Book Review: "The Disappearing Cemetery", by Tom Cordle

To cut right to the chase, I enjoyed this book! It was a very good read, & would make a great gift, to yourself or someone else, see http://tomcordle.com/ for this purpose!

“The Disappearing Cemetery” is billed as the story of “two thousand years of history from the perspective of a mountaintop in Tennessee…a reflection on war and the never-ending struggle for the high ground”. It’s all of that, and more. This is a book that makes you think, about the personal and how it interacts with the world at large.

Tom blends history with story with poetry, and the writing itself is often poetic, in the very best way. I’m sure someone has already said “all history is fiction”, but perhaps it might be better said that all history is a story told by a single writer. We hear a lot of the conventional points of view, writers of battles and dates and kings and politicians, but not enough of the people on the ground or the stories of small places and their happenings. Tom has taken a section of the Appalachians that he identifies with personally, and made it the focus for his history. It's not conventional history, but not quite an historical novel. Something in between.

There’s a clear sense of continuity, from the origins of the participating groups, whether First Nations or Europeans, through their meetings and development, successes and disappointments, triumph and tragedy. The hard subjects are dealt with honestly, but fairly, as are the ridiculous ones, leaving us with some cautious optimism for the future.

Tom also has a companion CD “Voices from The Disappearing Cemetery”, but I didn’t buy that one. I should, because I’d like to hear more of his lyrics set to music. They read well, and they sound great. (I reviewed "Children of Columbus" and "Soul of Hawk" briefly in an earlier post.)

Thanks, Tom, and thanks to Open Salon, without which venue I’d never have come across Tom’s work.

Tom, one last thing -- I find your work much in the spirit of Howard Zinn's work, and for anyone lucky enough to see "The People Speak" last Sunday on the USAmerican History Channel (not broadcast in Canada yet, but I've seen numerous clips), I'd liken this story to those others of individuals caught up in the whirlpools of history. I hope you find this to be a compliment, Tom, because in my mind it's one of the highest.

(I missed a couple of cross posts earlier, I did finish NaNoWriMo this year!)

one good book leads to another

(update of an earlier post)

The queue of books by my bed is getting bigger again. It's not quite the leaning tower of death I had a few years ago, and I've got most of them on a chair that's far enough away from my pillow not to crush my head if they fall, but between the books I've bought over the past few months and the ones I keep getting out of the library it comes to quite a stack.

I have this distressing habit of not being able to pass a bookstore without going in and almost always end up buying something. You could call me a bookaholic, & I have no intention of entering rehab, either. If this is a vice, it hurts nothing but my bank account.

Another part of the problem is my habit of surfing our library's web catalogue, where we can order as many books on reserve as we like, and have them delivered to our local branch. It's a wonderful system, but it can get out of hand. My tendency is to search out every book on a topic I get interested in, and either order it or put it on a wish list for later. I keep thinking I'll run out of "enthusiasms", but there always seems to be a new one around the corner.

Right now, I've got several topics on the go, including travel guides to Jamaica & New Zealand, consulting handbooks, archaeology & anthropology tomes, some mystery series whose authors I came across recently (Alan Gordon's Fools Guild series is one, Stieg Larsson's Millennium a second, Yrsa Sigurdarsdottir's & Arnaldur Indridasson's Icelandic-set mysteries yet others), and songbooks from the 60's and 70's.

It's not too hard to understand this grouping. I've recently retired, thus the consulting handbooks since I'm starting up a small consulting business. We'll be travelling to both places for pleasure & to keep in touch with former colleagues, and also to escape some of our usual abysmal winter weather. New Zealand has become our favourite winter getaway. A bit distant, but a wonderful place to go. I'll have to post some of my pictures from previous trips one of these days.

I've always been interested in the distant past, and there have been some excellent texts and syntheses published in the field lately, which I've been devouring as fast as our library can get them in. Added to which we have recently participated in the Genographic Project, adding our bits of DNA to the effort to establish ancient patterns of human dispersion around the globe, something I only learned about via a library book!

The songbooks are to get more material to work on with my voice coach (I take singing lessons for fun), and the novels are pure relaxation. OK, I also have aspirations to write mystery fiction, so it's good to keep up to date in the genre. I also like to alternate fiction and non-fiction, more or less, so that I have something to learn & something to read before I turn out the light.

Our local public library system is fabulous -- I can't speak highly enough of them. We have access to books from across our entire region, both urban & rural libraries participate. They have DVDs and music CDs as well. We are very well served.

However, I still have that queue waiting for me to make my way through it. I'm sure I will, eventually. Given that it's a rainy summer, I'm making steady progress.

I wouldn't mind getting more book recommendations, though. One good book leads to another.

changing the subject

Having vented my spleen in a couple of posts about politics, it's time to talk about something else.

Nearest and dearest to my heart is books. My partner accuses me of living in a library, and complains that there will soon not be room for him in the house. Of course, he exaggerates.
I've been working my way through my Terry Pratchett "Discworld" collection lately. Read them all when they first came out, laughed myself sick, and kept them for a future re-read. Having recently retired from my day job, and getting into the swing of a more relaxed lifestyle, I decided that it was time to drag them out again & see if they were as delightful as the first time around.

So far, so good! I've renewed my acquaintance with all my favourites: Vimes, Vetinari, Granny Weatherwax, Susan Sto Helit, Sergeant Angua, Death (and of course, the Death of Rats), Hex the thinking machine, Foul Old Ron (bugrit! millenium hand & shrimp!), Gaspode the wonder dog, Rincewind and THE LUGGAGE. To name but a few. And the hilarious footnotes.

If you've never encountered Pratchett, I recommend him unreservedly. He sends up absolutely everything, and does it with intelligence, panache, and great writing. We don't know how much longer he can keep it going, either, since he was recently diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers, but he's published a long shelf-full so far & still going strong.

You can start at the beginning with "The Colour of Magic" (which starts a sort of internal series) & slog your way through in order of publication, or you can start with one of the one-offs like "Pyramids", or get into one of the other series with "Mort", or "Wyrd Sisters" or "Guards, Guards!" They all weave together sooner or later.

Good reading!