LizzieD: 2013*9 (September: National Classical Music Month)

~Sandro Akhvlediani

Classical Music began with me on the piano, expanded with Reader's Digest 12 LP album of light classics, and continues as life and breath and a place in my head and heart for immediate gratification.

Enjoy Soon! (I mean to keep changing them.) Bach Partita 2 in c minor, BWV 826

("My" partita)

MOST SIGNIFICANT FROM THE FIRST HALF OF 2013

The Sisters Brothers
Above All Things
Precursor
Defender
Hotel World
The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors
The Philosopher's Pupil
Explorer
Dr Thorne
Cleopatra: A Life
The Shutter of Snow
Life After Life
Master of the Senate
We Are At War
Life and Fate
When We Were Bad
Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: 1884-1933
A Particular Place

September Reading

The Daughters of Mars
*Aimless Love
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
The Great Hunt (reread)
*Time Will Tell
Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
The Military Philosophers (reread)

New in September

Tin Toys Trilogy - Generous Elaine!
A House in the Country - G.E. too
Critical Mass ✔ - ER ARC
New Spring - Kindle Daily Deal
Zealot ✔ - Kindle
Eveless Eden - PBS
Sister Mine - Kindle Daily Deal
We Need New Names - Kindle Daily Deal
Eleanor of Aquitaine ✔ - AMP
Innocent Traitor - PBS
Marking Time ✔ - PBS
Confusion - PBS
Casting Off - AMP
Into the Silence ✔ - AMP
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams - PBS
The Playmaker - PBS
Alif the Unseen - Kindle Daily Deal
TransAtlantic - ✔ - Kindle

Currently Really Reading:

, ,

The Cloister Walk is one of my favorite books in all the world. It saved my life one time when I was caring for my mother when she fell and broke her neck (she survived the fall and did just fine afterwards).

I’m an agnostic-approaching-atheist and I love Kathleen Norris.

Welcome, Becky and Katherine. I am enjoying ten or so pages of *CW* a day and find myself thinking about her at odd times when I have a minute. Reading this with Billy Collins is giving me a different appreciation of poetry and what it means to poets themselves.

Checking in... Happy New Thread, Peggy!
Taking a note to check out Cloister Walk...

Classical music! Great choice, Peggy. I played violin until i was about about 30. I also sang in a church choir. I have a fondness for English choral music and composers like Walton and Elgar, and I also like Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, & Mozart.

I very much liked another Kathleen Norris I read, so I must find this one!

Classical music! Why am I not surprised! I'll listen to your offerings while scoping around the threads.

Hi Peggy, wonderful new thread. I love the abstract at the top, and your Brahms recording. Can't believe we're into fall already.

Happy new thread, Peggy.

It was great reading threads while listening to the Brahms! Perlman and Barenboim, what a pair!

Yay!
I have been listening to a lot of chamber music for the past few years, and I don't tire of it.

Hi Peggy! Oh, I'm on board for National Classical Music Month!

Hope you had a wonderful long weekend.

Yay for classical music! I majored in music in college (before going to law school). I played classical guitar. I've several books on my shelf relating to classical music, and may try to get to one this month.

.

Greetings, Anne, Deborah, and Jim! .
I really should make room for reading something about music, shouldn't I? How did that not occur to me? Or maybe I should just make time to put bottom to piano bench and start practicing again. Retirement!

Okay, Classical Music. I can get behind that.

I was kind of rooting for the Guide Dogs, but I like music, too. :-)

I should also put my bottom on the piano bench and practice. My mother has a lovely baby grand that I should definitely play while I'm staying with her.

Baroque and classical music are my favorites, with 60s and 70s rock and roll coming in second.

Glad to see that you thought well of Life After Life - haven't read it yet, but it is my bookclub's February read. I am deliberately holding off reading it until closer to the time of the meeting so I can remember enough to participate in the conversation. :)

Happy Wednesday, Peggy!

