• About

bad dinosaur 34

~ book thoughts & book reviews

bad dinosaur 34

Category Archives: home

THE WRITERS DAILY COMPANION by Amy Peters

06 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in Author, books, Discussion, home, House, Life, recommendation, time, Writer

≈ 2 Comments

I found this book, The Writers Daily Companion by Amy Peters, in the bargain bin at a local book store shortly before closing on my house in 2016, I began reading it the first day I moved into my house. Somehow I made it a habit to read a page a day out of it for an entire year – I just finished this book less than a week ago.

dailywritingThis book is filled with many things – writing prompts, quotes from authors, short biographies of writers, suggestions for books to read, writing tips and advice from various writers on writing. Since I read this book over the course of a year, what this book also has within it are the many memories – both good and bad – that I’ve accumulated during my first year at my house.

The Writers Daily Companion has become, for me, a time capsule of sorts – one of a special variety that I can use as both a reference book or as a way to recollect this past year. I have an inability, currently, to separate these two perspectives of this book.

Now that I am done with the book, I feel as if there is a void in my life, the daily, morning task I had is now gone. At any rate, if you happen to come across a copy of The Writers Daily Companion by Amy Peters, I suggest picking it up and do as I did – read a page a day. You will learn something of value from this book – both about writing, and strangely, also something about yourself. Perhaps this is true of any book that is read over the course of a year or more.

THE UNSEEN WORLD by Liz Moore discussion & review

29 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in Author, Book Review, books, cat, Coffee, Currently Reading, friend, home, House, Life, Love, recommendation, review, Writer

≈ Leave a comment

In 1980’s Boston there lives a man, David Sibelius and his 12 year old daughter Ada Sibelius. THE UNSEEN WORLD opens with a typical scene with this family; David is hosting a dinner for the students who work at his computer lab. Ada is preparing the drinks  – she’s done this plenty of times before.

At this dinner we are introduced to the characters that make up this brilliant story and we are also provided with the first glimpse into the ailment that sets the entire story into motion.

It begins with the telling of a riddle.

unseen.jpgDavid’s declining health brings his entire past into question. Ada must learn who her father really is, and perhaps along the way find out who she is. Davids illness begins with slight slip ups with his memory which causes his past to uncoil in phenomenal ways within the pages of Moore’s novel.

I heard about this book almost a year ago shortly after it was released. I was both intimidated and intrigued by it. People raved about this book but refused to say anything about it outside of providing general summaries of the plot. (I should say *most* people were considerate like this). When I first picked this book up a week ago, I wasn’t entirely engaged – the writing felt slightly distant. Every section of this book however pulls you in with a mystery or revelation that makes you want to continue reading.

Ada’s life, David’s life and the lives of those around them soon become quite familiar. These people, you feel, at some level you know. THE UNSEEN WORLD tackles some of the fundamental questions of existence – what does it mean to be human? Are we nothing more than a series of electrical impulses (which, in David’s case begin to fail). Is there more to this world that remains unseen due to the limits of our senses?

What constitutes being alive?

It is difficult being intentionally vague in regards to this novel, however I do not feel like being held responsible for ruining anyone else’s experience with this brilliant book. Please take this book into consideration when picking out your next read.

★★★★★   THE UNSEEN WORLD by Liz Moore

* If this review seems choppy, it is because I had to edit large chunks out. This book is best read when little about the plot is known. I was mildly spoiled for this book before I began reading it and that is what I’m trying to refrain from doing here. THE UNSEEN WORLD is set up like a thriller/mystery where you piece things together along with the characters – so be careful when looking at reviews of the book – many people are having no problem gushing about where this books goes without consideration of warning about spoilers.

THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF PORTUGAL by Yann Martel discussion & review

15 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in Author, Book Review, books, Discussion, friend, home, House, Life, recommendation, redemption, time, Today, Writer

≈ Leave a comment

Yann Martel’s latest novel, The High Mountains of Portugal is a unique reading experience. Divided in three parts, “Homeless”, “Homeward” and “Home” Martel tells a story that transcends time but held together by, essentially relics of the past. The book is almost set up to mimic a religious text – or, at least mimic the types of stories that make up religious mythology.

Although the three sections of the book all form an over-arching story of it’s own, since the book is broken up in three parts, I will discuss a little about each part.

highmountainsThe introductory story titled Homeless begins with a man named Tomas in the year 1904 who is presented with a the Biblical Job-like predicament. His wife, child and father all die within a few days of each other and in protest to this divine injustice Tomas begins to walk backwards. In Tomas’ possession however he has an old diary that speaks of a religious artifact that, according to the diary will upturn religion as it is known. Tomas sets out on a quest, using the latest marvel of his age, and automobile to find this holy relic that is spoken of in the diary. The relic is a crucifix with a chimpanzee.

