We interrupt this post for a brief public service announcement for MS Awareness Week.
Approximately 400,000 Americans have MS, and every week about 200 people are diagnosed. World-wide, MS affects about 2.5 million people. Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not require U.S. physicians to report new cases, and because symptoms can be completely invisible, the numbers can only be estimated.
Join The Movement and make a mark against MS.
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
I turned in my final exam Saturday afternoon and then spent the rest of the day thinking about how I could have answered all the questions better. Sigh. The anxiety has passed, mostly. Now there is just the anxiety of waiting for the final grade. I hate waiting.
I finished reading Free for All Saturday night and will do a proper write up about it tomorrow. I couldn’t bring myself to start a new book or pick up a book in progress so I read Bookforum. It’s been waiting to be read for some time. It’s just as well it waited because if I had found the time to read it during the quarter I would have been freaked out about all the really interesting books that I added to my TBR list because when would I have time to read them? It’s not like I can read them all in my two-week break, but at least I am feeling more relaxed about it. Some of the books that look particularly good are:
- Day by A.L. Kennedy. Why have I yet to read her? This one is about a WWII Royal Air Force turret gunner who is shot down and spends time in a prison camp. After the war, he is hired to play a POW in a movie and the film crew ends up filming at the camp where he was imprisoned. The reviewer says that this book proves that Kennedy is one of the best novelists writing today.
- The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt. An odd sounding book that is not quite historical fiction and not quite science fiction. There is a time machine and Mark Twain makes an appearance. The reviewer describes it as falling “within an increasingly popular genre whose roots dig down through Michael Chabon and E.L. Doctorow all the way, arguably, to Hawthorne: haute nostalgic goofball Americana.”
- My Unwritten Books by George Steiner. I seem to recall someone out there mentioning this one recently but I can’t remember who. Anyway, the book sounds really good.
- I also find myself drawn to a biography on Alfred Kazin by Richard Cook. I have never read Kazin before but he sounds like an interesting fellow.
- I don’t want to be drawn to Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy by Eric Wilson, but I can’t seem to help myself. The reviewer makes it sound well-written and I do think that, at least in America, there is a tendency to over-medicate the depressed. I have no problems with medication for the truly depressed, but it seems that we aren’t even allowed to be a little “blue” anymore. If we aren’t always happy there must be something wrong. Well, so I’ve just done a good job of convincing myself that I should read this book.
There were a few other books I found for the TBR list, but these are the ones that seemed most noteworthy. Someday I hope to have the opportunity to actually read them.
On a side note, now that school is done, I hope to catch up on all the comments everyone has left, as well as everyone’s blogs. Just when I get caught up, school will start again!
Hi Stefanie!
I have just discovered your blog, which I love, and have linked to it on my new blog. I hope you don’t mind. When I am not writing my novel or my poetry I teach at an international school in Prague, Czech Republic, where several of my colleagues are from Minnesota! My husband also spent some time there a few years back, teaching at Jefferson High and attending courses at Thomas University.
Your site is a delight. Many thanks,
Meira
Day is popping up more and more and is getting some great reviews. I’ve also not read Kennedy, but I think Day may be the book that finally rectifies that!
I’m doing a MS walk this month (god help my feet) as it’s one of the annual charity events my volunteer group takes part in, religiously. Go MS awareness!
‘K as for books, isn’t that funny, I picked up my Bookforum yesterday too to have a look at it. I haven’t completed all of them yet, but I the Knut Hamsun’s books sounded reaaaaaally fascinating, esp. since I’d never heard of him before! Those poor, unknown Nobel Prize winners.
Meira, thank you so much and welcome! Minnesotans in Prague, who knew?
Logophile, yes, maybe Day will be the book.
Imani, yay for you and your group! Thank you! And yes, I marked the Knut Hamsun books too. I forgot to mention them. They do look fascinating. Birkerts is a big fan of Hamsun, he’s mentioned him in various other venues before. I think he must be trying to single-handedly create a Knut Hamsun revival
I haven’t settled down with my Book Forum copy yet but am glad there are so many good books to get excited about. Oh, the dangers of the ever-growing TBR pile!
I strongly recommend “Hunger”, the all-time great starving writer novel.
