Juxtabook

Butterfly Award

I have been given an award by the lovely, and very funny, Kit Courteney. Thank you!

And here it is:

 

How lovely!

This is a “meme” award, so it gets passed on. To pass it on:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Award up to ten other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your awardees on their blogs.

Picking cool blogs is hard when there are so many to choose from, however, decisions having to be made, I have gone for Books, Mud and Compost, Hawkins Bizarre, Other Stories, Geranium Cat's Bookshelf and Shelf Love, which are all sites well worth a visit!

Housekeeping notes...

I have twiddled with the blogroll a bit and thought I would draw some things to your attention. Cornflower has made, I think, a wise decision to give her books their own blog. She is such a good reviewer that it is great to have all her articles in one bookish place. I have updated my link in the book blogs list to direct to her new site. If you are wondering where the old link is, I have linked to the traditional Cornflower blog in the more to life than books section, in the side bar, bottom right.

Three new blogs have been added to the book blogs. Savidge Reads, Nonsuch Book and Edwardian Promenade. This latter has a great blogroll to explore. Many of the sites that I link to link to the same sites as me. I suppose that we find our way into the blogosphere at one point and stay with the same area. I was immediately struck by the number of new-to-me blogs on Edwardian Promenade's list. As many of you like early twentieth century literature this site is well worth a look.

Lastly, I have finally got around to reviewing The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. The eagle eyed will have noticed that it made its way from the bedside table side panel to the Books Read in 2008 panel some weeks ago. The review is on the ibooknet blog below a nice piece about March House Books office dog, Rosie.

A Real Bind

I am not a great fan of Abebooks and I don't sell on there anymore. However, they do occasionally do something of interest. This month;s newsletter shows a collection of the most beautiful and most odd bindings. There are some very lovely items showcased. My favourites include:

Art Deco Design Inlaid Wood Bookbinding/Blank Book sold by Peter Keisogloff Rare Books in the USA: "5 3/8 inches x 7 5/8 in., a blank book with over 170 unnumbered and unlined blank pages of paper with the watermark: ULTRAMAR [star form] EXTRA. Brown leather spine with mounted front and back panels on the covers; these panels feature a geometric design of inlaid woods of various grains and shades of brown & tan, in a typical Art Deco influenced pattern. Headbands, light blue and gray marbled endpapers, paper edges show a rough-edged surface. The spine ends show light rubbing, a few light scratches to the surface of the wood. Possibly a souvenir or product produced for the 1925 Arts Decoratifs Exposition held in Paris, that helped popularize the "modern" "Art Deco" look in many familiar products." US$ 850.00

  Siddur Avodat Israel: with english translation sold by Princeton Antiques Bookshop also in the USA: A beautiful decorative siddur, marble gilt on the edges of the pages, with crossing gold gilt lines on top of the marble on page ends; the front cover (which for euro/americans is the back cover, e.g. the right side of the book) has four ornamental inlaid turqoise stones; the Ten Commandments are elevated from the cover and each of the two tablets has tiny turqoise stones in the center of the Star of David; there is an decorative item that resembles a crown and is normally used to cover the ends of the Torah scrolls while it residesin the Torah closet in a synagogue; the cover's borders have numerous decorative squares with hebrew lettering and symbols; the cover area over the spine has hebrew lettering, dual Star of Davids, and a classic menorah, which is not to be confused with a holiday menorah; the rear cover (see my above parenthetical note) has a classic menorah (see above for the distinctions between menorahs) and another group of symbols serving as a border for the cover; there is a lot of explanation behind the symbolism, but here are some of the highlights: the classic menorah has 7 candle holders; the olive tree is a symbol of peace and the state/people of Israel, it also has a significance with the story of Noah and his ark; the oak tree is a symbol of life; this book is a great gift item and a collector's item, due to its beauty for jews and gentiles alike. Binding is METAL SILVER. 448 pp. 4 3/4" X 3 1/4" US$ 200.00

Aren't they gorgeous?

You can read the whole feature on 30 unusual or beautiful bindings here.

Conjuring tricks

'Oh, Betty, what do you think of that, to come of all her book-learning?'

'Thank God he can't say that of me,' Betty answered shortly, for she never cared about argument, except on her own side. 'Thank he, I says, every marnin' a'most, never to lead me astray so. Men is desaving, and so is galanies: but the most desaving of of all is books, with their heads and tails, and speckots in 'em, lik a peg as have taken the measles. Some folks purtends to laugh and cry over them. God forgive them for liars!'

It was part of Betty's obstinacy, that she never would believe in reading, or the possibility of it, but stoutly maintained to the very last, that people first learned things by heart, and then pretended to make them out from patterns done upon paper, for the sake of astonishing honest folk, just as do the conjurors.

Lorna Doone by R D Blackmore

Sadly there are many parts of the country were, if not reading, then education is viewed still with suspicion. Its effects exaggerated by teachers to fool kids and parents. All smoke and mirrors as it were. As the kids at my school used to say, 'What's t'point?'

