Guillaume de Machaut, by Siegmund Levarie

 

This brief volume (114 pages) is part of the Great Religious Composers series, and much of the book is a discussion of De Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame. I believe this was his only religious composition; most of his music and poetry were secular. The book covers "Guillaume de Machaut and his time," "Problems of a religious composer," and "Machaut's mass." 

Guillaume de Machaut, by Gilbert Reaney

 

I've become interested in the music and poetry of Guillaume de Machaut, born in 1300. He's more well-known for his secular music, but also for one famous mass. This brief volume (76 pages) in the Oxford Studies of Composers series discusses his life, poetry, musical style, and forms of compositions (lays, virelais, ballades, rondeaux, motets, and the mass).

There there, by Tommy Orange

 

I loved this book about twelve Native Americans who are coming together in Oakland, CA, for a powwow. In chapters that rotate between the many characters, we learn their histories and how they are related to one another. Each of them has a role to play in the climax which revolves around an attempted robbery of the cash prizes available for dancing and other powwow competitions. The writing is wonderful, the characters are compelling, and the plotting is meticulous as the characters all come together for the final scenes. This was my book club's December pick, and I can't wait to discuss it with the other members.

An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore

I'm a little late to the party on this collection of climate change books and films, but better late than never!

The film shows Al Gore traveling around the country speaking to groups about the imminent danger of climate change. He has been interested in and advocating for environmental issues since the 1980s, but in the wake of his 2000 loss, he has turned his attention fully to climate change. It's a powerful film and message.

This is a version of An Inconvenient Truth that has been adapted for a young adult audience. It's full of excellent photography and great data visualizations that demonstrate global warming's impact on the planet.

The 2017 film sequel to An Inconvenient Truth shows us Al Gore providing training sessions to others who want to promote environmentalism and address climate change. It shows him teaching others how to be advocates for the environment, playing a major role in the 2015 Paris climate talks, and reflecting on the impact that Trump's 2016 election has already had on the issue. A poignant moment is when Gore quotes Mike Tyson, who said "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

The sequel's action handbook; like the earlier book, this is chock full of great photography and compelling visuals. It includes profiles of many of the activists who have taken up Gore's calling to spread the word about climate change. The second half of the book provides a blueprint for how individuals can become active in the climate change discussion and advocate for change. Each of these activities is broken down into many parts: be an involved citizen, speak at a town hall meeting or forum, write about climate change effectively, start a petition, establish yourself as a climate activist online, magnify your impact with press coverage, talk to children about climate change, talk with climate deniers, find a career in renewable energy, make your business more sustainable, run for office, walk the walk, eat with the planet in mind, vote with your dollars, create and host events, become a Climate Reality Leader, and give your own climate change presentation.

 

Fantasyland, by Kurt Andersen

 

This is a fascinating and provocative look at Americans' penchant for believing the fantastical over the realistic, starting with the earliest colonists all the way up to the current obsession with wacky conspiracy theories and the blatant lies that come out of the Trump administration. It is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got to where we are today.

The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present, by Beaumont Newhall

 

This is a history of photography from 1839 through 1949, when it was published. Containing almost exclusively black and white illustrations, it includes hundreds of reproductions. I was mainly interested in Ansel Adams' place in this history; he is covered in a few pages and with two plates: "Boards and Thistles, 1932" and "Mono Lake, California, 1947." I only read a few selections, so can't comment on the entire narrative.

Brassai

 

Brassaï was one of the most influential French photographers of the 20th century. This book collects many of his most famous photos, grouped into these categories: self-portraits, the street, Paris by day, Paris at night, pleasures, society, personages, graffiti, body of a woman, places and things, portraits, and Minotaure. Exclusively black and white, and printed on large plates in an oversized book. Brassaï was known for photographing the underworld, and this collections includes a number of examples of "thugs," gangs, prostitutes, as well as people in bars or at society events.

Perpetual Mirage: Photographic Narratives of the Desert West

This is a collection of essays and accompanying photographs that pulls together many of the earliest pictures taken in the American Southwest. Although I was not as interested in the essays, the photographs richly document the landscapes, Native Americans, pueblos and towns, buildings and architecture, rivers, and canyons in the Southwest.

