about reading, writing, books, and all things bookish.
2019–2020
The Morgan Museum and Library at 36th and Madison, NYC. Nearly my favorite place in the world.
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
The truth…one version at a time.
It’s hard to break free from Anniversaries: A Day in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl by Uwe Johnson and translated by Damion Searls.
When reading a new book, invariably there will be a scene, a conversation, a bit of exposition, or some other kind of reference that will take me back to Anniversaries. The reference can be about people, art, cities, farming, food, music, an event, a wrong, a right, or even a word. And there I am. Right back with Gesine in an absolutely Proustian moment. But it’s not Proust. It’s more. Much more. It’s history, oppression, resistance, survival, luck, and maintaining life in spite of it all. It feels like no amount of gratitude for this particular book could possibly be enough.
Till next time.
1934-1984...Uwe Johnson.
Friday, September 18, 2020
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was interviewed in NYC at the 92nd Street Y by David Rubenstein on September 19, 2019. It was a splendid interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bZZiy16pu4
She was also interviewed at the Y on October 19, 2014 by Nina Totenberg. Doris Beinisch, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel was also present.
The interview was perfect. I was there. From beginning to end including a final glimpse at the stage door.
Sadly and far from the time when we needed her less, she passed away today at the age of 87.
Till next time.
A thrilling night at the Y with RBG.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
It’s really hard to start reading a new book after being so immersed in the lives of the totally compelling characters in The Goldfinch.
Theodore Decker (aka Potter)
Boris
Andy
Kitsey
Welty
Hobie
Pippa
and a cast of thousands…all too good to be true.
The book begins with art, flies around the world, dabbles in and around the edges of illegal activities, and in the end, creates a world where art becomes more than art.
It would be great/terrifying to have a friend as indefatigable as Boris. And Hobie would be the perfect mentor/friend/protector.
The best part of this book after reading it three times is that there’s always another reason to read it again, and that means there’s no reason to watch the movie since the casting is mostly wrong. Oops. Sorry, Hollywood.
Talented actors, but wrong for this book. Hmm. Tough call.
Maybe James Franco as Theo and Tom Hardy as Boris and Brendan Gleeson as Hobie. Yes. That’s closer…but still…there’s no one who can quite slide into the book.
The Goldfinch is a serious book and investigates the art world and its impact on values, capitalism, the black market, elitism, wealth, excess, friendship, loyalty, extortion, mayhem, and the simple joys of art appreciation.
The book launch for Bernard-Henri Lévy’s newest book was broadcast on BookTV today.
Thomas Friedman was the moderator and did his best to keep up with Bernard’s world view of the pandemic, the ways in which world leaders are responding, the Jewish tradition of study, and the ultimate need for repair of the world when life returns to a post-virus existence.
Bernard was conversant with leaders’ responses from France, Germany, Nigeria, Greece, Russia, Hungary, and the US. Certain types of powerful leaders will take advantage of calamity and misfortune for their own benefit while democracy, justice, creed, wisdom, and justice must step up to catch up.
Bernard ended by saying that climate change and not the virus is the single most important problem facing the planet.
While Thomas put forth the notion of Mother Nature responding to the world’s problems by putting forth the virus, Bernard countered (humbly and with care) that Mother Nature also recognized that people needed proper housing, proper food, proper ways of caring for themselves, and proper health care in order to fend off the various viruses in the world (there are as many viruses on the planet as there are stars in the sky).
After the virus is under control, there will still be worldwide barricades between those who have limited commitment to the common good and those who will act to repair the world.
Bernard mentioned the Talmud and specifically:
The Soul of Life: The Complete Neffesh Ha-chayyim
Bernard’s wisdom and leadership are unparalleled. In the end, there is no guarantee that democracy, decency, common values, and shared truths will win the day.
Nevertheless, it’s good to try.
And with Bernard and Thomas, as well as with Macron and Merkel, there’s a good chance we can work it out.
“Intellectual talks,” as Boris in The Goldfinch called them are soooooo worthwhile. And now? Back to it.
Till next time.
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Thursday, September 3, 2020
It’s hard not to admire the lighting that was used in Hamilton.
At just the right moment, at just the right intensity, at just the right angle, the lights enhanced the performance in an impossibly perfect way.
And then in the Times yesterday there was the obituary of the man who made all that lighting possible. Howell Binkley.
Even though he was always in the back doing his job, to have his talent meant that he was in the highest of the heights.
Broadway.
Nothing like it. From the front of the house to the back of the wings. I love it. All.
Till next time.
December 23, 2009.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
“What you see depends on what you think.”
Interesting. Quote from Kai Ryssdal.
And then there’s The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt whose book won the Pulitzer.
I’ve read it. It’s still great. I’m rereading it.
Because?
I saw the trailer of the movie, and Hollywood didn’t quite get it right.
So. It’s up to me and Donna to set the record straight.
Fortunately, the book was on the shelf.
Now it’s in my hand.
AND the Met is reopening.
TODAY!!!
Till next time.
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The Rhythm of Life from Sweet Charity.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
“Lather, rinse, repeat. That’s how they get you.”
Or so says God on Nurse Jackie. Could be profound, but probably not.
Moving on.
When you do finish a profound book like A Saint from Texas, you’ve just gotta sit there, think about it, and think about it, and then wonder how it all came to be. How did the world exist before this book? Maybe it didn’t.
In the end, the book really isn’t about two good girls from Texas, it’s about everything else. Everything.
Yvonne
Yvette
Addy (short for Adhéaume de Courcy who stepped too close to the edge) Ghislaine for the girl
Foulques for the boy
Dallas
Paris
Rome
London
Priests
Parents
Riches
Starvation
And the impossible containment of excess.
Edmund White understands the American obsession with money, the French obsession with appearance, and the human obsession with self. And then he put it all in a novel.
The novel reveals the author’s expansive knowledge of religion, customs, music, philosophy, geography, rights, wrongs, desperation, constraints, unhappiness, and joy (which is always just around the corner, but mostly out of sight, in another village, or perhaps somewhere just beyond the sixteenth arrondissement).
To write this book and to tell this story, Edmund studied. For years. For decades. He got it all exactly right. How can humans do so much damage in the midst of so much potential beauty.
I’m comparing this book to:
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War by Lynne Olson
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The next book up is gonna have to wait a bit. It takes time for a great book to resonate and rest before moving on.
Till next time.
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Friday, August 21, 2020
Just finished Becoming Duchess Goldblatt.
It had a cheerfuller ending than I was anticipating.
I’m going to reread it.
This weekend, which is,
of course, a handy social construct.
Till next time.
Elmore Leonard...definitely up next.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Phrase du jour of which I’m growing exceptionally fond in these dog days of summer:
Low-stakes productivity.
And. Moving on.
I’m absolutely mesmerized by Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. It’s utterly clever and seemingly real. I don’t really want to know if it’s real or not. I’m in to the tune of 50% finished. And Lyle Lovett? What a guy. Who knew. I’m searching my collection for Lyle albums. I know I won’t be disappointed. Julia should never have let him slip away. YG. What a gal.
Footnote: The word mesmerize comes from the last name of 18th century German physician Franz Mesmer, who believed that all people and objects are pulled together by a strong magnetic force, later called mesmerism.
(Shamefully plagarized from vocabulary.com)
He turned out to be a fraud, of course, but it was good for a while.
End Footnote.
Till next time.
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Thursday, August 13, 2020
Missing them for clarity of thought:
John Updike
Susan Sontag
Maya Angelou
Christopher Hitchens
Among others.
And a final thought for today, at some point you’ve gotta admit that Why I Live at the P.O. is THE best short story ever written.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Nothing like enjoying a few cartoons to start the day off right.
Till next time.
Photoshopped from reality to beyond.
Monday, August 10, 2020
Finished Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley. Terrifyingly accurate. Seems like the world is always on the verge of some sort of apocalypse or another.
And another of Buckley's really great reads is The Relic Master. And the fact that it’s loosely based on actual ancient history makes it all the more better.
C dot Buck. He’s done well.
Still reading more of James Patterson. He’s such a lovely person. How does he write such criminally-oriented books.
And finally, on the list to be read:
H. W. Brands’s The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin.
Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.
Anonymous’s Becoming Duchess Goldblatt.
Also, regarding streaming, Perry Mason is A+.
And Hamilton? A+++
Signed,
M dot Grace
Till next time.
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Clip from The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Finished The End of October by Lawrence Wright late last night.
It’s an all-encompassing novel based on real science, real history, real humans, and modern-day threats.
Henry Parsons
Jill
Helen
Teddy
Jürgen Stark
Majid
Tildy
Indonesia
USA
Russia
China
Saudi Arabia
Iran
The CDC
A virus
A submarine
Suspected espionage
Power grids
Lots of snapping shrimp
The Washington Post
The venerable Knopf Publishing House.
The novel tells the story of people and countries who are responding to a pandemic that is sweeping the world hour by hour. Ultimately, calm heads and cool minds of world leaders do not prevail.
Lawrence Wright is a world-class writer, thinker, and researcher. He uses the oil and gas industry, world governments, medical research, viruses, history, religion, and human frailty to tell a story that is compellingly accurate.
It’s a brave book.
Till next time.
The Borzoi...can always be trusted.
Monday, August 3, 2020
Wes Moore was live on BookTV yesterday for two hours, and he did a splendid job…practically perfect in every way. He fielded questions, cited statistics, projected a pleasant and approachable stance, and connected all the dots between education, stability, happiness, productivity, wealth, money, social justice, and prospects for an equitable future for all.
The interview?
It could not have been better.
People like
Wes and Greta…all the right stuff.
And Peter Slen? His usual gracious self.
A very nice day.
Till next time.
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Friday, July 31, 2020
If I understood Kai Ryssdal correctly yesterday, Amazon netted $5 billion dollars last quarter. How can that be? Netted. I probably misunderstood. Although…I’ve done my part.
Started reading Lawrence Wright’s new book, The End of October. It’s very tough to read his fictional pandemic novel because it’s close to home and based on real events. He’s a reporter and writer extraordinaire, and his character Henry seems to be mirroring the real world hero, Dr. Fauci.
As an antidote, it’s good to keep up one’s sprits by reading about Renee Fleming and Ben and Jerry’s in The Times.
Till next time.
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Thursday, July 23, 2020
In WWII, British engineers had secretly developed radar for their warplanes. HOWEVER, Britain didn’t want the Germans to know about this newly developed, high-tech, plane-installed radar. Sooooo, the Brits put out into the media (such as it was) the notion that British pilots had recently developed superior eyesight thus giving them a superior advantage for hitting enemy targets. The advertised reason for this newly-developed, superior eyesight? The pilots had started eating lots and lots of...carrots.
The world bought it. The sale of carrots went up, the radar was successful, and Great Britain was saved.
So. Although your eyesight may or may not improve, eat some carrots every now and then, and the carrot farmers of the world will thank you. (Unfortunately, carrot cake does not count as a carrot since it contains very little (if any) of Vitamin A. What a shame.)
Till next time.
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Friday, July 17, 2020
iPhone 40
Till next time.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
It was interesting to read an explanation of why the NYTBR summer reading issue didn’t include recommendations for books of poetry.
The explanation for this came from a letter to the editor who said that The Times didn’t include books of poetry because nobody reads poetry anymore and nobody reads poetry anymore because it’s actually prose.
Poetry has meter, rhyme, alliteration, poetic form, and sound effects. Modern poetry has been reduced to free-verse by the French and that makes it prose…not poetry.
Footnote: Letters to the Editor of the NYTBR. Always the best. Full of angst, courage, perspective, and, almost always, accuracie.
End Foote.
Till next time.
Byrd Baylor, John Ciardi, Nikki Giovanni, Ron Padgett.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Many times, catching up on issues of the NYTBR seems like homework, especially when I’m staring at four weeks worth of them staring back up at me from my desk.
I’ll catch up eventually, hopefully.
So. Today. And NOT Tomorrow, I’ve begun the process. First up is Donna Tartt’s (yes, that Donna Tarrtt) review of True Grit, which I’m sure I will not read (for a variety of reasons).
HOWEVER. In her review, she quoted from a letter by the Grit author Charles Portis, whose other works I will most definitely read for what Donna describes as his wit and humor and odd characters.
So. What’s the quote?
The quote in this personal letter from Charles to Donna expresses Charles’s dissatisfaction with his British publisher whom he accuses of “playing fast and loose with names, dates, facts, &c.”
Delicious.
June 28, 2020 NYTBR, page 19.
Footnote: In Latin et means ‘and’ while c (short for cētera) means ‘the rest’ cleverly giving us etcetera, etcetera, &c.
End Footnote.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 6, 2020
A brand new week.
Still reading JP and waiting for SK to be available from the library.
In the meantime, on the shelf was A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich, which I’ve had for quite some time but have just now decided to read after reading Carl Zimmer’s science piece in the NYT today. Carl wrote about the DNA sequence on the 3rd chromosome/gene/marker/? that was passed down through thousands of years from Neanderthals who lived in eastern Europe. AND I’ve just discovered I’ve probably been saying chromosone and not chromosome for years if not decades.
How ridiculous is that. Neanderthal ridiculous, I’d say.
So, there’s that.
In addition to E. H., I’ve also just now purchased for my kindle Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker with the option to Follow the Author on Amazon Prime.
A good week ahead for MG via EH and DP and JP and SK.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Shopping for a new mac today. Hard to part with so much dough. But the real problem is reading about how to transfer data from a really old mac to a really new mac. The directions make it sound easy…
In the meantime, I’m hooked on Stephen King’s newest book, If It Bleeds.
But, but, but, and but…I had it checked out from the library on my kindle, and it came due. Poof. Gone. And to renew it, I’m number 125 on 50 copies, which is predicted to be a four-week wait.
And yes, I could buy it from Amazon for $14.99, but there’s the cost of the much-desired mac to be considered.
Back to 125 holds on 50 copies of a book. This means I’m not the only one who likes Stephen. Obviously. And yet, it’s been years since I read his books.
The last one was Bag of Bones from 1998 and is still on the shelf (pre-kindle).
But wow. If It Bleeds. I’m a new ardent former returning fan…but not of the genre…just of Mr. King.
Is this normal to be so happy about a book? Let’s say it is.
Till next time.
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Friday, June 26, 2020
TheWife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis is a work of art.
Imagine the story of two eleven-year-olds who are betrothed. Then comes hard work followed by father-son strife over a period of years until finally the grown son leaves for greener pastures leaving his young wife and son.
Madame Bertrande de Rols Guerre
Monsieur Martin Guerre
It all sounds preposterous and ordinary and outlandish. And it is. All those things and more. In essence, the book is a study in human frailty, dissatisfaction, power, jealousy, certainty, prosperity, law, lawlessness, kindness, harshness, life, and death. All in one little story that begins with two kids.
And it ends badly. And it really didn’t have to. Tsk. Tsk.
Janet Lewis…an artist of profound insight. A not-well-known writer who resides in the elite category of story-tellers, observers, and philosophers.
Michael Ondaatje recommended this book. So glad he did.
And in the meantime, Apple, my screen still goes black. Splat.
But for now, gotta finish James Patterson’s The Black Book. It’s a fast-paced who-dunnit, and it’s my first Patterson book. He’s sold millions of books. He’s no Janet Lewis (1899-1998), but then again, she’s no JP.
Coming up:
July 3. Hamilton. Disney Plus. $6.99/month. Hmmm.
Wasn’t PBS in line for this broadcast? Lin? PBS?
Word du jour:
Eclectic. Always worthwhile.
Now, where’d I put my bonnet.
Till next time.
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Saturday, June 20, 2020
Michael Ondaatje recommended The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White. I just read this recommendation this week. And then, I watched Becoming Jane, and in that film there was a scene where James Franco was reading a passage from that very book to Jane (played by Anne Hathaway).
What are the odds.
