{"id":2895,"date":"2023-07-23T19:57:08","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T02:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2895"},"modified":"2023-07-23T20:30:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T03:30:36","slug":"more-news-of-my-world-places-books-civic-duty-and-charlie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2895","title":{"rendered":"MORE NEWS OF MY WORLD: PLACES, BOOKS, CIVIC DUTY, AND CHARLIE"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Question of the day: Books may furnish a room, but can they capture a sense of a place?<\/strong>

I am 4 years new to Seattle and still don’t know what makes it what it is, except for Charlie and the weather, which make it my current favorite place to be. When I was here on sabbatical, 30 years ago, Charlie sent me \u201cget ready books\u201d: Timothy Egan\u2019s “The Good Rain”<\/strong> and a book of Seattle sketches<\/strong>, both of which were perfect and surely a tribute to Charlie’s upbringing. Once here, I found Edith Iglauer\u2019s “Fishing With John”<\/strong> and Eduardo Galeano\u2019s “Memory of Fire Trilogy”<\/strong>, both of which I loved and found in Seattle’s great Elliott Bay bookstore. I have since added David Guterson’s “Snow Falling on Cedars”<\/strong> and Earl Emerson\u2019s mysteries<\/strong>, which are set in or near Seattle and, in Earl Emerson’s books, usually include public library action. Recently, my early breakfast colleague, who has lived here for 60 years, and I both read Maria Semple\u2019s “Where\u2019d You Go, Bernadette”,<\/strong> which was mostly set in Seattle. She hated it, and I loved it, although the Seattle tie didn\u2019t matter to me, and maybe not to her either, which illustrates how much I still don’t have a sense of the essential Seattle.\u00a0 Suggestions welcome.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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CIVIC DUTY ACTION SHOT of broken brick for my Survey of Ballard’s Bumpy Walkways.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

So how to prepare strangers to visit a strange land, as I was and am in Seattle? The NYT<\/strong> asks a knowing author<\/a> to recommend a list of books to \u201cread your way through [named city]\u201d as a kind of prep walk. For example, Paul Theroux \u201cread his way through Boston”. He said of the list he developed that \u201c[W]hat] interests me [i]s not a particular book but a literary intelligence, a Yankee sensibility enshrined in many local books.\u201d\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 I looked for Boston’s links to my summers in Maine, so I found his list wanting, but a good place to start..\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Here is Paul Theroux\u2019s list.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe Last Hurrah,\u201d Edwin O\u2019Connor<\/strong>
\u201cTwo Years Before the Mast,\u201d Richard Henry Dana Jr.<\/strong>
\u201cSnow-Bound,\u201d John Greenleaf Whittier<\/strong>
\u201cThanksgiving Day,\u201d Lydia Maria Child<\/strong>
\u201cLydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life,\u201d Lydia Moland<\/strong>
\u201cPaul Revere\u2019s Ride,\u201d Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/strong>
\u201cJohnny Tremain,\u201d Esther Forbes<\/strong>
\u201cThe Cardinal,\u201d Henry Morton Robinson<\/strong>
\u201cBy Any Means Necessary,\u201d Malcolm X<\/strong>
\u201cThe Friends of Eddie Coyle,\u201d George V. Higgins<\/strong>
\u201cSacred\u201d and \u201cMystic River,\u201d Dennis Lehane<\/strong>
\u201cWalden\u201d and \u201cCape Cod,\u201d Henry David Thoreau<\/strong>
\u201cConcord Hymn,\u201d Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/strong>
\u201cMoby-Dick,\u201d Herman Melville<\/strong>
\u201cMayflower,\u201d Nathaniel Philbrick<\/strong>
\u201cMemory of Cape Cod,\u201d Edna St. Vincent Millay<\/strong>
\u201cTough Guys Don\u2019t Dance,\u201d Norman Mailer<\/strong>
\u201cVanity of Duluoz,\u201d Jack Kerouac<\/strong>


The list is a bit too English Lit syllabus for me, but I had read some, knew about others, and showed the list to some of my reader friends who have either lived in Boston or have had some connection to it. No one had read all \u2013 or even most \u2013 of the books, and everyone had some suggestions to add that would make the list more personally pertinent. And isn’t that the problem! Everybody reads a book differently and everyone experiences an experience differently. Here are their additions.

