Glimpses into Young Genius: The Early Stories of Truman Capote

The Early Stories of Truman Capote
Penguin Random House
Publication October 27, 2015
$25.00 hard cover
ISBN: 9780812998221

These fourteen stories were written during Capote's teenage years. They are brief snippets with memorable and vivid characters. It is amazing to realize that at fourteen or seventeen Capote had already discovered his voice and displayed an understanding of human nature.

The stories are about boys who enter the woods in search of an escaped convict and a school girl wracked with jealousy and spite; a frightened woman who unwittingly sends an escaped mad woman to her doom and a boy who falls in love with a dog whose boy is ill; a jaded older tramp who has a change of heart regarding his idealistic and younger companion on the road and a woman who saves a snake-bit child regardless of her own safety; a Southern African American cook goes to New York City and is homesick for the South, despite its Jim Crow laws. The characters are caught at turning points and crisis points, revealing truths about human nature.

This collection is noted as of interest to readers wanting to understand the writer and his maturing craft. But readers will find enough interest in the stories on their own.

I received a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Robin Goodfellow's Pranks on Hallowe'en

Robin Goodfellow's Pranks on Hallowe-en

When little boys on Hallowe'en are up to some sly trick,

I hearken to their whispered plans and silently and quick,

A mischief laughing to myself, right after them I hop

And scare them 'most to death by changing to a cop.

And next I am the Goblin's screech-owl, shrieking awful loud,

Ar rise right up before their eyes, a ghost with long white shroud;

When brimstone blazes from my eyes they see a big black cat,

And home at last I chase them, a witch with peaked hat.

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1924

Brand Luther: Marketing the Reformation

For years the newfangled printing press was only utilized by the church, for the church. Small local publishers turned out books in Latin that had little in common with what we expect in a book today, like consistent and grammatically correct word breaks. 

The development of the book as we know it was due to Lucas Cranach who created title pages with decorative elements,with the author's name prominently displayed. And he developed this format for his friend, Martin Luther, best-selling writer of the early 1500s.

Andrew Pettegree's title tells the whole story: Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe--and Started the Protestant Reformation. The book tells the stories of a monk turned best-selling author, a one-customer book industry that found an explosive new market, and how a small town became a boom town.

I learned in my Reformation History course that Luther was a Cultural Icon, a mass-media guru who used the latest technology--and gasp, even wrote in the vernacular so non-clerics could read theology and the Bible! 

In 1513 when Luther arrived in Wittenberg he though it was a small. ugly village on the edge of civilization. Even the rival of Luther's Patron remarked, "That a single monk, out of such a hole, could undertake a Reformation, is not to be tolerated." The university printing press was the only operation in town, and its printer slow and his book inelegant. By 1543 there were six shops turning out about 90 books a year. Luther single-handedly changed the book business. How the printing industry and the Reformation were intertwined is at the heart of this book

Pettegree has a readable style and his presentation of the history and theology was not difficult to follow. Although not a biography of Luther, or a study in Reformation history, the reader will learn a great deal about both. 

Included in the book are illustrations, including the books discussed, and portraits of Luther by Cranach.

1541 Bible translated by Martin Luther, design by Lucas Cranach

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe--and Started the Protestant Reformation 

Andrew Pettegree

Penguin Press

Publication Date October 27, 2015

ISBN:9781594204968

$29.95 hard cover

400 pages

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro

"Shapiro effectively shows how the beliefs, fears, and politics of Shakespeare’s day were reflected in his plays. Highly recommended for readers interested in Shakespeare or British History."

– Library Journal

1606 was an eventful year in the history of England. King James, son of Queen Mary of Scotland, was on the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth. The kingdom struggled with what it meant to have a king who ruled both England and Scotland. England's Anti-Catholic repression spurred a rebellion, the Gunpowder Plot, foiled at the last minute. All of England was shaken knowing how close they were to the destruction of government and most of London. It spurred and enforced Anti-Catholic legislation and a search for closeted Catholics, who had a pamphlet on how to 'equivocate' to sidestep direct questioning. Plus, the reoccurring Plague took its toll and closed the theaters and demon possession took even the king's interest.

Forty-two-year-old William Shakespeare had been in a lull for several years. He wasn't publishing his new plays and few of his old ones were available at the bookstalls. He wasn't appearing on stage consistently. He was a ripe old age (for those days) and he had amassed enough money to retire. Were his most productive days behind him?

