catapult magazine

SARAH,

Coming Through Slaughter is Ondaatje’s first novel, but it’s more a collage of fiction and non-fiction, as well as poetry, prose, lists, quotes, etc. it creates/recreates a rich time period in very appropriate ways. actually, you made me remember a review that i wrote about it a couple of years ago. watch for it in the feb. 14 issue…

the last three books i read were winners and therefore deserve mention:

1. “fargo rock city” by chuck klossterman:

for anyone who loves music. klossterman is a proud lover of 80’s hair metal and tells his story of being a butt-rocker and growing up in the mid-west. hilarious and surprisingly insightful.

2. “galopagos” by kurt vonnegut:

once again a book that is both hilarious and surprisingly insightful. a good one for anybody who has a tough time believing in the total depravity of man.

3. “the power of one”

can’t remember the authors name right now, but a really good story despite the obviously humanistic themes. also alot of good ass-kicking.

i’m currently working through a number of books at the moment. unfortunately, i’m not making much progress in any of them.
[ul]
[li]Coming through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje. a story about a jazz musician at the turn of the century in new orleans who went mad at the age of 31. kirstin recommended it to me.
[li]The Soul of Politics by Jim Wallis. the editor of sojourners writes about why both liberal and conservative political visions are inadequate to the challenges before our country.
[li]Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for this Urgent Time by Marva Dawn. i’ve just started this, so i can’t say much about it. the title is fairly descriptive, though.
[li]No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies by Naomi Klein. a book that explores the lengths companies will go to to sell more of their product. although, they don’t even really make the product anymore, they just brand it. they try to sell you on the idea that you will achieve a certain lifestyle by purchasing the things they tell you to. interesting stuff.
[/ul]
i read too much non-fiction and i get bogged down in it a bit. maybe it’s time to read something light . . . like The Hobbit.

For some random reason, my most recent reads have both centered around the Chicago Dutch of days gone by. Right now I’m in the middle of Peter De Vries’s The Blood of the Lamb, and I just finished Edna Ferber’s So Big. It’s really strange to read about communitites that are so familiar to me…and neither book is terrifically complimentary to my ancestors. I think the phrase that hit closest to home was from Ferber. In describing the young, 20-something Dutch girls (that’s me), she writes: “They weren’t entirely unattractive, with their high, rosy cheeks and flat, meaningless foreheads.” Um….thanks?

Aside from that, So Big is an AMAZING book. And I’m really enjoying The Blood of the Lamb. Besides these, I recently finished all three Lord of the Rings books, Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter (very good, but a bit of a downer in regards to marriage), and most of Lisa Delpit’s Other Peoples’ Children, a very interesting non-fiction book about cross-cultural education.

laurencer/kirstin,
Can you tell me more about Coming Through Slaughter? I don’t know why I haven’t heard about it. I’ve read both The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost, as well as a lot of his poetry. He came to Chicago last semester to speak and I was really touched by his gentle nature and was impressed with the lens he uses to see the world. So much of his prose is so poetic—just beautiful writing.

My sights are not so lofty:

A Wrinkle In Time – Madeline L’Engle

World Religions From Ancient History To The Present – Geoffrey Parrinder

My trusty issues of Tape Op Magazine, Pro Audio Review, In Focus

Oh, and a bit of drooling over the latest Musicians Friend Catalog.

I had to respond to your Barbara Kingsolver weakness Kirstin…me too…I also LOVED Prodigal Summer…glad to find another Kingsolver fan out there!
On my nightstand, chairarms, tables are:
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle
Queen’s Own Fool, A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots by Jane Yolen (YA fare)
Possession by A.S. Byatt
and I just finished Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott
Wrote down some new titles from this discussion line…thanks!

wayne gretzky’s autobiography. stunning. riveting. you wont drop it in the tub water.

Alice – I love “Possession.” Did you see the movie? I haven’t, but don’t think it could TOUCH the book.

I just finished In a Dark Time by Larry Watson (?). I have read two other books by him, Justice and Montana 1841_ both of which I really enjoyed. This one I didn’t like quite as much. The protagonist, Peter, was unsympathetic to the point of being annoying and, though the ending almost pulled it out of the trashcan, I don’t think it did.

I just started reading Life in Schools by Peter McLaren. Earlier, some people mentioned that they were reading Paulo Freier. McLaren was a disciple of Freier’s . Check it out.

I am also reading some poetry — Forty Days and Forty Nights by John Terpstra (he’s Canadian — good stuff)

You know when a book leaps off the shelf at you that it is a must read.
Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Path to Joy by Larry Crabb leapt at me the other day.
Crabb leads us into the book of Ruth, but Naomi’s story, not Ruth’s.
I guess sometimes you just read a book and are walking that experience so deeply that it is such food for your soul. If the title catches your imagination as it did mine then I recommend it. Otherwise, it may be my particular time and space that have drawn me so powerfully to this writing…but I have purchased two more copies to share…smile.