Two references to that rather obscure book in the same week.
Actually, they’re pretty good.
But maybe not.
And even so, there’s a term for that.
For what?
For the phenomenon of seeing something and then suddenly seeing it everywhere.
The term?
Frequency illusion…the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon for short.
But the big news of the day? I fixed my mac.
It went black.
It whirred.
It stopped.
It stalled.
It appeared to be broken.
Twenty hours later…many reinstalls, much interweb searching, and voila.
I seem to have fixed it.
Fingers crossed.
In other news, a few of my favorite things with a minimum of virtue signaling:
A golden box of chocolates.
A free sample of Beautiful Belle from Macy’s.
A box of pencils from The Met.
A Peugeot watch.
An Apple Pencil (1st generation).
A 1921 Morgan silver dollar.
Glenn Gould playing Bach.
k.d. lang singing recollection.
My ACLU membership card since 1981.
Many favorite books.
Till next time.
Darn. Spoke too soon. Just went black once again. Apple?
Are you there, Apple?
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Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Shirley…the movie. Elisabeth Moss is such a great actor. So naturally, Shirley was a must-watch.
But really, I don’t think that Shirley Jackson was mentally ill or unbalanced in the way she was portrayed. I think she was a woman writer in a time of male domination of the publishing and economic worlds. There is no finer short story than The Lottery. Shirley was at the beginning of the women’s movement and would have benefitted from those gains as led by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique, Kate Millett in Sexual Politics, and Marilyn French in The Women’s Room.
Another thought…Shirley Jackson is presented as unstable for writing macabre pieces while Stephen King is feted. Also, Shirley’s husband was not an honorable man. And Bennington? Way too cold for good mental health.
At any rate.
She rose…above it all, too briefly.
Shirley Jackson…born in 1916, died in 1965, age 48.
Next book after a few on the bedside table?
Probably Barbara Ehrenreich or Dava Sobel. Or Alan Bennett…possibly.
Or The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis…recommended by Michael Ondaatje in his By the Book interview in the NYT. And then? Definitely some more QI on Britbox with Stephen Fry (from Hampstead) and Sandi Toksvig (from Copenhagen).
Stephen and Sandi…quite impressive.
And Stephen, I bet he could make a fortune selling tickets to have dinner with him in a quiet London bistro for a couple of hours of good food and quite interesting conversation. I wonder if he’s thought of that. Pricing would be £1,000 including two starters, main veggie dish, with fruit and cheese to finish, and two hours of kind conversation.
Maybe he could schedule two dinners per month. Not too taxing. And quite a nice contribution to all things adorable.
Busy times.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Finished Warlight for the second time and read it much more deliberately this time round. Michael Ondaatje is such an insightful person and storyteller. He tells the story of the aftermath of WWII through the eyes of the singular individuals who supported their freedom and fought against totalitarianism and died heroically, invisibly, quickly, or by a thousand small cuts, but always without regret. His characters were clear and resolute in their notions of doing what had to be done for liberty.
It’s so hard to accept that it takes this level of super-human efforts on the part of so many to simply allow life to be decent. But that does seem to be the case.
Michael wrote the perfect book. Not easy to do. His endnotes alone are testament to his seriousness, clarity, talent, and hard work. It’s just so obvious.
An elite writer. At the library. Everywhere.
It’s only a bit this side of overwhelming to read a novel this good.
Joyce? Proust?
No.
Ondaatje. What could he possibly do next to top this? Possibly not a thing.
“You know where you are with an honest pair of socks.”
says the character played by Ciarán Hinds
in the film Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
with Frances McDormand as Miss Guinevere Pettigrew
I wish all films were created like this. No music substituting for actual acting, no songs substituting for actual dialogue, and no spectacle-induced car crashes, hyper-heightened explosive explosions, assassinations, violence, torture, murder, or contrived mayhem. Just studies in human behavior, needs, thoughts, sadness, happiness, fulfillment, love, loss, and everything in between.
At. Any. Rate. A+ Miss Pettigrew. Well done, all.
Footnote: Excellent movies to buy (in addition to Miss Pettigrew) include The Assistant, Manchester by the Sea, Margaret, Brooklyn, Ladybird, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom. Wait. Stop…I already bought all those.
End Footnote.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Jon Meacham wrote an essay about past plagues.
In the 1300s, one-third of Europe was killed by the Black Death.
The deaths, the isolation, and the quarantining (related to the word quarter and a 40-day isolation period) led to a change in societal hierarchy. Rather than society being led by monarchs, aristocracies, and papacies, there rose from the dust and ashes of 25 million dead, individualism, the Protestant Reformation, and the scientific revolution.
Clearly and obviously, this is not a recommended way to make society modern and just.
It’s merely history (which as Faulkner famously reminded us is not dead...it's not even past).
NYTBR, Page 9, May 24, 2020
Also, I’m rereading Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.
The Moth
Darter
Nicholas
Agnes
Rachel
After WWII. London. Schwer.
The Moth explains that Mahler used the phrase schwer in his musical scores. It means difficult or heavy. He explained to the kids that they needed to prepare for schwer, which they would encounter from time to time and if prepared they would be able to keep their wits and their abilities.
Till next time.
Friday, May 29, 2020
Three things:
1. Peter Slen interviewed James Patterson on BookTV this week. A wonderful interview that was fast-paced, resplendent with words overlapping words, and plenty to think about. I’ve never read Patterson. But I’m starting with one he recommended at the end of the interview. Black Book written by Patterson and David Ellis.
2. Just finished M Train by Patti Smith. If readers read this book and don’t know about Patti’s magnificent life and accomplishments, they might think she isn’t quite balanced. She loses a camera and a coat. She misses trains. She gets her speech (written on a napkin) wet. She visits Plath’s grave three times to photograph it. She loses the photos. She is always fairly desperate for coffee. She tangles with airport security. Etc. The book reads somewhere between poetry and prose with generous bits of mysticism included here and there.
So. After reading this poetry/prose/mysticism book, I’m drawn back to her Just Kids, which won the National Book Award. And I’m thinking that I’m probably naive enough to prefer poetry that includes plums in the refrigerator and fences that make good neighbors over poetry with lots of metaphors and symbolism. My loss for sure. On the upside, wow. She knows her philosophers from Wittgenstein to Popper to Bolaño. PLUS, she likes the same detective shows I like, Cracker, Luther, The Killing, Wallander, Dr. Who, Inspector Morse, Lewis, and Occupied.
Finally as an aside, her singing as she accepted Bob Dylan’s Noble Prize was magnificent in its humanity. Lovely.
I did just now discover that she was interviewed in two parts by Michael Silverblatt, the ultimate aesthete for poets, artists, thinkers, achievers, and good people.
One more thought about the importance of her stone from a mountain or the chair from her childhood is that the meaning of those lies not within the stone or chair but within the interaction between the viewer and the object. The meaning of a thing or an event or a song or an idea or a word is ALWAYS an interaction between rather than an acquisition of (ala Louise Rosenblatt).
Patti…somebody needs to do a dissertation.
3. After all that? Hmmm. Something very prosey, accessible, and wonderful.
Of course.
Sharon Draper’s Blended.
Till next time.
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Monday, May 25, 2020
Memorial Day (Or cemetery day as my grandmother used to call it).
Remembering strength, perseverance, victory, loss, and resilience.
Two books that do all that and more…
Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier
and
Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull and David Diaz
Brilliant people, writers, books, aspirations, and memories.
Till next time.
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Sunday, May 24, 2020
Again? How is it possible to get this far behind yet again?
Perhaps because I was photographing cows all week.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2020
I was thinking about Benjamin Franklin today as one does from time to time.
And also of his wife, Deborah.
Deborah Read Franklin.
This reminded me of the books by the late great journalist Cokie Roberts (1943–2019) titled Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty.
Benjamin popped up because of his credited admonition to waste not want not. So instead of buying the Hermès Apple watch that I really want but don’t actually need in any way, shape, or form, I’ll read Cokie instead.
Till next time.
"A penny saved is a penny earned," said Deb to Ben.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
I was watching BookTV this weekend and was reminded of all the writers on that show who have influenced my thinking over the past 20 years. In no particular order other than caffeine-inspired synapses, I have found these folks to be helpful and wise:
David Maraniss
Robert Caro
Jane Mayer
Naomi Klein
Sebastian Junger
Malcolm Gladwell
Brian Lamb
Peter Slen
Susan Orlean
Shelby Foote**
Simon Winchester
David McCullough
Richard Rhodes
H.W. Brands
Douglas Brinkley*
Barbara Ehrenreich*
William Least-Heat Moon
Karen Armstrong
Gloria Steinem
Jonathan Kozol
Gore Vidal**
Maya Angelou**
Jon Meacham
Michael Lewis
Lawrence Wright*
Erik Larson
David Herbert Donald**
Chalmers Johnson**
Nicholas Kristof
Charles Blow
Michael Silverblatt
Mitch Kaplan
Tracy Kidder*
Sarah Vowell
Freeman Dyson**
Harm de Blij**
Dava Sobel
Jared Diamond*
James McBride
Arundhati Roy
Dave Eggers*
Ken Auletta
Bernard-Henri Lévy
*Met six and have their books, 30 to go.
**Deceased.
And then of course, we have:
Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
Auntie’s Bookstore
Politics and Prose Bookstore
Strand Bookstore
Powell's City of Books
Book People Bookstore
Books & Books
Magic City Books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Depth
Heady times.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, May 12, 2020
To understand leadership in a crisis, Jon Meacham recommends the 1969 account of the Cuban missile crisis Thirteen Days written by Robert F. Kennedy and published by W. W. Norton with an updated (1999) forward by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007).
Completely unrelated to the issue of leadership and noblesse oblige and in fact the exact opposite on the dichotomy of decency is the series Billions with Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. Each week, I vow to stop watching. And yet, I’m totally up-to-date with all the shenanigans and despicability of each of the characters in every episode. If any of that show is remotely related to actual practice, the SEC needs to swoop in and clean it all up.
And yet, if I were given the chance to ring the bell, I would.
Do they still have a bell? And if so, has a shaman ever rung it?
Footnote: In real life, Paul Giamatti’s father was president of Yale University. Paul’s character’s safe place as revealed in one of his therapy sessions was the Yale Law Library. His character also had a comforter, a protector, and a wise person on which to rely.
Till next time.
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Sunday, May 10, 2020
Just finished The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Published in 1940, the novel portrays class and race in the south in the 30s. Perhaps I watched the movie at some point (1968), but it was all new as of this reading.
Mick Kelly…needed a piano and a million other things.
Mr. Singer…had a friend and found it all gone.
Dr. Copeland…a physician with dignity and aspirations.
Portia…kept everyone fed.
The Café where everyone was lost and found and lost.
Sadness throughout.
Moving toward Madeleine.
Immigrant from Prague.
Escaped the horrors of WWII with her parents.
Prague to Denver to Wellesley to DC.
Secretary of State. Accomplished, smart, fun.
Till next time.
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Sunday, May 3, 2020
Suddenly, it’s Sunday.
The news, the headlines, the goings on, the thinkers, the doers, the waiters,
the hopers, the prayers, the activists, the makers of all things good, the leaders, the intellectuals, the upcyclers, the creators, the decent.
All on a Sunday.
General Jim Mattis and Activist Greta Thunberg.
Pullman, Washington USA and Stockholm Sweden.
September 8, 1950 (age 69) and January 3, 2003 (age 17).
And then…
Rondeau from Suites de Symphonies, Première Suite, Fanfares.
Written in 1729 by Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738).
Performed in 1977 by Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York & Gerard Schwarz.
Conducted by Richard Kapp.
Yes, Masterpiece Theatre…yes, that Masterpiece of the BBC.
What a world. It does carry on.
Till next time.
Photo by Alex Wong..................Photo by Lionel Bonaventureafp
Jean-Joseph Mouret born in France.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Suddenly, it’s summery.
I tried to read Peer Gynt (published in Norwegian in 1867 by Henrik Ibsen [1828-1906]). But it didn’t take. I’ll return it to the shelf for the future. Maybe that’s strictly a fireside read.
Also, started The Dirty Dust, but it kept reminding me so much of George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo, that I couldn’t focus. But wow. Recommended by Colm Tóibín as the greatest Irish novel of the twentieth century. On the shelf for the future. The Dirty Dust: Cré na Cille: Cré na Cille (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906-1970).
And isn’t it something that all 7 seasons of 30 Rock are available on Amazon. If only all 4 seasons of Better Things were also included. Hint. Pamela Adlon is such a great social commentator through story.
Finally, wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where Alaska is cold, student loans are paid, and jelly is free (or so says Tone Bell).
Great books, February 29, 2019.
Till next time.
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Sunday, April 26, 2020
Ron Chernow is perfect for these times. And Grant is the perfect book for fortitude, patience, and strength on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Just bought it for my kindle/ipad. It'll be as good as Hamilton, I'm sure.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Finished Shirley: A Novel by Susan Scarf Merrill.
Shirley and Stanley
Rose and Fred
Bennington College, Vermont
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is the ultimate story of people, interactions, deceptions, suspence, and a totally great and macabre ending that Stephen King on his best day wished he could have written.
But the novel Shirley didn’t reveal much about the real Shirley that was credible. Plus, Rose was weepy, unfocused, and fuzzy as a not-very-likeable main character. Perhaps Shirley in real life was too isolated to know much about her to include in a novel. But it felt a bit wrong to peer in through the windows of her house and see only isolated snippets that eventually missed the assumedly inaccessible whole story particularly when the Library of Congress was referenced. Plus, the book reminded me too much of the play by Edward Albee (1928-2016) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
.˙.
Moving on to the already read but always reliable Iris (Murdoch, of course).
Till next time.
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Sunday, April 19, 2020
Rebuttals, corrections, and accolades.
The weight of being four weeks behind in reading the NYTBR is that it feels hopeless…until, you begin.
Then, boom. You’re done, and you’ve chosen your reading life for the next few hours/days/weeks/lifetimes.
The best part, though, are the letters to the editor containing rebuttals, corrections, and accolades. It’s better than having the writers of those letters over for dinner, because you still get to enjoy their thoughts, but you don’t have to wash the dishes.
Exquisite letter tidbits:
Jane Austen’s parents allowed Jane’s younger brother to be adopted by a wealthy couple. The reviewer of a book about Jane was aghast at this event, but the letter to the editor was explanatory. Evidently it wasn’t unusual for a financially struggling family to allow one of their children to be adopted for financial gain and to fulfill a wealthy couple’s ability to raise a child. Done and dusted.
And then an endorsement of Kate DiCamillo is always thrilling to read. And the endorser of Kate is Ann Patchett who recommended The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by saying it changed her life. Ditto. Ditto. Nothing is better.
Till next time.
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Saturday, April 18, 2020
Started reading Shirley: A Novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. Shirley Jackson had an unusual life even without it being fictionalized. This book is gonna be great.
As an aside, I am four weeks behind reading the NYTBR.
As another aside, I just ordered my new iphone SE-2 (with expedited shipping).
And then for terrifying asides, there’s HBO’s The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (1933-1918) balanced by the insightful My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante who is brilliant and writes brilliantly and always will be brilliant irregardless of her real name.
Four weeks behind.
And that’s not even counting 14 weeks of The New Yorker.
Irregardless is a word worth saving. Yes?
Till next time.
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Friday, April 17, 2020
Finished Deacon King Kong by James McBride.
It was the perfect book. It had all the elements of great fiction including historical accuracy, troubling events, acts of survival, plenty of meanness, and lots of drugs, pain, and corruption…all illuminating and ending with the exact right amount of redemption.
And then, Robert Moses, what a despot, what a destructor, what a wrong-side-of-history legacy he left to the boroughs.
Sportcoat
Hettie
Pudgy Fingers
Hot Sausage
Deems
Elefante
Earl
Sister Gee
Potts
Sister Paul
Mel who liked Mars bars
Harold Dean
Good Italian cheese
James McBride and John Grisham discuss their world of books, writing, and publishing. Brilliant. I’ve watched it twice.
