Review: The Artificial River by Carol Sheriff

I don't review many non-fiction books, mainly because they are usually being read for school and I get really sick of whatever it is I usually have to read for school.  But I had to read The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862 for a class on New York State history, and I ended up loving it.  As a lot of you know, I live in Buffalo, NY, the last stop on the Erie Canal, so the canal has always been close to my heart (because my city is close to my heart, and it's great here, and you should come and visit it!).  Artificial River chronicals the building of the canal across the state and focuses on how it was both progress and a frustration for the people living along it.  Filled with an insane amount of info, from what cities like Buffalo and Rochester used to be (pretty much nothing but a few shacks) to primary sources depicting real life and real opinions at the time the canal was built and afterwards, this book is a treasure trove for anyone interested in NYS history or the Erie Canal.

I really liked reading about what people living along the canal route thought of it.  At first, many people were ecstatic.  The canal would bring mail a lot faster than roads, and farmers would be able to transport their goods to more markets.  Entrepreneurs were able to set up their own businesses along the canal, and the construction of the canal and subsequent boom in business employed tons of people.  The canal could also be frustrating though.  Farmers' land was sometimes ruined or taken from them.  The canal sometimes broke in places and flooded the land, and boats would be stuck waiting in long lines while repairs were made.  Also, because of Upstate New York's cold temperatures, the canal had to be shut down every winter when it froze over.  This frustrated settlers in remote areas because they had gotten used to fast news from loved ones in New England or Europe during the warm months and didn't like the long wait for letters all winter.

Child labor was also an issue on the canal.  Young boys and sometimes girls lead the horses who pulled the boats.  They were mistreated and often abused by boat captains, and they were surrounded by the canal workers, ruffians with bad manners who many living along the canal didn't like at all.  These are just a few of the conflicts of progress that the canal brought with it.  Much more in discussed in the book.

As mentioned above, one of my favorite things to read about in Artificial River was the building up of towns and cities along the canal routes.  Buffalo, Lockport, and Rochester are mentioned frequently, but so are many other canal towns stretching across the state.

I think anyone who likes canal or NYS history will enjoy this.  It's non-fiction, but it's not insanely heavy.  It's written in an easy to understand way, and I loved how Sheriff kept all the spelling mistakes in primary sources that are quoted.  It helps to show who these people along the canal were.  They weren't all great spellers, but they were intelligent people nonetheless, and they were people who wanted a better life for their families.  Many of them had lived through or had relatives who lived through the American Revolution, and they felt very strongly about their property rights.  When parts of their land were taken away for the canal, they expressed their unhappiness (I'm ignoring for the purpose of this review the fact that the land had once belonged to Native Americans, who were forced off of their homelands).

Artificial River ends with the railroads and how they eventually surpassed the canal.  As Sheriff put it, "If the Erie Canal compressed distance and time, the railroads annihilated them" (page 173).  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read about more NYS history in my class.

And oh yeah, how awesome is the name "Cadwallader"??!  Never heard that before reading this book!  (and yes, it's a first name)

Title: The Artificial River
Author: Carol Sheriff
Date of Publication: 1997
Number of Pages: 177
Genre: Non-Fiction, Erie Canal
Source: Personal Cop

Review: A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (aka I love me some Sherlock Holmes)

I've always had a thing for Sherlock Holmes.  I chalk it up to Basil Rathbone and his dreamy good looks and awesome acting.  A Study in Scarlet was my first ever attempt at reading a Sherlock Holmes story, because up until I read it, I'd only seen movies!  (the best are with Rathbone, but I was surprised by how much I adored the newish Holmes movie that came out a few years ago with Robert Downy Jr.)

A Study in Scarlet is the first Holmes mystery, and it's actually the story where Holmes and Watson first met.  I loved reading about their introduction and their first few weeks as roommates, and about how fascinated Watson was by Holmes' capability of deduction.  Holmes is asked by the police to help them solve a murder.  The body seems to be unmarked, and is in a vacant building with a word written on a wall in blood.  Holmes is happy to help, though he's sure Scotland Yard will take all the credit when he solves the case.  Holmes invites Watson to come along, and here we have their case together!  After a second body is found, the police are a bit flustered, but Holmes presses on in his search for the murderer.

