02.05.09
Posted in Books at 6:53 pm by Lynette
“Loving Frank: A Novel” (Nancy Horan)
In her debut novel, Loving Frank, Nancy Horan delves into the private world of Frank Lloyd Wright and his ongoing love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney.
The affair was scandalous, mainly because they were both married, just not to each other, when the affair began. Borthwick was married to Edwin Cheney, a great follower of Wright’s architectural skill. He encouraged his wife to agree to having a home built by Wright…a decision I’m sure he regretted for the rest of his life.
Mamah Borthwick was not the average turn of the (twentieth) century woman. She was a feminist and lived her life as true to her feminist ideals as possible, even at the expense of others. She did not make her decisions lightly, nor without great remorse, but she remained true to herself.
While I disagreed with many of her life choices, I also struggled to balance those same choices with the struggles every woman faced in the early 1900s. She was a suffragist, yet wanted much more for women than voting rights and equal pay. She wanted freedom for all women.
I strongly recommend this book. I found I could not put it down, even when I was disgusted or irritated with Borthwick throughout the story. The fact that Horan, the author, strove to weave the fabric of her story as close to the truth as she could discover, only made it more interesting.
I think the Chicago Tribune’s review sums the book up perfectly:
“An impressive and admirable debut…If FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT is the reason people will pick up this book, MAMAH BORTHWICK is the reason they will keep reading it….”
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09.26.07
Posted in Books at 5:23 am by Administrator
Recently, I joined a new book club. Our first selection was Sister of my Heart by Chitra Divakaruni. It is an interesting read and I recommend it.
Our next selection is Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It is one of the top rated book club selections in the country, apparently. I’ll let you know how it reads.
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07.19.05
Posted in Books at 5:57 am by Administrator
I have refrained from writing anything about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince since its release. I was afraid I might not be able to say anything about it without giving everything away for those who have not read it. But I find I cannot refrain any longer. And yet, I am at a loss as to exactly what to say and how to say it. Then I talked to my dear friend Rita and she summed it all up for me.
She said, “Wow.”
That is a succinct and wholly unsatisfactory, yet wholly adequate description of this work. Wow.
Questions are answered, puzzles almost solved, lights flicker on as the “aha!” factor becomes more prevalent. Wow. As has become the case with each successive volume of this series, people die, Harry grows up a little more, and life continues to move inexorably along. Wow. I cannot put the book down, I read through the book while I have company visiting me from out of town, I stay up until all hours of the night reading, and I find myself dreading the ending because I know it means I must wait probably two more years until the series finale. Wow. I finish the book on Sunday night, I find myself not willing to let the story end on Monday morning so I re-read the last chapter, savoring each word. Wow.
At one point my husband came to me and said, “Almost half way through the book, huh?” I experienced immediate heart palpitations and that sinking stomach sensation. In dismay I looked at the top of my book and cried, “No! I don’t want to be halfway through the book yet!” Wow.
I wish JK Rowling was truly magical. Then she could simply create an event like the story in the Bible where the woman is down to her last cup of flour and her last drops of oil. With no money or hope for more, she expresses her faith in Christ and miraculously, every time she goes back to the barrel, there is always one more cup of flour and more drops of precious oil. That’s what I wish JK Rowling could do. Write so there would always be one more chapter. Just a few more drops of words flowing across the continually turning pages. Now that would truly be magical indeed. Wow.
But since it is not to be, I find myself already anticipating Book Seven. And in the meantime I do have some consolation. November 18, 2005 is the release date of the movie “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” That, and subsequent re-readings of all 6 books should tide me over until perhaps 2007 or whenever the final book is released.
2007. Wow.
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07.11.05
Posted in Books at 4:32 pm by Administrator
Do you know what these mean? Until recently, I had no idea!
I am a huge fan of Harry Potter. Not as huge or insane as some or many people on this planet are, but I have read all of the Harry Potter books at least 3 times, some now 4 times each. I love the storylines. And I love how JK Rowling writes. She is truly an inspiration to me…an aspiring author. But it was not until about 2 weeks ago that I discovered a small tip of a very large iceberg of online Harry Potter websites. I was stunned! And I was also quite confused.
The people who gather at these websites all have acronyms for each book. Once I realized this, it was easy enough to decipher. SS/PS=Sorcerer’s Stone/Philosopher’s Stone; COS=Chamber of Secrets; POA=Prisoner of Azkaban; GOF=Goblet of Fire; OOTP=Order of the Phoenix; and finally, HBP=Half Blood Prince.
I still was surprised to see how much time people devote to these websites and to discussions on Harry’s love interests, career choices, who will die, who will live, who will betray whom. I am an avid reader of these books. I even attended the midnight release of OOTP a couple years ago and stayed up reading the book until 2 am. I forced myself to turn the light off because my 3 and 4 year olds were not going to be so accommodating as to let me sleep in from my late night out. But I do not contribute to these websites. Oh no. That’s not for me. I just do it here, in the privacy of my own blog.
I am, however, awaiting the arrival of the 6th book very much like, as one news magazine article worded it, Christmas Eve and the stroke of midnight. I am already dreading the wait for number 7 and then, of course, the inevitable depression surrounding the knowledge that this is the end of the line for Harry Potter (seemingly). Unless we can all persuade JK Rowling to continue picking up her pen and spinning more magical tales.
I love to read her work so very much that she could write a story on just about any topic, and I would snatch it up like a dying woman grabbing a glass of water. So as I said, I truly love Harry Potter and all of his travails, as well as those of his friends. But it is JK Rowling and her talent that I admire more than (gulp) Harry Potter. So please, JK, don’t stop with book 7… I need more acronyms to decipher!
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