The Twelve: The Lives of the Apostles After Calgary

Ruffin, C Bernard. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, Huntington Indiana, 1997.

Extremely interesting read, and well laid-out for the layman, as it were - takes most of its cues from the Book of Acts (of course) and other mentions throughout the Gospels. However, it also admits to certain lack of historical evidence regarding several of the Apostles histories before they met Christ, as well as trying to illuminate the facts from supposition about what they did after Christ.

Suffice it to say, what is important in the Bible is of course, what we have - and a biography of the men who helped plant the seeds of Christianity is not as important as the message itself, however, putting them in a more human context is always great fun, and I do appreciate that the book does admit when evidence is lacking and what can merely be extrapolated from what we do have to work with.

All in all, though - it's a nice read.

VG

if you listen: poems and photographs of the San Juan Mountains

Rosemary Wahtola Trommer, writer.
Eileen Benjamin, photographer.
Western Reflections, Montrose CO, 2000.

The black and white photography are very very subtly powerful, and the poetry is fairly complimentary to the photographs. As with all these types of books, for some reason I always prefer the visual. I hope that is a true reflection of the relative quality of the two art forms and not just because I have succumbed to the "visual-only" world/culture in which we live.

That theory needs to be expounded upon. Later.



VG

Edward Hopper - A Journal of His Work

Deborah Lyons. Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, in association with WW Norton and Co, NY, 1997.

I really shouldn't blog a book that I didn't technically "read" all the way through, but I just wanted to make a note that this is a collection of his journals, which include great rough pencil sketches, and as such, are a great insight into the thoughts and ideas that go into the pre-process of "constructing" art.

Interesting reading.

VG

Stalking the Wild Semicolon: An Easy Guide to Punctuation

Myatt, William. Thresh Publications, 1976.

It seems almost silly for me to review a slim 50-page book (with half of those being blank!) after not having posted on my book blog for so long. Makes it seem like I don't read much at all. Actually, I have been reading, but I just haven't been able to finish any books - got about 5 or 6 hjalfway through or started . . .

oh well, this little book, then. It's actually a very very good starter for punctuation, even if it is decades out of date (I mean, let's face it - it states to hit the "dash" key twice on your typewriter to make a hyphen!)

Still, it's very entertaining, easy to read, and it even contains in the back a series of rejection letters, each with a suggestion to try to the succeeding publisher, until he finally found the Thresh publications, which would possibly at the time have been considered a cut above the "small press" publications -

Man, books like these actually are true jewels . . . something made from the sheer joy of making it, and a decent product as well. I would highly recommend this book (or that this book be updated) into a text where punctuation could be taught for adult literacy courses.

See? Still has a need. All you young'uns out there take note, even "old" things can still be useful!

TTFN


VG