2019 #12: What W.H. Auden Can Do For You (McCall Smith)

What W. H. Auden Can Do for You by Alexander McCall Smith


It is true that this book is somewhat self-indulgent, but if you are one of those people, like me, who enjoys what one might call conversational erudition, this book is a fantasy fulfilled. In reading McCall
Smith's book, we imagine ourselves not in a classroom, but sitting in the Russian Tea Room, as the author did with Edward Mendelson (108-11). This evokes an older mode of teaching, and reminded me specifically of my Doktorvater, who could recall specific measures of a Brahms intermezzo, the structure of a medieval motet, or the specific page of a citation in an issue of the Journal of the American Musicological Society with authority based, first and foremost, in his pure love of--and engagement with--music. This is truly the "life of the mind," when we move past the hierarchical corporate machine of academia. That said, the book rests in privilege, without doubt -- both in the fact it exists, and that it banks on a readership of well-established fans. But I've been astonished by some of the criticism claiming that McCall Smith is not a good enough author to deserve to write a book on Auden. These same reviews call him out for his "ego" in producing the book in the first place. There's a quiet irony here which I won't harp on, to avoid a review of a review. For me, McCall Smith's stream-of-consciouness sidebars are refreshing and he wrote this book in the way that I read most books. If you are looking for an academic tome about Auden, or a biography-- this isn't it, which the author tells us on p. 3:

This small book does not purport to be a work of criticism. It does not claim to shed new light on a body of work that has already been extensively examined. It is simply an attempt to share an enthusiasm with others who may not have yet discovered, or may not have given much thought to the work of Wystan Hugh Auden.

Those familiar with McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series may take extra delight in this volume, particularly in that the real Edward Mendelson, whom McCall Smith extolls as "no better guardian and exponent of [Auden's] work," makes an appearance in several of those novels.

2019 #11: Time's Convert (Harkness)

Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was disappointing in some respects. It fills in some of the lore and we do get a better sense of what it is to be a vampire. The backstory for Marcus is well done, and Harkness is at her strongest when she's writing historical fiction. After a trilogy centered around Diana and Matthew, their presence in this book seemed superfluous--as if the author felt those characters had to be there. I would have preferred a sequel that waited a bit longer, delved more into the development of the twins OR gave us Marcus/Phoebe's story--trying to do both here didn't work for me.

2019 #10: Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let me start with: this is a very important, very violent, and wonderful book. And I'm going to read the next book in hopes that it rids me of my one real criticism of the book.

It is very intense for any book--not just for a ya book--but that intensity is the point. Anyone who pays attention to the news and who cares should understand the metaphors laced throughout this book. Sadly, there are those that will need to read the Author's Note to "get it." It can't really be critiqued as a standard ya/fantasy novel because that isn't its purpose. This story is more and it digs into the complexity of conviction, of faith, of heritage, and of legacy. The characters are amazing---flawed, multi-dimensional, ever-growing, ever changing. Life is about choices--some of which are made in an instant, some of which are made for us, and some of which blossom slowly along with our own growth. It is a "fantasy" epic, yes---but it doesn't rest upon all the tired clichés of the genre. Our alliances with the characters split and rejoin as much as their own.

I was so entrenched in it all and then...the end. And an epilogue that obviously throws the door open for part two, but did an insufficient job of closing out this book as a novel. There's so much more to say---not just in terms of the narrative, but in 523 pages leading up to the real point of the sacrifices, the page of Epilogue really doesn't do it justice. I will say that in the brief paragraphs of the epilogue, the end result was exactly what I had hoped for, except that the final sentence left me wondering. I wanted to give it five stars, but there's an imbalance toward character development here--which is a criticism I almost NEVER have. The book has a great rhythm of narration and characterization, with the bigger picture undergirding it at all times. But then the final few pages of the book renders them all basically irrelevant, which I can't think was the point. This is a small criticism, at the end of the day, but I will say that were it not for the greater importance of this book, I might be tempted to set the continuation of the story aside.

Overall, however, I want to know more. I love the use of African religions and my own limited exposure to some West African theologies resonated. This is a book worth reading--hands down. It is an important book and one that deserves to be on reading lists for young adults and probably older adults. Maybe especially older adults.