Swimming in the Dark, by Tomasz Jedrowski

 

I really enjoyed this short novel (191 pages) set in 1980s Poland. It tells the story of two young men who meet and fall in love the summer after they finish university. The narrator, Ludwik, is disenchanted with communism and Soviet influence over Poland; whereas, Janusz is eager to work within the system, using his political connections to aid his rise and increase his influence. During the year after university, they clash more and more as the political situation becomes less stable, until Ludwik decides that he must make a break to live honestly. This novel demonstrates the difficulty for the average citizen living in Poland: waiting in lines to buy food, the inability to get medical care unless you have connections,  tiny apartments, censorship, and much more. The author does a wonderful job setting the scene and describing life during that turbulent time. This is his first novel, and I hope to see many more.

Photographs of the Southwest, by Ansel Adams

 

This book contains a collection of 109 photographs by Ansel Adams from the 1920s through the 1960s. They include landscapes, portraits, statuary, Native American ruins, architecture, sand dunes, flora, storms, and lots of rock formations. It includes several of his famous photos, "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico," and "Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958." It's amazing how sand dunes look like snowy mountainsides when rendered in black and white. This collection is introduced with "The Southwest: An Essay on the Land," by Lawrence Clark Powell. Interestingly, Powell was a librarian who, according to Wikipedia, started his career at the Central Library in Los Angeles, then worked in the acquisitions department at UCLA, eventually becoming University Librarian. Later he became the first dean of the UCLA School of Library service. His career continued after retirement at the University of Arizona, which holds his papers.

Ansel Adams: Classic Images

 

This is a nice collection of 75 of Ansel Adams' most well-known photographs. It's introduced by John Szarkowski, a photographer himself, as well as a curator, critic, and historian. James Alinder, another photographer, writes a longer essay about Adams and the particular photographs included in this collection. I'm struck again by Adams interest and love of wilderness, but not wildlife. This collection includes the expected Yosemite and Sierra Nevada photographs, aspens, sand dunes, surf, and much more.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo, by Christy Lefteri

This is a powerful novel about a refugee couple from Aleppo whose son died in a bombing. Nuri and his wife Afra, who was blinded in the bombing, decide to leave Aleppo after Nuri is threatened with death if he refused to join the militia. They make their way to Istanbul, then Greece, and eventually to England. The novel tells their story in chapters alternating between past and present, revealing the danger and indignities experienced by those who give up everything to make their way to a safer country. Initially, Afra appears the weaker of the two, but as the story develops, we learn of Nuri's own vulnerabilities. This is a wonderfully written novel by Christy Lefteri, who observed firsthand the tragedy of the Syrian refugee crisis when she served as a volunteer in Athens for UNICEF.

Deacon King Kong, by James McBride

 

I loved this novel by James McBride. It's set in a Brooklyn housing project in the 1960s, when heroin is beginning to be widely available, creating tensions between generations and criminal gangs. An elderly man, nicknamed Sportcoat, shoots a young dealer in front of many witnesses; later, he claims he doesn't remember doing it. This sets in motion a series of events that changes the course of the young man's life. There are many characters who add depth and color to the story, including a Genoan smuggler, mafia drug dealers, rising Black dealers, a bunch of church ladies, and a cop nearing retirement, who just has to make it through the next few months. The writing is excellent, the plot is engaging, and the characters are interesting. All that being said, I didn't care for the style of the first two short chapters, but if you can get past that, the rest of the book is very good.

Rage, by Bob Woodward

 

To a certain extent, this book is similar to Woodward's last book, Fear, in that it simply reinforces everything you know about Trump from watching the news. I found Rage to be a little haphazard. However, one of the things I appreciated about Rage is that it delves more deeply into some of Trump's closest advisors, at least early in the book. The book begins with profiles on several of Trump's cabinet members: Dan Coats, Rex Tillerson, and James Mattis. Woodward explores their careers and why each chose to enter the Trump administration, and how they came to work closely with each other, before each were eventually fired. Interspersed with these accounts are chapters devoted to Trump's relationship with Kim Jong Un. Finally, the book almost completely pivots to how Trump has dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. While each of these topics is interesting, the book is less of an account of the four year term than a collection of anecdotes. 

