Kelp

 

Always a great read can be sourced from....

...Remedy Rebel the Luddite
She who ALWAYS comes up with a good book.
Had a quick look at the reviews on Amazon to see what this book is about & it looks like a fantastic read. Click on the link of the book's title for more. Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins

Remedy's Channeler

from Canberra....

Case Histories: A Novel by Kate Atkinson
Mystery novel

thanks Maxine!

Father

"At its lowest ebb the tide begins to turn"
Longfellow

"There is a lid for every pot"
Anon

Father

 

Mr Ted on Russian Literature...

I think Tolstoy's Anna Karenina must be about one of the most beautiful works of art. Some passages are so moving and perceptive. Have you ever experienced artistic ecstacy? I haven't made it up. It's a real phenomenon sometimes hits people in places like Florence or Rome. It's like when some music moves you to tears. I felt this with Botticelli and Tolstoy. Read 'War and Peace' by the same author. I also love Chekhov. Memorable short stories are 'The Steppe','Easter Sunday'. His plays are wonderful and can be read: Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull. I don't remember the Three Sisters very well. I thought the dialogues in Dostoevsky's ' The Devils', sometimes translated as 'The Possessed', were fantastic. I read it when I was 18 and it still haunts me today. The best translator is Constance Garnett.

Thanks Ted! (aka Tadeusz)

Love is not the Breathlessness...

Love is not the breathlessness,
it is not the excitement,
it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion,
it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day,
and it is not lying in bed imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body.
No, don’t blush, I am telling you some truths.
That is just being ‘in love’.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away.
Your mother had it,
we had roots which grew towards each other under the ground,
and when the pretty blossom had fallen from the branches we found that we were one tree,
not two.

from Patron Saint

Musings from our Patron Saint...

Beautiful lady didn't do you a disservice, her divinity extended to the natural severance. Sometimes the universal connectivity must be seen as a positive energy, it just does not fit in with our timeframe.

Patron Saint - Santa B

Jeans Fashion for 2006

 

Are Proverbs Scientifically Correct?

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks," I corrected.
"Really?" he said leaning forward with interest. "Is that true?"
"I don't know if it is technically correct", I told him.
"The point of proverbs is that they're metaphorically useful."
"But are they scientifically sound?" Uncle Maxim wanted to know.

Taken from: How to Tell a Proton from a Crouton - Judith Stone

Re-living Northern Exposure...

Some things are better left alone. Certain things we're not meant to tamper with or to possess. And that's okay. Because happiness doesn't come from having things - right? It comes from being part of things.

Taken from: Chris- in-the-Morning: Love, Life And the Whole Karmic Enchilada - A Northern Exposure Book

On Pain...

Sometimes you have to lie down with your pain.
As Jung said, "there is no coming to consciousness without pain."
So let's get conscious.

Taken from: Chris-in-the-Morning: Love, Life, and the Whole Karmic Enchilada - A Northern Exposure Book

Conversations On Books......

So these were the books that came up in conversation on Monday night.
I will get back to write a bit more on them but each title has a link to it which brings up more on where the book is/was coming from as well.

Read & enjoy!

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
Researching a murder

Wedding in December – Anita Shreeve
Not her best. She oftens writes about relationships.

The Great Shame – Thomas Keneally

Botany of Desire – Michael Pollan
About how plants rule us. Featuring: Apples, Tulips, Potatoes, Marijuana.

Jasmine & Arnica – Nicola Naylor
Book about a blind woman into aromatherapy who travels through India.

Sunbird – Wilbur Smith
Set in Africa

Ancient Evenings - Norman Mailer
Set in Egypt

Number One Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith
“Twee or is it me?” asks V.
The question was asked why did the chirpy, lolling dialogue work so well in setting the scene & characters in McCall Smith's Africa but didn't do the same for the author's books set in Scotland. Is this because of the way white people like to view black people?

Alice Book Grouper

 

 

Listen to the whispering...

DB: You were speaking to some students in New Mexico recently & you advised them to travel outside of the United States, to put their ears to the wall & listen to the whispering. What did you have in mind in giving them that kind of advice?

AR: That when you live in the United States , with the roar of the free market, the roar of this huge military power, the roar of being at the heart of the empire, it's hard to hear the whispering of the rest of the world. And I think many US citizens want to. I don't think that all of them necessarily are co-conspirators in the concept of empire. And those who are not need to listen to other stories in the world - other voices, other people.

Taken from Arundhati Roy's The Chequebook & the Cruise-Missile
Available at Casuarina Library.