Happy Wednesday to you too, Karen. If you can get past the premise of *LaL* (and I think you can), I'm sure that you'll enjoy it. I have to say that The Daughters of Mars is consuming a lot of my reading time, and I'm liking it as much as I did *LaL*. It may turn into my favorite contemporary fiction of the year; I'm not quite ready to commit to that, but it is good!
Jenn, I got some music out this morning and looked at it. That's closer than I've come in months. The thing is, after a day or two of noodling around and seeing what looks possible, I grow impatient with myself and it's time to practice. And practice is work.
Ellen, I'm sorry about the guide dogs. I don't believe that they were on the list I used. Anyway, I'm having a good time thinking about what to put on top of the thread next. Stay tuned. (Pun, I realize.)

Dropping by to say hi, Peggy. Funny how retirement eats up all your spare time, isn't it?

The Awesome Books link to Good Daughters says it's the third of a trilogy. Should I be reading them all?

Hmmm. Reba, it's actually the first of a trilogy, and while I haven't read the other two, I have them and certainly intend to. The people in the Virago group who read them this August liked them all, I think.
Spare time, Roni? I guess in a way it's all spare since I'm rarely as exhausted as I was when I got home from teaching, but unless I plan it that way, there's none to spare. I don't seem to have Huck Finn's problem of "putting in the time."

>25 LizzieD:. That's because Huck is 12 or so and you are. . . well, you know.

I fully agree with your comments about Life After Life, Peggy. It will definitely be on the 2013 "Favorites" list.

Oh I'm glad to see you are enjoying Daughters of Mars Peggy. I picked it up when it was a cheap Kindle price just hours before it was released. It immediately skyrocketed in price when it was released. I love when that happens. I think it will be my next read. Right now I'm keeping company with Miss Mapp. Haha.

YAY for Miss Mapp AND Lucia! I got *DoM* in that same Kindle deal, Bonnie, and I'm grinning about it even now. It is a seriously compelling book! I'll be taking it this weekend when I go to White Lake (If you read The Cheer Leader, it's the original of Moon Lake) for fun with 3 of my best high school girl friends (well, we were girls in high school) + 1 husband who was also in our class. That's way down from our normal 15 or 20, but we'll try again for the big crowd next year.
I'm glad that you agree, Ellen.
Thanks, Becky!

Happy new thread Peggy! I'm interested to see what you find to read on/about classical music this month! :)

Nice new thread, Peggy! I like your choice of theme this month.

Hi, Terri and Tina! I'm interested to see whether I read anything about classical music this month.....
Here's where I'm headed as soon as my ma gets home from her bridge club. (She is a fiend.) (From whitelakenc.org)

That looks lovely, Peggy! Hope there are no mosquitoes.

Beautiful place, Peggy. I love the idea of your ma being a fiend for bridge!

It is beautiful. I hope you have a wonderful time.

I tried bridge a couple of times, to my embarrassment - accidentally trumping while I still had a suit card in my hand is one example of my poor bridge skills. However, get me going I pinochle or spite and malice or hand and foot, and I'm pretty good. I love cards, husband doesn't. Fortunately daughter does, but she's off to school now.

My grandma played bridge until about 88 or so. Kept her mind sharp.

Do many younger people play bridge?

#32 What a beautiful spot, Peggy! I envy your ma her bridge finesse; I do not have a clue about that game.

So pretty!

Looks a great spot for a good read Peggy. Have a lovely weekend.

That's a romantic spot, Peggy. I like your theme for September.

Have a good weekend.

Happy new thread and enjoy your time at White Lake this weekend!

From your last thread, you've really made me want to read the E. H. Young books and the Mary Hockings. I have at least a shelf of unread Viragoes - why do I always want to read the ones I don't own yet????

Now being soothed by the Brahms.

I find myself between books, but am listening to the last night of the proms on the BBC. the lark has just ascended. Mr Kennedy plays like an angel but still looks like an enfant terrible - although it's harder to pull off when the stubble's going grey and the chins are increasing in number.
I will admit to being waiting for the second half, when it all gets terribly uplifting and mildly jingoistic.

I'm in a tearing hurry, but I changed the musical offering and have another couple of Scarlatti sonatas that I particularly enjoy to put up there when I have time. I've never played this one, but I have the music.
I'll be back later or tomorrow to greet visitors with thanks and explain my absence!

*patiently waiting for Peggy to return*

Hi Peggy, I am in a tearing hurry, too, since school started. Driving by to say hello at least!

