Whodunit?

ryan and vico, an unlikely duo

COMMENTS in response to last blog: 'Is the editor of the Emily Dickinson collection, the same Thomas H. Johnson who was born in 1948 in Lynchburg, Va and earned an M.F.A. at Cornell?' does anyone know the answer to this one? from caroline t., canton oh

'Sounds like the occasion at the Green library was , indeed, fun and a gala affair. I hope you enjoyed it immensely. I wish I'd known of it, I would have put it on my calendar and tried to make it.'

The books you described all sounded like great reads, especially Emily Dickinson's poetry collection. The others sounded great, as well. from gordon b. someplace in n.e. ohio

 

BOOKS:

'The Other Woman' (spoiler: there are a number of them) by Hank Phillippi Ryan (another spoiler, hank is a woman).

the book gives the reader an overload of characters , which, if you think about it is more like real life than fiction), one plot twist after the other, built on a road ryan knows well from her personal experience. twists include election, dirty politics, reporter's attraction to always the wrong guy, and more. what is she afraid of? that's not in the book. i assume it will come out in a sequel.

the novel can be purchased for $24.95. it's 413 pp with tom doherty  associates as publishers

 

'The New Science of Giambattista Vico' by Giambattista Vico, translated by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch. 'the new science' was published in 1755, so the language and some of the grammatical structures are a little obscure for today's reader. in fact another reader (tena w. from canton oh) says 'Focusing on Vico is like herding cats.' and i, for one, question many of his conclusions; for example,
' truth is sifted from falsehood in everything that has been preserved for us through  long centuries by those vulgar traditions which, since they have been preserved for so long a time and by entire peoples, must have had a public ground of truth.'

 

 

advice to writers. i'm not a big fan of outlines, but i think this advice from 'writer's digest' puts them in useful perspective: Make an outline. Then be willing to leave it behind. Writing an outline forces me to think through some big questions before I begin. But I follow it the way I travel with my husband sans kids: “Hey, Honey, look at this weird little mountain on the map. Wanna check it out?” And pretty soon the story has taken a turn. Sometimes the side trip changes everything, and I revise my outline. Sometimes it’s a dead end. Then I have my outline to get me back on track.' 

 

happy easter and happy passover to all readers and remember to celebrate all holidays by giving copies of eloquent blood, eloquent corpse, and eloquent tattoo.

Maud Lavin shared Rothko Chapel's photo   Profile Pictures

 

announcements, bosch, and nelly bly

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Six of them.

 

1. GREEN LIBRARY WRITING CHAT BY AUDREY LAVIN ('tis i!) at the green library, tomorrow (that's saturday) 9 march from 2-4 .  Please join us. Come armed with questions and comments about the writing process.

 

2. We would like to invite you to the 2013 Columbus State Writers Conference to be held on Saturday, March 23 at our downtown campus. Our keynote speaker will be the Director of the Wick Poetry Center, David Hassler. Mr. Hassler is a successful poet, playwright, and essayist, and was named Ohio Poet of the Year in 2006

3. Figuratively Speaking \

A workshop in poetry and performance

on Friday, March 29th, 2013, 12:30-1:50 p.m.

at Case Western Reserve University, Clark 309, 11130 Bellflower Rd.

 

4. The winter 2013 issue of The Exclamation Point!, the e-zine for aficionados of National Punctuation Day and Punctuation Playtime, has been posted on-line for your enjoyment:

http://www.punctuationplaytime.com/exclamationpoint/index.html

 

5. On Saturday, April 20 2013, Heritage Presbyterian Church in Amherst, Ohio (corner of Route 2 and 58) is hosting a writer's conference organized by the International Writer's Association for only $10!

6. Breaking Genre: A Writers Conference will take place June 1, 2013 on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.

 

BOOKS:

 

i have so many books stacked around the house: books i've read and mean to write about, books i have yet to read, books i can't remember whether i've read or not, which says more than i can write about the novels in that stack!

 

The Black Ice by Michael Connelly is one of those in the 'i can't remember' pile. i've gone to the internet, like any good researcher, and read past blogs, but can't find a write-up of this specific connelly novel. to play it safe, i'll give the book one or two lines.

most of the readers of this blog are probably familiar with connelly's work. he does not disappoint in this novel. harry bosch is no smooth english detective. he's not cerebral like sherlock holmes or smoothly physical like james bond. he is in connelly's words, 'the kind of man not many people approached unless they had to.' connelly ties up all loose ends so that bosch finds his man and a new drug on the street. well written and entertaining.

the novel is published by vision publishers, is 427 pages, and sells for 7.99. it was published in 1993. i think i like those earlier, fresher harry bosch books better than the more recent tales.

 

The Formula for Murder by Carol McCleary won the 2011 rt seal of excellence. i don't know what that seal designates, but it sure doesn't mean good editing. i've asked it before and i'll ask it again: where have all the editors gone? ms. mccleary has a neat gimmick. she mixes real and fictional characters from the same time period. it's fun to read what oscar wilde, arthur conan doyle, and h.g. wells, who makes a pass at our heroine nelly bly, have to say. it is distracting to read words like 'feng shui' and 'blush' (as in 'rouge) in everyday 19th century conversations. i checked with the o.e.d., so i know ms. mccleary used them correctly. there are words that entered the english language around the time of the novel, but i doubt if they were in common usage.

 

it's silly to make a fuss about such a small thing. the book is enjoyable.  i'm sure you all remember, that nelly bly was an early female pioneer in the world of journalism. her appearance as chief detective takes this novel away from being a typical mad scientist story.

 

the book is 334 pages. it is a forge book , and the price is $24.00, and oh, that naughty h.g. wells.

 

thanks for all of your comments and all of the support you gave to the LITTLE magazine on the blog.

more on kahneman + chris pavone, a whodunit?

BOOKS:

 

without being too off-putting, i want to make my last point in this blog about daniel kahneman's thinking, fast and slow.

 

i have been wondering why i didn't immediately embrace all of kahneman's ideas, even though i often basically agreed with him. i've given some reasons, such as his guiding the conversation too closely between author and reader. but it's more than that. i think i have to get used to the fact that the whole concept of social philosophy has changed since i was an undergraduate at northwestern university. then a representative of contemporary philosophy was john dewey, and i personally went off on a korzybski binge. we philosophy students looked back to emerson and way back to aristotle and plato. we did not study statistics.