Lots of buses, trains, taxis, ferries, and boats in Berlin, London, Paris, and all parts in between.
Elizabeth Bowen wrote this book and published it with Alfred A. Knopf March 2, 1936 in New York with the perfectly placed Borzoi front and center (ish).
The book represents more than any other:
The Present.
The Past.
The Present.
In the end, Leopold may or may not thrive. And clearly, it’s less about his own effort than the culture, mores, situations, company, and parentage that produced him. Fingers crossed.
Till next time.
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Monday, April 13, 2020
When the world goes to the highest corporate bidder leaving democracy and republics far behind to choke in the dust, you get HBO’s Westworld.
And of course it would be fabulous to know what the late, great Michael Crichton thought of his newly adapted Westworld/Warworld series wherein recent episodes focus on feats of violence with advanced weapons whereas the original theme was on
1) real humans versus real robots,
2) class divisions,
3) excessive wealth, and
4) the boredom factor of the ruling class.
Never. The. Less.
It’s hard to stop watching.
And.
The original opening theme song featuring the piano solo is so so great.
Till next time.
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Thursday, April 9, 2020
Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel is affirming, fascinating, educational, and perfect.
How did I stumble onto this writer? Penelope Lively, of course. Her perspectives are to be trusted. As are Alberto’s.
What a story. What a book. I’ve needed it all along.
And here’s something else that I need:
iPhone SE-2 with a 13 something or other chip.
Anyone?
Till next time.
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Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Finished The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. Pretty marvelous.
I’m sure there is an essay or a dissertation or two or many that explore the role of a house as a character in the plot of a novel. And although at the moment I can’t think of any, this book does just that.
Over the course of five decades, a grand mansion is the main character that drives the actions and outcomes of each member of the household.
Mr. and Mrs. VanHoebeek (Van Who Bake) Dutch cigarette marketers.
Their custom-made house outside of Philadelphia.
Sandy the housekeeper.
Jocelyn the cook.
Fiona the nanny.
Cyril Conroy the father and WWII vet.
Elna Conroy the mother (incompetentem declaret).
Maeve the older sister.
Mr. Otterson the owner of a frozen vegetable company.
Narrator the younger brother.
Andrea Smith the stepmother with meanness issues.
Norma and Bright the stepsisters.
Dr. Maurice (Morey) Able the chemistry professor
Celeste the wife.
May and Keven the kids.
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Barnard
Columbia
Harlem
Penn Station
It’s all there.
The unforgiveable…forgiven. In a book.
In the end, the book has a Walt Disney type ending rather than a Shirley Jackson or Stephen King or Iris Murdoch ending.
Child abandonment, delusional thinking, no actual penance, and sailing right along with lice and untreated cataracts make the ease of reconciliation suspect but fit in with a Disney-esque story-telling motif.
Relatedly, the most disturbing thing about Homeland with Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin or Ozark with Laura Linney and Jason Bateman is that the fiction portrayed therein might be true. The antidote? Disney?
Or.
It’s time for Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel and then on to Shirley: A Novel by Susan Scarf Merrill followed by Grand Union by Zadie Smith.
All waiting on my kindle. As planned.
Till next time.
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Friday, April 3, 2020
So…Here we are. Still.
Emil and the Detectives
Emil and the Three Twins
by Erich Kästner with an introduction by Walter de la Mare.
I don’t exactly know how I came to read these two books published in Germany in 1928 and 1933, respectively, but I did. Both books were translated into English and published in London in 1931 and 1935, respectively.
They were written in Berlin and extolled the virtues of virtue and childhood.
They are the perfect youthful books and give an insight into how childhood was viewed and should be shaped.
Emil is a smart boy, obedient, resourceful, fun, hardworking, and the star of both books.
In the second book, the phrase “independent development” was used to describe how the adults took a brief trip and left the four boys with minimal supervision to allow them to develop, experience independence, and to enjoy their boyhood together.
And of course, problems ensue.
Emil
The Professor
Gustav
Little Tuesday
In the end? All is well.
Till next time.
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Thursday, April 2, 2020
So…Here we are.
Just finished Dear Edward: A Novel by Ann Napolitano
A boy named Edward survives a plane crash at age 12 and is the only survivor among 192 passengers. The novel covers the next three years of his life without his family including his brother Jordan. Instead, Edward must now live with his aunt and uncle. In the process of recovery, Edward befriends by accident his next-door neighbor, Shay.
Edward’s school principal, Mr. Arundhi, is the coolest character.
Dr. Mike could have been more helpful.
Uncle John did it all just right.
Aunt Lacey seemed weak.
Besa was a diligent mamí.
Madame Victory seemed to be the most practical.
Shay was perfect as are all twelve-year-old girls who befriend a survivor.
An excellent book with the right amount of pain, detail, angst, and life.
The whole book…a marvel.
The scene in the cockpit was a series of human errors, well written, and reminiscent of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in Sully and Flight, respectively.
Dear Edward is based on several fictional events including a real crash in which a nine-year-old Dutch boy survived.
The next book on my list? The Dutch House: A Novel by Ann Patchett.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2020
There’s a lot to read, but it’s nice to have a signed copy of the NYT best seller…
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
Plus, the subtitle uses the Oxford comma, which is always a plus and nearly better than chocolate.
Till next time.
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Friday, March 27, 2020
Finished House of Names by Colm Tóibín yesterday.
Murder and mayhem abound on every trail, in every corridor, and on every battlefield throughout the cycle of life.
Iphigenia – slain by Agamemnon (father)
Agamemnon – slain by Clytemnestra (wife)
Cassandra (girlfriend) – slain by Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra – slain by Orestes (son)
Electra – last woman standing
Orestes and Leander standing in silence…waiting.
Lots of villages plundered and burned. Lots of innocents massacred.
Over and over and over.
And yet, the book was replete with how good life could have been.
Colm Tóibín is an elite storyteller.
Brooklyn.
Nora Webster.
House of Names.
And then there’s the conversation with Michael.
Colm and Michael…the perfect photograph.
PS Orpheus in the Underworld was cited two times this week, once somewhere in the NYT (I think) and once in a movie (Green Book). What are the odds?
And finally.
The Greek gods are upon us…still…with a vengeance.
Till next time.
The chairs, the screens, the mikes, the cups, the books. All so good.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Vivian Gornick’s new book, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader was reviewed by Chloë Schama in The Times on February 4, 2020.
The book is great. The review is great. Vivian is great.
In that review was mentioned Elizabeth Bowen’s The House in Paris.
Click.
First edition. 1936. Alfred A. Knopf.
Arrived today.
Till next time.
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Sunday, March 22, 2020
Nine things.
1. As explained by the author of Processed Cheese and interviewed by Michael Silverblatt, Stephen Wright explains:
Pierre, or the ambiguities by Herman Melville
19th century term that means he’s lost his mind.
2. Finished Chris Ware’s Rusty Brown even though my vision was blurry by the time I finished this four pound tome, and then, in spite of it all, Miss Cole prevailed.
3. Stephen King won the Audie 2020 lifetime achievement award and was introduced to the podium by his son.
4. I’m next in line at the library to read Deacon King Kong by James McBride.
I. Can. Not. Wait.
5. Colm Tóibín has written The House of Names.
Agamemnon has been slayed along with Cassandra. Last half to go.
6. Then it’s on to The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch.
9. Saw a cow and calf at the fence both wondering, “What’s next?”
Till next time.
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Thursday, March 19, 2020
Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg
Just finished.
It’s a magnificent book about a brilliant editor. The book chronicles Max’s life from the beginning to the end with detailed highlights and important milestones all included throughout his life of 62 years.
Max’s authors are now part of the American literary landscape and would not have been so without the heavy editing of Max. His work ethic was extraordinary and that makes him one of those people to be appreciated and admired with humility.
But of course, A. Scott Berg made it all visible with his research in the libraries, vaults, file cabinets, and sitting rooms of all those who knew Max.
Readers owe Scott profound thanks.
William Maxwell Evarts Perkins
September 20, 1884 - June 17, 1947
Andrew Scott Berg
December 4, 1949
Till next time.
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Sunday, March 15, 2020
Max Perkins by Scott Berg.
It’s absolutely true that Max Perkins lifted the talents of F. Scott, Ernest, and Tom to a level of competence and glory that was heretofore unseen, and that without Max’s heavy lifting, we’d be without
Gatsby
Farewell or
Angels,
respectively.
Which highlights the notion that
Margaret Drabble
Cynthia Ozick
A. S. Byatt
Margaret Atwood
Doris Lessing
Penelope Lively
Did their own heavy lifting and without bankruptcy, civil wars, or bar fights.
Just saying.
All. Quite impressive, and I’m nearly, almost finished with Max. It’s long.
It was a thorough and moving discussion of her book, her values, and her thought processes. And I wouldn’t even have found this book had Jenny not been on Seth Meyers’s show. The main character is Lizzie, a librarian who experiences significance in the daily-ness of ordinary.
BookTV brings Susan Orlean to the stage along with interviewer Dr. Carla Hayden, head of the Library of Congress. Susan’s book, The Library Book, is about the Los Angeles library and its existence and fragility.
Lawrence Wright tweeted that his new book is not prophecy, it’s research. His body of work is exceptional, and The End of October: A Novel is almost here.
A busy day, six super-ordinary folks, and it’s not even noon.
Till next time.
Michael, Jenny, Susan, Carla, Seth, Lawrence.
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
I was reading the Times Magazine and saw an article about a sculptor.
Wait. I saw her work at MOMA October 23, 2013.
Small world. Big sculptures. Exactly right.
Till next time.
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Katharina Fritsch from February 23, 2020.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Last night, I finished reading two books by Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano.
In the Café of Lost Youth
and
Young Once
They were translated from French by Chris Clarke and Damion Searls (he also translated Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson), respectively.
Modiano is informally known as the Proust of today’s literary world.
The café: Louki and her semi-friends have their story told by four narrators with an almost unstoppable forward motion. Time and perspective show that reality is always multi-faceted…just like a nice diamond.
The young: Odile and Louis start out as youthful companions and then live their lives together for decades. How they escape their many questionable decisions is pure luck. And three important guys, all with names starting with B, were a challenge. Perhaps I am not an ideal reader…just a reader. A very lucky reader.
Till next time.
The New York Review of Books.
Monday, March 9, 2020
Max von Sydow died yesterday. He never made a bad film including Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which was described as having been critically savaged but which I have seen multiple times and like very much. Max was great in everything.
Pamela Adlon was featured in the Times recently. Her show is Better Things and is a delight…from start to finish multiple times.
Mireille Mathieu sings La Marseillaise in a way that is stirring and empowering. I just bought the rare French CD, but for some reason I can’t buy her song on iTunes.
What’s up, Apple?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7va62mL_LYU
But back to Max Perkins and then on to The Dutch House: A Novel by Ann Patchett.
Till next time.
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Revolution Francaise - Orchestre De La Garde Republicaine.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Watching Seth Meyers when suddenly he brings out for a little talk an author named Jenny Offill. He liked her book. I bought it. It’s great.
Title? Weather.
Lizzie, Ben, Eli, Henry, Catherine, and of course various other folks who are either flawed, interesting, critical, troubling, troubled, or all the above.
Quite a collection of characters who have no idea what’s coming…weather wise or other wise.
Seth and Michael. Dependable book reviewers although I don’t think Michael has interviewed Jenny. But Maybe.
Jenny’s previous book? The Department of Speculation.
A busy time for the reading class.
Also still mid way into Max Perkins as Scott Berg outlines Max’s editorial efforts to get to publication the work of
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
Thomas Wolfe.
Thorough, detailed, and accurate with lots of insider information.
Still, Jenny beckons. Part Five coming up.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020
My signed copy of Working by Studs Terkel arrived.
Yes, I bought a signed, hard-cover copy to replace the one that had resided on my shelves for years but which sadly had been lost to the ages.
Ebay. Click. Home again.
This book was a major contribution to the field of oral history with a total focus on labor, which usually is passed over in favor of a total focus on the corner office and its aspirants.
If my name were only Joy, it’d be a perfect day.
Till next time.
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Monday, February 24, 2020
Reading Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg, published by Dutton in 1978 and awarded the National Book Award in 1980.
Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe.
These are the writers Max edited (heavily) at the beginning of their careers. This book about Max is eminently researched and easily readable. I have both the book and the ebook (for ease of reading), and there are a large number of typos on the kindle that are not in the book. Puzzling.
Never. The. Less.
Scott Berg did a wonderful job of creating the inner workings of the world of publishing at the beginning of the 20th century.
National Book Award. An essential gift to the reader-class as Max called readers of his house's books...Scribner's.
Charles Scribner, and then Charles Scribner's Sons.
Not Charles Scribner and Sons.
Old CS...quite a conservative bookish kind of guy.
Anyhoo.
One of the common elements for Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe was their search for father-approval in their lives and works. This is in contrast to Joseph Campbell’s thesis of the hero’s journey. But maybe the journey’s purpose is to leave, conquer, and return home for father approval. At any rate, it was a man’s world in the world of publishing except, of course, for Edith Wharton. The book is good. Soldiering on.
Till next time.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020
Finished the Booker long-listed, The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy. No.
When the main character can’t even remember to take a tin of pineapple to a friend living in East Berlin behind the iron current, my sympathy for him getting hit by a car is none. Abbey Lane, the Beatles, historians, marriage, infatuation, confusion, moving on.
Till next time.
Friday, February 21, 2020
Listened to Ben Lerner interviewed by Michael Silverblatt and therefore picked up Leaving the Atocha Station.
The interview was generous and gracious as always. But I do think this book does a disservice to both poetry and the life of a flâneur by portraying a main character who is too self-absorbed in his own life when he should be looking around, soaking it all up, and making it visible for others.
But I’m sure I’ll still read The Topeka School: A Novel.
Till next time.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Kai Ryssdal is the new Studs Terkel (1912-2008).
America has 164,000,000 workers according to the BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics). Kai and his team at marketplace have organized those 164,000,000 folks into ten categories, and Kai is interviewing one person from each category in the coming weeks.
It. Is. Fabulous.
It’s what Studs did when Pantheon published his book in 1974, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.
Kai’s first interview was yesterday. A guy from the Bronx working as a CPA and going to law school in the evenings.
To tal ly great.
I wonder if Kai knows about Working. I sure hope so.
The best thing about this labor project is that the voices of real people come through loud and clear with neither duplicity nor insincerity anywhere in sight.
The second best thing about this labor project is that it uses sophisticated statistical techniques in the service of a straightforward, illuminating, and worthwhile project.
Not easy.
Well done.
Till next time.
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Monday, February 17, 2020
Finished A Bookshop in Berlin by Françoise Frenkel. The book was originally published as No Place to Lay One’s Head. This autobiography is stunning.
The impact of WWII on refugees, prisoners, innocents, and ordinary people is fully documented by Françoise. Her life, her stamina, and her testimony are a compelling warning against dictatorships and the undeniable value of the rule of law in a democracy.
The bookshop in Berlin stocked French books. Françoise lost her husband, her family, her health, her independence, her possessions, her freedom, and her peace of mind. And yet, she wrote it all down. And now we have this book.
The book is a good companion to Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson.
Another companion book is Mistress of the Ritz: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin. People doing what must be done to survive as well as the many ways in which the French underground rose to the occasion…as best they could…and even more.
And finally, a work of monumental importance that took everything from the author to write is Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl by Uwe Johnson. Gesine was a character but also an amalgamation of thousands and millions of people who were transformed by war, survival, risk, and the simple luck of being in the right place at the right time. Surviving harsh whims is a tough way to live.
Till next time.
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Saturday, February 15, 2020
Two extraordinary booktalks broadcast live on BookTV from the Savannah Book Festival.