Roni, Becky, Karen, Nancy, Paul, Diana, Heather, Helen, and Roni and Nancy again - you are all such dear people! Thank you for visiting.
I was at White Lake Friday night at supper when my DH called to say that he had gone into atrial fib - a problem he's dealt with since 1988, but much less often since 2000 when he started an effective medicine. (He's a "lone fibber" - nothing that doctors at Duke can pinpoint to say why it happens.) We got him into the hospital Sunday afternoon still in a-fib which lasted until this afternoon when they zapped him with electric cardioconversion (basically the defibrillator that they use on heart attack patients). He is happily back in normal rhythm, and we're waiting to see whether his heart is healthy enough to continue on larger doses of his same medicine - in which case he can come home tomorrow (YAY!) or whether they'll have to change the meds - in which case he'll be in the hospital another couple of days. I will be VERY glad to get him home.

Peggy! Oh heavens, I hope everything turns out well and your DH can get back home, soonest. You're in my prayers, dear one.

Oh my! I'm so glad he's back in normal rhythm. No matter how many times it's happened, it has to be tremendously stressful every time.

Very glad your husband is okay, Peggy. Thinking of you both. I bet you'll be glad to get home.

Peggy, I am so sorry to hear about your husband's illness. It must be very frightening for you both. My prayers go out to you.

Oh dear... Sending hugs and good wishes!! I hope he will be back home and back to normal very soon.

Glad he's not doing too badly. Hope it is back under control and that he's back home soonest.

Peggy, I'm glad your husband seems to be OK. I can't imagine what you've been through these past few days. Hope he'll be home with you soon.

Yuck -- even knowing what it is and what to do about it doesn't mitigate the stress of this kind of cardiac stuff... Hopefully all will be regulated and he'll be home again pronto.

So -- is it Scarlatti or G major that does it for you??

Re books about music -- I sent a friend a copy of Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie that he ended up reading before I did (it's still on my TBR) and loved, if you are looking for ideas. I just got approved for an upcoming book about Beethoven by John Suchet. I'd like to get to at least one of them before the end of the year.

Yes and Yes, Suzanne. (You will recall that that favorite violin sonata was in G major too. It's the key I hear best, since it's my default when I pick things out by ear.) I'll be interested to hear what you make of the P. Elie.
Many thanks for the encouragement, Laura, Helen, Nathalie, Jan, Nancy, Roni, and Becky! He's Home! HE'S HOME!! He should be slowing down a bit, but we'll have to see how that works. He is free to do what he feels like.......

So glad your husband is home. Hope he continues to do well and that your life can get back to normal.

All these lovely visitors for you Peggy! I am so so so glad your dear is home again.

Thanks so much for the new offering, I come here and put it on, and then go threading about.

Thank you, Reba and Lucy. We are happy and tired. He came home and so did some new books, so this was a banner day at my house!
I'm sorry that the Scarlatti doesn't let you thread about for extended periods, Lucy. Wait until next week!!!!!

I am very late in saying so, but that thread-topper! I love it. I have always been a fan of expressive art, that one is reminiscent of a piano, right?

Very scary with DH having health problems, of that nature. I hope he is recovering nicely now?

Megan, I'm glad the art strikes your fancy; it did mine even if it's pink.
DH is good to go, thank you for asking! I'm 100% good to have him back home!

THE DAUGHTERS OF MARS by Thomas Keneally

Add me to the number who are gushing in appreciation of this novel. Neither of the Durance sisters would gush, but I was completely taken with their story and this look at WWI in all its mud and mutilation. Read Suzanne's review. If I could thumb it twice, I would, in thanks for not having to tackle one myself.
Another reviewer suggests that the ending is problematic or at least discussable. It suited me very well.
Get the book and read it!

Coming out of lurking mode to say I am glad that your DH is home. Scary stuff indeed.

You have also put The Daughters of Mars on my wishlist. Thank you.

Thank you for good wishes, Colleen! And I'm happy to have steered to a top-notch book.

Oh Peggy!! Sorry to hear that DH has been ill. Glad he's home & doing better!!