 

now we're moving on past kahneman to the relationship of social philosophy and biology, or more precisely, the physiology of risk taking and other social phenomena. this generation of students might not recognize its field in another 25-50 years.

 

forward(?) to the expats, a novel by chris pavone. the blurbs are by john grisham, john connolly, and their ilk. expectations are high. the book is a tangled, fun read. first of all, it is a story about two couples of expats. having been one (two anos escolares in spain as a fulbright professor and more), i read with great interest of the problems of kate, her husband dexter, and their family as they live first in luxembourg, then in paris. but i never had the adventures they have. this is an f.b.i. vs. c.i.a. novel with the bureaus personified by two american couples trailing each other around europe. it is a tale of hidden identities, internet crime, mystery, and enjoyable sight seeing. it also moves back and forth in time and in space, so if this kind of jumping around bothers you, stay away. otherwise i think you'll have a good time with this 326 page first novel published by crown publishers at $26.00. it does take some suspension of disbelief. worth it.

 

ANNOUNcEMENTS:

 

cuyahoga county public library will be holding free workshops for writers this summer. check their web site.

audreylavin.com http://bit.ly/OhAudrey  

whodunits by karin fossum y guillermo martinez

help, readers, i just rec'd an e-mail from aol scolding me for breaking their/my? terms of service with my blog. does anyone out there know what i could have done? has anyone had a similar incident?

on the positive side of recent e-mail are the many, many congratulatory messages i received from readers of the akron beacon journal's review. thank you all.

i'm sorry that i didn't keep the messages to copy in this blog. some were orders for books, always welcome. some asked where the book 'turning leaves' could be purchased. it can be purchased directly from me. it is available on amazon.com and b&n.com. in canton and north canton oh., it can be found at elemental arts, canton flowers, the canton museum of art, tony's hair design, the spa at atrium, and the yoga place. i have been lax in asking other shops to carry the anthology. if any of you have suggestions or would like to carry it at your own businesses, please let me know.

i did keep part of one message from joel,

I was just re-reading your kind note long ago regarding the first half or so of Author In Search Of Six Characters.  .  .and had to express myself because of your warm comments..belated thanks as I relive your generous reaction     Joel

i do try to help other writers as, indeed, other writers continue to help me. none of us do it for the thanks, but it IS nice to be appreciated.

 

i have had a productive week. 'i' might be the wrong pronoun. li hertzi has finished her design for the cover of my new book to be published by anaphora literary press. i really like it. poe's raven is perched on the title looking down at it. that's one big accomplishment.

 

the other is that today i sent a short creative non-fiction piece into two journals in response to their prompts. i hope something comes of it.

 

through some twisted mental processes (not unusual in my case), i re-read two murder mysteries in the past couple of days. over a year ago, geoffrey o'brien, editor in chief of the library of america, listed in the wall st. journal his five favorite international crime fiction novels. two of the five are the oxford murders by guillermo martinez, 2005, and the water's edge by karin fossum, 2007. they are good books, worth reading. of course, i see some things in the second reading that i would not have seen first time around.

 

martinez, who is from argentina, writes 'an intellectual mystery in which mathematical symbols become clues in a sequence of murders' or seemingly murders. it is full of sentences, such as, 'it's the more or less obvious extension of godel's incompleteness theorem: any philosophical system which starts from first principles will necessarily have a limited scope.' and 'we were discussing nicholas of  cusa's  geometrical metaphor,' etc. on second reading, i didn't try to figure out all of these mind-traps, laid for reader and narrator. in fact, i realized that there really are only two main characters in this novel, the narrator and the man who tells him the story he repeats to us, the readers. it is really quite a simple plot cleverly obfusticated by 'wittgenstein's and frankie's conclusion' and 'mandelbrot's paradox,' etc. we have either a wildly unreliable narrator or someone is leading him and us astray. cleverly done and fun to read.

 

the oxford murders was translated by sonia soto and published by macadam/cage. it is 197 pages.

 

karin fossum's the water's edge takes place in a small town in fossum's native norway. it is an inspector sejer mystery and beautifully written. it is completely free of the slight-of-hand that dominates the oxford murders. one would think that the atmosphere of the going-nowhere town and its inhabitants would depress the reader, but this is not true. fossum is too good. and one woman does escape. she is the woman, who with her husband, discovers the first body while out on a sunday walk, the same walk they take every sunday at the same time. there you have it!

 

the water's edge is translated from the norwegian by charlotte barslund. it is published by houghton mifflin and is 227 pages. in addition to both novels being rather short and being translated from other languages, what they have in common is the inclusion of a number of murders that did not have to happen, that were almost accidental, or, in a few cases, weren't even murders. this probably says more about geoffrey o'brien, who put them on the list than anything else.

audreylavin.com    http://bit.ly/flTthc

Posted at 12:52 PM in Books, How To Write, Murder Mysteries, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: audrey lavin, guillermo martinez, karin fossum, the oxford murders, the water's edge, whodunit

July 03, 2011

kudos to g. brown, j. strauss, and walter mosley

 

the following was sent by valentina, one of the writers featured in turning leaves. she found it on the web page for elemental arts. john strauss, the owner of elemental arts is speaking:

'Had a wonderful event yesterday with co-editors Audrey Lavin and Ray Gehani releasing their book, "Turning Leaves", an anthology of prose and poetry. Over 80 books sold and more are available at Elemental Arts. Stop in this week and pick one up!'

 

i've been holding back on talking about our good review from gary brown in the canton repository. i wanted to find it on-line and be able to send readers to the full review. either it hasn't been posted yet or the rep simply doesn't put the whole newspaper on line. that doesn't stop us from being very grateful to gary. he is a firm supporter of the literary arts and his review of turning leaves continues that tradition.

 

the review is headlined 'turning leaves highlights northeast ohio writers,' and reads 'the creative work of more than 30 contributors is included in the new collection turning leaves: an illuminating anthology of prose and poetry.

 

the book, edited by audrey lavin and ray gehani, was released sunday at a meet-the-authors party at elemental arts in canton.'

 

i'll try to get the rest of the review to the writers involved, but want to publicly thank gary for all of his good work.

