183. MIDNIGHT in the GARDEN of GOOD and EVIL

John Berendt 1994

In the center of this novel is a very informative and tantalizing view of Savannah, Georgia. When the author, originally from New York decided to spend time in Savannah as his experiment in bi-urban living, he ends up loving the place and staying for eight years. During his stay, he followed the multiple trials of wealthy antiques dealer Jim Arthur Williams who was accused of killing Danny Hansford, a young man of questionable character at his residence, the now famous Mercer House. As a high-profile resident of Savannah, his trials attracted everyone's attention over many years. There are a lot of unforgettable and eccentric characters in this book, but most memorable are Lady Chablis, a drag queen, and Minerva, a voodoo priestess, two women with distinct eccentric personalities that livened up the plot so much, you will have to constantly remind yourself that, yes, you are reading a true story.

'He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed moustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine -- he could see out, but you couldn't see in.'(opening lines)

Jim Arthur Williams

 (photo from Google search - Website trutv.com)



'Jim Williams's Christmas party was, in the words of the Georgia Gazette, the party that Savannah socialites "lived for." Or lived without for Williams enjoyed changing his guest list from year to year. He wrote names on file cards and arranged them in two stacks: an In stack and an Out stack. He shunted the cards from one stack to the other and made no secret of it. If a person had displeased him in any way during the year, that person would do penance come Christmas. "My Out stack," he once told the Gazette, "is an inch thick."'(8)

'These, then, were the images in my mental gazetteer of Savannah: rum-drinking pirates, strong-willed women, courtly manners, eccentric behavior, gentle words, and lovely music. That and the beauty of the name itself: Savannah.'(27)

Mercer William House is now a museum

"Oh, that's a lovely song," said Emma. "Kurt Weil, 1941." She played it, and from that time on, Emma always played "my Ship" whenever I came into the bar. "Bartenders know customers by the drinks they order," she said. "I know them by the songs they ask me to play. Whenever regulars walk in the door, I like to play their favorites. It tickled them and makes them feel they're home."(82)

'Traffic on Congress Street slowed to a crawl in order to take in the glittering procession. The air was filled with honks and whistles and shouts in a mixture of good-natured cheer and lusty derision. The motorists were unaware, of course, that the spectacle they were witnessing was that of the Grand Empress of Savannah parading every wig, gown, and gaff in her imperial wardrobe. Chablis waved to her subjects. "Sistuh's movin' out!" she shouted.'(123)

'At this point in my experiment in bi-urban living, I found myself spending more time in Savannah than New York. The weather alone would have been reason enough for the tilt. By late April, New York was still struggling to free itself from the clutches of winter, and Savannah was well into the unfolding pageantry of a warm and leisurely spring. Camellias, jonquils, and paperwhites had bloomed in December and January. Wisteria and redbuds had followed, and then in mid-March the azaleas burst forth in gigantic pillows of white, red, and vermilion. White dogwood blossoms floated like clouds of confectioner's sugar above the azaleas. The scent of honeysuckle, Confederate jasmine, and the first magnolia blossoms were already beginning to perfume the air. Who needed the chill of New York?'(166)

Savannah Historic District

 (photo from Google search -   Design2share website)

"Okay. Now, you know how dead time works. Dead time lasts for one hour -- from half an hour before midnight to half an hour after midnight. The half-hour before midnight is for doin' good. The half hour after midnight is for doin' evil." ... "Seems like we need a little of both tonight," said Minerva, "so we best be on our way. Put the paper in your pocket where the dimes is, and take your bottle of water. We goin' to the flower garden"(245)

'Dr. Lindsley told me that an old house will defeat you if you try to restore it all at once -- from roof to windows, weatherboarding, jacking it up, central heating, wiring. You must think of doing one thing at a time. ... You must do it in sections, because that's the way it was built. And then suddenly you find the whole thing completed. Otherwise, it will defeat you.'(297)

'I, too , had become enchanted by Savannah. But after having lived there for eight years, off and on, I had come to understand something of its self-imposed estrangement from the outside world. Pride was part of it. Indifference was too, and so was arrogance. But underneath all that, Savannah had only one motive: to preserve a way of life it believed to be under siege from all sides.'(384-385)

