http://www.allconsuming.net/person/smh A list of things that smh is consuming Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:38:37 GMT Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:10:10 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/ http://www.allconsuming.net/images/icons/43-icon-31x31.gif http://www.allconsuming.net/home <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/39490"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1590511417.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/39490">And the Word Was: A Novel</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Bruce Bauman</div><br clear="all" /><p>Bruce Bauman’s <I> And the Word Was </I> (Other Press) asks this: &#8220;How much must you love god to accept Auschwitz? Or whatever happened to you? To accept that god exists after that?&#8221; To read the rest of my recommendation of this tremendous fiction debut, see <a rel="nofollow" HREF= "http://www.moorishgirl.com/archives/002960.html#002960">Moorishgirl.com</a>.</p> Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:10:10 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/9370 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1524"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060975776.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1128453300_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/1524">Jesus' Son: Stories by</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Denis Johnson</div><br clear="all" /><p>I love how he finds gorgeous and tender moments inside moments you expect to be fierce and narcissistic. So very honest.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:46 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4259 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/22615"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0767902890.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/22615">The Things They Carried</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Tim O'Brien</div><br clear="all" /><p>I love everything about this book&#8212;it&#8217;s unflinching look at war, the slipperiness of truth and how the stories are often more true when they are fictionalized, the heartbreak within victory and the tenderness within killing. He gets at every paradox that makes us human.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:46 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4258 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9267"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375725784.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/9267">A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Dave Eggers</div><br clear="all" /><p>The writing is so absolutely alive&#8212;cocky, at times, unexpectedly tender. I tried to slow down my reading so it wouldn&#8217;t end too soon, but I couldn&#8217;t stop turning the pages.</p><p>I&#8217;ll definitely read it again.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:45 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4255 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3760"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0147712556.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3760">Iliad and Odyssey boxed set</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Homer</div><br clear="all" /><p>I&#8217;ve read a number of translations of The Iliad. This one&#8217;s my favorite by far. You have to read it out loud. Every line is gorgeous.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:45 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4257 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18583"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/067960247X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/18583">They Came Like Swallows (Modern Library)</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by WILLIAM MAXWELL</div><br clear="all" /><p>The first section was disorienting for me, but then&#8212;wow, the language, the details, the tiny moments that paint a large picture of grief and of love when seen all together.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:45 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4256 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/34567"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1932557032.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/34567">Fizz</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Paul A. Toth</div><br clear="all" /><p>The strength of Fizz is its narrative voice and the weird kaleidescope of thoughts and images that ultimately tell a story about belonging and truth.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:44 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4252 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/34466"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1931561729.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/34466">How To Be Lost</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Amanda Eyre Ward</div><br clear="all" /><p>How To Be Lost is a mesmerizing book that really takes off in the fifth chapter. It is primarily the story of Caroline Winters, a trained-pianist working as a cocktail waitress. Her lack of effort in her career is reflective of a general disconnectedness shown in other areas of her life. The things she once felt passionate about have dulled, and she seems disconnected, or rather, closed off and somewhat irritated by the relationships in her life. Over Christmas, Caroline is faced with a dilemma: her pregnant sister Meredith wants to finally declare their little sister, who disappeared at age 5, dead so they can all move on. But Caroline&#8217;s mother who has never stopped searching, shows Caroline a clipping from a magazine of a girl who might be Ellie all grown up.</p><p>Caroline&#8217;s decision to search for her missing sister is not so much a belief that Ellie is alive, as an expression of her rootlessness, her ability to pick up and leave. It is on this search where Caroline&#8217;s heart is exposed&#8212;the hurts that have caused her to close off to others, the fears and hopes she has kept to herself. Carline returns to music in order to support herself in the town where she believes she&#8217;s found her baby sister. And in being away, she learns what it is she misses back home.</p><p>The novel is full of hope and heartbreak. But the real gift of this book, where you feel its impact, is in its unique structure. Though the story belongs primarily to Caroline, the reader is really following the narratives of two other characters, also lost and incomplete, and how those narratives intersect in the end.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:44 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4253 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/33944"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1890447269.