I loved A Study in Scarlet!  The story was great, and while it did have its flaws, it was very entertaining.  I was surprised by how similar Holmes and Watson were in this book compared to movies I've seen.  It's nice to see that the films portrayed them so accurately.  Sherlock Holmes is definitely a brooder.  He is always sitting alone, lost in his thoughts.  He's also very smart and notices the tiniest of details, which I'm sure came in handy back before forensic science was around to help solve crimes.  Watson is shocked when they are first introduced and Holmes knows right away that he fought in Afghanistan.  A little later in the book, Holmes explains:

Page 18: "You appeared to be surprised when I told you, on our first meeting, that you had come from Afghanistan."
"You were told, no doubt."
"Nothing of the sort.  I knew you came from Afghanistan..........The train of reasoning ran, 'Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man.  Clearly an army doctor then.  He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair.  He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly.  His left arm has been injured.  He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner.  Where in the tropics could an English doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded?  Clearly, in Afghanistan.'"

Part 2 of the story was slow and boring at first.  It totally leaves Holmes, Watson, and England, and you are suddenly in Utah.  I was confused until I realized that this part was explaining everything that led up to the murders.  After the scene was set and things got rolling, that part became really interesting, and I couldn't wait to find out how this all came to be.

As I mentioned above, Sherlock Holmes has a knack for details.  It helped him solve these murders when the police detectives were too busy jumping to conclusions.  What I also really enjoyed about this is how Holmes, upon making a discovery, would keep it to himself.  Sometimes he remarked to the police or to Watson about a small clue he'd found, but he always waited to explain himself.  In the end, Holmes new how everything had happened long before the police.

I liked the author's writing style because it went well with Holmes' personality.  There were a few factual errors, which were pointed out in footnotes by the editor, but they didn't interfere with the story or its entertainment value.  I read parts of the intro, which in my Barnes and Noble Classics edition is by Kyle Freeman.  It has a lot of interesting details about people in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life that he may have based his characters off of.  Watson, many believe, is Doyle himself, while Holmes may be a mixture of people, including one of the author's former teachers.

If you love mysteries or are a fan of the Sherlock Holmes movies, I think you'll love this story.

Title: A Study in Scarlet
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Date of Publication: 1887 original, my Barnes and Noble Classics edition is from 2003
Number of Pages: 96
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Getting the Creative Juices Flowing

I'm working on a French essay that's due in my teacher's inbox tomorrow by midnight, and I constantly have to stop and rethink what I'm doing and take breaks and just put off writing more. Sometimes papers, and reviews for that matter, just don't seem to flow like they should. So I have a question for you:

How do you get your creative juices flowing? Or better yet, how do you get things flowing in general?? Sometimes no matter how hard I try, I can't get a paper to come out sounding like it should, and I wonder if there is something that you do that helps when you are in a similar situation.

For me, the answer is usually quite simple. I take a break. I have some coffee (or wine, or in this case because it was so recently St. Patrick's Day, Guinness). Then I go back to my paper. Sometimes I have to do this after each paragraph. Sometimes I only need to do it once and then the rest of my paper comes out really quickly and sounds really nice.

Reviews for me are usually much easier to write because I really like writing them. Sometimes though I am so burned out from schoolwork that it's hard for me to get all my thoughts together to write a coherent review. When that happens, I usually just force myself to start writing anyway, and after a wee bit, everything comes into focus and the writing comes easier.

Sometimes writing just doesn't happen at all, or if it does, it doesn't sound very nice at all. When that happens, I usually have to take a long break. With essays for school, this sucks when the essay is due the next day, which is why I try to start the essay well in advance (which doesn't always happen, as hard as I try. I used to be and am still to an extent a huge procrastinator).

So dear readers, what do you do when you are in a similar situation? I'd love to hear what you all have to say!

Review: The Curse of the Spellmans

Lisa Lutz has charmed me again with Curse of the Spellmans, the sequel to one of my favorite reads ever, The Spellman Files.  In this book, main character Izzy Spellman has gotten herself into deep water.  She is a private investigator in a family with a private investigating business.  Her problem?  She can't seem to keep herself out of jail.  One more arrest and she could lose her P.I. license.  But Izzy isn't about to stop snooping on her ex-boyfriend turned possible murderer.  She'll do whatever it takes to get to the truth.  This witty and funny novel is fast-paced and will keep you laughing from beginning to end.

I was so excited when I saw this book for super duper cheap at bookcloseouts.com in November, and I had to buy it.  I read the first book years ago when a book-of-the-month club my mom is in sent her the wrong book.  She decided to keep it, and I read it and fell in love with the Spellman family.  They are a quirky bunch, each with a very distinct personality.  Izzy, the narrator, has always been my favorite character for her wit and major attitude problems.

