almigwin's reading log 2014
ForumClub Read 2014
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1almigwin
This is my first attempt to log my reading so I don't have to depend on my inadequate memory later when asked.
January 2
Kate Grenville- the Secret River
This is a historical novel about a transported convict and his wife in the earliest days of Australian settlement. The characters and setting are very much alive. Grenville said she researched it tolearn more about her ancestors.
Dual Language Short Stories - German:
readingTristan by Thomas Mann
Paul Klee selected by genius -Roland Doschka
The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich
German Expressionism by Peter Selz
The Selz was originally a doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago. the author was an army buddy of my first husband. He was a German refugee. This book was the first fully fleshed out study
of the period (after WWI and before Hitler claimed it was all degenerate). It discussed the groups called the Brucke, Die Blaue Reuter and Aktion, etc. Selz interviewed many of the artists, or their widows, and discussed the psychology of many of them in addition to the plastic qualities, the distortions, the revolutionary color, the successes and the Nazi confiscation. It was written in the fifties, not long after the end of the war, and Selz was a native German speaker, so the research was made easier for him. He claims the book has been superceded many times but I still think it is a wonderful introduction to the subject.
It discusses, among others, Jawlensky, Klee, Kokoschka, Kandinsky, Nolde, Marc, Modersohn-Becker, Korinth, Schiele, Schmidt-Rotluff, and my favorite for woodcuts Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
The Mann story-Tristan
According to the notes, the Tristan story was a dry run for the Magic Mountain. There are lots of notes in it by the translator, some describing the problems of transferring various German dialects to English, and words that have no English equivalent. I wish all translated books would have the original on facing pages, and wonderful notes like that. I know the cost would be prohibitive especially now when publishing books is very iffy. It would give us a chance to see how much liberty the translator took.
I am continuing with the short stories of Deborah Eisenberg which are delightful.
Grenville Spoiler :I loved the first part of the Secret River but found the 'happily ever after' second part too abrupt and too short, and not nearly as believable as the early struggle part.
I am rereading James Meek's The People's act of love which is a powerful novel about the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, in Siberia.
Meek Spoiler:
There is a wacko religious sect that castrates its members, and cannibalism is rife among the escapees. But it is an enjoyable book, nevertheless, and brilliantly written, IMO.
Jan.6
Letter to Gogol by Belinsky in an anthology of Russian Literature edited by Bernard Guilbert Guerney. This letter was famous all over Russia; schoolteachers memorized it, and Turgenev said it was his religion. After praising Gogol for Dead Souls and The Inspector General he excoriates him for supporting the czarist regime and serfdom from his safe spot in Germany. Belinsky was taking a cure. (Gogol became a religious fanatic and fasted to death.)
Ivan Bunin A Study of his fiction by James B. Woodward. I have read varying criticisms of Bunin, because of his lack of political activism or even positions, and because his style was so 'old fashioned'.
This book is much more sympathetic and I intend to have another look at some of the Bunin novels and stories that I have not really liked that much in the past.
Anthologies: (Dipping in and out)
Arguing with the Storm- Stories by Yiddish Women Writers - Rhea Tregebov editor.
contains stories by Yiddish women writers new to me. The only one I had read before was Rochel Broches.
Russian and Polish Women's Fiction -Helen Goscilo translator and editor.
contains a story by the Polish writer Eliza Orzeszkowa written in 1881. She was an upper class woman who sympathized with the peasants and workers. She had the run of her father's library and was one of the few female intellectuals of her time. in 1862, she opened a village school for twenty boys, with her brother in law. She was involved in clandestine activities that culminated in the unsuccessful insurrection of 1863.Important from both a feminist and a literary perspective.
She was a positivist (Compte, /Spencer, Mill)
Landscape and Exile - Margaret Guzman Bouvard:
Prose and poetry from many countries. I was especially impressed with a Nigerian poet Ifeanyi Menkiti who was teaching at Wellesley at the time the book was published.
January 8
Read Gratitude by Joseph Kertes about a family of wealthy Hungarian Jews trying to avoid the Nazi attempt to scoop them up and kill them. There is some involvement with the Wallenberg Swedish passport situation. He came onto a train carrying people to a concentration camp. With a Hungarian aide he got them off the train because of the Swedish citizenship papers that he had given them.
The book has very rich characterizations of the various family members and friends and their conflicts about leaving the ghetto, or leaving Hungary for Russia, hiding with various people, some known and some unknown, the fear of discovery and the problem of whom to trust. The book made me feel like I was right there with them all the time.
Rereading History by Elsa Morante because I got a new copy of it and love it so much. It is the story of a not bright, not beautiful Italian widow and her son, during the Nazi occupation of Rome.
January 2
Kate Grenville- the Secret River
This is a historical novel about a transported convict and his wife in the earliest days of Australian settlement. The characters and setting are very much alive. Grenville said she researched it tolearn more about her ancestors.
Dual Language Short Stories - German:
readingTristan by Thomas Mann
Paul Klee selected by genius -Roland Doschka
The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich
German Expressionism by Peter Selz
The Selz was originally a doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago. the author was an army buddy of my first husband. He was a German refugee. This book was the first fully fleshed out study
of the period (after WWI and before Hitler claimed it was all degenerate). It discussed the groups called the Brucke, Die Blaue Reuter and Aktion, etc. Selz interviewed many of the artists, or their widows, and discussed the psychology of many of them in addition to the plastic qualities, the distortions, the revolutionary color, the successes and the Nazi confiscation. It was written in the fifties, not long after the end of the war, and Selz was a native German speaker, so the research was made easier for him. He claims the book has been superceded many times but I still think it is a wonderful introduction to the subject.
It discusses, among others, Jawlensky, Klee, Kokoschka, Kandinsky, Nolde, Marc, Modersohn-Becker, Korinth, Schiele, Schmidt-Rotluff, and my favorite for woodcuts Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
The Mann story-Tristan
According to the notes, the Tristan story was a dry run for the Magic Mountain. There are lots of notes in it by the translator, some describing the problems of transferring various German dialects to English, and words that have no English equivalent. I wish all translated books would have the original on facing pages, and wonderful notes like that. I know the cost would be prohibitive especially now when publishing books is very iffy. It would give us a chance to see how much liberty the translator took.
I am continuing with the short stories of Deborah Eisenberg which are delightful.
Grenville Spoiler :I loved the first part of the Secret River but found the 'happily ever after' second part too abrupt and too short, and not nearly as believable as the early struggle part.
I am rereading James Meek's The People's act of love which is a powerful novel about the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, in Siberia.
Meek Spoiler:
There is a wacko religious sect that castrates its members, and cannibalism is rife among the escapees. But it is an enjoyable book, nevertheless, and brilliantly written, IMO.
Jan.6
Letter to Gogol by Belinsky in an anthology of Russian Literature edited by Bernard Guilbert Guerney. This letter was famous all over Russia; schoolteachers memorized it, and Turgenev said it was his religion. After praising Gogol for Dead Souls and The Inspector General he excoriates him for supporting the czarist regime and serfdom from his safe spot in Germany. Belinsky was taking a cure. (Gogol became a religious fanatic and fasted to death.)
Ivan Bunin A Study of his fiction by James B. Woodward. I have read varying criticisms of Bunin, because of his lack of political activism or even positions, and because his style was so 'old fashioned'.
This book is much more sympathetic and I intend to have another look at some of the Bunin novels and stories that I have not really liked that much in the past.
Anthologies: (Dipping in and out)
Arguing with the Storm- Stories by Yiddish Women Writers - Rhea Tregebov editor.
contains stories by Yiddish women writers new to me. The only one I had read before was Rochel Broches.
Russian and Polish Women's Fiction -Helen Goscilo translator and editor.
contains a story by the Polish writer Eliza Orzeszkowa written in 1881. She was an upper class woman who sympathized with the peasants and workers. She had the run of her father's library and was one of the few female intellectuals of her time. in 1862, she opened a village school for twenty boys, with her brother in law. She was involved in clandestine activities that culminated in the unsuccessful insurrection of 1863.Important from both a feminist and a literary perspective.
She was a positivist (Compte, /Spencer, Mill)
Landscape and Exile - Margaret Guzman Bouvard:
Prose and poetry from many countries. I was especially impressed with a Nigerian poet Ifeanyi Menkiti who was teaching at Wellesley at the time the book was published.
January 8
Read Gratitude by Joseph Kertes about a family of wealthy Hungarian Jews trying to avoid the Nazi attempt to scoop them up and kill them. There is some involvement with the Wallenberg Swedish passport situation. He came onto a train carrying people to a concentration camp. With a Hungarian aide he got them off the train because of the Swedish citizenship papers that he had given them.
The book has very rich characterizations of the various family members and friends and their conflicts about leaving the ghetto, or leaving Hungary for Russia, hiding with various people, some known and some unknown, the fear of discovery and the problem of whom to trust. The book made me feel like I was right there with them all the time.
Rereading History by Elsa Morante because I got a new copy of it and love it so much. It is the story of a not bright, not beautiful Italian widow and her son, during the Nazi occupation of Rome.
2avaland
Good to see you here, Miriam!! I think you might find some similar and interesting readers here to chat with. And, if you haven't already, find the introduction thread in the group and introduce yourself! Here's the introductions thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/162099#4441611
3rebeccanyc
Yes, very nice to see you here, Miriam, and you may well find some interesting readers here. I have!
5almigwin
Continuing in the holocaust vein, I am reading Kindergarten by Elzbieta Ettinger, about an extended Polish Jewish family in and out of the Ghetto, some of whom are living on the 'aryan' side, some escaping to Russia and/or coming back, suicide, experiencing kindness and generosity, and the opposite where there was a huge traffic in valuable, even luxury items traded for a piece of bread. You saw sibling love, beatings, fear, fear, fear and hunger. There is also survivor guilt. The book was written here with the help of a Bunting Grant (Radcliffe) and it is recent. I am very impressed.
7almigwin
Rereading Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima. It is many years since I read it, and I remember it fondly. we shall see if it still is as satisfying thirty years later.
My old copy got lost and this is a beautiful library discard that looks like it has never been read. I shouldn't be reading it in English, but that is how I read it first. If I still love it, I will try to get a copy of the original Spanish, and some of his poems which I have never read.
This novel proved, for me, that Alejo Carpentier is not the only great Cuban novelist.
My old copy got lost and this is a beautiful library discard that looks like it has never been read. I shouldn't be reading it in English, but that is how I read it first. If I still love it, I will try to get a copy of the original Spanish, and some of his poems which I have never read.
This novel proved, for me, that Alejo Carpentier is not the only great Cuban novelist.
8rebeccanyc
Oh, I do love Alejo Carpentier, though, so I will look for Paradiso.
9LolaWalser
Hello, Miriam, it's wonderful to be able to eavesdrop on your reading!
I wouldn't say Bunin was apolitical--not privately, anyway. Cursed days, the diary he kept during the October revolution and before he fled the country is very clear on the matter.
I do love his stories (he may be the most beautiful Russian prose stylist I know), so I hope you'll give him another chance!
I wouldn't say Bunin was apolitical--not privately, anyway. Cursed days, the diary he kept during the October revolution and before he fled the country is very clear on the matter.
I do love his stories (he may be the most beautiful Russian prose stylist I know), so I hope you'll give him another chance!
10almigwin
Hi Sanja! I just meant that his stories were apolitical in so far as I understood them. I know from the gossip of the emigres in Paris that he was certainly anti-communist, but he kept to himself.
My pitiful attempts to learn Russian have not gotten me far enough to read Bunin in the original. I have just been lazy, and more interested in reading what I can read, than studying. It's my loss.
My pitiful attempts to learn Russian have not gotten me far enough to read Bunin in the original. I have just been lazy, and more interested in reading what I can read, than studying. It's my loss.
11urania1
Deer Blaue Writer artists are wonderful. The Lenbachhaus in Munich is a museum devoted exclusively to their work. It is amazing. I could have spent my entire stay in Munich there if I had not had other obligations.