Central Asian Politics

I think The Great Game is the best Hopkirk’s book for it tells a lot about the real innermost Russian motivations and expansion for centuries.

There are another books of this kind Stalin as Revolutionary by Robert C. Tucker, Bucharin (Bukharin) by Steven Coen (Koen) – excuse me, not sure in some correct spellings in English.

I think international exchange of thoughts and ideas is a very useful thing for it refreshes your own understanding and assessments.

Pavel

The Great Game is available at Tennant Creek Public Library.

 

On Bought Entertainment…

Like prostitution, with which it shares many qualities – escape from real life and real people and real responsibility, one-way traffic, payment, parody: like bought sex, there is something sad & strange about bought entertainment. WHY can’t you get it from your friends? Why can’t you get it free? What’s wrong with them? What’s wrong with YOU?

Taken from Damaged Gods by Julie Burchill

On Meditation….

This one is for you Patron Saint.

When we indicate “me” we point to our heart, not to our head. It’s instinctual. The problem is that we don’t make that leap into becoming the meditation. That is why we don’t transform. Loving kindness should be so spontaneous that we don’t have to think about it. It’s not a theory, an idea. It’s something you feel. The heart opening up is real.

Taken from Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie

 

from Urgench, Uzbekistan....

I’m deep in reading Peter Hopkirk’s “Like Hidden Fire” and “Without Fail”, an exciting American thriller by Lee Child, thus keeping up and developing my English vocabulary, and teasing my brains. Still listening to the BBC, VOA, Deutsche Welle, Liberty short waves…

I’m still eager to obtain more knowledge, to analyze, assess, conceive ideas, develop, write, expand my own thoughts concerning the surrounding world and information at hand. Hope the day will surely come when me or somebody else will get some use of my proceedings…

Pavel

 

from the Sports Physiologist turned Patron Saint of the Book Group..

Chere Modorator
Books to die for:
Watch this space, but Shantaram is a goodie, and now out in paperback.

Patron Saint

 

from Newcastle, NSW.....

Just a suggestion regarding my current favourite author.Neal Stephenson started out as a science fiction writer (Snow Crash is brilliant and surreal) but then wrote Crytonomicon, a brilliant geeky mixture of computers, code breaking, action and treasure hunting that jumps between WW2 and the present day.All fine and good, but his next book, Quicksilver took it another step. This is the first book in his baroque cycle and is set in the late 17th century. It's characters are the ancestors of the characters in Cryptonomicon with plenty of real historical figures thrown into the mix. The book is slow but rich in texture and concerns itself with the transition from alchemy to the age of science.Two sequels follow, The Confusion and The System of the World. In these books the pace picks up with piratical adventures, the intricacies of baroque finance, the pursuit of mysterious gold, bloody revenge and a total immersion in the world Stephenson creates.And that's all I'm going to say.
Gus

and from our Muscat chapter.....

Re: Why "Children turn out as they do" in your blogsite: I have just read "We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. A stunning read.
Janet from SQU

 

and from Brisbane we have....

From our wandering sports physiologist we have:
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life - Jon Kabat-Zinn
About meditation techniques to reduce stress and to help heal from illness.

Monday night 13 Feb 06

Back into the swing………..

So, after a likely property deal we got down to it.
And I might have a new neighbour!
But also lose one in the swap.
Ahhhh the shelter that we choose to live inside of. Such a process!
Someone once said to me that houses are built by the dead for the living, kind of like building tombs for they will also be dead in them one day too.
And to think of all that energy we ourselves put into such shelters, such tombs.

Anyway, onto books.

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
A worthwhile read. The fine balance of the title is centred around the lives of a random sample of Indians who lived through Indira Ghandi’s Emergency period.
It’s a novel but based on real events that did happen to people around that time when the govt was cracking down on the poor. Destroying a lot of slums & livelihoods that went along with that. Anyway the fine balance is the line these character’s are forced to tread in their daily lives as they struggle economically. The characters in the story are of different castes & all have their own threats to deal with from society. All of the characters are interrelated in each others lives & the way the tale is written, we get to know each character quite intimately & know their background but the people they interrelate with only know a fraction of what is going on in their lives. It makes you think about how everyone has their own story & how it is kept in check & what people wish to divulge to others as to their immediate circumstances. For example the woman Dina how she has some tailors working for her in her house (to help keep her afloat financially) but she does not really know the desperate circumstances those 2 men face in just turning up to work. So, one day when they don’t turn up, (their slum was demolished & they were rounded up by the police to work as indentured labour in a mine) Dina comes to the immediate conclusion that “their type” are never to be trusted & they were too lazy to turn up to work. Many little episodes like this abound in the book. Some of them get resolved, some don’t.

