this peace...

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

this peace by Robyn Cairns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rob Cairns' this peace poetically highlights features of a journey we all take, either consciously or subconsciously...seeking that elusive, maybe utopian light we like to understand embodies our personal concept of peace...That peace maybe scrambled with grey and crossed wires. It may even be a little scarred with an industrial skyline or rust. But somewhere, if we take the time to notice, there is the zen glide of a pelican uplifting us and trees regenerating us. For me, Rob's journey is fragmented, halting...short poems connect loosely...The Mungo interlude seems stark, as if not quite the indulgence I expected for an ancient dreaming place...But this is Rob's journey...not mine...I borrow what is meaningful to me, and remember classrooms must have daydream windows. (After all, I am a teacher.)

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the earth may spin

through industrial skylines

but seashells

keep the ocean

in my pocket

trees

regenerate me

and

my whole world

lives

inside a drop of rain

as it should

but I wonder

is it time

to visit

Mungo

and dream

old dreams 

awhile

From Snow To Ash...

skinny, wiry-haired boy

window dreaming

of mountain music

yellow trail markers

Mt Baw Baw

Hotham

Benambra

Main Range

Munyang River

Granite Peak

Kosciusko

Perisher Valley

snow grass tussocks

sprinkled with charred leaves

Valentine Hut

With red timber walls

And in a fleeting moment

I am the man

And the child

I'm the dream

And the fulfilment

They call Mt Jagungal the crouching lion

But Jagungal looks worried

The fire is closing in

charred black leaves

twirling down

dotting the snow grass tussocks

like chocolate shards on cupcakes

walking is a workout for the senses

even if it is to 

somewhere

with no name

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

From Snow to Ash: Solitude, soul-searching and survival on Australia's toughest hiking trail by Anthony Sharwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a digital age, when our thoughts pinball around, walking encourages the mind to drift rather than dart. And indeed, this book is a compelling, December 2019 walk on the wild side in many unexpected ways. The physical walk involves the challenges of the Australian Alps Walking Track. But other walks excitedly intersect - a walk with related geographical and historical contexts - 2003 fires and alpine huts + a special connection with Elynn Mitchell, author of Silver Brumby + a brief walk with Wordsworth. The book is a smorgasbord of wonder for the senses, enhanced by richly crafted expression, sprinkled with humour. Who would believe that the town of Guthega's name could easily become the author's word for a range of emotions. For the 2020 pandemic-riddled reader, it even has a final, wry pass at sanitisers and toilet rolls, ironically connected to this great walk. In short, this book offers a refreshing escape from routine. A great experience!

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EVERNOTE? REVIEW (appears with a Google search)

'From Snow to Ash' documents Anthony Sharwood's challenging trek in the Australian Alps. But it offers far more than the wonder of physical survival, combatting the odds of the environment and the whims of Mother Nature. A feast of sidetracks provides subplot entertainment - from a Wordsworth acknowledgment to an Elynn Mitchell perspective (she was a champion skier) to the quirky possibilities of the alpine town of Guthega's name. On the surface, we hear the plea to save the Australian Alps. But the plea is captivatingly garnished with the many windows on Sharwood's multi-faceted personality. A book to indulge the senses and come out refreshed...and maybe a little more knowledgable. 

BOOKTOPIA REVIEW

If you are seeking a personal detailed, 'smile-by-frown', solo physical survival experience, a trek successfully completed as planned, this book is not the answer. But if you seek the novelty of human distraction, detours, a little knowledge, whimsy and humour shaping and enhancing a tough survival experience, then this book ticks the boxes and more. Sharwood's trek in the Australian Alps is as much a learning curve for the human psyche as it is a confronting attempt to become immersed in the wildness of wilderness. Childhood mountain dreams become adult reality and leave room for another attempt at embracing the whole Australian Alp experience. Save and protect the Alps for others to indulge.

The Adventures of a Squirrel...

The Adventures of a Squirrel - supposed to be related by Himself...Anonymous (1807)
(can be read online)



Today, I explored my theories about the real author of this tale (on Twitter posts)...

Interestingly, at the end of the 1807 story in the above link, the storyteller signs as 'R.S.S.' The tale is officially recorded as Anonymous. But could this be Robert Southey (1774-1843) who wrote poetry and prose? RS lived in the Lake District + close friends with Wordsworth.