There were several, but these two stood out in a big way.
Exposure
by Robert Bilott
This book exposes the 70 year environmental, chemical, and legal battle to get the chemical PFOA made by Dupont under control. It’s a “forever chemical” used in the process of making Teflon. This attorney took on the case and lets the public know that PFOA is in every person on the planet. The house was packed. One questioner wanted to know if the corner-office folks at Dupont had gone to jail.
The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever
by Kent Garrett
What a story. Kent Garrett is a thinker, a scholar, and a bright young man…then and now. I may even watch his whole presentation again.
Till next time.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020
I should have trusted the NYT movie review that thumbed down Harley Quinn, but Margot Robbie did such a great job in Mary Queen of Scots as well as in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, that I thought, “This is gonna be great.”
It wasn’t. I left after the 17th kick-boxing, fisticuff scene.
But then to save the day there’s John Gielgud and Irene Worth reading Thomas Stearns Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Just arrived in the mail. On CD.
Sir Gielgud…one of the hardest working and most accomplished actors in the theatre.
And
Dame Worth…I-REE-ne, talent beyond talent.
Sir…1904-2000
Dame…1916-2002
Till next time.
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Friday, February 7, 2020
The day started with thinking about two extraordinary editors who changed the world.
Robert Silvers (1929-2017)
and
Sonny Mehta (1942-2019)
And then somehow, my mind skipped to Edward Gorey (1925-2000). I’ve been wanting to purchase a first-edition 1972 hardcover version of Amphigorey for some time now. And if I had an extra $500 like Warren Buffet, I’d buy it. And yes, paperbacks are available for $12. But…no. Just no.
And if I had an extra $1200.00, I’d buy a limited edition, signed book (1 of 50) in a slip cover.
Alas.
Then too, today’s book journey, reveals that Gorey did the illustrations for a version of T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Also, Gorey illustrated a version of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Not only that, but again Gorey illustrated a version of a work by another author…Charles Dickens’s Bleak House.
In the midst of all that mindful rambling, I stumbled onto two books resting on my very own dusty shelves. Both were illustrated by Gorey.
You read to me, I’ll read to you by John Ciardi
He Was There From the Day We Moved In by Rhoda Levin
Finally, John Gielgud and Irene Worth recorded Eliot’s Cats (on vinyl!!!).
The biggest problem in the field of books and library science is that Amazon, kindle, ebooks, and wikipedia make no academic effort to identify first editions, original copyright, rare books, vintage books, or even accurate information about the editor, publisher, and legitimate criticism.
Never. The. Less.
The whole day, it’s all been…
A good day’s work of reading, writing, books, and all things bookish.
Till next time.
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Monday, February 3, 2020
I listened to Michael Silverblatt’s recent interview with Chris Ware about Chris’s new book Rusty Brown, and I knew within the first three minutes that I needed the book.
So.
Amazon.
Click.
Voila.
Done.
Arrived TODAY.
It’s gonna be great. The cover alone with the removable map makes the whole thing a true treasure. Michael was extra complimentary of Chris during the interview…almost too revealing. But then that’s what books do.
More.
I finished The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons. This biography is like reading a dissertation but much, much better. The endnotes and index are extraordinary and are just like Edith’s life, which was wildly extravagant, bohemian, staid, solid, unpredictable, sturdy, fragile, and all the above.
Edith lived a rich literary and artistic life and deserves all the best footnotes, endnotes, parentheticals, and indices that are available. The book is really well-written and took years, I’m sure, to gather and interpret all the details, notes, journals, diaries, events, timelines, and even Edith’s original will located in the London Probate Department and dated June 12, 1924.
What a life. What a book.
Edith’s biography led me to one of Edith’s most well-known children’s books: The Story of the Treasure Seekers, which is a book written through the eyes of Oswald Bastable, the kind of kid you’d like to be as well as the kind of kid you’d like to know.
All a remarkable start to a brand new week.
Till next time.
...
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Two hours today, live interview, Professor Deirdre McCloskey on BookTV with the irreplaceable interviewer, Peter Slen.
The discussion revolved around her 24 books written on the subject of economics.
She cited Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Tocqueville as leaders of liberal economics.
She favors less government and more freedom and tort law. Example: If a person opens a bakery, she should be allowed to do so without much government approval. If the bakery winds up making people sick, there will be the freedom of the customers to advertise that the bakery is unclean. The bakery will thus probably go out of business. Then the sickened customers can pursue tort law (civil action through the courts to claim damages).
She says one million government rules and regs are too many.
She discussed Marx, Lenin, Steinbeck, China, Russia, Brazil, socialism, capitalism, and the third estate, which is the bourgeoisie. Historically, there were two classes: the nobility and the religious leaders. All other people were subjected to those two levels of power. THEN, the merchants, manufacturers, and guildsmen rose up and became the third estate. The middle class…the bourgeoisie.
Her answer to inequity, to unfair banking practices, to medicare for all, to helping the poor is to…
Mostly, she talked about breaking up monopolies, ensuring freedom to pursue innovation, and employing religious principles for helping those in need. She is opposed to crony capitalism and monopolies which are a big part of big government.
She quoted Marx’s famous statement, “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.”
It was two hours well spent. There were 20 callers with insightful, respectful questions…19 men…1 woman.
Harvard, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, England, Netherlands, Iowa, basically everywhere.
She has invested 60 years of learning, studying, and teaching about the theoretical constructs of economics. Born 1942, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
A thorough, positive, and very-well-written book review was printed in the January 12, 2020 Book Review.
Tightrope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn was reviewed by Sarah Smarsh. The book outlines government policies that will need to be rewritten, recreated, reconsidered, revamped, reprioritized, recalibrated, rewritten, and/or simply transformed if the working poor in America are to have access to better lives. The book emphasizes helping people through robust tax-based programs that support early childhood education, high school graduation, universal health coverage, family planning, housing, jobs, government-issued savings bonds, and monthly allowances for all children.
I’m in.
And mostly, it’s a pleasure to read well-researched books based on both journalistic and qualitative research techniques that arrive at a synthesis and conclusion that are understandable, readable, and applicable.
Well done, youse.
Back to E. Nesbit…because…well…many books await.
And then there are always old episodes of Rumpole who quotes Wordsworth multiple times per episode. Quite intriguing and always requiring subtitles to actually follow it all.
Barristers, poets, villains, judges, solicitors, QCs, heads of chambers, old darlings, and She Who Must Be Obeyed. A bygone era that perhaps never existed at all…
Till next time.
...
...
Thursday, January 23, 2020
I left out Edith Wharton (1862-1937) when I was thinking about books connected to E. Nesbit. I don’t think they’re exACTly connected…except in my mind…somehow. Surely it’s more than the fact that they share the first name of …Edith.
Never. The. Less.
The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge.
Haven’t read it in quite a while. Maybe I’ll read it again.
Back to the E. Nesbit biography. It captures the life and times of many people in the mid 1800s including George Bernard Shaw. Thus, the biography of Shaw that has now been added to my to-be-read list is Bernard Shaw by Michael Holroyd. Gonna be great.
(PS Just read that GBS didn't like the name George. More to that story, I'm sure.)
Till next time.
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
Edith Nesbit
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Edna Millay
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Beatrix Potter
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Edith Wharton
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
J. K. Rowling
o
o
Five Famous Writers
...
Monday, January 20, 2020
Of all the books, films, events, and speeches (except of course, The Speech), this book never fails to move me the most.
Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier.
What a treasure. The book. The man. The Cause.
Till next time.
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Sunday, January 19, 2020
Started reading a new book. The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons.
And I was immediately put in mind of Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford (who also wrote Zelda).
But then there was also Beatrix Potter and her journal.
These mindful connections all started with a comment made by J. K. Rowling who said that Edith Nesbit was an influence on her writing.
Against all odds and without power, prestige, norms, mores, finances, or expectations, these four writers persisted…must be talent.
Edith Nesbit 1858-1924
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950
Beatrix Potter 1866-1943
J. K. Rowling 1965
I have GOT to learn to make better charts.
Till next time.
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
Edith Nesbit
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Edna Millay
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Beatrix Potter
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
J. K. Rowling
o
o
Four Famous Writers
...
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer. Hiram, Hattie (yes, That Hattie), Thena, Kessiah, Sophia, Corrine, Mars, Raymond, Otha, Lydia, and little Caroline as well as many others. It’s a book of history, testimony, bleakness, tenacity, and magical realism. Virginia. Pennsylvania. Delaware. Alabama. Mississippi.
The book captures the horrors, abuses, and economics of life on a southern plantation as well as the actions of abolitionists in the Underground who worked to dismantle a system based on tobacco and enslaved people...a system created so that a privileged few could “live as gods.” Ta-Nehisi invented and used the categories of Tasked and Quality to describe the people.
He got it all exactly right.
Last word of the book?
Underground. So brilliant.
And then, out of the blue on BookTV today:
C-SPAN2 featured a tour of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where Professor Claude Clegg talked about his book The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia. He was scholarly, accessible, clear, knowledgeable, and a documentarian of a necessary story.
In short, the quality of what’s available for readers is abundant.
Not overwhelming. And not underground.
All there in plain sight. Like air.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Finished Lives Other Than My Own by Emmanuel Carrère. It’s about the tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004 and also about the death of a woman who left family behind.
All the top-tier reviews praised the book as insightful and suspenseful.
Also, just finished Emil and the Detectives from 1937 written by Erich Kästner (1899-1974). The book, of course, had that Berlin feel after the war when people struggled but when they also took care of their families and children. And even in the midst of struggle, Emil had an adventure and always did the right thing. I’m on board to read the sequel. Should be great.
And now? It’s on to Leo Damrosch's The Club, which is about James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. All the time I’m reading this, I’m thinking about Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman…probably not a good sign for The Club. Even though Boswell wrote the definitive biography on Samuel Johnson, Boswell’s private-life behavior as outlined in The Club was unacceptably disgraceful and distracting.
So. I think I will…The Professor and the Madman. Up next.
Right after Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Charles Finch wrote an essay about reading habits of the pre and post digital revolution of 2010ish.
He explained that if you were reading a book before 2010ish, it was probably in paper form. Since then, it’s all about screens.
However.
He cites books by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Elena Ferrante as evidence that thick, dense, long, and complex books still have the power they’ve always had.
I agree. Happily.
Maybe it’s a cup of hot coffee that will sustain the reading of real books on real paper since it’s too difficult to handle hot coffee and a screen simultaneously whereas hot coffee and paper seem to coexist nicely.
Somewhat. Or rather, at least they do for moi.
Till next time.
Photoshopped steam...not bad, eh?
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Mrs. Osmond. She’s not Bernadette.
Or is she. Oh, my. Discouraging.
Flitting about, losing a case of money, sneaking out of the house, inviting your servant to dinner, trusting all the wrong people, not knowing one’s own mind. Was that the situation for women in…I don’t even know the exact timeframe, but there were horse-drawn carriages for conveyance.
At any rate, I skimmed to the end, and found Mrs. Osmond in yet another quandary about what to do.
Finita.
And now moving on to the Booker winner aka John Banville’s The Sea…right after The Club by Leo Damrosch who wrote a book about enlightened friends, curious thinkers, and robust hopefuls…mainly Samuel Johnson and James Boswell with a cast of their friends.
Till next time.
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Monday, January 6, 2020
You just have to love a financial news analyst who can weave Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs into a discussion of housing and Harrison Ford’s quotes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes,” into a news cast while all the while explaining what negative interest rates are all about.
(It evidently involves the Federal Funds Rate, which is the rate that banks charge other banks for overnight loans. If the FFR is negative, then banks would have to pay other banks to store their money. The banks would rather lend out the money to businesses and people, which will ostensibly stimulate the economy.) This is complicated.
At any rate.
The financial analyst who knows all about Maslow, snakes, and negative interest rates?
Why, it’s Kai Ryssdal of course.
Till next time.
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Sunday, January 5, 2020
It’s disturbing. For years and decades, I read here, there, and yon and was pretty much caught up.
But the minute I started to make organized conscious decisions about what I SHOULD be reading, my system fell apart.
So, I’m returning to my haphazard, come-what-may, laissez-faire approach to keeping up.
And oddly enough, I feel pretty pretty good about it all.
Less pressure. Yay.
Till next time.
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Saturday, January 4, 2019 oops 2020
I’m reading Mrs. Osmond by John Banville. I’m only a third or so into the book, but it reminds me of Portrait of a Lady by Henry James or the bereaved lady in Ian McKellan’s Mr. Holmes or Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy or any number of other pre-suffragettes but certainly not RBG or AOC or EW or HRC or Greta Thunberg.
Nevertheless, the story is compelling.
One more thought. The main reason to watch at the gym for the third time Nurse Jackie is to appreciate Merritt Wever…who is as superb an actor as does exist.
Go, Merritt.
Till next time.
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Thursday, January 2, 2020
John Banville wrote a eulogy in The Times for Sonny Mehta (of Knopf and of India and of Cambridge) who died this past Monday.
The fact that readers have access to profound books is due in large part to Sonny and his influence over writers, editors, and publishers. And John’s words of memory made it crystal clear that Sonny was beyond extraordinary.
And tangentially, on my shelves is a small collection of Indian and Irish writers who have created entire worlds of stories and wisdom…John, Sonny, Arundhati, Salman, Jhumpa, Nuala, Colm, Oscar, and Samuel.
There’s just nothing more important than the publishing of a profoundly good book (unless it’s the acknowledgement that such profoundly good books and their creators exist and strive and create and push forward).
Till next time.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Finished Quichotte by Salman Rushdie. The ending has a nice fantasy twist that complemented the whole Don Quixote/Sanchos reference. To combine fentanyl, motels, quests, American TV, a road trip, a classic piece of literature, Middle Eastern references, and the field of phenomenology is astonishing. It was pretty nice that the main character, Mr. Ismail Smile, maybe ended up okay even though all around him, reality was unsettling itself. Michael Silverblatt interviewed Salman in a two-part interview. Totally Michael.
Finished To the Land of Long Lost Friends of The New No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith. This was my first of his detective books. He captured the ins and outs of human relationships perfectly. Mma Precious Ramotswe shows wisdom, restraint, smarts, tenacity, and energy as she maneuvers her white van, her traditional size, her protégés, and her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni through the mysteries of life in Botswana, where cattle are currency and rain is a major player in every waking night and day.
Plus, Sir Alexander signed my iPad and my book.
Not a bad beginning (even if technically the new decade begins in 2021, but why be pedantic?).
Till next time.
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Monday, December 30, 2019
Thomas Chatterton Williams was interviewed on BookTV last night and gave a thorough look at his new book. His father read Plato’s Dialogues when he was a boy growing up in Texas. Seems salient to know that.
The interview was as perfect as interviews can be.
Till next time.
Sunday, December 29, 2019
How on earth is it possible to get this far behind? Oh yeah, I remember. Christmas.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of milky coffee with Rosemary on the Bose.
Plus, it’s Sunday…a nice day to get busy.
Till next time.
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Saturday, December 28, 2019
Robert Gottlieb is the only reviewer for whom I will immediately flip to page 18 when he’s reviewed a book on the front page of the Book Review. His writings and reviews are balanced, thorough, and trustworthy.
Robert reviewed Emmanuel Carrère’s new book of essays titled,
97,196 Words: Essays
Which of course is up next.
Till next time.
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Friday, December 27, 2019
2019
Almost done.
2020
Almost upon us.
Two phrases of which to keep track.
virtue signaling
confirmation bias
Till next time.
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Saturday, December 14, 2019
Even though I’d like to see JoJo Rabbit at the theater for the fourth time, I’ll just preorder it for now.
Three is good. Four is lapidary.
So. Instead.
I just heard on BookTV an author recommend two books:
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Absolom, Absolom by William Faulkner
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
How is it that I haven’t read these?
And. Sadly.
