Raggle Taggle April

Before I get to April, I want to close out March (Women's History Month) by providing a link to the list of

500 Great Books by Women

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Also, yesterday, March 31, Google paid homage to Bunsen of the Bunsen burner fame and I thought the picture was cool:

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Ok, now on to April. Happy April Fool's Day! HERE is a little history of the day.

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April is National Poetry Month. In honor of National Poetry Month here are the lyrics (by Joni Mitchell) to Both Sides, Now. One of my favorite songs, a poem without the music:

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air

And feather canyons everywhere, I’ve looked at clouds that way.

But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.

So many things i would have done but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,

From up and down, and still somehow

It's cloud illusions I recall.

I really don't know clouds at all.

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel

As every fairy tale comes real; I’ve looked at love that way.

But now it's just another show. You leave 'em laughing when you go

And if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now,

From give and take, and still somehow

It's love's illusions I recall.

I really don't know love at all.

Tears and fears and feeling proud to say "I love you" right out loud,

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I’ve looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say

I've changed.

Something's lost but something's gained in living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now,

From win and lose, and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall.

I really don't know life at all.


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Taxes are due on April 18th instead of April 15th this year.
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Don't forget, EARTH DAY is always April 22nd.

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Finally, a clip from HBO's Game of Thrones, premiering April 17th. This clip features Sean Bean and his role as Eddard Stark:

Wordless Wednesday: Cows and Cafe

--Wordless Wednesday (Click to enlarge)

More Art Highlights from London

More select art I enjoyed from my 2010 trip to London:

From Apsley House:

--Sèvres Egyptian Service from the dining room at Apsley House

From the Number One London blog:

The Sèvres Egyptian Service was commissioned by Napoleon for his Empress Josephine. The vast silver Portuguese Service, with an 8 metre long centrepiece, adorned the table at the annual Waterloo Banquet, a great event at which the Duke entertained officers who had served under him at Waterloo and in the Peninsular War.

From the British Museum:

--Rosetta Stone, 196 BC, black granite

It's not just language software.

From the National Gallery:

--Surprised!, Henri Rousseau, 1891, oil on canvas, 129.8 x 161.9 cm

From the museum website:

This is the first of the jungle scenes on which Rousseau's fame chiefly depends. This painting was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1891 with the title 'Surpris!'. It was later described by the artist as representing a tiger hunting explorers.

Rousseau claimed that he had gained knowledge of the jungle while serving as a regimental bandsman in Mexico in the 1860s, but this seems to be a fiction and his paintings were probably inspired by visits to the botanical gardens in Paris and by prints. The figure of the tiger may have been based on a print after a pastel by Delacroix.

From the National Portrait Gallery:

--Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, John Francis, 1852, marble

If you haven't noticed, I really admire Wellington.

From the Museum of London:

From the Tate Modern:

--The Kiss, Auguste Rodin, 1901-1904, Pentelican marble,

1,822 x 1,219 x 1,530 mm, 3,180 kg

From the caption:

The Tate’s The Kiss is one of three full-scale versions made in Rodin’s lifetime. Its blend of eroticism and idealism makes it one of the great images of sexual love. However, Rodin considered it overly traditional, calling The Kiss ‘a large sculpted knick-knack following the usual formula.’ The couple are the adulterous lovers Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini, who were slain by Francesca’s outraged husband. They appear in Dante’s Inferno, which describes how their passion grew as they read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere together. The book can just be seen in Paolo’s hand.

Jane Eyre 2011

The latest version of Jane Eyre is now on the big screen starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. I thought this version was very well done, especially the notable cinematography—there are beautiful scenes of the moors.

The only other version I have seen previously is the 1996 one starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt, which I remember being an excellent production. I viewed the 1996 version just after reading the novel by Charlotte Brontë for the first time. I enjoyed the first reading of the book, but did not as much the second reading. The viewing of this second film version renewed my appreciation of Jane Eyre.

The current movie has a handful of some of my favorite British actors: Sally Hawkins (a good fit for Jane's aunt, Mrs. Reed), Judi Dench, and Jamie Bell. I never saw Billy Elliott, but I just watched Mr. Bell in The Eagle. He gave a fine performance in that mediocre film, as well as a good St. John performance in Jane. He was the right kind of annoying with his holier-than-thou attitude and his ugly sideburns.

