Spark by Kristine Barnett ✔✔✔

I heard Barnett being interviewed on CBC Radio, and I was impressed with her son's story.  I'm also pretty sure I'd heard about him before. Jake was born with autism, but also with incredible mathematical skills.  He was placed in a Special Ed programme, but his mother withdrew him because he was so unhappy - teachers were trying to discover what he couldn't do rather than what he could. And what he can do is virtually immeasureable, although he has to be reminded to tie his shoelaces, and eat a proper breakfast.

This child's mind is unbelievable!  Kristine relates driving past a Best Buy parking lot at 55 mph, and Jake being able to tell her not only how many cars were in the lot, but also what percentage of them were silver in color! At age seven, she makes arrangements for him to audit college classes, where the professors often cannot answer his questions.  At age 11, he becomes a full-time student in a graduate degree programme, although only one class at a time, simply because when he and his Mom went for the interview, the coins in his pocket overflowed onto the floor, and he was more interested in retrieiving them than talking to the admitting officer! At the present time, he is tutoring his classmates, and research is being done into his developing what has been termed an "original theory" of mathematics, which could put him in line for a Nobel Prize.

I would assign more stars to this book for Jake and Kristine's story, but I wasn't too impressed with the writing. But a fascinating read all the same.  People like Jake do not forget information - they are constantly reliving the moment when they learned, and their ability is akin to our never forgetting how to ride a bike.  When we have to remember a telephone number, we have to write it down quickly, or it'll be forgotten, but Jake's mind is itself the page that's written upon - and his mom describes the size of his "page" as the size of a football field.

It still is almost impossible to comprehend, but the book again reveals the remarkable power and ability of the human brain.  If I were a student again, I'd want to pursue this a bit further.

Summer Reading Recap

I noticed this morning that I haven't got too many books recorded on this blog for the past two months or so, but I only record the ones I've completed - I have a number of books "on the go" at any one time.

So I thought I'd list them here, more to remind myself when I'm looking for something to read ( as if that will ever happen!).  I always have a couple of non-fiction hanging around or on my Kindle/iPad, and books about spirituality are regularly read and reflected upon.

Currently Reading Non-Fiction:

Jazz: A History of America's Music by Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward

The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide To Caring For People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementias and Memory Loss - Mace and Rabins

Spirituality:

Immortal Diamond  - Richard Rohr
Falling Upward       - Richard Rohr ( Study Group selection for 2013/2014)

Hildegard of Bingen: A  Saint For Our Times - Matthew Fox
The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer - John Dominic Crossan

(Interesting to note that all four titles above have been written by Catholic writers.  All of them are former priests!)

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom - John O'Donohue

Book Club Preparation:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
Ernie's Gold: A Prospector's Tale - Brian Martin

THE CUCKOO'S CALLING by J.K. Rowling ✔✔✔

This book reads like the could be the beginning of a series of novels by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling.  It introduces us to private investigator Cormoran Strike, an British ex-soldier who lost his leg in Afghanistan, and to Robyn, the young temp he hires to help him with his new - and to this point highly unsuccessful - business as a private investigator.  Robin arrives for her temporary duties at the precise moment Cormoran's girlfriend, Charlotte, flees his office, having just broken up their 15-year relationship.

Anyway, it's a good read, well-paced, with interesting characters, whose names or places in the story I didn't seem to forget , which is always a good point with mysteries.  The chemistry between Robin and Cormoran is good, and doesn't ever intrude on the progress of the case Strike is trying to solve.

All in all, a pretty good read, and I'd read a sequel for sure.  I did read that there's the possibility of a TV show based on it - I hope it's British!

Most of Me:Surviving My Medical Meltdown by Robyn Levy ✔✔✔

This woman was interviewed for a CBC radio series called Coping, and when I heard that she'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 38 , then breast cancer two weeks later, I knew I had to read it.

She has an irreverent, but spot-on wit : her prosthesis is called Dolores, when she cries she calls that "person" Cry Lady , her loyal dog Nellie, her many friends who help her through the disease.  Her father also has Parkinson's.

A quick read, but a good one. Recommended for younger women diagnosed with either disease.

I'm glad to have actually finished a book!  I started reading Inferno by Dan Brown and had to put it down simply because I just didn't care. I'm reading a bit of Richard Rohr, but found that hard slogging. I was glad to find something I actually wanted to finish reading!

Little Girl Blue by Randy L. Schmidt ✔✔✔

A biography of Karen Carpenter, I've been reading bits and pieces of this over the last few months and finally finished it.  What a sad story of an amazing singer - from a domineering mother who encouraged her brother Richard far more than she did Karen, to the schmuck she married, her struggles with anorexia - she was 75 pounds when she died of a heart attack at age 31.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed ✔✔✔✔

One of the best memoirs I've read in a long time - ranks right up there with The Glass Castle.
Cheryl is a young woman of 22 when her mother dies from cancer at the age of 44, and it's a wrenching description of how the disease claimed her mother's life so quickly.  Four years later, Cheryl embarked on this journey - hiking over 1000 miles across the Pacific Coast Trail - and did it all alone.
The people she meets along the way, the problems she faces with snow and cold, running out of money, constant agony from her hiking boots, make for riveting reading. I found I couldn't put it down.

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan ✔✔✔✔

Set in Paris in the late 1800s, this historical novel tells the story of two sisters, Antoinette and Marie, whose father has just died and left their mother, themselves, and their younger sister Charlotte with no money and three months due in rent. Marie is sent to the Paris Opera where she begins studies to become a ballet dancer, and later a model for Edgar Degas, while Antoinette falls in love with a disreputable criminal, a relationship which ends up with her in prison.

I didn't realize that these two sisters actually existed until I had finished the novel, and Marie is the girl in the painting "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen".  The book was recommended to me by the rug-hooker who shared my table at Trent, and I found it in our library.

It's a vivd portrayal of poverty, of class distinction, of prison life, convent life, brothels, bars etc. in Paris at this time.  Well - written and highly recommended.

Be sure to check www.CathyMarieBuchanan.com/art for a complete showing of the art works mentioned in this book, along with the quote describing each one.  Marie was so self-conscious about her appearance, while Degas may well have chosen her for that very reason!