New books are a cure for almost anything! :)

Have you ever read Bel Canto? I was thinking it might be a fit for your classical music month read.

oh, I heartily second TinaV's suggestion there - utterly beautiful book. I listened to it on audiobook and dearly wish I hadn't - I can't allow myself to be swept away by a book when listening in the car in quite the way you can curled up on the sofa. And that's one book that could wrap you up and carry you a long way.
(imho, obviously)

Hi, Helen and Tina, I third the suggestion of Bel Canto. I enjoyed it very much. I would certainly secure the printed word and treat myself to it in another few years, Helen. Thank you for your sympathy, Tina.
Meanwhile, I am about to decide to put the Civil War on hold while I take up Manhunt since I do have that study club program coming up in November about the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson and Dr. Mudd....with thanks to Jim for the suggestion! We'll see how well I can manage both - maybe. I must read my 3 ER books and I can't wait to get to Tin Toys Trilogy and may not wait.
Life is good!

Glad you liked Daughters of Mars as much as I did! I agree with you on the ending -- it was nicely oblique, and while in a way frustrating, it also reminded me that the narrator was really trying to remind us of something else, the symbolism that is scattered throughout. The idea that it doesn't matter which woman did what... (Sorry, trying to avoid spoilers!) Utterly fab novel.

So, a good book and husband safely home. Wow, what to do for an encore?? :-)

Have a nap?

Yes!! In fact, although my last book was disappointing, and I have no husband, I think the nap idea sounds grand.

And The Daughters of Mars lands solidly on the top of the TBR pile thanks to Peggys recommendation to read Suzanne's review... :P

I had internet troubles and got really behind Peggy but I'm glad your hubby is on the mend. That must have been very scary. Daughter of Mars is waiting for me as soon as I finish a couple of other books.

Yay, Jenn and Bonnie! You are going to be doing some very satisfying reading.
Welcome back, Bonnie. I'm even behinder than usual.

Peggy, just checking & learning about your husband. I'm glad he's home & improving.

I'm even behinder than usual. I'm glad I'm not alone, Peggy : ).

Peggy--Sorry to hear about your husband's heart troubles, but glad that he is on the mend. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Just before I logged onto LT I visited Amazon, and zapped Daughters of Mars onto my Kindle based on a review in my local paper today. I'm glad to see that you are so enthusiastic about it. The first book I read by Keneally (close to 30 years ago now) was Confederates which is about the US Civil War. I was blown away by it (had never heard of it or him, just picked it by chance at the library). I was amazed to learn after I finished it that he was Australian, yet the book was so authentic and heartfelt. The review in my paper today compared Daughters of Mars to Confederates in their depiction of war and its effects on people, which is why I was so quick to buy it.

Thanks for your concern, Ellen and Deborah. Nancy, you are never alone!
I'm sure that you're in for an intense reading treat, Deborah. This is the first Keneally I've read, but I'll push up *Shindler* and *Jimmie Blacksmith*, which are the two that I own.
I'm making my way through Nancy and Evelyn with an eye to finishing pretty soon. They are both so quotable that I can't pick things to share. (I think, "Ooo. They have to see this one," and then there's something else equally funny on the next page.) I'm also reading Billy Collins faster than I should so that I can write the ER review. I do think it would be wise to spread them out over several months instead of cramming in 4 or 5 or more a day. The later poems don't feel as fresh as the first, and I wonder whether it's the quality of the poems (and sometimes I'm pretty sure it is) or my surfeit.

Oh my! So relieved to hear you and DH are both home, safe and well (and with books too!)

Thank you, Heather. It's a great relief for sure!

AIMLESS LOVE by Billy Collins

This was an ER ARC that I was thrilled to receive, and having read it, I'm still thrilled. I wrote a little review on the book page, but I think that for you, I'll quote another that I loved and one that I thought was not worthy of publication. You decide which is which. And rereading the two I chose, I'm not sure myself.

Drinking Alone
after Li Po

This is not after Li Po
the way the state is after me
for neglecting to pay all my taxes,

nor the way I am after
the woman in front of me
on the long line at the post office.

Li Po, I am not saying
"After you"
as I stand holding open

one of the heavy glass doors
that divide the centuries
in a long corridor of glass doors.

No, the only way this is after you
is in the way they say
it's just one thing after another,

like the way I will pause
to raise a glass of wine to you
after I finish writing this poem.

So let me get back
to sitting in the wind alone
among the pines with a pencil in my hand.

After all, you had your turn,
and mine will soon be done
then someone else will sit here after me.