 

meanwhile, i want to tell you about an unusual novel i read this week.

 

i have never been the great fan of walter mosley's p.i. easy rawlins that president clinton and most of the reading public is. but i saw a list of the best mysteries of 2010, listing among others, the last days of ptolemy grey, a novel by walter mosley.

 

this is one darn good book. i'm not sure if i would classify it as a mystery, although it includes one or two, but if not a mystery, what?

 

it doesn't sound promising. basically it is a tale of dementia told in first person african american dialect. how's that for an off-putting synopsis?

 

i don't know if mosley has read or is familiar with daniel keyes 1958 short story 'flowers for algernon.' he tells a similar story. it doesn't make any difference. when i was first researching e.m. forster's writings for my dissertation, worried sick that someone else had taken my thesis statement, my advisor told me to stop the worrying. 'it doesn't matter if someone else has written on the same subject (no one had), what you write will be different. it will be in your voice.'

 

and mosley's voice is like no other. he tells the story of pensioner, 91-year old ptolemy grey, whose mind and apartment are a jumble. the apartment almost unusable; the mind getting there. his great nephew reggie helps until he is killed in what looks like a random drive-by shooting. at his funeral, ptolemy meets robyn, who becomes his most unlikely more-than-friend or family helper.

 

she finds a doctor with a magic pill. ptolemy trades the potential immediate help of the pill with certain death. wouldn't you?

 

although it seems unlikely that robyn could exist, by the end of the novel you love ptolemy, too. anyway, it's a fairy tale, complete with a pot of gold, a beautiful fairy tale in the same way that 'flowers for algernon' is, giving us all love, hope, and a little understanding.

dear reader--please spread the word regarding the change in url leding to this blog. http://bit.ly/flTthc thanks

Posted at 09:50 AM in Books, Murder Mysteries, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: audrey lavin, gary brown, the last days of ptolemy grey, walter mosley

December 06, 2010

odds and ends about murder mysteries, whodunits, writing, and life

r.h. from somewhere in the wilds of northeastern ohio adds the following to the comment she made a few days ago on this blog: 'You do a great
job, and your blog is wonderful.'  always nice to hear! scroll back to see her original comment.

speaking of 'the wilds', to read my latest story about my life teaching in vladivostok, russia, please look at the december issue of halfway down the stairs. You can find the journal online at http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net
It should be pretty self-evident how to use it. keep scrolling until you come to 'the lady and the taiga.'

the new york times recently carried an interesting article on the use of the computer in the expansion of literary research. 'Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs, the two historians of science at George Mason University who have created the project<see below>, have so far charted how frequently more than two dozen words — among them “God,” “love,” “work,” “science” and “industrial” — appear in British book titles from the French Revolution in 1789 to the beginning of World War I in 1914. To Mr. Cohen, the sharply jagged lines that dance across his graphs can be used to test some of the most deeply entrenched beliefs about the Victorians, like their faith in progress and science: “We can finally and truly test these and other fundamental claims that have been at the heart of Victorian studies for generations.”

for example the use of the word 'science' reaches a peak in 1874. this shows 'the age's growing interest in science, but may also reflect change's in the word's meaning.'

i have an addition to my critique of atkinson's Hemingway Cutthroat: A Mystery (Thomas Dunne Books). at the time of reading it, all of a week ago, i wondered why all of his geographic, political, and other spanish-specific references sounded so familiar. i now i think that much of his research must be based on orwell's homage to catalonia, which i, too, re-read not so long ago. this is meant as a commendation.

i can't believe that i don't have time or space to get to the scotch police (procedural (?) no, detective story? somewhat,) fun book. yes that i'm reading now. next time. for m. c. beaton's Death of a Valentine.

and i understand that the master (no, not henry james, but rather p.d.) has written a book called Talking About Detective Fiction. i'll try to get it. should be an informative read.

if you are looking for good reads to give for christmas, hannakah, birthday, anniversary, etc. presents, remember audrey lavin's Eloquent Blood and Eloquent Corpse: A Murder Mystery. if you'll go to amazon.com and type in either my name or one of the titles, you'll be able to purchase it for delivery in a few days.

audreylavin.com tr.im/whodunit

Posted at 11:32 AM in Books, How To Write, Murder Mysteries, Science, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 22, 2010

end of curious george and the lost city comments plus robert goddard's long time coming

the comments printed below have been culled from the far-reaching ones i've received recently.  again, they range from (usually benign) words on the blog itself to thoughtful pieces on quest  literature.

not all comments are complimentary: in answer to the question, have you read my blog lately?'sure haven't. how wacky!' from t. journal, unknown locale.

and from someone in arizona who hasn't gotten around to it yet, 'My printer sent me 10 pages!! I'm working on it.'

more representative of remarks received is b.m's from ohio: 'i read it at 2 a.m. today! very interesting! enjoyed it! now back to bed!'

an interesting note from our correspondent and critic in honolulu: 'Hiram Bingham III is just one of the fascinating characters in his family.  His grandfather was a member of the original Congregational missionaries to Hawaii.  His grandson was a Marxist charged with being involved in a black Panther shooting in San Quentin prison. He was a fugitive for several years; gave himself up and was acquitted. The last I heard of him was that he was in a store-front law office dedicated to helping the poor.

The book on  this family is called Fathers and Sons, the Bingham Family and the American Mission (American Civilization) by Char Miller.  It is one of my favorite books on Hawaii, such a favorite I cannot find it on my bookshelves.'

before i get to goddard, i'll end the comments on the explorations and curious george blog with bill h. from atherton, ca's summation and suggestions for further reading:

