Beginning ~ with rain like fairy silver

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales ~ by Margaret Atwood, 2014, fiction (short stories)

The freezing rain sifts down, handfuls of shining rice thrown by some unseen celebrant.  Wherever it hits, it crystallizes into a granulated coating of ice.  Under the streetlights it looks so beautiful:  like fairy silver, thinks Constance.  But then, she would think that; she's far too prone to enchantment.

Nope, that doesn't grab me, the beginning of the first story.  I flipped through the whole book, reading the opening lines of each of the "nine tales."  The one I like best is the story that became the book's title:  "Stone Mattress":

At the outset Verna had not intended to kill anyone.

Oh, yeah!  This sounds good.  This one makes me want to read the whole book, so I'll hold off until I read it in its place, which happens to be the eighth story of nine.  I hope the other stories are worth it.  Here's a summary of the book:

Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships.  A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists.  In "The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise.  In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire.  In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence.  And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite.  In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

In case you wonder why I'm reading it without having read the blurb I just shared, it's because my friend Donna enjoyed the book.  She handed it to me, so I'm ready to take her word and start reading.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

BTT (#44) ~ books read last year

Most fun (#93) because of the Charlie Brown tree and Linus's blanket

Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

"What was your favorite book (or books) for 2014?  What reading really caught your attention?  Sparked your interest?  Changed your world?  Made you laugh?"

FAVORITE BOOKS

All year long, I "rate" the books I read on a scale of one to ten, all of which is totally subjective.  Since I list those I finish, I could simply have you look at the books I completed in 2014.  However, I also choose my favorite book each month.  Here are my twelve monthly favorites.

January favorite (#4)

Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death

by Katy Butler, 2013, memoir, 9/10

February favorite (#10)

The Housemaid's Daughter 

by Barbara Mutch, 2012, fiction (South Africa), 10/10

March favorite (#14)

The Invention of Wings 

by Sue Monk Kidd, 2014, fiction (South Carolina), 10/10

April favorite (#24)

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess:

The Conflict Between Word and Image 

by Leonard Shlain, 1998, language and culture, 10/10

May favorite (#30)

Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity

by James D. Tabor, 2012, history of religion, 9/10

June favorite (#39)

The Pink Party

by Maryann Macdonald, illustrated by Abby Carter, 1994, children's, 10/10

July favorite (#44)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story

by Richard Bach, photos by Russell Munson, 1970, fiction, 10/10

August favorite (#49)

Goodnight June

by Sarah Jio, 2014, fiction (Seattle, Washington), 10/10

September favorite (#60)

The Story Hour 

by Thrity Umrigar, 2014, fiction (USA and India), 10/10

October favorite (#77)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet 

by Jamie Ford, 2009, fiction (Seattle, Washington), 9/10

November favorite (#78)

My Beloved World 

by Sonia Sotomayor, 2013, memoir, 9/10

December favorite (#88)

A Friendship for Today

by Patricia C. McKissack, 2007, YA fiction (Missouri), 10/10

MOST MEMORABLE

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain argues that literacy reinforced the brain's linear, abstract, predominantly masculine left hemisphere at the expense of the holistic, iconic feminine right one.  This shift upset the balance between men and women and initiated the disappearance of goddesses, the abhorrence of images, and — in literacy's early stages — the decline of women's political status.  Patriarchy and misogyny followed.

OUTSTANDING

(#95)  Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story of the Trayvon Martin Injustice and Why We Continue to Repeat It ~ by Lisa Bloom, 2014, history, 9/10

This one really made me think.  Lisa Bloom, an American civil rights attorney, shows step by step what happened during George Zimmerman's trial for killing Trayvon and uses Zimmerman's own testimony to show without a doubt that he lied.  Fascinating book about the state of our country today.

Let's end 2014 with a big AMEN, Amen, Amen!

As it approaches midnight, ending the year when I moved to St. Louis, this song is on my mind.  I listened to several versions of it on YouTube, and this one appeals to me the most.  "A-men, A-men, A-men, Amen, Amen!"  Let Sidney Poitier do all the other words.  I'll sing along with the nuns, "A-men, A-men, A-men, Amen, Amen!"

