50BC09 #1: The Leper's Bell (Tremayne) - Sister Fidelma #14

The Leper's Bell by Peter Tremayne rating: 3 of 5 stars While the Sister Fidelma series does not have to be read in series order, I do recommend it. I clearly skipped some major biographical details between Leper's Bell and the last one I read, and it detached me from the main character more than if this has been my first Sister Fidelma book. I'd also recommend ignoring the list of "Principal Characters" that prefaces the book, unless you want some clues very early on in the story. That said, Tremayne is masterful enough to throw a curve ball just when you think you've figured it out. In a way, this particular book seems more a Brother Eadulf mystery than a Sister Fidelma mystery, as we are given much more insight into his character and he propels the plot forward. Fidelma is weakened by the tragic kidnapping of her own son, but Eadulf is at odds with seemingly just about everyone as he is an outsider, a Saxon. Tremayne tries to use these weaknesses to develop his characters, but there is something missing, particularly when it comes to Fidelma. We never actually see her during her time of mourning, but instead only hear of it from Eadulf. When she does appear, she is the stoic, logical Sister Fidelma of the series, but given the story line, she seems mismatched. She wonders (somewhat obtusely) about the fiery outbursts of Eadulf and has only glimmers of introspection at her own excessive reliance upon logic. That aside, the book is full of intrigue, duplicity, and all the other essential ingredients of a good mystery. Readers familiar with the series may find the religious-political historical commentary a bit redundant, but in this book we get a better glimpse of Eadulf's theology, rather than Fidelma's. In that sense, this is one of the more engaging books in the series, as Brother Eadulf's religious views challenge some of Sister Fidelma's, making for much more interesting interaction between the characters.

Review: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: How to Get Great Flavors from Simple Ingredients by Ina Garten

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've made three recipes from this book in the last week and have found them all OUTSTANDING: Tuscan Lemon Chicken, Pasta with Pecorino & Pepper, and Orange-Pecan Wild Rice. I like Garten's non-nonsense approach to cooking, relying on fresh, basic ingredients. She has several wonderful lists in her book, including "Top 10 Things NOT to serve at a Dinner Party" and "10 no-cook things to serve for Dessert." Her recipes are well-written, and include "tips" to fill in the blanks (e.g. HOW to toast pecans in a recipe that calls for toasted pecans).


This is a great book for anyone who likes to cook, or more importantly, likes to eat!

50BC08 #25: The Joy of Drinking

The Joy of Drinking by Barbara Holland


rating: 4 of 5 stars


This witty coffee table book in miniature is a fun, yet brief, ride through the historic and inexorable connection between alcohol and the human social spirit. Barbara Holland eschews the politically correct, exposing ironies of the sacred bottled water movement but admitting also the futility of dozens of hangover cures. Both the stumbling drunkard in the back alley and the elite wine connoisseur are given their due, taking their deserved places in Holland's pantheon of alcoholic engagers.

While the tone is anecdotal and tongue-in-cheek, Holland's sources are informed and intellectually intriguing. And, for those inspired by the history of moonshine and early American fermentation, the book includes two helpful how-to appendices--one with instructions for making various fruit wines, and the other on "Starting your own Still."

This would make a great gift for the most discerning of drinkers, as long as they have no fear of an author who calls it as she sees it.

50BC08 #24: America's Musical Life

America's Musical Life: A History by Richard Crawford

rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I took a chance and used this book as a course text for an American music course for non-majors. Crawford's writing is engaging and geared toward a more general audience, but informed by top-notch scholarship. His three-sphere model of American music (cultivated, vernacular and traditional spheres) made a useful and multi-dimensional lens through which to trace the development of musical styles and genres. I appreciated the performer-based approach rather than the standard "a history of dead white men" approach so prevalent in the literature. He substantiates this model for American music history in his introduction.
Some of my students, accustomed to "textbooks" may have found the book too verbose for test preparation purposes, I hope that the prose engaged them enough to look beyond the grades and into the rich and diverse musical landscape cultivated in this country.

50BC08 #23: Fundraising Fundamentals

Fundraising Fundamentals: A Guide to Annual Giving for Professionals and Volunteers by Greenfield

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is an indispensable reference for working or running an Annual Fund. It covers all the basics including mail testing,direct mail, cultivation events, etc. The sample letters are very helpful. My only criticism is the use of fake case-studies which aside from being cheesy, are not nearly as convincing as actual anecdotal and experiential information from real organizations.

50 Book Challenge #22: Eagle Minds

Eagle Minds: Selected Correspondence of Istvan Anhalt and George Rochberg by Alan M. Gillmor

rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title of this compendium of letters comes from Yeats, who wrote: "...A mind Michael Angelo knew/That can pierce the clouds,/Or inspired by frenzy/Shake the dead in their shrouds;/Forgotten else by mankind,/An old man's eagle mind." In offering this quote to Canadian composer Istvan Anhalt, George Rochberg expressed his relationship to the world and the critical reception of his work. Although their music differed greatly in style, particularly after 1965, these two composers found over forty years worth of common bonds, intellectual musings, and a committed passion for their craft which are all recorded in Alan Gillmor's excellent compendium of correspondence.