I don’t think I’ve ever read A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.
How is that even possible?
Ah well. One step at a time. I'm well into finishing Quichotte before moving on to Montaigne.
A north wind, a warm fire, lots to read.
Sounds good.
Till next time.
...
Friday, December 13, 2019
Just started, finally, Quichotte by Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie after a couple of starts and stops. But by page 3, you know…you just absolutely know you’re gonna like Mr. Ismail Smile.
A lot. Undoubtedly.
Till next time.
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Thursday, December 12, 2019
Reading international novels written by reliable narrators is the best way to get a worldview that is mostly accurate. Lately on my desk, it’s been
Elena Ferrante
Uwe Johnson
Bernardine Evaristo
1. My Brilliant Friend…Neapolitan Novels
2. Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl
3. Girl, Woman, Other
respectively.
Girl, Woman, Other won the Booker Prize. And it wasn’t until I was well into the book that I saw why. The book is multi-generational, multi-cultural, complex, current, historical, and relatable. How. Ev. Er. The book would definitely benefit from an Excel spreadsheet. There were many characters who walked in and out of others’ lives without knowing each other's pasts or connections. plus, there was no punctuation at the end of sentences
there were only new sentences
for one
to keep track of
For this book to have been published, for it to have won the Booker, for it to be readily available means something. Trending, perhaps?
At one point, it felt like I was reading 15 short stories that weren’t related, which of course means that everything is ultimately related whether or not it’s ever acknowleged or apparent.
I didn’t include The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq in my list of worldview novels because it’s less about sociology than it is about the psychology of a man, his art, and life on the road. Still, I’ve read it twice and will reread it again.
Finding books that explore universal perspectives of life and humanity is not that easy. But. Always looking.
Next up, I think, it will be The History of Philosophy by A.C. Grayling and A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.
Actually, before those? By the Book. Just arrived. Yea.
And before that even? Beverly, Right There by the incomparable Kate DiCamillo. (Actually, I just finished this. Beverly is a runaway who runs into other castaways who all ban together for fish, turkey, support, bingo, equity, and survival in the mean streets of daily life.)
Quite a lot to consider.
Till next time.
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Sunday, December 8, 2019
I’ve been waiting. It arrived.
My annual Christmas card from Jimmy and Rosalynn.
Now the season can begin.
Peace Health Hope
Just in time.
...
Friday, December 6, 2019
"Kitchen Criticism" according to Clive James:
QUOTE
“It was the term that the Elizabethans once used for the analysis of poetic technique: when to invert the foot, how to get a spondee by dropping a trochee into an iamb’s slot.”
END QUOTE
One of these days, I’ll figure out what this means…if anything. ALSO Reviewing a memoir by Leonid Brezhnev, he declared:
QUOTE
“Here is a book so dull that a whirling dervish could read himself to sleep with it. If you were to recite even a single page in the open air, birds would fall out of the sky and dogs drop dead.”
END QUOTE
On the other hand, John Updike gave six very specific pieces of advice for reviewing a book:
JOHN UPDIKE
The Atlantic May 2, 2012
Bold print is commentary by Maria Popova.
All the rest is all Updike.
QUOTE
"As Sir Ken Robinson thoughtfully observed, we live in a kind of "opinion culture" where not having an opinion is a cultural abomination. At the same time, the barrier of entry for making one's opinions public is lower than ever. The tragedy of our time might well be that so many choose to set those opinions apart by making them as contrarian and abrasive as possible. But what E. B. White once wisely pointed to as the role and social responsibility of the writer—"to lift people up, not lower them down"—I believe to be true of the role and social responsibility of the critic as well, for thoughtful criticism is itself an art and a creative act.
We need to relearn the skills of making criticism constructive rather than destructive, and we need look no further than the introduction to John Updike's 1977 anthology of prose, Picked-Up Pieces, where the beloved author and critic codifies the ethics and poetics of criticism by offering the following six rules to reviewing graciously and fairly. Though they were written with literature in mind, at their heart is an ethos that applies to critique and criticism in any discipline.
My rules, drawn up inwardly when l embarked on this craft, and shaped intaglio- fashion by youthful traumas at the receiving end of critical opinion, were and are:
1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.
2. Give him enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.
3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.
4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending. (How astounded and indignant was I, when innocent, to find reviewers blabbing, and with the sublime inaccuracy of drunken lords reporting on a peasants' revolt, all the turns of my suspenseful and surpriseful narrative! Most ironically, the only readers who approach a book as the author intends, unpolluted by pre-knowledge of the plot, are the detested reviewers themselves. And then, years later, the blessed fool who picks the volume at random from a library shelf.)
5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's ouevre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?
To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.
6. Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like. Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in an idealogical battle, a corrections officer of any kind. Never, never (John Aldridge, Norman Podhoretz) try to put the author 'in his place,' making him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers. Review the book, not the reputation. Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end."
END QUOTE.
Till next time.
Friday, November 29, 2019
Two nice things:
1. The fragrance lady at Macy’s gave me a free sample of Beautiful Belle by Estée Lauder. It was a MUCH better experience than that scene with Jennifer Anniston in Friends with Money. I love Macy’s.
2. I successfully updated my ten-year-old mac from ancient to not-so-ancient. Only three hours and fraught with angst and ennui. But in the end…success!
One annoying thing:
1. I still miss my nice sweater that was lost with my luggage by United Airlines. I keep hoping...but it’s been too long.
One dilemma thing:
1. I hate to not finish a book…it’s a dilemma. Maybe I’ll come back to it.
The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz.
Instead?
The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine
I did finish 10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak…it’s about the 10 minutes and 38 seconds that the brain takes to observe, think, reflect, notice, remember, and take stock right before it ends. Tequila Leila gave life her best shot.
Eight fun things:
A playlist of eight songs and singers that shines.
One anticipatory thing:
The weekend.
Till next time.
...
...
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Penelope Lively in her book
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
From a section of the book on Reading and Writing:
“What we have read makes us what we are–quite as much as what we have experienced and where we have been and who we have known. To read is to experience. I can measure out my life in books. They stand along the way like signposts: the moments of absorption and empathy and direction and enlightenment and sheer pleasure. Back in the mists of very early reading there is Beatrix Potter, who does not just tell an enthralling story but challenges the ear. Her cadences, her linguistic flights that I repeated to myself over and over: “The dignity and repose of the tea party,” “too much lettuce is soporific,” “roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce,” “The dinner was of eight courses, not much of anything, but truly elegant.””
Till next time.
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Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Penelope Lively in her book
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
From a section of the book on Reading and Writing:
“The stimulus of old-age reading is the realization that taste and response do not atrophy: you are always finding yourself enthusiastic about something you had not expected to like, warming to some writer hitherto right off the radar. But, that said, there is by now that medicine chest of works to which you return time and again. And, if I had to whittle that down from a chest to a slim stash–the desert island books–there are three titles that I would pick, because, for me, they are perhaps the ones that have most elegantly demonstrated what the novel can do, when the form is pushed to its limits. And these are: Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, William Golding’s The Inheritors, Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier.”
Till next time.
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Monday, November 25, 2019
Penelope Lively in her book
Dancing Fish and Ammonites: A Memoir
From a section of the book on Reading and Writing:
“Alberto Manguel, in his lovely book The Library at Night, says: ‘Every library is autobiographical . . . our books will bear witness for or against us, our books reflect who we are and what we have been . . . What makes a library a reflection of its owner is not merely the choice of titles themselves, but the mesh of associations implied in the choice.’”
Till next time.
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Sunday, November 24, 2019
The Miami Book Fair today. Live TV. Two days. Wonderful.
A bit of a summary on climate change.
The earth has heated up 1.1 degrees Celsius. At 2 degrees Celsius, the sea levels rise 250 feet.
The antidote?
Or at least one of them?
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of We Are the Weather.
References:
350.org
cleoinstitute.org
@WATWbook
earthethicsinstitute.org
All the things we can do as individuals are not enough. Systemic change is needed. But how? Unclear.
However, the lack of knowing how to solve the problem doesn’t preclude trying.
Measure progress not from perfect but from doing nothing.
BookTV…best thing on the air.
Till next time.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
You grind the beans. You crank up the coffee maker. You wait a bit.
And voila.
A milky coffee. Perfect.
However.
I forgot to buy the Vienna Ladyfingers.
Oh well.
And finally, a literary reference…milky coffee was referenced in Eddie Izzard’s autobiography as well as by Fin in fin and lady by Cathleen Schine.
Finally, really, finally. The Miama Book Fair was broadcast live on BookTV all day today. That was ALL day today.
Splendid.
Till next time.
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Friday, November 22, 2019
Whenever I’m at my desk having a light lunch of tea and toast, I think of the scene in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir when Mrs. Muir walks into the property manager’s office to find him at his desk peeling a boiled egg with sweet anticipatory satisfaction…napkin at the ready.
A Proustian moment, no doubt.
Till next time.
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Thursday, November 21, 2019
And wow. JoJo Rabbit was just as good the second time around. The house was packed.
Sam Rockwell. Scarlett Johansson. Stephen Merchant. Rebel Wilson.
Standing alone to carry the film?
Roman Griffin Davis.
And the very brave Taika Waititi.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2019
So. Olive’s back.
I’m half way through this book, and I think I miss the old Olive…the one that was cranky all the time. She’s mellowing too quickly.
The time for her to be mellow was when she was raising her son. She was mean and unempathetic (if that’s a word…yes, let’s say it is) toward Christopher and now she regrets it. Too late. Bah.
The other thought is that Frances McDormand is not particularly tall, and she played Olive in the film.
In this book 2, there’s a repeated reference to how tall Olive is. How this discrepancy can be reconciled is beyond my imagination.
So, here’s to the last half. And then moving on to the rest of the books on my nightstand where Ta-Nehisi Coates is bubbling to the top very soon.
Till next time.
I just learned the Gaussian Blur in PS...hence the pink.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
I heard them speak.
I shook their hands.
I have their books.
Signed.
Before my very eyes.
I also have the Stendhal Syndrome…
Obviously.
Even if there isn’t such a thing, I still probably have it.
Lucky me.
Bertie Pollack. 44 Scotland Street.
Irene and Stuart - his parents.
Big Lou.
Pat.
Bruce.
Antonia.
Domenica.
Angus.
Mathew.
Elspeth.
Rognvald, Tobermory and Fergus.
Not soon forgotten.
Till next time.
...
A Scot from Scotland.
A Brit born in Inda.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Finished fin and lady by Cathleen Schine. I thought after reading her By the Book interview in the NYT that her books would have more philosophical flavor to them. But of course, we need not only philosophy but simple stories about wealthy folks flying around the world having adventures, swims, trips, meals, fine wines, etc. etc. etc.
Cathleen did mention in her interview the brilliance of Cynthia Ozick and her book The Puttermesser Papers, which I’m going to read.
Cathleen says, “Ozick is not, to crib from Walt Whitman, ‘contain’d between her hat and her boots.’ She is magnificent.”
What a fine, fine thing to say about a fellow writer.
Generous beyond measure.
Can’t wait.
And lastly, fin delightfully reminded me that Homer (Ilyad and Odyssey) was not Hungarian.
Till next time.
...
Saturday, November 16, 2019
JoJo Rabbit. The anti-hate movie. Quite worth a second viewing.
Maybe even as soon as tomorrow.
Till next time.
...
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and says...
"Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for."
James Stewart 1908-1997
Frank Capra 1897-1991
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939
It's a Wonderful Life 1946
And then arrives...
Back to Life. Showtime.
Daisy Haggard actor and writer.
One character said, “By 2050, the weight of all the plastic bottles in the seas will be greater than the weight of all the fish in the seas.”
If that’s true…I’d like to see trolling vessels that would be engaged by the UN for the purpose of trolling the surface of the world’s bodies of water, collecting all the plastic bottles, loading them into a disposable rocket ship, blasting the rocket into the sun, and voila. Done. I’m betting Elon could make this happen in a heartbeat.
But back to Back to Life. It’s a good series. Short. Six episodes. Solid plot. Great character actors. Doing their job.
Till next time.
Getty Images.
Photo by Vicky Grout for NYT.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Grandchildren of Irma Rombauer have updated her Joy of Cooking cookbook.
On marketplace.org, they were asked which of the recipes was their favorite, and they said…
Olive Oil Cake.
Seems not quite right to think about making a cake with olive oil.
In the meantime, a nice photo of cookbooks can never be wrong.
Till next time.
From marketplace.org.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Really.
Is there any reason to eat out?
Only one.
What, you ask?
The washing up.
Till next time.
NYT, Julia, Maya, Simon, Judith, Farm Journal.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Uwe Johnson
Anniversaries: From A Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl
This novel took 15 years to write and exceeds 1700 pages.
15 years to write.
15 years to write about one year.
Fifteen years to write. Three months to read.
It covers
WWII
Vietnam
Upper West Side
It’s all there.
Including…
The artist Ernst Barlach and his sculptures, “The Frieze of Listeners.”
Uwe references The Frieze. And I was compelled to find out more. It wasn’t hard. Comparatively.
Ernst Barlach’s life as a German citizen was difficult since he was opposed to fascist policies and created sculptures to reflect those beliefs. And then of course there’s a book about Ernst Barlach and his life as an artist.
The title?
An Artist Against the Third Reich: Ernst Barlach, 1933-1938.
The book is written by the eminent historian Peter Paret (born April 13, 1924) and is published by Cambridge University Press and can be partially read on Google books.
On page 93, the book documents very thoroughly what it took for the sculptures to be created and the ultimate sacrifice that was made for this act of resistance to become visible.
Even if not many people read Anniversaries or find The Frieze of Listeners or find Paret’s biography of Ernst Barlach or note that the biography was published by Cambridge University Press or find a sample of the book on books.google or take the time to just appreciate the grandness of it all, the huge great grandness of it all, it’s still one of those moments…one of those very grand moments...moving and profound.
It’s all almost too much. Too much struggle, too much goodness, too much power, too much complication.
Thankfully, there are resources, committed people, talented writers, persistent activists, scholars, printers, publishers, booksellers, the academy, and time.
It takes time to find it all and appreciate what it all means.
It’s all very humbling. And empowering. And lovely.
And if I ever had to give up all my worldly goods, the NYTimes online and in print would be the last and final thing on my list. I can’t live without it.
This most recent intellectual journey started with a NYTBR written by Parul Sehgal and published December 18, 2018.
And none of this. None of this. None of this would have happened without the translator who took Uwe Johnson’s witness from German to English…Damion Searls.
Uwe Johnson NYRB
Damion Searls Translator
Ernst Barlach The Frieze of Listeners
Peter Paret Cambridge University Press
Parul Sehgal NYTBR
It’s a lot.
Till next time.
The Two-Volume Set from NYRB.
Uwe Johnson, 1934-1984, photo by Michael Bengel.
Ernst Barlach, 1870-1938.
The Frieze of Listeners
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Give me a sunny Sunday afternoon, a new book about Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith, an Italian cream soda…and I’m good until the supper bell rings later on tonight.
Till next time.
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Saturday, November 2, 2019
I am library patron #225 on 36 copies of The Guardians by John Grisham.
I don’t even really want to read that particular book. I’m simply between books, and that one popped up on my radar.
225…that’s a lot of patrons.
36…that’s a lot of copies, but still it’s not 225.
So.
Could be months.
.˙. I’ll move on.
But.
In a much-related note, Macmillan Publishing company has decided that as of November 1, 2019, they will no longer sell multiple copies of their ebooks to public libraries until after 60 days have passed and then only for a two-year period and even then at a much inflated price.
Macmillan assumes that readers will not want to sit around waiting 60 days for their turn to check out the latest ebook from the library and will instead buy the book and/or the ebook.
Ah.
Macmillan’s plan is fatally flawed. Evidently they have no idea that one of our favorite things to do as readers is to sit around. Ha.