--Mia Wasikowska as Jane

Mia Wasikowska is superb as Jane. I knew nothing about her except that she was in The Kids Are Alright. She could be stoic or emotional as needed. She has an interesting face and the part-down-the-middle hairstyle she had to endure did not flatter her. The best scenes were of her and Fassbender having their witty repartee as Jane and Rochester.

--Michael Fassbender as Rochester

What did I like best about Jane Eyre? It has to be the performance of Michael Fassbender (300, Inglourious Basterds). Fassbender makes a perfect Rochester. He can be commanding, sarcastic, sad, funny, and sexy. Also, he has a great voice and, ok, I'm holding back from just completely gushing about him, trying to remain composed. I will probably run to the theater the next time I see this man is in a movie. He is mesmerizing. It's sad to say, but I loved 300 and Inglourious Basterds immensely, but I don't really remember him specifically in those. Time to rewatch. Go see Jane Eyre.

Chasing Miracles - The Movie

My previous posts about Ashley Butler can be found HERE and HERE.

--Chasing Miracles - The Movie FB page

--Chasing Miracles - The Movie website

Wordless Wednesday: Beach

--Wordless Wednesday

Paula McLain and The Paris Wife

Paula McLain, author of New York Times bestseller, The Paris Wife, was in Dallas to promote her well written, fictionalized account of the first marriages of Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson. The Adolphus Hotel is a Dallas landmark and was a very historical and beautiful setting to hear Paula McLain speak, perfect for hearing about The Paris Wife. 

--Paula McLain from www.harpercollins.com

Ms. McLain began her talk by telling the audience that she actually lived in Dallas for 3 months a long time ago and worked as a cocktail waitress in Addison. Addison is its own town situated in north Dallas and known for having hip restaurants and nightclubs. She was only here for a short time due to a romance that did not last . . .

Ms. McLain said her Hadley and Ernest experience began with her reading of A Moveable Feast. She read Hemingway's book and was "swept away into the 1920's." In her words, "What is more delicious than Paris in the 1920's?" as she had never been anywhere. The story that she was swept up in was the "story of a generation and Hadley was the heroine." Ms. McLain continues by saying that now we are all familiar with the old Hemingway, "the grizzled, petulant one." She says, "My Hemingway was 20 years old and Hadley was 8 years older." Hadley was quiet, reserved, and sheltered, especially since she was injured at 6 and from then on was labeled as "fragile." In 1920, Hadley's mother died with Hadley there at her deathbed. After that, Hadley felt released.

Ernest Hemingway, of Oak Park, Illinois, and Hadley Richardson, of St. Louis, Missouri, both had mothers that "took no prisoners," according to Ms. McLain. They both had fathers that were quiet and passionate and both killed themselves with guns, Hadley's previously to their meeting and Hemingway's later. Because of their parents' marriages with very dominant women, Ms. McLain said that Ernest and Hadley both wanted a marriage that had more equality. This was after Hemingway had survived World War I and was still probably shell-shocked from the whole experience (including his failed relationship with nurse Agnes von Kurowsky). Ms. McLain told how Kate Smith (later the wife of John Dos Passos) invited Hadley to visit her and her friends in Chicago and there Hadley met the strapping 6' 1" Hemingway on her first night in town.

--Ernest and Hadley from jfklibrary.org

Ms. McLain then took some time to read from her well written and researched book about the first meeting of Hadley and Ernest. I liked her writing style as she used different descriptions all throughout from Hadley's viewpoint such as "this beautiful boy's knee," and "trash copy for Firestone tires," and "Kate's green eyes," as Kate Smith was still harboring feelings for Hemingway that were not reciprocated.

Hemingway actually proposed to Hadley via a letter. Hemingway kept much of his correspondence during his lifetime, but Hadley burned all her letters from Hemingway after they were divorced.

--from jfklibrary.org

Ms. McLain told of how she was visited Oak Park and at a talk she was giving she met the current owner of Hadley and Ernest's first apartment in Chicago on North Dearborn and the man invited her to to see the place and she did. This was the apartment where the Hemingways had invited Sherwood Anderson and his wife for dinner and told them their plans of going to Rome to live. Anderson convinced them that Paris was the place to go and gave him introductory letters to expatriates already there such as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein.