The second story, Homeward is set on New Years of 1939. I personally enjoyed this section the most. This section is the story of a mortician who is visited by the ghost of his wife who comes to discuss Jesus Christ and Agatha Christie and the interesting parallels that exist between the Gospels and Christie’s novels. This part of the book essentially reveals what Martel is attempting to do. Shortly after the discussion with the ghost of his dead wife, the Mortician is visited by a woman hauling with her a suitcase. Inside the suitcase is the corpse of her late husband. The woman requests that the mortician perform an autopsy on the course so she can learn about the mans life. When the mortician does the autopsy he starts pulling out things that made up the mans life.  In the chest cavity the mortician pulls out a chimpanzee holding a bear cub. The wife then climbs into the now empty body and requests that the mortician sew her up with the chimpanzee and bear cub, essentially becoming one of the desires that the man lived for.

The final story, Home takes place in 1981 and is about a Canadian senator who after losing his wife through a sequence of events essentially adopts a chimpanzee and gives up his entire life to live with it in Portugal, incidentally in the same small village that the two previous stories take place. Once again we have a Biblical parallel here where the chimp is a stand in for Jesus. It is a subtle reference to when Jesus tells a rich man to give up everything he owns and follow him. The Senator lives side by side with this chimpanzee until witnessing a rare miracle. In his adventures with the ape, he discovers the early relic and learns of the peculiar autopsy involving the chimp in the chest cavity of the man.

I’ll be honest, I will be thinking about this story for awhile. All three stories are tied together with a premise that humans are not fallen angels but rising apes and Martel uses an ape as a place holder for Jesus, first as a relic, then dwelling in the ‘heart’ of a man then finally as prophet who is followed to a Heaven that is represented as The High Mountains Of Portugal. All in all the story was enjoyable, I’ll be revisiting the middle story in time.

★★★★   THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF PORTUGAL by Yann Martel

#Thursday #Quotables

13 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in Author, books, Coffee, home, House, Life, Quotables, Quote, rain, Thursday Quotables, time, Today, Writer

≈ Leave a comment

quotables-button
“Grief is a disease. We were riddled with its pockmarks, tormented by its fevers, broken by its blows. It ate at us like maggots, attacked us like lice- we scratched ourselves to the edge of madness. In the process we became as withered as crickets, as tired as old dogs.”
― Yann Martel, The High Mountains of Portugal

Left and Leaving

11 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in friend, home, House, Life, male friendship, time, Today

≈ Leave a comment

Today is one of the toughest days I’ve had in quite a long time.

Tomorrow my roommate, my friend, is moving out.

It’s been a tough year – a lot of it documented here, on my blog – and we’ve been through a lot…

…and life is taking us our separate ways, to unknown destinies.

It is so hard to keep from crying right now. I knew this day was coming, I’ve been dreading it. From here on out, all my roommates will be essentially strangers.

My one true friend is moving out.

I feel so lost.

Holiday Week Reading Wrap-Up

07 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in Author, blog, Book Review, books, cat, Coffee, Currently Reading, home, House, Life, recommendation, review, Today, Writer

≈ 1 Comment

After completing the very lengthy book, The Elven I decided that I would give myself a bit of a break from fiction and long books and read a few short non-fiction books. The three books I read over this past week covered three rather unconnected topics. Politics, Advertising and Housecleaning. All the books had their merits, but I figured that I’d provide my thoughts on all three of them in one blog post.

Just a reminder, I don’t give ratings to non-fiction books no matter how terrible or wonderful they may be.

ontyrannyThe first short book that I read is called On Tyranny; Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. This book is essentially an essay with it’s intended audience being graduate students (or that’s at least how it was being marketed at the book store where I picked it up from). This essay, at the title suggests, is comprised of “twenty lessons” that a savvy youngster should be aware of while embarking out into a world in which “the [current] president” is now leader of. Drawing heavily on practices carried out by early fascist governments, Snyder tries to draw parallels that come across rather flimsy.