13urania1
Typo Edwin. A der is not a deer although a doe is a deer except when the doe is a goat :-)
14urania1
P. S. My German-speaking husband would shudder if he knew of my gaffe. Fortunately, he does not have an account on LT. I already regret the day I set up a Facebook account for him.
16almigwin
Urania1- You are lucky to have been in Munich and seen some of Der Blaue Reiter stuff.
In the early part of the 20th century, there were many rebellious artists who wrote philosophical treatises about what they and art itself were trying to do. Klee and Kandinsky were the foremost of the philosophers, IMO, but there were others like the Italian futurists. The French surrealist poets said more about what they were doing than the surrealist artists except for Klee and Marcel Duchamp. I don't think Magritte ever explained anything. Gertrude Stein's book on Picasso explains his 'periods' better than anything I have read by an art critic. She was right there while he was transforming himself over and over.
Besides the Blaue Reiter, there was a short lived group called AKTION. My Dover press book of German Expressionist Woodcuts has prints of posters for a showing of it. There was also something called die neue sachlichkeit I seem to remember. The group in Worpswede that included Paula Modersohn-Becker may have had another name, but I don't remember it.
Most people I know just think about Post-Impressionism and Cubism and 'pure' abstraction. they think about those beginnings and hardly think about expressionism or surrealism at all. But they were all going on together and created a fantastic body of work that is still influencing a percentage of every new crop of painters.
In the early part of the 20th century, there were many rebellious artists who wrote philosophical treatises about what they and art itself were trying to do. Klee and Kandinsky were the foremost of the philosophers, IMO, but there were others like the Italian futurists. The French surrealist poets said more about what they were doing than the surrealist artists except for Klee and Marcel Duchamp. I don't think Magritte ever explained anything. Gertrude Stein's book on Picasso explains his 'periods' better than anything I have read by an art critic. She was right there while he was transforming himself over and over.
Besides the Blaue Reiter, there was a short lived group called AKTION. My Dover press book of German Expressionist Woodcuts has prints of posters for a showing of it. There was also something called die neue sachlichkeit I seem to remember. The group in Worpswede that included Paula Modersohn-Becker may have had another name, but I don't remember it.
Most people I know just think about Post-Impressionism and Cubism and 'pure' abstraction. they think about those beginnings and hardly think about expressionism or surrealism at all. But they were all going on together and created a fantastic body of work that is still influencing a percentage of every new crop of painters.
17almigwin
I wanted to make a note of writers new to me that I read in 2013 or are on the tbr list. I read more than one book by most of them. I have starred the ones where I only read one book.
If I really liked one of their books I may mention it. Since they are almost all non-US writers, I will put their countries down when I remember them
Ludmilla Ulitskaya/ Russia Sonetchka ****
Bernice Rubens UK Brothers ***
Helen Dunmore UK The Siege ****
Ann Patchett US Bel canto ***
Hans Fallada GERMANY Every Man Dies alone ****
5
Irmgard Kuen GERMANY The Artificial silk Girl ***
Wolfgang Koeppen GERMANY Death in Rome ***
Harry Mulisch/ NETHERLANDS The assault ****
Bohumil Hrabal CZECHOSLOVAKIA I served the King of England ****
Robert Littell* The Stalin Epigram ***
10
Louis Couperus NETHERLANDS Small Souls
Stefan Zeromski* POLAND Ashes
Anatoli Rybakov RUSSIA Heavy sand
Chimamanda Ngozi adichie NIGERIA Purple Hibiscus ***
Mo Yan* CHINA Red Sorghum ***
15
Ha Jin CHINA Waiting ***
Haruki Murakami JAPAN The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Howard Jacobson UK The Finkler Question
Rosa Chacel/ SPAIN/Brazil Dream of Reason
Aminatta Forna*Sierra Leone Ancestor Stones
20
Clarice Lispector BRAZIL Cronicas ***
Milos Tsernianski/tbr (Austro-Hungary)/SERBIA Migrationstbr
Viktoria Tokareva RUSSIA Stories
I. GREKOVA/ Russia- Stories
Olga Grushin RUSSIA The dream Life of Sukhanov ***
25
Jose Sarney* SPAIN Master of the Sea
Antal Szerb/Hungary The Pendragon Legend ***
Magdalena Tulli/Poland In Red tbr
Joseph Skibell/US/the English Disease (Melancholia)
Ali Sethi/ PAKISTAN- The Wish Maker tbr
30
Susan Richards Shreve /US/A student of Living Things/tbr
Miklos Banfy/* HUNGARY They Were Counted ***
John Bergerthree novels about German peasants ****
(Nobelist)Ivo Andric YUGOSLAVIA (Bosnia) The bridge on the drina ****
Jessica Anderson/*Taking Sheltertbr
35
Gioconda Belli/* NICARAGUA
Charles Baxter/tbr Stories
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya RUSSIA Night ****
Tsitsi Dangarembga/* Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) Nervous Conditions ****
Debra Dean/*US Madonnas of Leningrad
40
Catherine Delors/US-Mistress of the Revolution (French Revolution)tbr
Abdulrazak gurnah/* Zanzibar Paradise
Chris Cleave/* UK Little Bee
Yuri Druzhnikov/ RUSSIA-Angels on the head of a pintbr
Juan Jose Saer Argentina -The Witness tbr
45
Miguel de Unamuno -SPAIN -The Tragic Sense of LIfe ****
Russell Shorto/US-* The Island at the center of the World ***
Grazia Deledda/ Sardinia-After the divorce
(Nobelist)J.M.G. Le Clezio/ FRANCEtbr
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni/ India Mistress of spices
50
Robert Walser/* Austria Berlin Storiestbr
(Nobelist)Herta Muller Netherlands The Land of Green Plums
Fleur Jaeggy France tbr
David GrossmanIsraelSee: Under Love tbr
Michael Chabon US Mysteries of Pittsburgh ***
55
Gary Shteyngart US/Russia the Russian Debutante's Handbook ***
Lara Vapnyar* Russia/Canada There are Jews in my House ***
Marcus Zusak Australia The Book Thief ***
Mikhail Zoschenko* RUSSIA Scenes from the Bathhouse ****
Jiri Weil Czech Mendelsohn on the Roof ****
60
Hans Keilson Netherlands
Jeanette Walls US Breaking Horses
Gail Jones Australia Sorry
Ingeborg Bachman Germany Malina ***
NoViolet Bulawayo*Zimbabwe- We Need New Names ****
65
Lady Murasaki-Japan -The Tale of the Genji****
Roberto Bolano -Chile 2666-tbr
(Nobelist)Imre Kertrsz Hungary-Kaddish for a child Unborn ****
Edith Pearlman US Binocular Vision ***
Sylvia townsend Warner -Stories ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poets reread in 2013 other than in anthologies:
(I think they are all first-rate except maybe Adelaide Crapsey)
Czeslau Milosz Poland
T.S.Eliot The Wasteland with edits by Ezra Pound
Li Po and Tu Fu/China
Wyslawa Szymborska /Poland
Zbigniew Herbert/Poland
Joseph Brodsky/ Russia (Nobelist)
Anna Akhmatova /Russia
Eugenio Montale/ Italy
Adelaide CrapseyUS ?
E.E.CummingsUS
Pablo Neruda/Chile
Vicente Huidobro/ Chile
Nicanor Parra /Chile
Andrei Vosnesensky/Russia
Yevgeny Yevtushenko/Russia
Antonio Machado/Spain
Jose Jimenez/Spain
Guillaume Appolinaire/France
Robert Desnos/France
Paul Celan/Bulgaria/France
Lawrence Ferlinghetti/US
Adrienne Rich/US
Stanley Kunitz/US
Marianne Moore/US
Elisabeth Bishop/US
Hans Magnus Enzenberger/Germany
Fernando Pessoa/Portugal
Paul Eluard/France
Yehuda Amichai/Israel
Philip Larkin/UK
Denise Levertov/US
Maxine Kumin/US
Leopardi/ Italy
Quasimodo/Italy
Philosophy and Economics (reread)
The Nine Nations of North America - Garreau
The Zero sum society - Lester Thurow
Hobbes - Leo Strauss
A General Theory of Employment, interest and Money- John Maynard Keynes
Karl Popper by Bryan Magee
Betrayed by Spinoza -Rebecca Goldstein
Ethics-Peter singer
Political Liberalism - John Rawls
Small is Beautiful Shumacher
A Theory of Justice - John Rawls
Yiddish Books and Jewish anthologies:
(reread)
Nobelist-The slave,The Manor, The Magician of Lublin, Gimpel the Fool(translated by Saul Bellow also a Nobelist) - I.B. Singer
The Modern Jewish Canon - Ruth Wisse
Jewish American Literature vols 1 & 2
The Glatstein Chronicles -Jacob Glatstein
American Yiddish Poetry Benjamin and Barbara Harshav -Dual language
Abraham Sutskever-Selected Poetry and Prose- (only translations)
Stories of Isaac Leib Peretz in translation
Kadya Molodovsky Poetry
The Brothers Ashkenazi I.J. Singer
The Rise of David Levinsky Abraham Cahan
The Family Mashber - Der Nister
Truth and Lamentation
Yiddish stories ed. Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg
Oxford book of Jewish Stories - Ilan Stavans
A treasury of Jewish Poetry-Nathan and Marynn Ausubel (only the translations)
Bearing the Unbearable -Frieda w. Aaron-
Modern Hebrew Poetry-Ruth Finer Mintz
Letters
Alice B. Toklas US/France
Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan Letters
William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner Letters
Virginia Woolf Letters, volumes 1,2,5,6
Journals, Essays and Memoirs
A Woman in Berlin -Anonymous (life during Russian Occupation )
Journals - Victor Klemperer (Daily Life in Nazi Germany
Must you Go by Antonia Fraser re Harold Pinter
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion re John Gregory Dunne
Swimming in the sea of Death by David Rieff (Son of Susan Sontag)
Journals of Susan Sontag V. 1
Where the stress Falls -Susan Sontag
Roger Fry by Virginia Woolf
The Common Reader one and two by Virginia woolf
Reading Rilke by William H. Gass
Biographies and Autobiographies
A Woman of Rome byLily Tuck re Elsa Morante
P.N. Firbank - UK- Diderot
Cervantes
Firbank/UK - E.M.Forster
Leonard Woolf- The Journey not the Arrival Matters-autobiography
Leonard Woolf-Downhill all the Way autobiography
George Spater -A Marriage of True Minds re Leonard and Virginia Woolf
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014 books other than those mentioned in 1,5 and 7 above:
Geraldine Brooks/US March
Nikolai Leskov Russia The Enchanted wanderer (stories)
Chris Cleave UK Little Bee
Laszlo Kraznahorkai Hungary-War & War tbr
Volodymir Dibrova Ukraine-Peltse and Pentameron tbr
Lyudmilla Shtern*Leaving Leningrad
If I really liked one of their books I may mention it. Since they are almost all non-US writers, I will put their countries down when I remember them
Ludmilla Ulitskaya/ Russia Sonetchka ****
Bernice Rubens UK Brothers ***
Helen Dunmore UK The Siege ****
Ann Patchett US Bel canto ***
Hans Fallada GERMANY Every Man Dies alone ****
5
Irmgard Kuen GERMANY The Artificial silk Girl ***
Wolfgang Koeppen GERMANY Death in Rome ***
Harry Mulisch/ NETHERLANDS The assault ****
Bohumil Hrabal CZECHOSLOVAKIA I served the King of England ****
Robert Littell* The Stalin Epigram ***
10
Louis Couperus NETHERLANDS Small Souls
Stefan Zeromski* POLAND Ashes
Anatoli Rybakov RUSSIA Heavy sand
Chimamanda Ngozi adichie NIGERIA Purple Hibiscus ***
Mo Yan* CHINA Red Sorghum ***
15
Ha Jin CHINA Waiting ***
Haruki Murakami JAPAN The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Howard Jacobson UK The Finkler Question
Rosa Chacel/ SPAIN/Brazil Dream of Reason
Aminatta Forna*Sierra Leone Ancestor Stones
20
Clarice Lispector BRAZIL Cronicas ***
Milos Tsernianski/tbr (Austro-Hungary)/SERBIA Migrationstbr
Viktoria Tokareva RUSSIA Stories
I. GREKOVA/ Russia- Stories
Olga Grushin RUSSIA The dream Life of Sukhanov ***
25
Jose Sarney* SPAIN Master of the Sea
Antal Szerb/Hungary The Pendragon Legend ***
Magdalena Tulli/Poland In Red tbr
Joseph Skibell/US/the English Disease (Melancholia)
Ali Sethi/ PAKISTAN- The Wish Maker tbr
30
Susan Richards Shreve /US/A student of Living Things/tbr
Miklos Banfy/* HUNGARY They Were Counted ***
John Bergerthree novels about German peasants ****
(Nobelist)Ivo Andric YUGOSLAVIA (Bosnia) The bridge on the drina ****
Jessica Anderson/*Taking Sheltertbr
35
Gioconda Belli/* NICARAGUA
Charles Baxter/tbr Stories
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya RUSSIA Night ****
Tsitsi Dangarembga/* Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) Nervous Conditions ****
Debra Dean/*US Madonnas of Leningrad
40
Catherine Delors/US-Mistress of the Revolution (French Revolution)tbr
Abdulrazak gurnah/* Zanzibar Paradise
Chris Cleave/* UK Little Bee
Yuri Druzhnikov/ RUSSIA-Angels on the head of a pintbr
Juan Jose Saer Argentina -The Witness tbr
45
Miguel de Unamuno -SPAIN -The Tragic Sense of LIfe ****
Russell Shorto/US-* The Island at the center of the World ***
Grazia Deledda/ Sardinia-After the divorce
(Nobelist)J.M.G. Le Clezio/ FRANCEtbr
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni/ India Mistress of spices
50
Robert Walser/* Austria Berlin Storiestbr
(Nobelist)Herta Muller Netherlands The Land of Green Plums
Fleur Jaeggy France tbr
David GrossmanIsraelSee: Under Love tbr
Michael Chabon US Mysteries of Pittsburgh ***
55
Gary Shteyngart US/Russia the Russian Debutante's Handbook ***
Lara Vapnyar* Russia/Canada There are Jews in my House ***
Marcus Zusak Australia The Book Thief ***
Mikhail Zoschenko* RUSSIA Scenes from the Bathhouse ****
Jiri Weil Czech Mendelsohn on the Roof ****
60
Hans Keilson Netherlands
Jeanette Walls US Breaking Horses
Gail Jones Australia Sorry
Ingeborg Bachman Germany Malina ***
NoViolet Bulawayo*Zimbabwe- We Need New Names ****
65
Lady Murasaki-Japan -The Tale of the Genji****
Roberto Bolano -Chile 2666-tbr
(Nobelist)Imre Kertrsz Hungary-Kaddish for a child Unborn ****
Edith Pearlman US Binocular Vision ***
Sylvia townsend Warner -Stories ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poets reread in 2013 other than in anthologies:
(I think they are all first-rate except maybe Adelaide Crapsey)
Czeslau Milosz Poland
T.S.Eliot The Wasteland with edits by Ezra Pound
Li Po and Tu Fu/China
Wyslawa Szymborska /Poland
Zbigniew Herbert/Poland
Joseph Brodsky/ Russia (Nobelist)
Anna Akhmatova /Russia
Eugenio Montale/ Italy
Adelaide CrapseyUS ?