Ms. McLain talked a little bit about growing up in foster care, which she wrote about in her first book entitled Like Family. Reading and books, of course, were a great escape for her growing up. She wrote her first draft of The Paris Wife at the Starbucks near her house. She had never written a novel of historical fiction and is now having trouble moving on.

At 19, Ms. McLain sent a poem in to Cosmopolitan magazine and they published it and paid her for it. She did a lot of creative writing in the 70's and spent 7 years in undergraduate studies. She then went to graduate school at the University of Michigan.

After the talk and reading, Ms. McLain spent a great deal of time answering some questions from the audience. I found it interesting that Kate Smith Dos Passos and Hadley never were in contact again after the divorce. Someone asked if Hemingway was really as romantic as Ms. McLain portrays him. When Hemingway died, papers from his manuscript of A Moveable Feast were still in his typewriter. So, some of his last thoughts might have been about his Paris wife. The writing speaks for itself: "I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."

--from jfklibrary.org

What I Will Soon Be Reading and Why

--HBO will premiere its new series, Game of Thrones, based on the book A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) by George R. R. Martin on April 17th. I will be watching because of its star, Sean Bean. And there you have it.

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

This posting is another submission regarding book club girl’s Maisie Dobbs Read-Along.

I have read all the Maisie Dobbs novels now and anxiously await the next one due out on 22 March 2011. The current novel being discussed is An Incomplete Revenge. This is one of my very favorites. Maisie helps James Compton discover the cause of mysterious fires set on some property he wants to purchase outside of London.

Why did I like this Maisie novel so much?

• I found out that Maisie’s mother was a gypsy, shining light on issues still relevant today.

• Maisie and her mentor Maurice Blanche’s rift is somewhat lessened (even if their relationship will never be the same).

• A strange Twilight Zone-like town and people are involved in the story and they have much to hide.

• I learned a little bit about a jazz musician who was popular in Paris.

book club girl has asked several questions and I will “weave” my answers into the discussion.

I was excited and surprised to learn that Maisie was part gypsy, giving her a different history than just daughter of a costermonger. Of course, this revelation gave Maisie an “in” to the gypsy clan around the town of Heronsdene, especially with the matriarch of the clan, Beulah. The prejudices and discriminating behavior towards the gypsies by the villagers and others were brought forth by Ms. Winspear during the course of the novel. Fear of those a little different and fear of the unknown always bring out the worst in people. Maisie’s abilities to intuit in a different way from most and her openness to new methods and ideas make Maisie such a great character. Maisie is someone who is so self-assured she can get along with anyone, be it those in high government office or a traveling band of gypsies.

Maisie taking up weaving at this point in the novels was a very good thing for her to do. She needed something to do with her hands that is repetitive and frees her mind (besides her normal meditation), yet also has a purpose in creating something beautiful and useful. I think she learned how an artistic outlet can be very therapeutic, as it was for Nicolas Bassington-Hope in Messenger of Truth. I enjoyed how Maisie helped enlighten Marta, her weaving teacher, to be proud of her own heritage.

Beattie Drummond was a new character introduced in this novel and she is a journalist turned novelist. Where have I seen that story before? I enjoyed having Beattie in the story, but really wish she had been even more involved and that she and Maisie had interacted even more and become closer friends. She could always figure into another story later. Her name kind of bugged me, though, as I always said in my head “beat the drum.” Maybe that is intentional?

Trying not to spoil the book, the plight of the van Maarten family was a major story line in this novel. Even though their story is quite different from the family in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” that is what I kept thinking of as I read about this family and the mysterious ways of the townspeople of the village. Of course this story is a harbinger of what is to happen in Europe in a few more years from this time period. Mob mentality, collective guilt, and attempts at atonement made An Incomplete Revenge so much more interesting.

Simon’s death was quite sad, but I think it was time for Ms. Winspear to free Maisie of Simon so that she can move on. I thought it was odd that Maisie deliberately avoided Simon’s mother for years and years, as it is not like Maisie to be so rigid (as I probably would be in the same situation). Maisie visited Maurice, her mentor, to discuss Simon’s death. I liked how Maisie sought out Maurice again after their rift and their relationship seems to be a bit more back to normal. I especially liked Maurice’s words of wisdom to Maisie:

“The concept of such an end brings to mind the phoenix, the sacred firebird, who at the end of life builds a nest of cinnamon twigs, which he ignites, and goes to his death amid flames that will bear new life . . . Of course, a new young Simon will not walk through that door to greet us, but I sense that seeing him go in this way, knowing there will only be ashes to sprinkle on the breeze, is a gift that has been given you, if you choose to take it . . .This is one of those times, Maisie, when you must not think, must not dwell and search for meaning. You have done those things, you have held Simon in your heart, and you have taken steps into a future that you might never have imagined in 1917. He is gone now. Think of the newborn phoenix and embrace it.”