'Savannah spurned all suitors -- urban developers with grandiose plans and individuals (the "Gucci carpetbaggers," as Mary Harty called them) who moved to Savannah and immediately began suggesting ways of improving the place, Savannah resisted every one of them as if they had been General William Tecumseh Sherman all over again. Sometimes that meant throwing up bureaucratic roadblocks; at other times it meant telling tourists only what was good for them to know. Savannah was invariably gracious to strangers, but it was immune to their charms. It wanted nothing so much as to be left alone.'(385)

First Vintage Books Edition, July 1999
386 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
Book idea from JRMD, thanks!!

182. DIVERGENT

Veronica Roth 2011

First in yet another dystopian young adult Trilogy, this novel managed to catch my attention with its familiar Chicago setting, promising premise, intense action-packed scenes, seeming absence of the predictable love triangle (at least in this first book) and its fearless heroine, Beatrice. Raised by Abnegation parents, she has reached the appointed day to take the Aptitude test that will clearly show the faction she should belong to forever: Abnegation (the selfless), Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful) or Dauntless ( the brave). But the results of her test shows she is none of those. She is Divergent, a fact she needs to keep a secret. So she chooses the Dauntless faction and goes through its grueling initiation. Will being Divergent help her or destroy her?

'There is one mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs. Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.'(opening lines)

'"Yes and no. My conclusion," she explains, "is that you display equal aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. People who get this kind of result are..." She looks over her shoulder like she expects someone to appear behind her. "... are called... Divergent." She says the last word so quietly that I almost don't hear it, and her tense, worried look returns.'(22)

'The reason for the simplicity isn't disdain for uniqueness, as the other factions have sometimes interpreted it. Everything -- our houses, our clothes, our hairstyles -- is meant to help us forget ourselves and to protect us from vanity, greed, and envy, which are just forms of selfishness. If we have little, and want for little, and we are all equal, we envy no one.'(27-28)

'In the last circle are five metal bowls so large they could hold my entire body, if I curled up. Each one contains a substance that represents each faction: gray stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless, and glass for Candor.
When Marcus calls my name, I will walk to the center of the three circles. I will not speak. He will offer me a knife. I will cut my hand and sprinkle my blood into the bowl of the faction I choose.
My blood on the stones. My blood sizzling on the coals.'(40)

'Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality -- of humankind's inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world's disarray.'(42)

'Those who blamed aggression formed Amity. ... Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite. ... Those who blamed duplicity created Candor. ... Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation. ... And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless.'(42-43)

'My father says that those who want power and get it live in terror of losing it. That's why we have to give power to those who do not want it.'(68)

'Would I even be strong enough to hold on to her? Would it be worth my effort to try to help her if I know I'm too weak to do any good?
I know that those questions are: excuses. Human reason can excuse any evil; that is why it's important that we don't rely on it.'(102)

'I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.'(207)

'I sob again, and force myself forward, stretching out on the grass, which prickles against my skin. I extend my arms and breathe. Crows push and prod at my sides, worming their way beneath me, and I let them. I let the flapping of wings and the squawking and the pecking and the prodding continue, relaxing one muscle at a time, resigning myself to becoming a pecked carcass.'(235)

'But becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it, that's the point.'(239)

'The rhythm of his breaths slows, and I prop myself up to see if he is asleep. He lies on his stomach with one arm around his head. His eyes are closed, his lips parted. For the first time, he looks as young as he is, and I wonder who he really is. Who is he when he isn't Dauntless, isn't an instructor, isn't Four, isn't anything in particular?'(288)

'I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless.
I am Divergent.
And I can't be controlled.'(442)

a Katherine Tegen Book Edition
487 pages
Book borrowed from the Library
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

181. ALL the KING'S MEN

Robert Penn Warren 1946

It has been 4 months since I've rated a book 5/5. This book deserves it for so many reasons. The plot is multi-layered and very absorbing. The prose is deceptively simple but so profound and enthralling. Supposedly based on the real life story of politician Huey Long of Louisiana, the novel traces the life of Willie Stark as he rose from an unknown to a powerful governor as chronicled by his political aide Jack Burden, the novel's narrator. But as much as this classic is about Willie Stark's politics and the power (and corruption) it brings, it is more about the story of Jack Burden and his complicated relationships with his mother, and his childhood friends Adam and Anne. Great literature at its best!