— Gemma Wiseman (@AuraGem) January 22, 2018

To further the RS theory, RS recorded the children's classic, The Story of the Three Bears, the original Goldilocks story. The story was already known at Southey’s time but it was present only in the oral tradition. He could write talking animal stories. https://t.co/ikuMYccqIk

— Gemma Wiseman (@AuraGem) January 22, 2018

in a desperate moment
I ventured to creep into your pocket
to travel where you travelled

to see your life

and maybe
just maybe

find mine

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
The Adventures of a Squirrel, Supposed to be Related by Himself by Anonymous
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My dear Anne, when I was upon a visit at your good mamma's, I promised to make you a present...
The story begins intimately, as if being shared in a close circle of family connections and neighbours...Perhaps the squirrel's story of cages with bells, temporary owners and mischievous boys entertained the person addressed, but somehow, over time, the narrative becomes overly light and frivolous, even somewhat pretentious. From a 21st century narrative point of view, the story fails to appeal, but, from a social history perspective, the 1807 story is quite interesting. Here are intriguing examples of attitudes and mannerisms in early 19th century, higher class England.

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Some Kind of Freak

Some Kind of Freak - Satya Robyn (22nd December 2017)



in a world of
social norms and
political correctness
I stagger
sometimes getting it right
mostly getting it wrong


my younger days
born of a mother who barely knew me
(too drunk
too tangled in boyfriends)
could have instilled
the freak in me

some say a crisis brings on
the weird
the odd
the voices
however
on that note
I'm keeping it classical and
'No Comment'


the workshop
is outside
where
taxidermy is an art
my art -
even if others squirm -
to me
it is my way of being in contact
with life

I am learning to live with
the me that is
the hermit
the hermit learning to cook
the hermit with a dog
the hermit learning to feel

till the iced Gran springs from the workshop freezer
that is

and then a whole new chapter of weirdness
(in a world of
social norms and
political correctness)
could begin
mightn't it?

it could begin with fish fingers


but for now
what matters most are
my voices
my shape shifters

they know my buttons
to push

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
Some Kind of Freak by Satya Robyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jude Horridge, a taxidermist, is a social misfit thrust into living independently. He takes his taxidermy art, his guilt of appearing to be a murderer and the burden of his voices with him. He learns to cook (with a little help from Google), learns to measure social cues and to cope with text messages. Importantly, he learns to feel loved, even give love, thanks to a dog named Shadow. Jude learns to adapt to the life he has and accepts what he is. Incredibly, it is other social misfits, such as lesbian Beth ('He worried that he might have come to depend on her for a basic level of happiness'), who help Jude. The narrative beautifully spins a web of mesmerising adventure and intrigue. Overall, an incredible, dramatic, psychological insight into the stresses and questions buried deep in those who fly under the conventional social radar.
P.S. For me, there seems to be some interesting allusions to 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' - Mark Haddon (2003). Both novels feature a hermit-like male character struggling to identify logical sense in the world around.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
Know Me 
Imagine seeing through the eyes of an unusual character, Jude Horridge; exploring the mind processes of that character; almost living the life of that character. Imagine surprise twists in that life that belie any trace of convention. Add an atmosphere of tense drama and mystery -('The tail was proving tricky' - opening sentence), and there is a tantalising view of a book that defies narrow labels. A lively writing style carries the reader on an almost 'psychedelic journey' that could be the very real life of some 'unknown someone' in our society who is very different. A psychological masterpiece!

A Little Journey

A Little Journey - Short story by Ray Bradbury
(Project Gutenberg e-book published February 10, 2016
Also available American Literature
- published in the August 1951 edition of the magazine, Galaxy Science Fiction.)



on her way to God's heaven
via Mars


on Mars
her room is like a cell
and
the whole Restorium smells of boiled cabbage and tennis shoes


but she has paid her way
her ticket is money invested

not even her host of the Egyptian eyes
and Comedy Mask smile
can sway her from her quest

not even the rocket
a mere battered copper pot
can sway her from her mission

her rickety life
intends
to reach heaven
to reach her Lord


and revel in


His golden handshake

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A 'little journey' indeed...to Mars, to heavenly space...O the irony, right from the title...Old Mrs Bellowes wants to fly her rickety life 'up, up and away' on the one final, ultimate adventure...And ultimate it is. But ironically - far from a spiritual journey - the adventure is burdened with character masks and material values. Hindu mystics and Indian philosophers could not satisfy Mrs Bellowes' need to reach God. But the crafty Mr Thirkell offered her tangible transport - for a price - to the final golden handshake. This short story is a playful microcosm of worldly ethics and their possible, quirky outcomes.

