Shel Graves' Sensorium

Why it springs to mind: If you are babyproofing your house preparing for a new baby, or feeling for friends who are. Title: "Babyproofing" Where read: Julia Slavin's collection The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club (1999) Length: 18 pages Summary: A father is literally shut out of his home and family, making way for a new baby, motherhood "that exclusive club," and Mitzy Baker CEO of Baby Safe Inc. Memorable: How it takes the anxiety of caring for a newborn, the fears and responsibility, to an extreme. Quote: "This is in fact how cave people lived: two people mating for life taking care of, and protecting, one baby. That's why our species has survived so well." Personal attachment: Not having children, I appreciate how the story takes you into the life-changing experience of raising a child and I see some of my friends' experience and anxieties about parenting reflected here. Pairs well with: the next story in t...

Taste: wheat toast; rye toast   Sight: Peter Dinklage's glowing red eyes - The Knights of Badassdom ; a man on crutches walking his Pomeranian; the Cascades in dusk blue   Sound: on Broadway; "Gloria!"; water trickling over ice; the gong of the stainless steel cup; "Aeroscope," Transnational , VNV Nation Touch: the waltz, the hustle, the cha cha   Smell: toast   Extra: a rose-colored city at dusk, the ancient buildings, a feeling of history, a map that rotates: East, West, South, North the city that appears to move but stays the same; the Dust Bowl   Grateful for: clear January days/nights

Why it springs to mind: Aging parents, caring for loved ones with memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer's — plus magic. Title: " Melancholia in Bloom " (2013) Where read: Daily Science Fiction (Friday, June 28, 2013) Length: 3,226 words Summary: A woman uses magic to cope with memory loss. Memorable: The juxtaposition of the mother's and daughter's points of view — the mother struggling with her own memory loss and the daughter losing touch with her mother. Quote: "Memories are the real magic, perhaps the only pure magic left in the world. Hold them tight as long as you can." Personal attachment: As a volunteer who has cared for people with dementia, I love how this story includes the perspective of the person losing their memory and that it's a fantasy story on the theme. Pairs well with: Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose About Alzheimer's Disease About the author:   Damien Walters Grintalis ' stories have appeared in magazines s...

Why it springs to mind: That rhythmic last line, when it's raining and you feel dismal. Title: "The Scarlet Ibis" (1960) Where read: High school English class. Length: 3,269 Summary: Sibling strife: a brother caring for a younger, sicker brother struggles with his own cruel nature and its consequences. Memorable: Strong use of symbolism. The weak brother's name is Doodle. Notable: "The Scarlet Ibis" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in the July, 1960 issue and won the "Atlantic First" award that year, according to Goodreads author profile. Origin: "I hesitate to respond, since authors seldom understand what they write. That is why we have critics. I venture to say, however, that it comments on the tenacity and the splendor of the human spirit." — James Hurst, according to Goodreads author profile.   Quote: "For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy o...

Why it springs to mind: Because it's raining heavily many days in a row - frequently if you live in the Seattle area. Title: "The Long Rain" (1951) Where read: In the short story collection The Illustrated Man Length: 12 pages Summary: A rocket ship crashes on Venus and the survivors journey through the unrelenting rains on Venus to shelter. Memorable: The men's desire to see The Sun Dome, an illustration of the importance of hope. Notable: The story was originally published in 1950 as "Death-by-Rain" in Planet Stories. Quote:   "It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a seating and steaming rain; it was a mizzle, a downpour, a fountain, a whipping at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains."  Personal attachment: One of my favorites read in high school during my read all the Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov phase. Also the author and I share a birthday. Pairs well with: Other Bradbury shor...

Taste: bilberry nectar , black current Sight: pink and white Olympics; Hinterkind , a new Vertigo Comics title by writer Ian Edginton and artist Francesco Trifogli The Cloud Forest: * "Song birds and does were everywhere, including a black finch with a luminous breast of dark, deep, red..." Sound: his beating heart, the rushing wind chimes, the sighing cat; "I live my life by sticky notes." Touch: moving from corpse pose to fetal pose; sun salutations Smell: peonies Extra: liberation theology; mañana Grateful for: The Humane Society (also Paul Shapiro really puts out a nice e-newsletter) What is this? Slow reading The Cloud Forest : A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness by Peter Matthiessen (1961)

Via Melville House , an independent publisher in Brooklyn, New York Why it springs to mind: When you're feeling disgruntled or unreasonably put upon at work. Or, after seeing this coffee mug. Title: " Bartleby, the Scrivener : A Story of Wall-street" Where read: High school English class or online . Length: 14,000+ words Summary: To an employer's dismay and frustration, an employee slowly becomes less and less productive overtime and cannot be persuaded to change or even to quit employ. Memorable: The enigmatic Bartleby, the mystery, the unanswered and unresolved tension, and Bartleby's ultimate display of passive resistance, but to no clear end Origin: Hard to say, but perhaps this bio holds a clue. The author, "drifted into obscurity, writing poetry and working for the Customs House in New York City, until his death in 1891." Quote:  “I prefer not to." "Ah Bartleby, Ah humanity!"  Personal attachment: Just a fav...

Why this story springs to mind: If you haven't been physically or mentally active for a while or feel otherwise out of balance...or when you are in a meeting at work. Title: " Division of Labor "  Where read: Lightspeed Magazine , July 2013 Length: 3,948 words Summary: In a near future, the ability to specialize has gone to extremes. If you don't use a body part, you literally lose it (and that's considered desirable). If you don't use a skill, i.e. math, that also dribbles away — out your nose. Of course, there will always be those rebels who try to buck the system, and that's our protagonist. Memorable: The portrayal of the incremental loss of physical and mental capacity culminating in release of viscous liquid and meeting rooms designed with drains for this inevitability. A visceral result of an overemphasis on efficiency. Origin: "The idea came in the most literal form possible, which is that I was working very hard at a desk job an...