'MASON CITY.
To get there you follow Highway 58, going northeast out of the city, and it is a good highway and new. Or was new, that day we went up.'(opening lines)

'We would go down the Row -- the line of houses facing the bay -- and that was the place where all my pals had been. Anne who was an old maid, or damned near it. Adam, who was a famous surgeon... And Judge Irwin, who lived in that last house, and who had been a friend of my family and who used to take me hunting with him and taught me to shoot and taught me to ride and read history to me from the leather-bound books in the big study in his house.'(40)

"Dirt's a funny thing," the Boss said. "come to think of it, there ain't a thing but dirt on this green God's globe except under water, and that's dirt too. It's dirt makes the grass grow. A diamond ain't a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got awful hot. And God-a-Mighty picked up a handful of dirt and blew on it and made you and me and George Washington and mankind blessed in faculty and apprehension. It all depends on what you do with the dirt. That right?"(45)

'Or is it possible that fellows like Willie Stark are born outside of luck, good or bad, and luck, which is what about makes you and me what we are, doesn't have anything to do with them, for they are what they are from the time they first kick in the womb until the end. And if that is the case, then their life history is a process of discovering what they really are, and not, as for you and me, sons of luck, a process of becoming what luck makes us. And if that is the case, then Lucy wasn't Willie's luck. Or his unluck either. She was part of the climate in which the process of discovering the real Willie was taking place.'(63)

'There is nothing more alone than being in a car at night in the rain. I was in the car. And I was glad of it. Between one point on the map and another point on the map, there was the being alone in the car in the rain. They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren't any other people there wouldn't be any you because what you do, which is what you are, only has meaning in relation to other people. That is a very comforting thought when you are in the car in the rain at night alone, for then you aren't you, and not being you or anything, you can really lie back and get some rest. It is a vacation from being you. There is only the flow of the motor under your foot spinning that frail thread of sound out of its metal gut like a spider, that filament, that nexus, which isn't really there, between the you which you have just left in one place and the you which you will be when you get to the other place.'(128-129)

"No," the Boss corrected, "I'm not a lawyer. I know some law. ... But I'm not a lawyer. That's why I can see what the law is like. It's like a single-bed blanket on a double bed and three folks in the bed and a cold night. There ain't ever enough blanket to cover the case, no matter how much pulling and hauling, and somebody is always going to nigh catch pneumonia. Hell, the law is like the pants you bought last year for a growing boy, but it is always this year and the seams are popped and the shankbone's to the breeze. The law is always too short and too tight for growing humankind. The best you can do is do something and then make up some law to fit and by the time that law gets on the books you would have done something different.'(136)

'But is any relationship a relationship in time and only in time? I eat a persimmon and the teeth of a tinker in Tibet are put on edge. The flower-in-the-crannied-wall theory. We have to accept it because so often our teeth are on edge from persimmons we didn't eat.'(221)

'The Friend of Your Youth is the only friend you will ever have, for he does not really see you. He sees in his mind a face which does not exist any more, speaks a name -- Spike, Bud, Snip, Red, Rusty, Jack, Dave -- which belongs to that now nonexistent face but which by some inane and doddering confusion of the universe is for the moment attached to a not too happily met and boring stranger. But he humors the drooling doddering confusion of the universe and continues to address politely that dull stranger by the name which properly belongs to the boy face and to the time when the boy voice called thinly across the late afternoon water or murmured by a campfire at night or in the middle of a crowded street said, "Gee, listen to this -- 'On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble; His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves --'" the Friend of Your Youth is your friend because he does not see you anymore.'(234-235)

