Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff

512 pp; Chicago Review Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 1556527594

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In this episode in Rosemary Sutcliff's fine Arthurian novel Sword at Sunset, Arthur is lost while walking in the mountains, and must spend the night in an isolated farmhouse. His hostess (here named Ygerna -- like Igraine, or is it Morgana?) sends the servants away and gives Arthur a drugged cup of wine. We then have the following memorable passage, told in the first person by Arthur, in which Ygerna says: "I knew that you would come, one day."

I frowned, and shook my head in a last attempt to clear it. "Are you a witch, then, to know the thing that has not yet come to happen?" And even as I spoke, another thought sprang to my mind. "A witch, or…"

Again she seemed to read my thinking; and she laughed up into my face. "A witch? Are you afraid to wake in the morning on the bare mountain side, and find three lifetimes gone by? Ah, but whatever happens tomorrow, surely tonight is sweet?"

With the speed and liquid grace of a cat, she slip-turned from her kneeling position, and next instant was lying across my thighs, her strange ravaged face turned up to mine and her dark hair flowing over us both. "Are you afraid to hear the music of the Silver Branch? Are you afraid to hear the singing of Rhiannon's Birds that makes men forget?"

I had not noticed the color of her eyes before. They were deeply blue, and veined like the petals of the blue cranesbill flower, the lids faintly stained with purple like the beginning of corruption. "I think you would not need the Birds of Rhiannon to make men forget," I said thickly, and bent towards her.

Never fear, it doesn't get any more explicit than that. But ruinous consequences ensue. The woman is Arthur's half-sister, although he doesn't know it at the time.

Here's an interview with author Rosemary Sutcliff, from the excellent Camelot Project at the University of Rochester. Sadly, she spent most of her life in a wheelchair, but by God, the woman could write.

William Marshall: Trial By Combat

The English knight William Marshall was regent of England under Henry III, as mentioned in  a previous post, The Brussels Hoard. In this true-life account taken from his biography, the young Marshall confronts his accusers.

"In the year 1180 William was in the summit of his career in the young king's court. Valued for his prowess in battle and his sagacity in counsel, he was favored by Prince Henry over all other members of his household. But his eminence aroused the anger of a number of his comrades-in-arms. They circulated the rumor that William was the lover of the young queen, Margaret of France…

"Naturally William wished to put an end to these rumors and clear his name as quickly as possible. His opportunity came in the autumn of 1182....Categorically denying the truth of the rumor that he was Queen Margaret's lover, he offered to prove his innocence in battle. On three successive days he would fight the three strongest of his accusers. If any one of them defeated him, his master could hang him as a traitor.

"When young Henry refused to accept this offer, William proposed that a finger should be cut off his right hand and that he should then be allowed to fight the strongest of his enemies. But Prince Henry had no intention of bringing the matter to trial. As soon as William realized that his master's purpose was to drive him from the court, he demanded a safe conduct to the frontier of the Angevin lands."  
 

From "William Marshall: Knight-Errant, Baron, and Regent of England" by Sidney Painter, Medieval Academy of America © copyright 1982

The Brussels Hoard

The Brussels Hoard of 1908

The Long Cross Coinage of Henry III

by Ron Churchill and Bob Thomas
Baldwin’s and the British Numismatic Society, 2012

Yet another example of hidden mysteries: as explained in this newly published book, workers tearing down an old tavern in Brussels uncovered something bricked up in a vault in the basement. The hoard they found there included 140,000 British coins. Indications are that they were last concealed in 1266 or 1267, so many must date to the reign of Henry III.

Oddly, Coin World states: "Most of the coins are worth only their silver value." Surprising, since they're over 700 years old.

The discovery was made in 1908. Apparently a portion of the coins were melted down for their silver content in the interim.  But these coins are going to become available to the public soon. It's inevitable: I'll buy one.

As an aside: Henry III's regent was William Marshall, who deserves a post of his own in this blog. That will follow soon.


Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers

The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
by George MacDonald Fraser
Barrie and Jenkins, 1971, 384 pages

In his history of the outlaws and border lords of the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, the author of the Flashman books notes that Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson were both descendants of three notable Scottish Border clans:

"Lyndon Johnson's is a face and figure that everyone in Dumfriesshire knows; the lined, leathery Northern head and rangy, rather loose-limbed frame belong to one of the commonest Border types.... Richard Nixon is the perfect example. The blunt, heavy features, the dark complexion, the burly body, and the whole air of dour hardness are as typical of the Anglo-Scottish frontier as the Roman Wall. Take thirty years off his age and you could put him straight into the front row of the Hawick scrum and hope to keep out of his way. It is difficult to think of any face that would fit better under a steel bonnet."

Reivers also have a role to play in George Garret's historical novel The Succession (Doubleday and Company, 1983, 538 pages).

Medieval Shaft Beneath Sofa

Bearing out the truth of a previous post: hidden mysteries abound in England. Here we have a true story from the Daily Telegraph (London). While replacing a floor, a man in Plymouth uncovered a medieval well beneath the sofa in his living room. No wonder the floor was uneven.

 Research shows his property was woodland until 1895, but the well itself dates back to the 16th century.  The Telegraph calls it a "medieval shaft," which is a nice choice of words. After digging down 17 feet, he discovered an old sword.

For display purposes, "he has installed lights in the structure and the well has been covered up by a trapdoor beside his sofa." Extraordinary! Read the full story here, on the Telegraph site. Compared to this, my discovery of the main intake to the furnace is as nothing... nothing.

The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont

St. Martin's Press
320 pages; February 28, 2012

On one level this is a boarding school story and a coming-of-age novel. That’s good marketing. In fact, it’s what attracted me in the first place. But don't be mislead by the cover. This book is packed with deep stuff for adults, with a lot to say about the difficulty of finding “the right sea, the true sea… the best path in life.”

Dermont makes that point by using sailing as a metaphor. The lead character, Jason (as in “the Argonauts”), is a senior at The Bellingham School and loves sailing. The sailing coach, Tripp (as in “odyssey”), teaches him to navigate. The coach’s own sextant is of brass, a finely crafted instrument of precision. Tripp gives Jason a sextant of his own: “It’s just plastic,” he said, “but I figured it would be a good start.”

Dermont is saying we’re all “searching for guiding stars” to help us navigate through life. Some may be better at this than others, and adults can be of tremendous help to children in this regard. But some of the adults in this story are as corrupt, unhappy and lost as the adolescents. They lost their course, or never found it in the first place.

This deeply satisfying book is one of my best reading experiences of the past year. It’s clearly aimed at grown-ups, but young adults (at least, those that are like I used to be) will enjoy it for the plot and the young characters you come to care about deeply. It’s the 12th novel I’ve read this year and much more finely drawn than most of the fiction that crosses my desk. Those who enjoy The Starboard Sea may wish to try Frederick Reiken's Lost Legends of New Jersey (2001) or Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children (2007).

God Speed!

Edmund Leighton (1900)

Some may call this sentimental, kitschy, or worse. But still, there's something about it...

Celtic Coin Hoard

Metal detector hobbyists have discovered a hoard of Celtic coins in the Channel Islands. And it's a big hoard.

Imagine digging a hole in the ground and uncovering 50,000 coins. Oddly, they were fused together in a solid block weighing three-quarters of a ton. Archaeologists needed a crane to lift this tangled mass.

Initial assessments date these coins to around the year 50 BC -- roughly the time of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. If accurate, that would make them over 2,000 years old, as explained in this Coin World article:
Hoard yields thousands of Iron Age coins

Why does this fascinate me so? I suppose it’s because I've always dreamed of uncovering.... hidden mysteries. As to what those might be, I'm quite flexible. It doesn't have to have monetary value. No, the hidden mysteries I'm interested in include the forgotten, the abandoned, or things that are just plain hidden and old. A few examples:

• The Kecksburg Incident
• John Michell
• Infiltration: places you're not supposed to go
• Disused stations on London's Underground
• Secrets of Grand Central Station
• Abandoned mines
• Carney Mine, Unity Township, PA
• Stuff that's gone
• The underground stream

Sadly, hidden mysteries are tough to locate in Las Vegas, even with the most powerful metal detector. Yet this sort of thing happens regularly in England. For example, the Bredon Hill Hoard is described here: Metal detectorist makes find of lifetime with hoard discovery
And the more contemporary Hackney Hoard:U.S. gold coins found buried in garden

The Holy Grail by Arthur Edward Waite

Thirsting for esoteric knowledge, I set forth to read The Holy Grail: History, Legend and Symbolism by Arthur Edward Waite. It's one of the most obtuse books I’ve ever encountered.

