Armchair Travel

Another summer almost over & I've missed out on all the fun. I've traveled no farther afield than Santa Fe & never made it to Salsa Under the Stars or any of the other events I had planned.  The only way for me to recoup is to let others do the traveling for me! Here are some of my favorite literary adventurers, & some I've been considering:

• Stephen Fry: You don't want to miss Last Chance to See: Animals on the Verge of Extinction, the DVD of his travels with zoologist Mark Carwardine (a repeat of Mark's earlier travels with the late Douglas Adams, whose book is also available for checkout). If you are a diehard Fry fan, Stephen Fry in America is also worth a look.
• Mario Batali: Spain -A Culinary Road Trip is something I check out just to drool over.  The recipes!  The pictures!  If you can get hold of the DVD series (not in the library catalog), it's also pretty fun.
• Bill Bryson: How could you mention literary adventure with mentioning Bryson? In a Sunburned Country is about traveling Australia; A Walk in the Woods is the story of his Appalachian Trail adventures, & Notes from a Small Island discusses his England adventures.
• Chris Townsend: Crossing Arizona: A Solo Hike through the Sky Islands and Deserts of the Arizona Trail comes highly recommended by a co-worker.
• Jamie Zeppa: I had never heard of Bhutan before I read Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan, the story of Zeppa's life-altering time spent a a teacher there.
• Thor Heyerdahl: I lived in Norway as a child, so I have a special affection for this Norse explorer.  Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft is just one of his adventures.
• Tristan Jones: Another co-worker recommendation-I had never heard of this legendary sailor! Try Saga of a Wayward Sailor.
• Anthony Bourdain: I think Anthony Bourdain is the kind of guy people either love or hate.  If you love him, you've probably seen his No Reservations show (join him "on his journey that takes him to people and places far beyond the realm of food"), but I'm going to recommend it anyway.
• Nathaniel Stone: Author of On the Water: Discovering America in a Rowboat-Booklist Reviews called it "a real treat".
• Edward Abbey: not the author of this book, but the subject.  Jack Loeffler wrote Adventures with Ed: On the Road with Abbey, which is both a biography & a memoir of their times spent hiking & camping.
• Gary Paulsen: Beloved children's author takes "the motorcycle journey of a lifetime" in Zero to Sixty.
• John Steinbeck: His Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a classic of this genre.
• Rebecca Otowa: At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman's Journey of Discovery came out last year & went immediately on my "to-be-read" list.
• Sarah Macdonald: I loved Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure! Australian Sarah spent 2 years in India with her then-boyfriend & learned to love it as she takes in lavish weddings, encounters with Bollywood stars, & a pilgrimage to the Kumbha Mela.
• Sarah Turnbull: The romantically inclined will surely fall for Almost French: Love & A New Life in Paris as hard as I did.
• Alexandra Fuller: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a gritty retelling of the author's childhood in Africa.
• Jen Lin-Liu: The story of how learning to cook in China enabled the author to embrace her cultural heritage is winningly told in Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China.
• Susan Orlean: From the author of The Orchid Thief (Meryl Streep portrayed her in Adaptation!) comes My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman who's Been Everywhere.
• Rachel DeWoskin: Executive with an American firm by day, DeWoskin  finds herself the unlikely star of a Chinese television soap opera in Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China.
• Lynette Chiang: Australians certainly are adventurous, by & large.  In The Handsomest Man in Cuba: An Escapade, this Australian bicycles across Cuba. The title is deceptive-sounds like it might be an episode of Sex & the City-but reviews describe it as "literate" [Library Journal] with "serious messages about politics & poverty" [Booklist Reviews].
• John Gimlette: I know you can't tell a book by its cover, & probably not by its title either, but every time I see At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraguay, I know I will have to read it someday.
• Tim Moore: Maybe John Gimlette & Tim Moore should travel together-sounds like they might have some things in common? Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago is the story of Moore's "picaresque and picturesque walk across northern Spain" [Kirkus Reviews].