E.E.CummingsUS
Pablo Neruda/Chile
Vicente Huidobro/ Chile
Nicanor Parra /Chile
Andrei Vosnesensky/Russia
Yevgeny Yevtushenko/Russia
Antonio Machado/Spain
Jose Jimenez/Spain
Guillaume Appolinaire/France
Robert Desnos/France
Paul Celan/Bulgaria/France
Lawrence Ferlinghetti/US
Adrienne Rich/US
Stanley Kunitz/US
Marianne Moore/US
Elisabeth Bishop/US
Hans Magnus Enzenberger/Germany
Fernando Pessoa/Portugal
Paul Eluard/France
Yehuda Amichai/Israel
Philip Larkin/UK
Denise Levertov/US
Maxine Kumin/US
Leopardi/ Italy
Quasimodo/Italy
Philosophy and Economics (reread)
The Nine Nations of North America - Garreau
The Zero sum society - Lester Thurow
Hobbes - Leo Strauss
A General Theory of Employment, interest and Money- John Maynard Keynes
Karl Popper by Bryan Magee
Betrayed by Spinoza -Rebecca Goldstein
Ethics-Peter singer
Political Liberalism - John Rawls
Small is Beautiful Shumacher
A Theory of Justice - John Rawls
Yiddish Books and Jewish anthologies:
(reread)
Nobelist-The slave,The Manor, The Magician of Lublin, Gimpel the Fool(translated by Saul Bellow also a Nobelist) - I.B. Singer
The Modern Jewish Canon - Ruth Wisse
Jewish American Literature vols 1 & 2
The Glatstein Chronicles -Jacob Glatstein
American Yiddish Poetry Benjamin and Barbara Harshav -Dual language
Abraham Sutskever-Selected Poetry and Prose- (only translations)
Stories of Isaac Leib Peretz in translation
Kadya Molodovsky Poetry
The Brothers Ashkenazi I.J. Singer
The Rise of David Levinsky Abraham Cahan
The Family Mashber - Der Nister
Truth and Lamentation
Yiddish stories ed. Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg
Oxford book of Jewish Stories - Ilan Stavans
A treasury of Jewish Poetry-Nathan and Marynn Ausubel (only the translations)
Bearing the Unbearable -Frieda w. Aaron-
Modern Hebrew Poetry-Ruth Finer Mintz
Letters
Alice B. Toklas US/France
Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan Letters
William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner Letters
Virginia Woolf Letters, volumes 1,2,5,6
Journals, Essays and Memoirs
A Woman in Berlin -Anonymous (life during Russian Occupation )
Journals - Victor Klemperer (Daily Life in Nazi Germany
Must you Go by Antonia Fraser re Harold Pinter
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion re John Gregory Dunne
Swimming in the sea of Death by David Rieff (Son of Susan Sontag)
Journals of Susan Sontag V. 1
Where the stress Falls -Susan Sontag
Roger Fry by Virginia Woolf
The Common Reader one and two by Virginia woolf
Reading Rilke by William H. Gass
Biographies and Autobiographies
A Woman of Rome byLily Tuck re Elsa Morante
P.N. Firbank - UK- Diderot
Cervantes
Firbank/UK - E.M.Forster
Leonard Woolf- The Journey not the Arrival Matters-autobiography
Leonard Woolf-Downhill all the Way autobiography
George Spater -A Marriage of True Minds re Leonard and Virginia Woolf
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014 books other than those mentioned in 1,5 and 7 above:
Geraldine Brooks/US March
Nikolai Leskov Russia The Enchanted wanderer (stories)
Chris Cleave UK Little Bee
Laszlo Kraznahorkai Hungary-War & War tbr
Volodymir Dibrova Ukraine-Peltse and Pentameron tbr
Lyudmilla Shtern*Leaving Leningrad
19almigwin
18- Did I write something stupid or spell something wrong?
17- I am going to try to read the tbr's in this list for 2014 and try not to be sidetracked by reviews and prizewinners until I finish them. And stop rereading so much that there is no time for new stuff.
17- I am going to try to read the tbr's in this list for 2014 and try not to be sidetracked by reviews and prizewinners until I finish them. And stop rereading so much that there is no time for new stuff.
20.Monkey.
Two small notes. One, in case you wanted to add it for your reference, Harry Mulisch was Dutch. And two, your touchstones are for works, not authors; to touchstone authors you need a double bracket ([[Author]]).
The only one on your list I've read any of (as yet) is Murakami, and I don't think he's my cup of tea. Good luck working through them! :)
The only one on your list I've read any of (as yet) is Murakami, and I don't think he's my cup of tea. Good luck working through them! :)
21rebeccanyc
That's a great list of authors in #17, Miriam, some I am happily familiar with like Hans Fallada, Ivo Andric, Magdalena Tulli, Miklos Banffy, Tsitsi Dangarembga, J.M.G. Le Clezio and others, but many more I'm sure I would enjoy exploring.
22almigwin
Just finished Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It won a lot of prizes. I found it more like a soap opera than a really fine novel. It was a hearstring tugger about the murderous violence against civilians in Nigeria in order to confiscate their land for oil companies. The heroine is an adolescent girl who supposedly perfected her upper class British accent by watching television in the detention center. She was a very appealing character but I had an unwilling suspension of disbelief.
I had the opposite feeling about March by Geraldine Brooks. I thought she created a very believable character out of the father of the Little Women. It brought the civil War front and center both in terms of abolitionist activity, and his service in the Union army as a chaplain. The mother of the family is portrayed as a fiery activist, and not the insipid saccharine lady of Hollywood fame.
I had the opposite feeling about March by Geraldine Brooks. I thought she created a very believable character out of the father of the Little Women. It brought the civil War front and center both in terms of abolitionist activity, and his service in the Union army as a chaplain. The mother of the family is portrayed as a fiery activist, and not the insipid saccharine lady of Hollywood fame.
23almigwin
Leskov's The Enchanted Wanderer arrived, and though it is translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky (which is to the good), it duplicates a lot of the stories in my older edition of his stories. (translated by Magarshack) Duplicates of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
and The Enchanted Wanderer don't leave much room for anything else
He is such a great writer, and his complete works were in 36 volumes in 1902. (Pevear, in his illuminating introduction, says that the 1902 Collected Works is not complete). Why do we have to wait so long for the good stuff to get translated? And why do they have to retranslate the stuff that has already been translated, and skip huge amounts that have not been?
I must have Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in a half a dozen books, probably due to its fame as the story in the Shostakovich opera of the same name.
Aside from my grumble, the new versions are wonderful, and there are some terrific stories that are new to me.
and The Enchanted Wanderer don't leave much room for anything else
He is such a great writer, and his complete works were in 36 volumes in 1902. (Pevear, in his illuminating introduction, says that the 1902 Collected Works is not complete). Why do we have to wait so long for the good stuff to get translated? And why do they have to retranslate the stuff that has already been translated, and skip huge amounts that have not been?
I must have Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in a half a dozen books, probably due to its fame as the story in the Shostakovich opera of the same name.
Aside from my grumble, the new versions are wonderful, and there are some terrific stories that are new to me.
24laytonwoman3rd
As always, I find your reading impressive, and not a little intimidating, Miriam. I'm very glad you're posting about it here.
25rebeccanyc
I just bought that edition of The Enchanted Wanderer the other day, Miriam; I had been waiting for it to come out in paperback and saw it on the display table in my favorite bookstore. Not sure when I'll get to it, but glad to know you are so enthusiastic about Leskov.
26SassyLassy
How is The People's Act of Love on second reading. I thought that was an excellent book and I'm sometimes tempted to go back to it, but I don't think it's time yet.
Interesting and ambitious lists. Looking forward to following them.
Interesting and ambitious lists. Looking forward to following them.
27almigwin
26-I think it is well worth rereading. It is very rich in unusual characters, and a very difficult, even tragic civil war. The religious cult reminded me of the Shakers, who also do not reproduce. Czechs in Siberia written by an Australian! What a combination!
28edwinbcn
> 11: Deer Blaue Writer {sic!}
>16 almigwin:: the Blaue Reuter {sic!}
>13 urania1:: A der is not a deer although a doe is a deer except when the doe is a goat
>15 edwinbcn:: ... and a writer is not a rider...
>12 edwinbcn: Der Blaue Reiter or in English: "The Blue Rider".
>16 almigwin:: the Blaue Reuter {sic!}
>13 urania1:: A der is not a deer although a doe is a deer except when the doe is a goat
>15 edwinbcn:: ... and a writer is not a rider...
>12 edwinbcn: Der Blaue Reiter or in English: "The Blue Rider".