On page 18, we have the following sentence: “The literature which enshrines this Mystery, setting forth the circumstances under which it was from time to time discovered and, in fine, its imputed removal, with all involved thereby, is one of such considerable dimensions that it may accurately described as large.” Oh my Gawd! That’s what I call writing.

Undaunted, I drilled down to page 480, where all was revealed. To paraphrase the learned Waite: The Grail itself is the manifestation of God. The quest for the Grail is the search for God, as well as presentation of the Christian life as perceived by a 13th century mind. Galahad is God’s own minister, charged with a mission which is far beyond his personal concern. It says so, right here in "Book XII: The Secret of the Holy Grail."

Ah, now I understand.

My Life

Some notable things that happened in my life this year:

Left my employer of 7 years due to corporate merger. Not as bad as it sounds; it was the outcome I wanted, for reasons I won’t go into here.

Landed a comparable job in my chosen field after only two months of unemployment. As usual, my worst fears (protracted unemployment, forced to take a menial job) did not come to pass.

Moved to Las Vegas. This still feels rather unreal.

Performed well in my first seven months on the job. It’s turned out to be more than I bargained for, but I’ve had some meaningful accomplishments in high-priority areas.

Bought a house and sold a house.

Increased savings.

Began a gambling experiment. Did this under carefully controlled conditions, playing blackjack in Vegas under a self-imposed set of rules designed to avoid financial ruin. Net result: winnings exceeded losses by $28, which is not much different than breaking even.

Spent three days in hospital for investigation of cardiac problem, which apparently is of little or no consequence.

Achieved my 32nd year of marriage.

Overall, despite all my complaints, I have much to be thankful for. I wish all my friends and family great health and much happiness in the year ahead.

Books Read, 2011

It's New Year's Eve, time once again to post my list of books read during 2011.

First, my favorites.

In the fiction category, Danielle Trussoni's Angelology (Kindle version) sent me scrambling to the bookstore in search of The Book of Enoch.

None of this year's non-fiction books made much of an impression on me. But here's one I'm in the midst of now: Janet Reitman's Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion. I've always been curious about how L. Ron Hubbard invented Scientology and got so many people to follow him, not unlike Joseph Smith and Mormonism.

(F = fiction; N = non-fiction; * = Kindle)

January
Wodehouse, P.G.
The Luck of the Bodkins F

Faragher ,John Mack
Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer N

Farrington, Tim
The Monk Downstairs F

February
Michener, James
Tales of the South Pacific F
This was a big disappointment. I rented the DVD of the musical and it was even more disappointing and hopelessly dated.

Card, Orson Scott
The Lost Gate* F

Murray, Paul
Skippy Dies* F

March
Stockett, Kathryn
The Help F
Much better than the movie.

Roslund, Anders and Hellstrom, Borge
Box 21 F*
Grim tale of human trafficking and prostitution in Sweden (or was it Norway?). Bleak and brutal.

April
Berenson, Alex
The Faithful Spy F
Excellent espionage. But the sequel didn't maintain the high standard of this first novel.

Gruen, Sara
Water for Elephants F

Todd, Charles
A Test of Wills
I remember nothing of this book -- not even whether it's fiction or non-fiction.

May
Turow, Scott
Innocent F
By this time, I had moved to Las Vegas and was living alone in a rented apartment. I had basic cable TV only -- no premium channels, and I couldn't get the DVD player to work. It was so hot that I had to stay indoors in the afternoons. I got a lot of reading done over the next three months.

O'Brien, Patrick
Blue at the Mizzen F

June
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix F
for some reason, I found these Harry Potter books soothing during my solitude.