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My Father As I Recall Him...

The Ladies' Home Journal - February 1892
Source: The Ladies' Home Journal

The Ladies' Home Journal, originally based in New York, is a long-running American women's monthly magazine, now published by the Meredith Corporation.
The Ladies' Home Journal began publication in 1883 as
"The Ladies' Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper".
It dropped the latter part of the name in the late 1880s.
In 2014, the Meredith Corporation announced that the magazine would no longer be a monthly
but a special interest magazine as of July 2014.
Production of these special issues is in the Meredith Corporation headquarters, Iowa.
Mary (Mamie) Dickens (1838-1896) was Dickens' eldest daughter.
She remained with her father until his death in 1870.
Mamie never married.
My Father As I Recall Him was not published as a book until shortly after Mamie's death in 1896.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)



eldest of ten children
a father intent on writing
even being the characters in his novels
mirroring them

could there possibly be
any room for
a child

her father adored Gad's Hill
and animals

he felt intense compassion for
the sick and suffering

his own novels revealed
he had a great knowledge of
and sympathy for
children not his own


but
could there possibly be
any room for
any loving room
for one child


his child

his eldest daughter

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
My Father as I Recall Him by Mamie Dickens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mamie's writings are so sad and almost painful. Knowing other dimensions of her father Charles Dickens' life, there is a feeling that Mamie must be blind, must be in denial that her father could possibly be anything other than a just, a kind and loving man to all - even animals. Perhaps Mamie is recording the father that she would like Dickens to be. After all, Mamie never left her father when he separated from her mother, Catherine. Mamie was there when Dickens died of stroke. It almost seems that her whole life, her reason for being revolved around her father. Little routines - such as Christmas celebrations, being granted time in her father's study while he worked - become idolised moments. Mamie never seems to leave behind the child she was, longing for her father's love. That is so sad, so painful.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
Mamie is the eldest of ten siblings. Her father is the respected writer Charles Dickens. Mamie seems to feel a sense of urgency to expel shady rumours about the life of her father. Nowhere in her writing does she judge her father, nor even mention some of the tensions with his wife Catherine Hogarth whom he publicly slandered. Mamie doesn't mention her father's separation from his wife in 1858 or his intimate relationship with actress Ellen Ternan. Mamie mentions a train crash which seemed to haunt her father's life, but does not mention that Ellen and Ellen's mother were on the train with her father at the time. For Mamie, Charles Dickens is the ideal father, a home man, kind, caring and good. Her book almost seems to be written from a child's perspective, in a child's words - so odd, because Mamie was just over 50 years old when her writing was first published in 'The Ladies Home Journal'. Mamie seems to blindly idolise her father. But then, is she a child desperate for love?

This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise (1920) - debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The title comes from a line in Rupert Brookes' poem called Tiare Tahiti:
Well this side of Paradise!...
There's little comfort in the wise



It was always the becoming

His young ego was a flower and a weight
A smug flower and a leaden weight
But he was no aristocratic stereotype

He was a draft
A sketch in motion

He was willing to taste
The profits of the moneyed class
He was willing to see and hear 
The clubbing clamour of exclusive Princeton
He was willing to feel 
Love - of sorts
(Physical and spiritual)

But he preferred the scents of 
reading
writing poetry
and imaginative walks in the rain

