"Marsalis on Music" by Wynton Marsalis

I bought this book on Ebay on a whim while looking for something completely unrelated for my kids for school.  I've been a fan of Wynton Marsalis ever since we watched Ken Burns' documentary Jazz (2001) years and years ago.  I'm a sucker for a good trumpet player, and Marsalis is all that and more.  So I thought hey, this might be a cool book to use for my kids.  The seller said it came with the companion CD with listening cues, which sounded cool.

What the seller didn't say?  This book is autographed by Wynton Marsalis himself.  You should have heard me shriek when I got it in the mail and discovered that little fact!!!

I started to flip through this over the weekend, to see how I could use it for school, and which of my kids it would work for.  And guess what?  I ended up reading the whole thing, cover to cover.  It is fantastic!  What's more, it taught me a whole lot of things.  I've been playing the piano since I was six years old, I've played flute in a college band, I've sung in college choirs and college musicals, and I've loved music for longer than I can actually remember.  I've taken courses on it, I've taught my kids to play piano, and I consider myself a more-than-averagely musical person.  But brother, did I ever learn stuff from this book!  Like, I never knew that a sonata and a symphony are the same musical form, it's just that if an orchestra plays it, it's a symphony, but if only one or two instruments play it, it's a sonata.  Say what?  I did not know that.  Wow.

Anyway.  In this book, Marsalis explains in kid-friendly ways the concepts of rhythm and form, the history of band music in America, and tips and tricks to make practicing really work for you.  He also has biographies of notable composers whose music he describes and discusses.  This is a companion to a PBS series of the same name, and man, would I like to see that!  Unfortunately, it's kind of expensive now, so I'll have to keep my eye out for a reasonable used copy, I suppose.  Meanwhile, I will be using this book and its CD with all of my kids later this month, as a fun break from some of our more textbook-based subjects as Christmas approaches.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Meant for and suitable for kids, but good reading for adults too.

This is my 46th book read for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"Murder at the Mikado" by Julianna Deering

I have mixed feelings about this one.  I had a great time reading it because of all the stuff about Gilbert and Sullivan productions, but the mystery itself dragged in places, and I got very, very frustrated with Madeline all through the book.  So it's probably my least-favorite Drew Farthering Mystery so far.

Drew and Madeline are putting the finishing touches on their wedding plans when a woman from Drew's past shows up and asks him to clear her of the suspicion of murder.  We learn lots of stuff about Drew's past, which is cool.

The reason I enjoyed all the stuff about the Gilbert and Sullivan productions is that I was in three of their light operas when I was in college!  I was only in the chorus, never one of the named characters, but it was incredibly fun.  So when I took a Bookstagram photo of this book, I hauled out my scores to serve as a backdrop :-)

Particularly Good Bits:

Life was fleeting and unsure, how well she knew that just now, but she couldn't be afraid to live it.  She couldn't be afraid to take those blessings God had sent her (p. 314).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for non-racy discussions of a young man spending one night with a woman he's not married to, discussions of children conceived out of wedlock, mild kissing scenes, and non-gory scenes of dead bodies.

This is my 5th book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Challenge this year.  

"Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo Menotti, Illustrated by Michele Lemieux

When I was probably about ten, and my brother would have been about five, my mom got this book out of our library on a whim.  Or at least, I think it was a whim -- she might have heard of it somewhere and been delighted to find it, but as well as I can remember, she just randomly found it in the stacks.  

The three of us were enchanted by this story of a lame beggar boy and his mother encountering the wise men, who are on their way to visit the Christ child.  We got it from the library multiple times.  

And then, while on vacation, we discovered that one of my aunts had a videorecording of the opera this book is based on!  So we got to watch it!  I have no idea anymore which production it was, as the opera was written specifically for TV in the 1950s, and there were many productions over the years.  I do know that we watched that version several times over the next few years.  And my mom, my brother, and I will still sing, "This is my box!  This is my box!  I never travel without my box!" at appropriate moments. 

This is the same edition that I read as a kid, illustrated by Michele Lemieux, and I still love these pictures.  I was so excited that our library had the same edition!  The ending still gives me goosebumps.

This is technically a picture book, but pretty long -- 64 pages with a LOT of text.  I read it to my kids in two parts because we didn't have time to read the whole thing in one sitting.  

This is my third book review for the Literary Christmas 2017 link-up hosted at In the Bookcase.

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" by Martin Luther and Jason Jaspersen

I had grand plans to do posts all year long to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg church on October 31, 1517.  So far I've managed to do one over on my other blog.

Well, it's October.  And if I get myself in gear, I can STILL do a pretty cool series of posts about this. I've got quite a few books about the Reformation and Martin Luther I can review, plus some other thoughts to share, so I'll be doing that throughout October both here and on Hamlette's Soliloquy, Lord willing and my life doesn't get even busier.  And I'll begin with this review of a brand-new picture book!

This book is seriously cool.  The text is all four verses of Martin Luther's great and glorious hymn "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," and it's illustrated by Jason Jaspersen, a guy who attended the same college I did.  If you want to see what it looks like inside, the publisher's Facebook page has a video showing the interior pages.  The book also includes the tune at the back in case you don't know it or want to play the melody, and it includes the first verse of "God's Word is Our Great Heritage" at the back too, which can be sung to the same tune.

Jaspersen's illustrations are really striking and unique.  You know how in the Lord of the Rings movies, whenever Bilbo or Frodo put on the ring, they enter this sort of shadow world with unseen foes?  This feels a lot like that -- shadowy forms of angels, demons, and people all blurring together into one realm.  The "old evil foe" and his minions are depicted as a vast army in pointy armor trying to overtake the church and believers, and Satan is in one place depicted as a dragon-like creature being slain by Jesus as a knight in armor.  In fact, some of the pictures might be a little scary for very little kids -- my five-year-old (who just renamed herself Mad Dog yesterday) was fine with them, but I could see my three-year-old nephew finding them a little too freaky.  Just so you know.

In case you didn't know from my "Who Am I?" page or guess it from the fact that I want to highlight stuff about the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther, I am a Lutheran.  I'm working on a post about what that means to me for my other blog, and hope to have it up before the week is out.  I'm putting that "500" icon with the Luther's Seal in it on the sidebars of both my blogs, and if you click on that, you'll go to all the posts in this series for that blog.  

A Song of Thanksgiving -- Inkling Explorations for November, 2015

This month, Heidi Peterson's Inklings link-up topic is "A Giving of Thanks in Poetry or Prose."  I've decided to share one of my favorite hymns for my submission.

I love the words for this hymn so much!  Some of the lines are just gorgeous and beg to be said or sung;  "glad adoration" is probably my favorite part because it's such a great and unexpected moment of internal rhyming.  Not only is the message lovely, but it's set to a lively Welsh tune that makes me smile.  Here's a video to give you an idea of how it sounds when sung:

And just because I love the hammered dulcimer, here's a rendition of the tune alone on that enchanting instrument:

That's my submission for this month -- I hope you enjoyed it!