Atkinson, Kate
Started Early, Took My Dog* F
Excellent. I'll buy more by this author.

Morton, Kate
The Distant Hours* F
The tale of the Mud Man.

Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince F

August
Walton, Jo
Among Others* F

Hill, Reginald
The Woodcutter* F

September
Woodrell, Daniel
Winter's Bone F
Must read more of his work. The movie's good, too.

Martin, George R.R.
A Game of Thrones* F
Surprisingly well written. I'll read more of this series.

Ellis, Brett Easton
Lunar Park F
Didn't like it.

Pizzolatto, Nick
Galveston* F
Great first novel with an unorthodox anti-hero.

October
Ackroyd, Peter
Thames, The Biography N

November
Harrison, Jim
The Great Leader* F

Ro, Ronin
Tales to Astonish N

Barclay, Linwood
The Accident* F

Trussoni, Danielle
Angelology* F
One of the best reads of the year.

December
Larson, Eric
In the Garden of Beasts* N

Mason, Bobbie Ann
The Girl in the Blue Beret* F

Hidden Mysteries

Last night I came to grips with a situation that has long troubled me.

There’s an air conditioner vent right next to my favorite chair in the family room. For some time, I’ve been uneasy about the dust that’s caught in the slats. I cannot abide caked-up, crusted-on crap of any description. I find it everywhere – on the toaster oven, the refrigerator shelves, my razor, and even my toothbrush.

I approached this problem with some hesitancy, as it required removal of the vent’s metal covering. What if I couldn’t get it back on? What would my wife say? But this was affecting the very air we breathe. Casting aside doubt and hesitation, I set to work.

Two sheet metal screws held in place the grid covering for the vent. To my surprise, these unscrewed easily, providing access to the filth. With the aid of a powerful vacuum cleaner and Martha Stewart’s All-Purpose Cleaner, I removed a surprising amount of lint and dog hair.

But a closer inspection revealed more blockage down below. Determined to make this right once and for all, I pulled hard on the metal cover. The entire assembly suddenly popped free with a clang and a clatter, revealing the vent as a sizeable hole in the floor.

“What are you doing down there?” my wife called from the bedroom.

“Oh, just tidying up…” I answered. Peering down into the vent, I saw shockingly heavy deposits of lint, dust and hair, both animal and human. Horribly long strings of it floated on the air current from the air conditioner. But they were being sucked downwards, towards the basement. I had uncovered the master intake vent for the air conditioner, and the furnace too!

Sickened and strangely thrilled, I went after it in a near frenzy. I would conquer this disgusting mass of caked-on crap at all costs, I thought, pulling an incredible volume of lint from the hole in the wall. How many years had it gone uncleaned, slowly growing like the creature under the floor in Hellraiser? Years, perhaps decades… obstructing the air flow… straining the equipment down below…shortening the life of our HVAC system. Oh, the horror.

Replacing the vent, I regarded my handiwork with deep satisfaction, my catharsis complete. As I trudged off to bed, I thought that most people would never dare tell this story, let alone write about it at length.

Huge Need for Dealers Exists

Important news: there are great job opportunities for casino dealers right here in my home town. I could be trained and licensed in mere months!
Soon I’d be a full-fledged blackjack dealer -- flipping cards with careless ease, wearing a richly embroidered vest and diamond pinkie ring, raking in big tips from debonair high rollers and rich, beautiful women.

Ah, but wait.

There don’t seem to be any high rollers in this town. I’d have to relocate to Vegas for that.

And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beautiful woman in a casino. Of course, in movies, gorgeous babes often slink up behind gamblers and drape their arms around them. They also do this in shaving cream commercials. But I've never seen either of those things actually happen.

Finally, the working conditions: second-hand smoke… standing up all day… absorbing abuse from drunks and white trash wearing t-shirts and baseball caps backwards… This may not be right for me. Perhaps I'd be better off pursuing my other fantasy of becoming a professional billiards player.