'... for when you get in love you are made all over again. The person who loves you has picked you out of the great mass of uncreated clay which is humanity to make something out of, and the poor lumpish clay which is you wants to find out what it had been made into. But at the same time, you, in the act of loving somebody, become real, cease to be part of the continuum of the uncreated clay and get the breath of life in you and rise up. So you create yourself by creating another person, who, however, has also created you, picked up the you-chunk of clay out of the mass. So there are two you's, the one you yourself create by loving and the one the beloved creates by loving you. The farther those two you's are apart the more the world grinds and grudges on its axis. But if you loved and were loved perfectly then there wouldn't be any difference between the two you's or any distance between them. They would coincide perfectly, there would be a perfect focus...'(282)

'If you believe the dream you dream when you go there.'(311)

"Jack", he said, "politics is always a matter of choices, and a man doesn't set up the choices himself. And there is always a price to make a choice. You know that. You've made a choice, and you know how much it cost you. There is always a price."(343)

'... by the time we understand the pattern we are in, the definition we are making for ourselves, it is too late to break out of the box. We can only live in terms of the definition, like the prisoner in the cage in which we cannot lie or stand or sit, hung up in justice to be viewed by the populace. Yet the definition we have made of ourselves is ourselves. To break out of it, we must make a new self. But how can the self make a new self when the selfness which it is, is the only substance from which the new self can be made?'(351)

'A time comes when you think you cannot bear another thing, but it happens to you, and you can bear it.'(424)

Second Harvest Book edition 1996
438 pages
Book borrowed from the library
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
Book idea from Shelley @ Book Clutter. Thank you so much. Her awesome review is HERE.
BTW, I have found my favorite passage to date: passage in red from p.282.

Crazy BOdy Stiler

The Human Branding is, perhaps, the most painful of all body modifications. In full-scale branding, the iron is heated hot enough and applied long enough that the resulting wound is a third degree burn, which destroys the nerve. These third-degree burns never regain sensitivity. It will make a silver scarred area in the shape of the third degree burn, due to destruction of the entire dermis layer of the skin. The surrounding skin will eventually fill in areas that haven’t been severely damaged, which takes years. 

One of the newest trends in body modification comes in the form of corset piercings. They are a series of surface piercings arranged up the back in two vertical columns. The piercing is located in the spot where the eyelets would be if one was wearing a corset. It is a symmetrical piercing with an equal number of holes on each side. As few as four holes can be used (two on each side) up to as many as the expanse of skin will allow.

Corneal tattooing is not only possible, but it has been known and done now for over 2,000 years — it became almost commonplace in the late 19th century and into the 20th century to correct defects such as corneal scarring and leucomas. These days, it is done less often because contact lenses are very effective at covering these defects, and prosthetic technology is also more accessible. However, not everyone can wear contact lenses, and not everyone wants their eyeball popped out even if it is blind; hence cosmetic tattooing of the eye.

A 3D-Art implant is any object implanted fully under the skin for the purpose of affecting a sculptural change of the surface. The "invention" and popularization of implants as 3D-Art is credited primarily to Steve Haworth. Implants can be stretched just like piercings. A good example of this are horn implants—they start as smaller implants, and are then taken out when healed and replaced with slightly larger ones. This process is repeated to achieve the final size. There are some risks of irritation to the skin above the implant if this process is pushed too fast, as with all stretching.

Scarification is the creative and artistic application of scars in a controlled manner to achieve an aesthetically or spiritually pleasing result. In the process of body scarification, scars are formed by cutting the skin. Even though many people hold that scarification is no more painful than tattooing, it is somehow more "intense" to most of them.

180. A KIND of INTIMACY

Jenn Ashworth 2009

From the very beginning of this book, one feels that all is not right with Annie Fairhurst, the 28 year old narrator of this psychological thriller. Guided by her self-help books and armed with a highly embellished past, she moves into a new neighborhood and quickly makes new friends with next-door neighbors Lucy and Neil, and the Neighborhood watch leader Sangita and her husband Barry Choudry. But all is not well with Annie.  So when she fools herself into thinking that Neil is in love with her, she obsesses about destroying his relationship with his girlfriend, Lucy. And the little shred of goodwill she may have  managed to instill in the reader is quickly ruined by the slow unraveling of her sordid self.