Woodward was able to interview Trump 17 times on the record for this book, so it includes a lot of direct quotes that came from Woodward's recordings. Often Trump would call Woodward, seemingly making him one of a number of people that Trump calls when he wants to chat. It's clear the Woodward was able to interview Lindsay Graham and Jared Kushner as well, adding some other perspectives on their strategies for working with Trump. Woodward's conclusion is that Trump is not the right man for the job (which I could have told him!).

Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon-Ho

 

I really liked this 2013 film based on a graphic novel. The film was directed by Bong Joon-Ho, who also directed Parasite. The premise is of a future where global warming has gotten so bad that scientists try to fix it by putting something in the atmosphere that will cool the earth, but it pushes the earth into an ice age. The only remaining humans are on a train that circumnavigates the globe once a year. Status on the train is reflected in what car you're in; the elite are near the front and poor people in the rear. There's now a TV series based on this as well. Thinking about getting the graphic novel...

Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue

 

I have mixed feelings about this first novel by Cameroonian author Imbolo Mbue. It started strong, with chapters alternating between Neni's and her husband Jende's viewpoints. Neni is in the U.S. on a student visa, working on an Associate's degree and hoping to go on to eventually become a pharmacist. Jende is a taxi driver who has overstayed his visa and is applying for asylum. Things start to look up when Jende is offered a job as a chauffeur for Clark and his family; Neni also does some temporary work for them. And then the plot jumps the rails, and it's all downhill from there. The story becomes a bit tedious at this point, with one bad thing happening after another. Both Jende and Neni behave despicably at points, very different from how their characters were presented at first. I suppose the point is to demonstrate how desperate people will stoop to anything to achieve their dreams. Jende and Neni are not escaping violence at home; they're just hoping for a better life in the U.S. With the money they've saved, they can go back to Cameroon very wealthy, so it makes the extreme measures that Neni considers questionable. Overall, this books starts out well, but becomes a bit of a slog halfway through. All that being said, this book has 4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon with more than 2,000 reviews, so I'm in the minority here.

Ansel Adams

 

Looking for a diversion from non-stop news watching, I borrowed this video from my library. I didn't know very much about Ansel Adams, and enjoyed learning about his life and career. He studied piano for many years, planning to make music his career, and hiking in and photographing the Yosemite Valley was just his hobby, although he was equally passionate about it. Eventually, he decided that it was photography that was his calling, and he devoted the next 60 years to it. He also had a photography business (which paid the bills), and became involved in the Sierra Club and the conservationist movement. An interesting fact: his father took him out of school at age 12 to home school him for a period of time. He bought a year-long pass to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and attended it every day. He eventually returned to school, although in a private setting.

Our library has a nice collection of Ansel Adams books, including this one: Ansel Adams: 50 Years of Portraits. I was only familiar with Adams' outdoor photography, so it was nice to see that he had explored portraiture as well. This collection is full of lots of famous artists, photographers, and writers, along with folks Adams bumped into on his travels, e.g., "Lobsterman," "Japanese-American Youth." Many of his portraits were of extreme close-ups, with the face taking up the entire frame; others show the subject in their environment. This book was published by an organization formed by Adams and some fellow artists called Friends of Photography; their goal was to publish and promote photography as an art form. The series of volumes was called "Untitled," published between 1972 and 1994, and this was the 16th in the series.

This is a collection of seven portfolios containing a cross-section of 45 years' worth of Adams' photographs. They include many of his famous shots of Mount McKinley, Sentinel Rock, Old Faithful, Half Dome, and El Capitan. There are also many scenes of trees, lakes, and dunes, as well as a few portraits, architecture, and still lifes. I find it interesting that there are no photographs of wildlife (although there is one photo of a moth on a stump). I wonder if he was uninterested in wildlife or just didn't come across it (although I would find it hard to believe, given how much time he spent trekking around the outdoors.) The most interesting photographs are the trees, plants, flowers, and orchards.