He was a sketch in motion
Awaiting clear shape


It was always the becoming he dreamed of
never the being

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So the young upper class have it all? They have endless money? They have status that leads to opportunities beyond the lower classes? Amory Blaine is born into privileged society in pre World War 1 years, but his growing up years are hardly smooth, bearing little connection to an easy lifestyle. Amory's entrance into Princeton University does not guarantee he fits in with the university characters, club cultures or expectations. His birthplace mansion on Lake Geneva doesn't help him win his love for Rosalind. In fact, the debt attached ensures Rosalind's eyes seek matrimony elsewhere. She cannot contemplate a life in a small apartment on Amory's wage as a writer. This book offers an intriguing dive into the shadows behind aristocratic glamour. All is not what it seems. And Amory is far more than a snobbish, insensitive character with a burgeoning ego. Even Amory himself keeps searching for what he could be and what he could become. We follow his journey through his readings, his poetry and his regular walks in the rain.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
What Paradise? 
Growing up can be be a confusing battle ground. For Amory Blaine, at first, a privileged young traveller, the journey involves attacking and deflecting the onslaught of traditional ideals and values. Money from his parents' exclusive estate in Geneva does not guarantee happiness (because it dwindles by his mother Beatrice's death) and nor do the exclusive clubs at Princeton University. Women play Amory's emotions until the appearance of Rosalind Connage. But Amory's love of Rosalind cannot match with Rosalind's need for the mighty flow of money. She chooses money over love. Monseigneur Darcy, as a father figure, offers Amory spiritual happiness, but that is not enough for Amory. So Amory wins and loses friends, dreams, writes poetry and walks in the rains hoping to find some reality he can call his own. This book is an amazing glimpse of upper class American lifestyles pre, during and maybe after World War I.

Vikings

 
Vikings - A Concise History of the Vikings (2016) - Henry Freeman



long ship heroes
painted by history as blood-thirsty warriors

but
could they really be

long ship 
pioneers

trail blazers

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
 Vikings: A Concise History of the Vikings by Henry Freeman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A thirst to know more about those intrepid Vikings of legendary history led me to this book. Who were the Vikings beyond the brash invaders in long ships? Did they really hold people to ransom in the 8th to 11th centuries A.D.? The Viking altercations with the Frankish emperor Charlemagne are intriguing. That explains one reason for Viking assaults on monasteries. In early days Vikings traded in human beings... people were sold as merchandise...But what people and why? The book leaves the question hanging in space...The Vikings, at one stage, sacked and looted Paris...But then what? Often, this book makes amazing claims about the Vikings, but there is no evidence or source to substantiate the claims...So frustrating...Who would believe that Kiev Vikings became an elite military unit in the Byzantine Empire to protect the Emperor. So what active duty did they perform? Evidence? While this book only claims to be a concise history of the Vikings - intriguing as it may be - perhaps it is a little too concise for the history lover?

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
Behind the Viking mask
A refreshing insight into the Viking impact on northern worlds. Beyond the axe-wielding, horned helmet raiders of popular, staged history, the book suggests that the Vikings are a group of people intent on active progress beyond home borders and maybe even valued sustainability. Unbelievable that the Viking groups from Norway, Denmark and Sweden had little solidarity with each other and were even prone to some in-fighting if the circumstance involved land or bounty. Further, most amazing must be the fact that Vikings became an elite army unit for the Byzantine Empire. This book traces Viking footprints well, but, as enlightening as many facts may be, there is still the one major question that seems to get little attention and exploration. When and why did the Vikings embark on a trail of invasion, plunder and settlement? What was the first spark?

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness (1899) - Joseph Conrad


Steaming blindly into the unknown

unknown jungles
unknown humanity
unknown heat
unknown pressures

but the greatest unknown
the greatest fear
the greatest horror

the shock

to meet

the unknown self

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When cultural and social conventions slam up against the unknown in a past era of colonial drive and glory, some strange impressions emerge. Kurtz is the enigmatic adventurer in the heart of Africa who pounds the trail for the British ivory trade, but subconsciously, even unwillingly, finds the darkness in his soul. Marlow, the narrator, seeks the thrill of sailing away from 'sepulchral' London and, by chance, aligns with the intrepid, 'god-like' Kurtz. In the background, steamy African humanity seems to be scooped into a monochromatic pit of savagery, rather distasteful to 21st century norms. For some readers, this may be abhorrent. But times then were the times. This novel has become a mirror of late 19th century trends and attitudes. Accept the existence of those features, and the novel becomes a dark horror of a self-absorbed humanity. Kurtz and Marlow could almost be the slim hope that some see 'the truth'.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
In the Pits of Dark Humanity
Getting to know the raw heartbeat of the soul is not for the faint-hearted. Kurtz, in colonial Africa, is an intrepid adventurer seeking ivory treasures. By chance, he is thrust into a spiralling freefall, a reluctant confrontation with his own inner darkness. Marlow, the narrator, (the Henry Morton Stanley of Dr Livingstone history), seeks the elusive, god-like? enigma that is Kurtz. The Kurtz he finds is unnervingly like the man Marlow realises is the man he himself is subconsciously becoming. Set in a rich tapestry of steamy jungles, waters and shifty sheds of an Africa on a precipice, this novella introduces 'the horror' of greedy, blind civilisation bent on invasive self-destruction.