 Yes, indeed, and actually read Lost City of Z – in fact a book called “1491” by Charles Mann, wrote about what the Western Hemisphere was like before the arrival of Columbus and the rest of the Conquista.. When Pizarro conquered Peru in the early 1500’s, he sent an exploration party to the east, and crossed the Andes into the Amazon basin, seeking what was purported to be a City of Gold. There were stories about this that the Indian tribes of the Andes had heard about.   Apparently the expedition came across many wonders – animal life, flora and fauna, but no gold. Most of these guys were lost and there were only a few survivors who made it back to Spain, among them the Leader of the group/ He told of a City of Emeralds, and gold, and governed by very large and strong women. (Hence the word – Amazonian Women – big and strong – so they say), and he also reported that the men did all the work, in the fields, in the home, and the women were the warriors. Of course, no one in Spain believed a word he wrote or said, nor did anyone else in Europe. He made a trip to the Amazon, via the Amazon River, some five years later, only never to be heard from again.  
So, I read 1491 some years ago, which prompted me to read “Z” - so it was kind of anticlimactically, before I knew all along, that there WAS in fact, a lost City , and the story took 300 pages to get to it. Anyway, I always enjoy stories like this .  In this week's issue of the New Yorker, there is a wonderful story of the first person to reach the North Pole area, and he did it in a balloon, or tried to, and in 1897.  His remains, along with his two fellow adventurers, were found in l930 ......He got the idea visiting the US World s Fair in Philadelphia in 1876.......He was Swedish and the King of Sweden financed him because the King thought it was only proper that a Swede be the first to navigate the North Pole.    
Anyway, now I am reading the Pink Panthers (last week’s feature piece in the New Yorker, ) about the biggest and most organized criminal minds ever to rob the most expensive  jewelry stores all over the world .They are in fact, young Serbian 20/25 and 30 /35year old kids who survived the war in the Balkans (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro –during the 1990’s)...This is their way of making a living, because after the war, there was no plan to help Serbian people, no work for them, and robbing high class jewelry stores was a good way to survive. Boring this story is not, and how clever one can learn to be when all it gets down to is = survival of the fittest. Anyway, this is my “blog” for the day, not exactly your format , but nevertheless, the intent seems to be the same.

i should talk about at least one new book i've read, so here are a few words on robert goddard's Long Time Coming: A Novel. first of all, it is a spy story, not the usual genre i discuss or even enjoy, though i certainly liked le carre's the spy who came in from the cold, as well as most of his other novels. most spy stories are too unnecessarily complicated for me. i wouldn't mind the complications if they served some purpose, but in general and in the novel specifically, the complications are to no avail. goddard seems to realize the interweavings of plot lines and every so often (ex. p. 771) repeats the story for the reader. the plot moves back and forth between two time zones ( 1976 and 1940) and a number of geographic zones, basically Ireland, England, and Nazi Germany. it also involves diamonds from Africa and, most importantly, forged Picassos.

The story starts with the appearance of Uncle Eldritch who the family thought was dead. It turns out that he has been in an Irish prison these past 36 years. the reason is revealed near the end of the book. it has to do with an attempted assassination that he really didn't have anything to do with. for a crook, he seems terribly trusting. in case you were wondering, there is also a love interest or two. published by bantam books, the novel is 420 pages long. readers of spy stories might enjoy it.

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Technorati Tags: long time coming, quest, robert goddard, the lost city of z

June 08, 2009

mysteries of the internet and novels that are not whodunits? that i'm now reading

first, dear readers, i need your help in regard to the internet and one of its many mysteries that is slowly driving me mad, mad, mad i tell you.

as those of you who are reading this page know, it takes the typing (i say, 'typing in' and 'typing out' would mean the same thing in this sentence, wouldn't they?) of an extremely awkward url to get here: <indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/whodunit/>. i cleverly, i thought, found a short cut: <whodunit? +blog> .   i tried it any number of times; it always worked. this blog was the first item listed on about ten pages of 'whodunit' references. now it and i have disappeared from this listing. the blog is gone from 'whodunit? +blog.' where did it/i go?

back to  <indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/whodunit/ >

and back to books. i have, as usual, just finished one mystery (fatally flaky by diane motts) and started another (legal tenderby lisa scottoline), but i am also reading three books that are not mysteries. what happens when i read a number of books at the same time is that i find unexpected similarities that make me think. maybe it is that i am unable to hold three different ideas in my head and that they leak into each other. whatever the cause, i find that the two creative non-fiction books and the one work of fiction enliven each other and enliven me in ways that they would not if i read them separately. the two non-fiction books are the botany of desire by michael pollan and life list by olivia gentile. the book of fiction is atlas shrugged by ayn rand. i should add that i am also writing a book that young man eloquent (working title) in which our amateur detectives mary beth and tony happily find themselves 'in the zone.' as i was writing this, i thought of the three books who, without using that phrase, refer to the same kind of ecstasy or one-ness.

gentile's life listis the story of phoebe snetsinger, a bird watcher extrordinaire, the first person to see eight thousand species--'disregarding the cost to her family, her health and her safety,' as the book jacket says. this is a woman with a soul-stirring obsession, in true ecstasy when she was birding. a 'life list' for anyone wondering is the list of all species the birder keeping the list has seen in his or her life. you can do it on line now. my own list is  scattered among the more than twenty field guides i have used in different countries.

pollan's the botany of desire illustrates the reciprocal relationship between people and plants. he chooses four disparate plants to write about, plants that illustrate four of his points: the  apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. at times his writing is excellent, at times one wonders why he didn't have a good editor. he does make frequent use of most interesting quotes, but he also assumes the pathetic fallacy by using too many active verbs for plants. but that's another story. what is applicable here is his comments on marijuana and similar drugs that can artificially produce what mary beth and phoebe snetsinger (don't you love her already?) come by naturally.

and you know who else comes naturally by that 'in the zone' enhancement of feeling?  it is all of the heroes and the heroine of ayn rand's atlas shrugged. when they are working at a business or an enterprise that is something they believe in, they do not see or hear anything else. man, they are totally in the zone, ecstatic, at one with themselves and their lives. only they understand.

reading these three books in tandem continues to be a great experience for me. separately or together and recognizing flaws, i think you will enjoy them, too.

 

Posted at 12:51 PM in Books, How To Write, Murder Mysteries, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Add to your Lavin library

• 

  Audrey Lavin: Eloquent Corpse

• Audrey A. P. Lavin: Aspects of the Novelist: E.M. Forster's Pattern and Rhythm (American University Studies Series IV, English Language and Literature)
• 

  Audrey Lavin: Eloquent Blood

• 

  Audrey A. P. Lavin: Made in Ohio

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the following was sent by valentina, one of the writers featured in turning leaves. she found it on the web page for elemental arts. john strauss, the owner of elemental arts is speaking:

'Had a wonderful event yesterday with co-editors Audrey Lavin and Ray Gehani releasing their book, "Turning Leaves", an anthology of prose and poetry. Over 80 books sold and more are available at Elemental Arts. Stop in this week and pick one up!'