William Martin’s book “Back Bay”,<\/strong> and I would add his book, “Cape Cod” ,<\/strong> because I often stopped over on my way to Maine to visit a college roommate who lived near Hyannis.
Robert B Parker’s Spenser mystery novels,<\/strong> and one added his Jesse Stone TV shows.<\/strong>
Elyssa East\u2019s “Dogtown”<\/strong>, because its setting, Gloucester, is very close to Boston, and because I love Marsden Hartley, which is why I chose to read the book, and whose paintings are clearly in and\/or of Maine. Then, surprisingly, the book became a true-crime murder mystery with Peter Hodgkins being convicted of murder. Well! Surely, in the grand tradition of New England which connects everybody to everybody else \u2013 if you just go back a ways, Scott Hodgkins, a Mainer and long-suffering friend, will want to know he has another cousin and a murderer in the family, if, as I am assuming, they share the same Hodgkins forebears who settled somewhere Glouster-ish in the 1600\u2019s.
Henry Beston\u2019s “The Outermost House”<\/strong> is on Cape Cod, though Henry Beston lived and farmed n Maine.
Abigail Adams\u2019 Letters, and David McCullough\u2019s biography of John Adams<\/strong> brought history emphasis forward, as wass appropriate if you spent most of K-12 school years in upstate NY.
Nicholas Kilmer\u2019s Fred Taylor mysteries<\/strong>
Cleveland Amory\u2019s “The Proper Bostonians”.<\/strong> Thanks to the Wahpeton Public Library collection from which, my mother\u2019s note made clear that I, at 7 years old, could check out anything I wanted, which I did. I still choose eclectically and, thus, feel well-equipped to take on the world. Thanks, mom.
Robert McCloskey’s “Make Way for Ducklings”. <\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 For more suggestions, click on the NYT<\/strong> article noted above and check the “Comments”.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

………………………………………………………………………………………

And then, recently, two acquaintances, one from Ireland and the other a West Texan, who had never been east of the Mississippi asked, \u201cI’m going to Maine. I’ve never been there. What books should I read?\u201d \u201cARGH! Maine is the place of my heart. Where do I start?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

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CIVIC DUTY ACTION SHOT of thumbing-down mooring wretched excess.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

I\u2019m working on it, but slowly. I\u2019m currently binge reading murder mysteries based on places and people I want to know about, as narrated by someone who probably knows. I just finished Paul Doiron’s Dead Man\u2019s Wake<\/strong>, Mike Bowditch\u2019s latest adventure, set, as always, somewhere in Maine. The series will be on my \u201cMaine List\u201d. I\u2019m about to start Steve Hamilton\u2019s “A Cold Day in Paradise”,<\/strong> set in Michigan\u2019s Upper Peninsula [Thanks, Carole], Alisa Valdes\u2019 “Hollow Beasts”<\/strong>, set in New Mexico, and the first in a new series that sounds promising, Marcie Rendon\u2019s “Murder on the Red River”,<\/strong> set n my home country, as Wahpeton is at the \u201cHead of the Red\u201d [Thanks, Sara], and, yes, I have been remiss, but will catch up soon, with William Kent Kreger\u2019s “Fox Creek”.\u00a0 <\/strong>I can’t not mention my favorite, C.J. Box, and his detective, Game Warden Joe Pickett, whose next Wyoming adventure, “Three Inch Teeth”<\/strong>, is due in February, 2024.\u00a0 I have preordered it for my Kindle, and Charlie has, AGAIN, threatened to dismantle my 1-Click ordering capability, which is very easy to do, and which I am very good at.<\/p>\r\n

Just a little fun: At Poetry Club, Gary\u2019s assigned task was to choose 3 poems from a favorite poet. I added reasons that each poem mattered, too. I chose Wislawa Szymborska,<\/strong> and her poem \u201cVietnam<\/strong>\u201d which influenced the poem I am working on, currently titled \u201cOde to Charlie\u2019s List of Least Favorite Words\u201d<\/strong> and included below,

Ode to Charlie\u2019s List of Least Favorite Words <\/strong>

\u201cI have an idea,\u201d I say, and Charlie says, \u201cOh, no.\u201d <\/strong>
\u201cI could help you with that.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d <\/strong>
\u201cI have a thought.\u201d \u201cAlways a worry.\u201d .<\/strong>
\u201cGuess what?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d<\/strong>

\u201cCharlie?\u201d \u201cWhat now?\u201d <\/strong>
\u201cI\u2019m stuck in the elevator, or<\/strong>
The wheelchair\u2019s joystick is stuck under the table, or <\/strong>
A little coffee spilled on the keyboard, or <\/strong>
The computer is broken, and the screen is totally blank. <\/strong>
I need help.\u201d \u201cHow do you do it?\u201d <\/strong>

\u201cI could tow your golf bag AND be the drinks cart.\u201d \u201cToo few blacktop paths.\u201d <\/strong>
\u201cI could set up in the bed of a utility truck.\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d <\/strong>
\u201cI might need an umbrella.\u201d \u201cYou are a difficult person.\u201d<\/strong>

\u201cDo you want a latte?\u201d \u201cDo you?\u201d <\/strong>
\u201cYes.\u201d \u201cOkay..\u201d [ He wants a latte, too.]<\/strong>
\u201cIsn\u2019t it lucky I want a latte at just the right time?\u201d [Sipping] \u201cMm-m-m.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

………………………………………………..<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

That’s it, but for a goodbye haiku.\u00a0 More coming. Much to report, with bad fingers and sticky keyboard vowels.<\/strong>\u00a0Blame it on the Poetry Club.


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Question of the day: Books may furnish a room, but can they capture a sense of a place? I am 4 years new to Seattle and still don’t know what makes it what it is, except for Charlie and the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2895"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2905,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895\/revisions\/2905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}