Books Read, 2010

Here's a list of the books I've read in the past year. I'll begin with the most memorable in each genre:

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin audio book, 2010

I'm departing from tradition by including an audio book here. But that's fitting, since I also acquired a Kindle this year. Listening to this unabridged version wasn't so different from reading a hard copy. I'm not a Custer enthusiast, but this was fascinating, especially in its unsparing but balanced assessments of the competency of both the man and his subordinates.

The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory
Simon and Schuster, 672 pages, 2004

Don't make the mistake of regarding this as a romantic novel. Well researched and exceedingly well written, I couldn't put it down. It left me with a yearning to read everything she's published.

I made the same determination after reading the runner-up in the fiction category, John Master's Bhowani Junction. In particular, I want to re-read his Bugles and a Tiger memoir this year, to refresh my memory on his insights on Afghanistan.


And now, here's my complete list for 2010.

(Genre: F = fiction, N = non-fiction)
January
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road, F

Blond, Anthony
The Private Lives of the Roman Emperors, N

Strout, Elizabeth
Olive Kittredge, F

February
Maguire, Gregory
Son of a Witch, F

Hinton, S.E.
The Outsiders, F

March
Masters, John
Bhowani Junction, F

O'Brien, Tim
The Things They Carried, F

O'Connor, Joseph
Star of the Sea, F

June
McCammon, Robert
Boy's Life, F

Forsyth, Frederick
The Dogs of War, F

Manchester, William
Goodbye, Darkness, N

Turow, Scott
Presumed Innocent, F

Morris, James
Pax Brittanica, N
This is the only book I've read this year by a "gender-reassigned woman." Midway through his career, Morris underwent a sex change and henceforth became known, and published, as Jan Morris. Prior to that, as a male he served in the British army in World War II. He was also a newspaper correspondent with a British expedition that scaled Mount Everest.

July
Rankin, Ian
Watchman F

McDonald, John D.
Nightmare in Pink, F
Certain sections seemed oddly familiar. When I was fully halfway through it, I realized I had read it before. The first time around must have been on a long airplane flight when I was half-asleep. Or maybe McDonald's Travis McGee novels are so much alike it's hard to tell them apart, or indeed to remember much about them at all. Still, good entertainment.

Dobyns, Jay
No Angel, N

August
Masters, John
Coromandel!, F

September
Shakespeare, William
The Tempest, F

Spencer, Scott
A Ship Made of Paper, F

Coelho, Paolo
The Alchemist, F

October
Larsson, Steig
The Girl Who Played with Fire, F
I never would have guessed his politics from reading his novels.

Gregory, Phillippa
The Other Queen (audio), F

Philbrick, Nathaniel
The Last Stand, N

November
Grisham, John
Ford County, F

Household, Geoffrey
Rogue Male, F

Gregory, Phillippa
The Other Boleyn Girl, F

Russo, Richard
That Old Cape Magic, F
Not up to the standard of Bridge of Sighs, but worthwhile nevertheless.

Caputo, Philip
Crossers, F
A thoughtful fiction treatment of illegal immigration and border security issues.

I don't want to end this without mentioning Tanith Lee's stories The Roman and The Suicide from The Secret Books of Paradys .
I re-read both this week. To my mind, these are among the strangest, most disturbing and sexiest stories I've ever come across. The Roman's encounters with Lililla are simply impossible to forget. This lead me to her web site, where she reveals her battle with cancer, grimmer than anything she's ever written about because it's all too real. I want to send this talented author my best wishes for relief and full recovery in 2011.

Who Made These Pipes?

I'd really appreciate some assistance in identifying the manufacturer of these pipes. I purchased them in 1985 from a retailer known as The Wee Piper in Miami, Florida. He thought they were Hardies, and in fact the set came with a wooden chanter marked “R.G. Hardie, Glasgow.” However, the combing on the drones and blowstick doesn’t resemble other Hardies.

The combing appears flatter than Hardie sets I've seen. It consists of tight groups of eleven grooves, forming ten raised rings, separated by a pair of grooves that are slightly wider apart. The rings are nickel silver, with one groove at the top and two at the bottom of the ring. Projecting mounts are imitaton ivory. I can't find any identification marks on them, and I’ve inspected the drone cord areas carefully.