Let’s get something out of the way – I am in no way a fan of Trump, but I am not nearly naive as Timothy Snyder appears to be to think that we live in some sort of political vacuum  where Trump seized power essentially out of no where then gave himself endless tyrannical power. No, Trump is the by-product of an ever evolving tyrannical government, with an executive branch that enjoys handing itself more and more arbitrary power. I recall numerous books like Snyder’s coming out during the Bush (W.) years. The End of America by Naomi Wolf would be a good example (and her warning is composed FAR better than Snyders.) There were also similar books published in regards to Obama’s tyrannical powers during the 8 years he served as well.

The reason these books are published is because people have recognized that the executive branch of the US government is just WAY TOO POWERFUL for it’s own good. We are comfortable with that power when *our* side has it, but when *their* side has it, fears of a dictatorship and other alarmist writings emerge.

Snyder seems completely oblivious to institutions that were set up during previous administrations that are enabling the current president. Snyder complains about the loss of an individuals privacy yet seems oblivious to what the NSA has been up to. He warns of para-military police forces yet doesn’t mention the Department of Homeland Security at all – nor how completely Third-Reichish in origins that is. Snyder then frets about how Russia likes to undermine different democracies around the globe yet seems to be blind to the USA’s own role in undermining democracies around the globe.

In short – despite the FEW valid arguments this book makes, it’ll leave you more ignorant when you finish it than when you started it. I do not recommend this particular waste of paper. IF I rated non-fiction books, this might receive a half star because I enjoyed the books formatting, and that’s about it.

endofadvertFollowing that book I read another recently published essay called The End of Advertising by Andrew Essex. Essex is a former executive who worked for a major advertising company and in this short book he offers that unless that industry discovers a new approach to advertising, that industry will meet its demise.

Although this small book clocks in at just around 200 pages, the first half reads almost like a memoir as Essex attempts to explain why he believes advertising as we know it is about to die unless it rethinks its place in the world and goes through a renaissance. His belief that advertising is about to end was arrived at because Essex learned about a new technology called AdBlock and realized that people could now opt-out of watching advertisements and, in fact, many people were. He in fact had also decided to opt-out of viewing advertisements and found it to be quite free-ing.

Essex however makes a suggestion for the advertising industry that, for me, seems like the set-up for the movie Idiocracy, which would make it alarmingly fitting for the current world in which we live. Since local governments are having such a difficult time maintaining the infrastructure in different communities, why not have large corporations do it instead?

Yes – that is what Essex proposes in regards to ‘saving’ advertising. Potholes in your road? Here’s Pepsi-Cola to the rescue! Now your roads are blue, red and refreshing. Your cities water infrastructure is crumbling, lets have Gatorade or Powerade bid on who will fix it, ’cause either way, ELECTROLYTES FOR EVERYONE!

Anyway, despite the authors proposal on how to fix advertising, I do recommend giving this quick book a read because it will offer insights into an industry that we generally only get to see (and block) the products of.

otherpeoplesdirtAnd finally this week I read Other People’s Dirt by Louise Rafkin. This book I checked out of the library after having quite a dreary day and badly desiring to go for a walk. After staring blankly at numerous shelves of books and still finding nothing of real interest, I happened up this short work that, for whatever reason, felt just right.

Other People’s Dirt was published in 1998 and is about Rafkin’s ‘adventures’ as a housecleaner. The book is somewhere between memoir and investigative journalist as Rafkin explores different aspects of the world of 1990’s housecleaning.

Initially the book talks about Rafkin’s independent work as a housecleaner in which she highlights what she likes and dislikes about this particular profession. The book begins with Rafkins dream of one day becoming a spy and, in a way, how she sort-of is one while she housecleans. She tells about how she learns so much about other people’s lives simply by the hints of the lives they lead within their own homes.

Each chapter covers different aspects of the world of housecleaning, from housecleaning as sexual fetish to housecleaning as religious practice and numerous other variations in between. In one part Rafkin joins a commercial cleaning company where she feels she is severely underpaid for the work she is doing. At another point she attempts to join a woman who cleans up the remains at crime scenes inside homes.

The part of the book that I found the most important however is Rafkin’s look into the life of the woman who once cleaned her childhood home. This particular chapter where Rafkin goes back and learns about Lupita’s life, is the chapter in the book that, for me, humanized the author for me because before this, the book felt like a disjointed examination of housecleaning experienced by an author who was difficult to relate to.

The reason that I’m pointing out the year in which this book was published is because, without consciously doing it, this book offers a real-life glimpse into what life was like just before the dawning of the internet and smart-phone age. There are numerous scene’s that highlight this, but one in particular that stood out to me was the small two line part where Rafkin is discussing what fake vacuuming is, and she says (and I have to paraphrase here) that it’s when you turn on a vacuum and let it run while you sit down and read People magazine. All I could think of is that in today’s world, you’d be pulling out your phone, getting on the homeowners wi-fi and begin going through various apps.