Central Park

It's hard to describe how that day in the park
was altered when I stopped to read
an official sign I came across near the great carousel,
my lips moving silently like the lips of Saint Ambrose.

As the carousel turned in the background,
all pinions and mirrors and the heads of horses
rising to the steam-blown notes of a calliope,
I was learning how the huge thing
was first designed to be powered
by a blind mule, as it turned out,
strapped to the oar of a wheel in an earthen
room directly below the merry turning of the carousel.

The sky did not darken with this news
nor did a general silence fall on the strollers
or the ball players on the green fields.
No one even paused to look my way,
though I must have looked terrible
as I stood there filling with sympathy
not so much for the harnessed beast tediously making its rounds

but instead for the blind mule within me
always circling in the dark -
the mule who makes me turn when my name is called
or causes me to nod with a wooden gaze
or sit doing nothing on a bench in the shape of a swan.

Somewhere, there must still be a door
to that underground room,
the lock rusted shut, the iron key misplaced,
last year's leaves piled up against the sill,
and inside, a trace of straw on the floor,
a whiff of manure, and maybe a forgotten bit
or a bridle hanging from a hook in the dark.

Poor blind beast, I sang softly as I left the park,
poor blind mek, poor blind earth turning blindly on its side.

Oh. Yes indeed.

I'm with Lucy. Thanks for posting, Peggy : ).

I love them both.

Well, Lucy, Nancy, and Reba. It must just be me then. The Li Po one still seems just too facile. I'll try to read some of them again next year to see what I think. On the other hand, I definitely think he should have left "Looking for a Friend in a Crowd of Arriving Passengers: A Sonnet" out. I wasn't going to post it, but I will.

"Looking for a Friend in a Crowd of Arriving Passengers: A Sonnet

Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
Not John Whalen.
John Whalen.

>80 LizzieD:: I'm not sure I consider that publication-worthy either, Peggy. But seeing as I'm going to meet my husband at the airport tonight, I could use this as a sort of meditative chant. It works rhythmically even if I substitute the hubs' name. :)

Laura, yes -- as a meditative chant it's great. As a poem? IMO, facile about nails it. I can almost hear him thinking, ooh, won't people enjoy the satire. But the concept of labeling people as nothing more than not the person you're waiting for is a bit banal...

Maybe I'll make Confederates my next Keneally? Certainly, I have to read more of him after this. I think I bought Schindler's Ark when it was first out in paperback (1983, maybe?) but when I picked it up to read it back then, it didn't grab me. I suspect I'd have a different reaction today than I did back then.

Suzanne--I think Confederates would be a very good choice. I never felt Schindler's Ark was one of his better books (I've read 5 or 6 of his books)--I thought it was one of those situations where the movie is better than the book, yet a lot of people choose to read it because of the movie.

That is the thing with Collins, he has a gift and he nails it once in awhile. And he's always likeable and entertaining. The second poem about the blind mule; it's a fine poem. The problem is to mix it in with stuff like the, um, sonnet. The Li Po falls somewhere in between. It's not a 'gag' poem exactly, but it is playing around, not going somewhere. (Although the blind mule wasn't going anywhere either, but that is the point.)

Another favorite piece of classical music awaits your pleasure!
That is the thing with Collins. I kept thinking, especially among the new poems, "Ah, Billy, you're better than that."

Ooooo I like Mahler.

Me too, Lucy - and I like the energy of Bernstein, so I hope you enjoy the performance!

Symphony #4 or #5, though? There's an interesting book about Mahler by Norman Lebrecht that I seemed to like a lot better than some of the other reviewers/readers. Possibly because I'm not a musician?

I love his "Songs of a Wayfarer". Once saw a ballet set to those and it has remained stuck in my brain now for 24 years or so...

Well, you have to love 5 and 3 (my first) and 7, but 4 is just approachable and listenable.
I don't have and haven't listened to 9 or "Songs of a Wayfarer." My loss.
Today I read *Civil War* and *Mitford/Waugh*. They're enjoyable, but I don't think I'll ever finish either one. Antsy!

Ah, Mitford, I've read good things about that series here on LT. It's one I want to get to ... eventually (I hope!).

They are so fun to read Nancy. Mitford writes incredibly well.

82:

Suz you might look at Keneallys The PlayMaker. Lovely about Australia in the penal colony era.