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/33944">My Misspent Youth: Essays</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Meghan Daum</div><br clear="all" /><p>I enjoyed this one a lot. It&#8217;s not life-changing, but the author takes a look at the heart and interests of many Generation X-ers and her observations about email affairs and flight attendants and fringe marriages are often funny, tender, and insightful. It&#8217;s a quick read.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:44 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4254 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19476"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0684850273.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19476">The FALL OF A SPARROW: A NOVEL</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Robert Hellenga</div><br clear="all" /><p>Lovely, non-linear. Gourmet cooking, gourmet sex, blues, hope. I felt sad when it came to an end, though the end was just right.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:43 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4248 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/34564"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/193241620X.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/34564">The Future Dictionary of America</a></div><br clear="all" /><p>I love this book and I love the CD that goes along with it. My favorite entry is the one that expresses my feelings about politics these days:</p><p>arebours [ar&#8217;<del>uh-bors] n. the particular sensation of awe or disbelief that strikes when the previously unimaginable happens, or when canons of accepted human decency are flagrantly violated. He felt it increasingly, the shock, the sense of arebours whenever he turned on the radio or opened a newspaper. He always had the desire then to exchange a glance with one of his old friends or former mentors</del>-someone who could confirm that he was not alone, not crazy, and that his was indeed an outrage. &#8212;SVEN <span class="caps">BIRKERTS</span></p><p>I have three definitions in the book and feel honored to have been included. The cartoon drawings are great!</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:43 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4250 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/27919"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0916583090.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/27919">Impossible Object (British Literature Series)</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Nicholas Mosley</div><br clear="all" /><p><span class="caps">IMPOSSIBLE OBJECT</span> by <span class="caps">NICHOLAS MOSLEY</span></p><p>This is a strange and amazing read. I&#8217;m not sure if I like it yet, but I&#8217;m enthralled nonetheless.</p><p>The story, A Hummingbird&#8212;just amazing. I had to read it out loud because the pace is so perfect and it&#8217;s so clever and sting-y.</p><p>Okay, finished it now and think it&#8217;s uneven, but when it&#8217;s good, it&#8217;s brilliant.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:43 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4249 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13267"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0446671924.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/13267">Self-Help</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Lorrie Moore</div><br clear="all" /><p>I really wanted to like this one because it&#8217;s been recommended to me so many times. There are some details and moments that are fantastic, but I found the narrator to be too prissy for my taste. And for all the other characters in the stories, the narrator is never able to penetrate any of them&#8212;almost as if she lives in a world where others are only there for her to gather more information about herself. I disliked it very much, and it&#8217;s probably more to do with an incompatibility with the narrator&#8217;s life-view and self-absorption.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:43 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4251 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/760"><img src="http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/0060529709.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1124920687_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/760">Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Jonathan Safran Foer</div><br clear="all" /><p>I&#8217;m starting this one tonight and can&#8217;t wait!</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:42 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4247 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/26671"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0870136623.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1088943332_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/26671">Detroit Tales (Michigan & the Great Lakes)</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Jim Ray Daniels</div><br clear="all" /><p>No one has had a bigger influence on my writing than Jim Daniels. I love his straightforward narrators, the attention to rhythm in his stories, and the way he plumbs the depths of his characters. I read this book too fast.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:42 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4246 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/29077"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/1400052424.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1081881517_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/29077">You Are a Dog: Life Through the Eyes of Man's Best Friend</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Terry Bain</div><br clear="all" /><p>Funny, warm and lasting.</p><p>Some favorite moments:</p><p><span class="caps">HE WHO RIDES HIS BICYCLE IN THE DRIVEWAY</span><br />He also has many other names, such as He Who Puts You Outside When His Friends Visit, or He Who Puts You Inside When He and His Friends Play Outside or He Who Leaps from the Furniture. Most of the time, he pretends to ignore you. But you know better. He picked you from the box and held you first.</p><p><span class="caps">BIG BLACK DOGS</span><br />Those big black dogs walk past the window with their people every day and you must bark at them. They are big and black and you are hoping one day one of the two of them will at least look at you because you are barking, but they don&#8217;t even seem to notice that you are making one giant racket and moving from one end of the sofa to the other trying desperately to get their attention and now you&#8217;ve fallen. You&#8217;ve fallen off the sofa. You are going to stay down here. You are going to lie beside the sofa and hope nobody noticed. Not the two big black dogs and certainly not your people. You have done this before. Perhaps you will do this again tomorrow. For now, it is enough that you lie here and forget.