Allen Tate: Collected Poems 1919-1976

I'm not actually finished reading this but I might as well write my review because I'm not sure when, if ever, I will finish this book. Not to say it is bad, it's just...intelligent and really written in an american language that I was not around for, so it is hard for me to follow the thinking. Allen Tate was brilliant, let me just say. A very schooled boy from the south that watched his country collapse after the civil war and felt so collapsed himself that he wrote, profoundly. And those words should be read by all of us. We should remember the greif of our country, we should hold to it like our own rich history. Americans today are so NOW, so caught up in what is happening now that we lose pieces of our heritage with each generation. I am determined to remember what I was not there for, to remember for my ancestor's sake, to know better who I am and what pieces our society gingerly together.
This is a book that avid readers, poets, and historians should all have on their shelf. Reading this is like finding an old mortise key while digging in your garden.

jlw

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

This book I picked up at one of those tables just by the checkout. You know, the "gotta get rid of it, now it's cheap" pile. But it was an Agatha Christie and how can you go wrong with her? So I paid like four bucks for this little masterpiece and enjoyed every night of reading it. It was fun and clever and I haven't cracked an Agatha Christie case yet before learning the end. Go ahead, try for yourself!