 

i've been holding back on talking about our good review from gary brown in the canton repository. i wanted to find it on-line and be able to send readers to the full review. either it hasn't been posted yet or the rep simply doesn't put the whole newspaper on line. that doesn't stop us from being very grateful to gary. he is a firm supporter of the literary arts and his review of turning leaves continues that tradition.

 

the review is headlined 'turning leaves highlights northeast ohio writers,' and reads 'the creative work of more than 30 contributors is included in the new collection turning leaves: an illuminating anthology of prose and poetry.

 

the book, edited by audrey lavin and ray gehani, was released sunday at a meet-the-authors party at elemental arts in canton.'

 

i'll try to get the rest of the review to the writers involved, but want to publicly thank gary for all of his good work.

 

meanwhile, i want to tell you about an unusual novel i read this week.

 

i have never been the great fan of walter mosley's p.i. easy rawlins that president clinton and most of the reading public is. but i saw a list of the best mysteries of 2010, listing among others, the last days of ptolemy grey, a novel by walter mosley.

 

this is one darn good book. i'm not sure if i would classify it as a mystery, although it includes one or two, but if not a mystery, what?

 

it doesn't sound promising. basically it is a tale of dementia told in first person african american dialect. how's that for an off-putting synopsis?

 

i don't know if mosley has read or is familiar with daniel keyes 1958 short story 'flowers for algernon.' he tells a similar story. it doesn't make any difference. when i was first researching e.m. forster's writings for my dissertation, worried sick that someone else had taken my thesis statement, my advisor told me to stop the worrying. 'it doesn't matter if someone else has written on the same subject (no one had), what you write will be different. it will be in your voice.'

 

and mosley's voice is like no other. he tells the story of pensioner, 91-year old ptolemy grey, whose mind and apartment are a jumble. the apartment almost unusable; the mind getting there. his great nephew reggie helps until he is killed in what looks like a random drive-by shooting. at his funeral, ptolemy meets robyn, who becomes his most unlikely more-than-friend or family helper.

 

she finds a doctor with a magic pill. ptolemy trades the potential immediate help of the pill with certain death. wouldn't you?

 

although it seems unlikely that robyn could exist, by the end of the novel you love ptolemy, too. anyway, it's a fairy tale, complete with a pot of gold, a beautiful fairy tale in the same way that 'flowers for algernon' is, giving us all love, hope, and a little understanding.

dear reader--please spread the word regarding the change in url leding to this blog. http://bit.ly/flTthc thanks

r.h. from somewhere in the wilds of northeastern ohio adds the following to the comment she made a few days ago on this blog: 'You do a great
job, and your blog is wonderful.'  always nice to hear! scroll back to see her original comment.

speaking of 'the wilds', to read my latest story about my life teaching in vladivostok, russia, please look at the december issue of halfway down the stairs. You can find the journal online at http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net
It should be pretty self-evident how to use it. keep scrolling until you come to 'the lady and the taiga.'

the new york times recently carried an interesting article on the use of the computer in the expansion of literary research. 'Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs, the two historians of science at George Mason University who have created the project<see below>, have so far charted how frequently more than two dozen words — among them “God,” “love,” “work,” “science” and “industrial” — appear in British book titles from the French Revolution in 1789 to the beginning of World War I in 1914. To Mr. Cohen, the sharply jagged lines that dance across his graphs can be used to test some of the most deeply entrenched beliefs about the Victorians, like their faith in progress and science: “We can finally and truly test these and other fundamental claims that have been at the heart of Victorian studies for generations.”

for example the use of the word 'science' reaches a peak in 1874. this shows 'the age's growing interest in science, but may also reflect change's in the word's meaning.'

i have an addition to my critique of atkinson's Hemingway Cutthroat: A Mystery (Thomas Dunne Books). at the time of reading it, all of a week ago, i wondered why all of his geographic, political, and other spanish-specific references sounded so familiar. i now i think that much of his research must be based on orwell's homage to catalonia, which i, too, re-read not so long ago. this is meant as a commendation.

i can't believe that i don't have time or space to get to the scotch police (procedural (?) no, detective story? somewhat,) fun book. yes that i'm reading now. next time. for m. c. beaton's Death of a Valentine.

and i understand that the master (no, not henry james, but rather p.d.) has written a book called Talking About Detective Fiction. i'll try to get it. should be an informative read.

if you are looking for good reads to give for christmas, hannakah, birthday, anniversary, etc. presents, remember audrey lavin's Eloquent Blood and Eloquent Corpse: A Murder Mystery. if you'll go to amazon.com and type in either my name or one of the titles, you'll be able to purchase it for delivery in a few days.

audreylavin.com tr.im/whodunit

the comments printed below have been culled from the far-reaching ones i've received recently.  again, they range from (usually benign) words on the blog itself to thoughtful pieces on quest  literature.

not all comments are complimentary: in answer to the question, have you read my blog lately?'sure haven't. how wacky!' from t. journal, unknown locale.

and from someone in arizona who hasn't gotten around to it yet, 'My printer sent me 10 pages!! I'm working on it.'

more representative of remarks received is b.m's from ohio: 'i read it at 2 a.m. today! very interesting! enjoyed it! now back to bed!'

an interesting note from our correspondent and critic in honolulu: 'Hiram Bingham III is just one of the fascinating characters in his family.  His grandfather was a member of the original Congregational missionaries to Hawaii.  His grandson was a Marxist charged with being involved in a black Panther shooting in San Quentin prison. He was a fugitive for several years; gave himself up and was acquitted. The last I heard of him was that he was in a store-front law office dedicated to helping the poor.