My review of Book 2 Children of Virtue and Vengeance

2019 #9: Born A Crime (Trevor Noah)

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My husband read this book earlier this summer and I thought it was going to sadly languish on my TBR pile until in a lovely coincidence, my workplace chose it for a community read. Noah uses humor to create a kind of distance from the sorts of everyday horrors of racism. As a memoir, it is a tribute to his mother and is full of stories that reveal how he had to navigate life growing up in a "post-Apartheid" South Africa, that really wasn't much of post-anything--at least not in terms of the socio-economic ramifications.

He intersperses moments of clarity and severity--you don't forget that your laughter enables you to turn the page. The narrative arc is more of a narrative wave, with the denouement more of an explosion at the end. It is a book about code-switching. It is a book about history and culture. And ultimately, I think it is a book about love. And hate.

2019 #8: ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors (Bruce/Rafoth)

ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors by Ben Rafoth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an invaluable resources for ANYONE teaching L2 learners at the college level. I finished this book over a year ago, but have returned to it many times as a reference.

There are several essays that have been most helpful to me in my writing classes and as a writing center instructor. Leki's "Before the Conversation: A Sketch of Some Possible Backgrounds, Experiences, and Attitudes Among ESL Students Visiting a Writing Center" is invaluable reading for instructors who are working with L2 learners for the first time. The review of different types of second language acquisition in Tseng's "Theoretical Perspectives on Learning a Second Language" has helped me recognize individual challenges. Matsuda and Cox challenge instructors (readers/tutors) to be more aware of different reader stances: assimilationist, accommodationist, and separatist. The authors recognize that context can require some malleability and movement between the categories, but propose that the assimilationist stance is seldom helpful or effective. Staben and Nordhaus provide useful strategies for getting students to take a more holistic approach to the editing process (rather than "please fix my grammar"), and this pairs well with Linville's essay "Editing Line by Line" as well as Deckert's essay that both dig in to word- and sentence-level errors and how to explain them. Bouwman's contribution, "Raising Questions About Plagiarism," underscores the importance of *teaching* paraphrasing, and provides helpful questionnaires that can be used with ELLs.

Kevin Dvorak's "Writing Activities for ESL Writers" has been for me, the most valuable essay in the anthology. I use his "25-minute draft" exercise in my Writing About Music classes with my grad students, as well as in Writing Center. This has been invaluable in getting students over the hump of "getting started" with a term paper. I also occasionally use his "Alphabet Exercise" to help students think about topics for their papers.

Part 3 is dedicated more to writing centers and international experiences, but is a valuable read for anyone who wants to have a more global awareness of how language is used and taught.

2019 #7 The Cambridge Companion to John Cage (ed. David Nicholls)

The Cambridge Companion to John Cage by David Nicholls
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I have read many of the essays in this anthology, I (re-)read the book cover-to-cover to get a better sense of the whole.

This is a very strong anthology in the Cambridge Companion series. Divided into three parts (Aesthetic contexts; Sounds,words, images; Interaction and Influence), the book investigates the different facets of Cage's life and career using a wide variety of methodologies. There are surveys of his contributions in a particular area such as Kathan Brown's essay "Visual Art" (Ch. 7) and most notably, David Patterson's "Words and Writings," which, for my money, is one of the best examples of a bibliographic essay I've seen. For the most part, the language and content are accessible, although there are a few instances of "insider's club" name-dropping without description or annotation. For those heavily invested in analysis of Cage's music, it would be a good idea to have The Music of John Cage by James Pritchett close at hand, as it is one of the most often cited sources in the anthology. David Bernstein's "Cage and High Modernism" essay gives a necessarily simplified and succinct explanation of Cage's use of the I Ching, which is useful as many sources simply gloss over it. William Brooks, in his contribution "Music II: from the late 1960s" traces threads from Cage's own descriptions of materials, method, structure, and form (see Cage's "Defense of Satie" (1948), parsing it into a discussion of works with a haiku-based structure, works that use graphic materials, works that use ambient sounds, and those works that alternate sound and silence. Leta Miller's "Cage's Collaborations" provides a nuanced examination of the different ways in which Cage "collaborated" and the questions (and some answers) that arise regarding artistic collaboration as a whole. John Holzaepfel examines one of Cage's most famous collaborations ("Cage and Tudor"), illuminating the mostly symbiotic relationship and how Tudor's involvement shaped both the works and the reception thereof.