30almigwin
I'm going to list more TBR's here so I can refer to them more easily, or LBB
(Library Books 2b returned)
LIBRARY BOOKS - 14 DAY
The Daylight Gate - Jeanette Winterson/LBB
the Pure Gold Baby - Margaret Drabble/LBB
Dirty Love - Andre Dubus III/LBB
The Best American short Stories 2013 - Elisabeth Strout, ed./LBB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY LIBRARY tbr's NO DEADLINE
Restless by William Boyd
Lush Life by Richard Price
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Suicide Casanova by Arthur Nersesian
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Junot Diaz-The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
The Short History of a Prince by Jane Hamilton
Surrender on Demand by Varian fry
A Party for the Girls by H.E. Bates (haven't read all of the stories in it yet)
A Woman In Amber by Agate Nesaule (holocaust survivor)
Blood of my Blood by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
My promised land by Ari Shavit
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry
Italo Svevo by P.N. Firbank by biographer of Diderot and E.M.Forster
Stendahl biography (have to look up AUTHOR) ONLY READ HALF
Feathers by Haim Be'er (from the Hebrew)
Susan Richards Shreve-A Student of Living Things
Death in Viennaby Frank Tallis
Yasmin Khadra - Double Blank ALGERIA/France
(pen name of Mohammed MOULESSEHOUL)
Red Gold by Alan Furst US/France
Duplicated in 2013 in above list as tbr's
Magdalena Tulli-In Red -Poland
Roberto Bolano-2666-Chile
Charles Baxter-Stories
Ali sethi-The Wish Maker
david Grossman-See Under: Love-Israel
Laszlo krasznahorkai-War & War-Hungary
Russell Shorto- the Island at the Center of the World-US
Yuri Druzhnikov-Russia-Angels on the Head of a Pin
Jessica Anderson-Taking shelter
Milos Tsernianski-Migrations
(Library Books 2b returned)
LIBRARY BOOKS - 14 DAY
The Daylight Gate - Jeanette Winterson/LBB
the Pure Gold Baby - Margaret Drabble/LBB
Dirty Love - Andre Dubus III/LBB
The Best American short Stories 2013 - Elisabeth Strout, ed./LBB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY LIBRARY tbr's NO DEADLINE
Restless by William Boyd
Lush Life by Richard Price
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Suicide Casanova by Arthur Nersesian
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Junot Diaz-The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
The Short History of a Prince by Jane Hamilton
Surrender on Demand by Varian fry
A Party for the Girls by H.E. Bates (haven't read all of the stories in it yet)
A Woman In Amber by Agate Nesaule (holocaust survivor)
Blood of my Blood by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
My promised land by Ari Shavit
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry
Italo Svevo by P.N. Firbank by biographer of Diderot and E.M.Forster
Stendahl biography (have to look up AUTHOR) ONLY READ HALF
Feathers by Haim Be'er (from the Hebrew)
Susan Richards Shreve-A Student of Living Things
Death in Viennaby Frank Tallis
Yasmin Khadra - Double Blank ALGERIA/France
(pen name of Mohammed MOULESSEHOUL)
Red Gold by Alan Furst US/France
Duplicated in 2013 in above list as tbr's
Magdalena Tulli-In Red -Poland
Roberto Bolano-2666-Chile
Charles Baxter-Stories
Ali sethi-The Wish Maker
david Grossman-See Under: Love-Israel
Laszlo krasznahorkai-War & War-Hungary
Russell Shorto- the Island at the Center of the World-US
Yuri Druzhnikov-Russia-Angels on the Head of a Pin
Jessica Anderson-Taking shelter
Milos Tsernianski-Migrations
31urania1
What a lovely list of books. So many of my favorite books are listed here. The Szerb novel The Pendragon Legend is hilarious. It is a shame that his life was cut short in a concentration camp and his output was relatively speaking so small. I have read everything of his I can get my hands on.
32RidgewayGirl
I'll second Mary's love for the Lenbachhaus. It was recently renovated and significantly more exhibition space created, meaning the Blue Rider works, as well as other related art can be beautifully displayed. The curator has done a fabulous job.
33urania1
Recently renovated! More space!
Goat babies do not arrive until April. The last two goats in milk are almost dried off.
Stop the presses. I am buying a plane ticket to Munich. Will the authorities let one sleep in the Lenbachhaus? I need to soak up all that color.
Goat babies do not arrive until April. The last two goats in milk are almost dried off.
Stop the presses. I am buying a plane ticket to Munich. Will the authorities let one sleep in the Lenbachhaus? I need to soak up all that color.
34almigwin
There might even be an Alexei Jawlensky there who was the wildest colorist of them all, imo.
(He might not have been a Blue Rider but he was certainly a German Expressionist.)
The Russians were more German than the Germans except for Franz Marc and Emil Nolde. At least we have a bowcoodle of Kandinskys at the Guggenheum even if they are mostly in storage.
(He might not have been a Blue Rider but he was certainly a German Expressionist.)
The Russians were more German than the Germans except for Franz Marc and Emil Nolde. At least we have a bowcoodle of Kandinskys at the Guggenheum even if they are mostly in storage.
35almigwin
33-You aren't on the names list so I have to call you urania1.
I think they may keep the Lenbachhaus museum dark at night which would prevent color soaking. I suggest a good hotel.
I think they may keep the Lenbachhaus museum dark at night which would prevent color soaking. I suggest a good hotel.
37almigwin
Urania is fine by me. It just seemed like many people used real names in responses, so I wanted to do the same.
38almigwin
Finished Red Gold by Alan Furst about the need to hook up French partisans in hiding on the Vichy side with the Communist partisans on the occupied side. They were being led by Moscow at the time (1941) when Moscow was in great danger, and Pearl Harbor had just happened.
There was an interesting and tragic piece of history about the Communists during the labor struggles before the war. The workers decided to sabotage their employers by incorrectly building the armaments they were working on. When the war came, some of the planes blew up before they could do any harm to the Germans. Some of the guns were also sabotaged, and were not able to fire properly.
The hero of the story had been in a photography unit in the first world war, and continued to serve in the second. Although he did not realize it, these were intelligence units. When the Maginot line collapsed he was arrested, but escaped out of a window.
His poverty and struggles, being homeless, under an assumed name, and without his work as a film producer were alleviated by the Communist leader who was his captain in the service. He was asked to become a partisan on the Communist side, and agreed to help, although he was definitely not a Communist.
The rest of the story involves recruiting saboteurs and arms smugglers, and performing acts of sabotage. The partisans succeeded in blowing up some barges carrying German oil. The gentle love interest ended quietly and the hero was on his way to continuing as a partisan/recruiter/spy.
It was an exciting book, and seemed very true to life, although I have no way of knowing what Paris under the German occupation was really like. This is about my seventh Furst book, and I am a heartfelt admirer of his.
There was an interesting and tragic piece of history about the Communists during the labor struggles before the war. The workers decided to sabotage their employers by incorrectly building the armaments they were working on. When the war came, some of the planes blew up before they could do any harm to the Germans. Some of the guns were also sabotaged, and were not able to fire properly.
The hero of the story had been in a photography unit in the first world war, and continued to serve in the second. Although he did not realize it, these were intelligence units. When the Maginot line collapsed he was arrested, but escaped out of a window.
His poverty and struggles, being homeless, under an assumed name, and without his work as a film producer were alleviated by the Communist leader who was his captain in the service. He was asked to become a partisan on the Communist side, and agreed to help, although he was definitely not a Communist.
The rest of the story involves recruiting saboteurs and arms smugglers, and performing acts of sabotage. The partisans succeeded in blowing up some barges carrying German oil. The gentle love interest ended quietly and the hero was on his way to continuing as a partisan/recruiter/spy.
It was an exciting book, and seemed very true to life, although I have no way of knowing what Paris under the German occupation was really like. This is about my seventh Furst book, and I am a heartfelt admirer of his.
41almigwin
My memory has failed re Fagunwa. I found an edition, from Random House, 1982, that I had read then, and forgotten. I didn't realize that he was the model for Amos Tutuola whom I admired so much. When Darryl pointed out the link to the first 2 chapters of the Fagunwa published by City Lights books, I read them with great pleasure.
In working on the alphabetization of my bookcases this morning, as is usual every morning, I found the Fagunwa that I have had all these years. It is certainly a senior moment to forget a writer as good as that!
The thousands of books in my memory are getting scrambled, and many many are getting forgotten. I would be boohooing if I didn't realize how lucky I am to be alive and reasonably literate at 82.
In working on the alphabetization of my bookcases this morning, as is usual every morning, I found the Fagunwa that I have had all these years. It is certainly a senior moment to forget a writer as good as that!
The thousands of books in my memory are getting scrambled, and many many are getting forgotten. I would be boohooing if I didn't realize how lucky I am to be alive and reasonably literate at 82.
42NanaCC
>41 almigwin: "I would be boohooing if I didn't realize how lucky I am to be alive and reasonably literate at 82."
I love your attitude! :)
I love your attitude! :)
43LolaWalser
reasonably literate
I love an over-the-top understatement. :)
Interesting that you are planning to read Milos Crnjanski's magnum opus, I think it's a very long (multi-volume) book. I've heard about it but never read it. I did read his modernist WWI novel (his first, from 1920), which doesn't seem to have been translated into English (German: Tagebuch über Čarnojević, French: Journal de Čarnojević). I presume Migrations must have a very different style, this was a one person expressionistic almost-stream of consciousness narration.
I love an over-the-top understatement. :)
Interesting that you are planning to read Milos Crnjanski's magnum opus, I think it's a very long (multi-volume) book. I've heard about it but never read it. I did read his modernist WWI novel (his first, from 1920), which doesn't seem to have been translated into English (German: Tagebuch über Čarnojević, French: Journal de Čarnojević). I presume Migrations must have a very different style, this was a one person expressionistic almost-stream of consciousness narration.
44almigwin
Sanja, I have a lot of plans and a pile of books I want to read, but I keep plucking old ones every day when I am filing. Today I found my copy of Chrome Yellow and I wanted to find the places where he made fun of Ottoline Morrell. His descriptions of her and D.H. Lawrence's offended and hurt her terribly.
I enjoyed her photo album of celebrities. She entertained all the Bloomsbury geniuses, t.S. Eliot and every other important artist or writer she could find. During wwI, when many of her friends were conscientious objectors, they became agricultural workers on the farm her husband began on their land.
Unappreciated artists certainly gain greatly from emotional support, and if it comes with meals, and housing, and friendship, so much the better. She is derided for her strange looks and clothing but she became a famous hostess with a famous salon, and I say good for her. Bertrand Russell was one of her lovers, but it didn't seem to wreck her marriage. They were very tolerant, in that circle.
I am not going to push myself about my tbr's. if I need a break and have to read thrillers, or just poetry, or just philosophy, I will do it. I may read all of the difficult tbr's or none- it just depends on how life goes for me.
You may not know about it, but my daughter is battling stage 4 cancer at the moment, so my time is not my own and neither is my mental health. Sometimes the greatest books are so full of pain I have to just knock it off and bake a pie or something. My latest achievement is an apple cake.
when I get to Migrations I will report promptly. It is wonderful hearing from you again. I hope you are well and happy.
I enjoyed her photo album of celebrities. She entertained all the Bloomsbury geniuses, t.S. Eliot and every other important artist or writer she could find. During wwI, when many of her friends were conscientious objectors, they became agricultural workers on the farm her husband began on their land.
Unappreciated artists certainly gain greatly from emotional support, and if it comes with meals, and housing, and friendship, so much the better. She is derided for her strange looks and clothing but she became a famous hostess with a famous salon, and I say good for her. Bertrand Russell was one of her lovers, but it didn't seem to wreck her marriage. They were very tolerant, in that circle.
I am not going to push myself about my tbr's. if I need a break and have to read thrillers, or just poetry, or just philosophy, I will do it. I may read all of the difficult tbr's or none- it just depends on how life goes for me.
You may not know about it, but my daughter is battling stage 4 cancer at the moment, so my time is not my own and neither is my mental health. Sometimes the greatest books are so full of pain I have to just knock it off and bake a pie or something. My latest achievement is an apple cake.
when I get to Migrations I will report promptly. It is wonderful hearing from you again. I hope you are well and happy.
45LolaWalser
Wishing strength to you and your daughter, it's been a long time now. Baking as relaxation, I like that!
