« July 2007 | Main | September 2007 »
After last summer when the hurricanes came one after the other and when there were so many of them that they continued to form after the official end of the season and the National Hurricane Service ran out of names and had to call them Hurricane A or Tropical Storm B, we have had an unusually quiet season this year. There have been only five named storms and we are half way through August already.
However, we are now watching Hurricane Dean, which is at the moment lashing Hispaniola (hurricanes always lash.) The NHS is reporting 150 mile per hour winds with even stronger gusts. This makes it a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which goes only to Category 5. So this is a serious storm.
I know all this because I subscribe to the NHS bulletins, which arrive every 4 hours to update us on developments in the world of tropical storms. You can subscribe as well, by going to the NHC website, where you can see charts of the three- and five-day projections of the course of the storm and delve into the history of hurricanes, learn the names of this year's storms, and otherwise do a lot of weatherwatching.
Two summers ago, after having monitored hurricanes for decades, I found myself without a computer from 17 August until late September, thus missing the greatest storm of my lifetime. I had no television either, and looking back I realize I was lucky to be isolated from the scenes of horror in New Orleans, which even two years later are hard to watch.
My Atlantic magazine came today and there's a fine article in there about the English writer, Elizabeth Taylor, a woman destined to be described in her lifetime and forever after as "the other Elizabeth Taylor."
Taylor wrote about 15 novels and a few collections of short stories. The most well-known of her works is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, which was made into an exceptionally good movie starring Joan Plowright.
In the late 1970s Virago began publishing the Virago Modern Classics, important but sometimes overlooked books by women like Radclyffe Hall, Rosamond Lehmann, Antonia White, and Elizabeth Taylor. The books captured the imagination of many women because of the beauty of the covers, which featured reproductions of paintings against a black background. It was one of those Virago editions that first introduced me to Elizabeth Taylor.
The Atlantic article announces that Virago is now republishing six of the novels (alas no longer with the classic covers.) "The late English writer is overdue for the recognition and readers she deserves," says the author, Benjamin Schwarz. I couldn't agree more.
I'm not a Penelope Lively fan, particularly. But I'm head over heels with her latest novel, Consequences. It's a series of heart-warming love stories, the first starting in the 1930s and the last happening just yesterday.
Lively traces the independent women of an English family through the years, showing us how their lives are shaped by the times in which they live. The shape of every life is a consquence of the world of that day and of earlier accidents and decisions.
The story sharpens our awareness of distance, whether spatial or chronological, and emphasizes that we see only what is possible to see from wherever we are. Except that some special people, like the women in these stories, can sometimes see more than what is right before their eyes.
Last December Publisher's Weekly pointed out five books published by Independent presses that they thought had special merit. Of those five, This is Not the Life I Ordered, by Deborah Collins Stephens and Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart made their way to regional or extended national best seller lists, and The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre, we are told, has acquired a cult following. I loved Flower Confidential, so much so that I read it twice.
So when they announced six titles from Indies in this week's issue that they think will make a splash this fall, I figured I should listen up. Here are the titles:
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, by Brock Clarke, is about "a suburban Everyman who accidentally sets fire to Emily dickinson's house." Sounds bizarre, but I requested it from the library. You never know.
The One Minute Assassin, by Troy Cook, is the author's second book after 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers. This time I requested the earlier book from the library. Such a title!
Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine, is a graphic novel. My attempts in the past to read this genre have been less than successful so I think I'll skip it. But I'll be watching the best seller lists at Powell's and Elliot Bay. That's the sort of place where it's going to pop up, if pop it does.
Refresh, Refresh: Stories, by Benjamin Percy, is the second story collection by Percy. The title story of this book is set in rural Oregon. To read or not to read? Can't decide.
Ani DiFranco: Verses, a collection of poems by "the noted singer/songwriter's poetry" is called "a real voice for our generation." Not my generation, folks.
The Pirate's Daughter: A Novel, by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, is being compared to The Kite Runner and The Life of Pi. I am the only person in the northern hemisphere who was unimpressed with either of those books. But I'll give this one a try just for the sake of the title.