This 3-minute version was uploaded to YouTube on July 17, 2007, showing the final scene in the film directed by Ralph Nelson.  It's the scene where Homer Smith, played by Sidney Poitier leaves Mother Maria, played by Lilia Skala, after building them a chapel.  After taking one last look at the chapel he built, Smith, knowing that his work is done, slips into his car and drives quietly off into the night.  If this video quits working, view it on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn6w255CGkk&index=4&list=RDNLjXt7KxD4c

Library Loot ~ ends today, December 31

Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America ~ by Linda Tirado, 2014

"I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time. Well, not this book, because I never imagined that the book I was waiting for would be so devastatingly smart and funny, so consistently entertaining and unflinchingly on target. In fact, I would like to have written it myself – if, that is, I had lived Linda Tirado’s life and extracted all the hard lessons she has learned. I am the author of Nickel and Dimed, which tells the story of my own brief attempt, as a semi-undercover journalist, to survive on low-wage retail and service jobs. Tirado is the real thing." — from the foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed, which I have read.

Esquire called this "One of the Best 5 Books of 2014."

We in America have certain ideas of what it means to be poor.  Linda Tirado, in her signature brutally honest yet personable voice, takes all of these preconceived notions and smashes them to bits.  She articulates not only what it is to be working poor in America, but what poverty is truly like — on all levels.  Tirado discusses openly how she went from lower-middle class, to sometimes middle class, to poor and everything in between, and in doing so reveals why "poor people don’t always behave the way middle-class America thinks they should."

The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next ~ by Lee Smolin, 2006

In this groundbreaking book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that physics — the basis for all other sciences — has lost its way.  For more than two centuries, our understanding of the laws of nature expanded rapidly.  But today, despite our best efforts, we know nothing more about these laws than we knew in the 1970s.  Why is physics suddenly in trouble?  And what can we do about it?  One of the major problems, according to Smolin, is string theory:  an ambitious attempt to formulate a “theory of everything” that explains all the particles and forces of nature and how the universe came to be.  With its exotic new particles and parallel universes, string theory has captured the public’s imagination and seduced many physicists.  But as Smolin reveals, there’s a deep flaw in the theory:  No part of it has been tested, and no one knows how to test it.  In fact, the theory appears to come in an infinite number of versions, meaning that no experiment will ever be able to prove it false.  As a scientific theory, it fails.  And because it has soaked up the lion’s share of funding, attracted some of the best minds, and effectively penalized young physicists for pursuing other avenues, it is dragging the rest of physics down with it.  Smolin charts the rise and fall of string theory and takes a fascinating look at what will replace it.  A group of young theorists has begun to develop exciting ideas that, unlike string theory, are testable.  Smolin not only tells us who and what to watch for in the coming years, he offers novel solutions for seeking out and nurturing the best new talent — giving us a chance, at long last, of finding the next Einstein.

Okay, I'm aware that most of you reading Library Loot posts read only fiction, which this (obviously) is not.  I read fiction, and I also think physics is fascinating.  Am I alone in my interest in science?

Library Loot WAS a weekly event that encouraged readers to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  Interest has lagged, and now there appears to be nowhere to link up and share.  So it's over.  It's been fun.

Study, learn, and really see

Sunday Salon ~ boys, books, and 'bout time

My great-granddaughter, who loves books, recently became the big sister of twin brothers.  For Christmas, she got two dolls so she has her own twins.  Will her brothers become avid readers?  Time will tell.

BOOKS

• Recently finished:  Pearl of China ~ by Anchee Min, 2010, fiction (China), 9/10
• Currently reading:  The Signature of All Things ~ by Elizabeth Gilbert, 2013, fiction ~ I can't say I'm particularly impressed by it, as I near the end.  I'm just tired of it.
• Looking forward to:  Gossip ~ by Beth Gutcheon, 2013, fiction ~ which I put on hold at my library a few minutes ago.

'BOUT TIME

...for a new year and something else to read.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Beginning ~ with useless information

The Book of Useless Information ~ 2011

Apparently, whoever edited this book considered it TRULY useless information and didn't bother to give us the name of the person or persons who collected these 704 pages of stuff.  The only thing on the title page besides the name of the book is the publisher, whose name is a non-name:  Publications International, Ltd.  The "introduction" gives us more non-information:

What exactly makes information "useless"? ... Whether you're looking for odd facts and trivia to share with friends at your next cocktail party, or if you simply love learning about the stranger facets of life, The Book of Useless Information is bound to entertain and enlighten.

But the first actual bit of useless information we find is on the cover.  You can see it for yourself in the illustration above.

Earth is the only planet not named after a god.

On the back of the hardback edition (I doubt if there's a paperback) is another bit of useless information:

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. — Oscar Wilde

My daughter Sandra sent me this book for Christmas.  Did you get any books over the holidays?

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.