The book on  this family is called Fathers and Sons, the Bingham Family and the American Mission (American Civilization) by Char Miller.  It is one of my favorite books on Hawaii, such a favorite I cannot find it on my bookshelves.'

before i get to goddard, i'll end the comments on the explorations and curious george blog with bill h. from atherton, ca's summation and suggestions for further reading:

 Yes, indeed, and actually read Lost City of Z – in fact a book called “1491” by Charles Mann, wrote about what the Western Hemisphere was like before the arrival of Columbus and the rest of the Conquista.. When Pizarro conquered Peru in the early 1500’s, he sent an exploration party to the east, and crossed the Andes into the Amazon basin, seeking what was purported to be a City of Gold. There were stories about this that the Indian tribes of the Andes had heard about.   Apparently the expedition came across many wonders – animal life, flora and fauna, but no gold. Most of these guys were lost and there were only a few survivors who made it back to Spain, among them the Leader of the group/ He told of a City of Emeralds, and gold, and governed by very large and strong women. (Hence the word – Amazonian Women – big and strong – so they say), and he also reported that the men did all the work, in the fields, in the home, and the women were the warriors. Of course, no one in Spain believed a word he wrote or said, nor did anyone else in Europe. He made a trip to the Amazon, via the Amazon River, some five years later, only never to be heard from again.  
So, I read 1491 some years ago, which prompted me to read “Z” - so it was kind of anticlimactically, before I knew all along, that there WAS in fact, a lost City , and the story took 300 pages to get to it. Anyway, I always enjoy stories like this .  In this week's issue of the New Yorker, there is a wonderful story of the first person to reach the North Pole area, and he did it in a balloon, or tried to, and in 1897.  His remains, along with his two fellow adventurers, were found in l930 ......He got the idea visiting the US World s Fair in Philadelphia in 1876.......He was Swedish and the King of Sweden financed him because the King thought it was only proper that a Swede be the first to navigate the North Pole.    
Anyway, now I am reading the Pink Panthers (last week’s feature piece in the New Yorker, ) about the biggest and most organized criminal minds ever to rob the most expensive  jewelry stores all over the world .They are in fact, young Serbian 20/25 and 30 /35year old kids who survived the war in the Balkans (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro –during the 1990’s)...This is their way of making a living, because after the war, there was no plan to help Serbian people, no work for them, and robbing high class jewelry stores was a good way to survive. Boring this story is not, and how clever one can learn to be when all it gets down to is = survival of the fittest. Anyway, this is my “blog” for the day, not exactly your format , but nevertheless, the intent seems to be the same.

i should talk about at least one new book i've read, so here are a few words on robert goddard's Long Time Coming: A Novel. first of all, it is a spy story, not the usual genre i discuss or even enjoy, though i certainly liked le carre's the spy who came in from the cold, as well as most of his other novels. most spy stories are too unnecessarily complicated for me. i wouldn't mind the complications if they served some purpose, but in general and in the novel specifically, the complications are to no avail. goddard seems to realize the interweavings of plot lines and every so often (ex. p. 771) repeats the story for the reader. the plot moves back and forth between two time zones ( 1976 and 1940) and a number of geographic zones, basically Ireland, England, and Nazi Germany. it also involves diamonds from Africa and, most importantly, forged Picassos.

The story starts with the appearance of Uncle Eldritch who the family thought was dead. It turns out that he has been in an Irish prison these past 36 years. the reason is revealed near the end of the book. it has to do with an attempted assassination that he really didn't have anything to do with. for a crook, he seems terribly trusting. in case you were wondering, there is also a love interest or two. published by bantam books, the novel is 420 pages long. readers of spy stories might enjoy it.

first, dear readers, i need your help in regard to the internet and one of its many mysteries that is slowly driving me mad, mad, mad i tell you.

as those of you who are reading this page know, it takes the typing (i say, 'typing in' and 'typing out' would mean the same thing in this sentence, wouldn't they?) of an extremely awkward url to get here: <indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/whodunit/>. i cleverly, i thought, found a short cut: <whodunit? +blog> .   i tried it any number of times; it always worked. this blog was the first item listed on about ten pages of 'whodunit' references. now it and i have disappeared from this listing. the blog is gone from 'whodunit? +blog.' where did it/i go?

back to  <indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/whodunit/ >

and back to books. i have, as usual, just finished one mystery (fatally flaky by diane motts) and started another (legal tenderby lisa scottoline), but i am also reading three books that are not mysteries. what happens when i read a number of books at the same time is that i find unexpected similarities that make me think. maybe it is that i am unable to hold three different ideas in my head and that they leak into each other. whatever the cause, i find that the two creative non-fiction books and the one work of fiction enliven each other and enliven me in ways that they would not if i read them separately. the two non-fiction books are the botany of desire by michael pollan and life list by olivia gentile. the book of fiction is atlas shrugged by ayn rand. i should add that i am also writing a book that young man eloquent (working title) in which our amateur detectives mary beth and tony happily find themselves 'in the zone.' as i was writing this, i thought of the three books who, without using that phrase, refer to the same kind of ecstasy or one-ness.

gentile's life listis the story of phoebe snetsinger, a bird watcher extrordinaire, the first person to see eight thousand species--'disregarding the cost to her family, her health and her safety,' as the book jacket says. this is a woman with a soul-stirring obsession, in true ecstasy when she was birding. a 'life list' for anyone wondering is the list of all species the birder keeping the list has seen in his or her life. you can do it on line now. my own list is  scattered among the more than twenty field guides i have used in different countries.

pollan's the botany of desire illustrates the reciprocal relationship between people and plants. he chooses four disparate plants to write about, plants that illustrate four of his points: the  apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. at times his writing is excellent, at times one wonders why he didn't have a good editor. he does make frequent use of most interesting quotes, but he also assumes the pathetic fallacy by using too many active verbs for plants. but that's another story. what is applicable here is his comments on marijuana and similar drugs that can artificially produce what mary beth and phoebe snetsinger (don't you love her already?) come by naturally.

and you know who else comes naturally by that 'in the zone' enhancement of feeling?  it is all of the heroes and the heroine of ayn rand's atlas shrugged. when they are working at a business or an enterprise that is something they believe in, they do not see or hear anything else. man, they are totally in the zone, ecstatic, at one with themselves and their lives. only they understand.

reading these three books in tandem continues to be a great experience for me. separately or together and recognizing flaws, i think you will enjoy them, too.

