Dante, by R.W.B. Lewis

Dante, by R.W.B Lewis, is about his seeking, finding and defining himself at every turn in this literary history.  He becomes fascinated with the mythic Beatrice, the lyric poet obsessed with life and death, the grand master of dramatic narrative and allegory.

Lewis writes of Dante’s wandering the Tuscan hills to his time as a young soldier fighting for democracy, his love for his civic duties, his literary ambitions, his religion and for Beatrice who he considers.  We learn of the politics Florentine politics the led to the Dante’s banishment from his native city.

Dante as a person shows his dark feelings about those who persecute him where he uses the word Purgatorio to promise vengeance as the ultimate poetic justice and predicts their depravity will be exposed in the end.

Lewis has in a small book made the life of Dante a revealing and easy to read biography.

Quote by Dante

…….and thence we issued forth to see again the stars

The secret of getting things done is to act!

There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery.

Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a  Gift.

The path to paradise begins in hell .

The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.

Cross Fire, by James Patterson

In Cross Fire Alex Cross is going after a sniper who is assassinating corrupt politicians and judges. Leaks to the press by the sniper has divided public opinion with some thinking the sniper is a hero rather than a murderer. The killings are in the jurisdiction of the Washington Metro Police Department (MPD) and the FBI. Max Siegel, an FBI agent, is assigned to this case and a turf battle begins.

Kyle Craig was previously sent to prison through the efforts of Cross and he surfaces planning to kill Alex and his entire family. The book starts out telling us: “It had been months since Kyle Craig had killed a man. Once upon a time, he’d been the type who needed everything yesterday, if not sooner. But no more. If years of hellish solitude in ADX Florence in Colorado had taught him nothing else, it was how to wait for what he wanted.”

Kyle Craig’s is a considered to be very smart, even a mastermind. Now that he is out of prison, he creates a plan to get revenge by getting close to Cross and even his family. He also finds his way into the sniper case that no one sees coming.

The sniper killings and Craig’s return all come at a time when Cross is planning his wedding to Brianna Stone. The storyline is complex and gives us a view of Washington DC and the homeless population who are part of the plot.

This book is #17 in the Alex Cross series.

“Beware the anger of a patient man.” James Patterson

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen →

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Viet Thanh Nguyen starts his book, The Sympathizer, saying: “I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides.”

The novel gives us a important and unfamiliar perspective on the war from the point of view of a conflicted communist sympathizer who is a Captain in the South Vietnam army.

The story begins in 1975 with Saigon in chaos. A general in the South Vietnam army is deciding who will get seats on one of the last planes. His trusted Captain, whose name we never learn, is a double agent and the trusted assistant to the general. They make it to Los Angeles and start their new lives but the Captain is secretly reporting on the group to the leadership of the Viet Cong.

The Captain is the books narrator. He had a Vietnamese mother, and French Catholic priest father and was raised in Vietnam but attended college in the U.S.

The book gives a different focus to this war and the events that followed it.

Quotes

• “If youth was not wasted, how could it be youth?” ...

• “I could live without television, but not without books.” ...

• “We don't succeed or fail because of fortune or luck. ...

• “While it is better to be loved than hated, it is also far better to be hated than ignored.”

The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman

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Joe Leaphorn is a former, now retired, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.  Joes last case went unsolved and the thoughts about it still haunt him. He finds a picture of a rug that seems to be identical to what he felt was a one-of-a-kind rug that had been destroyed by fire in the still unsolved crime he just couldn’t forget. The rug was considered priceless and commemorated a terrible time in the American Indian history. The rug was felt to be cursed. The picture had been brought to Joe’s attention by a man that has now gone missing. It seems like a murderer could still be on the loose.  

Joe’s former colleagues officers Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito just back from their honeymoon or  else Joe would have asked them right off to get involved but instead sets out to learn what he can about who owns the house and rug in the picture. Another officer is sent to check first and he winds up dead seeming to just run off the road on the way back.