 

 

 

 

Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams were friends of and on for many years, both enamored of the American Southwest. This book shows how they both presented similar landscapes and architecture in their works. The essays describe how their lives overlapped, the times they spent together, and their relationships with Alfred Stieglitz, who was O'Keeffe's husband and Adams' mentor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So You Want to Talk about Race, by Ijeoma Oluo

 

So You Want to Talk about Race was selected by my library's climate committee, which has held a number of discussions over Zoom about the book this semester. I found the book to be very thought-provoking and well worth reading. It would be an excellent book for similar events and discussions at other libraries as well. The author addresses many questions that folks might have, defining racism and discussing intersectionality, police brutality, affirmative action, the school-to-prison pipeline, cultural appropriation, microaggressions, and much more.

Books: a memoir, by Larry McMurtry

 

I am fond of reading accounts of others' reading habits and interests, so I was happy to find this book on my most recent foray to the Dog Ears Bookstore in Hoosick Falls, NY. This is not a typical memoir, although it does start with McMurtry telling of how he grew up in a home without books until his cousin dropped off a box with 19 books for him. Over the next 109 very brief chapters, he tells us many stories and anecdotes about his life as a book scout,  used book store owner, and rare books dealer. The stories are very brief, two or three pages each, and many of them seem incomplete, as if he got distracted, went off on a tangent, and never returned. McMurtry drops a lot of names into the narrative, some of famous people and others that may have been well-known, but whom I never heard of. Throughout, he tells us about his reading habits, as he moves from accounts of women travelers to the diaries of James Lees-Milne, a minor English literary figure. This is a brief (259 pages) look into the reading habits and book-selling career of one of the 20th century's most successful novelists and screenwriters.

The Betrayers, by David Bezmozgis

 

I enjoyed this novel about fictional Soviet dissident Baruch Kotler. As a young man in the Soviet Union, he was denounced by a close friend, tried, and jailed for 13 years, before finally emigrating to Israel and rising to prominence as a politician. Later in life, he takes an unpopular political stand, and when he refuses to succumb to blackmail, his affair with a younger woman is exposed. Kotler flees to a resort town in Crimea where he spent long ago vacations with his family, and he ends up bumping into the man who denounced him so long ago. The story delves into the history and motivations of each character as Kotler struggles with the decision of whether he can forgive his former friend.

A Warning, by Anonymous (A Senior Trump Administration Official)

 

Unbelievable that this book was published in 2019, and there are so many things that have happened since then. I would really like to know who this official is, and hope that it will eventually come out. He/she wrote that he/she would reveal him/herself before the 2020 election, so it will be interesting to see if that happens. In the meantime, this is a quick read, but it doesn't reveal much that hasn't been obvious to everyone since before the 2016 election. Anyone who thought that a scumbag like Trump would change once elected was delusional. As a meme that went around Facebook a while back said, we weren't crying after the election because Hilary didn't win; we were crying because we knew what was coming, and it's clear after nearly four years that we weren't wrong. This election can't come soon enough for me.

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, by Stephen King

 

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by Stephen King. I've been a fan for a long time, but I don't pick up his works often enough and I forget what a good writer he is. I'm easily spooked, but only one of the stories was scary...

Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World's Most Notorious Jewel Thief, by Doris Payne

 

I have mixed feelings about this book. While it was a quick and engaging read, I couldn't help resenting that the author has no regrets or qualms about stealing jewels for a living her whole life. She felt that she couldn't make it any other way, and that she deserved what she stole because of the prejudice that she experienced growing up. I wondered how many people lost their jobs because they let a woman walk out the door with a $20K or $200K diamond. How did that impact their lives? Maybe the store was insured, but how about the clerks whom she stole from? She has been stealing her whole life, and was arrested in her '80s for shoplifting from Walmart! I received this book as an advance reading copy at a library conference, and the editor talked it up as a fascinating portrait of a woman who got away with so much, as if it were charming, but I didn't feel that way reading it. I'm glad it was a short book! This was my book club's October book; I'll be very interested to see what everyone else thought.

Doing Justice, by Preet Bharara

 

This is a fascinating look at the legal system from one of the most prominent and well-known prosecutors in the U.S. It is a thoughtful analysis that is bolstered by personal anecdotes. I appreciated Mr. Bharara's style, which is to include stories that illustrate his points, without self-aggrandizement; on the contrary, many of his examples show how he learned the lessons that he shares with the reader. The book is organized in four sections that cover the whole life cycle of inquiry, accusation, judgment, and punishment. It's very well-written; I would gladly read other works by him.