Journal of an Expedition...

Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia (1848) 
by Sir Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855) - Surveyor-General of New South Wales
Kindle edition


there must be a river to the Gulf

the Darling tribes may be hostile
unlike tribes near the coastal colony

but there must be a river to the Gulf

convicts strengthen my numbers
and drays carry our loads

there must be a river
there must be a river
there must be a river to the Gulf

acacias and
jasmine
for beauty
melons and
quandangs
for
taste

this tropical realm
swings 
lazily
sharply
from
sultry airs by day
to frosts by night


there is a river
there is a river
falling far and far north west

I verily believed that THIS river would run to Carpentaria, and I called it the Nive...


but he didn't know
couldn't know
the river flows west to Tambo
and then

flows south


NOTE
The Nive River is a tributary of the Warrego River (south-west Queensland)
which in turn, flows into the Darling River at Bourke in western New South Wales..
The Warrego is the northernmost tributary of the Darling.

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

 Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia by Thomas Mitchell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the mid 19th century, Thomas Mitchell set out on his 4th expedition in Australia. He wanted to find a river that flowed from the inland to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north; he wanted to find a sound, overland route from Sydney in the south to the Gulf; he wanted a closer connection with shipping and Singapore. Mitchell recorded his experiences from Parramatta in New South Wales to inland Queensland in a journal. He included meticulous details of plants found and changing weather patterns. This is not an exciting read of adventures. It is more an intimate insight into living out a dream day to day. Mesmerising.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW 
going west...
A journal that details plants, terrain and weather... And shows just how treacherous trying to stay connected with water can be... How valiantly exploring surveyors toiled, with a passion, to open up our knowledge of the unknown. Here too are interesting comments on native people... Their wisdom is highly respected... Convicts find a purpose and a measure of self-worth when they team up with the exploring party. The journal represents an opportunity to see through someone else's eyes and to walk in their shoes.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Kindle edition



there is
no railway to Cloisterham
the city 
of lost souls

Travellers Twopenny
is warped
distorted
like the morals
of the travellers

stonemason Durdles leads
a hazy gyspy life

Helena 
is a huntress with
the presence of a gypsy
her brother is
a hunter
untamed

Mr Tartar is
a roving sailor

Rosebud
knows of 
no relation in the world

but Jasper
haunts
enslaves
her thoughts


there is no railway to Cloisterham

and Mr Sapsea says
there never should be


Linking to;
The Tuesday Platform - Real Toads

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The ancient cathedral town of Cloisterham shivers on the brink of yesterday's darkness with little impulse to move out into the light of a future. Crypts and monuments seem to set this town's people in some Druidic ring of judgment. Edwin Drood's imminent arranged marriage to Rosebud dissolves into his strange disappearance and possible, but never confirmed, murder. Brother and sister Neville and Helen Landless seem to be burdened with some shady tragic pressures from past lives in Ceylon and John Jasper, the choirmaster seems to be burying pain - physical or mental? - in opium time. Even the small characters seem to carry seedy secrets. The Deputy is a wild young boy a drunken Jasper pays to stone him home. And then there are the caricatures - an immovable waiter and a flying waiter??? Dickens' mystery probes unsettling extracts of humanity. The narrative is incomplete, but then, do we ever know all there is to know about the crevasses of humanity? This must be an example of a dark and timeless drama.

