I have been on a historical fiction kick lately this summer and it is no wonder because both Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory have new novels out and both are really good and fun to read.  Both of  these books are about strong women who will do whatever they can for their sons to have what they deserve.  At least what they think they deserve.

Captive Queen by Alison Weir is about Eleanor of Aquitaine, who is one of the most admired females in medieval history.  Eleanor was a heiress in her own right with her duchy of Aquitaine which was transferred to France with her marriage to King Louis VII and then to England with her marriage King Henry II.   Captive Queen is mainly about the tempestuous relationship between Eleanor and Henry and the power struggles and rivalries between Henry and their children which include Richard the Lionheart and the future King John.  Eleanor is ‘held captive’ by her love/hate relationship with her husband, Henry, and then finally after betraying him to have her favorite son, Richard, put on the throne of England she physically becomes his captive.

Philippa Gregory has started a new series, The Cousins War, that encompasses the War of the Roses. These stories are about the Plantagenet cousins, the Houses of York and Lancaster, whose claimants and Kings ruled England before The Tudors.  The first of the series is The White Queen which I do recommend reading first and it has just come out in paperback.   The White Queen is Elizabeth Woodville, who captures the heart of the newly crowned young king and marries him in secret.  She and her family, The House of York rise to power and her two sons become a part of one of  history’s biggest unsolved mysteries, The Princes of the Tower of London.  The Red Queen is the story of the Lancaster family during The War of the Roses.  Margaret Beaufort is the heiress to the red rose of Lancaster and she never falters in her belief that her family is the true heir to the crown and after being married to Edmund Tudor and giving birth to Henry, the hope of the House of Lancaster she has a vision that he will one day be the King of England.   After being widowed twice, she marries Thomas, Lord Stanley, who is nicknamed ‘The Fox”.  Margaret has been separated from her son Henry for most of his life and is now putting all her hopes in her third husband to help her bring him out of exile to England to fulfill his destiny, bring down the House of York and become the King of England.

As CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch covered the Katrina aftermath on the Gulf Coast, she made a promise to the hurricane victims in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The day she left, she told them, “I promise I won’t let anyone forget what happened here.”

Rising From Katrina is not just a story of destruction and disaster; it’s a tale of the kindness of strangers, of minor miracles—and, above all, of how communities rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt. It tells of the bravery and resilience of Gulf Coast residents, who—when no help came—helped each other restore their homes, their towns, and their lives.

Kathleen explores how the hurricane changed not just the landscape, but also the people. It is a story of loss, transformation, and resurrection that resonates in these tough economic times.

As Kathleen wrote Rising From Katrina, she kept a brick from her former Bay St. Louis house on her desk. It was her way of staying connected with home and the people she loved. One corner was broken off, and the brick was speckled with mortar, but it was still solid and strong, just like the communities that build up the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rising From Katrina is their story, one that Kathleen calls the most important she’s ever covered.

(from the Press Release for Rising From Katrina by Kathleen Koch, John F. Blair, Publisher)

Kathleen Koch will be signing and reading at Lemuria Tuesday, August 10th, starting at 5 p.m.

The following is an excerpt from an article Kathleen wrote for CNN during the fourth of July weekend, about the oil spill and its effects on an already disaster-weary coast. Her new book, Rising From Katrina, is a tribute to the Gulf Coast victims of the hurricane.

I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It was a place of pristine, natural beauty. Miles of soft, sandy beaches. The gentle, warm waters of the Mississippi Sound. The bays that cut inland to rivers and streams lined with grassy marshes and bayous that served as nurseries for tiny crabs, shrimp and all manner of fish and marine life.

The people of the Gulf Coast are a hardy bunch. They already faced the worst nature could dish out when Hurricane Katrina hit. And just as they were getting back on their feet after years of heartache and struggle, the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history smacks them back down.

That is what makes this such a difficult time for my family, friends and neighbors on the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina left them with a new sense of vulnerability. Its scars are deep. And they are tired to the bone.

If you cannot attend the event but would like to reserve an autographed copy, call 601-366-7619 or click here.

“My mind is bent to tell of bodies changed to other forms.”

– OVID, Metamorphoses

welcome to the wonderful world of mutants.  this book jumped out at me several months ago while i was looking for a book for a customer in the science section (a section i don’t get to spend much time in).  while science in general doesn’t usually pique my interest, mutations and deformities do.

i’ll admit that some of the information in this book is over my head as i was not a very good student and remember nothing from my high school science classes.  mutants goes through several different genetic disorders explaining the history behind them and the genetic process which our bodies go through to cause the deformities.

