In the Fall issue of Slightly Foxed Justine Hardy has a great essay of Michael Ondaatje's memoir, Running in the Family. I discovered Ondaatje along with pretty much every other American when The English Patient blew away the Oscars a few years ago. I liked the movie, but then again I love WW2 movies anyway. I was particularly interested in this group of archeaologists who tried to ignore the war though - who were stuck with this amazing discovery but in the wrong place at the wrong time. I read the book after I saw the movie and I loved it as well (although it took my a little while to adapt to Ondaatje's lyrical language.) I recently read Anil's Ghost and thought it was outstanding as well. I did not know that he had ever written a memoir though and I'm certainly interested in reading it. I also plan to subscribe to Brick magazine, where Ondaatje serves on the Board and from what I've seen is an outstanding lit mag.
And if you haven't heard of Slightly Foxed, read my Bookslut article and then just subscribe. Yes, it is spendy but it is also worth the money. I never fail to be impressed by the essays within it and I always end up buying some books because of it - books I never would have heard of otherwise. We all have our guilty pleasures, well, here's one you can proud of!
Last night I finished reading the GT Labs graphic novel Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards. I am so impressed by how they put this gn together - it really is a great story of the early dinosaur bone collectors and the whole foundation of American paleontology. I mean, did you ever wonder how they figured out what a dinosaur looks like? All they had were bone fragments - so how do we know that they have come up with the right idea? And even then, that's only a skeleton -how did the early artists like Charles R. Knight know what to paint? It's all very interesting on a purely scientific level but when you add all the back door deals and back stabbing and theft of bones and hunting with cowboys and Indians, the story becomes very very compelling. It's kind of a historical adventure novel in the best way - if that makes any sense. I'm really looking forward to interviewing Jim Ottavani and finding out just how he discovered this story in the first place - I've never heard any of this stuff before - and also how he found Charles Knight's autobiography. The combination of the two books is a nifty little package for anyone whose interested in history or dinosaurs or both and I'm looking forward to getting the word out on these books.
We're planning to go trick or treating around 5PM or so - it gets dark very early around here. We still have to put the whole fisherman costume together, but I'm not too worried about that. Toni has an excellent haunted house story in her journal today and as I lived in a haunted house when I was younger, I completely believe that what she saw is true. (The South is a really haunted place!) Gwenda very nicely links to my review of To Charles Fort, With Love, pointing out that it is a great spooky collection and I could not agree more. I also heard from Scarlett Thomas today about my review of her book PopCo, and I wish everyone knew how great this book is. It's so unique and smart and well written that I've been gushing about it for the past month. And since it also involves some WW2 adventures, I have now brought this entry full circle!
Happy Halloween!