If you're recovering from all your beach reading this summer, never fear.  You can still travel the stars at Bubonicon or around the globe at a Destination Dinner at the Biopark. & the Local IQ has suggested "50 Things to Do Before the Sun Sets on Summer"!

Down & Out in Paris & London by George Orwell

Then the question arises, Why are beggars despised?-for they are despised, universally. I believe it is for the simple reason that they fail to earn a decent living.  In practice nobody cares whether work is useful or useless, productive or parasitic; the sole thing demanded is that it shall be profitable.  In all the modern talk about energy, efficiency, social service & the rest of it, what meaning is there except "Get money, get it legally, & get a lot of it"? Money has become the grand test of virtue.
~George Orwell

In 1928, George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Blair) moved to Paris, joining the cavalcade of artists & writers attracted to the City of  Light during its Luminous Years.  By 1929, he had returned to England, & in 1933 he wrote a semi-autobiographical account of his life during this period called Down & Out in Paris & London.  It was his first book.

The novel is split into two sections, based on geography.  In Paris he works in restaurant & hotel kitchens, primarily as a "plongeur" (dishwasher).  In London, he finds himself living the life of a tramp when the job he expected to find waiting for him is not yet available. Both sections are written in the first person & read like a memoir, but there has been some debate as to the factuality of Orwell's account.

But no matter.  Even in this first book, Orwell's prose is entertaining, his pictures of the kitchens of 1920s Paris vivid enough to put you off your next restaurant visit; his tales of "screevers" (sidewalk chalk artists) more harrowing than Dick Van Dyke's attempt at a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins; & descriptions of various shelters, dormitories, & "spikes" will make you grateful to be able to take a bath without sharing water with 20 or more filthy men. 

If you enjoy reading about working in restaurants & hotels, try also:

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Waiting: True Confessions of a Waitress by Debra Ginsberg

Hotel Bemelmans by Ludwig Bemelmens

Exotica

Perhaps lists of book award winners and nominees intimidate you. Certainly, some of those literary works are less enjoyable and more, well, literary than you bargained for. There are a few in my reading past that I definitely don't understand the appeal, critically or otherwise. (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I'm looking at you.) However, prize lists can be a great place to discover an author outside of your normal reading habits. They can be gold mines for first-time or foreign authors, many of whom won't show up at your local big-box book store.

I recently read Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch, which is on the Man Booker prize long list and the Orange prize long list. Carol Birch is not a first time author, but is a British novelist (one of the requirements for both prizes). Written in a deceptively simple style, the story drew me right in. The story has been compared to both Dickens and Melville's work, neither author being on my favorites list, though I think that the similarities are mainly superficial. It reminds me, and others as well, of Yann Martel's Life of Pi, with rather dreamy interludes, though at the end you are not left to muse about the nature of reality. Instead, the nature of friendship and sanity are examined, leaving the reader with both a sense of melancholy and relief. I won't say more about it, though I highly recommend it, with one caveat: squeamish readers need not apply.

A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

"Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the most recognized designers of his time in decorative arts, especially in stained glass. However, some lamps, windows and other decorative objects which were originally thought to be designed by Tiffany himself, are now recognized as designed and executed by a special group of women who worked for Tiffany at the turn of the 20th century. The “Tiffany Girls”, as they were called, worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Women’s Glass Cutting Department of Tiffany Studios along with their department head, Ohio-born designer Clara Driscoll (1861-1944)."
~from the museum website

I recently checked out the A New Light on Tiffany display at the Albuquerque Museum & it was such a treat that I wanted to recommend the experience to everyone! I had seen Tiffany creations before, but I had never heard about the Tiffany Girls. There are many lovely Tiffany pieces to see in this exhibit, as well as a presentation of what Clara Driscoll's life might have been like-you can see a bicycle of the style she might have ridden, & even listen to a recording of one of her favorite singers. I especially liked, at the end, the representation of what a Tiffany Girl's lodging might have looked like-including some daunting looking boots!