This isn't always the case, but the standout books I read this year actually came out this year. Although, hearing Margaret Atwood read from MaddAddam at Town Hall Seattle made me giddy, I'll give my own Book of the Year selection to Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves because I was so looking forward to this novel and it surpassed expectations. "The spell can only be broken by the people. They must come to see how beautiful she is. They must storm the prison and demand her release. The spell will be broken only when the people rise up. So rise up already." — We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves   Fiction  We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves , Karen Joy Fowler See my review on ecolitbooks.com . MaddAddam , Margaret Atwood See my review on ecolitbooks.com. Nonfiction  Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition , T. Colin Campbell, wholevana.com See my review on this blog . My Beef With Meat , Rip Esselstyn, mybeefwithmeat.com See m...

This year I am most grateful for being able to walk to work, often with my husband. I love walking downtown, walking to book club, walking to the co-op or the comic book store at lunch, walking to volunteer, walking to the library, walking the dogs at lunch, walking home listening to music etc., but mostly the days when my husband walks me to work and sometimes home again too. "...I am elated to be home with nothing scheduled but reading, writing, walking—even enough time to make soup and bake bread." — Holly Hughes, The Pen and the Bell

Because I had to work for it, I most enjoyed the panoramic view of Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams at the top of a summer hike. But also the rabble of Anna’s Blue butterflies that fluttered around my hiking boots on the way down.  "...the most luxuriant and extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings." — John Muir, conservationist, 1889   And in the arts: Gravity IMAX | Xanadu, Village Theatre | Peru, SAM | SYTYCD, The Paramount

Most memorable: the contented grunts and the river-like wave of pigs munching carrots at Pigs Peace Sanctuary . The five freedoms of animal welfare: Freedom to express normal behavior. Freedom from pain, injury and disease. Freedom from hunger and thirst. Freedom from fear and distress. Freedom from discomfort. — Farm Animal Welfare Council, origins: Brambell Report , December 1965  Mount Rainier National Park gets a runner up here for: bleating elk, whistling marmots, buzzing bees over those wildflower filled meadow, and clinking, sliding slabs of shale. And in music: Jami Sieber , Timeless , 2013 | Zoë Keating | IAMX , Volatile Times , 2013 | Servitor drums

Taste: cranberries Sight: navel oranges; spotted on the passing northbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe this foggy New Year's Day: big balloon letters filled with multi-colored swirls — "You Are Your Art" Cloud Forest sight: dark, serpentine creeks with no sign of life along their banks Sound: Jubilation Day, banjo Touch: threshold sun salutations   Smell: oranges Extra: He published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, at age 48, " Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction No. 197 ," The Paris Review ; "There was a boy...A very strange enchanted boy...," Nat King Cole, "Nature Boy" Grateful for: Auld Lang Syne - for the sake of old times; companion animals and comic books

No contest this year, it goes to the wildflowers at Mount Rainier National Park . Flowers: Avalanche Lily, Beargrass, Rosey Spirea, Pasqueflower, Bog Orchid, Lupine, Valerian, Columbine, Magenta Paintbrush, Alpine Aster, and Pink Mountain Heather; Old Man of the Mountain, Hippie on a Stick, Pasque Flower

There's nothing cozier than the 5-6 a.m. hour in my writing room, Castle Green, with a cup of hot coffee and two dogs and a cat on my lap.   Runner up: VauteCouture Coat — Certainly, the most fashionable item of clothing I own — from the runways of New York — this warm, vegan coat purchased last spring now provides winter cuddle. And gets lots of compliments. Everybody else always seems to want to touch it too.

Arkansas Black Apple — Listening to the person ahead of me in the grocery line talking about their favorite apple at Sno-Isle Natural Foods Co-op led to the discovery of this dark, beautiful, crisp fruit. Now it's my favorite too. Besting out the Pink Lady from earlier and my childhood favorite the Golden Delicious. "At lunch you order steamed vegetables because you're remembering that you have a heart too. You feel humbled by your heart, it works so hard. You want to thank it. You give your heart a little pat." — "The Bowl," Aimee Bender, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt  Runners up:  Beet, carrot, sweet potato — juice! I got a juicer this year. Love the pink, frothy concoctions. Stumptown Coffee — Served by Cafe Flora in Seattle and the Sweetpea Baking Company in Portland, this coffee bodes well for dining. At the Walk for Farm Animals , Violet Sweet Shoppe gave us light and delicious lavender cookies and Chaco Canyon Cafe served hearty, ...

Quote of the Year 2013 "If the snow leopard should manifest itself, then I am ready to see the snow leopard. If not, then...I am not ready to perceive it...and in the not-seeing I am content...That the snow leopard is, that it is here, that its frosty eyes watch us from the mountain—that is enough." — The Snow Leopard , Peter Matthiessen  I started this blog as a writer's journal in 2007 to keep track of the senses and it's deepened into a gratitude journal as well. This is the fourth year that I've done a best of round up. Best of 2012 Best of 2011 Best of 2010 My word of the year last year was savor . I had considered jubilation, but decided I wasn't quite up for it. I thought it would probably be a more serious year. For 2014, I'm going to go ahead with jubilation and see where it gets me. 2013 Taste of the Year: Arkansas Back Apple   2013 Touch of the Year: Two Dogs and a Cat   2013 Smell of the Year: Wildflowers  2013 Sound of the...