Ottoline Morrell was clearly a "character". I have a bio of hers somewhere, picked up for my collection of all things Bloomsbury, but I'm reluctant to learn more about such flamboyant types, in order not to diminish their mystique. It wouldn't have been possible for people not to talk about her, but I get the sense that along with merciless fun, there's real fondness for her and recognition of her generosity.
Ottoline Morrell was clearly a "character". I have a bio of hers somewhere, picked up for my collection of all things Bloomsbury, but I'm reluctant to learn more about such flamboyant types, in order not to diminish their mystique. It wouldn't have been possible for people not to talk about her, but I get the sense that along with merciless fun, there's real fondness for her and recognition of her generosity.
46almigwin
My Ottoline Morrell book is a photograph album of hers, put together by her daughter Julian Vinogradoff. Ottoline was a fanatic photographer, and got the best cameras she could buy, and snapped pictures of all the celebrities that visited. The album is a treasure trove of those pictures.
Some of the pictures are of Virginia Woolf laughing, Tom Eliot young and handsome with Vivien, Mark Gertler the painter, Carrington, and Lytton Strachey who asked Virginia to marry him and took it back the next day! Lucky she got Leonard, he kept her alive.
Some of the pictures are of Virginia Woolf laughing, Tom Eliot young and handsome with Vivien, Mark Gertler the painter, Carrington, and Lytton Strachey who asked Virginia to marry him and took it back the next day! Lucky she got Leonard, he kept her alive.
47almigwin
Today I read Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat, a delightful picaresque novel about an English boy in the Royal Navy, in the early 19th century. It is very funny, and a lot like C.S.Foresters early volumes, but sillier.
I am taking a break from serious reading. Life is being difficult.
I am taking a break from serious reading. Life is being difficult.
48labfs39
I'm so glad you decided to log your reading here on Club Read, Miriam. Many of the books in #17 are favorites, and others sound wonderful. I began wishlisting books at the top of your thread, but ended up with so many so quickly that I decided I would just have to star your thread and come back.
I am able to contribute one small bit of information: Jiří Weil was Czech.
I'm sorry things are so difficult at the moment. I sometimes find the need for a cheery book (which don't exactly clutter my bookshelves). But I recently read the two volumes by Joyce Dennys, the first of which is called Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942, and I found them quite fun. Another one was A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicolas Drayson.
Lisa
I am able to contribute one small bit of information: Jiří Weil was Czech.
I'm sorry things are so difficult at the moment. I sometimes find the need for a cheery book (which don't exactly clutter my bookshelves). But I recently read the two volumes by Joyce Dennys, the first of which is called Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942, and I found them quite fun. Another one was A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicolas Drayson.
Lisa
49almigwin
>48 labfs39: Lisa, Thanks for the cheery book recommendations. If I run out of comfort books I will look for them.
50almigwin
I gave up on the Jeanette Winterson book about English witches. Too noir for me in my present state. I also gave up on the Margaret Drabble whose 'golden child was retarded. The story of a single mother raising a disabled child was just not what I NEEDED AT THIS MOMENT. I looked at the two volumes of short stories and decided to read my own stuff and forget about getting more from the library. I have plenty to do to keep up with my tbrs
52RidgewayGirl
I loved your Red Gold comments -- I like Alan Furst's books quite a bit, although his latest book (Mission to Paris) was not that good. I'm hoping that it was a blip and not a sign of things to come.
I like the image of baking as relaxation. To me, it feels like a ritual, with smells included. And people are always pleased to eat the results. Best wishes for your daughter and yourself. Escapist reading is certainly called for.
And, Mary, I do have a comfortable guest room, if you don't mind sharing a bathroom. You can even bring a goat or two, if you can get them through German customs. There's quite a bit of Jawlenski, since he and his partner, Marianne von Werefkin, were great friends with Kandinsky and Gabrielle Munter, who bought a house in the Bavarian town of Murnau and managed to save quite a few paintings, which she donated to the Lenbachhaus. There is a self-portrait of Werefkin hung across the room from a portrait of her painted by her friend, Munter. The differences in the paintings are striking.
I like the image of baking as relaxation. To me, it feels like a ritual, with smells included. And people are always pleased to eat the results. Best wishes for your daughter and yourself. Escapist reading is certainly called for.
And, Mary, I do have a comfortable guest room, if you don't mind sharing a bathroom. You can even bring a goat or two, if you can get them through German customs. There's quite a bit of Jawlenski, since he and his partner, Marianne von Werefkin, were great friends with Kandinsky and Gabrielle Munter, who bought a house in the Bavarian town of Murnau and managed to save quite a few paintings, which she donated to the Lenbachhaus. There is a self-portrait of Werefkin hung across the room from a portrait of her painted by her friend, Munter. The differences in the paintings are striking.
53almigwin
Gabriele Munter had such a delicate line. Her work had a sort of Matissey quality (in the drawing) since I have never seen her work reproduced in color. She must have been very strong not to be influenced by Kandinsky's work and theories. I wish I could fly over on the back of one of Mary's goats although my weight might break its back.
I love love love Jawlensky.
I love love love Jawlensky.
54Caroline_McElwee
Hi Miriam, your thread will certainly be an inspiration to future reading. Shall enjoy keeping up with your reading exploits.
I think you would find Harry Mulisch's The Assault very interesting.
I think you would find Harry Mulisch's The Assault very interesting.
55almigwin
Caroline, I thought the assault was truly wonderful. Mulisch is in my list of 2013 reading and I gave it 4 stars.
I did try Couperus because of your recommendations, but I found him rather dull.
I did try Couperus because of your recommendations, but I found him rather dull.
56almigwin
Continuing with light stuff due to troubles in daily life, I read The Monk
downstairs by Tim Farrington which was a NYT Notable book. I thought it was soap opera slosh.
downstairs by Tim Farrington which was a NYT Notable book. I thought it was soap opera slosh.
58almigwin
57-Were you being sarcastic? Here is a working mother, who has a house, a job a daughter of 6 and a mortgage. Her ex is a hippy surfer who takes the child on weekends and feeds her fast food. The heroine fixes up the in-law apartment and rents it immediately to a guy who had been a monk for twenty years and just gave it up. He has no money and no references. He goes to work at McDoonalds.
They fall in love rather quickly after smoking (regular cigarettes, not joints) on the back stairs. The woman's mother has a stroke; the woman leaves her job to sit in the hospital; the monk watches the child and spends time with the grandmother, quits McD and decides to do hospice work instead. Our heroine testifies that he is a caring father at her ex's trial for dope, and the judge releases him because of her testimony and that of the mistress who is pregnant! She gives up her job also, decides to marry the monk, be self employed doing graphics, and move the now convalescing mother into the in-law apartment.
SOAP OPERA yes or no?
I forgot to mention that the monk started getting into her good graces by weeding the back yard. Can't you just see every unhappy, broke, lonely 38 YEAR OLD single mother with a mortgage being saved by a handsome ascetic guy who hasn't had sex for 20 years and can move from McDonalds to social work without a false step? And falls in love with her immediately and also loves her daughter? Likes the grandmother, too. POIFECTO???????????????
They fall in love rather quickly after smoking (regular cigarettes, not joints) on the back stairs. The woman's mother has a stroke; the woman leaves her job to sit in the hospital; the monk watches the child and spends time with the grandmother, quits McD and decides to do hospice work instead. Our heroine testifies that he is a caring father at her ex's trial for dope, and the judge releases him because of her testimony and that of the mistress who is pregnant! She gives up her job also, decides to marry the monk, be self employed doing graphics, and move the now convalescing mother into the in-law apartment.
SOAP OPERA yes or no?
I forgot to mention that the monk started getting into her good graces by weeding the back yard. Can't you just see every unhappy, broke, lonely 38 YEAR OLD single mother with a mortgage being saved by a handsome ascetic guy who hasn't had sex for 20 years and can move from McDonalds to social work without a false step? And falls in love with her immediately and also loves her daughter? Likes the grandmother, too. POIFECTO???????????????
59almigwin
To go from the ridiculous to the sublime, I just read Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward who won the National Book Award for it. It is magnificent.
Some of the reviewers say it is about Hurricane Katrina, which the author experienced herself with her family. I think the book would be a great book if the storm weren't even in it.
I have never read anything with a more appealing adolescent heroine. She has three brothers, and a boy by whom she becomes pregnant. One of her brothers raises and trains pit bulls for fighting, and his bitch has puppies at the beginning of the book. There is enormous love between the boy and the dog, and this is not like Lassie Come Home. This is a murderous dog. But the dog and the boy are inseparable.
What was also powerful to me, BESIDES THE TERRIFYING SCENES OF THE HURRICANE, was the transition she made from having sex with any boy who wanted her, to refusing them all except the one she loved. She found it easier to give in to their desires than to argue or fight them off until she experienced love. She was not a pretty girl, but strong, and solid. She didn't expect romance, but fell in love with a light skinned, handsome boy she had sex with. He was, however, living with another girl, prettier, and with lighter skin than hers. He disavowed paternity, and the girl fought him, physically.
SPOILER:
Most books treat a girl like that as a victim, or a delinquent. (Her mother died in childbirth, her father was an alcoholic and disabled from an accident, and her strongest brother trained dogs to kill.) Instead, this book makes you empathize with her powerful feelings and share her fear, disappointment and shame about the pregnancy.
Subsequently there is acceptance of it by her, by one of her brother's friends, and by her father. Everything they had was destroyed in the hurricane, but they all survived except for the dog and her puppies. The mother of the friend who stands by her, allows them to live in her still standing house, until they can rebuild their own.
Some of the reviewers say it is about Hurricane Katrina, which the author experienced herself with her family. I think the book would be a great book if the storm weren't even in it.
I have never read anything with a more appealing adolescent heroine. She has three brothers, and a boy by whom she becomes pregnant. One of her brothers raises and trains pit bulls for fighting, and his bitch has puppies at the beginning of the book. There is enormous love between the boy and the dog, and this is not like Lassie Come Home. This is a murderous dog. But the dog and the boy are inseparable.
What was also powerful to me, BESIDES THE TERRIFYING SCENES OF THE HURRICANE, was the transition she made from having sex with any boy who wanted her, to refusing them all except the one she loved. She found it easier to give in to their desires than to argue or fight them off until she experienced love. She was not a pretty girl, but strong, and solid. She didn't expect romance, but fell in love with a light skinned, handsome boy she had sex with. He was, however, living with another girl, prettier, and with lighter skin than hers. He disavowed paternity, and the girl fought him, physically.
SPOILER:
Most books treat a girl like that as a victim, or a delinquent. (Her mother died in childbirth, her father was an alcoholic and disabled from an accident, and her strongest brother trained dogs to kill.) Instead, this book makes you empathize with her powerful feelings and share her fear, disappointment and shame about the pregnancy.
Subsequently there is acceptance of it by her, by one of her brother's friends, and by her father. Everything they had was destroyed in the hurricane, but they all survived except for the dog and her puppies. The mother of the friend who stands by her, allows them to live in her still standing house, until they can rebuild their own.
60LolaWalser
#58
LOL!
But, all things considered, I'd like to hire that writer to write me the next five years of my life. I'm looking for something... whimsical, dreamy, in chartreuse and lavender.
LOL!
But, all things considered, I'd like to hire that writer to write me the next five years of my life. I'm looking for something... whimsical, dreamy, in chartreuse and lavender.
61LolaWalser
P.S. Who wrote a book about a character hounding the author? No, I don't mean Pirandello's old play, something contemporary-ish--Paul Auster? It's probably been done more than once.
63fannyprice
>44 almigwin:, Miriam - My thoughts go out to you and your daughter.
64almigwin
>63 fannyprice:, Thank you, fannyprice
65labfs39
#58 Does not sound like my cup of tea either. I was not questioning your judgment of the book, but lightly teasing about your forthright description. "Soap opera slosh" is a great turn of phrase.
66baswood
No "soap opera slosh" in Salvage the Bones enjoyed your review
67rachbxl
>59 almigwin: Isn't Salvage the Bones wonderful? Those characters got right under my skin. Have you read Jesmyn Ward's first novel Where the Line Bleeds? Another novel that haunted me, set in the same community but with other characters in the forefront. I see her memoir, Men we Reaped, came out last year; I'm looking forward to reading that.