Some of the repeated information is cross-referenced and acknowledged, some of it is not. The redundancies are only mildly troubling (in terms of reading experience) should you read it cover to cover. Overall, David Nicholls did a fine job of editing the book and most of the essays seem to have a consciousness of the whole. Helpful too is the "Chronology" on pp. xii - xiii, especially since, as many of the essays note, a chronological discussion is not always the best approach to examining Cage.

2019 #6 Blue Horses (Mary Oliver)

Blue Horses by Mary Oliver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oliver's mixture of spirituality and pragmatism, undergirded by an occasionally sardonic wit, is truly a gift. Her reverence for nature (see "I'm not the River") is balanced by a solid self-reflection that blossoms into insight. Her best poems are those that are unapologetically human ("On Meditating, Sort of") and those that interweave whimsy and depth ("Watering the Stones"). Oliver writes "I don't want to be demure or respectable./I was that way, asleep, for years." This collection of poems invites us to wake up, and see with "new eyes," as Proust might have it.

2019 #5: The Shaw Memorial: A Celebration of an American Masterpiece

The Shaw Memorial: A Celebration of an American Masterpiece by Gregory C. Schwarz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I purchased this book in the gift shop of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in New Hampshire, admiring it for aesthetic production and the inclusion of rare photos. Then I read it.

Wow. Each essay provides so much in terms of historical context, and understanding the process that Saint-Gaudens undertook to create his masterpiece(s)--plural, one might argue, because the different versions all seem to express the artist's commitment to perfection (even if he felt he never achieved it). Likewise, one gets a fairly good understanding of conservation efforts as well.

Particularly compelling is Ludwig Lauerhass's essay, "A Commemoration: The Shaw Memorial as American Culture." In reading the first few pages, I rolled my eyes initially at the seemingly hagiographic language, but quickly changed my mind as Lauerhass's well-researched and cited essay delved into an intertextual exploration of poetry and film. Charles Ives "The Saint-Gaudens in Boston Common" is briefly mentioned, as is the score for the movie Glory, by James Horner.

The eternal question of reception and understanding still hangs in the air--and this is perhaps the most valuable aspect of the book. Discussion of Robert Lowell and Paul Laurence Dunbar's less-than-celebratory poems (commentaries on society's failure to act on the lessons of history) helps us understand why we might revisit the monument, and what the role of the viewer is. We can observe the sinewy muscles of the horse, the rich detail in the faces of the soldiers, the posture of Col. Robert Gould Shaw. But what is more important is that we understand the fatigue of that march...that it is ongoing, in our own backyards.

2019 #4: The Book of Life (Harkness)

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This third installation of the All Souls Trilogy improved upon some of the issues I had with Shadow of Night. I felt a better connection with the characters, although their characterization was uneven and seemed at the service of needing to tie up plot elements. When we finally get to meet the members of the Congregation, there's not quite enough time to see them as three-dimensional. The narrative tempo is better on the whole, although the climactic scene is surprisingly (although mercifully) concise. I find myself not sure whether I love Diana Bishop as a protagonist and I'm certainly ambivalent about Matthew. I'd like to think that is intentional on the part of Harkness. Certainly the books explore the darker side of our existence and the role of power in the choices we make with our own abilities.

2019 #3: Shadow of Night (Harkness)

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness


Harkness bit off a lot here with this second venture in the trilogy--and only some of it was adequately chewed. I'm a (music) historian, and even I began to tire of Elizabethan London. I missed the characters from the first book, to whom I had just established a connection in the last quarter of that novel. That said, there are places in this book where Harkness's talents as an author shine.

While there are moments that are a bit obvious in terms of historical placement, Harkness is subtle (at least initially) in illuminating the treatment of women in the sixteenth century. Any woman will recognize the feeling of being talked about as if we aren't standing there in the room, and Harkness works this into the narrative quite beautifully. At some point it becomes necessary to be a bit more overt as Diana has to assert her twenty-first century self into the Renaissance, but I appreciated that Harkness did not hit us over the head with it at the outset.