Of course, the sad thing about the exhibit is to see so many pieces labeled "probably" created by Clara Driscoll. Apparently, the only way we know which items were created by her is from reading her letters, which, thankfully, someone held on to! Also, I discovered that you were only allowed to work for Tiffany if you were unmarried-once you married, you were expected to abandon your employment, which seems unfair for a designer of Clara Driscoll's talent.

You can still enjoy the exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum, featuring 70 Tiffany lamps, windows, mosaics, enamels and ceramics, as well as pages of newly discovered documents written by designer Clara Driscoll, until August 21st! You can buy your tickets online, but if you want to take advantage of the New Mexico resident discount, wait to get your tickets at the museum.


There is a still a considerable hold list on Susan Vreeland's Clara & Mr. Tiffany, a fictionalized account of their relationship, but the library catalog has several histories of Tiffany & Company & books about Louis Comfort Tiffany that you can check out while you're waiting! Please note that Clara & Mr. Tiffany is also available from our digital library, both as an eBook & downloadable audiobook.

"The poem will be like you"

A piece of writing, photocopied, cut up, & the pieces arranged together on a page in different ways.

To make a dadaist poem. Take a newspaper. Take a pair of scissors.  Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem. Cut out the article.  Then cut out each of the words that make this article and put them in a bag. Shake it gently. Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag. Copy conscientiously. The poem will be like you. 

~Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto on Feeble Love and Bitter Love

Before there was Magnetic Poetry, there was Dada Poetry, which was created using the method quoted above.  Also the Beats' Cut-Ups. William Burroughs & Brion Gysin used to type out sections by Shakespeare & Rimbaud, cut them up into phrases, &  "create refreshing new poems from the same words".* Burroughs said, "Cut the word lines & you will hear [the poets'] voices. Cut-ups often come through as code messages with special meaning for the cutter." Gysin's explanation of the process was even more mystical. "we began to find out a whole lot of things about the real nature of words & writing.  What are words & what are they doing? ...Painters & writers of the kind I respect want to be heroes, challenging fate in their lives & in their art. ...if you want to challenge & change fate...cut up words, make them a new world." Burroughs & Gysin's cut-ups used a method similar to Dada, but instead of picking the phrases out of a bag they carefully rearranged the cut-up phrases on the page in whatever order they wished.

I thought it would be a fun experiment to use Dada & Beat techniques to transform a couple of poems.  One is a poem of my own, & the other is a poem called "The Red Poppy" by Louise Glück.


Windows: A Dada Poem

their Look
monster in can’t
as over mocking
supposed open
as the back night jumped
darkness littering the night
Ssshh juncture shut
eating we armistice
between mockery this close
between my waste leers am
has me asleep
make skeptical your snaps and
ghosts awkward already we’ve
in fish sullen arms
am close door heart alone
house each
appetites faces tender who the
of carnage all Hold years
blood made other until unlock me
fall heat be least the long the the
us this all of of the i I noise at
with I We of to eyes at
and bad my up or the and


The Red Poppy Revisited: A Cut Up Poem

brothers and sisters, were you like me
before you were shattered.
permit yourselves who would never
to open once, and open you do.
Because in truth; they not having the way open again?
The fire called the sun, like the fire of my own heart, is
because I am human? Did you govern me.
Oh my I have those I am speaking now for him, I have a mind.
I speak great thing showing him his presence.
oh, glory be, what could such a lord in heaven
once, long ago, if not a heart?


If you don't want to go through the whole process, consider using the Dada Poetry Generator--you just have to copy & paste a block of text into the generator.

To read more about Dadaism or the Beat Generation, try a subject search in the library catalog.  For tips about writing poetry, visit our Poetry LibGuide. Or try the Guardian's poetry workshop!


*all Beat quotes are from The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burrough, & Corso in Paris, 1957-1963 by Barry Miles

Back to School

It's that time of year...the first day of school for Albuquerque Public Schools is August 16th!  (The APS website has a list of school supplies for grades K-5.)  For the University of New Mexico, the fall semester begins on August 22nd; for Central New Mexico Community College, August 29th.