Any and all ideas are most welcome. Measurements are detailed after the photos.

All drone reed seats are just under 7/16”.
All stocks, measured at top, are 3/4”.

Bass drone:
• Bottom section pin bore diameter is 5/16”
• Middle section pin bore diameter is 6/16”
• Top section bore (measured at the bottom end) is 11/16”

Tenor drones:
• Bottom section pin bore diameter is 5/16"
• Top section bore (measured at the bottom end) is 9/16”

Hussy

This film starring Helen Mirren hit US theaters in 1981. I remember the trailer. “See Hussy!” the voice-over commanded. Still smitten by Mirren's bewitching performance as the enchantress Morgana in the Arthurian film Excalibur, I was wild to see Hussy. But sadly, it vanished from theaters within a week or so.

I don’t know what made me search for it after all these years, but I was astounded to find it on NetFlix. So I lived out my decades-long fantasy. I actually watched Hussy.

Helen Mirren in "Hussy" (1980)

As you might expect, it didn’t live up to my expectations. In fact, it's a dreadful film. I turned it off after less than an hour. But still, it was Helen Mirren. The young Helen Mirren. in this role, she’s a nightclub hostess and occasional call girl -- at least, that's what the poster for the film says. In one scene she has to entertain a client. He’s a very fat guy. She tells him that if he doesn’t behave, she’s going to charge him by the pound. God knows why she made this film, after O Lucky Man, Excalibur, and all those Shakespearean roles.

Now, having written all this and dredged up old memories, maybe I’ll watch the rest of Hussy after all. Those seeking further indulgence can visit The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society at www.helenmirren.com.

Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight

A feast is underway when The Green Knight appears in King Arthur's hall:

"Nay, King Arthur," cried the knight in a great voice appropriate to his size. " I come here not to feed but rather to find the knight who has the courage to trade blows with me... he must strike me first, so powerfully as he will."

Therefore with great joy Gawaine did leap from his siege, take up the great ax, and with one blow strike off the head of the Green Knight, which went a-rolling the vast length of the great hall of Camelot, struck the far wall, and came rolling back unto the very feet of King Arthur. And the wondrous thing was that this head did roar with laughter throughout its journey to and fro! Then the green body rose, and taking up the green head, placed it upon the green neck, and mounted the green horse.

"Well struck, Sir Gawaine," cried the Green Knight. "And now that I have felt the strength of your arm, I shall test your moral mettle. One year from today, you must meet me at a place of my choosing, there to accept one blow from me, or else be damned as an arrant poltroon!" And guffawing he did prick his horse and gallop out of the castle.

From "Arthur Rex: A Legendary Novel"
by Thomas Berger
Delacourte Press/Seymour Lawrence, © Copyright 1978.

In some versions of the legend, the Green Knight is an ordinary man who is under an enchantment cast by Morgan Le Faye. In Berger's version, the Green Knight turns out to be the Lady of the Lake in disguise. But Gawaine does not discover this until he keeps his appointment with the Green Knight in the Green Chapel, after enjoying the freedoms of Liberty Castle.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

519 pages; Harper; 1995

Counter to what I expected, this is far more than a novelty book. It has well-drawn characters with strong identities, whose thoughts and feelings ring true. As a fantasy novel, it's a surprisingly detailed world of its own. But the author takes it well beyond fantasy. He has some important points to make.

He's telling us that many things in life are not clear-cut. Maguire's Oz is a world where everyone is flawed in some way, and what appears to be wicked may be otherwise.

Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, is not wicked, and she insists that she's not a witch either. She's well-intentioned, but handicapped by her green skin and sharp features, she inadvertently creates her own self-fulfilling prophecies. Glinda (the good witch) enters the story as a shallow rich girl, preoccupied with her appearance and social standing. But in the end, she's a benign sorceress with power beyond either of the so-called wicked witches.

The Wizard articulates these themes in one of the most memorable scenes. Quoting from the Oziad, the hero tale of ancient Oz: "It looks the same... but it is not. It looks as they expect, but it is not."

Maguire makes all these points with clever ties back to the original L. Frank Baum novel -- quite an accomplishment.