The ALA is opposed to Macmillan’s plan on the basis of egalitarian principles. The ALA argues that everyone should have immediate access to books upon their publication and should not have to wait for the market to dictate what public libraries can offer.
Ta da.
Bless the ALA.
But wait. Shouldn’t writers be paid a living wage by readers who buy their books as opposed to checking them out for free from the library?
This will be a battle of wills between writers, editors, publishers, agents, capitalists, and the public good. Surely a compromise can be found.
Also, saw two journalists on BookTV recently. Great stuff.
Ronan Farrow, journalist.
Amaryllis Fox, journalist.
Till next time.
Published by Macmillan Publishers.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
I finished Memento Morti by Muriel Spark who was recommended as a significant writer by Penelope Lively or possibly Barbary Pym but probably Penelope since I just finished her autobiography…it’s on my mind. I shall read it again probably several more times. Her stance on history and reading is helpful.
Memento Mori is a murder mystery of sorts and involved a multitude of people in the final throes of living. Some in their homes, some in facilities…all a bit dotty and confused. All not nearly busy enough with things that matter.
And then four unrelated thoughts:
1. A possible dissertation title:
The History of the Structured Handbag: A Journey in Three Parts
2. Who would be for the elimination of net neutrality you ask?
Stockholders in a telecom company, perhaps?
3.The Laundromat starring Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderos, and Meryl Streep seems to have hit the nail on the head regarding tax-free companies who are quasi-located in off-shore locations around the planet and who pay little or no tax and who have little or no external oversight by rules, laws, and/or financial entities.
Further.
There are 2,000 billionaires on the planet.
There are 15 million millionaires on the planet.
4. The CEO of faceb$$k was questioned by Congress yesterday. He seems to be a petulant adolescent who can’t admit he’s violated the “do no harm” clause of life, which is a common goal for trustworthy folks.
And then finally, my next big read is The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter. Not sure about this genre of militant spy thriller, but she was fabulous on BookTV when she presented with Malcolm Gladwell, Rachel Maddow, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose books I’m also gonna read. (I wonder if faceb$$k’s CEO reads.)
And then of course there’s Glenn Gould playing Bach and Chaim Topol singing If I Were a Rich Man. A nice day.
Till next time.
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Thursday, October 17, 2019
Harold Bloom died Monday at age 89.
He taught his last class at Yale the previous Thursday.
His interview on BookTV recently showed a successful reader and thinker who loved his life. His influence on the classics is permanent. Not bad for a little boy from the Bronx.
And then, quite a dilemma:
Buy Olive, Again as an ebook for $13.99 or wait for an available copy of the ebook from the public library. Number 40 on five copies.
That’s the dilemma.
Next is:
Ad Astra.
What happened? Lots of star power, but somehow I kept looking at my easy-glow Timex.
Finally:
The Politician with Ben Platt. The man can act with or without Jessica and Gwyneth and Judith and Bette. The series...disturbingly good.
Till next time.
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Monday, October 14, 2019
The Southern Festival of Books was live this past weekend on BookTV.
Paul Theroux gave a talk about his new book, and he mentioned a Mexican artist and activist who died just last month at the age of 79. The artist was quite extraordinary in terms of his talent. But he was also even more extraordinary in terms of his commitment to his country, his people, his art, and his generosity.
Francisco Toledo
July 17, 1940 – September 5, 2019
Susan Neiman gave a talk about her new book regarding lessons learned from Germany after WWII. She was informative, articulate, clear, approachable, trustworthy, scholarly, and wise. Audience questions were brilliant, sincere, informed, and impressive.
Nashville. Nashville Public Library. Packed. Who knew.
Till next time.
Photo by Tomas Bravo for the NYT.
BookTV
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Reading along for the second time Penelope Lively’s autobiography, titled Dancing Fish and Ammonites.
In this book, she quotes Yeats:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
And then exactly one hour later, I heard the exact same quote in a movie. Twice in one day? Within an hour? How is that possible?
Now today? I’m looking back into Dancing Fish…and the quote is nowhere to be found. I know I read it…in that book…just yesterday…and yet…
Spooky, right?
Troubling, yes?
Disturbing? Sure.
But. I’ll figure it out…eventually, hopefully, maybe.
UPDATE: Just figured it out. Seems the quote was actually used in a piece in the Times by an essayist who was negatively dissecting Seinfeld (happily unsuccessfully). Commenters liked and still like Seinfeld as a study of human behavior. Ta da.
AND there’s much more to the rest of the poem: https://poets.org/poem/second-coming
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Irish poet
1923 Nobel Prize for Literature
Also, there are many portions of Dancing…that deserve recollection and dissection, and one of those is Lively’s discussion of memory.
Procedural memory
Semantic memory
Autobiographical memory
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) discussed these exact, very same three categories of memory in his brilliant lecture on BookTV in 2005 (obviously unforgettable).
Along with his lecture were lectures by Barbary Ehrenreich, John Irving, and Bob Herbert. Stunningly good.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Naomi Klein
Live
Two hours
BookTV
This past Sunday
Excellent
Totally
Her main thesis is the way in which capitalism and disasters intersect in both correlative and causative interactions.
Till next time.
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Monday, October 7, 2019
Joker
The Times said no.
The New Yorker said no.
In the end it Came Down to trusting Joaquin to tell a worthwhile story. And he did. Totally.
So good… I’m gonna see it again.
The film is a combination of
Ken Kesey’sOne Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
WilliamGolding’s Lord of the Flies
Jerzy Kosinski’sBeingThere
StephenSondheim’s Send in the Clowns
Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain
In the end we need more mental health funding.
And a lot more...ordinary kindness...even if it’s superficial. A little random kindness even if it’s not completely heartfelt never goes to waste.
HopeSondheim sees this film. He’ll be pleased .
Joaquin’s performance. Flawless.
Which makes Jimmy Fallon’s interview with him inexplicable. Jimmy had a chance to explore the social phenomena now on the front page everywhere, and he let it slip away.
Finally. I hope Joaquin is happy in real life and that he eats a cheeseburger or two as soon as possible with a side of milkshake.
From Arthur Fleck’s journal: “The worst part of having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you don’t.”
The film is capable of promoting serious conversations about mental health, pharmaceutical help, poverty, class, and social mores. Not many films can do all that.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, October 3, 2019
After effort, time, glory, shock, and awe, I finished Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson; many takeaways but here are two:
1. The history of the world is one of violence. The question is why.
This book is brilliant and seriously shows the effects of tribal aggression, complacency, fear, struggle, survival, and the tendency or necessity for some, in the midst of all this, to look away.
My grandfather…WWI
My father…WWII
My uncle…Korean War
My colleagues…Vietnam War
My acquaintances…War in Afghanistan since 2001
It’s all unnecessary, futile, and ultimately produces losers all round. Victors are short-lived and compromised. Every war. Every time.
The book's last line, “We held one another’s hands: a child, a man on his way to the place where the dead are, and she, the child that I was.”
Seeing the world through the clear eyes and bright minds of Gesine and Marie brings historical perspective and moral clarity.
Very few things in life can do this.
Books.
The NYT Book Review.
The Paris Review of Books.
The New York Review of Books.
Gratitude…full on gratitude.
2. And in the midst of all this, there’s fall approaching. One leaf at a time.
Plus bread is baked, Sinatra sings, and the sun rises daily.
Till next time.
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Friday, September 27, 2019
Wow. To be a film critic. Judy starring Renee Zellweger was great and great enough to inspire digging through the old LPs to find Judy and Liza at the Palladium in London.
And then there’s always Stephen Sondheim in his fabulous Tshirt extolling the virtues of
Order
Design
Tension
Composition
Balance
Light &
Harmony
from Sunday in the Park with George, of course.
Lots of media, books, music, and technology floating around in the ether and on the desk.
And in spite of a bit of Lean Cuisine, a brand new iPad makes a good day practically perfect.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Even when I’m depressingly four weeks behind in reading the NYTBR, I soldier on, and here’s why.
There’s ALWAYS a gem; a gem I can’t live without and didn’t even know I needed.
And this time, it’s Cathleen Schine who, lo and behold, I also found being interviewed last week by the incomparable Michael Silverblatt.
Cathleen recommends:
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick (whom I love).
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (which I’ve read…right?).
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Cathleen says this book was read aloud to her in fourth grade by her teacher and that it changed her life).
PLUS, it’s raining and thundering outside my window.
How normal is it to be thrilled to have your book signed by
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie.
I should check the DSM-5. Or perhaps the 6, or maybe they’re even up to 7 by now.
Even if it’s not normal, I’m thrilled. And fortunate. And lucky. And all other manner of synonyms.
The world of elite writers is a world of hard work. They make it look easy.
Till next time.
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Monday, September 23, 2019
I wonder if there’s a specific word for someone who is enamored with the achievements of another person (or two or several). If there is, I’ll think of it…eventually…maybe.
I hope it’s a word better than groupie, fan, obsessor, idolization, hero worship…I hope it’s something simple like having an internal goodness compass that points you in the direction of good people doing good things.
There are lots of good people doing good things.
For example, there’s the person who invented cinnamon raisin bread.
There’s also the person who invented my iPad, which I love and use many hours a day.
And then for another, there’s the person who invented the spinach soufflé.
Hmm. Too food-oriented. Better move on to the idea that prompted all this thinking about goodness in the first place.
I am overwhelmed with Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson. If someone could invent a time machine, I would go back and get him and let him know that what he’s written is monumental and worthy of the literary world’s deepest gratitude.
I have more to read to finish this work, and I will finish, but I really don’t want to leave behind Gesine, Marie, Cresspahl, and all the rest. Uwe’s architecture of this book was to include accurate and verifiable names, dates, and places for WWII, the Vietnam War, and life on the Upper West Side of NYC from 1933 through 1968. He accomplishes all this through the life of Gesine (GuhZEEnee).
I can’t even imagine not having this book in the world or on my shelf or not having the resourcefulness of the New York Review of Books and the legacy of Robert B. Silvers (1929-2017) who I’m sure made it all possible.
Admiration. That’s the word. Enamored of others’ achievements?
Admiration.
And then along comes Greta Thunberg.
Hands down…the winner of all things admirable and beyond.
Matt Taibbi was on a panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Live TV on C-SPAN2.
He was as cogent, articulate, informed, and brilliant as always. He’s a journalist. He was really on point.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2019
I knew it.
Just from the previews.
And A. O. Scott confirmed it.
TheGoldfinch is almost a movie.
Ha.
The book by Donna Tartt is SO good. The movie just couldn’t approach it properly. So, that’s one less thing to worry about.
And instead it’s on to Downton Abbey, which is going to be spectacular.
One more thing regarding the main character of Goldfinch, they could have at least made the kid have brown hair…that way he would have actually looked more like Harry Potter rather than George Will as a kid.
Way to go A. O. Must be nice.
Last thing about Goldfinch, I've read it twice and will read it again. The museum, the stealth, the fear, the stand-in family, the crooks, the robbers, and mostly the antique restoration business in lower Manhattan. That part's a gem.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson (1934 - 1984) published by NYRB Classics
Our Boys by Hagai Levi (1963 - ) on HBO
The Spy by Gideon Raff (1972 - ) on Netflix
For some reason, all three of these media appeared in front of my eyes at about the same time in the past few weeks.
It’s too much.
Too much reality?
Too much intensity?
Too much engulfedness?
Too much violence, greed, aggression, corruption, deceit?
Yes.
And then for some reason and at just the right moment,
Aristotle (384 BCE - 322 BCE) appears.
There are three broad choices for how to live.
1. Virtue ethics
You identify virtues that are considered to be worthwhile like courage and generosity, and you develop yourself in accordance with those virtues.
2. Consequentialism
Whether something is right or wrong stems from the consequences of that action. How much utility or good did that action accomplish versus how much pain or bad did it cause.
3. Deontology (derived from Greek for duty/obligation)
There are rules that should be followed, and being ethical is simply following and obeying the rules.
Thanks Ari and Chidi (via The Good Place).
It’s all worth knowing.
Till next time.
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Thursday, September 12, 2019
It’s pretty uplifting to watch the Apple keynote from two days ago. I’ve picked out my new iPad. But it’s not going to be delivered until mid-October, which is a shame, shame, shame, because, of course, I want it now.
And in studying the Apple site, I’ve run across their augmented reality portion for their new iPad.
And. I tried it out.
And. Waaaaay cool.
And it even allowed me to take a screen shot. How’s that for augmented augmented reality.
Perfect.
Except I’m buying the one with the black border because I have an idea that the eyes’ irises adjust negatively to the white border. Pretty sure about that.
Anyhoo.
Apple. A phenomenal group of go-getters.
And then along comes AT&T trying to auto diagnose
my s l o w wireless gateway internet. NOT impressive. And I want to be impressed. After all, my bill is promptly paid each month and additionally is on auto-pay, which leads customers to believe that they will get great service.
Alas, such is not the case. And this is troubling because the economy needs AT&T to be wildly solvent.
In the meantime and in a wildly optimistic vein, I'll be here waiting for mid-October with customer satisfaction rating for all things Apple predicted to be at the usual 100%.
It’s amazing the thoughts invoked by a bit of caffeine.
Even if it is out of focus. A bit.
Till next time.
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Monday, September 9, 2019
They arrived.
Today.
Two used books.
Out of print.
And yet…
The spine cracked just like new.
Could it be?
Yes.
I was the first.
Too thrilling?
Probably.
Never. The. Less.
I was the first.
That new book smell.
And to celebrate?
I’m thinking a root beer float.
Homemade.
Till next time.
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Thursday, September 5, 2019
It’s a serious business to write a book like Anniversaries, and Uwe Johnson was a serious writer.
The book is very l o n g. And I’m rereading portions of it as I go to make sure I understand it. It’s a book about people, but interwoven in this story is an analysis of the things people do to survive. The book also explains in truthful detail most of the huge and colossal mistakes that have been made in the recent past by and because of nations, people, movements, and belief systems.
Because I’m only a third into it, I’m unsure how Gesine (GuhZEEnee) made it to America from Germany in the 60s and how she was able to secure a banking job and live on Riverside Drive. I know that all that info will be explained, but I'd like to know sooner rather than later. I know. I know. Patience.
In the meantime, I’ll have lunch.
And finally, I’m wishing Jill Krementz had included Uwe in her book. It would be nice to understand him a little better, although I suspect he would say, “Read the book. I’m there.”
Till next time.
Yes. Signed by the author.
Yes. That's Eudora on the cover.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
I actually thought that my new titanium Apple Mastercard issued by Gucci Goldman Sachs would extend my happiness levels far, far, far into the future.
But, alas, no.
It’s been a mere five days now, and the anticipated thrill is gone, gone, gone.
Which brings me to BB King who said it best.
Never. The. Less.
My name is in fact etched in metal, and since it’s not my tombstone, it’s all good.
But really.
The National Book Festival yesterday with
RBG
Nina Totenberg
David Brooks
Skip Gates
David McCullough
and all the rest kept me busy all day.
Live TV. C-SPAN2. From the Library of Congress.
It’s the best of America.
Hands down.
Titanium notwithstanding.
And then of course, today there was Joanne Freeman from Yale talking about Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington, and all the rest with the incomparable Peter Slen for a live two-hour discussion of history, America, and the future.
Which means that…
The thrill is actually not gone and is alive and well on BookTV.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, August 27, 2019
“Fruitful monotony.”
Leave it to Bertrand to perfectly describe the benefits of a life of routine familiarity.
The Conquest of Happiness.
Page 54.
But in the meantime, I’m continuing for the foreseeable future with Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson who describes 1960s America and the world for us through German eyes much like Alexis de Tocqueville did in 1835 in his Democracy in America.
Busy times.
Till next time.
The Conquest of Happiness.
Uwe Johnson (1934-1984).