Rochberg worked hard to understand Anhalt's aesthetic, and the latter likewise supported Rochberg's various stylistic experiments. Fundamentally, however, they understood what it meant to compose. They also shared a critical engagement with the world, although Anhalt focused on Kabbalah studies and a distrust of popular culture, while Rochberg found solace in the words of Wordsworth, Yeats,and Milan Kundera and eschewed all forms of organized religion.

Rochberg, who died in 2005, has long been known for his strident opposition to the avant-garde (after 1964), both in his musical style and his public writings. While his letters to Anhalt do not negate this, they do give the reader a sense that there was a willingness to accept more than his published writings would suggest. He also felt misunderstood as the "neo-Romantic" label came to be applied to his music.

Anhalt, whose gentler prose provides a balm to Rochberg's occasional bouts of ranting, seems to be more conscious that the two men are moving toward the end, and thus feels more inclined to pick his battles carefully. His study of the Kabbalah helped develop a personal philosophy that came to fruition is his 1994 work, Traces/Tikkun.

These letters provide a rich look into the perceptive and engaging minds of two of North America's most intellectual thinkers. The book is an indispensable tool for research into their works and biography, and is an encouragement to other modern composers to make their correspondence available for publication.

50BC08 #21: Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke


rating: 5 of 5 stars
50 Book Challenge #21
pages: 66 (Dover, 2002)




There are works that surface time and time again in cultural circles: film, literature, music, etc. One of these is Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. The young poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, is unremarkable in this set of letters as we never see the poems he sent to Rilke, nor do we see his end of the correspondence. Yet, what Kappus realizes, and so too the reader, is that his offerings are absolutely unnecessary because we see them through Rilke's eyes. Rilke readily assumes the mantle of humble mentor, dispensing pearls of wisdom in a language that teaches the young Kappus that not all poetry is written in stanzas.

One wonders if Rilke was indeed writing to the world. His replies to Kappus are lofty but sincere, and filled with passages that seem destined for quotation:

"Do not search now for the answers which cannot be given you because you could not live them. It is a matter of living everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, one distant day live right into the answer."

For Rilke, bite-size gifts of mature sophistry (in the Classical sense of the word) will not suffice. In these letters to Kappus, Rilke seizes the opportunity to work out his own philosophy through provocative and probing questions. We learn that Kappus, during the course of his military service, has lost faith in God, and Rilke asks him, "Is it not much rather the case that you have never yet possessed him? ... Do you believe a child can hold him, him whom men bear only with difficulty, whose weight bows down on the aged?" Rilke is ready to be not only a literary mentor, but a theological counselor.

No subject is taboo for Rilke, who quite readily addresses sexual intimacy as he does some rather unconventional thoughts about women:

"Surely women, in whom life tarries and dwells more immediately, fruitfully and confidently, must have become fundamentally more mature human beings, more human human beings, than light man, whom the weight of no body's fruit pulls down beneath the surface of life, who, conceited and rash as he is, underrates what he thinks he loves."

Even in his criticisms of Kappus (both of his work and his character) he is ever gentle, crafting his words with the care of both poet and teacher. He is self-effacing, but sure in his prose. He tells the young Kappus: "And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become aware, it must become criticism." However, in the four year gap between the letter that contained those words and what would be his last letter to Kappus, we see that his final offering is tinged by reality and somewhat removed from the more romantic musings of his earlier letters:

"Art too is only a way of living, and one can prepare for it, living somehow, without knowing it; in everything real one is a closer, nearer neighbour to it than in the unreal semi-artistic professions which, while they make show of a relatedness to art, in practice deny and attack the existence of all art, as for instance the whole of journalism does, and almost all criticism and three quarters of what calls itself and likes to be called literature. I am glad, in a word, that you have overcome the danger of ending up there, and remain solitary and courageous somewhere in a raw reality."

As the translator comments, Kappus did indeed end up "there," publishing several "cheap popular novels." But in the end, the debt to Kappus is greater than his debt to, or at least reverence for, Rilke. The letters capture the spirit of a man, not yet old, but weathered by experience. In Kappus' military station Rilke saw much of himself, having been pressured to enter a military academy at a young age. We get a sense that Rilke is writing to a younger version of himself, encouraging the hope and youth that inspired him to write in his poem, "To Celebrate Myself":

I long to be a garden at whose fountains
my thronging dreams would pluck themselves new blooms.

A reader of Rilke's letters will indeed be ready to grasp a garden full of blooms.