From what I remember from the previous and most recent novels, Maisie is always a very good dancer and enjoys dancing very much, even if she feels coerced into a dance. Usually someone as cerebral as Maisie does not like and is not comfortable with something as base as dancing. Maybe this is where Maisie’s gypsy heritage is allowed to come out. Also, a party or a dance always provides a good backdrop for story development. I guess Ms. Winspear is trying to tell readers that there are numerous facets to a character and not to rule out any aspect of someone’s personality. This reminds me of how I was surprised to learn that baseball manager and former player Bobby Valentine is a great ballroom dancer.

At the end of An Incomplete Revenge, Maisie takes out “her one record, by a gypsy now famous in Paris, a man who had blended French passion with the spark of the Roma.” I think this man might be Django Reinhardt, but I could be mistaken. I found a link to some of his music. I also enjoyed learning about Denmark Street in London.

--Django Reinhardt from Wikipedia

Words from An Incomplete Revenge that I needed to look up:

aspidistra - popular house plant with long tough evergreen leaves and purplish flowers borne on the ground

barathea - a soft fabric of silk and cotton, silk and wool, or all wool

chivvy – chase away

coppiced – cut back by thinning and pruning

farrier - person who shoes horses

locum - someone (such as a priest or doctor) who does the work of another person who is away for a short time

luthier - someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments

lych-gate - is a gateway covered with a roof found at the traditional entrance to a (English) churchyard.

noddle – a person’s head

profligacy - recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant

recce - a slang word for reconnaissance

stooks - heaps or bundles; a truss of flax or of sheaves of grain

Phrases I liked:

get on with it (all throughout the novels)

just cannot abide him

right you are

hatch, match, and dispatch

police parlance

Gypsy words:

beng – a devil

chop - sale

diddakoi - gypsy outside the Romany tribes and of mixed blood

dinlo - fool

gorja – non-roma

kushti - good

mokada - sullied

moosh - man

pikey – derogative word for gypsy

rawni – little lady

rom – gypsy man or boy

sap - snake

shoshi - rabbit

vardo - wagon

Update on The Kessler

Some time ago I wrote about the resurgence of an old Dallas (Oak Cliff) theatre that was being transformed into a new music venue. The place is called The Kessler and a local TV station provides this update:

--Courtesy of NBCDFW Channel 5

I have been to several shows already at The Kessler and it's one of the best live music venues to be found in town. A link to the Channel 5 story can be found HERE.

Foote Festival: Dallas-Fort Worth celebrates the life and work of Horton Foote

--CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

Other Links:

Dallas Morning News
D Magazine Front Row
Theatre Jones
Forth Worth Star-Telegram
Dallas Observer

Inspiring: Painting by J D Miller, Reflectionist

--Autumn Flowers, J D Miller, 1999, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.

Interview: Ed Renehan of New Street Communications

After reading H.R. Stoneback’s essay on Paris from New Street Communications, I wanted to learn a little bit more about where the Kindle book I downloaded was conceptualized.

New Street Communications was begun by Ed Renehan in June of 2010. As stated on the website:

New Street develops, publishes and distributes superior works of non-fiction.

Following are some questions I asked Mr. Renehan about his publishing venture.

MDC: As I ask anyone I interview, what books are most important to you? In other words, which books do you want to reread in the future?

EJR: There are several authors to whom I always return. Hemingway is one. Dickens another. Also Thoreau. As well, I have an odd addiction to a somewhat obscure book entitled The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall, about the 1969 Sunday London Times single-handed round-the-world race for the Golden Globe. I read this book at least twice a year. The story is gripping, and the story-telling is quite beautifully done.

MDC: Naming of a new venture is always paramount. How did you come up with the name New Street Communications?

