Originally published in 1989, after the Beaumont had sat empty and decaying for over two decades already, this edition was released in 2003 and has a closing chapter on the almost miraculous events of the preceding three years: the death of the owner, the sale of the property to the Kings, their refurbishment and restoration, and the reopening of the Beaumont for business in October 2002.
What is never explained is the reasoning for the previous owner's neglect. It's totally glossed over, which is a shame.
Anyway. The rest of the book is a typical local history written with more gusto than skill. If you don't know the area or the characters she discusses, this would be tedious at best. But for me, it was a like a dip of the limbs into the Hot Springs Pool, an invigorating reminder of my roots. Good pictures throughout help in that area; they are historical photos of the San Juans and of Ouray specifically.
I miss home.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Friday, June 25, 2004
Useful Girl, by Marcus Stevens
1565123662
Whew. I haven't stayed up late unable to put down a book for a very long time. About halfway through this book, the pace picks up and suddenly you are in an emotional avalanche, along with the characters.
The plot is made up of up to four strands: the main one follows a 17-year-old whose mother has just died and whose father is emotionally unavailable. The other major strand is about a young Cheyenne girl in the fateful year of 1876. Another strand briefly follows the first girl's father. And another one follows a young Cheyenne man employed by the father.
How these four people impact (or don't impact) one another is the crux of the book. In trying to do the right thing, Erin ends up in every mother's nightmare situation, and somehow comes through it intact and more self-aware. Her great-great-grandfather's journals of the Indian wars help her do this, but she is mostly dependent on herself to find a way to survive what life has dealt her.
It's a sad book, but far from hopeless. In fact, that's why I couldn't put it down: Erin is scared and hopeless for much of the latter part of the book, but the author does a good job in not wallowing in her hopelessness. He seems to be saying that no matter how hopeless life is, something inside of everyone will keep us going. Sometimes in spite of all conscious reasoning to the contrary...
Although it's not inscribed anywhere in the book, the theme of this seems to be Oliver Goldsmith's lines from 1761:
Whew. I haven't stayed up late unable to put down a book for a very long time. About halfway through this book, the pace picks up and suddenly you are in an emotional avalanche, along with the characters.
The plot is made up of up to four strands: the main one follows a 17-year-old whose mother has just died and whose father is emotionally unavailable. The other major strand is about a young Cheyenne girl in the fateful year of 1876. Another strand briefly follows the first girl's father. And another one follows a young Cheyenne man employed by the father.
How these four people impact (or don't impact) one another is the crux of the book. In trying to do the right thing, Erin ends up in every mother's nightmare situation, and somehow comes through it intact and more self-aware. Her great-great-grandfather's journals of the Indian wars help her do this, but she is mostly dependent on herself to find a way to survive what life has dealt her.
It's a sad book, but far from hopeless. In fact, that's why I couldn't put it down: Erin is scared and hopeless for much of the latter part of the book, but the author does a good job in not wallowing in her hopelessness. He seems to be saying that no matter how hopeless life is, something inside of everyone will keep us going. Sometimes in spite of all conscious reasoning to the contrary...
Although it's not inscribed anywhere in the book, the theme of this seems to be Oliver Goldsmith's lines from 1761:
- For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Sarah: A Novel, by Marek Halter (1st in the Canaan Trilogy)
1400052726
I love reading what people imagine into people from the Bible. This one certainly goes down a path I never ever would have expected. In Halter’s mind, Sarai is of wealthy birth of a court family in Ur. She is supposed to marry as soon as she begins menstruating, but out of fear she runs away, meets a foreigner named Abram in the swamps around the city and then takes poison that nearly kills her and makes her barren. So instead of married life, she enters the life of a fertility priestess…?? Yes.
Years later, she catches up with Abram who rescues her from her (pretty comfortable) life in the temple and drags her all over kingdom come in his quest to do what his God has told him to do. Meanwhile, although she obviously can’t get pregnant, she and Abram share a healthy interest in one another, helped along by the fact that she doesn’t age. Her beauty never diminishes or really changes. Until she gives over to her husband’s God ultimately, and as the wrinkles and lines appear, so does her pregnancy.