I’m so bad about keeping up with reading BookForum, but it’s lovely to look at. I heard an interview with AL Kennedy about her book Day and added it to my library list–I thought it sounded good, too. I agree with Imani–Knut Hamsun sounds intriguing, too. I had heard of him, but I’ve not yet gotten around to reading his work. This reminds me to at least read the Bookforum article. Enjoy your break and I’m sure you did well on your final!!
As you know, one of my best friends has MS, and I always think of your husband now, too, when we discuss it.
I’m really keen on getting hold of the Steiner book. He writes very well, and the premise is intriguing. I gave my husband Day, which he began but was not in the mood for at that point and so has shelved temporarily. Let me know if it’s good and I can urge him to continue!
And hurray for the end of exams! I’ll bet you did just fine.
Sooo jealous over your spring break! Only 6 more weeks to go for me! I turned in my midterm on Monday and stewed for the rest of the day over how I could have answered the questions better. I’m drawn to Against Happiness as well and completely agree how we aren’t allowed to be blue anymore. I took some time last week and made a long list of books to read in between this semester and summer school.
Glad you finished exams–good luck! And thanks for the PSA–it’s good to be reminded, especially during an “awareness” week.
I’ve been hearing about the Kennedy book also–it’s definitely going on my list. I’m behind on BookForum, and was feeling guilty about it, so thanks for reading it for me! Now I don’t have to!
I thought I would give you a heads up on the Eric G. Wilson book – Against Happiness : In Praise Of Melancholia, having read it last month. It was well written, but I felt that the author didn’t cover enough bases with factual details. The book read more like an opinion piece to me. At approximately 150 pages long, I thought he didn’t give himself enough room to expand on what he wrote. Wilson condemns all Americans for wanting to be consistently happy at the cost of creative genius that can come from sadness. Then he goes on to mention famous authors, artists, and composers throughout history plagued with melancholia. Wilson argues that the daily, constant pain and suffering this condition causes is worth the artistic outcome because of the benifit to the public. He says melancholia and Depression are different in the begiining of the book, but often lumps them together or worse, exchanges one for the other. I feel I can say these things because I am a lifelong melancholic, and I have Severe Depression. Trust me – they are two different things!
I agree with Laura. I’m about 1/2 through the book so far, and while as she said it’s an interesting opinion piece, oftentimes where you would want some factual evidence or at least some deeper contemplation of the issue at hand, he simply employs a bit of ranty (but fun!) rhetorical flourish.
Honestly I’m becoming a bit of a Self-Help Section junkie. I’m not particularly sad (though of course not immune to the feeling), but for some reason learning how a person thinks people ought to go about being happy (and presumably how that author goes about being happy) seems kind of weirdly intimate.
Nice blog you have got, here.
Also – he quotes Emerson early on in the book! It’s a pretty fun quote.
Congrats on finishing your exam! And thank you for the information on MS — I do want to know more about a disease that affects so many people.
I’m curious about the Against Happiness book — what an intriguing title!
Verbivore, I can remember when I was a kid and didn’t even have a TBR pile. I’ve got to make up for lost time
Amateur Reader, thanks for the recommendation. I will move the book up higher on the list!
Danielle, thanks. I’ll bet Kennedy’s was an interesting interview. I would expect Hamsun to be in your TBR pile with your Scandinavian reading of late. He might make a nice break from Hugo if you need one.
Litlove, you are so kind. I think of your friend when I mention MS on the blog. I do hope she is well. I’m glad you said your husband put Day aside because he wasn’t in the mood. I was going to be disappointed if you had said he didn’t like it.
Hang in the Bibliophylia! The rest of your semester will fly by. I only wish I had gotten to take time off from work during my break. Maybe next time.
Gentle Reader, thanks. I didn’t mention all the good books in Bookforum and there are some good essays too so don’t trust everything I said!
Laura, thanks for the heads up. That’s disappointing. I knew the book was short but I had hoped it would be a focused, well thought out argument. I won’t rush out to read it then.
occupiedtangerine, thanks! Self help is a fascinating section. I can understand how you can become a junkie. I flirt with it sometimes. It’s too bad Against Happiness isn’t as good as I had hoped, especially since it starts of with Emerson! Oh well.
Dorothy, thank you!
I’m trying to catch up on blog reading and I don’t even have a good excuse like you do
Enjoy your time off from school and keep us posted on what you read at BookForum. I had to let my subscription lapse as I was always behind on reading it!