I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter, and wish you and your family all the best.
I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter, and wish you and your family all the best.
68kidzdoc
I'm very sorry to hear about your daughter's cancer, Miriam.
Great review of Salvage the Bones. I enjoyed it as well.
Great review of Salvage the Bones. I enjoyed it as well.
69dchaikin
I'm sorry to hear about your daughter. Wish you both strength.
Catching up here. Love your defense of your usage of a soap opera slosh. There should be a category for that. Enjoying all your comments. I'll try to keep Savage the Bones in mind for if I ever start reading newer fiction again.
Catching up here. Love your defense of your usage of a soap opera slosh. There should be a category for that. Enjoying all your comments. I'll try to keep Savage the Bones in mind for if I ever start reading newer fiction again.
70almigwin
I am reading the Ari Shavit book about Israel and alternating with my new alan Furst Spies of the Balkans.
The Israel book is the only thing I HAVE EVER READ THAT DETAILS THE HORRORS COMMITTED ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STRUGGLE BEGINNING BEFORE 1948. I am very glad it is a best seller.
Our government's kowtowing to the Zionist lobby, and congress never saying no to Israel is just making our situation with terrorism worse. How can Israel get away with building settlements, and having arabs in Israel as second class citizens? I know they are a protected minority, but their birth rate is so much higher than the Jewish one (except for the super orthodox chasidim) that there won't be a Jewish state if it is Majority Arab.
Asking for the Palestinian right of return as the writer did a short while back in the NYT is impossible without tearing apart the whole land of Israel. They should be compensated and given homelands in other Arab states. Surely with all their millions, the arab states should somehow be made to help. They did lose all the wars, and who ever gives back land? The Israelis gave back the Sinai, or much of it and what good did it do them?
71labfs39
I have added My Promised Land to my wishlist, and I wanted to let you know that I picked up Gratitude by Joseph Kertes at Powell's on Saturday, thanks to your suggestion. Coincidentally I bought Spies of the Balkans yesterday from the library sale shelves.
73almigwin
71-I hope you enjoy the Furst novel, but I don't think it is his very best. Of course, I like them all. I hope you will let me know how you felt about Gratitude. Maybe you could get the Shalit from the library. I think it is a 'must read'. It exposes a lot of lies and cover ups and realpolitick, amidst all the various wars and skirmishes.
72-I think everyone needs to read it, especially if they are in congress. It is a hair-raising account. It reminds me of how the colonists here treated the Native Americans on the 'Trail of Tears' when the Israelis forced the evacuation of the Arab town of Lydda.
72-I think everyone needs to read it, especially if they are in congress. It is a hair-raising account. It reminds me of how the colonists here treated the Native Americans on the 'Trail of Tears' when the Israelis forced the evacuation of the Arab town of Lydda.
74labfs39
Do you think the Furst books need to be read in order? I see that Spies of the Balkans is the 11th in the series.
75almigwin
74-No, they aren't connected as far as I recall. I really like them all, but some a little more than others. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. The historical settings ring true, and there is a hero of sorts in each one, fortyish, rather weatherbeaten, ironic, a little jaded, but an idealist and a lover. He always has interesting adventures and a love affair or two.
More info in 76 below
More info in 76 below
76almigwin
74-I think the Furst novels stand quite alone except for the 2 I mention below. The others aren't historically dependent on each other.
You don't need background information from one book to enjoy the others as in Trollope.
As to popularity, I looked at the order in LT of number of readers, and the most (800+)have Night Soldiers, then Foreign Correspondent and then Spies of Warsaw.
Red Gold and The World at Night have the same character. (Casson). The other books sometimes use bit players from his other books. I think Red Gold follows World at Night.
You don't need background information from one book to enjoy the others as in Trollope.
As to popularity, I looked at the order in LT of number of readers, and the most (800+)have Night Soldiers, then Foreign Correspondent and then Spies of Warsaw.
Red Gold and The World at Night have the same character. (Casson). The other books sometimes use bit players from his other books. I think Red Gold follows World at Night.
78almigwin
I am continuing to read fun stuff to cheer me up, and the latest cheerer upper is Boris Akunin's The Winter Queen. It must be the first in the series because the hero-detective has just started working for the police, and is only 23.
I love books set in pre-revolutionary Russia, which, like Edwardian England, has a very well dressed and well heeled leisure class. They are fun to watch in the mind's eye for the clothes and the furniture. Akunin does a great job describing the clothes. The college students had uniforms, and everyone in the upper classes had a status rank. Our hero was a stage 14 Collegiate registrar which is equivalent to Ensign.
I enjoy these historical mysteries and romps, even though the poor suffered in them terribly. Just reading novels, you don't have to get too agitated about social justice for them then. There is enough to get agitated about here e.g., not extending unemployment, or the refugee crisis in Syria, or the religious violence in Africa and Asia, etc. ad nauseum.
I love books set in pre-revolutionary Russia, which, like Edwardian England, has a very well dressed and well heeled leisure class. They are fun to watch in the mind's eye for the clothes and the furniture. Akunin does a great job describing the clothes. The college students had uniforms, and everyone in the upper classes had a status rank. Our hero was a stage 14 Collegiate registrar which is equivalent to Ensign.
I enjoy these historical mysteries and romps, even though the poor suffered in them terribly. Just reading novels, you don't have to get too agitated about social justice for them then. There is enough to get agitated about here e.g., not extending unemployment, or the refugee crisis in Syria, or the religious violence in Africa and Asia, etc. ad nauseum.
79LolaWalser
I liked Akunin's mysteries very much, hard though it is not to gag over the Tsarist secret police. If you like Erast Fandorin, you might like the three mysteries with a female detective, a nun, even more.
Did you know the writer's pseudonym is an homage to Bakunin? B.akunin
His real name is Chkhartishvili and he's a respected translator of Japanese literature, among other things.
Did you know the writer's pseudonym is an homage to Bakunin? B.akunin
His real name is Chkhartishvili and he's a respected translator of Japanese literature, among other things.
80almigwin
Sanja, I never noticed the homage in his name. Blind me!
It's a wonder the Russians let him get away with B.Akunin for a pseudonym. Wasn't Bakunin a wild anarchist?
While gagging over the secret police, I gag as much or more over the pogroms. My grandparents came from the Ukraine at the turn of the century, to escape them, and luckily escaped Babi Yar. My grandfather served the Tsar and fought in the Russo-Japanese war. When he was stationed in Odessa, he escaped and came to America, thank goodness.
It's a wonder the Russians let him get away with B.Akunin for a pseudonym. Wasn't Bakunin a wild anarchist?
While gagging over the secret police, I gag as much or more over the pogroms. My grandparents came from the Ukraine at the turn of the century, to escape them, and luckily escaped Babi Yar. My grandfather served the Tsar and fought in the Russo-Japanese war. When he was stationed in Odessa, he escaped and came to America, thank goodness.
81LolaWalser
Yes, but I heard he was sweet as a lamb in person.
82almigwin
>77 labfs39:-Other novels you might like, set in the World War One era, are Regeneration by Pat Barker and Birdsong and Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks.
83LolaWalser
The police wasn't above organising pogroms and manipulating antisemitic sentiment, and Okhrana composed The protocols of the Elders of Zion, so I really can't find it in me to regret the Russian ancien régime.
84almigwin
I'm not defending it, I only hated the way the 1917 revolution obliterated the elegance and beauty of the upper class way of life, and the intellectuals either got exiled, massacred or silenced.
I think of Nabokov's family home and the life his family led before the revolution. There was a level of civilization, (including nannies, and servants) that is lovely to see, even if it was exploitative. When he got rich from Lolita, he moved to a fancy Swiss hotel in Montreux, so finally he and his wife could have the service they had in Russia in their youth.
I think of Nabokov's family home and the life his family led before the revolution. There was a level of civilization, (including nannies, and servants) that is lovely to see, even if it was exploitative. When he got rich from Lolita, he moved to a fancy Swiss hotel in Montreux, so finally he and his wife could have the service they had in Russia in their youth.
85almigwin
Just received a cd of 3 Sholom Aleichem stories read in Yiddish. Lets hope it doesn't go too fast for me to understand it.
87almigwin
labfs39-Thanks for the Nobel list.
I found that I have read at least one work by each of them until 1924. I stopped tracking the earlier ones.
I MISSED SEIFERT, DARIO FO, JOHANNES JENSEN, HARRY MARTINSON, FRANS SILLANPAA and ERIK KARLFELDT. Has anyone read any of those?
I read them on purpose, to catch authors I might otherwise have missed, like Herta Muller, Nelly Sachs,or Wyslawa Szymborska who is my favorite poet after Emily Dickinson.
I found that I have read at least one work by each of them until 1924. I stopped tracking the earlier ones.
I MISSED SEIFERT, DARIO FO, JOHANNES JENSEN, HARRY MARTINSON, FRANS SILLANPAA and ERIK KARLFELDT. Has anyone read any of those?
I read them on purpose, to catch authors I might otherwise have missed, like Herta Muller, Nelly Sachs,or Wyslawa Szymborska who is my favorite poet after Emily Dickinson.
88almigwin
I AM STILL READING EMOTIONAL REPAIR BOOKS, FINISHED ANOTHER BORIS AKUNIN THE STATE COUNSELOR. STARTING THE TURKISH GAMBIT.
(I am spending good reading time looking for a significant other on 2 internet dating svcs. I found husband no. 3 that way, so now I am looking for husband no. 4.)
If anyone knows of a literate old geezer who is still breathing, package him up. I'll pay the postage.
(I am spending good reading time looking for a significant other on 2 internet dating svcs. I found husband no. 3 that way, so now I am looking for husband no. 4.)
If anyone knows of a literate old geezer who is still breathing, package him up. I'll pay the postage.
89LolaWalser
Miriam, you're awesome. I don't know where you get the energy. WHAT IS YOUR SECRET
I'll keep an eye out for single literate old gentlemen! Have you tried the New York Review of Books? They used to have personals in the back. Literacy/bookishness was taken for granted.
I'll keep an eye out for single literate old gentlemen! Have you tried the New York Review of Books? They used to have personals in the back. Literacy/bookishness was taken for granted.
90almigwin
Sanja, if you will notice, the personals in the NYRB are mostly from women. There has never been a man in his 80's in there since I have been watching. (4 yrs).
Match.com finds a few between 70 and 90 every day. I had one dream date, but he wanted someone to go on cruises with him and dance. I loathe cruises and ballroom dancing. I studied ballet and flamenco. The foxtrot doesn't cut it. Besides, he was 89 and dyed his hair.
I'm having my second get together Monday with the latest gentleman caller, and I am hopeful about him. He drives a new Lincoln, has a maid and looks crispy, seems energetic, and finds me attractive!!!!!!!!Wish me luck. You can see what I look like on my profile. I was cuter 50 years ago, but then, so were the guys.
I don't think 'Empty Bed Blues' is a secret! Apologies to Bessie Smith.
Match.com finds a few between 70 and 90 every day. I had one dream date, but he wanted someone to go on cruises with him and dance. I loathe cruises and ballroom dancing. I studied ballet and flamenco. The foxtrot doesn't cut it. Besides, he was 89 and dyed his hair.
I'm having my second get together Monday with the latest gentleman caller, and I am hopeful about him. He drives a new Lincoln, has a maid and looks crispy, seems energetic, and finds me attractive!!!!!!!!Wish me luck. You can see what I look like on my profile. I was cuter 50 years ago, but then, so were the guys.
I don't think 'Empty Bed Blues' is a secret! Apologies to Bessie Smith.
91LolaWalser
You look smashing. You always did and always will.
Whoa, a gentleman with servants! Grab him and don't let go!
Good luck, Superwoman! :)
Whoa, a gentleman with servants! Grab him and don't let go!
Good luck, Superwoman! :)
92urania1
>53 almigwin:,
When I was at the Lenbachhaus in '91, the museum was hosting a special exhibit of Munter's woodblock prints. They were fabulous.