I saw it when they made it into a play ("Their Countries Good").

OTOH - Keneally hasn't written a word I haven't liked.

92 - That's a powerful recommendation - will take that under advisement!

Hi, Nancy, Lucy, and Jim! I think I need to add The PlayMaker to my list too. Thanks!
And I did finish one!

The Letters of Nancy Mitford & Evelyn Waugh edited by Charlotte Mosley

Reading these letters is something of a commitment for somebody like me who now owns more than she will live to read. However, these were a great deal of fun. "Darling Nancy" and "Darling Evelyn" were both incredibly witty and more than slightly malicious, and they brought out the wit and malice in each other. Evelyn excoriated Nancy pedantically about her spelling and grammar, and she accepted his corrections in good part. When she disagreed with him, she apparently did enough research to be on firm ground about not changing what he had criticized. When she rarely took issue with something that he had written, he accused her of flaying him, but she was always charming about it.
The letters discuss books and people, people, people. I am compelled to read every footnote, and was often tired of the name dropping, but then I guess other readers will recognize names that I didn't know and be grateful for other footnotes. Even after decades of correspondence, one or the other will say something devastating about a friend and remind the other not to repeat it.
I'm not sure how well the two would have gotten on in person, but the letters are delicious. As Evelyn grows older, his become fewer and sadder. Nancy always retains her zing.
Now I'm off to read both of them with greater appreciation.

Sounds like a pleasant and engaging read all around!

I liked the carousel much more than the Li Po one, but that's me... ;)

Me too, Tina!
It was certainly engaging, Lucy. EW, and Nancy too to a lesser degree, was a person who was devastatingly funny. He and NM called Cyril Connolly (whose name I know from that period but about whom I know next to nothing) Smarty Boots, a nickname that clearly suggests all kinds of not particularly flattering qualities. EW characterized him thus (and I laugh and feel faintly disgusted with myself for finding this so funny - and that was how I felt through a lot of the book) : "Cyril is poor paddy escaped from the tyranny of the bog priest, dazzled by the jolly splendours of Tammany Hall, quite at a loss what to do with his freedom."

I know what you mean -- Mitford was a terrible snob - unforgiveable really, all that U and non-U stuff, but strangely irresistible. While you read it you feel included, even though you know you're not really.

That's part of it exactly, Lucy! The other part is that they are funny. I screamed/shrieked!
I just went ahead and bought We Need New Names because it was the Kindle Daily Deal and cheap - this in spite of Suzanne's review. Now I just read Darryl's similar assessment. I should have saved the $ and combined it with more to buy Americanah. Oh well. The excesses of frugality!
I did get Sister Mine today too, and I'm interested to try Nalo Hopkinson although this may not be the one to start with.

THE GREAT HUNT by Robert Jordan

Curses! Who pushed me into the Wheel of Time again? Yet here I am with book 3 hauled out and ready.
Cheesy or not, I loved every word.

Well done, Peggy! I love cheesy occasionally, too! Good for the soul, LOL.

Three cheers for cheesy! Pile on the camembert, the brie, the swiss, and the mozzarella!

Sometimes, cheesy is just the perfect thing.

Well, I finally caught up on your thread here, Peggy.

I'm glad your DH is fine after the atrial fib. I'm sure it was very scary. Heart issues always are. My DH had quadruple bypass surgery in 2002 - I absolutely knew he'd make it fine - not one shred of doubt - but it was so stressful for weeks and weeks and weeks. His heart hasn't even had a hiccough since then.

Good listening and good reading, I see.

Thank you for the stirring quartet, Lizzie - and thanks to Brahms too - and wishing health to you and your husband --

Just to say, fwiw, that I recently read this Billy Collins poem at the wedding of two dear friends marrying at 50:

This Much I Do Remember

by Billy Collins



It was after dinner.

You were talking to me across the table

about something or other,

a greyhound you had seen that day

or a song you liked,



and I was looking past you

over your bare shoulder

a the three oranges lying

on the kitchen counter

next to the small electric bean grinder,

which was also orange,

and the orange and white cruets for vinegar and oil.