'After the van had been loaded and sent on its way I took off all my clothes and kicked the sofa I was about to abandon. Not just a little kick either. I really belted it.'(opening lines)

'I was angry, to tell you the truth. To have to stand there in the sanctuary of my own garden, doing nothing more sinister than enjoying a warm evening, and then suffer the verbal assault of a woman I'd never even met, well, it was more than I could take.'(Chap.2, Loc.270)

'Although I was nervous, I smiled as I waited, flitting about the house making sure everything was straight and wishing my old neighbours could see me. I wasn't that traumatized naked woman hysterically kicking a sofa anymore: I was the hostess of a housewarming party, wearing a fancy party dress and patiently waiting her guests.'(Chap.3, Loc.398)

'The new books I'd been reading said that asking questions of people at parties made them think you were interesting but that didn't really make sense, and the book also said not to make the questions too personal, but they didn't tell what too personal was.'(Chap.3, Loc.440)

'The thing about Lucy, really, was the way she looked. It revealed a lot about who she was on the inside, to my mind. All that female flapping and concern didn't wash with me. She really did have the most feline features: wide square nails polished like claws, that stretched skin over her face, and no, I'm not embellishing, curious, clever eyes so green it didn't matter that they weren't almond-shaped at all. Her irises were contracted small in the bright light from the fluorescent strip on the ceiling and she blinked once before pouncing. I like cats, I do, but I know what they're capable of and I wasn't about to let Lucy paw me about like an injured bird while she was a guest in my house.'(Chap.5, Loc.772)

'I can only explain my behaviour as an adolescent outpouring of exuberance; a long postponed eruption of youthful enthusiasm that had been cut short by my early marriage. When it was over, I awoke from it dazed and exhausted, nauseous and somewhat shamefaced. At twenty-eight, most people would expect me to have grown out of such things, but, as I said, most people were not aware of the special circumstances attached to my case.'(Chap.7, Loc.1104)

'You're exactly right,' I said, 'there's no point making yourself unhappy for the sake of someone else. You've got to go out and make it happen, there's no point staying where you are and hoping that things will change when they won't.'(Chap.8, Loc.1257)

'It was very important to me that this house, which represented a new life and a new start, did not become associated with the problems of my past. As I lay there I realised, with an increasing sense of irritation, that my previous life was still trailing its influence over my current one. The house-warming party, which had seemed like such a good idea at the time, had actually been the occasion when these people had started to embed themselves in my life and I had allowed them to become unnecessarily embroiled in my history.'(Chap.10, Loc.1690)

'Loving Yourself: Tips for the Single Woman had contained a whole chapter about the effects personal grooming and fashion could have on a person's self-esteem, and had suggested that a woman who makes the effort to present herself in the best possible light would exude confidence and therefore become more attractive to others.'(Chap.11, Loc.1803)

'They say that falling in love is the same as being scared,' I said simply, 'the men on the rope bridge were scared, and they mistook it for falling in love. Most people have it all tangled up in their heads.'...'Some people get it all mixed up.'(Chap.12, Loc.2368)

'He looked uncertain, and didn't meet my eye. A sure sign he was shy too. And that was good: it showed that he thought of me and cared about the impression he was making so much it was making him self-conscious. I was worth being shy around, as far as Neil was concerned.'(Chap.15, Loc.2987)

'I rechecked the periwinkle on my eyelids, fixed a smudge and was ready to go when I heard the knock at the door. I wasn't surprised at the interruption, fate has a way of making us work hard for the things that we want, and I've come to realise it is so we value our dreams all the more dearly when they finally come to fruition.'(Chap.19, Loc.3597)

'The thing is, I'd decided already that Neil needed help, that I was the person to help him, and for his own good all traces of the woman had to be removed from his home. How else would he have the room to think? How else would he have room for me?'(Chap.20, Loc.3855)

Kindle Edition, 2011
4421 Locations
Book owned 
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
Book idea from Diane @ Bibliophile by the Sea. I had to read the book she mentioned as her best read so far in 2011. Her very convincing review is HERE.

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