Tony Hillerman doesn’t disappoint us with the twists and turns of this story. The Shape Shifter is Hillerman’s eighteenth crime fiction novel in the Joe Leaphorn & Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series, first published in 2006.

Quotes by Tony Hillerman

• “From where we stand the rain seems random. ...

• “Everything is connected. ...

• “IF you are not for yourself, who will be for you? ...

• “Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. ...

• “An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.

The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron

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Julia Camerson says of her book, “The Artist’s Way”, that it is the quasi-spiritual manual for “creative recovery.” 

The book, first published in 1992, explores what creativity is. It suggests two approaches to finding that self. The first is what she refers to as “Morning Pages” which are a stream of consciousness approach to writing where there is no right or wrong way to do it, just three pages of whatever is on your mind. She tells us that this organizes your thoughts and ideas.

The second approach is to take your “inner artist” on a date once a week and do something you enjoy and want to do. The effort is a creative expression.

Camerson said of her approach to teaching that: “My students don’t get lectured to. I think they feel safe. Rather than try and fix themselves, they learn to accept themselves. I think my work makes people autonomous. I feel like people fall in love with themselves.”

Now 70, she lives in a adobe house in Santa Fe, overlooking an acre of scrub and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. A must read for the creative mind.

Quotes

“Most of us are not raised to actively encounter our destiny. ...

“In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. ...

“As you move toward a dream, the dream moves toward you.” ...

“Leap, and the net will appear.”

“In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me.” 



Target, by James Patterson

 First the President, Catherine Grant, dies and the story opens with a procession route from Capitol Hill to the White House that is lined with mourners. Then with Cross and his families at the funeral.

When Senator Elizabeth Walker is shot dead by a sniper every agency is on high alert and soon, we see that the United States Cabinet is also a target. A constitutional crisis is full-blown. Bree Stone, Alex Cross’s wife, is the chief of DC detectives and Dr. Cross is called by the new President to investigate both play a role in finding out what happened.

The plot is twisted and fast paced, and it involves a team of six assassins and James Patterson still holds our interest even after 26 books in this series. Even so, Cross’s impact seems to be less than in prior books in this series.

See the worlds best selling author James Patterson’s web site https://pattersonbooks.worldsecuresystems.com/

See more about James Patterson in BJ’s Favorite Author Section

Quotes From Target

“Even wolves have moments of kindness.” 

“wondered at the human brain’s ability to seize on some terrible personal event and let that event define and control every action for years, decades, even lifetimes.” 

Other James Patterson Quotes

“The funny thing about facing imminent death is that it really snaps everything else into perspective.”

“Max, you're the last of the hybrids who still has...a soul.' ... 'She doesn't have soul,' Gazzy scoffed. 'Have you ever seen her dance?

“Popcorn for breakfast! Why not? It's a grain. It's like, like, grits, but with high self-esteem.” 

What Is Art, by Leo Tolstoy →

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Leo Tolstoy is best known for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He was a novelist and moral philosopher who studied and wrote about good and bad concerning human life.

Tolstoy tells us in his book, “What Is Art”, that “Becoming ever poorer and poorer in subject matter and more and more unintelligible in form, the art of the upper classes in its latest productions has lost all the characteristics of art and has been replaced by imitations of art.” He refers to this as “the perversion of our art.”

He defines art as anything that communicates emotion rather than beauty: "Art begins when a man, to communicate to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by a certain external sign.”

Tolstoy wrote about the art of the future rejecting that is would be just a portion of highly refined art that only might appeal to the very enlightened but instead that it would evolve to art that is chosen from that known to all humanity, not just the upper classes, and would transmit feelings embodying the highest principles. This willingness to divide art into good art with morality being a judgement is a big step for defining art.

These conclusions shocked both his critics and admirers as attacked and rejecting cherished beliefs, institutions and established values, religious images and practices.