All of which converged

into a random still life,

so fastened together by the hasp of color,

and so fixed behind the animated

foreground of your

talking and smiling,

gesturing and pouring wine,

and the camber of your shoulders



that I could feel it being painted within me,

brushed on the wall of my skull,

while the tone of your voice

lifted and fell in its flight,

and the three oranges

remained fixed on the counter

the way stars are said to be fixed in the universe.



Then all the moments of the past

began to line up behind that moment

and all the moments to come

assembled in front of it in a long row,

giving me reason to believe

that this moment I had rescued

from millions that rush out of sight

into a darkness behind the eyes.





Even after I have forgotten what year it is,

my middle name,

and the meaning of money,

I will carry in my pocket

the small coin of that moment,

minted in the kingdom

that we pace through every day.

Thank you, Stellar Friend! That Billy Collins is worth a lot!!! I'm glad to meet it. Thanks for the visit and the good wishes. I'm grateful to say that we are fine again.
And greetings and thanks for the visit to Karen (I'm also grateful that your husband's heart is behaving itself; quadruple bypass is SERIOUS stuff), Ellen, Lucy, and Nancy. Yeah ---- I've always liked my own particular brand of cheese.
I don't have it in my list above - I hope to finish it so quickly that the time to post it would be wasted - but I'm reading my current ER ARC, Time Will Tell. At 49/265 pages it's a fun novel about an ambitious academic hack who has discovered a huge manuscript of medieval music. His story, the story of the group whom he hopes to convince to perform it, and the memoir of a 16th century follower of Ockeghem make up the three strands of the plot. I'm not thrilled, but I'm not bored either.

Oh my goodness! Wodehouse Playhouse on YouTube!
I just enjoyed A Voice from the Past. Go and do thou likewise!

Oh I've missed a ton here, Peggy. Well, I'll just quietly pick up an oar and row along. ETA: love, love, love the Wodehouse Playhouse episodes but then I love Wodehouse, period.

Hi, Tui. I guess we're just a couple of wooly bah-lambs.
And I'm excited to say that I've just doubled my holdings of Alison Weir with a bio and a novel. Happy reading!

Wodehouse lived in my home town for 10 years. My Mum wrote a booklet about his time in the town. I have a copy somewhere...
The name of his house and the town feature in his books as names for characters.

Peggy - I enjoyed most of the Billy Collins stuff here from the excellent to the worthy to the light to the facile. That "sonnet" should have never seen the light of day, honestly.

Have a lovely weekend.

I'm just popping in trying to catch up, Peggy. Belatedly, I want to say that I'm glad your husband is home and feeling better. Scary stuff!

Helen, that's a great connection to have! Don't love your mum's booklet for sure!
Glad we're agreed, Paul. We did have a lovely weekend, and I hope yours was too.
Terri, thank you. I'm amazed at the number of people that we find who have a-fib....two of our close high school friends have just developed it. It is scary even if the medical community regards it as a nuisance condition.

TIME WILL TELL by Donald Greig
I reviewed this one on the book page. It would really be my definition of a 3 - star book: not very good, not very bad. I'd have had more patience with it if I didn't have so many wonderful ones sitting unread on the shelves. Anyone with a real interest in medieval music should maybe have a look at it.

Hi Peggy, just unlurking to say hi. I've enjoyed the Billy Collins.

Oh, I've never heard of Billy Collins, but I do love that poem!

Good one to share stellarexplorer! Thank you.

I'm always glad to see you here, Jan and Tina! I wouldn't have discovered B. Collins if not for LT - or at least I wouldn't have paid attention to him. He did a stint at Garrison Keillor's "Reader's Almanac" on NPR this summer, and I heard a broadcast or two. And he was once America's Poet Laureate.
I'm happy to report that since I have to read (I decided that I have to read it, anyway) Manhunt to help with my study club's program in November on Dr. Samuel Mudd and his time at Fort Jefferson, uh - since I have to read it, it's a good thing that I'm enjoying it. The writing isn't spectacular, but the narrative has grabbed me by the eyes. I am also happy to report that I found Dr. Mudd's letters and diary for a free download at GoogleBooks, so I grabbed that for my Kindle. Looks like the program is going to develop! (Our theme this year is national parks. Since I don't travel, I thought of the Dry Tortugas for this historic overlap which interests me. I'm also going to introduce them to Anna Pigeon the intrepid park ranger in the mysteries by Nevada Barr.)