In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet & the Ideas that Changed the World – Paul Kriwaczek
A book about the Zoroastrianism, a religion that preceded Judaism, Christianity & Islam. Popular throughout Iran & Central Asia.


Following them Home: The Fate of the Returned Asylum Seekers – David Corlett
A book every Australian should read to see what exactly is happening with our govt policy.
And also a situation we should be ashamed of. Alice Springs library has this book.

Dark Victory: The Tampa and the Military Campaign to Re-elect the Prime Minister – David Marr
Mentions Australia’s bad reputation internationally on human rights & the domestic press censorship situation in regards to this Tampa story.

Sunday Philosophy Club – Alexander McCall Smith
His books of Botswana work well & are truly delightful.
The setting in Scotland for this one falls short when compared to his African ones.

Tyrannicide Brief – Geoffrey Robertson
This book has become a book that has taken a few of us in, so far.
About a barrister who made a Head of State accountable for the death of many Englishmen by dragging them into civil wars in 1649.
In those days it was unheard of to do such a thing, whereas nowadays we have the trials of Saddam & Milosevic.

Star Trek – Avengers
Books tied in with the Star Trek movies.

Woman of the Aeroplanes – B. Kojo Laing
This one was handed out as a form of punishment but looks like it could be read with glee?!
Possibly the worst book ever written. Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Impossible to follow.
The writer makes up his own words sometimes. As well as his own kind of writing
writing.

Lanzarote – Michel Houellebecq
Forgot to mention this one as it was so bad & forgettable.
He wrote Atomised & Platform. He focuses on the evident nihilism in our modern society.
It is a short book about nothing in particular. The story is very thin. Maybe just an excuse to write something about him getting it on with a couple of women. Fairly raw & explicit writing. A total wank of a book, possibly in more ways than one.
This is avail in Alice Springs library.

 
 

 
 

13 Dec 05

These are some of the books we are reading right now.

A Shot in the Heart - Mikhal Gilmore
Story from the brother of Gary Gilmore who was a guy who was executed & who himself campaigned for his own death. Tells of dysfunctional family politics, how the author was the favoured son & how the other brothers were mistreated by the father.

The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer
The famous book on Gary Gilmore who was the first man to be excecuted after the re-introduction of the death penalty.

Home Before Dark - Ruth Park
About Les Darcy, famous boxer. Born in 1895! (didn;t think he was that long ago!)

S is for Silence - Sue Grafton
from the The Murder Mystery Alphabet Series. From A to S so far.

Devi'l's Feather - Minette Walters
Walters is a British mystery writer. This particular book comes highly unrecommended.

The Rider - Tim Winton
Winton is a prize-winning Aussie author. He also wrote Cloudstreet which I think got a little famous. Or maybe just because an Aussie author got noticed in UK.

some still going or going around or just gone:
Billy - Pamela Stephenson
How the Mind Works - Stephen Pinker
Short History of Myth - Karen Armstrong
First Century After Beatrice - Amin Malouf

Root of Wild Madder - Brian Murphy
A lovely book about Iran & Afghanistan & what carpets mean to the people there. For some carpets are the soul, for others they are a place to socialise, for others they sell them willingly & unwillingly in order to get ahead. Madder is a natural red dye.

Sharon & My Mother in Law: Ramallah Diaries - Suad Amiry

A view of Ramallah-ian life from a human perspective. Funny & disturbing at the same time.

4 Dec 05.... History of Myth

I’m going to indulge you in an excerpt this week from A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong.

Yet the experience of reading a novel has certain qualities that remind us of the traditional apprehension of mythology. It can be seen as a form of meditation. Readers have to live with a novel for days or even weeks. It projects them into another world, parallel to but apart from their ordinary lives. They know perfectly well that this fictional realm is not ‘real’ and yet while they are reading it becomes compelling. A powerful novel becomes part of the backdrop of our lives, long after we have laid the book aside. It is an exercise in make-believe that, like yoga or a religious festival, breaks down barriers of space and time and extends our sympathies, so that we are able to empathise with other lives and sorrows. It teaches compassion, the ability to ‘feel with’ others. And, like mythology, an important novel is transformative. If we allow it to do so, it can change us forever.