They permanent collection includes a still life of some flowers in a maroon- colored vase (well actually the many colors that came out looking like maroon). They color of that vase is possibly the most beautiful color I have ever seen. I entertained the idea of art theft but decided German prisons might not be pleasant.
>52 RidgewayGirl:,
Be careful. I may take you up on that invitation.
When I was at the Lenbachhaus in '91, the museum was hosting a special exhibit of Munter's woodblock prints. They were fabulous.
They permanent collection includes a still life of some flowers in a maroon- colored vase (well actually the many colors that came out looking like maroon). They color of that vase is possibly the most beautiful color I have ever seen. I entertained the idea of art theft but decided German prisons might not be pleasant.
>52 RidgewayGirl:,
Be careful. I may take you up on that invitation.
93almigwin
I think there is a museum in Essen, with some Paula Modersohn-Becker paintings. I think it has the word 'Folk' in the name. I love her work so much.
She died in childbirth like Charlotte Bronte and my paternal grandmother.
52-Mary, I have a guest room, too. No room for goats, and only a third rate museum, but there is the ocean and a lot of sunshine. (And I have a truly wonderful library that you can peek at under almigwin). Some of it has been deaccessioned, but the literature is mostly intact.
This library has moved with me a gazillion times over the last 60 years, but I have hung onto it tenaciously. It is my bedrock and my spiritual home.
She died in childbirth like Charlotte Bronte and my paternal grandmother.
52-Mary, I have a guest room, too. No room for goats, and only a third rate museum, but there is the ocean and a lot of sunshine. (And I have a truly wonderful library that you can peek at under almigwin). Some of it has been deaccessioned, but the literature is mostly intact.
This library has moved with me a gazillion times over the last 60 years, but I have hung onto it tenaciously. It is my bedrock and my spiritual home.
95labfs39
It is my bedrock and my spiritual home.
Which is why an e-reader doesn't appeal to me. I love having my books around me. Like Hantá in Too Loud a Solitude. Have you seen the pictures of this exhibit? I love the last photo.
Which is why an e-reader doesn't appeal to me. I love having my books around me. Like Hantá in Too Loud a Solitude. Have you seen the pictures of this exhibit? I love the last photo.
98urania1
I love physical books as well. However, I own over three thousand physical books and I do not like clutter. E-books are a good compromise for me. Additionally, I like to travel light. With my iPad, I can take a library with me and be able to read what fits my mood at the time. Of course Miriam, if I visit you, I will find books for all seasons and moods :-)
99almigwin
I had 27 bookcases built when I was in the money, and they do the job nicely. My tbr's do tend to sIt on top Of various tables, but they can be stashed away for fussy company. MY BOOKCASES ARE SOLID OAK,AND THEY ARE MY MOST PRECIOUS POSESSION AFTER THE BOOKS THEMSELVES.
mY SECRET IS TO GIVE AWAY AS MANY AS I BUY TO KEEP THE NUMBERS RELATIVELY EVEN. I DON'T GIVE AWAY THE GOOD STUFF, SO IF I HAVE TO DO DOUBLE SHELVING, I WILL. tHEY ARE ALPHABETIZED, THANK GOODNESS. wELL, ONLY THE FICTION AND THE POETRY ARE. tHE REST IS PRETTY RANDOM.
pLEASE EXCUSE THE CAPS. mY LITTLE FINGER KEEPS HITTING THE CAPS LOCK ON THIS LITTLE KEYBOARD.
mY SECRET IS TO GIVE AWAY AS MANY AS I BUY TO KEEP THE NUMBERS RELATIVELY EVEN. I DON'T GIVE AWAY THE GOOD STUFF, SO IF I HAVE TO DO DOUBLE SHELVING, I WILL. tHEY ARE ALPHABETIZED, THANK GOODNESS. wELL, ONLY THE FICTION AND THE POETRY ARE. tHE REST IS PRETTY RANDOM.
pLEASE EXCUSE THE CAPS. mY LITTLE FINGER KEEPS HITTING THE CAPS LOCK ON THIS LITTLE KEYBOARD.
100almigwin
My oldest son passed away this morning from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was 62. He had been fighting it for 16 years. I will not be doing much reading for a while.
101labfs39
Baruch dayan emet
I am so sorry, Miriam. My thoughts are with you and your family. Take care of yourself, and we will be here when you return.
I am so sorry, Miriam. My thoughts are with you and your family. Take care of yourself, and we will be here when you return.
102RidgewayGirl
Oh, Miriam, I'm sorry. Take care of yourself. We'll be here to distract you with book talk whenever you need it.
104LolaWalser
I'm so terribly sorry. Will be thinking of you, Miriam.
107almigwin
Thank you all for the kind thoughts. They are appreciated. I thought I was prepared for his death, but it still hit me like a ton of stones.
109almigwin
I'd like you all to know that I am holding up, in spite of having lost 2 sons, and having a daughter with incurable cancer.
I am getting a lot of emotional support from my friends in LibraryThing, and I have a new gentleman caller retrieved from the Jewish dating service. Looking for breathing, 80+ yr old agnostic liberals in the non-denominational one didn't produce many my age.
Mourning is not the best time to begin a relationship, but he is very wise and patient.
I am getting a lot of emotional support from my friends in LibraryThing, and I have a new gentleman caller retrieved from the Jewish dating service. Looking for breathing, 80+ yr old agnostic liberals in the non-denominational one didn't produce many my age.
Mourning is not the best time to begin a relationship, but he is very wise and patient.
110LolaWalser
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{MIRIAM}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Those are e-hugs. Sorry I can't do better.
Glad to hear about the gentleman caller!
Those are e-hugs. Sorry I can't do better.
Glad to hear about the gentleman caller!
111fannyprice
Miriam, my condolences on your loss.
112tomcatMurr
oh how sad, my best wishes and thoughts are with you miriam. (I have been lurking for a while)
114kidzdoc
I'm very sorry to hear about your son's passing, Miriam. My thoughts and prayers go out to you.
115almigwin
There is no way to accept the death of one's children. I am trying to remember happy days.
116paruline
Delurking to say that I'm very sorry to hear about your son. Wishing you a good support system in these trying times.
118almigwin
A hot romance has appeared out of the blue and instead of a white horse, he drives a new Lincoln. He is very cheerful and my ego is being massaged. His children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are all healthy, but he doesn't gloat. Romance is good medecine.
120almigwin
I am reading my new Alan Furst Mission to Paris and have just acquired Letters and Diaries of Bulgakov and a biography of Irene Nemirovskyto intersperse.
121almigwin
Very disappointed in Mission to Paris. It was boring. The Nemirovsky biography is very sad. It's amazing how much she wrote in her short life. I hope it all gets translated. My French has gotten terribly rusty through lack of use.
122rebeccanyc
I'm impressed you can still read in French, Miriam. I wish I could and keep saying I'm going to work on it, but somehow I never get around to it.
123RidgewayGirl
Mission to Paris was not good. I'm hoping it was an aberration and not a taste of things to come. Have you read his earlier books?
124Caroline_McElwee
>>121 almigwin:. Miriam, most of the Nemirovsky has now been published in English over the past few years, I think I have 7 of her books. And the film they made of 'Suite Francais' is due out this year I think.
127almigwin
1919 - Carl Spitteler (German)
1917 - Karl Gjellerup (Danish)
1917 - Henrik Pontoppidan (Danish)
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam (Swedish)
1915 - Romain Rolland (French)read
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore (Indian)read
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann read
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck read
1910 - Paul Heyse
1909 - Selma Lagerlof read
OWN: Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Travels through Sweden
1908 - Rudolf Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling read
Just-So Stories
The Jungle Book
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz (Polish)read
Quo Vadis
1904 - Frédéric Mistral
1904 - José Echegaray
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1902 - Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme
These are the nobelists I have not read. I've read at least one book by all the others except some Reymount
1917 - Karl Gjellerup (Danish)
1917 - Henrik Pontoppidan (Danish)
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam (Swedish)
1915 - Romain Rolland (French)read
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore (Indian)read
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann read
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck read
1910 - Paul Heyse
1909 - Selma Lagerlof read
OWN: Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Travels through Sweden
1908 - Rudolf Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling read
Just-So Stories
The Jungle Book
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz (Polish)read
Quo Vadis
1904 - Frédéric Mistral
1904 - José Echegaray
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1902 - Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme
These are the nobelists I have not read. I've read at least one book by all the others except some Reymount
129almigwin
wELL THERE IS ONLY ONE A YEAR, AND AFTER I HAD CAUGHT UP (STARTING IN 1920, I ONLY HAD TO READ ONE A YEAR. I CAUGHT UP IN THE FIFTIES, HAVING STARTED IN HS IN THE FORTIES.
WHEN I LOOKED AT THE LIST I WAS SURPRISED THAT I HAD REALLY READ SO MANY OF THEM.
WHEN I LOOKED AT THE LIST I WAS SURPRISED THAT I HAD REALLY READ SO MANY OF THEM.
130almigwin
122- I KEEP UP IN SPANISH, FRENCH, GERMAN AND YIDDISH BY READING POETRY. dUAL LANGUAGE POETRY IS LIKE HAVING AN UNSATISFACTORY PONY, BUT IT HELPS ME KEEP GOING.
131almigwin
I am reading Irene Nemirovsky's novels, short stories and biography. My last pile is the courilof affair, Dogs and wolves and the short stories called Dimanche. I am enjoying her work and glad it has been translated even after so long a time.
132almigwin
To those of you who have kindly sent me condolences over the death of my son, I would like you to know that I have a new significant other, and am now learning to be happy again!
He will be 89 on the 26th so we don't expect a lot of time together, but we hope.
He will be 89 on the 26th so we don't expect a lot of time together, but we hope.
133LolaWalser
That's wonderful! Very happy for you and him.
136labfs39
Hope is a good thing! And it's Just spring, and the goat-footed balloon man whistles far and wee
137almigwin
and Eddie and Bill......
In the midst of all this hope we are having a wonderful time and I am reading the Nevirovsky novels and short stories betwixt and between.
In the midst of all this hope we are having a wonderful time and I am reading the Nevirovsky novels and short stories betwixt and between.
138almigwin
Read a very tragic story: Jezebel by Irene nemirovsky which is said to be a portrait of her youth obsessed, sadistic mother. Also read the lovely checkovian story snow in autumn, and another bad mother story Le Bal also by her.
140almigwin
>139 Caroline_McElwee: Caro: - Jezebel is a terrific cautionary tale about trying to stay young.
I wanted to put in a spoiler alert but it wouldn't blank out. It is a mystery story.
I wanted to put in a spoiler alert but it wouldn't blank out. It is a mystery story.
141almigwin
I've been reading Keynes the general theory of employment, interest and money which proposes government assistance to prime the pump. I wish all the congressmen would read it and believe it.
It worked a bit in the thirties, but wwII poured money in to build the armaments and unemployment was a thing of the past. We got inflation instead.
I read HEILBRONER'S précis of it to my so but he fell asleep. Unemployment and income inequality don't bother him as much as they bother me. He sees the world thru Zionist lenses, and just wants to take care of Jewish problems. (But he supports all kinds of environmental and animal rights causes).
I'm also reading Dimanche - stories by Nemirovsky and undiscovered stories by checkov. Yum.
It worked a bit in the thirties, but wwII poured money in to build the armaments and unemployment was a thing of the past. We got inflation instead.
I read HEILBRONER'S précis of it to my so but he fell asleep. Unemployment and income inequality don't bother him as much as they bother me. He sees the world thru Zionist lenses, and just wants to take care of Jewish problems. (But he supports all kinds of environmental and animal rights causes).
I'm also reading Dimanche - stories by Nemirovsky and undiscovered stories by checkov. Yum.
142dchaikin
I'm too cynical. I can imagine all congressman reading it and agreeing with it, but still they would be too tied up in their own messes to do anything about it.
You make Nemirovsky appeal.
You make Nemirovsky appeal.