Circe, by Madeline Miller

 

I loved this book! It has been many years since I studied Greek mythology as an undergraduate, but this brought it all back to life for me. It's very well-written, and fascinating to read an imagining of this story from the viewpoint of Circe. I would highly recommend it. Circe was my book club's October pick. I was so happy that our early October meeting date had good weather so we could continue our meetings outside. I'm guessing we'll have to move our meetings to an online format for the rest of fall and winter.

The Contender: Andrew Cuomo, a Biography, by Michael Shnayerson

 

Andrew Cuomo's recent starring role during the COVID-19 pandemic piqued my curiosity about him, leading me to this warts-and-all unauthorized biography by Michael Shnayerson. This book tells his story from his childhood through his inauguration for his second term and his father's death. It's a well written and very detailed look at Cuomo's life and career, although it leans much more heavily on the political than on the personal, which makes sense given that it was both unauthorized and competing with Cuomo's own autobiography, which came out at roughly the same time. This is a fascinating look at the cut-throat nature of New York politics, and it provides the background and context for many of the stories that I've read in the news since moving to Albany nearly eight years ago.

Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson

 

I really enjoyed this short (196 page) novel by Jacqueline Woodson. It tells the story of multiple generations of one family. The context is Melody's 16th birthday party, and family members use the occasion to reminisce about their own lives and how they got to this point. Melody and her parents and grandparents all take turns narrating their lives in short, spare paragraphs and chapters, and the result is a rich tapestry of love, sadness, yearnings, aspirations, and family.

Wingnuts: Extremism in the Age of Obama, by John Avlon

 

I was a little late in the game with this book, originally published in 2010, and updated in 2014. It's an in-depth look at the many extremist groups and movements that have arisen in the last 20 or so years, but which seemed to explode with the election of Barack Obama. I'm a fan of John Avlon's reporting; he was the editor of The Daily Beast until recently, and he's a regular on CNN; I particularly like his "Reality Check" segments. Wingnuts is a very readable, yet heavily research look at extremism in America. Avlon provides a brief history of extremism, then tackles the rise of the Tea Party, white-minority politics, partisan media, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, birthers and truthers, and much more. I was fascinated by this history, made all the more poignant by how much worse everything has gotten since 2014.

Uniform Justice, by Donna Leon

 

I really enjoyed this detective story set in Venice, Italy, starring Commissario Guido Brunetti. Uniform Justice is the 12th in the series, although only the first one that I've read. The story begins with the apparent suicide of a teenage boy in a military high school. Brunetti's suspicions grow when he learns that the boy's mother was attacked the previous year, and the father stepped down early from an elected position after writing a report that questioned some military procurement practices. Could all of this be related? The plot moves along quickly, the writing is very good, and the mystery reveals itself slowly as it approaches a heartbreaking revelation.

Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary L. Trump

I couldn't resist reading this memoir by Mary Trump, the daughter of Trump's older brother Fred. It's a slight book, at only 225 pages, and a very quick read. Including 14 chapters, it's organized into four sections which clearly tells you where Mary Trump stands on her uncle's fitness for office or worth as a person: The Cruelty is the Point, The Wrong Side of the Tracks, Smoke and Mirrors, The Worst Investment ever Made. While I had heard and read some of this before, the book goes into much more detail about family dynamics and history, revealing how nasty and mean Trump's parents were, along with the greed and venality of most of the rest of the family. It shows a family so greedy they will do just about anything to hold onto the wealth earned primarily by Trump's father, all while actively fleecing the government and discriminating against minorities. In spite of the wealth, none of them seem happy with their lot in life. What an unpleasant bunch of people!
 

The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim

The Calligrapher's Daughter is one of the best historical novels that I've read. It tells the story of Najin, born in Korea in 1910, and brought up as a Christian in a household run by Confucian principles. The novel follows her story through her education and marriage to a student who is traveling to the United States. Denied a passport at the last minute by the Japanese occupiers, she is separated from her husband for 11 years. This novel shows in intimate detail what life was like for women in Korea before the 2nd World War. It's fascinating and extremely well-written. It's followed by a sequel, The Kinship of Secrets, which I can hardly wait to read.