The Wonder Cabinet
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The Wonder Cabinet is a centuries old tradition in Europe and America; a fanciful piece of cabinetry or box containing items that spark the imagination. These could be rare fossils, ancient artifacts, objects from far-away cultures, puzzles, optical illusions, scientific instruments, or machines that inspire and entertain. Our cabinet has a religious/philosophical/spiritual theme. What would you put in your Wonder Cabinet? |
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My big fat pile of library books—about Time in Good Reads Friday, July 24, 2009POSTED BY JILL AT 10:55 PMlink
So, in my little dilettante way, as an appreciator of Science, I picked out a few library books on the subject of Time.
That's because it is plain mystifying to me that time runs in one direction only.
You know, "the past is history, the future is mystery."
We take it for granted, it is all we know.
Time is a river.
Time marches on.
I just want to understand why.
There is actually a good deal of scientific debate about the whys and wherefores of time's arrow. Everything else in the language of physics (other than time and entropy) works equally well backwards and forwards.
So I have to tuck into a book by Stephen Hawking or Brian Greene every now and again. And I think I kind of get the gist of things for a while, but when I try to explain what I think I just read, I realize I just have to start all over.
But I must say this one, How to Build a Time Machine by Paul Davies is really wonderful. Just the ticket for my summer reading marathon.
Part of what I love about it is the design of the book itself. It's slim and unintimidating.
And the title made me want to flip immediately to the end to find out if there was a schematic for such a thing...because I am both a skeptic and a sucker.
The graphics are simple and elegantly designed to convey some hard to picture concepts.
And the font is a lovely sans-serif (no little lines that complicate the typeface you usually see in newspapers and books)
Which makes me happy.
Because reading complicated stuff is easier when the words are easiest to make out...(like the way green highway signs have lovely legible white letters without serifs, so you can read them at 70 mph) Because I have really bad eyesight.
My Big Fat Pile of Library Books—Dandelion Wine in Good Reads Friday, July 17, 2009POSTED BY JILL AT 7:12 PMlink
There it was on the Middle School reading list.
The best summer novel ever of all time.
I hadn't read it since I was a teenager.
I remembered the part about the new tennis shoes
that felt like marshmallows and made you run faster than all get out...faster than antelopes and gazelles.
and able to leap high and wide, with your feet in total springy comfort.
But by the end of summer, they would just be a regular old pair of shoes.
My own father one time made some dandelion wine in the basement.
I do recall gathering flowers for the project. (my dad was big on projects...weaving and knitting and homemade lamps...radio control aircraft...needlepoint, ham radio...all undertaken with the precision and discipline of an engineer and the soul of an artist)
Anyway. The wine was too sweet and odd for my taste. The main ingredient was figs, not dandelions in his recipe.
Here's a recipe for dandelion wine which is heavy on the citrus and relies on a full 6 cups of sugar. I guess it takes a hearty amount of some sort of sugar ro make wine.
It might be good, but I don't think I ever want to try dandelion wine again. It could never taste like an August day. Like a day in the life of Douglas Spaulding in the summer of 1928.
(My brother and I one time made beer milkshakes but that was a different novel and a different author and a different story)
I do love this book.
I love it better now than when I was in high school. I am sure I would have entirely missed the point when I was in 6th grade.
I think I'll read it every summer until I die.
It's all about waking up and finding life and death and youth and old age and danger and comfort.
My big fat pile of library books—Stargirl in Good Reads Tuesday, July 14, 2009POSTED BY JILL AT 12:41 PMlink
Stargirl—
So I'm reading off the Burbank Middle School summer reading list. Most of these books I'd missed since they mostly were written post 1974.
And holey-moley!
What a golden age of kid lit we are living in!
In the hands of any writer other than Jerry Spinelli this story would be predictable and cloying.
But oh.
Oh man, that Jerry Spinelli.
Stargirl has nestled into my heart, I love her so. And I love Leo Borlock, who loves Stargirl, too.
Non conformity.
Kindness.
First love.
I can't tell you how sad it is to read that there is a Stargirl movie in the works. I just don't think this is movie material. I fear they will get it all wrong. Stargirl is the opposite of Hollywood. I was rather hoping for "Stargirl, the non conforming Stage Musical"
I've been recklessly pitching the idea around...
I'd so love for kids to be able to put a popular story onstage, that is a musical, that is neither "Annie" nor "High School Musical."
No offence to Annie or HSM...it's just that we are living in a golden age of literature for young people...and none of it is on stage by kids for kids.
So I'm reading off the Burbank Middle School summer reading list. Most of these books I'd missed since they mostly were written post 1974.
And holey-moley!
What a golden age of kid lit we are living in!
In the hands of any writer other than Jerry Spinelli this story would be predictable and cloying.
But oh.
Oh man, that Jerry Spinelli.
Stargirl has nestled into my heart, I love her so. And I love Leo Borlock, who loves Stargirl, too.
Non conformity.
Kindness.
First love.
I can't tell you how sad it is to read that there is a Stargirl movie in the works. I just don't think this is movie material. I fear they will get it all wrong. Stargirl is the opposite of Hollywood. I was rather hoping for "Stargirl, the non conforming Stage Musical"
I've been recklessly pitching the idea around...
I'd so love for kids to be able to put a popular story onstage, that is a musical, that is neither "Annie" nor "High School Musical."
No offence to Annie or HSM...it's just that we are living in a golden age of literature for young people...and none of it is on stage by kids for kids.
My big fat pile of library books—part 1 in Good Reads Thursday, July 2, 2009POSTED BY JILL AT 7:56 PMlink
So many Big Room kids recommended the Percy Jackson book series that I've raced through 4 out of 5 of 'em. The 5th book is always checked out every time I get to any of the 3 libraries in Burbank. Since it's only recently come out I know there are a lot of kids also pining to check it out, so I'd feel kind of bad grabbing it ahead of any of them. Kristin says she has a copy I can borrow, since they are still working on book 3.
The great thing about these stories by Rick Riordan is the fun that can be had imagining Greek Gods and Goddesses existing in our regular old world. And Mount Olympus hovers above Manhattan. And the entrance to Hades Underworld is in LA. Oh and I have to say they're all a rollicking good adventure.
I never read the Greek myths as a young person...but this series has inspired me to devour the children's versions in the D'Aulaires brilliant classic:
And then because Cyd raved about Robert Graves versions, which are wonderfully footnoted and really the first 20th century scholarly look at the myths.
I had to go here too:
And these by Graves are my favorites.
And these by Graves are my favorites.
I just had never considered a pantheistic worldview. It makes me think of Emily's ideas about Joan of Arc and Kali. I'd never thought beyond the myths as fairy tales. But I find myself reflecting on Hestia—Goddess of the Hearth. She is a profoundly grounded character. She just doesn't get involved in all the chicanery and intrigue, so there are not many stories about her. She even gives up her Olympian Seat to Dionysus in order to tend the home fires. I wonder what goes on in her heart.
I am fond of home hearths.