143almigwin
Having a major romance is seriously interfering with my reading. Read some of the short stories in Nemirovsky's Dimanche, and started the garden of the evening mists. Who knows when I shall finish it. I keep jumping from Economics to Philosophy, to poetry and am neglecting the tbr novels. I seem to be more comfortable reading non-fiction, I guess because my life is so much like fiction now. Just call me Cinderella (the geriatric version). Today is my SO's 89th birthday!
144RidgewayGirl
Now that is the best of all possible reasons for a reading slump! Long may it continue!
145labfs39
Happy 89th to you gentleman friend! Hope you enjoy Garden of Evening Mists. Maybe you can read aloud together. :-)
146LolaWalser
#143
Today is my SO's 89th birthday!
Happy birthday to him and many happy returns!
Today is my SO's 89th birthday!
Happy birthday to him and many happy returns!
147almigwin
I have just read the Gordon Woods biography of Benjamin Franklin and it is really very interesting and well written. it discusses his rise from poverty as an apprentice printer to getting doctorates from British universities, and being a real gentleman (of leisure) meaning cultivated, elegant and rich. He had an amazing influence in military matters and organized the support of the british army in the French and indian war. He was world famous because of his scientific findings in electricity, and invented the first battery! there seems to be no end to his accomplishments. from having no formal education, he became one of the great savants of the world, and learned enough latin, french, Spanish and german to read what he wanted to read. I am utterly in awe of him. A great scientist and statesman. There aren't too many of those. He reminds me of Einstein, except Franklin was more socially adept, and more willing to engage in politics.
149almigwin
I think it is Gordon s. Wood
150almigwin
The correct title and author are The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood
Sorry about the spelling. I didn't have the book with me when I wrote the post.
Sorry about the spelling. I didn't have the book with me when I wrote the post.
152almigwin
reading A Blunt Instrument by Georgette HEYER for the umpteenth time. It said on the blurb that she got her mystery plots from her barrister husband! Her mysteries and romances are always fun (but no brainfood). I have to space them with a few years in between before I can enjoy them again. I can do Austen and Dickens yearly but Heyer gets stale sooner.
153almigwin
reading the dancing wu li masters by gary Zukav, physics and philosophy by werner heisenberg and Gertrude Himmelfarb's book on the Roads to Modernity: the British, French and American enlightenments
I am constantly struggling to understand small particle physics even tho it can't be grasped with common sense.
Himmelfarb's book gives a lot more credit to the American enlightenment and the Scottish philosophers rather than the French philosophes. I am enjoying these books but they tax the brain.
My life is so full at the moment I can't seem to be interested in fiction. My own story is enough.
I am constantly struggling to understand small particle physics even tho it can't be grasped with common sense.
Himmelfarb's book gives a lot more credit to the American enlightenment and the Scottish philosophers rather than the French philosophes. I am enjoying these books but they tax the brain.
My life is so full at the moment I can't seem to be interested in fiction. My own story is enough.
154dchaikin
Heisenberg! Sounds like quite a tough read. So, fiction comes and goes for you, or is this an unusual phase? I spent most of the second half of last year unable to read fiction.
155almigwin
>154 dchaikin: : The Heisenberg was written for the layman, as was the Zukav so they are doable. The Heisenberg book contains his Nobel lecture, but it is the Zukav that I am continuously reading.
Heisenberg is famous for the uncertainty principle, but that is very hard for us old rationalists who like cause and effect to be precise. Zukav and others have said that people who have been steeped in Eastern philosophy like Zen, comprehend the new physics readily. apparently the Japanese are making big contributions.
Non-fiction is not unusual for me, but it used to be mostly politics and economics, and now it is philosophy, history and science. Fiction comes and goes for me because I like great fiction and I don't think there are any great writers of it living and writing now unless you count Philip Roth and Le Clezio, and I don't. I mostly reread the classics like Henry James, Trollope, Dickens, Smollett, Fielding, Tolstoy, Compton-Burnett, G.Eliot, T.S. Eliot, the French poets, etc.
For me, it is not being unable to read fiction, it is an unwillingness to enter into an unreal world with imaginary characters when my own life is unsettled. When that occurs, I read a lot of biography and history. That attitude passes. And I intersperse the heavy stuff with rereading classic English country house mystery stories! And short stories. And escapist stuff like the Patrick O'Brian series about the sea. And spy novels like Alan Furst and John Le Carre.
I like to refresh myself with Brian Magee's book of philosophy interviews about the great philosophers, and then go to the horse's mouth. Currently the horse is Plato which is a life's work never done.
Heisenberg is famous for the uncertainty principle, but that is very hard for us old rationalists who like cause and effect to be precise. Zukav and others have said that people who have been steeped in Eastern philosophy like Zen, comprehend the new physics readily. apparently the Japanese are making big contributions.
Non-fiction is not unusual for me, but it used to be mostly politics and economics, and now it is philosophy, history and science. Fiction comes and goes for me because I like great fiction and I don't think there are any great writers of it living and writing now unless you count Philip Roth and Le Clezio, and I don't. I mostly reread the classics like Henry James, Trollope, Dickens, Smollett, Fielding, Tolstoy, Compton-Burnett, G.Eliot, T.S. Eliot, the French poets, etc.
For me, it is not being unable to read fiction, it is an unwillingness to enter into an unreal world with imaginary characters when my own life is unsettled. When that occurs, I read a lot of biography and history. That attitude passes. And I intersperse the heavy stuff with rereading classic English country house mystery stories! And short stories. And escapist stuff like the Patrick O'Brian series about the sea. And spy novels like Alan Furst and John Le Carre.
I like to refresh myself with Brian Magee's book of philosophy interviews about the great philosophers, and then go to the horse's mouth. Currently the horse is Plato which is a life's work never done.
156dchaikin
Glad I asked...
Very interesting. I wish I could put my reaction to fiction in words, but sometimes I get impatient with it - which can mean a lot things. Last year changing jobs threw me off enough, and it was, I guess, the most likely cause. And I don't have tolerance for escapist stuff these days, except maybe on audio. I just read too slow and escapist stuff becomes work.
I'm not familiar with Bryan Magee. Amazon adores him, but LT is not so enraptured.
I have no context regarding Zen or where to place it in relation to physics. Curious. Also didn't notice that the Zukav book had a physics theme. Much to think about there.
Very interesting. I wish I could put my reaction to fiction in words, but sometimes I get impatient with it - which can mean a lot things. Last year changing jobs threw me off enough, and it was, I guess, the most likely cause. And I don't have tolerance for escapist stuff these days, except maybe on audio. I just read too slow and escapist stuff becomes work.
I'm not familiar with Bryan Magee. Amazon adores him, but LT is not so enraptured.
I have no context regarding Zen or where to place it in relation to physics. Curious. Also didn't notice that the Zukav book had a physics theme. Much to think about there.
157almigwin
Bryan Magee's book is a transcript of tv interviews done in the UK. He interviewed famous living philosophy professors who specialized in the particular philosophers they discuss. Magee asks leading questions, and the philosophers discuss the oldies - Plato, Aristotle, etc. He used Martha Nussbaum for Aristotle because she began her career with some important Aristotle scholarship which I haven't read. I know her more for work with Amartya Sen and ethics. but his book is a great refresher.
I don't recommend Magee for his own work except his book on Karl Popper is good. He is useful for bringing together terrific people who discuss the most important contributions of the philosophers in question. tHIS REMINDS ME OF WHAT I have previously studied and may not have understood vey well.
(Excuse the caps).
It is like they said- don't read Maimonides before you are 50. Now that I AM PAST 80, I don't have much time left to master the great ones, but I keep trying.
I keep saying to myself, as I always have, don't waste your time on junk until you have read all the good stuff at least twice. However, if I need escape, I take it gladly. Trying to stay sane isn't always easy.
When you are under stress, you need to read (or not read) whatever works. I love fiction for the power of the writing, and the insight into other lives, cultures, choices, etc.
and the development of the genre from Aphra Behn onward. But if my own life is troublesome I have no room to think about other people's lives. However poetry always works for me.
I don't know much about Zen either, but Zukav's book was done with physicists and new age types including a tai chi master. I think it is the best explanation of small particle physics that I have ever read.
Onward with knowledge and joy! And don't be hard on yourself!
I don't recommend Magee for his own work except his book on Karl Popper is good. He is useful for bringing together terrific people who discuss the most important contributions of the philosophers in question. tHIS REMINDS ME OF WHAT I have previously studied and may not have understood vey well.
(Excuse the caps).
It is like they said- don't read Maimonides before you are 50. Now that I AM PAST 80, I don't have much time left to master the great ones, but I keep trying.
I keep saying to myself, as I always have, don't waste your time on junk until you have read all the good stuff at least twice. However, if I need escape, I take it gladly. Trying to stay sane isn't always easy.
When you are under stress, you need to read (or not read) whatever works. I love fiction for the power of the writing, and the insight into other lives, cultures, choices, etc.
and the development of the genre from Aphra Behn onward. But if my own life is troublesome I have no room to think about other people's lives. However poetry always works for me.
I don't know much about Zen either, but Zukav's book was done with physicists and new age types including a tai chi master. I think it is the best explanation of small particle physics that I have ever read.
Onward with knowledge and joy! And don't be hard on yourself!
158baswood
>157 almigwin: Onward with knowledge and joy! And don't be hard on yourself.
Just thought I would echo that.
Just thought I would echo that.
160almigwin
I am reading On China by Henry Kissinger who met with all the leaders and made many many trips. he was instrumental in the opening up of our relations with China. The book discusses China in light of its history, the impact of Confucianism, its sense of exceptionalism, its decline from great wealth and power (before the industrial revolution) and the way its politics is conducted. I think it is a very worthwhile book even tho I am not a fan of either realpolitik or Kissinger's political stances.
164almigwin
reading Story of a Secret State: Jan Karski's memoir of his reporting of the holocaust to the Brits and the Americans and their ignoring him. It includes his time as a prisoner of the Russian army, his time as a partisan in Poland and his efforts to warn about the genocide. A great hero!
Also reading Lyudmila Ulitskaya's Daniel Stein, Interpreter which is about a Jew who became a Catholic priest in Israel, and tried to form a utopian community uniting Catholics and Jews. He started out as an interpreter for the Nazis but worked to save people from them. it is based on a true story, but is an epistolary novel with documents created by Ulitskaya. Wonderful book!
Also reading Lyudmila Ulitskaya's Daniel Stein, Interpreter which is about a Jew who became a Catholic priest in Israel, and tried to form a utopian community uniting Catholics and Jews. He started out as an interpreter for the Nazis but worked to save people from them. it is based on a true story, but is an epistolary novel with documents created by Ulitskaya. Wonderful book!
166NanaCC
Miriam, I am interested in Story of a Secret state. I think it was Lisa's review that did it, but you are pushing it to the front of the list in my mind.
167almigwin
Hi everyone. I have been away from Club Read 2014 for the last couple of months as my daughter was battling her final battle with breast cancer. She passed away peacefully in Hospice in late July.
I haven't done much reading of fiction during this period. I have been reading Kissinger's on China, Broadie's The Scottish Enlightenment, american transcendentalism, various short stories and poetry.
These battles with death have taxed d my ability to focus outward. Both my children had different cancers for 16 years and were given remissions from dedicated doctors (plus luck). It is hard to outlive all your children, but I had them for 60 plus years so I have to be grateful for that.
You were all very kind in February when my son passed away. I am ready to try to catch up with all your threads, return to normalcy and not wallow in self pity. Wish me luck.
I haven't done much reading of fiction during this period. I have been reading Kissinger's on China, Broadie's The Scottish Enlightenment, american transcendentalism, various short stories and poetry.
These battles with death have taxed d my ability to focus outward. Both my children had different cancers for 16 years and were given remissions from dedicated doctors (plus luck). It is hard to outlive all your children, but I had them for 60 plus years so I have to be grateful for that.
You were all very kind in February when my son passed away. I am ready to try to catch up with all your threads, return to normalcy and not wallow in self pity. Wish me luck.
168dchaikin
My sympathies Miriam. I'm sorry for your loss. It is nice to hear from you. You certainly have my wishes for your luck.
169RidgewayGirl
Take care of yourself. I'll be thinking of you.