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AMAZON REVIEW
Mysteries Within Mysteries
The old cathedral town of Cloisterham stages many covert dramas. Edwin Drood's possible murder may be the drive of Dickens' last narrative, but there are other parallel mysteries. Mr Honeythunder is the guardian of brother and sister, Helena and Neville. They come from Ceylon, but are not Ceylonese? Neville claims that he knows little of his guardian? Mr John Jasper, guardian of Edwin Drood is "a dark man"? And why does Jasper, as choirmaster, need to depend so heavily on opium? Why is Mr Sapsea, the auctioneer, described as a jackass? At times, even the names and brief descriptions of the characters seem to suggest some extra, unexplained elements. Dickens' Drood mystery may not be resolved, but it seems that many other threads in this narrative have not been developed and resolved either. An intriguing piece of writing, cut short by Dickens' death. The incompleteness is all part of the dramatic charm.

Roger Ascham...

flaming torches

grizzly spikes

a dark dungeon

in an old castle

cannibalised

for university

progress

I love to know the inner workings of things

women

aflame

spiked

cannibalised

for personal

hungry

progress

I love to know the inner workings of things

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl by Matthew Reilly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A flash of nightmare from the wells of the 16th century.
Sulphurous dirt leads Roger Ascham on a trail of murderous intrigue. Strangely, Henry VIII selected his daughter Elizabeth's teacher for this mission. But then, Henry claims that Roger has a logic in his madness and sees beyond the normal. Who would believe how so much tense, tantalising drama could be packed into so few pages.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
Almost Gothic 
The future Queen Elizabeth and Henry VIII are characters in this narrative, but the spotlight is on professor Roger Ascham. In detective mode, he seeks Isabella, the love interest of the king. In an old castle dungeon area, Roger crosses paths with spikes, hanging cages and a scythe blade - all courtesy of the Earl of Cumberland's bastard son. A dark, fast dive into a seamy side of 16th century court life.

Lady Chatterley's Lover...

Lady Chatterley's Lover - Kindle edition


mechanical 
methodical
anarchy

living a vague life
at privileged
Wragby

privileged for some

but not 
for Connie


yet 
in the humble world
of the gamekeeper
Connie breathed

differently

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Lady Connie Chatterley is locked in a plain, privileged life that should be led but longs for another life that fires the senses. She makes choices. For awhile, she pleases her disabled, wealthy, upper class, cerebral husband Clifford. But her own needs scream to be satisfied, to run wild in woods and feel the joys of love in a humble hut with her husband's game-keeper. Society frowns, but perhaps society is blind to natural connections.
The narrative is weighted to a love affair, but it stirs questions. Is society losing the value of feelings, of small things in the name of power and upper class attitudes. Is money evil?

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
For Love or Money...
Even though the fleshy scenes are here, somehow that is not what rears up for 21st century readers. There is the insistent reference to the evils of money. Money drives minds and hearts. Money is a curse on the future. All sense of physical pleasures are demoted, beholden to the language and lifestyle generated by money. So says Lady Chatterley's lover in between bed romps and lacing wildflowers in wet hair. The lady feels a prisoner in her privileged lifestyle with Clifford while her lover is not of the moneyed class...he tempts her wild senses...Perhaps Lawrence felt that the industrial worlds of the early 20th century were headed for a loss of physical, natural values. Interesting that Clifford and Connie had given names, like society's labels for each other. The lovers imagined their own names...

The Visionary

Kindle edition on Amazon

A little random Moonshot

a monumental something

ungrounded Trevor

passed on to Sean

someone's colours

someone else's eyes

and ultimately

he became

the eye

in the sky

We are all walking museums, housing our small portion of the epic human story.


MY GOOD READS REVIEW
 The Visionary by James Hawthorne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sean was looking out through someone else's eyes... many times... At first an intriguing perspective, but the tumbling of clipped scenarios became an exhausting parade of peaked drama that begged for some kind of resolution. The idea of psychic energy in action born of Moonshot became tired and frustratingly warped. Interesting fractures of 911 and Taliban tensions, but no special connection. They whipped by. Sanity was lost long before the final page. Sighhhhhhhhh

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
An interesting idea that stumbles...
Sean lives many pieces of life. Those pieces belong to others. At first, this special ability intrigues, but the welter of mind and life shifts that gather at the novel's climax become an irritation. From cheetah to alien? But I was determined to finish the book, just so I could say I finished it.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