If it is written and read with serious attention, a novel, like a myth or any great work of art, can become an initiation that helps us to make a painful rite of passage from one phase of life, one state of mind, to another. A novel, like a myth, teaches us to see the world differently; it shows us how to look into our own hearts and to see our world from a perspective that goes beyond our own self interest. If professional religious leaders cannot instruct us in mythical lore, our artists and creative writers can perhaps step into precisely this priestly role and bring fresh insight to our lost and damaged world.

So maybe in the coming week we can all look into our parallel universes and wonder a little on why we read. Why we enjoy it.

 
 

 
 

well I've just had a little trawl on the internet, looking up a few titles mentioned.

Such as,

The Nuture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do by Judith Harris
(which interestingly enough has it's foreward written by Stephen Pinker, he of How The Mind Works from week one)

On Equilibrium by John Ralston Saul
(who also wrote some books with interesting titles like: Voltiare's Bastards, Doubters Companion & Unconscious Civilisation)

Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralnick
(music biography about Elvis, first of two)

Kindness of Strangers by Kate Adie
(behind the scenes in broadcasting - I hope to give you more info next time around)

Greek Myths

Love Letters by Khalil Gibran
(his published letters to May Ziade, a woman he never met)

Prophet, Madman, Wanderer (from Penguin 60s series) by Khalil Gibran
(photocopies on the way! )

India: A Million Mutinies Now by V.S. Naipaul
(by Nobel Prize Laureate, some people's favourite writer, but also the critics love to attack him too, he can be quite political)

Lexus & the Olive Tree
Thomas Friedman
(a book about globalisation but for me when I read it a probably 5 years ago, I read it more along the lines of the title which focuses on the tension that exists between Lexus societies, those wanting to modernise (like the Japanese & how they manufacture their Lexus so proficiently) & the Olive Tree socities who have their old roots firmly entrenched into the ground & are concerned with preserving their cultural heritage (Egyptians are one of his examples here). Again this guy has his critics & not sure how relevant this book is for economists but it does have some points about culture vs commercialisation (Disneyisation) surging ahead.

& last but not least

The Myth of Male Power by Warren Farrell
(this book was NOT mentioned but from the around the table discussions tonight not related to books I thought it would be worth mentioning. I read it probably 10 years ago & would like to read it again now. It would probably be a good book for us all to read. It would provoke a lot of discussion I suspect. I think he calls himself a gender reconciliationer).

 
 

 
 

early Nov 05...kicking along.....

Well folks hope you picked up some good book titles.
I've taken it upon myself to play secretary a bit this time 'round & send out some of the titles that were flying around this week & last week.

Tyrannicide Brief Geoffrey Robertson
(of Hypotheticals fame)

Sweets: The History of Temptation Tim Richardson

Museum of Hoaxes Alex Boese

Collapse Jared Diamond
(also wrote Third Chimpanzee & Guns, Germ & Steel)

Love You to Bits & Pieces Gillian Helfgott
(wife of David Helfgott - whose story was in movie Shine)

Number One Ladies Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith
Sunday Philosophy Club Alexander McCall Smith
(light-hearted sunny kind of novels - series available in library)

How The Mind Works Stephen Pinker
(heavy tome)

The Carpet Wars Christopher Kremmer
(of carpets & politics of Central Asian region)

The Hab Theory Alan Ekhert
(I looked into this further & went off on some journey about mapping through the ages & how it all doesn't add up, to do with a book by Hapgood himself called Map of theAncient Sea Kings who had his students for a number of years study up on a guy called Piri Reis of Ottoman times which in itself was interesting stuff)
Here's the link:
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198001

How Late it Was/How Late James Kelman
(Booker Prize winner)

Beneath the Pyramid Christian Jacq
(set in the reign of Ramses the Great ,written by an Egyptologist)

True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey
( of Oscar & Lucinda & Bliss fame)

The Marsh Birds Eva Sallis
(about a refugee boy)

The Indomitable Miss Pink Julie Marcus
(Olive of Alice)

Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett
(author of evolutionary biology & cognitive science)

Momo Michael Ende
(I missed what the story was with this one)

Edge of the Sacred David Tacey
(sort of political & spiritual treatise from a guy who grew up in Alice)


these are not all, but some of the ones mentioned &/or lovingly brought along.

 

 

Alice Book Group

Would you like to read & discuss some books?
Are you living or visiting Alice Springs, NT, Australia?
We are an informal bunch of people who meet up & talk books. We eat too.
Interested?
If so, just text Kathy on 0411 848 847.