Reading Journal

Finished "Whitethorn Woods"
Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is straight up classic Binchy: ordinary characters in situations so contrived that you have to believe them. The back cover (of this edition) declares that the characters are "passionately opinionated men and women drawn into a timely conflict between the traditions of the past and the promises of the future." Personally, I'm inclined to disagree with that description. There are, indeed, passionately opinionated people, but the narrative follows mostly the lives of those in the book who are not. I found myself caring for the characters more than the resolution of what happens to St. Ann's Well.

The short story included in the paperback edition was so-so. It's been about a decade since I've read any of Binchy's short stories, so I can't make any comparisons there. It seemed as though she wanted or intended it to be a part of the novel, but couldn't find a way to make it fit.




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Started Arthur Miller's "The Crucible."  Seemed appropriate after having recently finished "The Scarlet Letter."

Reading Journal

I finished "Scarlet Letter."  It's been a while since I've read it, although I remembered most of the big plot points.  But, let's face it, there really isn't much plot to remember.  This is one of those books that's all about the narrative, and I liked it. 

So I started up the last Maeve Binchy book I picked up, "Whitehorn Woods."  Although I plan on reading while at the gym this evening, I'm currently not very far into it right now.  But, so far, it's been classic Binchy, which means it's spectacular.

Reading Journal

I finished my dad's book.
And I wish I could highly reccomend it.  I enjoyed it, but that's because I've learned to read through a lot of proofing goofs.  Unlike with fiction, they don't distract from the plot, so that helps. 

One weird thing is that since I grew up with my dad reading to us, I could hear his voice as I read his book.  It only became really weird when I switched to reading something else.

I'm still coming along with "The Scarlet Letter."  I haven't decided what I'll do for my new.  I've got quite a few to choose from, so that's exciting.  Especially because it hasn't happened in a while.

Oh, and I've decided a new hobby is going to the book section of the thrift stores and looking for vintage and antique books.  I've picked up some pretty random ones, including 4 volumes of a 14-volume series about how to raise children.  Based on what I could tell, it was published sometime in the late 1940's.  I've now made it my goal to (a) remember the name of the series and (b) get all of them.

Writing Journal

Okay, I'm not really writing anything new, per se.
Nor am I editing anything I have (or anyone else has) written, either.

I sort of took it upon myself to put together an Easter program, based off of a Sunday School lesson from Easter 2008.  That lesson consisted of our ward's Sunday School teachers taking turns reading from Bruce R. McConkie's final General Conference address, "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane."  The narration was spliced by the class singing hymns about the Atonement.  Unfortunately, Lucy* has my journal entry from that day so I don't even know if I noted all the hymns we sang.

I've been working on it for a couple of weeks.  The other day, I asked our ward music coordinator if she had talked to the bishop about an Easter program; she hadn't, so I shared with her that I was working on something that combined narration and music.  She said she suspects it will be a welcome suggestion. 

Thus far, I have the narration in 12 segments and 11 hymns in use.  I did a dry run the other day, using audio, and found it to be a little long.  So I combined two of the shorter hymns and cut a couple of verses from another.  I've made a few minor cuts to the narration, but it's hard to do that as a trial run as I don't know at what the time marks are for the cuts.  To cut some more of the time, I'm hoping to try what it sounds like with the choir coming in behind the narrator at one point.

To keep things spirited, I've been working on a couple of arrangements for some of the other hymns.  By which I mean changing who sings which lines, not changing the music or the lyrics in the slightest.  I'm really looking forward to hearing how everything sounds outside of my head, even if it's not the same and even if it changes.  Maybe someone from the choir will have an idea of how to better assign parts.

The next big step, which I'm hoping to do this weekend, is to actually decide which hymn goes where.
Once I've got everything set, I'll post it as a page, probably on both this blog and my main blog.  Not only would it make a rather long post (although I seem to be good at making those) but it's also less likely to get lost in the postings.

*(my comatose first generation laptop)

Writing Journal

This isn't so much an update as to what I have (not) been writing.
I haven't even been working on editing Family Lies.

I realized something the other day, about how I write poetry.  Most of it is inspired by people, most often how I feel or what I think about them.  But I don't necessarily write poems about people.  I've found that a lot of my poems are directed to people. 

Think Jim Croce

'Cause every time I tried to tell you
The words just came out wrong
So I'll have to say I love [or hate] you in a song