Coming Down to the Wire

So I'm drawing to the close of 2008 and I am catching up on the reading list. I think I may have forgotten one or two in the chaos of moving, but the total right now is 47 read or re-read which is darned close to a book a week. And I still have two weeks to go.

What Hath God Wrought was a fascinating 900-page survey of American history from 1812 to 1848. Howe's book was chosen to fill this gap in the Oxford University series on American History, after his former professor, Charles Sellers', survey of the same period, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846, was rejected. Throughout, Howe writes snide footnotes to Sellers' work, usually in sections most critical of Andrew Jackson. Like many historians, Sellers lionizes Jackson for his populism and support for the democratization of American society against the elitism of the New England monied classes. By contrast, Howe sees Jackson and the Jacksonian Democrats as white supremacists who practiced genocide on every ethnic group they encountered in the western expansion. The book was so fascinating to me because I have always been much more interested in international history than American, yet I have all these vague notions of the events of this period. WHGW filled in that impressionist canvas with concrete details--a constant refrain of "I never knew that." The heroes of WHGW are John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, whom Howe lauds for resisting slavery, Indian removal, and the Mexican War. Howe, who has also written a history of the Whigs, credits them for promoting federalism, infrastructure improvements, including public education, and emancipation rather than ruthless expansionism. Very compelling.

27. What Hath God Wrought, Daniel Walker Howe
26. Night of the Soul Stealer, Joseph Delaney
25. Brisingr, Christopher Paolini
21-24. Heaven's Net Is Wide, Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass for His Pillow, The Brilliance of the Moon, Lian Hearn
20. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
19. A Peace to End All Peace, David Fromkin
18. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid
17. The Voyage of the Narwhal, Andrea Barrett
16. The Shadow Isle, Katherine Kerr
15. The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
14. David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Coriloff Affair, Irene Nemirovsky
13. Th1rteen R3asons Why, Jay Asher
12. Five Go to Smuggletop, Enid Blyton
11. And Then We Came to the End, Fabulous, just like my experiences at a Nashville PR firm, Joshua Ferris
10. The Tenderness of Wolves, Cold, but no Cold Mountain, Stef Penney
9. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday
8. Dragonhaven, Robin McKinley
7. The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
6. The Asolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie Herman
5. The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Groff
4. Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill
3. Inkspell, Cornelia Funke
2. Riding Lessons, Sara Gruen
1. Summer People, Brian Groh

Reread:

16-20. The Eustace Diamonds, The Prime Minister, The Duke's Children, Can You Forgive Her, Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope,
13-15. LOTR, three volumes.
5-12 Island, Castle, Valley, Sea, Mountain, Circus and Castle of ADventure, Enid Blyton
4. Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, Ruth Plumly Thompson
3. The Silver Princess in Oz, Ruth Plumly Thompson
2. Captain Salt in Oz, Ruth Plumly Thompson
1. Earth Abides, George R. Stewart

Agnes the Commodious

We have named our new house in Nashville Agnes. This connotes to both of us a kind, patient, capable female entity, who has enfolded us in her arms, happy once again to have inhabitants to shelter. She is commodious, which is defined as "adapted to its use or purpose, or to wants and necessities; serviceable; spacious and convenient; roomy and comfortable; synonyms: Convenient; suitable; fit; proper; advantageous; serviceable; useful; spacious; comfortable. Agnes.



She is a craftsman bungalow, a style of architecture popular in America in the early 20th century but originating in Ceylon and India. They are typified by wide eaves, one-and-a-half stories, with a commodious porch having sturdy square or tapered pillars. Inside the rooms connect to each other without hallways, utilizing space more efficiently than earlier styles.

East Nashville is a treasure trove of craftsman bungalows, dozens of square blocks of them, all different, handsome or adorable or ugly as the case may be. Some are falling down, others done up to the nines. At some point in the 1950s in a fit of misguided urban renewal, hundreds of them were pulled down and little brick triplexes and duplexes were plunked down here and there throughout East Nashville. We have a triplex next door and two across the street. In a way it was deplorable, but it's part of what makes EV seem so real. Nothing is too perfect, there is a fairly consistent level of grit and poverty, which I like. The main drag, Gallatin Avenue, is like going back to the 1950s, with wig shops, pawn shops, dusty carpet shops, bunker-type convenience stores with bars on the windows and loud proclamations of Discount Tobacco and Liquor.

We live in Lockeland Springs or the Historic East End, which has been gradually gentrifying over the past few decades, with still a lot of way to go.

East Nashville embodies the anti-globalization No Logo ethos. There are no Olive Gardens, no Fridays around uber-hip Five Points. Instead, the best restaurants favor wood floors and artisan breads. Some don't even have signs, you just have to know about them. They are the ones I've only heard about so far and have no idea how to find. Or they move about, like the Mas Tacos Por Favor bus. Or stay put in a kind of mobile way, like the destination hot dog stand, I Dream of Weenie. The best fish sandwich can be found at King Fish on Gallatin Road, touted as the "crunkest fish in Nashville."

Lest this seem to be all about food, there are fascinating feuds about stolen dog poop clean-up business, long, weepy listserv conversations about stolen lawnmowers, lost pets, and endless discussions about the relative de-merits of the local Kroger (oops, back to food).

So I'm back in the Istanbul of the South (re: when I first moved here in 1989, the mayor had recently told the visiting Turkish ambassador that he'd always wanted to go to Turkey to see the original of Nashville's famous replica of the Parthenon).

And we are happily settling in. My bird feeders have been discovered. I am writing again, most days, at a good clip.

It's dark and dreary now, but the boy-boy has returned for the hols, we are all together again, human and canines alike, and all's right with the world.