In spite of all the pretty wacky plot twists—admittedly, the story is pretty much centered on the Bible story after this outlandish beginning—one really gets the sense of Sarai as a person. Not as an icon, not as a moral icon toward which to aspire. As a living woman who makes some pretty awful choices, and is stubborn. Really stubborn. Especially about accepting unconditional love. For her, everything has a price, including—maybe for her, most obviously—love.
I love reading what people imagine into people from the Bible. This one certainly goes down a path I never ever would have expected. In Halter’s mind, Sarai is of wealthy birth of a court family in Ur. She is supposed to marry as soon as she begins menstruating, but out of fear she runs away, meets a foreigner named Abram in the swamps around the city and then takes poison that nearly kills her and makes her barren. So instead of married life, she enters the life of a fertility priestess…?? Yes.
Years later, she catches up with Abram who rescues her from her (pretty comfortable) life in the temple and drags her all over kingdom come in his quest to do what his God has told him to do. Meanwhile, although she obviously can’t get pregnant, she and Abram share a healthy interest in one another, helped along by the fact that she doesn’t age. Her beauty never diminishes or really changes. Until she gives over to her husband’s God ultimately, and as the wrinkles and lines appear, so does her pregnancy.
In spite of all the pretty wacky plot twists—admittedly, the story is pretty much centered on the Bible story after this outlandish beginning—one really gets the sense of Sarai as a person. Not as an icon, not as a moral icon toward which to aspire. As a living woman who makes some pretty awful choices, and is stubborn. Really stubborn. Especially about accepting unconditional love. For her, everything has a price, including—maybe for her, most obviously—love.
Laura’s Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder (comp. William Anderson)
0060278420
This was a nice antidote to the previous book. I picked it up at Old World Wisconsin last week and read it in about an hour (it’s only 80 pages). There are loads and loads of pictures: photographs of houses, people, and documents. Some are the usual standbys, of course, but there are enough new ones to make the book worthwhile if you are a Laura freak. Like me.
Every time I read something about Laura, I think how wonderful it would have been to have met her. Then again, it probably would never live up to my imagination of the event...
This was a nice antidote to the previous book. I picked it up at Old World Wisconsin last week and read it in about an hour (it’s only 80 pages). There are loads and loads of pictures: photographs of houses, people, and documents. Some are the usual standbys, of course, but there are enough new ones to make the book worthwhile if you are a Laura freak. Like me.
Every time I read something about Laura, I think how wonderful it would have been to have met her. Then again, it probably would never live up to my imagination of the event...
Sweet Land Stories, by E.L. Doctorow
1400062047
Well. Five stories. Not uniformly bleak. Well, actually, yes they are. Don't read these to cheer up.
Read them if you want to see a well-constructed story. "A House on the Plains" begins with a mother and son departing Chicago for a house outside the city (sounds like now it would be around Aurora, in the middle of another city, but anyway...). It's only very slowly that you realize that this happy family is not your and my kind of happy family. At least I hope not!
"Jolene: A Life" is grindingly sad. You can see her life unfolding before you on the first page, at age 15. I kept repeating to myself "It has to get better." And it does. But not really; she ends up reliving the same story over and over, with the dawning awareness that this is her fate and her doom.
I normally don't like Depressing-for-Depressing's-Sake. But Doctorow is a crafty writer--in both senses of that word. These are stories populated with folks who will stay in your memory for a long time.
Well. Five stories. Not uniformly bleak. Well, actually, yes they are. Don't read these to cheer up.
Read them if you want to see a well-constructed story. "A House on the Plains" begins with a mother and son departing Chicago for a house outside the city (sounds like now it would be around Aurora, in the middle of another city, but anyway...). It's only very slowly that you realize that this happy family is not your and my kind of happy family. At least I hope not!
"Jolene: A Life" is grindingly sad. You can see her life unfolding before you on the first page, at age 15. I kept repeating to myself "It has to get better." And it does. But not really; she ends up reliving the same story over and over, with the dawning awareness that this is her fate and her doom.
