speaker's hands almost as the subject of the poem, endowing them with their own memory of lost love, "the way they burned/ to find the cool indented shell of flesh/ at the base of her spine, how they cupped themselves/ to hold her head, feeling its weight and bones." In keeping with his deeply sensual consciousness, Grennan's long sentences, rich with assonance and consonance, give his poetry a slow, lulling, lyrical quality, so that language is eroticized no less passionately than the human body.

A palpable sense of loss haunts the text; rather than write around it as some poets might, Grennan writes through and about the pain of loss, even adopting a lexicon in which words like "asunder," "amputation," and "silence," recur throughout the poems. In addition, there is a formal recurrence of 13-line sonnets, each a kind of truncation, coming up short in the same way life and so many of its elements end prematurely. In the throes of such emptiness where speech fails to compensate for abandonment, and "there is this void, a space filled with mourning/ in silence," Grennan persists with courage and eloquence to contemplate the "'Soul,' [as] something like... a space/ that has shaped itself to the shape of what's gone/ and not returning."

Eamon Grennanfs gStill Life With Waterfallh is a gallery of lush musics. Themes of grief, wounding & healing, and multiedged memory haunt many works, but many more are chiefly concerned with astonishment in the lights and lives of the world. And we are viscerally in the world on every page, never heaving confusedly through the endless tarpit of language. Rural and wild scenes tend to dominate Grennanfs landscape, but these descriptively masterful poems never lapse into the merely painterly, are instead animate with an emotive intensity formed of equal parts sensing, thinking and feeling. He is a consistently formal poet, but the crackle of thought and image in his work leads one through fluidly, so that the formal properties only grow obvious after something electric has been transmitted.

Some poems aim at a verbal rendition of experience, the words themselves, as sonic bodies, more prominent than image, metaphor, or philosophy (gCold Morningh, gGifth, gIn the Dunesh): gNothing to be seen or heard, the sea / not making the slightest ripple, vacant acres of glass / paving a way to islands that are light blue chimera / adrift on rafts of white mist. . . .h Others employ Grennanfs superbly tuned ear to find a way into and through the no-manfs-land of grief (gWhy?h, gMan Making the Bedh, gAshh): gLying alone. . .he will dream / a wilderness of tents in moonlight: asleep, / they will be shivering a little, as if they felt the stars / press their chill rivets in, or the future / with red eyes whispering to rouse them.h

Particularly interesting are Grennanfs thirteen-line poems, some of the most effective and powerful in the book, by dint of the linguistic compression that is one of his strongest gifts, and of a sustained examination of one or two resonant images (gPulseh, gWindowgraveh, gEnoughh): ghaving seen his real presence / ignite like that\the beautiful slow burn of it / as he steps from my sight into his own tangle of shadows\ / and not having to content myself with the marks only / of his absence: the smell of him, his neat prints filling with sand.h There is a wonderful movement from the intensity of description in the first poem (gAt Workh) to the consciousness of larger relations in the last (gDetailsh), as though Grennan were teaching us, through attention, how to let the least event in the outer world foster inner meaning.

The description of sighting a fox in gEnoughh describes well the overall project of the book: to fill with sensual connections the absences and nothings that come to pervade a life. Violence and death are always inherent to this process, but never unbeautiful: gsilk-spurt of bloodh, gThe sheep skeleton in the stream / resembles the inside of a small harpsichord.h To paint over yin with the brightness of yang is to set foot on sentimentalityfs slippery, and psychically terminal, slope. There are times when Grennan approaches this precipice, but in the end insists that he means to sing it all, for gThereness / is all: that burn of chance, quickened breath of appetite / adding up to all that this world offers\ / glitter and shadow, pang of absence, the way / this day keeps coming on: we meet; we disappear.h

Eamon Grennan is one of those academicians (he is currently a Professor of English at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie and the winner of the 2002 Heimbold Professor of Irish Studies at Villanova University) who is particularly gifted with an ability to spin and weave a poetry that is at once elegant, romantic, original, and linguistically subtle -- a memorable kind of literary music. Still Life With Waterfall is a welcome and recommended compendium of Grennan's unique and adroitly written verse. Windowgrave: The dead bee lies on the window-ledge, a relic,/its amber-yellow body barred in black and it head//tucked in, dust gathering on every follicle/and on the geodesic dome of the head--all rucked in//and tucked away, so near is death. And the many/flies too, all sizes, lying on their sides as if//asleep, just a quick nap and they'll be up and off/about their business. Souls, we used to say://bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, all sorts of flies,/the air crowded and loud with left over angels--/but not the spider in its complex web, fallen/from grace but walking on air, vigilant in ways//that harden the heart, getting its appetite back.

There is tons of information in this book, especially for a 60 page book. It is laid out in an eye appealing style. Covers all kinds of escapes. It is written in a way that kids and adults can enjoy.

Having first read this book in grade school, I bought it finally after I remembered the segment on Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad which I needed for a paper in college. It presents the stories behind various different escapists throughout history. The pictures and diagrams are of great quality as well. Overall, an excellent book that can both entertain and teach you at the same time.

it not only has some of the prison escapes like from Alcatraz, Colditz, the escape of Winston Churchill, it also has turban, the black woman who freed a huge number of slaves in america, the berlin wall, houndini, the guy who can escape from any kind of locks, straitjacket. and more of course. it tells of how they escaped, their methods used, a lot of colourful pictures of tools the captured used, and also maps showing the location of the prisons and where prisoners and slaves were held.

