For those of us who like me, were lucky enough to have a high draft number, (mine was 306), and escaped the war in Vietnam, Tim O’Brien has shown us slices of life in it, in his novel The Things They Carried. And it’s everything that we thought it was, everything that we protested to end.
Cross-Posted from Book-Ed
As the month comes to an end it’s time for a reading recap and update. Yesterday I finished reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried which is the fourth book I’ve finished in February. Previously I finished The Promise of a Pencil, Throne of Glass and Revelation Space. The Things They Carried had been on my TBR pile so it counts toward my goal on the TBR Pile Challenge and since it is about the Vietnam War it counts toward the 2015 Historical Fiction Challenge. Here is a current update on my Reading Challenges…..
I am a strong believer in the duality of both nature and the human spirit, The yin and the yang, light and dark, male and female, Narcissus and Goldmund,, the active and the passive, Can you see where I’m going with this?? If you check, the post prior to this one is about our passive grandchild Zoe.Yesterday was spent babysitting our more active grandchild Oliver. Included in the description of yin and yang at Wikipedia is:the following…..
Yesterday, i spent the afternoon with the very quiet, now five month-old Zoe. That quiet part may change though over the next few months as she becomes more mobile. Somehow though, I still think she will be somewhat calmer than Mr. Oliver. Kinda’ like difference between Oliver;s father Andrew and Andrew’s sister Elizabeth, Guess which one loved to stand at the top of a wooden sliding board, when he still wasn’t walking and shake it back and forth!!
The other day I decided to get a little more organized in both my reading and music listening, I decided what I will do is to try to set aside an hour a day to read and listen to music together. The music genres that I prefer to listen to if I am reading are: new age, jazz, classical or progressive rock.I figured I will create a 60 minute playlists containing a few tracks from several artists, that I am unfamiliar with, in whatever genre I pick. My first music and reading hour was last Friday and the genre that I chose was jazz. To start, I reviewed the JazzWeek Charts and found five artists that I was unfamiliar with, which was not hard at all. Then I went to Spotify, to create the playlist.
Legendary Jazz trumpeter Clark Terry passed away on Saturday February 21st, for many, many years I knew the name Clark Terry, but I never listened to this amazing musician, until started this blog, like have with many artists,the first time I explored his music was on his birthday December 14th . From his obituary at the New York Times,
I love blues harmonica! I guess it stems back to listening to guys like John Mayall, Sonny Terry, Paul Butterfield and Sonny Boy Williamson in the 70s. Over the years, the list of my favorite harp players has grown to include: James cotton, Jason Ricci, Kim Wilson, Mark Hummel, Rick Estrin and others. One player who is quickly moving up the ranks of my favorites is Memphis’ Brandon Santini!! With a sound that has been compared to Mister Cotton and Mister Butterfield, this native of the Piedmont region of North Carolina is staking his claim for inclusion among the best!! In my eyes and ears, he already is included! My first encounter with Brandon was when I picked up his 2013 release This Time Another Year which is a great album, but his latest release, Live & Extended! has topped it!
So I had to take books back to the library yesterday. both mine and my daughter Elizabeth’s. On the way I said to myself…”.You are not getting any books out of they library, you are already reading four or five books!” My response was fine, “well, how about if I only get out a book if I find something by somebody whose work I really love. like say Alex Kava!” I said this thinking I was safe because I know that Alex Kava’s books usually come out in the summer!!
So yesterday I babysat my five month old granddaughter Zoe. I watched her from 12:30 until my son Peter got home around 5 o’clock. When I first got to their apartment, my daughter-in-law Melissa was holding, said Zoe was a cranky baby, who wouldn’t nap! So I thought I was going to be in for a tough afternoon with a cranky baby!! After Missy left I laid Zoe down on her playmate and much to my surprise she did not fuss and cry. Instead she laid there and played very nicely!!