One of the things I love about this book (and the first one as well) is its format.  Because Izzy is a P.I., the whole book is pretty much written like a long case file.  I especially love the footnotes at the bottom of the pages, where Izzy explains stories, TV shows, and family members.  It's such a unique (and often super funny) way of telling a story, and Lisa Lutz does it perfectly.  Another thing I really appreciate is Izzy's obsession with an old TV show called Get Smart.  I haven't had the honor of seeing it yet, but I myself am obsessed with a TV show from around the same time period called The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  In The Spellman Files (book 1), Izzy was constantly referencing Get Smart episodes.  Curse of the Spellmans doesn't refer to it as much, but it does include a lot of hilarious scenes (and footnotes!) about the TV show Dr. Who, which I've never seen but am now very compelled to.

While reading book 2, I loved examining how the characters have grown and developed since book 1.  They are all still as funny as ever, but in this book I really feel like I know them.  They are also very real because they have very real faults, just like you and me (because *gasp* even the best of us are not perfect!).  One of my favorite things in Curse of the Spellmans was the relationship between Rae (Izzy's 15 year old little sister) and Henry (a friend of Izzy's who is a 40 something year old detective).  Rae for some reason thinks Henry is her best friend and is constantly at his office and apartment.  Henry should be really annoyed, but he actually turns their meetings into something constructive.  He makes Rae do her homework and helps her study, something her family could never get her to do.  Their relationship is so sweet and so well developed, and I love it because it's so innocent.  They really are just friends, and it's funny when Rae's teachers just can't comprehend that.  I also love how confused Izzy got over the situation at times.  Some chapters are supposed to be transcripts from recordings she makes of Rae and Henry's conversations (she is of course a P.I. and also investigating her weird family members), and those chapters had me laughing really hard.  Rae and Henry are so cute together.

Here is a passage about the Rae-Henry relationship:
Pages 24-25: (Izzy is narrating) The primary conflict between Henry and my sister was how they should go about defining their relationship-not to each other, but to other people.  The first time this problem arose was when Henry's boss, Lieutenant Osborn, entered Stone's office shortly after Rae's arrival.
"Henry," the lieutenant said pleasantly, "is this nice young lady an informant?"
To which Rae, genuinely flattered, replied, "No.  We're just good friends."
The lieutenant gave Inspector Stone a double-take, handed him a case file, and left the office with a cordial nod of the head.
"In the future, Rae, it's probably best if you don't refer to me as your friend."
"But we are friends, right?"
"I guess so," Stone reluctantly replied, unable to come up with another definition.  "But just don't say it out loud."

This book was great.  Because of it's format, it's a super quick read.  I read it in one weekend when I was sick with a nasty cold and sore throat.  I highly recommend it to anyone who loves funny books, a good mystery, and seriously witty and sarcastic characters.  I'm super psyched that there are two other books in the series out now!  I really, really enjoyed Curse of the Spellmans!

A fave quote:
Page 84: (Izzy, on her arrests for snooping on her very suspicious-looking ex-boyfriend) "I have many flaws, but I suppose the only one that truely damages my life is that I believe all questions have answers and I believe that I am entitled to those answers."

Title: Curse of the Spellmans
Author: Lisa Lutz
Date of Publication: 2009 for paperback edition
Number of Pages: 480
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Weekend Reads

It's been another crazy week at my house!  I've barely been home because of work, group projects, and tons of French Club fun (and presentation prep!).  I'm SO glad it's the weekend!  Tomorrow (Sunday) French Club is doing a presentation for the Alliance Francaise de Buffalo on the history and culture of Corsica.  Should be fun and interesting, except for the part where they forgot to tell us that we had to present the same day as the St. Patrick's Day parade!!  And there are at least 3 presenters (myself, Twin, and a friend) who are hardcore Irish and need to be there.  Luckily, we are the first presenters and are going to sneak off as soon as we can to that parade and all the green beer we can drink!

I have as usual been reading a ton lately, but mostly for school.  I've managed to sneak in some pleasure reading though, so reviews should be posted this week.  I should be writing an essay right now but I think I'm going to postpone that until later and work on reviews :)

On a really awesome note, I'm a member of a website called Ravelry.  It is awesome, and it is for knitters, crocheters, weavers, dyers, etc.  I participate every year in a St. Patrick's Day swap, and I got my packages from my awesome swapper!  She was absolutely amazing.  Remember that review I posted a few weeks ago of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice?  I mentioned how I would really love to read it in German, Mann's native language.  My swapper just happened to be from Germany, and look what she sent me!!!!