Sunday, August 25, 2019
What if we lived in a time when the New York Review of Books didn't exist and the world of publishing didn't have the ability to publish hard books, easy books, commercial books, literary books, comic books, coloring books, any books...where would we be.
I'd be without Anniversaries by Uwe Johnson. It's unimaginable—just like the contents of Uwe's book.
Gesine
GeZEEnee
Germany
Vietnam
Russia
The Baltic
NYC
Where would we be?
It’s almost embarrassing to be this sentimental, nostalgic, and stunned by a book. Then again, that’s what great books do. They stun.
Till next time.
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Saturday, August 24, 2019
Lots of books lined up to be read.
A few nonfiction. A few fiction. A few biographies.
But in the meantime, I’m re-watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. How fabulous to live on Riverside Drive and rub elbows with Lenny Bruce.
But actually, the best bits from that series are with Alex Borstein and Tony Shalhoub. Two total pros, plus great writing, and wistful nostalgia for a life that is way too easy.
Anyhoo…
Two TNYTBRs to read this weekend before I’m behind yet again and again and again.
What else? I think I’ll see about watching Mrs. Miniver since it was referred to twice in a Mrs. Maisel episode that I watched today.
I’ve seen Mrs. Miniver, I think.
But…
It’s been awhile.
Or.
It’s been a while.
Hmm.
Never too sure about those.
Then again, not that critical. Not like the shibboleth of their, there, they’re, and to, too, two.
Finally, Queen, Hamilton, Tina Turner, and Stephen Sondheim are in my head nearly all the time, which gratefully doesn’t leave much room for anything else…specifically?
The DJIA. Whew, what a mess.
PS I’ve just decided to dust these off, reread them, and see what’s what:
Elmore Leonard and Verlyn Klinkenborg.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, August 14, 2019
I think I used to have this really cute lapel pin that maybe said, “I’m a committed radical, I’m against nearly everything.” And I thought it was from Adrian Mole, a book referred to in last week’s TNYTBR.
So.
I started looking for my pin, and I can’t find it.
I’ve lost worthless things.
I’ve given away priceless things.
I’ve misplaced irreplaceable things.
My Adrian Mole pin is all that.
Or.
It may all simply be a false/phantasmagorical recovered memory.
Never. The. Less.
I’ll keep looking.
And in the meantime, I’m gonna re-read Adrian Mole’s Diary.
Neat.
Summer reads. They’re the best.
Other notes as the sun sets:
Kai says to stay away from our 401(k)s today.
So, this is me backing up. Maybe.
Till next time.
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Sunday, August 11, 2019
I was thinking about Broadway this bright sunny Sunday morning and thought of André De Shields who won a Tony for Hadestown.
In his acceptance speech, he gave three pieces of advice for living a worthwhile life:
1) Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.
2) Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.
3) The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing.
His message was a gracious and picture-perfect performance.
Brought to us by pure talent, unflagging perseverance, and a heart-healthy dose of…The Arts.
Till next time.
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Saturday, August 10, 2019
It’s just so great to read TNYTBR and have a conversation with Stephen King about the value of murder mysteries or Lisa Gardner about the secrets held within the debris of a forensic graveyard or a Rutgers professor who has to explain to a reviewer of David Maraniss’s new book the reason for communistic practices in America in the 30s and 40s.
Yes. Great conversations all. Even if I didn’t say a word.
Till next time.
Menace in pink...
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Finished reading The Long Drop and also Garnethill by Denise Mina.
The first book would make a good discussion on the pros and cons of capital punishment. It’s also a good study in the pathology of violence.
The second book seems dated with a too-damaged main character and was not a thought-provoker, but I finished it anyway. I sort of wish I hadn’t. So many other books to read.
Conclusion?
Crime books. Maybe not my genre.
So, it’s on to Barbara Pym and her 1952 novel Excellent Women with all its vicars and cut flowers and charming women. But what’s really charming is to watch Daniel Levy sing Tina Turner’s The Best. That’s my genre. The best.
Till next time.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Toni Morrison died today. She changed everything.
As writers do.
Till next time.
Paradise published by Alfred A. Knopf.
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Actionable data is a dubious phrase of the highest order and is purposefully designed to give undue and unearned respectability to isolated cold, hard facts and to make obsolete the notions of intuition, insight, hunches, clairvoyance, and a sixth sense.
And here’s the real problem with the term actionable data: just because data is actionable does not mean that the data is accurate, truthful, factual, or worthwhile.
So as a lot of people in-the-know have said, “Not everything that matters can be measured and not everything that can be measured matters.”
So don’t buy into it. Actionable data. Hmmmmph!!!
Instead. Buy…Liza with a Z, which is streaming and is featured in the NYTimes today.
What else? Currently reading two books by Denise Mina. Disturbing and insightful… warped mental stability, violence, and living outside the rule of law in Glasgow and beyond.
Not exactly a comforting read, but her NYTimes By the Book interview shows her to be a writer of insight and talent. In that interview she also praises Jane Gardam as a genius.
Soldiering on.
Till next time.
Denise.
Liza.
Jane.
Friday, July 26, 2019
What must it be like to live inside Quentin Tarantino’s mind.
Saw Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, and it was great. The violence was so over the top that it eventually turned farcical. The acting? Perfect. In every respect.
Favorite scene?
…Actually, I think I’ll see it again before I decide. But. Watching Margot Robbie in the scene when she’s in the theater watching herself on screen and being so proud of her role is pretty much up there at the top.
And then of course it was on to Inglourious Basterds which I’d put off watching for the past ten years because it seemed too violent when actually it too was so over the top that it was both watchable and somewhat empowering (although a couple of times I had to push the mute button…and that’s the problem with movie theaters. There are no mute, pause, or rewind buttons.).
And out of the blue? Word du jour?
Vicissitudes…a change of circumstance or fortune that is unpleasant.
Finally, I’m between books. Hate when that happens.
But wait.
It’s probably time to revisit something on the shelf that I haven’t read in a while. Yes.
It would be hard to go wrong with Howard. You gotta push back.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 22, 2019
This week it’s memoirs:
Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir by Hilary Mantel
and
Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick
I’m well into Hilary’s Ghost, and while at this point, I’m healthily skeptical that she saw an apparition, I am also aware of Barbara Ehrenreich’s writing about her own apparitional experience.
So.
If these two intellectual beings saw apparitions, they did.
Also today and very much related, I received my used copy of On the Move by Oliver Sacks. I’d previously read the ebook but then decided I need the physical one as well and from Strand Books specifically.
With Oliver’s work in neurology, it is indeed possible that the brain with all its interconnected neurons, dendrites, and synapses allows any one of us to see what might be needed and what might also be inexplicable.
Additionally, with Noam Chomsky’s thesis for Transformational Generative Grammar from his Syntactic Structures showing how the brain can in fact transform and create whole new never-before-heard grammatically correct utterances, it is barely a stretch to see how the brain can transform and create a handy apparition just when it's needed the most.
Never. The. Less.
They absolutely saw what they saw. Period. Full stop.
Fred Bass…Strand Books (June 28, 1928 – January 3, 2018)
Till next time.
Published 1968 by Mouton.
Published 2015 by Knopf.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson
and
Mistress of the Ritz: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin
It’s particularly enriching to read two books that explore the same subject matter when one is nonfiction and the other is fiction.
Reading about WWII and the French resistance to Germany’s violent takeover of land, people, culture, resources, livelihoods, and essence is disturbing.
These kinds of books are clear warnings and documentation as to what humanity is capable of doing, enduring, and repairing.
In nonfiction, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade led the resistance in real life.
In fiction, Claude and Blanche ran the Hotel Ritz in Paris and resisted loyally.
Good and evil reside everywhere in real life and in the minds of all kinds of writers including the fantasy writer Neil Gaiman who creates out of thin air, Good Omens.
And when you add Michael Sheen and David Tennant to the mix, everything shines and gives us all a little reprieve from reality. Lovely.
Perhaps the rest of the day should be devoted to Pavarotti. Yes.
Till next time.
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Friday, July 19, 2019
Friday seems like a good day to complain.
OMG! Today is Friday. How great is that.
But maybe every day is a good day to complain about AT&T.
But first, a quick look at great dialogue from Benedict Cumberbatch in The Last Enemy. I watched the first episode of this 2005 five-part BBC series because it was free. Plus, I had time while I was waiting for AT&T to come and repair my slow, slow, slow internet connection.
BUT. Guess what? They never showed up.
What? That’s right. They never showed up.
And that is not like AT&T. Or is it.
Anyhoo.
Back to Benedict Cumberbatch in The Last Enemy.
The world has gone total surveillance in this futuristic data-driven thriller. In this series, there are big global companies that are financially benefitting and thriving from the brave new world of militarized and digitized surveilled life particularly in London.
Feedback on the series is good, and of course, the real-world conspiracy theorists are now more convinced than ever that their privacy is lost forever.
But remember…it’s only TV.
Or is it?
Benedict’s mathematics-oriented character delivers the following monologue in one fell swoop, and his argument feels VERY convincing.
He argues against giving global companies access to seemingly innocuous information about citizens and consumers. His character wants privacy.
But. How do we keep privacy matters private?
That’s his question. Here’s what he says.
“They’ve known about each and every one of us for years. Well, all the important information. Information you can sell.
Your income.
Your diet.
How much alcohol you consume.
What books you read.
How much your house is worth.
Your last three addresses.
Who you phone.
Who phones you.
Where you travel to.
Who travels with you.
Where your children go to school.
It would take about four minutes for them to do a complete breakdown of any single one of us and then predict with a fair degree of certainty anything up to 95 percent what our attitudes would be to law and order, change, risk, what kind of person we’re most likely to marry, the exam grades our children will achieve, where we are on any given day, our life expectancy, and the amount of tax your estate will yield when you die…
These people have been making a fortune out of prying into your lives. You couldn't legislate against them if you tried unless you ban credit cards and the internet which would be rather…totalitarian.”
Me? I’m going to buy the whole five-part series from Amazon for $7.99. Quite predictably.
Finally. Now. Back to AT&T. Slow internet.
And yes, I’ve already run Malware, disk utility, restarted the modem, and zapped the pram…all to no avail. My AT&T internet connection is still insufferably s l o w .
So. AT&T. What now? Call me. Presumably you have my number.
Here’s looking forward to a complaint-free Saturday.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 15, 2019
Gosh! You catch a few minutes of the movie Steve Jobs (that you’ve already seen in 2015) written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle, and immediately you know that we still need him around.
From GUI to gestalt to fidelity, he had all the right ideas for an intuitive, user-friendly computer that every single person on the planet could use to make their lives better.
Big job. Full of potential peril. But if it works…Wow. What a good day.
Apple. Different.
Albert Bob Martin
Richard John/Yoko Buckminster
Thomas Steve Ali
Ted Maria Ghandi
Amelia Alfred Martha
Jim Frank Pablo
Till next time.
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Sunday, July 14, 2019
It’s pretty thrilling to find The 50 Best Memoirs in last Sunday’s TNYTBR.
Fifty.
The magic number.
I’m starting with Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost and Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments.
But I’m still finishing Savage Beauty about Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. And that’s in addition to a whole slew of books lined up on the ol’ kindle including books that are literary, commercial, high-brow, low-brow, and lots of stuff in between.
Busy, busy.
And of the remaining 48?
Some I’ve read. Some are too sad. Some will be next.
And since I’ve always been a big fan of the concept of…next, it all looks pretty good.
Over the river, thorough the dale, around the world, and back to moi.
Always in the nick of time.
Till next time.
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Friday, July 12, 2019
You’re sad because you didn’t bid high enough on ebay for Edward Gorey’s 1972 first edition hardback Amphigorey so you decide to put a little bit of extra Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate on your low-fat yogurt as a small gesture of consolation at the exact same moment that you glance up and notice in an out-of-the-way place that you evidently possess not one but two long-forgotten copies of John Ciardi’s You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You illustrated by none other than...Edward Gorey, which immediately obviates the need for all that extra chocolate, but you have it anyway.
And why not.
It further brightens an already just-brightened day.
Till next time.
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Thursday, July 11, 2019
Finished How It All Began.
Well done! Penelope Lively got it all exactly right.
Charlotte gets her purse snatched in London, and a whole sequence of events is altered. From Henry’s post-academic life to the Daltons to Marion to Nigel to Anton right on down to the Polish carpenters and then finally to the dodgy academic named…something or other.
The whole book is rich with connections and brimming with tea, scones, and clarity.
And now, I’ve just recalled, this is the second time I’ve read this book. Inexplicable.
And inexplicably good.
That’s our gal, Dame Penelope.
And when I come back, maybe I’ll come back as a DBE (especially since I’ve already got the hat).
Till next time.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2019
A little more gratitude. Always a nice touch.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Recent movies that I've seen:
Elton John1947
Freddie Mercury1946
LucianoPavarotti1935
Bob Dylan1941
Recent movies that I haven't seen:
Stevie Nicks1948
Debbie Harry1945
Joan Sutherland1926
Patti Smith1946
Just saying...
Till next time.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Till next time.
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Thursday, July 4, 2019
Out of the clear blue sky…It’s the flag.
And then I was watching Emma Thompson as she starred in Years and Years, and in this dystopian futuristic show of five years from now, all the world’s butterflies have become extinct. The show is so well acted that the next day when I saw a butterfly, I thought, “Wow. There’s one left.”
Yes. Years and Years feels that real.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Reading last Sunday’s NYT gave me an idea for a dissertation title in case a social scientist is looking for one:
Differences in the ranges of moral principals, societal values, personal characteristics, and actionable behaviors between and among six accomplished and popular women and men chosen from six photos in The New York Times on the random date of June 23, 2019.
In related data: Caffeine is now related to joint pain. I refuse to accept these findings. Research, bah.
One final piece of data: The three richest people residing in the state of Washington are richer than 165 million other Americans combined.
Three major economists from the past:
Adam Smith (Scotland…1723-1790)
The Wealth of Nations
(The role of self-interest and competition)
Karl Marx (Germany…1818-1883)
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (Das Kapital)
(The value of labor)
John Maynard Keynes (England…1883-1946) pronounced canes
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
(The role of government)
Till next time.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Oh wow. You gotta love TNYTBR.
There was a June 2 review of lots of kinds of books including women writers in the genre of thrillers.
When I read the review, the review’s author said that there weren’t that many woman writers of thrillers.
Whoa. That didn’t sound right at the time, but I let it pass. The soufflé was getting ready to fall.
But then on June 16 in the letters section of TNYTBR, the indomitable Sara Paretsky came to the rescue by citing all of her books and the books of ten other women thriller writers who have been writing for the last 40 years.
Mystery solved. Gotta love all that drama.
Till next time.
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Monday, July 1, 2019
The best-seller list tells me I am mistaken.
But the new book by Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming doesn’t speak to me as it should. I suspect it’s because it follows a pattern of:
And then
And then
And then
Meanwhile
And then
…
The book is thoroughly researched and resplendent with accuracy, details, documentation, insight, refinement, and scholarship. But my mind wanders when I read it, and I have to look away at times maybe because the book is so well written that to read it feels like being there among all the chaos, fighting, injustice, and bloodshed.
It’s. All. Too. Much. Real. Reality.
It’s not the book. It’s me.
Plus, I need headings, subheadings, timelines, voiceovers, music…oh, right.
Ken Burns’s The Civil War.
So I’m setting the Brits aside for a bit and picking up Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, which is a book that’s been on my list since 2001.
Yes. Way. Behind.
But I’m betting there will be no mention of muskets, bayonets, cannons, and/or gun powder.
And that’s always a good thing.
Till next time.
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Friday, June 28, 2019
Google is not the “Don’t Be Evil” corporate entity they used to be. I’m not sure what they are or what they’re up to. Ken Auletta knows. Or at least he knew way back in 2009 when he researched and published his findings in Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.
