I Wrap My Thoughts in Watered Silk by Louada Voellner

I have no picture for this one. It is out of print but I wanted to put it in my blog because it was written by a St.Louisan poet and published the year I was born. So this is it's thirtieth anniversary, along with mine. And though it is insignificant, like I am, I wanted to give it it's due on my insignificant little blog.
The author was elderly when she wrote it, which is a testimony to the art of poetry never leaving the soul. I'm going to share my favorite poem yet from this collection:

Faceless and formless
but real to my mind,
my Other Self.
a witch I call "Majesty,"
stands still as a hummingbird
in midair,
watching me.

-Louda Voellner



J.L.Wills

Averno by Louise Gluck

Oh I love it. Something about it on the store bookshelf made me pick it up and now I've fallen in love. This is poetry like I could never dream of writing. It is strong and lasting. A few of these poems made it into my all time favorite poem journal. Very searching, very honest. Five stars!

J.L.Wills

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

When I picked this up, I had no idea what to expect. My mouth stands open. I feel like I've read a map to the entryway of my soul. I keep going back and reading my favorite parts over and over. I am in love with these words. They come off the page in my own voice, like they speak from somewhere I have been already, remember acutely. Gibran himself is a prophet, only a prophet could speak such true words. I want to quote him here to give you a taste, here the prophet is speaking of love:

"For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

...

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears."

-Kahlil Gibran

Hungry Woman in Paris by Josefina Lopez

Wow, it's been a long time since I've read a streamline sensuality novel. Can't really call it romance, as Canela ends up single. Single and happy with her many sexual adventures. It was a good change from the usually heavy novels I pick up. And a much needed break from the work of non-fiction I am currently trapped in, reading as a personal gain of knowledge. Which I want...but don't enjoy nearly as much as a good, long, well-told lie. I enjoyed this little book. An easy read sure to make women of any shape and size repect it's story.

J.L.Wils

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Intriguing, nothing but. I was so absorbed in this cruel little book that I hardly noticed the end coming. It was written as hauntingly beautifully as the picure in the novel was painted. It has a circular poetic nature to the story and it's fascinating. I really don't want to say much about it, I feel as though any bit of summary would completely ruin the surprise. I only knew this book was a classic when I began to read it, I had no idea what the cover held inside for me. Because of that I truly enjoyed the book. So if you want to know why the Picture of Dorian Gray is so famously mentioned throughout history in other books and top rated music, I guess you will have to read it yourself.

J.L.Wills

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K.Rowling

My children and I enjoyed this wonderful little book. As dear to us as Mother Goose, bringing back those lovely memories of Hogwarts and our dear friends there. Each tale is followed by an excerpt from Professor Albus Dumbledore, which is also a bit of timeless wisdom. If you are a fan, I'm sure you've read it and I don't need to go on about J.K.Rowling's brilliance. And if you are not a fan you probably have no interest. But if you are curious, this little book may be the first step of yours into our world. Come on in and get lost.

J.L.Wills

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

The book reviews on this are great, the novel...not so much. To wrap it up in one fair sweep: I was bored. The entire time, bored. There was no connection between the main character and his situation. He was stale and distant from everything about his wife leaving him to his mother's death. Finally in the last paragraph, the very ending of the book does he show this bit of humanness, this bit of reality that is poetic and genuine. Oh, I tried so hard to enjoy this book, I pressed on with it though I wanted to fling it to the floor. And still after getting over half way through I hadn't even touched on anything minutely interesting, so I skipped to the last ten pages or so and claimed it finished. And even those last few pages were stale as last year's bread and I found myself blah-blahing through sentences, trudging toward the ending like through two feet of wet sand. There is nothing compelling in the story, nothing to move you forward because the main character is not compelled, he cares nothing for what comes his way, for the people around him, whether his wife comes back to him. Certainly I don't blame his wife for leaving him in the first place (which, by the way, is not even pondered by the character on why she left) because I was also ready to fly to another country and be done with this man. I'm sorry, I don't agree with the famous reviews of this one. I am dissappointed and can't believe I bought a hardback edition of this, which is going to the used bookstore today. These are the kind of books that make me think some of these book reviews have cash incentives behind them. Simply boring, a waste of my time.

J.L.Wills

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

This is a picasso of music and prose. A beautiful novel set amongst the ravages of WWII in Italy. There are four major characters; the burned english patient; the young nurse, Hana; the government hired thief, David; and the indian sapper, Kip. All of them so beautifully different. I loved it, swerving in and out of their lives, seeing what hurt them here or there, where they came from, how they all came to be so closely loved by eachother, how they had to leave eachother. It is a novel you have to be on your toes about. With the beginning of each chapter you are placed in someone else's life, in some other time. It is a mosaic of four lives. Not an easy read, but an elegant one. Four stars.

JLW

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

This is for the philosophical romantic, the reader of tragedy and the questioner of life. This is great writing. Never once was I bored or uninterested. Every page was full. And it's such a good look at post WWII Germans, which we don't hear much of. Most of the tragedy of that war is given to pity the genocide of the Jews, but what about the country that had to overcome such an atrocity on their hands, on their parent's hands, in their history forever, in their memories? It is a good story for many good reasons and I will probably read it again one day, not many books make it to my reread list but this one did. Nothing extravagant, just real.

J.L.Wills

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis

This is a wonderful book to read aloud to your kids. Me and the girls enjoyed every moment of this. I never had to ask them twice to come listen to me read about Narnia, in fact I had to be careful and make sure I could follow through with it because once mentioned they wouldn't be happy without a dose of Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmund. This is the second book but is always the first of the movies when movies are being made on Narnia. Still, the first book sets the stage and gives a fuller appreciation of the entire story. C.S.Lewis writes to enthrall not only children but anyone who has been a child once. He is brilliant.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this. And by the twentieth page I was scared. Really scared. The beginning is so dark and inescapable that I had to stop and remind myself to quit holding my breath. The middle is still tense but not nearly as quivering as the beginning of the book. It is written as a collection of newspaper articles and journal entries in the first person of many characters so you get personal with the all the main characters. And the ending is gallant, bloody, and unsure. I rave Bram Stoker, he did honor to the strength of femininity. It is a long book and it took me even longer being ill in the middle of it but it was such an adventure, such a great adventure.

J.L.Wills

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

When I read a Maya Angelou book or poem, I hear her low southern voice coming off the page. This was a marvelous little read, as is all Dr. Angelou's work. And I read it in honor of the upcoming holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. Angelou is not only a wonder at pulling the heart of African-Americans out of darkness, but she is equally as strong at the heart of women. And each little morsel of love that she has written here gives empowerment along with humility. I enjoyed this deeply and find myself reflecting on it throughout my busy day, bringing peace and sanity to this chaotic world.

J.L.Wills