This is a great, inexpensive resource for teachers! It offers concrete examples of books representing the various genres, and exercises as well! This is a blessing for the teacher of Literature for Children courses!

This was a great transaction! This book was exactly what I was needing. Thanks

I'm doing my student teaching in a master's program in Oregon. I'm in a school district that doesn't have set 'guidelines' for what you teach and when you teach it so when my supervisor said I was going to teach 'literary genre', I was lost. I researched the topic and quickly realized that it was a dry and boring topic that would need a lot of help. I found this book online and thought it could work (even though it's geared toward 4-8 grade students, my 3rd and 4th graders did wonderfully). I was amazed at how much information was stuffed into that book and how many reproducible-quality worksheets were available. Nothing in the book was just 'so-so'- it was all fantastic and the kids LOVED the topic and the interesting and creative writing assignments. Boy, just when I was at my wits end creatively speaking, in stepped this book (by scholastic, OF COURSE) and saved me. Teachers and parents, this is a fabulous resource.

Wow. I read my first Wendell Berry Novel, and I'm virtually "speechless". The more I read, the more I had to read. Reading Wendell Berry is not only addictive, but deeply emotional. I fell in love with Port William, Kentucky and the wonderful characters to whom he introduced me. I literally could not put the book down. As soon as I finished the first novel I began reading the second and then the third.

I knew I would be sad to finish reading, but I was compelled to read until I finished! Don't you hate that?!?!

I found myself reading parts of the book over and over. I simply couldn't believe that someone could write the way Berry wrote. The words by themselves weren't powerful, but when put together in a sentence constructed by Wendell Berry, they became works of art that left me shaking my head, smiling, crying, or simply saying, "wow".

I don't suppose everyone will like his writing. I've come to learn that it isn't books that are good or bad, but the soil into which they fall. This explains to me why someone will read a book and rave about it, while someone else will read it and fall asleep. The parable of the sower is not just true for the words of Jesus.

Wendell Berry has fallen into the soil of my life at just the right time.

A long time fan of Wendell Berry's poetry, I have truly enjoyed discovering the town of Port William and the lively characters that inhabit and haunt the land that Berry has crafted through various novels. "Three Short Novels" is a collection of some of his prize pieces, including 'Nathan Coulter', 'Remembering', and 'A World Lost'. All three novels stand on their own, but are interconnected in one book due to the fact that the lives of every character intermingles with that of others.

'Nathan Coulter' is a tender coming-of-age story, as our young narrator explores and explains his life and the world around him. Poetically we are told the ramblings and fights of Tom and Nathan, the two Coulter brothers raised by their grandparents after the death of their mother. Nathan is an honest and perceptive storyteller, revealing the innocent and wondering notions of a young boy's mind.

'Remembering' is a starker novel in contrast to the other two in the collection. It tells the story of a grown Andy Catlett, an agricultural journalist and farmer, trying to come to terms with a devestating injury. During the process of farming, he lost his right hand and struggles with both the physical demands of his deformity, as well as the psychological and emotional demands it places upon himself, and his family and friends. The novel shifts in perspective from past to present, fluctuating between Andy's memories, and his rememberings of the stories he has been told about his family and his town. The ending is bittersweet and poignant, as Andy returns home and comes to terms with the life he must now lead.

After being introduced to the grown Andy Catlett in 'Remembering', readers are introduced to him as a boy in 'A World Lost'. In this novel he reminisces about his childhood and the idol of his younger days - Andrew Catlett, his uncle and namesake. When Andy was just a young boy of nine, his uncle was murdered and he accepted the story that had been fed him. He experiences his own grief as well as that of his family, all the while painting a vivid image of the wild man his uncle was. It isn't until his later years that Andy begins to question the story surrounding his uncle's murder, and searches out sources to learn the truth about the man he most admired.

Berry's stories always unfold delicately. He has imagined the lives of every inhabitant of Port William and its surrounding communities so well that they come to life of their own initiative in the reader's mind. His novels are odes to a simpler time and life, to the relationship man should have with the earth, to the ties that bind all of us to each other. His novels are welcome escapes into a world that seems irrevocably lost. Berry offers readers the hope that this world could exist again.

For those who know Wendell Berry only as a poet and/or environmentalist, this collection of three short works is a perfect introduction to his fiction which is an expansion on the poetry and centers on the same themes of relationships and devotion to the earth

The first of the novels, "Nathan Coulter," is a coming of age story, and the first of Berry's Port William stories. It describes the relationship between Nathan and his brother, Tom, and their lives with their grandparents after the death of their mother.

The second, "Remembering," is a denser, darker tale, focusing on Andy Catlett, an agricultural journalist and farmer, struggling to find himself after losing a hand (and his direction in life) in a farming accident. Reviewing his memories during a trip to an agricultural conference he is finally able to come to terms with the realities of his life and their value. This book is a testament to the virtues of the simple life Berry has been preaching for years.

The third novel, "A World Lost," introduces us to the young Andy Catlett in the year his uncle and namesake is murdered, an incident which impacts his life to come. It is only when he is older and able to investigate the incident himself that he is able to learn the truth about his hero.

Wallace Stegner wrote that he found it hard to say whether he liked Berry better as poet, essayist or novelist, that he is all three and at a high level. The man lives the life he writes about. The author of more than 30 books, he lives and farms with his family in Henry County, Kentucky.