Summer Reading
What are you doing with those lazy summer days? It's a good time for reading. Here are some recommendations.
If you are a mystery fan and haven't tried Sue Grafton's "Alphabet Mystery Series," you have missed something. A number of year's ago, Grafton set out to write 26 mystery novels featuring female detective Kinsey Millhone of Santa Teresa, Calf. She began with A Is for Alibi and has run through the alphabet to t with T is for Trespass, published in 2007. I have read them all. You don't have to start with the first one because Grafton fills in background the reader needs in each of the novels.
If you have seen No Country for Old Men, you will enjoy the novel by Cormac McCarthy. It is brutal and bloody but an amazing character study.
When I read the magnificent "tome" Shakespeare: The Creation of the Human by Professor Harold Bloom, Bloom alluded to Judge Holden in Blood Meridian by McCarthy as being influenced by Shakespeare's Iago in Othello. I bought the book and finished it last week. Bloom is right. Holden is a devil's apostle incarnate; he is the Mephastophilis that tempted Faustus in Marlowe's play and in Goethe's poem. Some critics call McCarthy a modern Melville or Faulkner. He does have the lyricism of Melville and the stream of consciousness of Faulkner. He also has the terseness and economy of Hemingway in dealing with dialog.
Blood Meridian led me to McCarthy's "Border Trilogy"--All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. I like to read several books by the same author to get a sense of his style and importance. I'm about a third through All the Pretty Horses, and I am not disappointed or bored with McCarthy.
What are you reading or what have you read lately that you would like to recommend?
Let me hear from you.
If you are a mystery fan and haven't tried Sue Grafton's "Alphabet Mystery Series," you have missed something. A number of year's ago, Grafton set out to write 26 mystery novels featuring female detective Kinsey Millhone of Santa Teresa, Calf. She began with A Is for Alibi and has run through the alphabet to t with T is for Trespass, published in 2007. I have read them all. You don't have to start with the first one because Grafton fills in background the reader needs in each of the novels.
If you have seen No Country for Old Men, you will enjoy the novel by Cormac McCarthy. It is brutal and bloody but an amazing character study.
When I read the magnificent "tome" Shakespeare: The Creation of the Human by Professor Harold Bloom, Bloom alluded to Judge Holden in Blood Meridian by McCarthy as being influenced by Shakespeare's Iago in Othello. I bought the book and finished it last week. Bloom is right. Holden is a devil's apostle incarnate; he is the Mephastophilis that tempted Faustus in Marlowe's play and in Goethe's poem. Some critics call McCarthy a modern Melville or Faulkner. He does have the lyricism of Melville and the stream of consciousness of Faulkner. He also has the terseness and economy of Hemingway in dealing with dialog.
Blood Meridian led me to McCarthy's "Border Trilogy"--All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. I like to read several books by the same author to get a sense of his style and importance. I'm about a third through All the Pretty Horses, and I am not disappointed or bored with McCarthy.
What are you reading or what have you read lately that you would like to recommend?
Let me hear from you.
Since you are such an avid runner, I thought you might enjoy this inspiring video of a father and his son.
A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father, who despite having a heart condition, says Yes.
They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'
To which, his father said 'Yes'.
For those who didn't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .
Father and son went on to complete the race together.
Father and Son
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http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8cf08faca5dd9ea45513
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