So if I was Emperor of the Universe what would I do? I would let the kids that don't want to be at school leave at 14 provided that they had a job to go and get on with, call it a job with training if you are very stressed about 14 year olds leaving the education system. That would concentrate some of their minds wonderfully. Lots of the kids in our IUA (inner urban area) school displayed show-stoppingly disruptive behaviour at school but were fine when doing work experience, and often held down weekend jobs without difficulty when they had trouble completing just an hours lesson at school. If they hate school then knowing they can go only if they are employable might improve their concentration and behaviour in their early teens. Once they've gone then everyone else can get on with learning.

With the money saved from manning in-school behavioural units and from the decreased school roll in the 11-16 age group I would invest in massively supporting KS1 and KS2 (age 5-11). Once they get to 11 often it is too late to engage them if they are anti-school. We need to get it right, more often, and earlier.

Using the all pervasive government tracking systems, like National Insurance, I would give those that left at 14 the entitlement to another 4 years free education later in life in case they change their minds.

The current cohort of under 11s have to stay at school till they are 18. Whilst it is helping to keep unemployment figures down, I can't see any real justification for keeping young adults in education that do not want to be there. Just because they are in school doesn't mean they aren't NEET ("Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training").

There are many children on the school rolls up and down the country who rarely attend school and/or rarely participate or co-operate especially once they get to year 10 (age 14/15). Let them go before they get too cynical. Letting them go allows schools to operate with the majority of the physically biggest and oldest students on side and on task. That will set the tone, and the level of behaviour modeled for younger students coming into school at 11 will be, on the whole, very good. Letting them go to work before they have got too cynical will also mean that once they are 18 fewer of them will be NEET, as the world of work will be somewhere they might find success at a more malleable age. All I think raising the school age will do is push the problem further down the line.

Another advantage will be that teachers will feel saner and safer. Some teachers are great disciplinarians; some teachers are great at making their subject come alive. Some teachers are both, but not all are. Every year we lose good teachers who are wonderful educators from our schools, because they can't cope with the challenging behaviour of the worst classes. This doesn't mean they are bad teachers, just bad under those circumstances. If we improve behaviour in schools then the standard of all education will rise, we will recruit and retain teachers with a wider range of personalities; this is good because kids have a wide range of personalities too. If teachers can cater for more kids then more of them will like school for longer and actually fewer might need or want to leave. Virtuous circles instead of vicious circles.

For some in education and many in government (what ever political party) what I suggest, especially with a recession looming, is counter-intuitive, but counter-intuitive does sometimes work.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell was a wonderful combination of a rip-roaring read with a really intelligent narrative. Literary high-jinx often mean little things like pleasure are sacrificed to form, but not here. David Mitchell has written a truly absorbing, witty, vibrant book.

The narrative is a bit like a giant club sandwich: time slip narrative helter skelter style. It begins as a historical novel giving us three sections of narrative in the nineteenth century, the inter-war period and somewhere in the 1960s or 70s. There is one contemporary narrative, then there are two science fiction narratives set in two dystopian futures, before we go backwards through the twentieth century narratives again and end where we started with the diary of American attorney Adam Ewing in the nineteenth. Each narrative ends abruptly in a suitably cliff-hanging manner before we leap forward  through the decades to the next narrative.

There's a pacy immediacy to each section though they differ greatly in many respects. The description of the reaction of an author to a bad review is enough to make the timorous book blogger quake:

My author grabbed Finch's lapels, rolled backwards, sank his feet into Finch's girth, and judo-propelled the shorter-than-generally-realized media personality high into the night-air! High above the pansies lining the balcony railing.

Finch's shriek - his life - ended in crumpled metal, twelve floors down.

Someone's drink poured onto the carpet.

Dermot 'Duster' Higgins brushed his lapels, leant over the balcony, and yelled: 'SO WHO'S EXPIRED IN AN ENDING FLAT AND INANE QUITE BEYOND BELIEF NOW?'

The apparently disparate elements from each section are linked by the main protagonist in each narrative becoming aware of the previous narrative by finding an old book, a film, a collection of letters, a piece of music, a manuscipt, and of course in the futuristic narratives the recording is suitably space age. The overall effect is definitely that of a well structured novel, not the collection of tales it might have been in the hands of a less able writer.

Ecological and ethical themes pervade the book. The first narrative deals with slavery, freedom and the relationship between people and the land, the second with sexual and relationship politics and the concept of trust at many levels, the third with eco-politics, global capitalism, arms and nuclear power, and the fourth with corruption, crime and how we treat the elderly. The first of the futures is the fifth narrative and, well, it is a dystopia so genetic ethics, pollution, the elite and the masses, are all par for the course, and a bit of religious parody helps the mix along. The final futuristic narrative I won't describe for fear of spoilers but it does bring together many of the themes.

If you aren't interested in eco-matters the tales are still wonderful. The enigmatic Dr Henry Goose, the lascivious Robert Frobisher, the determined Luisa Rey, the cynical pitiability of Timothy Cavendish, the plight of Sonmi-451 make for a fascinating cast of characters who hold your attention easily. As the narrative breaks at each section there is a slight sense of loss as we change narrator and it is wonderful to meet them again on the return journey after the half way point. It makes it to hard to leave it alone.