Not at all. For in 1606 Shakespeare finished his masterpiece King Lear and wrote Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra.

James Shapiro's book Year of Lear links these three plays to the events of 1606, showing how Shakespeare used buzzwords, current events, and the fears and concerns of his time. Because there is so little information about Shakespeare's life and thought, it is Shapiro's deep knowledge of the plays that enable him to link them to their times. His exploration of King Lear is most successful and of the greatest interest. Readers learn about Shakespeare's sources, how he altered and improved the stories, when they were acted, and about changes made over time. While King James quested for Union, Shakespeare wrote about a king who divided his kingdom with dire consequences.

I am no Shakespeare scholar, and knew only the basics about the Gunpowder Plot and Anti-Catholic repression. I studied King Lear three times during the course of my education, but never have read Antony and Cleopatra. I found the book very interesting and accessible, and I enjoyed it very much.

Read an interview with the author at folger.edu.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Year of Lear
James Shapiro
Simon & Schuster
Publication Oct 6, 2015
$30 hard cover
ISBN 9781416541646

Binding With a Flange from Caroline's Sewing Room

Caroline's Sewing Room in West Branch, MI demonstrated how to bind with a flange during the annual Quilt Walk the first weekend of October. The flange is incorporated into the binding process and gives the impression of a narrow border.

The instructions involve cutting two strips of fabric, 1 1/2" wide for the binding strip and 1 3/4" wide for the flange strip. (Use mitered seams to connect the strips to make the lengths needed for your project.) The binding strips are sewn together right sides together along the long sides.

The strips are then turned wrong sides together and pressed even at the open edge; the flange fabric will show 1/8" at the folded edge.

The binding is sewn to the back of the quilt with the flange fabric up, then folded to the front of the quilt. The binding is machine sewn with matching threads.

 Below: Back of the quilt with binding sewn on.

 Below: Front of the quilt with binding sewn on.

Below the binding is being sewn on. You can see the binding back matches the border/backing fabric of the project and the flange is in the contrasting lighter fabric.

The mitered corners will need to be hand sewn.

 

It makes a great effect. I am eager to try it out on some small quilt projects and think it would be great for art quilts.

Lady Fall's Harvest Ride: A Year With the Fairies

Lady Fall's Harvest Ride 
On harvest chariot piled sky high
Lady Fall is passing by
With garnered fruits and wealth untold
Of royal purple mixed with gold;

To Lady Summer's faerwell nod
She waves a plume of Goldenrod,
And as the birds fly south again
She cries, "Good bye, auf Wiedersehen."

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1924

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Eilis is a smart girl. She wants to be a bookkeeper but the only job she can get is working Sunday mornings at the local grocery shop. She wishes she were as beautiful as her sister Rose, but feels snubbed by the 'rugby set' at the parish dances. When she realizes her older sister has arranged for her to leave their village in Ireland for better opportunities in Brooklyn she is not excited but neither does she voice her reluctance. She us a girl who is used to doing what is expected of her.

...she was going to lose this world for ever...she would never have an ordinary day again in this ordinary place...the rest of her life with be a struggle with the unfamiliar.

In Brooklyn everything is arranged for her, the room at the boarding house, the job on the floor of a fancy shop. What no one has warned her about, including her brothers who left Ireland for England, was that overwhelming homesickness also awaited her in Brooklyn.

She was nobody here. It was not just that she had no friends and family; it was that she was a ghost in this room, in the streets on the way to work, on the shop floor. Nothing meant anything...Nothing here was part of her. it was false, empty, she thought.

She takes evening college classes to fill her mind and nights. She goes to the local dances with the other boarding house girls and meets an Italian American boy, Tony. He is a nice boy, a cheerful lad, a respectful beau. And he loves Eilis. She begins to believe she loves him when she learns that Rose has died. She arranges to go  home, planning to be away a month before returning to her new life with a promised bookkeeping job and a husband. But once home, Eilis becomes entangled and is faced with a terrible choice.

The book is quiet, Eilis is passive, the writing elegant and beautiful. In an interview Toibin said he used the memory of his own homesickness when abroad to inform Eilis. I felt her homesickness, something I know quite well. I love Toibin's writing, nothing flashy and loud, but poignant and grounded in shared, real life experiences.

Nora Webster is mentioned in the book; Nora had her own novel last year, which I reviewed here.

Brooklyn has been made into a movie! See the preview here:
https://youtu.be/iWgCwrJ5Jzc

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Brooklyn
Colm Toibin
Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780141041742