Every year at this time is bittersweet. It’s graduation season, and as college instructors, we work to see our students graduate, leave us, and move on to bigger and better things.  We enjoy seeing that new world opening up for them, but I, at least, am also always a bit sad to see those bright shiny faces leave us.

In part, some of that sadness simply comes from the inevitable fact that I will lose contact with students with whom I have developed a bond. Granted with the internet, I can keep in touch with many of them, and I do, but the bond changes as well. Of course, that is not a bad thing, but it’s still a bit sad. I can only imagine how it feels for parents who are watching their children end one phase of life to begin another, but I would guess most instructors have an inkling of that feeling.

We had one of our graduation ceremonies last night, and it was full of such endings and beginnings. However, we had two students for whom their would be no earthly beginnings.  We handed out two posthumous degrees. I mention this because it made the bittersweetness of such a time even more so. I had the pleasure and privilege of teaching both of these remarkable women. Hearing their names made me weepy, but then, again, I was already prone to being weepy by the nature of the occasion.  Naming these two women was appropriate–both would have been honor graduates. For me, it made the evening more poignant as it made clear just how starkly the endings and beginnings can be.

But, it was not a sad occasion, and graduations should be bittersweet. They are a time of transition for all involved, as they should be. Ultimately, graduations mark change and growth and life, and that is what it’s all about. So congratulations to all of our graduates, and to all who are graduating at this time of year. May your next steps on the journey take you to many wonderful places.

2013 has been a weird and busy year so far. However, summer has arrived, and I hope to blog more. If nothing else I can post cat pics or something.

No time to blog yesterday since we hit the Rock. I got a haircut which isn’t much of a haircut. I was disappointed and ended up buying the first three Cat Who books for my Nook.  I did however score bacon and a t-bone steak at Waffle House.

Today is the last day before work starts, and I guess I eventually have to do something with the stupid World Lit 2 class. Hmm, you know I eventually should buy Night and The Kite Runner shouldn’t I? Despite having absolutely no desire to read them or teach them–It’s sad, I don’t want this class to make at all This stupid Diversity grant has killed my desire to teach it. Oh well, I shall choose things I like for everything else. And come Fall, I’m backing out because I’m so disillusioned with both the grant and my colleagues.

Not much going on today. Laundry and book club. My two critical studies on fairy tales arrived, so I shall be reading those. I hope to pick up the first 4 The Cat Who books, and then it’s back to work

More later

I may live in Arkansas after a 10 year stint in Oklahoma, but I was born and spent the first 27 years of my life in the New Orleans area. Like most people from New Orleans, you can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl. This leads me to the second of my Christmas CD commentaries, Fats Domino’s Christmas Gumbo.

Fats Domino is, of course, a New Orleans legend, but I stumbled across this Christmas cd by accident–my husband found it for me.  The cd has a nice New Orleans sound that cures my homesickness and always cheers me up. It’s an upbeat cd for the most part, and it has many of the popular Christmas classics. It’s Fats Domino’s own inimitable style though that gives the album its charm.

It has 12 tracks on it, and the first two are pure Fats (he wrote them). They are also the songs I like the most. The first is called “I Told Santa Claus,” and it’s a sweet little New Orleans jazzy song with a sense of humor. The second is “Christmas is a Special Day,” and it manages to catch the religious sentiment of the season and the whole point of the season without being too maudlin. This is followed by Fats singing the classic “Jingle Bells” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” I usually dislike “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” because of its cloying sentiments, and in other hands, it seems such a downer of a song to my ear. However, Fats has a bluesy style that comes across as upbeat, and the horn section just keeps the song more cheerful than melancholy, as does Fats’s performance. This is followed by “Silver Bells,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Blue Christmas,” “Silent Night,” and “White Christmas.”  All of these have a jazzy New Orleans flair which lift them out of the usual. They are simply fun to my ears. The last two tracks are “Please Come Home for Christmas” and “Amazing Grace.” Both songs are clearly sung with great heart by Fats, and “Amazing Grace” is just lovely.

Fats Domino is of course a class act, and so is this cd. My love for it comes from the fact that its jazzy sound soothes my homesickness. These are the Christmas songs I turn to most when I need a dose of New Orleans. It’s a shame this cd isn’t really well known; it should be.

Tomorrow’s cd: The Superions’ Destination Christmas. 

So yesterday was Thanksgiving, and everything worked out well. Much food was eaten, and some laziness achieved. A good day.  I’m also very thankful to have spent the day with my family, and to have talked to my mom on the phone. I’m very thankful for all the good things in my family. And one more thing to be thankful for–it’s Christmas music time!

I love Christmas music, so to celebrate that love and the season, I have decided to review Christmas music (old and new) for the season. Hopefully, a Christmas record a day. I’m going to start with a classic today.

One of my favorite Christmas cds is Bing Crosby’s White Christmas (originally released as Merry Christmas). I grew up with this one on vinyl. In my mind and heart, it is the soundtrack of Christmas.  From the opening strains of “Silent Night” to the silliness of “Mele Kalikimaka,” this whole cd just screams Christmas. It’s a classic for a reason .