To know that Google has a list of all my shopping items from Amazon, all my voice searches on my phone and computer, all my data delivered via email, and all my accounts and so forth is disconcerting. Not to mention scary.
And even though their transparent user agreement assures us that we’re all safe, we’re really not. I need my own server. Obviously.
Never. The. Less.
They are indeed bound by law to not abuse their power. And of course they’re better than Baidu from China or the sad little Bing program in terms of totalitarianism or corporate imperialism, respectively. Mostly.
But actually.
It’s too much. It’s all too much to consider. For the weekend.
And it is indeed a blessing to be able to find the Flatiron building on Google maps, Google Images, and read all about the sale of said building in The Times this morning, but of course, Google, you already knew that.
In other news.
It’s nice to check the snail-mail mailbox and find that (quite out of the blue) a fabulous friend sent you two fabulous books that you needed and didn’t even know you needed.
And I’m betting Google didn’t know that either. Or did you?
The books?
How New York Breaks Your Heart by Bill Hayes.
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me by Bill Hayes
Till next time.
111 8th Ave. NYC
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Thursday, June 27, 2019
So you’re reading along from a past issue of the NYT Book Review, and you find a review of a book by Ali Smith who is a Scottish writer. You google her and find a youtube of her from 2012 in Scotland talking for two hours with a group of 50 international writers.
She is joined by Nathan Englander who was recently on Michael Silverblatt’s Bookworm where he discussed his new book kaddish.com.
The whole Scottish conference was about style and content in writing and was attended by writers from dozens of different countries.
One Russian writer referred to Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau translated from French by Barbara Wright. I am going to read this.
Another writer compared style vs. content in writing to style vs. function in architecture, which immediately reminded me of the series Occupied written by Jo Nesbø. The series documents the fictional (yet not beyond belief) takeover of Norway’s oil and gas industry by Russia’s military force. The series is so good that I’ve watched it twice…perhaps even thrice.
The architectural style of the building used in the series is quite striking. The building is owned by Statoil, which is Norway’s government-owned oil and gas industry. It’s pretty obvious that the building favors style over function.
Returning to style vs. content in literature, one writer said, “The debate about style and content is actually coming to a dead end because we are all kind of agreed that you can’t separate the two things.”
And yet another writer quickly said she didn’t agree and thought that the conversation about style and content was not at all coming to a dead end.
Much discussion ensued about how to actually make a living as a writer with the relationship between the style and content of a novel being directly related to whether or not a writer can financially survive in today's marketplace.
One writer said, if you want to write and can’t make a living at it, get a job. Whoa. Van Gogh and Gauguin were cited.
The books of E.L. James and Dan Brown were discussed many times and viewed as low-brow gateway books to actual literature.
This led to the question of whether it’s better to sell three copies of one great book that no one reads or 100,000 copies of a mediocre book that everyone reads.
Someone commented that writers aspire to move from writing excellent books to writing great books. The secondary goal for a writer should be to be able to pay the bills.
A slight tangent to the left on a companion 2012 youtube video was the Scottish/Canadian publisher John Calder (1927-2018) who explained that Alexander Solzhenitsyn helped smuggle out of Russia to Italy for publication Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago.
Writers have courage. It's just so obvious.
All this in one short afternoon. My reading, clicking, searching, listening, and concluding started with a one-page book review which means, of course, that access to the world via the web is limitless and that one thing always and invariably leads to another…every day…all the time…forever.
Today’s little jaunt all started with Ali Smith on page 13. Page 14 is next.
Till next time.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2019
I’m halfway into Henry, Himself: A Novel.
I might be too conditioned to expect something to blow up, or disappear, or to just go wrong. But so far, that hasn’t happened.
This is just a book about the ordinary life of a man named Henry.
He putters in the basement, installs a mailbox, goes to the lake, grills burgers on the deck, watches the neighborhood diminish, and then what? I don’t know.
Still only 50% into his life.
Sort of reminds me of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich or A Gentleman in Moscow.
We’ll see. It’s only Tuesday.
Till next time.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
Democracy in action. Here and around the world.
https://lawworksaction.org
Till next time.
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Monday, June 24, 2019
There’s Armageddon, and then there’s the opposite, which is wonderfully portrayed in the brilliant series, Good Omens, which is lovely, clever, witty, literary, action-packed, star-studded, technologically advanced, and perfect to a T.
AND it fits into my paradigm of plagiarism as an art form quite perfectly.
Till next time.
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From?
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Tea, anyone?
Sunday, June 23, 2019
I finished Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler…but only because I like to give a book a thorough opportunity and because I feel an unwavering loyalty to those who were part of the French Resistance and who were totally committed to drawing the line between freedom and totalitarianism.
In this book, Lynne Olson honors a woman whom history has overlooked.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade.
The book also gives many instances of bravery and sacrifice by all of the thousands of French citizens involved in the resistance movement. The book describes rendezvous, secret papers, air drops, hiding places, sacrifices, fear, and bravery. But the pilots who brought in supplies, transmitters, agents, money, instructions, and weapons from London across the English Channel to land in near darkness in a ten-minute turn-around-time appear to be the real heroes of all this turmoil. And of course there has been plenty written about the skill and bravery of these men.
Lynne was attempting to show the equally brave women who were part of the resistance with one woman in particular being a major player in the world’s ultimate victory over fascism. But because the evidence presented in the book lacks standard footnotes, it is difficult to fully appreciate the scale of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s contributions although I am fully trusting that Lynne knows what she’s talking about and consulted all the primary sources and first-hand accounts that are available. These sources are, in fact, listed in the back of the book. They're just not listed in one-to-one correspondence in standard footnote format.
I did learn a lot by reading this book. Specifically, I learned about the various geographical regions of France, the Algerian connection, the sinking of French ships by the British so that the ships would not fall into the hands of Germany, and the contradictory role played by General Philippe Pétain who headed the Vichy government.
I learned a lot. I’m glad I kept reading. And clearly, Madame Fourcade was significant in this war. But to totally understand the role of women in WWII, it might be even more illuminating to watch/rewatch the PBS series The Bletchley Circle. And although we have the internet for more information, the internet is not the source for primary documents. Primary documents are typically housed in libraries, museums, and archives. It takes time and effort as well as funding to seek those out. And that’s what Lynne did.
Further, the biggest problem with the internet is that it’s too easy to too quickly find information that may or may not be based in fact. The lack of curatorial authority on the internet is ultimately damaging. That’s why we need books like Lynne’s (with or without footnotes). She’s well-respected, trustworthy, and properly credentialed.
Finally, I would love for some of my tax dollars to go toward everyone having a free subscription to the Encyclopedia Britannica online. Think of it. Accuracy, vetted information, a properly funded knowledge base, free to all.
Instead? We have Wikipedia, which is a good starting point, but which is way too susceptible to hacking, mistakes, and mayhem.
Maybe I’ll float this idea to my congressional reps:
A curated and tax-funded online Britannica…for all. I love it.
Equally loved would be a tax-funded subscription to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. For all.
However, the MW shows that the plural of rendezvous is rendezvouses which can’t possibly be correct, but there you have it in plain sight, rendezvouses. Of course. Why didn’t I know that!
Nevertheless.
Imagine. Tax-funded salaries and working space for the leaders, scholars, and staff at Britannica and Merriam-Webster. Money well spent. At last.
It’s inexplicable how much I love Broadway. And this special section of the Times from June 9 is terrific. (Yes, it appears I’m behind since it's now the 22nd.)
And yet. Here I am.
The whole concept. Broadway. It’s just the best.
So. This section. I’m keeping it. In my special, getting-too-large “keepers” file.
But don’t tell the fire marshal.
There’s a very substantial line between hoarder and keeper.
And I’m well within the margin of error.
I’m a keeper.
Ta da!
Till next time.
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Thursday, June 20, 2019
My new favorite phrase?
Full stop.
My new favorite movement?
Plagiarism as an art form.
My new problem?
Shelf space.
Too little shelf space. In the past, to save shelf space, I’ve been reading books on my kindle rather than buying hardcover copies of them. BIG mistake.
I’ve always had a photographic memory…somewhat.
I can visualize what I’ve read by seeing the page in my memory. But only in a book, and only certain passages that I really like. This does not happen on my kindle. AT all. On the kindle, I can’t picture a page the same as I can when reading a book. So when I try to go back and locate a passage on the kindle, I can’t remember where it was. Beginning, middle, end? Not a clue.
And yes, the kindle is searchable, but I never seem to find exactly what I’m looking for.
This is strictly some kind of neurological/light/synapse/dendrite predicament.
The remedy?
Start keeping track of the books that I’m routinely referring back to...and then buy them.
Full stop.
Relatedly (is that a word…relatedly? Yes, I think it is), I miss the extraordinary neurologist Oliver Sacks (1933-2015). And to make it even sadder, his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat? I borrowed the physical book from the library way back in 1998, which means I don’t own it and which makes it first on my list to place on my new shelf.
Strand. I think Strand. Yes. Strand.
Amazon? No. They are simply out of control and way too big. Plus, they missed a delivery date recently, and I REALLY needed whatever it was I needed although I can't recall exactly at this moment what that was all about.
Anyhoo.
It’s Strand and then on to buying a new shelf or two or four. A busy day.
Till next time.
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Monday, June 17, 2019
This morning, I just can not get this tune by Harry Nilsson out of my head. From his Personal Best album and featured in Russian Doll starring Natasha Bianca Lyonne.
Suuuuuperb.
And, of course, there are worse ways to begin a morning.
Till next time.
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Sunday, June 16, 2019
George Will was on BookTV today. To understand his perspective a bit more, I was thinking of relistening to Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Struggled Shrugged. Oops.
But after going to the shelf, I find that it’s on cassette!!!!!
Do I even have a cassette player anymore or has the world moved on?
Moving on.
Also on BookTV, Karin Slaughter gave a talk. I’m thinking of reading her next book, which is The Last Widow. She gave a humorous talk; but her book, I think, is a mystery, murder, and mayhem sort of deal. Hmmm.
Plus, I was put in mind of another widow-titled book, which I finally remembered and is A Widow for One Year by John Irving (also the author of The World According to Garp).
Finally, they’ve made a movie of The Goldfinch, and I wish they hadn’t, because then people will miss reading the book which is so good that I might just read it again. I don’t know why I like it so much…but there you have it. Inexplicable.
And or ineffable.
Till next time.
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Saturday, June 15, 2019
You reside in the world of books and all things bookish for years and decades and know you’re lucky. And then luck grows even larger because you find Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast. Fourth season coming up. Along with his new book on…
Strangers.
Speaking of strangers or of people relatively new to the world of politics:
Pete Buttigieg is bringing his focused vision, clarity of thought, facility with message, and intellectual acumen to the forefront with his tipping point being?...
his Rhodes credentials.
And finally, a word I will probably never use in a sentence…instagrammable.
Till next time.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Charles McRay Blow of the NYTimes. Wow. What a treat to watch him this past week on Bill Maher’s show. Charles’s thinking process was so clear, logical, and informed that it was like watching the perfect data processor after it had been fed in good stuff so that good stuff out was possible.
And speaking of data processing. Go, Apple. Again.
Watched the Apple WWDC this week. I liked everything I saw. And mostly I liked their increased security measures in both hardware and software.
At a time when it would be easy for their company to retreat due to taxes, tariffs, trade wars, and the DOJ, Apple is forging ahead and using its engineering talents to make the world better and to repair some of the damage from our recent past.
The biggest security measure they’ve come up with is the one that will allow you to sign in to apps using your apple account rather than facebook or google thereby securing privacy.
Think I’ll give Tim a call and congratulate him on another year of success.
Also, I think I’ll open a special savings account for the next $12,000 computer system that I’ll be buying from Apple. Or not. I know that high quality is expensive…but gee. $12,000?
Books? Finished Lisa Gardner’s Never Tell. Can’t really recall at the moment how it went. I know I finished it…
But what I’d really like to do is listen to Simon Winchester read from his book The Meaning of Everything. Imagine. The meaning of everything.
Done and dusted. And his voice is perfect.
Till next time.
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Monday, June 10, 2019
More buoyancy.
Chicago’s Printers Row Lit Fest was live on BookTV this past weekend.
How much contentment should one feel when watching and listening to scholars explain little pieces of the world?
1. A lot?
2. A little?
3. None?
I suppose the answer varies with each listener.
But no.
There actually is a correct answer, and that correct answer is...
Wait for it...Wait for it...Wait for it...
The answer is?
1.
Cool.
And for me, the most interesting scholarship was discussed by Kathleen Belew, Justin Driver, and Bill Ayers. Actually, the whole festival was uplifting.
Good for Printers Row.
Chicago…my kind of town.
And even better is that I’m now getting ready to click on a year’s subscription to the Merriam-Webster dictionary site. Thirty bucks for all the words I’ll ever need. Probably.
Ta da.
Till next time.
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Thursday, June 6, 2019
Finished reading Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken. I feel airless. Not weightless. Airless. The plug has been pulled.
All the characters in this book are the sadness of their own making. They each needed direction, help, support, aspirations, information, and guidance. Maybe from a learned person, a librarian, a parent, a book? No. They didn't get any of it. They just slugged along, living, dying, and wondering what it was all about.
They are unlike Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 2, which I watched after finishing this book of bowlers and lost souls.
Denzel needed neither direction, help, support, aspirations, information, nor guidance. He was a one-man force…totally successful, by the way, in his efforts to right wrongs, solve crimes, avenge deaths, and make the world a better place. PLUS, he read Proust.
But really. Who reads Proust any more.
There you have it.
Time to get some air.
And probably past time to read In Search of Lost Time in three volumes translated from Proust's French by C.D. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin and revised by D.J. Enright.
Till next time.
All three volumes...on the shelf waiting.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
It’s embarrassingly thrilling to live in the world of books and to find such buoyancy in the daily push and push-backs of living.
2. Rick Atkinson is so good it’s like listening to fiction according to Evan Thomas on BookTV. The British are Coming. First of a trilogy. On my list.
3. The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer is a fictionalized biography of Varian Fry. Cynthia Ozick reviewed the book as a biography that read like a great piece of fiction. AND Ozick’s review resulted in five letters to the editor in TNYTBR on May 19 including one letter from Varian’s son, James D. Fry.
Simply embarrassingly thrilling. Books.
A busy summer is unfolding.
Till next time.
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AKA Very British Problems.
Monday, June 3, 2019
Good Omens was great.
Every scene, every bit of dialogue, every gesture, every big idea…all flawlessly created and delivered.
War Famine Pollution Greed Corruption…each problem addressed and repaired in a fantasy series of six episodes.
But. But. But.
There does exist in real life each of those exact same problems in huge proportions to the detriment of all.
A fantasy series may be okay on a 2-D screen for a brief reprieve from reality, but real solutions to these actual human-made problems must be identified and implemented.
These real-world solutions will require effort, muscle, resources, commitment, science, leadership, cooperation, and sustained funding.
Gosh. All that.
The exact same things required to create a fantasy series for Amazon Prime.
Grumpy?
And it’s only Monday?
Alas.
Never. The. Less.
Great series. I’ll probably watch it all all over again.
And then regarding the real problems of reality, to quote Robert Benjamin Silvers, former editor of The New York Review of Books, “Let’s see what can be done.”
Finally, we could use a lot more Peppers throughout the world.
Till next time.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
The sad news?
There’s only one Neil Gaiman.
AND
There are only six episodes of Good Omens.
The good news?
Michael Sheen and David Tennant shine.
The best news?
Frances McDormand is the voice of God.
We knew it all along.
And of course since it’s the first Sunday of the month, it’s a live interview with a scholar on BookTV. Evan Thomas. He did a great job. Smart, humble, informative, experienced, accurate, energetic, and fun.
And I learned that hubristic can be pronounced with neither a /h/ nor a /y/.
I just love it all.
Too naïve? Probably.
And finally, as Evan outlined it, it seems the world, once again, needs Ike.