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

“…the human kingdom, beneath the floor of the comparatively neat little dwelling that we call our consciousness, goes down into unsuspected Aladdin caves. There not only jewels but also dangerous jinn abide: the inconvenient or resisted psychological powers that we have not thought or dared to integrate into our lives.

Ali Baba by Maxfield Parrish

"These are dangerous because they threaten the fabric of security into which we build ourselves and our family. But they are fiendishly fascinating too. For they carry the keys that open the whole realm of the desired and feared discovery of the self."

from The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

BOOKS READ: 2008

It's a night of bitter cold and snow in western Pennsylvania. It's also New Year's Eve, a fitting time to post my list of books read in 2008.

First, the two most memorable books of the year:

No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith

Fawn M. Brodie, 499 pages, Vintage Books, 1995

A biography of the Mormon leader. The account of his early life is particularly damaging. Just one example: as a young man, Smith was an avid treasure hunter, making use of a "peep stone." Peeping through his magic stone (it had a hole bored in it), the Prophet could detect treasures buried underground. One fine day, he found golden tablets. As for his womanizing .... how did the Mormon church survive this charlatanry?

Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler's Journey

David McCumber, 367 pages, Perennial, 2002

This appears to be a very realistic account of what it's like to be a professional pool player. Interestingly, most of the work is done in shabby venues in run-down parts of town, not at all like the glitzy casino matches I like to watch on TV. My favorite part is a chance encounter with Swedish pool champion Ewa Mataya Laurance. I hope she hasn't lost her TV deal with ESPN.

Now, for my complete list:

[Genre: F = fiction, N = non-fiction]

January

Rankin, Ian - Fleshmarket Alley (F )

Dunsany, Alfred Lord - The Charwoman’s Shadow (F)

February
Dolin, Eric Jay - Leviathan (N): this history of whaling made me feel sorry for the whales.

Rankin, Ian - Knots and Crosses (F)

March

King, Stephen - Blaze (F): why do I keep reading this stuff?

Goddard, Robert - In Pale Battalions (F)

April

Bill O’Reilly - Who’s Looking Out for You? (N)

Traditional - Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight (F): the Simon Armitage translation. For a useful background piece on Gawaine, visit the University of Rochester's Camelot Project.

Furst, Alan - Dark Star (F): well-written account of a man drawn into espionage in World War II. I seem to recall reading this at at Nemacolin during a trip with Nancy and Megan.

May

McDermid, Val - The Grave Tattoo (F): disappointing.

July
Brodie, Fawn M. - No Man Knows My History (N): see above.

Michell, John - Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions (N)

August

Barker, Clive - The Damnation Game (F): here again, I can't remember what it was about.

O'Dell, Tawni - Sister Mine (F): Worth reading for the Western Pennsylvania setting, but it lacks something compared to her first novel, Back Roads. It's about a woman (closely resembling the author) and her sister. It's also about a coal mine. Thus, the title. The author lives in State College, PA. Maybe I'll run into her this weekend; we'll be there for my birthday.

McCumber, David - Playing Off the Rail - A Pool Hustler's Journey (N): see above.

September
(read all three on a cruise to Bermuda)

Rankin, Ian - Hide and Seek (F)

Golden, Christopher - Straight On 'til Morning (F): The first half was one of the best reading experiences of the year, even though a key plot element owes a huge debt to the film The Lost Boys. It takes a marked turn for the worse in the second half, crossing the line into fantasy and near-silliness.

Cain, James M. - Double Indemnity (F): excellent. I'll have to read The Postman Always Rings Twice soon.

November

LeCarre, John - The Mission Song (F)

Malory, Sir Thomas - Le Morte D'Arthur vol. 2 (F): I bought this in a mall in Houston in the mid-1980s after seeing the film Excalibur. It took a few years, but now I've finished both volumes. One of those rare books that motivated me to get out a pencil and mark my favorite passages.

Groff, Lauren - The Monsters of Templeton (F)

Messud, Claire - The Emperor's Children (F): perhaps the best fiction I read this year.

All in all, a pretty good reading year. Here's to health and peace of mind in the new year. Prospero ano nuevo.