So, in short this book also served as a time-capsule of sorts. I do recommend it primarily just for the unique insights it offers into this world that we may not think too much about.

I checked out one other book from the library – but I think that one will get a post all to itself due to it’s subject matter.

#Thursday #Quotables

06 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in cat, Coffee, friend, home, House, Quotables, Quote, Thursday Quotables, time, Today, Writer

≈ Leave a comment

quotables-button
“Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.”
― Richard Bach

#Thursday #Quotables

29 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in Author, books, friend, home, Quotables, Quote, Thursday Quotables, time, Today, Writer

≈ Leave a comment

quotables-button
“Look into any man’s heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.”

— Henrik Ibsen, The Pillars of Society

In the midst of tragedy

24 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in #friend, anger, friend, home, House, Life, time, Today

≈ Leave a comment

My roommate called me this morning from work – he needed a ride to the hospital, his extended family had made the decision to ‘pull the plug’ on his uncles life support.

491627869_ccf42de283_oI don’t know how to accurately convey my feelings right now. Two hours ago my roommate got home from the hospital after being dropped off by a family member. In the short time that I’ve known my roommate, which is approximately one year, he has experienced more deaths of family this way – including his own father – than anyone I’ve ever known.

Although I’ve gone through the turmoil of death of loved ones, there is no way for me to know exactly what he is going through. I can’t imagine what is going through his mind.

My roommate’s family has Huntington’s disease, and despite only being 23, he has seen this disease take the lives of numerous people in his family. In order to cope with these deaths many of my roommates relatives have turned to drugs. The devastation rippling through his family is unfathomable.

He is moving out because his aunt’s health is currently in severe decline.  She is losing her home because she can’t pay for that and her medical bills.

My roommate is going through a lot – I told him that no matter what happens, he will always have a place here. He is always welcome back.

I don’t know how to be happy right now.

Pen Pals Wanted!

23 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by chadwickheller in blog, Coffee, home, House, Life, rain, time, Today, Writer

≈ Leave a comment

In the age of instant connection there is, in myself and my generation at large an overwhelming feeling of disconnect. We can write one another and have the recipient receive our message instantly, but there seems to be something missing in the age of social media: intimacy.

When I was a kid – before the days of the internet, I had a babysitter who would spend her time composing long, hand-written letters to people she had never met in person. She had numerous of these pen pals, the addresses of which she found in the ‘personals’ section of the magazines she enjoyed. She knew a lot about these strangers she was writing to, and they knew a lot about her – despite never meeting, she considered these faceless people ‘close friends’.

There was always excitement when a new letter arrived in the mail from one of the people she wrote. Many of these letters averaged about 10 hand written pages in length – often written in a multitude of ink colors. Some of the pages would have smears, sweat marks, tear stains or appear crumbled – physical signs that the contents on the page were not necessarily easy to put down – but they were. There was an intimacy in these letters that the digital age has a difficulty replicating.

pen-pal-smLately I’ve been desiring this same type of relationship via the written word. I want a pen pal. Incidentally it seems like in the age of the internet, finding a pen pal is tougher than it used to be. The classified sections of newspapers and magazines no longer carry ads of people desiring a pen pal like they once did. Internet websites that are designed for finding pen pals are awkward to navigate.

I am having trouble trying to take part in this endeavor.

I am seeking a pen pal – someone who enjoys receiving letters in their mail box. If this is something that you are interested in, leave a comment on this post and we can perhaps develop a relationship using the written word.

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016

Categories

  • #friend
    • friend
  • anger
  • Author
  • blog
  • Book Review
  • books
  • car
  • Carlos Andres Gomez
  • cat
  • Coffee
  • Courtney E. Martin
  • Currently Reading
  • debt
  • Discussion
  • Fantasy
  • home
  • House
  • injury
  • job
  • Joseph Heller
  • Life
  • list
  • Love
  • male friendship
  • men
  • Money
  • Non Fiction
  • On Being
  • poem
  • Quotables
  • Quote
  • rain
  • realtor
  • recommendation
  • redemption
  • review
  • science fiction
  • sex
  • snow
  • thich nhat hanh
  • Thursday Quotables
  • time
  • Today
  • Top 5 Wednesday
  • Trump
  • Uncategorized
  • work
  • Writer

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy