On My Night Table…

I'm reading Kate DiCamillo's wonderful book, The Magician's Elephant, for the second time.  It's one of my favorites, and it's an ideal book for the holidays because it glows with a magical quality that, in the end, makes you feel as though you have been witness to something marvelous… even miraculous.

I have read all of Kate diCamillo's books, and I think this one may be her finest yet.

The jacket flap reads:

"'What if?  Why not?  Could it be?'

When a fortune teller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, 

orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the question that he needs to ask:  

Does his sister still live?  And if so, how can he find her?

The fortune teller's mysterious answer (An elephant!  An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that Peter can hardly dare to believe it.

But it is –– all of it–– true."  

The city of Baltese is in the throes of its coldest, darkest winter.  In this bleak setting, a magician's attempt to perform his greatest trick goes horribly wrong, and an elephant crashes through the ceiling of the Bliffendorf Opera House. This incredible event brings together an unlikely cast of characters: an orphan, an old soldier, a policeman, a countess, the magician, and the Sisters of Perpetual Light.  The author weaves their stories together with a magical touch, and the soft, atmospheric illustrations of Yoko Tanaka evoke a lovely dream-like quality.

Then, as a beautiful, pure, white snow falls on the buildings and boulevards of Baltese, everything miraculously changes.  The impossible happens again!

This seems like the perfect time of year to be asking the hopeful questions:

"What if?  Why not?  Could it be?"

On My Night Table…

Babette's Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny, a collection of short stories by Isak Dinesen.

This short story is truly a feast;  a sumptuous banquet of disarming characters, luscious language, and delicate descriptive passages.

What a lovely treat to unexpectedly come upon a short tale of such depth and beauty.

Here is a morsel:

"The hostesses made their little preparations in the sitting room.  They dared not set foot in the kitchen, for Babette had mysteriously nosed out a cook's mate from a ship in the harbor–– the same boy, Martine realized, who had brought in the turtle–– to assist her in the kitchen and to wait at table, and now the dark woman and the red-haired boy, like some witch with her familiar spirit, had taken possession of these regions.  The ladies could not tell what fires had been burning or what cauldrons bubbling there from before daybreak."

How delicious.

Now I have to try to find the film.  I remember seeing it a long time ago.

On My Night Table…

If You Want To Write,  A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit, by Brenda Ueland, Greywolf Press, 2007, originally published in 1938.

Actually, this book is always on my night table!  It is my favorite book on writing and creativity.  You can turn to almost any page and find something wonderful, truthful, and refreshing.  Dear old Brenda always lifts my spirits.

Here is a little bit of what I read last night in Chapter 7.  She is talking about the students in her class:

"...they would break through... as from a cocoon, and write suddenly in a living, true, touching, remarkable way.  It would happen suddenly, overnight.  They would break through from composition- writing, theme-writing, to some freedom and honesty...
What made them do this?  I think I know.  I think I helped them to do it.  And I did not do it by criticism, i.e., by pointing out all the mediocrities in their efforts (and so making them contract and try nervously to avoid all sorts of faults).  I helped them by trying to make them feel freer and bolder.  Let her go!  Be careless, reckless!  Be a lion, be a pirate!  Write any old way.
Francesca [a friend] helped me to understand this.  When giving violin lessons she never tells a child that he is playing a bad note.  Why do that?  He knows it himself.  All are trying to get nearer and nearer to true pitch, to perfection, anyway.  Why fix the attention on the avoidance of mistakes?  It just tightens them up, contracts them, and makes them dislike lessons.  Moreover, when they are thinking so vividly about the bad notes that they are warned to avoid, they play them again and again... To play a note truly, as the simplest person knows, your mind must be on the true note, your Imagination hearing it as you want to play it."

Isn't she marvellous?

Be a lion!

                                                              

On My Night Table…

The Cat Who Came For Christmas by Cleveland Amory, Little, Brown & Co., 1987.


A lot of my reading falls into the category of research for what I'm writing.  So… since my new book is about a cat (sorry Angus!), I went to the library recently and brought home Cleveland Amory's classic cat lover's book, The Cat Who Came For Christmas.  I love cats, but I haven't had one for a long time and I wanted to make sure I remembered their behavior and antics correctly.

As it turned out, I was equally interested in learning about Mr. Amory as I was in reading about his cat!  He was the founder of the Fund for Animals in 1967 and was directly involved in the early campaigns against illegal whaling, and the horrendous clubbing of baby seals.  He also helped rescue hundreds of wild burros from the Grand Canyon which were going to be killed.  I was impressed that this man, who seemed to delight in calling himself a 'curmudgeon,' had such a big heart for innocent animals.  I think most people agree that his tireless work became the bedrock for the animal protection movement of today.

Mr. Amory rescued his beloved Polar Bear from an alley in Manhattan.  He soon discovered that the skinny, bedraggled, filthy gray cat he brought home on Christmas eve, 1977, was actually white, beautiful, and extremely opinionated!

My favorite quote:  "As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience for the limitations of human kind."

If you like cats, or even if you don't, you'll enjoy this warm and witty story of a very interesting man, and his relationship with a remarkable cat.