ABC Libraries do not feature textbooks in our catalog, but that doesn't mean we don't have resources for students, parents, & lifelong learners!  The Core Knowledge System is very popular-from What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning to What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Sixth-Grade Education, & other related titles.  You'll find test prep guides in the catalog-SAT, GED, ACT, GRE, ASVAB. NCLEX, TOEFL.  Got a kid who you'd like to see reading more? We have guides to all sorts of recommended reads, from More Books Kids Will Sit Still For: A Read-Aloud Guide to Gotcha For Guys!: Nonfiction Books to Get Boys Excited About Reading. (Adults, consider checking out 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die if you need reading suggestions! I love those "1001" books.)  Does your teen need math help?  Former child star Danica McKellar's books get top marks.

Also available from the ABC Libraries website (you just need to have your library card at the ready to log in) are several LibGuides for you to peruse from the comfort of your own home, 24-7!  Check out the Test Preparation LibGuide & connect to the Learning Express database.  Need to find an award-winning book for your student? Try Book Awards-Books for Kids or Book Awards-Books for Teens. Need a biography in a hurry? Our Biography eResources can be cited like a book.  There are all kinds of LibGuides!  Science Project Help...Learning a Language...Poetry...browse the A-Z guide & check them all out!

Here are some other recommended websites:

Back to School from USA.gov

FAFSA (Federal Student Aid)

Back to School Tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics

Back to School Resources from FamilyEducation.com

Outstanding Books for the College Bound from Young Adult Library Services Association

Plan for College from CollegeBoard.com

College Success from CollegeBoard.com

Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller 1900-1999

As we look at the bestsellers of the past hundred years, decade by decade, we will, perhaps, get a sense of just what it is that makes Americans buy a book in large quantities, of that elusive & mysterious mix of elements & appeal that makes a book, fiction or nonfiction, a bestseller.
~Michael Korda

Sometimes we come across a book during our work day that just is too good not to share. A book that you might not be looking for, but once you find it, it's vastly entertaining to browse through. Such a book is Michael Korda's Making the List.

What the author has done is take the annual bestseller lists of The Bookman & Publishers Weekly & used them to look "at the twentieth-century American cultural landscape through the prism of its popular reading". (Did you know that "within the trade, the Publishers Weekly list has long been regarded by some a more accurate than the [New York] Times, & it is certainly more venerable"?) The book features a chapter for each decade with an introduction to the events & issues of the period, followed by a list each year's bestsellers. Some decades also have extra lists, like the "War Books" between 1917-18; the earliest lists are for fiction only.

A cursory glance through the earliest lists shows that the library system does not own many bestsellers from the earliest decades (although authors such as H.G. Wells, Edna Ferber, John Galsworthy, Edith Wharton & Zane Grey make an appearance or two), but by the 1930s the names get more & more familiar & you can find more of these vintage bestsellers in the library catalog. We've made a list of a few formerly famous titles you may have forgotten!

Fiction

1914 Penrod by Booth Tarkington
1915 The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey
1917 Mr Britling Sees It Through by H.G. Wells
1926 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
1931 A White Bird Flying by Bess Streeter Aldrich
1941 Saratoga Trunk by Edna Ferber
1954 No Time for Sergeants by Mac Hyman
1954 This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart

Nonfiction

1912 The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori
1925 When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
1932 The Story of My Life by Clarence Darrow
1940 I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson
1942 Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawligs
1950 Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
1962 Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

Also, bestsellers throughout the 20th century have been adapted for film! One of the earliest adaptations I found on the lists & in the catalog was Kitty Foyle-so you can read the book & watch the movie!

Michael Korda says: "The bestseller list is therefore neither as predictable nor as dominating as its critics make it out to be. Plenty of really strange books get onto the list & stay there for a long time, & as much as booksellers may pay attention to the list, they still fill their stores with books that aren't on it." Do you agree?