I normally don't like Depressing-for-Depressing's-Sake. But Doctorow is a crafty writer--in both senses of that word. These are stories populated with folks who will stay in your memory for a long time.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
True Confessions (compiled and edited by Jon Winokur)
0525934669
First question: what does Winokur have against Madonna? Or, is it that he has something for her?
This was published in 1992, making the profusion of Madonna quotes unintentionally piquant. The remainder of the book--95% of it, really--is quotes from famous people that, purposefully or not, are very telling. It does help if you recognize the person; who is Daniel Berrigan?? Or Quentin Crisp??
The chapters include titles such as “I Am Born,” “The Secret of My Success,” “Obsessions and Compulsions,” and “My Own Epitaph.”
Here’s a sample I liked, from Aaron Copland:
This must have been a fun book to write/compile. I wish I’d have thought of it... !
First question: what does Winokur have against Madonna? Or, is it that he has something for her?
This was published in 1992, making the profusion of Madonna quotes unintentionally piquant. The remainder of the book--95% of it, really--is quotes from famous people that, purposefully or not, are very telling. It does help if you recognize the person; who is Daniel Berrigan?? Or Quentin Crisp??
The chapters include titles such as “I Am Born,” “The Secret of My Success,” “Obsessions and Compulsions,” and “My Own Epitaph.”
Here’s a sample I liked, from Aaron Copland:
- Composers often tell you that they don’t read criticisms of their works. . . . I am an exception. I admit to a curiosity about the slightest clue as to the meaning of a piece of mine--a meaning, that is, other than the one I know I have put there.”
This must have been a fun book to write/compile. I wish I’d have thought of it... !
The Name of the Game: How Sports Talk Got That Way, by Lafe Locke
1558702342
Lots of trivia about the history of sports, which I came upon just in time to prime me for the Olympics. Unfortunately, it’s very America-centric, and professional sports get the majority of the attention. But for anyone interested in where curling and fencing came from as sports, here’s the book that will quickly fill you in.
However, this is a book in desperate need of an editor. I never can understand how authors can miss the fact that they have covered the same exact info in two separate pages. We are talking about a 160-page book here! If it’s in the hockey chapter, it probably doesn’t need to be in the croquet chapter too!
Probably written on about a 7th-grade reading level. Took me about 3 hours of half-attentive reading to finish this (“Half-Attentive Reading” is code for 11 p.m. falling asleep reading).
Lots of trivia about the history of sports, which I came upon just in time to prime me for the Olympics. Unfortunately, it’s very America-centric, and professional sports get the majority of the attention. But for anyone interested in where curling and fencing came from as sports, here’s the book that will quickly fill you in.
However, this is a book in desperate need of an editor. I never can understand how authors can miss the fact that they have covered the same exact info in two separate pages. We are talking about a 160-page book here! If it’s in the hockey chapter, it probably doesn’t need to be in the croquet chapter too!
Probably written on about a 7th-grade reading level. Took me about 3 hours of half-attentive reading to finish this (“Half-Attentive Reading” is code for 11 p.m. falling asleep reading).
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss
1592400876
All right, very clever. One quibble: If you don’t know where the title came from, you won’t find out in the book.
Having said that, this is a much less dense read than I was expecting. Nothing shocking in it (to me) although I will say that the publisher’s decision not to change the book to fit the American norms was extremely disconcerting. There are just enough rules differences that I actually got annoyed a couple of times! Not with what Truss was saying, just at the fact that I had to reread her words because the punctuation got in the way. Which is exactly the point she’s trying to make, of course.
If you need to brush up on grammar, read this. If you want to know how to use a semi-colon or an em dash, read this. If you like ellipses (like me), you may feel a little abashed (like me).
A fun book.
All right, very clever. One quibble: If you don’t know where the title came from, you won’t find out in the book.
Having said that, this is a much less dense read than I was expecting. Nothing shocking in it (to me) although I will say that the publisher’s decision not to change the book to fit the American norms was extremely disconcerting. There are just enough rules differences that I actually got annoyed a couple of times! Not with what Truss was saying, just at the fact that I had to reread her words because the punctuation got in the way. Which is exactly the point she’s trying to make, of course.