There is an uneven characterization for some of the leading players throughout the book and this applies to both wholly fictitious characters and those based on historical figures. Like Diana, the reader is feeling surrounded by threads that she must constantly monitor lest they tie themselves in knots. In A Discovery of Witches, the characters didn't really move me until the last third of the book. This second installment has too many characters so that there is very little time to care or form an attachment to any of them--I was left feeling a lack of emotional investment when it came to the many "goodbyes" in the book.

The time in England and Prague could have been reduced in length, and the end of the book most definitely sets you up to read the third part of the trilogy. There's no fault in that, of course, and I'm happy to report that my overall impression of the book was positive and I will eagerly read The Book of Life.

2019 #2: Jennifer Walshe: Spiel mit Identitäten

Jennifer Walshe: Spiel mit Identitäten by Franziska Kloos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you read the interview with Walshe at the end of the book, you understand that Kloos' work is basically a philosophical expansion of that interview. She engages with primary sources, but the "name-dropping" of philosophers without citation was aggravating on occasion. The opening chapter is valuable in terms of framing the discussion--Kloos provides Erik Erikson, Stuart Hall, and Judith Butler as lenses through which we might understand identity. Chapter 2 wanders a bit more, investigating Walshe's place in the avant-garde and new music. She summarizes the biographies of the alter egos of Walshe's Grúpat and briefly muses upon the reconciling of these individual identities with group identity. There is some redundancy across chapters, but this is unsurprising as one of Kloos' main points is that Walshe's music doesn't fit traditional categories or modes of analysis.

Kloos gives Chapter 4 over to analysis--and this is where the book is weakest for me. Kloos has insightful observations, but her methodologies vary so greatly that some readings of pieces come up short. We don't know what to expect since there is no systematic approach to analysis. It may very well be that this is due to the content of the works themselves (as well as varied access to materials), but then I would have preferred that the analysis be integrated into the prose of the other chapters. Kloos' "listening journal" approach to Walshe's "As mo cheann" addresses the difference between listening with and without a score, but for readers who are looking to engage with the piece academically, this might prove frustrating. Still, in that Kloos includes gesture, breath sounds, and performativity in her discussions, she provides a good example of what solid analyses of contemporary music might look like.

I've always bemoaned the lack of discourse with the work of living composers--but I get it. It is much easier to use a critical eye (and ear) toward music when the composer is dead. Kloos posits, however, that Walshe's music authorizes listeners to be co-creators, in effect--a glimpse at a democratic idea that "those who listen, have a say" (107). In her final statements, Kloos remarks that Jennifer Walshe invalidates the biographical relationship between work and author, but it is her work with the alter egos of Grúpat that allow her to do so without metaphorically "killing" the author ( a la Barthes).

This is an important book and I would love to see it come out in an English translation. It is a good primer on the New Discipline and provides bibliographic value as well (Kloos curates a helpful list of Internet sources).

(Cross-posted at Musically Miscellaneous Mayhem)

2019 #1: Cookbook--Near and Far (Swanson)

Swanson's narrative is one of privilege, it is true. A lot of the reviews at Goodreads have mentioned this, with varying degrees of annoyance. The book, however, does not pretend. The minute you touch the embossed hard cover and look at the photos, you know that this is a chichi cookbook, not Betty Crocker's Cookbook or The Joy of Cooking. The subtitle does not lie: "Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel." And traveled she has: India, Japan, Morocco, France, and Italy. The photos of the destinations are sometimes so artsy as to feel contrived, but they anchor each section in its own ethos. I haven't yet made any of the recipes, but I am inspired. As a committed omnivore, vegetarian recipes rarely inspire me, but I find her approach to flavors intriguing.

If you are someone who likes hunting down interesting ingredients, you will likely enjoy this book. She isn't writing for someone who does not know anything about ethnic foods, so you will not find explanations and definitions for a lot of the ingredients. I think she could have done more in that regard, and it was a missed opportunity. Overall, however, this is a beautifully produced cookbook, with accessible-but-not-accommodating prose. I'm looking forward to digging in to the recipes.

Cross-posted to The Lady of Shallots