Things I Didn't Know I Loved by Nazim Hikmet Ran

3 Stars

Very lyrical and smooth reading in this small compilation of Hikmet's poetry. His communist affiliation is evident in many pieces, most obviously his prison pieces feature it prominently. Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Thessaloniki what was still the Ottoman Empire, but which is now Greece and not Turkey. You live long enough and everything changes hands. He spoke in his poem entitled Autobiography that he writes of absences, and there is a poignancy to his writing that is palpable. He presents sentiments simply and beautifully.

I Stepped Out of My Thoughts of Death 

I stepped out of my thoughts of death
and put on the June leaves of the boulevards
those of May after all were too young for me
a whole summer is waiting for me
a city summer with its hot stones
and asphalt with its ice-cold pop ice cream
sweaty movie houses thick-voiced actors from the provinces
with its taxis that disappear suddenly on big football days
and with its trees that turn to paper under the lights of the Hermitage garden
and maybe with Mexican songs of Ghana tom-toms
and with the poems that I’m going to read on the balcony
and with your hair cut a little shorter
a city summer is waiting for me
I put on the June leaves of the boulevards
I stepped out of my thoughts of death 

24 May 1962

Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher

4 Stars

"Sometimes I have the impression that A Division devours CID officers like Cronos did his children." 

As a new DCI for the Vice Division, Gereon Rath soon finds that his aspirations have landed him right smack in the middle of a knot of twisted connections and questionable allegiances. Babylon Berlin starts out with Gereon (and us) as the new guy in town. Quickly, things are happening and finding one's balance is soon a rollercoaster ride of pornography, nightclubs, drugs, and dead bodies. 

In Homicide, he had known why he worked for the police. But Vice? Who cared about a bit of pornography every now and then? Self-proclaimed moral apostles perhaps, for they too had found their place in the Republic, but Rath didn't count himself amongst them.

I can see why this was made into a tv series; it has more happening in it than a lot of books get to in three. This is chockfull, well-plotted, and has enough intrigue to highlight just how political police work really is.The Interwar period is one of my favorites and definitely made this more interesting. The details of Berlin from the architecture, cars, new department stores to the more obvious communist and growing nazi elements in the city are so unobtrusively relayed that you feel enveloped as the reader rather than a distant observer. This is rather gritty and I really really liked it.

Stephan Jänicke sat on the rear seat with the type of frozen face only an East Prussian could achieve. There wasn't the slightest trace of emotion in it. Rath knew that the rookie hadn't exchanged a single word with the doorman in the last half hour. Not even the East Westphalians with whom Rath worked with in Cologne could manage that.

It will be interesting to see where the series goes from here. The english translation for the second in the series, The Silent Death, is due this winter and I am eager. Please note that it is British English not American English.

Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

4 Stars

"Oh, never and forever aren't for mortals, love."

Le Guin writes wonderful women and stories that honor them. Lavinia is a whole book written from the perspective of a character that never utters a word in Vergil's epic, The Aeneid. It tells of all the life that happens between "the glorious battles", the farming, the herding, hunting and reading of the auspices, caring for the hearth gods, weaving, songs and observances -- the reasons we war in the first place. 

I think if you have lost a great happiness and try to recall it, you're only asking for sorrow, but if you do not try to dwell on the happiness, sometimes you find it dwelling in your heart and body, silent but sustaining.

Lavinia is presented as an ideal female: a faithful daughter, dedicated wife, and strong mother. The transitions between those phases is beautifully narrated. I especially found the duties depicted, the rituals so natural and comforting. I was wondering how I managed not to have any knowledge of Latium, honestly, I was disappointed in myself, and was relieved to read in the Afterword that there is indeed little to no record of the original Latins. Etruscans, yes and Magna Graecia too, of which I have some understanding. The auspices were rightfully given to an Etruscan character to read, but believably Latinus, Lavinia's father received omens from his forefathers in the sacred places. Overall, it was a delightfully woven tale of life in pre-ancient Rome.

All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers by Larry McMurtry

2 Stars

The door to ordinary places was the door that I had missed.

Good lord, this is a wandering tale of a naive and rather stupid young man, Danny Deck. It's non-stop grasping at straws--straws being women, women that he fucks and loses. Over and over again. I think part of this is very much a time piece, and I get that it's suppose to be this spectacle of characters, but the characters are too much of a spectacle. Yes, everyone is lost and broken--you're not unique, Danny. Anyway, the characters read like stereotypes. 

Danny has one moment of true action, self-motivated direction instead of aimlessness and it made me laugh. Go all in.

"Where's Geoffrey?" he asked.
"I just threw him off the patio," I said.

Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this. I kept hoping that it would have this great reveal moment, but that never happened, for me at least. Maybe I was disillusioned too young, I came out of the crucible, hammered into steel, and wonder at these sorts of stories. Then again, I can see relatives in it. That said, I really like the writing. This was my first McMurtry novel and I think I should have started somewhere else. Perhaps, I'll try Lonesome Dove or Terms of Endearment because the style is good, but I just was not fond of the content. I think I had different expectations from the title.

Scorpio Hates Virgo by Anyta Sunday

2 Stars

Wow, underwhelmed.

Could be me, could be the book--probably more me, but this was blahhh... First, there is no hate. Percy and Cal have this faux rivalry thing going on, for years and way past its expiration date. Second, both guy's communication abilities suck--and not the good kind. If they were ten years younger, I'd be more understanding. Third, they are too old and have too many maturation events in their histories to be this immature (grad school, divorce, family deaths, etc.) It makes them seem like idiots not cute.