 

kudos to g. brown, j. strauss, and walter mosley

 

the following was sent by valentina, one of the writers featured in turning leaves. she found it on the web page for elemental arts. john strauss, the owner of elemental arts is speaking:

'Had a wonderful event yesterday with co-editors Audrey Lavin and Ray Gehani releasing their book, "Turning Leaves", an anthology of prose and poetry. Over 80 books sold and more are available at Elemental Arts. Stop in this week and pick one up!'

 

i've been holding back on talking about our good review from gary brown in the canton repository. i wanted to find it on-line and be able to send readers to the full review. either it hasn't been posted yet or the rep simply doesn't put the whole newspaper on line. that doesn't stop us from being very grateful to gary. he is a firm supporter of the literary arts and his review of turning leaves continues that tradition.

 

the review is headlined 'turning leaves highlights northeast ohio writers,' and reads 'the creative work of more than 30 contributors is included in the new collection turning leaves: an illuminating anthology of prose and poetry.

 

the book, edited by audrey lavin and ray gehani, was released sunday at a meet-the-authors party at elemental arts in canton.'

 

i'll try to get the rest of the review to the writers involved, but want to publicly thank gary for all of his good work.

 

meanwhile, i want to tell you about an unusual novel i read this week.

 

i have never been the great fan of walter mosley's p.i. easy rawlins that president clinton and most of the reading public is. but i saw a list of the best mysteries of 2010, listing among others, the last days of ptolemy grey, a novel by walter mosley.

 

this is one darn good book. i'm not sure if i would classify it as a mystery, although it includes one or two, but if not a mystery, what?

 

it doesn't sound promising. basically it is a tale of dementia told in first person african american dialect. how's that for an off-putting synopsis?

 

i don't know if mosley has read or is familiar with daniel keyes 1958 short story 'flowers for algernon.' he tells a similar story. it doesn't make any difference. when i was first researching e.m. forster's writings for my dissertation, worried sick that someone else had taken my thesis statement, my advisor told me to stop the worrying. 'it doesn't matter if someone else has written on the same subject (no one had), what you write will be different. it will be in your voice.'

 

and mosley's voice is like no other. he tells the story of pensioner, 91-year old ptolemy grey, whose mind and apartment are a jumble. the apartment almost unusable; the mind getting there. his great nephew reggie helps until he is killed in what looks like a random drive-by shooting. at his funeral, ptolemy meets robyn, who becomes his most unlikely more-than-friend or family helper.

 

she finds a doctor with a magic pill. ptolemy trades the potential immediate help of the pill with certain death. wouldn't you?

 

although it seems unlikely that robyn could exist, by the end of the novel you love ptolemy, too. anyway, it's a fairy tale, complete with a pot of gold, a beautiful fairy tale in the same way that 'flowers for algernon' is, giving us all love, hope, and a little understanding.

dear reader--please spread the word regarding the change in url leding to this blog. http://bit.ly/flTthc thanks

odds and ends about murder mysteries, whodunits, writing, and life

r.h. from somewhere in the wilds of northeastern ohio adds the following to the comment she made a few days ago on this blog: 'You do a great
job, and your blog is wonderful.'  always nice to hear! scroll back to see her original comment.

speaking of 'the wilds', to read my latest story about my life teaching in vladivostok, russia, please look at the december issue of halfway down the stairs. You can find the journal online at http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net
It should be pretty self-evident how to use it. keep scrolling until you come to 'the lady and the taiga.'

the new york times recently carried an interesting article on the use of the computer in the expansion of literary research. 'Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs, the two historians of science at George Mason University who have created the project<see below>, have so far charted how frequently more than two dozen words — among them “God,” “love,” “work,” “science” and “industrial” — appear in British book titles from the French Revolution in 1789 to the beginning of World War I in 1914. To Mr. Cohen, the sharply jagged lines that dance across his graphs can be used to test some of the most deeply entrenched beliefs about the Victorians, like their faith in progress and science: “We can finally and truly test these and other fundamental claims that have been at the heart of Victorian studies for generations.”

for example the use of the word 'science' reaches a peak in 1874. this shows 'the age's growing interest in science, but may also reflect change's in the word's meaning.'

i have an addition to my critique of atkinson's Hemingway Cutthroat: A Mystery (Thomas Dunne Books). at the time of reading it, all of a week ago, i wondered why all of his geographic, political, and other spanish-specific references sounded so familiar. i now i think that much of his research must be based on orwell's homage to catalonia, which i, too, re-read not so long ago. this is meant as a commendation.

i can't believe that i don't have time or space to get to the scotch police (procedural (?) no, detective story? somewhat,) fun book. yes that i'm reading now. next time. for m. c. beaton's Death of a Valentine.

and i understand that the master (no, not henry james, but rather p.d.) has written a book called Talking About Detective Fiction. i'll try to get it. should be an informative read.

if you are looking for good reads to give for christmas, hannakah, birthday, anniversary, etc. presents, remember audrey lavin's Eloquent Blood and Eloquent Corpse: A Murder Mystery. if you'll go to amazon.com and type in either my name or one of the titles, you'll be able to purchase it for delivery in a few days.

audreylavin.com tr.im/whodunit

end of curious george and the lost city comments plus robert goddard's long time coming

the comments printed below have been culled from the far-reaching ones i've received recently.  again, they range from (usually benign) words on the blog itself to thoughtful pieces on quest  literature.

not all comments are complimentary: in answer to the question, have you read my blog lately?'sure haven't. how wacky!' from t. journal, unknown locale.

and from someone in arizona who hasn't gotten around to it yet, 'My printer sent me 10 pages!! I'm working on it.'

more representative of remarks received is b.m's from ohio: 'i read it at 2 a.m. today! very interesting! enjoyed it! now back to bed!'

an interesting note from our correspondent and critic in honolulu: 'Hiram Bingham III is just one of the fascinating characters in his family.  His grandfather was a member of the original Congregational missionaries to Hawaii.  His grandson was a Marxist charged with being involved in a black Panther shooting in San Quentin prison. He was a fugitive for several years; gave himself up and was acquitted. The last I heard of him was that he was in a store-front law office dedicated to helping the poor.