</p><p><span class="caps">DIFFERENCE</span><br />You suppose there is some dividing line between work and play, and if you considered it, you would be able to define each activity you performed as either work or play. But so far, in this life, in this dog, with these people, you have found no use for such a line. They are the same thing, and you will not examine your activities beyond the knowledge that all activities you pursue with your people are both work and play, and they make you full up with life.</p><p><span class="caps">SIMPLE DESIRE</span><br />Sometimes, every once in awhile (at least once a day) when you stand by the door and then approach one of your people and then return to the door and they open the door and you stand at the door and look outside but don&#8217;t go outside, they will say, &#8220;What? What do you want?&#8221; You simply gaze at them. Honestly, you aren&#8217;t quite sure, and you were hoping they would know.</p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:41 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4244 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19227"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0684800713.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/19227">Sun Also Rises</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Ernest Hemingway</div><br clear="all" /><p>A group of men-<del>and one beautiful alcoholic lady of society</del>-travel to Pamplona, Spain to watch the bullfights. Each gentleman is willing to have his heart broken by Lady Brett Ashley, knowing she will quickly move on to someone new. For the narrator, a veteran of <span class="caps">WWI</span> who is now impotent because of his war wound, it is nearly enough to be available to rescue her in-between loves. Both he and Lady Ashley seem to know that they are each other&#8217;s emotional match&#8212;lifelong lovers who can never fully connect.</p><pre><code>Some fine, muscular writing:</code></pre><pre><code>"Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters."</code></pre><pre><code>Inside the dining-car the waiters served the fifth successive table d'hote meal. The waiter who served us was soaked through. His jacket was purple under the arms.<br />"He must drink a lot of wine." <br />"Or wear purple undershirts." <br />"Let's ask him." <br />"No. He's too tired."</code></pre><pre><code>I knelt and started to pray and prayed for everybody I thought of, Brett and Mike and Bill and Robert Cohn and myself, and all the bull-fighters, separately for the ones I liked, and lumping all the rest, then I prayed for myself again, and while I was praying for myself I found I was getting sleepy, so I prayed that the bull-fights would be good, and that it would be a fine fiesta, and that we would get some fishing.</code></pre><pre><code>We walked to the station. I was enjoying Cohn's nervousness. I hoped Brett would be on the train. At the station the train was late, and we sat on a baggage-truck and waited outside in the dark. I have never seen a man in civil life as nervous as Robert Cohn--nor as eager. I was enjoying it. It was lousy to enjoy it, but I felt lousy. Cohn had a wonderful quality of bringing out the worst in anybody.</code></pre><pre><code>It was a little past noon and there was not much shade, but I sat against the trunk of two of the trees that grew together, and read. The book was something by A. E. W. Mason, and I was reading a wonderful story about a man who had been frozen in the Alps and then fallen into a glacier and disappeared, and his bride was going to wait twenty-four years exactly for his body to come out on the moraine, while her true love waited too, and they were still waiting when Bill came up.</code></pre><pre><code>He could not stop looking at Brett. It seemed to make him happy. It must have been pleasant for him to see her looking so lovely, and know he had been away with her and that every one knew it. They could not take that away from him.</code></pre><pre><code>"I'm rather drunk," Mike said. "I think I'll stay rather drunk. This is all awfully amusing, but it's not too pleasant. It's not too pleasant for me."</code></pre><pre><code>I looked and saw her coming through the crowd in the square, walking, her head up, as though the fiesta were being staged in her honor, and she found it pleasant and amusing.</code></pre><pre><code>...he moved with greater difficulty as his pain increased, and finally the crowd were actively against him, and he was utterly contemptuous and indifferent. He had meant to have a great afternoon, and instead it was an afternoon of sneers, and shouted insults, and finally a volly of cushions and pieces of bread and vegetables, thrown down at him in the plaza where he had had his greatest triumphs.</code></pre><pre><code>I went in and ate dinner. It was a big meal for France but it seemed very carefully apportioned after Spain. I drank a bottle of wine for company. It was a Chateau Margaux. It was pleasant to be drinking slowly and to be tasting the wine and to be drinking alone. A bottle of wine was good company.<br />...The waiter seemed a little offended about the flowers of the Pyrenees, so I overtipped him. That made him happy. It felt comfortable to be in a country where it is so simple to make people happy. You can never tell whether a Spanish waiter will thank you. Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money. <br />...Next morning I tipped every one a little too much at the hotel to make more friends, and left on the morning train for San Sebastian. At the station I did not tip the porter more than I should because I did not think I would ever see him again. I only wanted a few good French friends in Bayonne to make me welcome in case I should come back there again.</code></pre><pre><code>"Bung-o!" Brett said. I drank my glass and poured out another. Brett put her hand on my arm.<br />"Don't get drunk, Jake," she said. "You don't have to." <br />"How do you know?" <br />"Don't," she said. "You'll be all right."</code></pre><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">Susan Henderson</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:41 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4245 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh) <div class="item-image" style="padding:3px;float:left;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6445"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312424493.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_V1104934985_.jpg" /></a></div><div class="ac-title" style="font-weight:bold;font-size:14px;"><a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/6445">Happy Baby</a></div><div class="ac-creator">by Stephen Elliott</div><br clear="all" /><p>Unimaginable heart born out of unimaginable horror.</p><p>&#8212;<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SusanHenderson/">smh</A></p> Wed, 25 May 2005 17:12:40 GMT http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/4243 nobody@allconsuming.net (smh)