Kindle edition on Amazon

he glittered

like a jewel of humanity

polished

youth

unattached

he painted a picture

of beauty

he WAS

the picture

wisdom

toyed with his mind

overturned

his soul

passed him by

a black future

framed

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sparkling epigrammatic wit frames this dark plunge into the abyss of an errant young soul, a soul doomed to be forever young. The narrative could be labelled a thriller - there's murder afoot, a sci-fi journey - a painting becomes the dark journey of the human mind and spirit. And yet there are the settings locked in 19th century fashions and sophistications and devious games. Cast the labels aside, and perhaps there is the raw confessional, the secret, the private mirror, the picture of any age.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW 
A brilliant dive into the darkness of the soul...
A long time ago, I read this tale. I remember the dark tensions, but not the myriad dark signposts along the way to hell. Oscar Wilde has created a thriller streaked with wit and mayhem. A picture is worth a thousand, timeless words. It has the strength to be daring and the fragility to shatter like glass into millions of meaningless pieces.

Broken Lines...

Broken Lines by James Hunt (2014) - Smashwords e-book - Kindle



summer heat

drowning in
the sweat of
panic

broken lines
broken routine
broken senses
broken dreams

summer mirage

parched
common wisdom


she fed them hate
she fed them fear
she fed them the answers
they wanted to hear

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
Broken Lines by James Hunt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you like a book that bulldozes through brisk bursts of action, then this book has possible appeal. No dallying around character sketches, getting to know what makes them tick...Let's just get into and get on with the action...

The summer sun was brutal. Even the asphalt was sweating.

This is a hot world suddenly cut from the power of microchip energy.

All of the cars along the highway were completely still. Wrecks dotted the road for miles.

... and that brings out desperate needs for desperate measures.

Hasty snapshot descriptions of tense atmospheres tend to evolve into tangling mixed metaphors...
e.g. There was only the silent murmur of crowds piling into the streets looking confused in the motionless city...

But wise and brave (seems to be) man Mike has plans to get his family into their jeep and off to their holiday cabin in Ohio...

I was left breathless and hungry for a bit of depth...

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An Unforgivable Secret...

An Unforgivable Secret - Amish Secrets Book 1 - J.E.B.Spredemann - e-book Kindle edition
June 8, 2013


cell phones for business
buggy making business
Samuel's 
buggy making business

and
somehow 
travelling to Ohio 
to marry Carolanne
felt so out of touch

a cell phone could have been a good connection
with Christian
his soul brother
with Hannah
Christian's Hannah
now...

but sometimes
to really value
to really know 
what you need

there is the enigmatic matter
of losing

first


Linking to:
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Open Link Monday

MY GOOD READS REVIEW

An Unforgivable Secret by J.E.B. Spredemann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hannah, Samuel and Christian lived in the folds of the Amish community. But all three reached out and touched other worlds, other traditions, other lives beyond the comforts of Amish routines. Their minds and their hearts were challenged, viciously challenged till each struggled to return to some form of peace in Amish realities. One stepped further.

A book that awakens religious, cultural and moral questions and offers the reader the opportunity to seek personal answers, to affirm personal faith in inner strength.


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The End of the World

The End of the World - Sushma Joshi. 8 short stories. 2008.


the sweetness of
guavas
could not save Nepal
from Civil War
1996-2006

Marxism
Communism
loomed

and in the south
even in Calcutta
the British Empire
was under siege


in a world of black monsoon clouds streaked with silver

in a black world of Maoist blockades
without the silver

somehow
thoughts of world ends
spelt
a special kind of

freedom
from

foreign cheese



NOTE
Cheese is the first short story in this collection.
It spins a surprising tale of cheese from Switzerland.
Gopi dreams of tasting this cheese for the first time.
For many years he dreams, but then, when the moment comes
it felt almost as if it wasn’t him who had eaten it — it had eaten him. p.23