See Questions In Art Review Section

Quotes

"A real work of art destroys, in the receiver’s consciousness, the separation between himself and the artist." ...

.Art is not a handicraft; it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

All happy families resemble one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

See the “Art Reviews Section” for more on Art click here

Along Came a Spider, by James Patterson

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Along Came a Spider by James Patterson was published in 1993. It introduces Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist with a PhD in psychology and a Deputy Chief of Detectives, in this first of twenty-eight novels through 2018.

Two kids from well-known and wealthy families were kidnapped from the Washington Day School in Georgetown.  For such an important case the best of the best are needed. Alex Cross, a black detective with a PhD in psychology, and Jezzie Flanagan, a fast-rising young beautiful and white Secret Service agent are brought into the case and their relationship is a story in this story.

The killer is identified but he seems to be suffering from a multiple-personality disorder. Gary Soneji was obsessed by the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby back in 1932 and seems to be insane. The other half of this personality is Gary Murphy who in most ways is just a loser but seems like he is a good father and clearly sane man. Gary could switch from blood-crazed madness to clear-eyed sanity in an instant. He is either the helpless victim of a multiple-personality disorder – or a brilliant, cold-blooded manipulator?

The plot twists and turns. Gary isn’t the only challenge we face in an interesting cast of characters.  

If you have not read any Alex Cross novels or maybe just a few you will find this first story to be a valuable read.

Quotes

“What do you talk about to a murderer, and someone you loved, over a perfect dinner and cocktails? I wanted to know so many things, but I couldn't ask any of the real-questions pounding in my head. Instead, we talked of the coming vacation days, a "plan" for the 
here and now in the islands.” 

“Oh no, it’s tomorrow again.” 

“It’s all right to put the weight of the world on your shoulders sometimes, if you know how to take it off.” 

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon →

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In his book Steal Like An Artist, 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, Austin Kleon tells us that nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path.

The path seems clearer and with sayings like “Write what you like, not what you know”.Austin Kleon’s unique perspective on creativity, as presented in his book, is a refreshing take on the concept, despite his unconventional view on originality steal

Austin Kleon’s unique perspective on creativity, as presented in his book, is a refreshing take on the concept, despite his unconventional view on originality.

This book is a must-read for those trying to find creativity, and his latest book, “Keep Going, 10 Ways to Stay Creative In Good Times and Bad”, offers encouragement on just doing the work of creativity. Austin Kleon's book is a valuable resource for those searching for creativity. His latest work, “Keep Going, 10 Ways to Stay Creative In Good Times and Bad”, provides practical advice on how to engage in the creative process

Quotes

“Don't just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don't want to look like your heroes; you want to look like your heroes.”

“You have to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.”

“Nobody is born with a style or a voice. “

Simple Genius by David Baldacci

Former Secret Service Agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell become partners in solving the suicide of a scientist that happened on the property of Camp Peary, a CIA facility in Virginia.

Before partnering up, Michelle walks into a bar, searches for the biggest, toughest guy she can find, and picks a fight with him. She may even win but instead lets herself be beaten unconscious. Sean rushes to the hospital, but after learning what he can suggest, she voluntarily commits herself to a psychiatric facility where Horatio Barnes, a psychologist and old friend of Sean, treats her.

Sean gets started on the Camp Peary investigation while Horatio begins treatment to find the childhood roots of Michelle’s death wish,

The two mysteries eventually come together with secret codebooks, high-speed chases, and violence.  The plot twists and turns as expected but isn’t as compelling as some of Baldacci’s others.  

Quotes

“There’s a chromosome that goes haywire when you turn thirteen. It commands you to live in filth.”  (ok, the truth is here that Michelle keeps her truck a little filthy)

“People who attempted to end their lives, no matter how amateurishly they might do so at first, often got better at it, with the result that on the third, fourth or sixth try, they ended up on a slab with a coroner poking around their remains.”

How To Read Literature Like A Professor, by Thomas C. Foster

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In Thomas Foster’s book, “How to Read Literature like a Professor,” we are introduced to literary basics, symbols, themes, and contexts to show how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable.

His focus on memory, symbol, and pattern claims that these features separate the professional reader from the rest of the crowd. It tells us the obvious that many books can be enjoyed for their important stories, but there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. Foster suggests that seeing these hidden truths is natural to the professor.

·        Memory. If the story seems familiar, it may be on purpose. It will add meaning if you consider how it is different.

·        Symbols. An excellent example of a symbol could be the scar on Harry Potter’s forehead. Why is it on the forehead? Where else in literature was someone marked this way? What does its shape mean? Interpreting the symbols adds to the story.  

·        Patterns. If an author uses the exact phrases and words in different events, it may signal a connection. When certain characters follow a pattern, it tells us that an explanation needs to be looked for.

When the same ideas appear repeatedly, the concept’s repetition is likely a symbol. Foster tells us that repetition is intertextuality explaining that all texts depend on one another.

Foster’s book asks the broader questions of literature, how and why we react to it, the creative process, and the purpose of reading itself.

I have referred to the book several times over the years.

Quotes

“Education is mostly about institutions and getting tickets stamped; learning is what we do for ourselves. When we're lucky, they go together. If I had to choose, I'd take learning.” 

“Always" and "never" are not words that have much meaning in literary study. For one thing, as soon as something always seems accurate, some wise guy will come along and write something to prove it's not.” 

“We - as readers or writers, tellers or listeners - understand each other, share knowledge of the structures of our myths, comprehend the logic of symbols, largely because we have access to the same swirl of story. We have only to reach out into the air and pluck a piece of it.” 

“Reading...is a full-contact sport; we crash against the wave of words with all our intellectual, imaginative, and emotional resources.

Becoming Michelle Obama, by Michelle Obama →

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Michelle Obama starts her book, “Becoming Michelle Obama,” saying:

“I’m an ordinary person who found herself on an extraordinary journey. In sharing my story, I hope to help create space for other stories and voices to widen the pathway for who belongs and why.”

When Michelle started the Presidential campaign in Iowa, it turned out that how she saw herself became how she began to see the people who had turned out to listen to her. When she stood up to speak to a small group gathered in a home to her hear talk, she said:

“Let me tell you about me. I’m Michelle Obama, raised on the South Side of Chicago, in a little apartment on the top floor of a two-story house that felt much like this one. My dad was a water-pump operator for the city. My mom stayed at home to raise my brother and me.”

Michelle said she liked her own story and became comfortable telling it. She said that she realized that she was telling the people who had come to listen to her, despite the difference in skin color, that they reminded her of her own family.

In talking about her neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Mrs. Obama writes, “Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s a vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.” Maybe this insight is partly why we see her as a meticulous planner. It is reflected in her approach to her studies in high school and at Princeton and her approach to the various professional jobs she held. Being a planner was her method of pushing through potential failure.

 Michelle wrote about her first impressions when she met Barack, telling us that she was fascinated with how different he was and how they were opposites in many ways.  She said she was a planner obsessed with checking the boxes on her to-do list, and he was spontaneous. He must have also seen the differences and the story of their first kiss shows him seeking her approval carefully rather than just sweeping her off her feet.” She said about that event, “he was looking at me curiously, with a trace of a smile. “Can I kiss you?” he asked. And with that, I leaned in, and everything felt clear.”

Mrs. Obama writes about her critics. “I was female, black, and strong, which to certain people, maintaining a certain mindset, translated only to ‘angry.’ It was another bad cliché that’s been forever used to sweep minority women to the perimeter of every room, an unconscious signal not to listen to what we’ve got to say.”

The book surprised me with how much I enjoyed it—a different, must-read book.

Michelle’s Quotes

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something, and that’s the end.” 

“If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”

“Becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”

 “Do we settle for the world or work for it as it should be?” 

“Failure is a feeling long before it’s an actual result.”