The book on  this family is called Fathers and Sons, the Bingham Family and the American Mission (American Civilization) by Char Miller.  It is one of my favorite books on Hawaii, such a favorite I cannot find it on my bookshelves.'

before i get to goddard, i'll end the comments on the explorations and curious george blog with bill h. from atherton, ca's summation and suggestions for further reading:

 Yes, indeed, and actually read Lost City of Z – in fact a book called “1491” by Charles Mann, wrote about what the Western Hemisphere was like before the arrival of Columbus and the rest of the Conquista.. When Pizarro conquered Peru in the early 1500’s, he sent an exploration party to the east, and crossed the Andes into the Amazon basin, seeking what was purported to be a City of Gold. There were stories about this that the Indian tribes of the Andes had heard about.   Apparently the expedition came across many wonders – animal life, flora and fauna, but no gold. Most of these guys were lost and there were only a few survivors who made it back to Spain, among them the Leader of the group/ He told of a City of Emeralds, and gold, and governed by very large and strong women. (Hence the word – Amazonian Women – big and strong – so they say), and he also reported that the men did all the work, in the fields, in the home, and the women were the warriors. Of course, no one in Spain believed a word he wrote or said, nor did anyone else in Europe. He made a trip to the Amazon, via the Amazon River, some five years later, only never to be heard from again.  
So, I read 1491 some years ago, which prompted me to read “Z” - so it was kind of anticlimactically, before I knew all along, that there WAS in fact, a lost City , and the story took 300 pages to get to it. Anyway, I always enjoy stories like this .  In this week's issue of the New Yorker, there is a wonderful story of the first person to reach the North Pole area, and he did it in a balloon, or tried to, and in 1897.  His remains, along with his two fellow adventurers, were found in l930 ......He got the idea visiting the US World s Fair in Philadelphia in 1876.......He was Swedish and the King of Sweden financed him because the King thought it was only proper that a Swede be the first to navigate the North Pole.    
Anyway, now I am reading the Pink Panthers (last week’s feature piece in the New Yorker, ) about the biggest and most organized criminal minds ever to rob the most expensive  jewelry stores all over the world .They are in fact, young Serbian 20/25 and 30 /35year old kids who survived the war in the Balkans (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro –during the 1990’s)...This is their way of making a living, because after the war, there was no plan to help Serbian people, no work for them, and robbing high class jewelry stores was a good way to survive. Boring this story is not, and how clever one can learn to be when all it gets down to is = survival of the fittest. Anyway, this is my “blog” for the day, not exactly your format , but nevertheless, the intent seems to be the same.

i should talk about at least one new book i've read, so here are a few words on robert goddard's Long Time Coming: A Novel. first of all, it is a spy story, not the usual genre i discuss or even enjoy, though i certainly liked le carre's the spy who came in from the cold, as well as most of his other novels. most spy stories are too unnecessarily complicated for me. i wouldn't mind the complications if they served some purpose, but in general and in the novel specifically, the complications are to no avail. goddard seems to realize the interweavings of plot lines and every so often (ex. p. 771) repeats the story for the reader. the plot moves back and forth between two time zones ( 1976 and 1940) and a number of geographic zones, basically Ireland, England, and Nazi Germany. it also involves diamonds from Africa and, most importantly, forged Picassos.

The story starts with the appearance of Uncle Eldritch who the family thought was dead. It turns out that he has been in an Irish prison these past 36 years. the reason is revealed near the end of the book. it has to do with an attempted assassination that he really didn't have anything to do with. for a crook, he seems terribly trusting. in case you were wondering, there is also a love interest or two. published by bantam books, the novel is 420 pages long. readers of spy stories might enjoy it.

mysteries of the internet and novels that are not whodunits? that i'm now reading

first, dear readers, i need your help in regard to the internet and one of its many mysteries that is slowly driving me mad, mad, mad i tell you.

as those of you who are reading this page know, it takes the typing (i say, 'typing in' and 'typing out' would mean the same thing in this sentence, wouldn't they?) of an extremely awkward url to get here: <indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/whodunit/>. i cleverly, i thought, found a short cut: <whodunit? +blog> .   i tried it any number of times; it always worked. this blog was the first item listed on about ten pages of 'whodunit' references. now it and i have disappeared from this listing. the blog is gone from 'whodunit? +blog.' where did it/i go?

back to  <indianhillmediaworks.typepad.com/whodunit/ >

and back to books. i have, as usual, just finished one mystery (fatally flaky by diane motts) and started another (legal tenderby lisa scottoline), but i am also reading three books that are not mysteries. what happens when i read a number of books at the same time is that i find unexpected similarities that make me think. maybe it is that i am unable to hold three different ideas in my head and that they leak into each other. whatever the cause, i find that the two creative non-fiction books and the one work of fiction enliven each other and enliven me in ways that they would not if i read them separately. the two non-fiction books are the botany of desire by michael pollan and life list by olivia gentile. the book of fiction is atlas shrugged by ayn rand. i should add that i am also writing a book that young man eloquent (working title) in which our amateur detectives mary beth and tony happily find themselves 'in the zone.' as i was writing this, i thought of the three books who, without using that phrase, refer to the same kind of ecstasy or one-ness.

gentile's life listis the story of phoebe snetsinger, a bird watcher extrordinaire, the first person to see eight thousand species--'disregarding the cost to her family, her health and her safety,' as the book jacket says. this is a woman with a soul-stirring obsession, in true ecstasy when she was birding. a 'life list' for anyone wondering is the list of all species the birder keeping the list has seen in his or her life. you can do it on line now. my own list is  scattered among the more than twenty field guides i have used in different countries.

pollan's the botany of desire illustrates the reciprocal relationship between people and plants. he chooses four disparate plants to write about, plants that illustrate four of his points: the  apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. at times his writing is excellent, at times one wonders why he didn't have a good editor. he does make frequent use of most interesting quotes, but he also assumes the pathetic fallacy by using too many active verbs for plants. but that's another story. what is applicable here is his comments on marijuana and similar drugs that can artificially produce what mary beth and phoebe snetsinger (don't you love her already?) come by naturally.

and you know who else comes naturally by that 'in the zone' enhancement of feeling?  it is all of the heroes and the heroine of ayn rand's atlas shrugged. when they are working at a business or an enterprise that is something they believe in, they do not see or hear anything else. man, they are totally in the zone, ecstatic, at one with themselves and their lives. only they understand.

reading these three books in tandem continues to be a great experience for me. separately or together and recognizing flaws, i think you will enjoy them, too.