MY GOOD READS REVIEW

  The End of the World by Sushma Joshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The End of the World is the title of one of the 8 short stories about late 20th century Nepal and those who live there. But, as the title of the whole collection of stories, it suggests that each story symbolises some kind of ending in progress - without the relief or satisfaction of closure. The people struggle with new tastes - Cheese, unravelled friendships - Betrayal and the dark side of power - Law and Order. The monsoon season could almost be a welcome distraction. There is little time to get to know any characters. There is just the ragged moment mirroring little sign of fulfilment. The collection could represent a negative view of this world, struck down by shifts in political circumstance. But then there is the enigma that we hope, we keeping hoping that such chaos of personal identity and purpose must tire, must end sometime.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
Cameo Dramas in Nepal 
Imagine when cultures collide in political mayhem, what chaos and confusion follows, the emerging questions of right and wrong and the sticky web of values. These short stories are like an inside glimpse of a remote mountain country smudged by the modern world. The characters are like lost souls wandering some wild future desert, seeking some comforting sign of who they are and what they could be. Who can possibly imagine that cheese from Switzerland could become a prize, a gift, a quest, a nightmare. The first short story leads the way into the lives of disillusioned Nepalese. For those of us who know little of the ways and cultures of the people in this high country, there is simply not enough in each story to appreciate the how's and the why's of these worlds.

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. 1843


Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. 

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern 

He carried his own low temperature always with him

 he iced his office

 and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.




not many knew
that the rich Scrooge
was once a poor child
a lonely child
trapped in a colourless world


joy
friendship
love
were meaningless ghosts

he himself had
no meaning


he could be a ghost


he could not connect with
ghosts


Scrooge the cold child became the cold man
absorbed in wealth
not spending it
not giving it
just
hoarding it


but this year
the ghosts of Christmas
would awaken
what he could have been
what he could be

he faced his own ghosts

they awakened his heart
they found rest
and stirred
his spirit


 the secret of finding joy
is giving joy


 
NOTE
Images adapted from Works of Charles Dickens. Avenel Books. 1978.

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is easy to get caught up in the colour and mystery and intrigue of the Christmas ghosts of A Christmas Carol. But I have read this story - usually at Christmas - a number of times. For once, I found myself pouring over the Christmas past - the 19th century London Scrooge as a lonely child, little more than a ghost himself. Somehow the older, selfish monster that he became was a sad reflection of why - perhaps a sad reflection of why many today still lock out the Christmas spirit. The story is an enchanting carol, celebrating a possible transformation from ghost to spirit.


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A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. 1859.


...Guillotine. 
In front of it, seated in chairs, as in a garden of public diversion, 
are a number of women, 
busily knitting... 
 Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities (p. 233). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.



Therese Defarge
bold leader of the knitting sisterhood
missed the game
today

but let me begin at
the revolutionary
beginning

it was
the best of times to see
the worst of times

Madame's benefactor
(her damaged sister)
paid The Ferryman

and Madame 

was able to watch the game
right from
the preliminary finals




She
was there
to muse
when Doctor Manette
emerged from his tower prison

She
was there
to plot
when spies
spied

She
was there
to grind her own axe
when the doctor's daughter
cried for her Charles Darnay
imprisoned
wrongfully 
for treason

She
was there
to turn
sweetness
sour

She watched many games
and played along with them

but
She missed
the grand final

the grand moment
when Sidney Carton
 idlest and most unpromising of men,
 took the place of Darnay
on the scaffold
and rose to glory

She
missed
her final revenge

the switch of
fate

too busy with
her own




NOTE
Images adapted from Works of Charles Dickens. Avenel Books. 1978.


Linking to:
Imaginary Garden With Real Toads - Open Link Monday

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many years ago, I had to read this book as a school text. I was in Year 7 at the time. I remember being mesmerised with the knitting theme (knitting round a guillotine haunted me) and totally disenchanted with Lucie Manette, the Doctor's daughter. For some reason, I thought of Shakespeare's Desdemona - syrupy and tragic, bearable but not totally warm and likeable. All these years later, and my views haven't changed, but I have noticed other features in this story. Dickens is adept at personifying the weather and the countryside. The personifications subtly add tone and mystery and depth to unfolding dramas. He shaves off a few layers of character and storyline and then moves on. So frustratingly delightful. And he is also adept at seeing beyond external characters. Sidney Carton, the ugly, insipid loser of the whole narrative, becomes a tragic hero of grand proportion. I read the whole book in two sessions over two days. It still enchants.

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