This cd has all of the classic carols, and they are sung by Bing in his prime. My favorite tracks on the cd are “Adeste Fideles” (“O, Come All Ye Faithful”) which fits Bing’s voice nicely. The classic “White Christmas” takes me back to the few white Christmases I’ve had in my life (New Orleans never got a lot of snow, and Arkansas gets some). “Silver Bells” is one my favorite carols, and Bing sings it with Carole Richards and their voice combine so sweetly. I also like the less known “Christmas in Killarney.” Bing’s tribute to Ireland amuses me, and of course, who can not smile at “Mele Kalikimaka” sung so cheeerily by Bing and the Andrews Sisters.

I don’t have the musical vocabulary to explain why I like this cd so much, and it’s probably not about the musicality anyway, but rather the traditions that go with the cd.  Nostalgia certainly plays a huge role in why I love this cd, but it’s also a good cd with good songs. Afterall it’s been in print in some form or about since 1945 .

Tomorrow, Fats Domino’s Christmas Gumbo. 

Most readers have felt drawn into a book once or twice; many have wanted to make the book’s content real. What reader hasn’t felt this sort of magic?  Jim Hines clearly has as his new novel Libriomancer makes clear.

Hines’ book takes that magic and makes it the premise of the world he creates here. Isaac Vainio, our hero, is a magician–a libriomancer–who can reach into the world of a book and pull out and make real certain objects.  In a world peopled with magical creatures (some dervived from books some natural), this talent comes in handy as Isaac has to save the world from a war between magicians and vampires.  I don’t want to give much of the plot away because it’s fun following Isaac’s adventures.

Hines’ novel is fun to be sure. It’s peopled with a number of fun characters from Isaac himself to Smudge, the fire-spider, to Lena Greenwood (a hamadryad) to Ponce de Leon to Nicola Pallas to Johannes Gutenberg. The plot moves along at a nice clip, and the book is loaded with references to books. These references are where Hines works in some humor some sly and some witty. For instance, early on in the novel Isaac is attacked by vampires called “sparklers” or more scientifically Sanguinarius Meyerii. For readers, these sorts of in-jokes make the book.

All in all, I really enjoyed Hines’ novel. I laughed in a lot of places; I felt proud of myself for recognizing some of the more obscure literary references, and I basically had a lot of fun. A book written by a reader for other readers, Libriomancer provides us with its own magic, and what is better than that?

Now, I’m off to “borrow” my husband’s copy of the omnibus of Hines’ Goblin series.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness is the second book in her series the All Soul’s Trilogy and it follows her first novel,  A Discovery of Witches.  In her first book, Harkness introduces us to a modern world populated by four species—humans, daemons, witches, and vampires. Her hero—Diana Bishop—is the last in a long and powerful line of American witches. By the end of the book, Diana has found a curious manuscript, been attacked by all sorts of creatures, fallen in love with a vampire, and begun to come into her powers. That first book ends with Diana and Matthew (the vampire) going back to the Elizabethan era to find both the manuscript and a teacher for Diana.

Shadow of Night picks up right there with the appearance of Diana and Matthew in 16^th century England, and the adventure begins again.  There is slightly less obvious danger here, but hidden dangers as Diana must learn to be a proper 16^th century woman not a 21t century historian. We meet characters from Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare to Emperor Rudolph of Bohemia. We meet  Phillipe, Matthew’s vampire father, and we learn more of Matthew’s history. We meet the aging Queen Elizabeth, and we run into witch hunts and witches. The numerous characters from history (real and imagined) are fascinating, but the overabundance of characters detracts from the clarity of the plot. The story meanders around 16^th century Europe.  Harkness’s expertise as a Renaissance scholar is both a help and a hindrance here, because it tends to feel as if she’s having too much fun visiting these characters to worry about the plot (indeed, Diana is accused of much the same thing in the novel).

Its historical richness is Shadow of Night’s best and worst asset.  I loved the details and the characters, but in many places, I felt as if the plot had all but been forgotten to focus on the details of time.  I think this book suffers from middle book syndrome, which is that in many trilogies the second book is forced to do a lot of character development, but stalling of the plot so that there is something for book three.

I have to say that I did enjoy this book, but not as much as Discovery of Witches.  The newness of the world and the characters has faded a bit. However, I can’t wait for book three!

Ever have this problem, you start a book, and it’s good, but it’s just not want to read right now?  That describes me right now. I have some severe book a.d.d.

I have started Last Callabout Prohibition, and I am three chapters in. So far, it is a good and interesting read, but just not what I am in the mood for. I then picked up my book club read Blood and Ice.  Nope, not in the mood for frozen vampires who are found during the 21st by Antarctic explorers. Not in the mood for it. Heck, I even put down Sherlock Holmes.

The only thing grabbing my attention right now are books by Mercedes Lackey. I have read these a bunch of times, but these are what are pulling me in. Ah well, hopefully, I get over this book a.d.d.