 Mourning a Garden by Julie Carpenter My garden now consists of a table full of house plants I saved from the little farm in Fayetteville, TN. By way of confession, I actually bought a few more plants, a pot of primroses and a tiny orchid, regardless that there is no more room for them in this little place. Soon we’ll be forced to wear potted plants as hats. Crow has already attempted to use one as a litter box.
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 A Short Story Feat. Uncle Morty by Jarad Johnson “What’s wrong?” she asked. Wrong, he thought, doesn’t begin to cover it. Wrong implies that there is a way to fix said problem, but there was not a solution to dying.
“This wild beast decided to make an attempt at making me his dinner,” he replied, hold up his bleeding hand. She sighed, shooing the cat away, and went to grab a bandage. While he was being doctored, the mongrel kept rubbing his legs, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was only making nice so that he could eat his face off later. Oh well, he was an adorable cat, and who can stay mad at that? Cats are supposed to be bastards, and he could forgive it.  What We Want To Read by Sacred Chickens Staff  Julie – Every year at the end of January, I’m desperate to get back into the garden. So my yearly tradition is to read Mrs. Greenthumbs book How I Turned a Boring Yard into a Glorious Garden and How You Can Too! It’s my all-time favorite gardening book, chock full of advice about buying expensive and possibly picky roses on end of season sale and explaining to them as you plant them that in your garden they’ll ride the bus like everybody else. No divas for Mrs. Greenthumbs! It’s advice like this plus an imaginary walk through her backyard paradise that gets me through the winter. I would love to keep up this tradition, but I’ve run into a snag. First, I lent the book to a friend. Fortunately for that friend, I don’t remember who. (I have to admit that I stole the book from my friend Kathy so…what goes around comes around, I suppose). For some time the book was out of print. However, in the last year or so, libraries have started selling them online. I purchased one! I was out of my mind with joy! And…I packed it.  Life in the Garden Author, Penelope Lively by Jarad Johnson Recently, gardening has become a hobby and interest of mine. However, it’s winter, and I cannot indulge myself by actually being out in my garden in these cold months, so I have turned to books until spring arrives. This book I picked up recently on a whim because it combines gardening and literature, two things that I’m passionate about. In it, the author not only describes her personal experience with gardening, but also broadly discusses how gardens and plants are used as themes in literature. I found myself looking at this book in two different ways, from the perspective of a reader and from the perspective of an (amateur) gardener.
 The New Notebook by Julie Carpenter I have a new notebook. My sister got it for me for Christmas. Actually, she got me three new notebooks. I want to use this one, but I feel kind of guilty. I have lots of other notebooks, three quarters full and I should use them first. Of course, I would have to figure out where they are and we’re in the middle of a renovation in a small space that requires moving all the things at least once a week. Notebooks take advantage of this state of things - like socks take advantage of the dryer cycle - by disappearing into wormholes.
 In Remembrance of Dr. King by Jarad Johnson Today, we remember and honor the leader and icon of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King. Although not without his flaws, Dr. King serves as an inspiration and a reminder that we are all created equal and deserve equal rights. and that injustice still pervades our society. We should also acknowledge that his Dream, which he famously spoke about in Washington, has still not been fully realized. Given that, we have decided to post a portion of his Letter from Birmingham Jail, with a link to the full piece.
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]" 16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.  The Importance of Literature by Jarad Johnson What is literature? If I had to define it, I would say nothing more or less than an examination and exploration of the human condition. Maybe that’s why I’m obsessed with reading story after story, digging through character’s psyches and contexts, trying to figure out life like everyone else. But, for me, stories aren’t always safely contained in books. There are real stories about real people out there too. The way we think about real human stories, the way we pass them on, the way we try to fit them into our own world views, those stories have real effects whether they are fiction, history or current events.
 No Telephone to Heaven Author, Michelle Cliff by Jarad Johnson I recently read a book called No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff. She also used the novel to analyze gender, but in a different, less direct way than in Ashputtle or the Mother’s Ghost (I discussed some thoughts about that book here).
 High Static, Dead Lines Author, Kristen Gallerneaux by Roy Peak Lou Reed exclaimed in song that "Electricity comes from other planets," and he may be more right than he ever knew.
Reading a book should expand one's knowledge as well as entertain. It should take you to places you have never been to before, that you would not have been able to arrive at on your own. It should be a journey of openness, with mysteries revealed layer by layer as you read deeper into its pages. Once you have finished a book -- a really great book — you should be a different person than when you started.  Dealing With Reading Slumps by Sacred Chickens Staff If you're a person who reads regularly, then you know the feeling of getting into a slump. You may be in one right now, especially if you've had a busy Holiday season. Here are some of the ways we get back into reading when we've been slacking!
Julie – If I’m in a slump, it usually because I’m busy and my mind is whirring about other things. I find that this is not the time to attempt the medieval works, Faulkner (I started blogging about why I couldn’t read As I Lay Dying before, but I couldn’t make myself read enough of it to make it work, and if you like the guy…fine…he just can’t find much of a resting place in my brain…I’m willing to blame myself) or Moby Dick for the hundredth time. Page five of MD and I skip to the end. So, if I’m stuck in a rut, unable to concentrate, I go to my comfort zone and hang out with old friends in familiar places. I can dive in, relax for a few minutes and then return to whatever soul sucking mess I have going on in the real world. I stick to old favorites, sometimes going all the way back to children’s literature. The Mary Russell series is favorite, Jane Austen, and Poe if I’m feeling up to being an adult. But sometimes, I just pick up Alice in Wonderland, or Winnie-the-Pooh or The Princess and the Goblin. In crazy times, I tend to go for a setting where I’m happy, Regency England, the Hundred Acre Wood, or even the creepy bridal suite in Ligeia. But as the Wise Man said in Labyrinth, “Sometimes the way forward is the way back.” There’s no shame in a wise retreat. |
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