In Our Time / Nick Adams Stories (9)

In Our Time / Nick Adams Stories
Ernest Hemingway

I first read In Our Time in a college lit class. I remember being captivated by the Nick Adams stories because many of them took place in Northern Michigan. This is an area I spent my entire life around, and I knew many of the places that he mentions in his stories. After reading Hunting With Hemingway, I had to re-read this book, as many of the stories deal with hunting and fishing, and are set in the area I know so well. I won't go into detail about the stories as so many other sites to a better job than me.

In Our Time was published in 1925 and, the collection of short stories marked Hemingway's US debut. The original book contained:
* On the Quai at Smyrna (added to the 1930 edition)
N * Indian Camp
N * The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife
N * The End of Something
N * The Three-Day Blow
N * The Battler
* A Very Short Story
* Soldier's Home
* The Revolutionist
* Mr. And Mrs. Elliot
* Cat in the Rain
* Out of Season
N * Cross-Country Snow
* My Old Man
N * Big Two-Hearted River: Part One
N * Big Two-Hearted River: Part Two

The N indicates a Nick Adams story. Hemingway also wrote some more stories with the Nick character, which is loosely based on his experiences as a boy. In 1972 another book was published that contained all the Nick Adams stories in one volume. In addition the the (N)ick stories above it also included.

* In Another Country
* A Way You'll Never Be
* The Killers
* Ten Indians
* Fathers And Sons
* Now I Lay Me.

I mentioned reading Hemingway in college. This volume was one of the few books I kept from college... however I can no longer find it. Perhaps it is one of my boxes of books, or perhaps it walked off. Years ago I bought The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, so I just read the stories from here.

I am not a huge Hemingway fan, but these stories are very engaging and I can read them over and over. It was nice to sit down and read them at once again.. I will have to do this more often :)

Hunting With Hemingway (8)

Hunting With Hemingway
Hilary Hemingway and Jeffrey P. Lindsay

This is a book I picked up at the library book sale. It is the stories of Les Hemingway, younger brother of Ernest about their adventures hunting together. The book is written by his daughter Hilary. The book is less about Hemingway and more about personal exploration.
Hilary's mother has just passed away and leaves her an audio tape of her father who had died 15 years previously. The tape is a recording of her father talking with an author sitting by a bon fire, and talking about his life and experiences with his brother. We learn that Les took the "family exit" (suicide) and that Hilary, although in college at the time, never made peace with this. The tape finally lets her understand her father and the decision he made. Along the way there are some wonderful stories and interaction with the author and her young daughter as they listen to the tape.
A wonderful book even if you are not a Hemingway fan.

The Essential Salvador Dali (7)

The Essential Salvador Dali
Robert Goff

I don't usually include art books in my reading lists and reviews. But I pick them up from time to time. I don't really know anything about art.. but my two favorite authors are Escher and Dali. There are similarity of both in their complexity.
Dali is so weird... so strange.. so DETAILED.. you can look at his painting and it is hard to take it all in.. the objects seem disjointed and your brain struggles to fit it together and make sense of it. I can look at it and keep noticing new things in the pictures. He really was amazing.. how he came up with the content for his painting and the level of detail in some of them is astounding.

This book is a wonderful edition, sort of like art for dummies. It goes through and gives you background on Dali, as well and explaining the meaning of some of his noted works. It gives you a quick introduction to Dali's life and work.. and does so in a simple fun manner that does not require an art history degree to make sense of!

The book is tiny about 6" square... which is my only complain of it.. it is too small to see much of the detail in the paintings.

I highly recommend this book to anyone like me, who is interested in Dali's work, but really knows nothing about art.

Some Dali Resources...
The Dali Museum in Florida has the largest collection of Dali art in the world.

Also found the Dali Art Gallery on line which has a lot of his painting as well as some of his drawing and studies for his paintings, and some of his objects. Dali was much more than just a painter.. he worked in many mediums and also wrote.

Setting The Pace (6)

Setting The Pace
Oldsmobile's First 100 years
Helen Jones Early and James T. Walkinshaw

This is the history of Oldsmobile in Lansing from when the Olds family came to Lansing in the 1800's until 1997 with John Rock saying how Olds is poised to take on the second century. Of course within 3 years GM announced Olds was done and in 2004 the last car rolled off the line in Lansing and Oldsmobile became another car in history.

The book was heavy on facts and figures, production numbers, wheel base, horsepower, building numbers. I was hard to get a flow with the book. What you gleamed from it was that Olds took pride in their work and all tried to make it better. In spite of that there were some horrible start up problems and other mistakes along the way. But in the end there was a deep association between OLDSmobile and Lansing. This was the thing I never understood.. growing up in the GM world.. where it wasn't Olds.. just GM.. many people are still very bitter about Olds going away.. and this book helps to lay some of the background behind that. It also had some of the background on the plants (most of which are now idle or being torn down).

The wonderful part of the book was the photos. LOTS of pictures both of cars, but also of the manufacturing process, and buildings. Along the way there are some great pics of what Lansing looked like in previous days.

I am not sure of the broad appeal of this book. I think it would be best enjoyed by people associated with Olds in Lansing. The book is available from GM through their website
The book was written by 2 people.. I believe Ms Early has since passed away, but Mr Walkinshaw, is an active member of the RE Olds Museum in Lansing.