If you need to brush up on grammar, read this. If you want to know how to use a semi-colon or an em dash, read this. If you like ellipses (like me), you may feel a little abashed (like me).
A fun book.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
All My Life For Sale, by John D. Freyer
(1582342512)
Go to allmylifeforsale.com
You don't need to read this book; it's just a rehash of everything he sold, along with updates of each item.
Pretty lame book, but a very cool concept. Wish I could get the rest of my household to buy into something like this!
(Read on my lunch breaks over the past month or so--about 10 minutes at a time)
Go to allmylifeforsale.com
You don't need to read this book; it's just a rehash of everything he sold, along with updates of each item.
Pretty lame book, but a very cool concept. Wish I could get the rest of my household to buy into something like this!
(Read on my lunch breaks over the past month or so--about 10 minutes at a time)
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Eventide, by Kent Haruf
(0375411585)
Have I mentioned I love this author?
I did something with this book that I used to do as a kid, and rarely feel the call to do as an adult: I put it down, consciously, very often so that I wouldn't finish it too soon. I could have gobbled it up in probably 4 hours reading; it's not a difficult read in terms of language or plot. But I s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d it out over 10 days.
This is a sequel to Plainsong. We find Raymond and Harold McPheron preparing to take Victoria off to college in Fort Collins with little Katie. We also meet Betty and Luther, mentally-challenged adults with 2 elementary children they are barely able to care for; DJ Kephart, age 10, who is caring for his elderly and ill grandfather; Mary Hill and her daughters, the man of house in Alaska, apparently permanently; and a host of other folks living in your, er, this small Eastern Colorado town.
The book encompasses all that is life: love, responsibility, horror, choices-that-are-really-no-choices, sadness, many small kindnesses, honor, death, duty, generosity, evil, and surprise. It makes your throat hurt. It makes your eyes water. And that's just the writing The plot is tumbleweeds on the plains, every place and also specifically Holt, Colorado.
Everyone in this book is either someone I know or knew, or someone I've passed outside seedy bars in western towns, or me, sometimes. And yet, people behave the ways they do in this book because they have chosen to be who they are, consciously or not. Mostly not. And that's ok too, because in Holt, we all know that Good is Good and Evil is Evil; even evil knows itself.
Have I mentioned I love this author?
I did something with this book that I used to do as a kid, and rarely feel the call to do as an adult: I put it down, consciously, very often so that I wouldn't finish it too soon. I could have gobbled it up in probably 4 hours reading; it's not a difficult read in terms of language or plot. But I s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d it out over 10 days.
This is a sequel to Plainsong. We find Raymond and Harold McPheron preparing to take Victoria off to college in Fort Collins with little Katie. We also meet Betty and Luther, mentally-challenged adults with 2 elementary children they are barely able to care for; DJ Kephart, age 10, who is caring for his elderly and ill grandfather; Mary Hill and her daughters, the man of house in Alaska, apparently permanently; and a host of other folks living in your, er, this small Eastern Colorado town.
The book encompasses all that is life: love, responsibility, horror, choices-that-are-really-no-choices, sadness, many small kindnesses, honor, death, duty, generosity, evil, and surprise. It makes your throat hurt. It makes your eyes water. And that's just the writing The plot is tumbleweeds on the plains, every place and also specifically Holt, Colorado.
Everyone in this book is either someone I know or knew, or someone I've passed outside seedy bars in western towns, or me, sometimes. And yet, people behave the ways they do in this book because they have chosen to be who they are, consciously or not. Mostly not. And that's ok too, because in Holt, we all know that Good is Good and Evil is Evil; even evil knows itself.
- "Then, as before, against their will and despite their protestations they were examined in the nurse's room. The boy's pants were lowered, the girl's dress was raised, and seeing what she saw this time the nurse said angrily: Oh Jesus Christ, where is Thy mercy, and left to bring the principal into the room, and the principal took one look and went back to his office and called the sheriff's office at the courthouse and then phoned Rose Tyler at Holt County Social Services."
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