“Some of us, by chance, are born with an unusually large number of mildly deleterious mutations, while others are born with rather few.  And some of us, by chance, are born with just one mutation of devastating effect where most of us are not.  Who, then, are the mutants?  There can be only one answer, and it is one that is consistent with out everyday experience of the normal and the pathological.  We are all mutants.  But some of us are more mutant than  other.”

who isn’t fascinated by conjoined twins?

how about limbs with no bones?

or what about hands with an extra set of fingers?

“The single eye of a cyclopic child is the external sign of a disorder that reaches deep within the skull.  All normal vertebrates have split brains.  We, most obviously, have left and right cerebral hemispheres that we invoke when speaking of our left or right ‘brains’.  Cyclopic infants do not.  Instead of two distinct cerebral hemispheres, two optic lobes and two olofactory lobes, their forebrains are fused into an apparently indivisible whole.  Indeed, clinicians call this whole spectrum of birth defects the ‘holoprosencephaly series’, from the Greek: holo – whole, prosencephalon – forebrain.  It is, in all its manifestations, the most common brain deformity in humans, afflicting 1 in 16,000 live-born children and 1 in 200 miscarried foetuses.”

1 in every 200 miscarriages is a cyclops.  damn.

“Neck lobes, however, occur not only in goats but also, albeit rarely, in humans.  In 1858 a British physician by the name of Birkett published a short paper describing a seven-year-old girl who had been brought to him with a pair protruding stiffly from either side of her neck.  The girl had had them since birth.  Birkett was not sure what they were, but he cut them off anyway and put them under the microscope, where he discovered that they were auricles-an extra pair of external ears.”

“At day 37 after conception our extremities are as webbed as the feet of a duck.  Over the next few days the cells in the webs die (as they do not in ducks) so that our digits may live free.  Should a foetus have too much FGF signalling in its limbs, cells that should die don’t.  Such a foetus, or rather the child it becomes, has fingers and toes bound together so that the hand or foot looks as if it is wearing a mitten made of skin.”

by Zita

In Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu

Copper Canyon Press (2009)

Last July I blogged about Hinton’s fine translation of Classical Chinese Poetry. While enjoying that book, I stumbled upon a poet I haven’t read much of, Wei Ying-wu. I tried to find a collection of his poems and couldn’t.

Soon after the very fine publisher, Copper Canyon Press, announced a new edition of his work, translated by my favorite translator, the respected Red Pine.

Wei Ying-wu (731-791) was known for his clear, transparent, serene style, a poet’s poet. With plainness he draws the reader into a setting and a mood focusing on seclusion and the ordinary: the feeling of emptiness and enlightenment. Living a life of simplicity, he fashioned his poetic style. By reflecting his sensibility, he achieved desired effects without waste. His clarity of description produces a calming effect on the reader. Being not interested in “the literary world,” his poetry was not written to impress people.

A favorite poem I first read Sept. 6, 2009, sitting on my porch after a day’s work:

Hearing a Flute on the River After Seeing Off Censor Lu

Seeing you off over cups of wine

in the distance I heard a flute on the river

spending the night alone is sad enough

without hearing it again in my quarters

With great pleasure I spent months reading Wei and Pine. It’s transcending each day to spend a little time being touched by great poets.

“Wei Ying-wu is not only one of China’s great poets, he is one of the world’s great poets.” -Red Pine

Bill Porter writes books of poetry under his own name, yet he translates as Red Pine. Many thanks for your fine work, a gift to us all.

Earlier Blogs:

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China

I had heard that John’s daughter, Saramel, had become a partner in an art gallery in Charleston. I managed to catch up with her to see how she ended up with this beautiful little gallery. Here’s her story in her own words.

Even though my hard-working father warned me about the never-ending days in the retail world, I still became interested in the food industry–I loved the fast paced environment and the colorful people. However, even while I was immersed in this lively scene, I had one eye on the art scene. Since my parents had started an art collection for me when I was born, I was always on the lookout for new pieces to add to the collection. For several years after I moved to Charleston, the art mainly looked the same to me. Finally, about six years ago, I began to see some contemporary pieces, more modern works. This inspired me to expand the collection my parents had started.

To my further delight, two friends of mine created a contemporary gallery about a year ago on Broad Street, also known as Gallery Row, by finding artists who were doing unusual work in the local scene and expanding the palate for Charleston. Since one of the gallery owners was growing her family with a set of twins, luckily they asked me to step in as a new partner.

From my father’s love of books to a colorful time in the food industry, it seems I have found a new way to help people figure out what they need to enjoy the moment. Colleen and I are now running Scoop Studios in Charleston and would love to help you find a wonderful piece to expand you and your home.