EJR: "New Street" is the street on Long Island, near New York City, where my wife and I had our very first house and started our family. The connotation for us is very positive, loaded with tender memories and good vibrations. Good karma. So, that's a large part of it. Also, my highest profile job in the world of New York publishing was as Director of Computer Publishing Programs for a firm called Newbridge Communications (at that time a subsidiary of PriMedia); so, for people in the industry, there is also that echo.

MDC: The logo for a new venture is important as well. Is the picture of the house your house in Rhode Island?

EJR: Actually that little logo is inspired by our tiny first house on New Street, a very modest 1878 farmhouse now surrounded for the most part by far grander homes in a relatively affluent suburb.

MDC: Obviously, you are much attuned to technology and how the book publishing world and increased technology are merging and you want to be at the forefront. But do you still enjoy browsing in bookstores and settling down to read an old-fashioned book? I only ask this because I find myself more and more dependent on my Kindle and notebook to enhance my reading experience by more highlighting, note taking, and quick access to research the subject matter.

EJR: I actually do most of my reading (and book buying) on Kindle. This is in large measure, of course, due to my affinity for the medium. On a more practical level, however, our house here near Newport, RI is PACKED with several decades' accumulation of physical books, and we just don't have room for more. But those walls of well-thumbed bound books? Yes, I love them.

MDC: Your site states that your books are free of DRM. What is DRM?

EJR: DRM = Digital Rights Management software. This is software meant to inhibit the pirating of eBooks. The thing is, it is routinely very clumsy and inconvenient for purchasers to navigate. Also, it is easily rooted and therefore not even effective against piracy. Many of the hipper players in eBooks are simply dispensing with it, and letting people know that they are dispensing with it, as the absence of DRM has some sales appeal. There is a pretty good discussion of details on Wikipedia.

MDC: I like your corporate mantra of “Work smart, be kind.” Any kind of mantra helps with creativity, in my opinion. Wouldn’t we all be better served by putting some effort into both parts of New Street’s mantra?

EJR: I think so. What is positive in a corporate culture is bound also to be a positive in the culture generally.

MDC: That’s a beautiful picture on the cover of A Christmas Carol. Who is the artist that created the wintry scene of the Seine and Notre Dame? How did you discover this artist?

EJR: The artist is Tavík František Šimon, a Czech who lived many years in Paris. The painting is Notre Dame de Paris in Winter, 1921. The artist died in 1942. I've been aware of him for a long time, ever since the 70's when Mary Hemingway told me that Ernest had a nodding acquaintance with Šimon in Paris, and that he liked his work.

MDC: I am enjoying the related music and links provided on New Street’s site. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Three Dog Night’s rendition of “Black and White.” It’s good to know the history of the song. The latest book published by New Street is a reissue of the children’s classic of Black and White by David Arkin. How did this reissue come to fruition for New Street?

EJR: David Arkin, who died in 1980, was a very talented artist but also a very talented lyricist. In 1956, he and the composer Earl Robinson wrote this great song "Black and White" to celebrate the Supreme Court decision from two years before outlawing segregation in the nation's public schools. Pete Seeger – who has written an Introduction for our new edition of David's book – recorded the song in 1956, and Sammy Davis Jr. one year later. Then finally, in 1972, the band Three Dog Night had a #1 hit with the song in the United States. This is the version everyone knows best. Six years before the Three Dog Night recording, in 1966, David took the lyrics and illustrated them to create a wonderful children's book, which we've now re-released. The project came to me through David's three children - the actor Alan Arkin and his sister Bonnie Cordova and brother Robert – who wanted to see their father's work available once more and who approached me directly with a request that I make it happen. Happily, I was able to involve Seeger, who is another old friend, and we were off to the races.

MDC: Ed, I also like how you are combining your work with charity since royalties from the sale of Black and White are going to the Central Asia Institute. Can you talk about what this means to you?

EJR: The idea to designate royalties to the Central Asia Institute (CAI) came from the Arkins themselves, specifically Bonnie Arkin Cordova, who read and was greatly influenced by Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. I think the designation is more than appropriate. Black and White sprang from the fight to gain equal educational opportunities for people of color in the United States. The CAI, in turn, focuses on promoting community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, where equal educational opportunities for females is by no means a part of the cultural tradition.

MDC: Can you provide some hints of some upcoming New Street projects?

EJR: Yes. I've just signed a very major work of J.D. Salinger scholarship which we'll have out by autumn, and about which I'm very excited. Currently (early March 2011) I'm doing the final edits on Cloud Computing Explained, the first in our New Street Executive Summary Series. We've also recently signed an exercise and diet book that has great promise, and we've a number of other things in the works in both the literary and tech/business sides of our publishing program.