If you are interested in eco-matters you might be interested in eco-criticism. If sales are anything to go by, eco-criticism will be one of the next big movements in critical theory. If you are interested then apart from reading this novel then I recommend:

Ecocriticism (the wonderful New Critical Idiom series) by Greg Garrard

 Writing the Environment: Ecocriticism and Literature edited by Richard Kerridge and Neil Sammels (Zed Books) - Rather heavy secondhand prices on Amazon; a French website called Alapage has a cheaper copy but the site is obviously in French. I know nothing about Alapage's reliability - you see here - perhaps French readers could let us know about that website?

The Green Studies Reader, edited by Laurence Coupe (Routledge)

There is also a literary association: Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and the Richard Kerridge homepage is worth a look too.

But whether you are a professional critic or a reader just wanting a jolly way to spend an evening I can't recommend Cloud Altas highly enough (and I don't often say that!). It felt very like a Margaret Atwood (especially Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale) which is also no mean recommendation. It is one of the few novels that have made me miss being an undergraduate with a long essay to write: with this book there would be so much to say, I want to stay up all night to write about it. Lovely stuff!

Eating Disposable Archaeology

...their mother worked out how it was for me and usually sent a bit of whatever was being manufactured in her kitchen - rabbit pie, a couple of current tea cakes, two or three curd tarts. So, over the weeks, a splendid repertory of North Riding Dishes was performed amanti bravura to an applauding Londoner, dishes Mrs Ellerbeck had helped her mother bake, who had helped her mother bake who ...Sometimes I'd share this bounty with Moon and it was he who suggested that we were eating disposable archaeology.

J L Carr: A Month in the Country

Thirty pages into the Carr and thoroughly enjoying it, I came across the above quote which considering the fruit cake I was eating at the time seemed apt. Christmas, now that we're coming to the end of it, seems to be the time for disposable archaeology. In our house the artifact is called Bun Loaf and is a sort of mildly spicy fruit cake make in large loaf tins. It was this I was eating whilst reading this morning. 

Bun Loaf is our Christmas cake though it is un-iced and doesn't look like the traditional item.  My mother made this year's exhibit and has done for the last 6 years or so. Before that my maternal grandmother made the Bun Loaves (yes, loaves, one just isn't enough) for the preceding 50 or so years. She remembers her mother making them and having to carry the uncooked loaves to the bakers for cooking. My grandmother and her younger sister had the tins balanced on the flat back of the long piece of wood used to scrub clothes against in the wash tub; they then carried this 'plank' with the loaves on between them. She remembered slipping with their heavy load on the steep streets of Everton in ice laden Decembers. In my grandmother's day it was served on her Royal Albert Old Country Roses china and there was probably a bit of doily work going on there too. In our house my husband, who loves the cake, hacks chunks off and sandwiches it with wensleydale cheese before, well wrapped in grease proof, it gets shoved in his pocket whilst he is out in the countryside. My grandmother would not have approved! In her honour I photographed a slice in the traditional Royal Albert surrounding, though the plate is newish and not one of hers, but rather a present from another elderly relative.

 

What is the edible 'archaeology' in your house?

National Braille Week

National Braille Week(4-10 January 2009) is this week, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille on 4th January 1809, and an interesting piece on the BBC news website points out that crime writer Ian Rankin is promoting a campaign to save one of Britain's most important braille printing presses. Apparently even now only about 4% of books available to fully sighted people become available to braille users, so the loss of one the presses is obviously great cause for concern. 

As reading is close to the book bloggers heart, the braille press appeal seems a very good cause to give some publicity around the book blogosphere. You can donate by telephoning 0300 321 0000 or online here.

Happy New Year and Christmas Books

Despite living in a bookshop (okay I know it is online but however virtual the browsing and buying part might be, the books are real even if the 'shop' is just my home;books? we can't move about for the blighters!) my favourite presents are still books. I had some tempting reads for Christmas.

 

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher I have seen much reviewed in the blogosphere and I dropped heavy hints about acquiring it. My lovely family were paying attention! I have read almost all Georgette Heyer's historical romacnes but only some of her crime fiction. I am pleased to get Footsteps in the Dark which I haven't read. Isn't the cover lovely? So many crime works of the mid-twentieth century get the 'lighting the cigarette' treatment, but I still like the overall effect on this version.

 Lorna Doone is another omission. How can I have got this far in a book filled life and not read Lorna Doone? I don't know but I am about to rectify matters!

The matching pair of Vintage novels are a Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, and Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller. I don't think they will have much in common beyond the typeface on the spine. The Calvino looks to have the sort of spirited narrative that thinks it is in charge (it starts by taking you back to before you bought the book) - we shall see!

Lastly, and more heavy hints were dropped here, A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr from the wonderful Quince Tree Press which was started by Carr and is now run by his son and daughter-in-law. There aren't many books you buy and get a thank you note from the author's daughter-in-law, but that's what my husband received. We have been well aware of Quince Tree Press for a while as we have one the wonderful county maps (Lancashire!). The maps are a delight and make a great evening's read if you know the county well. They are pictorial gems and would appeal to map lovers (my husband) and map haters (me!) alike.

Did Santa bring you any bookish surprises?