It's Der Tod in Venedig, the German version!!!!!  Best swap partner ever!  I was seriously comletely shocked and excited when I opened my package and saw this :)  I can't wait to start reading it.  I think I'll save it for summer.  It will be awesome practice and it will totally help me build my German vocabulary and grammar :)  Can you tell I'm really excited?!  Love the cover, too!

Hope you all had a great week and weekend!  Reading anything good yourselves?  Do you have anything exciting going on this coming week?  My night class this Wednesday was cancelled, so I get to go home at 4:15 instead of 8:10!  Yay!

Literary Blog Hop-What must I read before I die?

The Literary Blog Hop is a biweekly hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase.  Anyone who reviews a lot of literary or classic books can participate!  For more information or to join in, head over to The Blue Bookcase! 

This week's question comes from the wonderful Deb Nance over at Readerbuzz:
What one literary work must you read before you die?

Well this is actually kind of a hard question for me.  There are so many books I really want to read!  I guess if I had to choose, I'd pick Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  I would read it in French.  I've wanted to read this one for ages and hopefully will someday get around to it!  So many of my friends love the play (I think maybe it's a musical??) and talk about it a lot, but I don't know much about the story or what it's about (I know I know, shame on me..).  I'm pretty sure it will be awesome though, and that's why I choose this book :)

Review: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Death in Venice is a novella by German author Thomas Mann.  I read the translation by H.T. Lowe-Porter, which I liked, though I'd love to eventually read this in its native tongue because there were some parts that seemed awkward.  It could just be Mann's own style, but it might be the translation.  My teacher also did mention that there are parts that the translator changed up a bit.  I'm pretty sure that Lowe-Porter's translations of Mann's works are the most widely read and accepted.

Death in Venice follows Gustave von Aschenbach from Munich, Germany to Venice, Italy.  He is a famous writer who is known for his hard work ethic and beautiful prose.  One day he is out walking near his home and sees a foreign-looking man.  Aschenbach, about 50 years old, suddenly has a yearning to travel, and so he eventually ends up in Venice.  He stays for quite a while in a hotel, where he becomes obsessed with a tennage boy named Tadzio.  Aschenbach can't take his eyes off of the god-like yet sickly young man.  Even rumors of a cholera outbreak can't diminish his obsession and love for the boy.

I really liked Death in Venice, though the beginning was super slow for me and it took me some time to get into.  Aschenbach ponders a lot about his profession as a writer and what it means to be an artist.  Which was fascinating the first time and then got a little old.  The story picks up once he gets to Venice, and it's interesting as you read to notice how he slowly loses parts of himself and becomes more and more obsessed with Tadzio.  There are also hints throughout about him slowly becoming ill.  I pitied Aschenbach a lot until I realized he was happy in Venice.  He could leave and go back to his old life, but after a certain point, it's too late and you realize taht Aschenbach is never going back (and let's face it, I didn't give anything away, since the title states that this story is about a death in Venice).

The imagery in Death in Venice is beautiful.  I've never been to Venice, but I could easily picture parts of the city as I read.  This is a very quick read, but it's a great one once you get past the slower parts.  I thought it was very profound in that Aschenbach has this brilliant and successful career, yet he doesn't seem to want to go back to it.  I think it just wants to be at piece and not toil with his perfect writing any longer.  At any rate, the passages about being an "artist" I think are super important, especially if you are going to read more Mann because it seems to be a recurring theme in his writing, even though it gets old after you've read the same thing already.

Some favorite quotes:
Page 18: Wrapped in his cloak, a book in his lap, our traveller rested; the hours slipped by unawares.  It stopped raining, the canvas was taken down.  The horizon was visible right round; beneath the sombre dome of the sky stretched the vast plain of empty sea.  But immeasurable unarticulated space weakens our power to measure time as well: the time-sense falters a grows dim.
Page 45: Thought that can merge wholly into feeling, feeling that can merge wholly into thought-these are the artist's highest joy.

Title: Death in Venice
Author: Thomas Mann
Date of Publication: Originally in 1911, my copy is from 1989
Number of Pages: 73
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Review: Le Tartuffe by Molière

Over the next week or so, I'll be posting short reviews of some of what I've been reading for school.  They are mainly novellas, and plus I'm sick of discussing them in class (though I loved them all), so that's why they are "quick" reviews.  Today's review isn't really all that short, but it's much shorter than it could be.

