Today was a beautiful fall day with lots of color and we had our first fire of the year.  I love the smell of burning wood.  It’s the perfect day to curl up with a couple of books.

The first on my list was a new book find at the library.  It’s called," Musicophilia, Tales of music and the brain" by Oliver Sacks. He examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people, from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of 42, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome who are hypermusical from birth; from poeple with "amusia," to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds for everything but music. "Music is central in every culture," he reminds us.  " So much of the brain is recruited in its service."

I’ve been in music all of my life and didn’t know so many neurological disorders concerning music exsisted.  It is truly amazing how people cope.

The second book on my list this week is Julian Bell’s Mirror of the World, A new History of Art. What does an ancient chinese scroll have in common with a paparazzi photograph, a prehistoric carved stone with the latest video work?  Bell reveals how art is a product of our shared experience; how, like a mirror, it can reflect the human condition.  Bell’s brilliant, compelling story of art takes us on an entrancing journey through the millennia and across oceans.  A great history of art which tells stories through our objects.