http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace Babblings! Books and trips and thoughts... Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:12:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Drove into Silver City late, so didn’t see much on the way in. Today, drove 15 north to the Gila Wilderness. Past Pinos Altos, the road gets very narrow and no center stripe, though it’s well-maintained. Luckily almost no traffic. Once you get to the turnoff to Lake Robert, ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=76 An intimate tale with a backdrop of sweeping events, Purity of Blood tells the story of an old soldier and the young boy he adopts in the troubled Spain of Velasquez - the 1600s, when Spain was sinking into corruption, royal ineptitude, and the horrors of the Inquisition. Captain ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=71 I wanted to like this book more than I did. It has appealing characters, a feminist storyline and an interesting historical period, but does not quite pull them together without interference from an agenda. Books have accessible personalities and deeper subconscious ones. The deep waters of Daughter of Fortune seem ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=70 Pompeii, by Robert Harris A charming book that tells the last days of Pompeii through the eyes of a Roman engineer who oversees the aqueduct delivering water to resort towns in the shadow of Vesuvius. When earthquakes shake the hills and the stately aqueduct collapses, he works frantically to repair the ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=67 Museums Contemporary and Digital Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Beinart collection of Surrealist Art Museum of Digital Art - some very good. The Museum of Modern Art, NYC San Francisco Museum of Modern Art United States National Gallery of Art - great online exhibits including Cezanne in Provence Art Institute of Chicago’s Art Explorer The ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=68 Note: Some of Alice Sheldon’s stories can be read at http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/archive.html James Tiptree Jr. appeared on the science fiction scene in the late 60s with a string of disturbing and inventive short stories largely centered around sexual and reproductive roles. He seemed to come out of nowhere with a mature writing ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=63 A sequel to “A Girl Named Zippy,” these autobiographical sketches have a rambling, unedited quality that disappointed me in comparison with her other work. I consider Kimmell a writer to watch, mainly for her flawed but beautiful “The Solace of Leaving Early,” one of the most poetic novels I have ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=58 “On Beauty” is the best novel I have read by Zadie Smith to date. I found her first novel, “White Teeth,” too hyperactive, but she has slowed down and sharpened her characters into a likable and interesting mix — the operative word with Smith, who tosses her varied characters ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=57 As an artist, I find it a fascinating question how art first began. Did phylogeny recapitulate ontogeny, with early mankind going through the steps an individual takes toward making sophisticated art - scribbles, crude drawings, then stylized ideograms before fully representational art? Did some prehistoric genius spark a revolution in ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=56 When menacing dark shapes run through a moonlit wood, a kind of ur-storytelling is at work. Wolves! Bones and a blood-streaked shawl begin this tale of revenge and poisonous jealousy, but a cool stream runs through these woods and healing and forgiveness are carried in its slow-moving waters. A mystery ... http://www.janmcdonald.com/jansplace/?p=55