The first play I got to read in my Molière class is Le Tartuffe, sometimes called L'Imposteur (or The Imposter in English).  I have a whole long post planned just on Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Molière, so I'm not going to get in depth into his life right now.  I will say that after Le Tartuffe was first played in 1664 at Louis XIV's "fête des plaisirs de l'île enchantée", it was banned from being played publicly.  This first version contained just 3 acts.  Molière later revised it to the 5 acts we know today.  Why was it banned?  Because of it's subject matter.  Le Tartuffe is about a "faux dévot", or someone who pretends to be very religious and charitable when really she is just greedy and only cares about herself.  The faux dévot in this play is named Tartuffe, and I could do a whole blog post just on the different reasons why Molière may have chosen that as his name, but I won't, because it's really not important.  Tartuffe uses his disguise as a pious man of the Church to get ahead in life.  Molière basically based Tartuffe's character off of many prestigious men who were members of a secret religious society.  Long story short, the vast majority of these people acted charitably and religiously, but only so that they could benefit and get ahead.  Le Tartuffe was finally unbanned in 1669 after Louis XIV finally was able to dismantle the society, and the play became an instand and huge success.

So that was a lot of background dumbed down.  It's hard to talk about the play without the background info, and I hope you thought it to be as interesting as I did :)

I think I mentioned at the start of this semester how I much I HATE reading plays.  I take that back.  I LOVED Le Tartuffe!  It was hilarious.  It is about a man, Orgon, who is blind to the lies that Tartuffe tells him.  He thinks the world of Tartuffe, and Tartuffe knows it.  In fact, Orgon even takes Tartuffe's word over those of his own family members.  Most of Orgon's family and servants can't stand Tartuffe and know he's a fake, but Orgon doesn't listen to them.  He decides to marry off his daughter to Tartuffe and after banishing his son Damis (because Damis tried telling him the truth about Tartuffe), Orgon decides that Tartuffe will become his inheriter.  Orgon's daughter Mariane is devestated because she loves a man named Valère.  However, Mariane refuses to speak up against her father.  So her servant Dorine (my favorite character-she is SO funny) hatches up a plan to make Orgon rethink the marriage.  Tartuffe hits on Elmire, Orgon's wife, and basically says he wants to sleep with her.  Orgon of course doesn't believe what he hears.  His family and servants keep speaking up about the problem.  Will Orgon listen?  What will happyen to Tartuffe?  And will Mariane get to be with Valère, her lover?  All these questions and more are answered with the surprise ending!  But you'll have to read it or see it yourself because I'm not giving anymore away.

So if you can't tell, I definitely recommend Le Tartuffe.  I read it in French, but it's easy to find in English.  I laughed so much my stomach hurt when I read it.  Molière definitely has a way with words, and I can't wait to read the next play for my class, Le Misanthrope.

Molière definitely gets you thinking both during and after reading this play.  One questino in particular that I'm pondering is this: does Molière say anything about speaking up vs. being quiet in Le Tartuffe?  Do those who speak up and tell the truth get out ahead of those who keep their mouths shut?  Or is it the other way around?  It's something to think about, especially because I have a paper due on the topic in a week. 

If you don't love Le Tartuffe for its humor, you'll probably love it for the way Molière creates strong female characters who aren't afraid to speak their minds (and yes, I'm talking to you Dorine!), something that wasn't super common in plays back in the 17th Century.

A fave passage, though it's in French (sorry in advance!):
Page 54: Dorine: "Le soir, elle eut un grand dégout, et ne peut au souper toucher a rien du tout, tant sa douleur de tête était encore cruelle!"
Orgon: "Et Tartuffe?"
Dorine: "It soupa, lui tout seul, devant elle, et fort dévotement il mangea deux perdrix, avec une moitié de gigot en hachis."
Orgon: "Le pauvre homme!"

The scene goes on like that for a while, with Dorine explaining how Orgon's wife was sick while he was away.  Everytime she says something about Elmire, Orgon asks how Tartuffe was.  Dorine responds with something about how he is doing well and eating and drinking a lot and is happy, and Orgon will just be like, "Oh, the poor man!"  Hilarious.  I need to see this play on the stage!

Title: Le Tartuffe
Author: Molière
Date of Publication: Originally 1669 with 5 acts, but my copy was published in 2008 by Flammarion
Number of Pages: 147
Genre: comedy (a play)
Source: Personal Copy