MDC: Thank you so much, Ed, for taking the time in answering these questions. I know I will be downloading some more interesting books from New Street in the near future.

Also, if you would like to purchase some logo gear related to New Street Communications, click HERE.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Audiobook (read by Mark Deakins)
ISBN-10: 0739376985
ISBN-13: 978-0739376980
Random House Audio
Unabridged edition
2009

I first heard about The Lost City of Z when I attended the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in 2010. The session with the author, David Grann, and another author, Hampton Sides, was my favorite session from the conference. Well, nine months later I finally listened to the audio version of the book. Driving by not too long ago, I whipped in just to pay a visit to my beloved neighborhood library. I haven't been there lately because I am all wired in to everything now and have been voraciously reading on my Kindle and Kindle for Mac. But something compelled me to stop by and I came out with three books and Z in the audio version. I went to the "New" section and immediately found the books. The audio section was nearby and I saw Z and grabbed it, too. All week I listened to this excellent non-fiction audiobook to and from work and finished it at home on the weekend. 

I knew the premise of the book from the Mayborn, and I enjoyed listening to this book immensely. Before that conference, I had never heard of the Amazonian adventurer, Percival Harrison Fawcett. What an interesting life he led, eventually disappearing in the jungles of Brazil on a quest for a lost city, along with his eldest son, Jack, and Jack's best friend, Raleigh Rimell, in 1925.

--Percy Fawcett

Dispatches from the adventurers, up until the point when no guides would lead them any further, was big news at the time. Fawcett was already well known to the world from previous excursions into the jungle and he was a prominent member of the Royal Geographical Society. I learned that Fawcett had many friends in the Society, in Brazil, and elsewhere, but he also had his detractors. He had the reputation of expecting too much from the members of his parties that had previously explored parts of the jungle and this may have led to his demise in the end. Also, he was the type of person that rarely got sick (some sort of natural immunity to the fevers, etc., one typically gets in the jungles) and saw weakness in others that were not as hearty as himself. 

--Jack Fawcett and Raleigh Rimmel

What I found most interesting about this book was that David Grann followed his path down to Brazil and into the jungle himself to try to ascertain what happened to Fawcett all these years later. Mr. Grann is a journalist for the New Yorker and had a very young son and wife worried about him in New York. He did not seem the explorer type when I saw him at the conference. Now that I have listened to his amazing account of what he found out about Fawcett, I have even greater respect for him than I already did after hearing him speak at the conference. 

Parts of the book made me a little nauseous, I must say. Mainly what made me feel nauseated were the vignettes about the cannibal tribes and stories of pirahanas and anacondas and the insects. I was on the edge of my seat when I was listening to Mr. Grann's description of his trek alone for some miles near the end of his journey. He showed his true grit, for sure.

I did not enjoy the reading done by the actor Mark Deakins. For me, his voice was just too announcer-ish and did not have enough emotion. I did persist through eight disks of approximately 45 minutes each, however. This is a book that would have been great if read by someone such as Jason Salkey (British actor who played Rifleman Harris in the Sharpe series), even though Mr. Grann is American. Or someone with a little more character in his voice. 

I enjoyed learning about Fawcett's wife, Nina, and her never giving up hope of her husband not being dead. As with many people after World War I and who suffered great losses in their lives, she also turned to spiritualism. Fawcett had served in the British Army during the Great War and was gassed and suffered greatly during that conflict. Nina Fawcett always supported her husband and son and what they were trying to accomplish long after they disappeared.

If you search the internet, there are a lot of conflicting stories and theories still concerning Fawcett to this day. Apparently, Brad Pitt is slated to star in a movie about Fawcett. I think he would be a good choice in the role, since he did a fine job in Seven Years in Tibet. I hope the movie comes to fruition.

Friday Feature: Favorites from the Meadows Museum

--Cubist Landscape, Juan Gris, 1917, oil on wood panel, Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, USA

--Wave, Santiago Calatrava, 2002, Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, USA

--Santa Rufina, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1665, oil on canvas, Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, USA

Wordless Wednesday:Texas Independence Day

--Statue of Stephen F. Austin in the Hall of State, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas, USA

Texas Independence Day