I know I'm the big bad ogre for saying I didn't like it because not liking these characters, who are so gosh darn adorable and lovable, is akin to saying, 'please drown these unwanted kittens'.

(\_/)
(O.o)

Sidenote: There were some super weird word choices made, too. One does not schlepp into a shower. There were others and while they weren't constant; they popped up often enough that it was eyebrow exercises.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel

5 Stars

Amazing. Full stop.

I realize that the audience for this is extremely limited, but if you are interested in medieval history, manuscripts, historical importance and the art, then this is a great resource. De Hamel does more than show pretty pictures; he is the eyes and hands turning the pages that we cannot--okay, maybe there's a dozen people in the world that would be allowed to handle these manuscripts, but I'm never going to be one. He tells us things that we can't see from images: texture, application of pigment, the smell, the binding, sewing of the folios, etc. I learned more about manuscript creation from skin to gilding than anywhere else and it was all explained while perusing these incredible books. That they still exist fills me with awe.

Provenance (ownership history) obviously plays into the discussions of each of the works. These were the cherished belongings of the highest echelons of European society. War booty plays a role in most pasts, and through this the reader begins to understand the tug-of-war across Europe through the centuries as you follow the manuscripts from one library to the next.

I can't possibly summarize all the works, but I've included the list and some quotes and thoughts.

Gospels of Saint Augustine

The parchment leaves of the manuscript, as we saw earlier, are extremely fine and of tissue thinness, and they pick up the vibration and hummed and fluttered in time with the music. At the moment, it was if the sixth-century manuscript on its cushion had come to life and was taking part in the service. It occurred to me that maybe ancient Christian manuscripts always did that, for their parchment is generally much finer than in later books, and perhaps one for carrying early Gospel Books in processions at all was because this effect is astonishingly powerful and moving. -- about Gospels of Saint Augustine, 7th c. brought to England by Saint Gregory

Codex Amiatinus

Book of Kells - So famous that any comments are superfluous.

Leiden Aratea

Morgan Beatus

The tone discussing it was very fond. De Hamel's affection bled through with his discussion. Never sure why, but it is uniquely syncretic artwork no doubt plays a part as does the symbolism. Perhaps Beatus, the illustrator and scribe becoming one of the first named instead of as a group appealed. Whatever the reason, de Hamel made it seem charming. The shady provenance and high-flying ownership certainly added to the salaciousness of dirty world of black/gray market art trade.

Hugo Pictorus - Stunning

Copenhagen Psalter

The colors are magnificent, rich and exquisite in bejeweled extravagance. Yes, actually gems have/had been glued to the images.

Carmina Burana

Great example of the shift to use of vernacular. It is a great piece of German poem and song compiliation that brings to mind the later Grimm brothers' endeavor.

Jeanne de Navarre Book of Hours

Lovely, but more importantly to me and my curious mind is that de Hamel brings up a very interesting point that Book of Hours as a genre were almost exclusively made for woman. Wealthy women, who while educated, were not given tutelage in Latin; therefore, the books are often vernacular with the Bible verses in Latin, which anyone attending service would have a firm knowledge. When you combine this with the Carmina Burana that was German vernacular you see a trend that women because they were denied formal access were instrumental in knowledge disseminating through the this transition. This is noted in this book as being true in Europe, but it is also true in Asia. The Tale of Genji authored by a Japanese noblewoman and lady-in-waiting was not written in Chinese, but rather hiragana. And this was happening in the eleventh-twelfth century.

It is absolutely fascinating and frankly, I'd love to read a book or dissertation on the language shift driven by women's use and democratization. IF, anyone knows of one PLEASE let me know either in the comments or via PM--Thank you.

Hengwrt Chaucer
Visconti Semideus

This, like the Hengwrt Chaucer and Carmina Burana, is not a religious text. It is more of a princely affairs' trio of works bound together. Think along the lines of Machiavelli's The Prince. It includes a section on warfare that I found enormously entertaining, because war machines and strategies always fascinate me. The vases filled with poisoned vipers as a ship to ship volley is great, see them below.



Spinola Hours

Like all of the others before, this manuscript is exquisite, but the mystery of its genesis is probably the most interesting. It also plays a very special role in de Hamel's career as being the individual to bring a previously lost and at the time unknown work back into the public eye. And it is decadent in its illustrations.

The Emissary by Yōko Tawada

3.5 Stars

This story is either a premonition or the bogeyman; you decide.

A month before, someone had put up a poster on the wall outside the elementary school: NO ONE SPEAKS OF THE WEATHER ANYMORE OR REVOLUTION EITHER. In bold fancy lettering, it was a take on the famous quotation, WHILE PEOPLE SPEAK ONLY OF THE WEATHER I SPEAK OF REVOLUTION -- but the very next day someone took it down.

Disturbing, yet engrossing, Tawada has created this post-apocalyptic tale that is so understated, but drowning in pathos. You feel swallowed by it as you read, frozen and helpless as Mumei and Yoshiro's lives play out.

"Grown-ups can live if children die," Mumei replied in a singsong voice, "but if grown-ups die, children can't live." Yoshiro fell silent. 

This is an excellent time capsule. It was much different than I expected from reading the blurb, but I enjoyed it more than my imagined storyline. It may be short, but it packs a powerful punch.

Children without parents had long since ceased to be called "orphans"; they were now referred to as doku ritsu jido, "independent children". Because the Chinese character doku looks like a dog separated from the pack who survives by attaching itself to a human being and never leaving its side, Yoshiro had never felt comfortable with the phrase.