Hi Peggy, thank you for posting the link to some lovely music. Five-month-old Molly is a big fan! I play the current selection for her on her weekly visits with Grandma D., and, if she's fussy with teething, she gets to listen more than once.

I have The Daughters of Mars on the library reserve list. This will be my first Keneally book. Also a fan of Billy Collins. I even gave a small chuckle at the John Whelan sonnet. It's the equivalent of some modern art that makes me think I could be a poet or an artist!

That's exactly what I thought, Donna!
I'm happy to provide a little soothing for that darling Molly.
I know you'll enjoy The Daughters of Mars. I should be reading more Keneally!

I discovered Billy Collins a year or so ago and he's one of the few poets I can actually say I enjoy reading.

Hi, Peggy! I'm making the rounds to check how everyone is doing. I enjoy Billy Collins as well, and I do think it was Garrison Keillor who introduced me to him.

Hi Peggy - Nice dose of Billy Collins here. I love his sense of humor. My students tend to like him, too.

Hi, Beth. I wish I had known about Billy Collins when I was teaching. He's a real encouragement to read poetry.
Hi, Roni. Thanks for including me in your rounds!
Hi, Reba. I have in mind to branch out a little from BC and read more contemporary poets starting with Mary Oliver when I get a grip.
Oh dear. Oh dear. Bridge this afternoon and a service project thingy tomorrow; no real reading for me until Sunday afternoon.

Ola, I would be miserable if I knew I couldn't read until Sunday!

Good luck at the Bridge table, it is so beyond my imagining, doing that. I would be thrown out anyway.

Hope you get good cards at bridge. We are between classes and so won't play until Monday.

>123 sibylline:: Lucy, my mil was a master bridge player before dementia nailed her. She tried to teach me. I was a Hopeless Case and a Lost Cause. Bridge players, serious ones that is, do things like yell "why did you lead the 3 of spades, that's the Blackwood Convention" when you have no earthly idea why you did that except that you had only one of the things and thought it would be a good idea to get rid of it. I decided it was not my métier.

Bridge is not my métier or my forté either, Tui. I like it O.K., but I'm basically a duffer. What I do love is the time with my friends who love the game. And I think leading a singleton 3 of spades would be an excellent idea!
I did get some amazing cards, Roni, and I was incredibly stupid (that is, stupid enough for me to realize that I had been stupid) only once. That makes it a good day for me on the bridge front.
Lucy, I'll read some, but it will be only a little. In fact, I'm going to sit down and try to read a little this very minute!

I've never played bridge, and it is probably a little too late to start now. But I do love contract rummy.

I saw Thomas Keneally last weekend at the National Book Festival, talking mostly about The Daughters of Mars. I don’t recall details (I never do), but one inspiration was traveling in Eritrea researching Towards Asmara with his wife, a nurse, who calmly took care of a woman hideously mangled by the war, when he and his cameraman were too disturbed to function. (Also he is a person who should perhaps not wear a sweater with wide horizontal stripes.) It’ll be up on the Library of Congress web site eventually.

Katherine, that's pretty fascinating. I don't know that I've seen a picture of Keneally, but I would never have imagined him in a horizontally striped sweater! Towards Asmara was not on my radar, so thanks for mentioning it.
Hi, Colleen! Contract rummy??

MANHUNT: THE TWELVE-DAY CHASE FOR LINCOLN'S KILLER by James L. Swanson

As nearly as he could manage, Swanson gave a minute by minute description of the movements of the involved people in the days surrounding Lincoln's assassination. It is fascinating, and this book pretty much reads like a novel. I would have given it more than four stars except that Swanson felt the necessity of commenting, and his comments were a distraction and an intrusion.
Thanks to Jim the nephew for pointing this one out to me. I'm on to His Name is Still Mudd and The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, thanks to Google.

Whenever someone talks about contact bridge or rummy I imagine otherwise sedate people throwing down their cards to tackle an opponent, football style.

130> I get overtones of a very polite contract killing taking place!

That or my family being unable to remember the order of hands in gin rummy. Which never led to bloodshed, but was close...

I've tried bridge but didn't exactly take to it like a duck to water--way more complicated than I expected and so many bidding conventions to remember. My husband has played since he was 6 years old and his mother stills plays several times a week at age 91. I was hoping to be able to start playing socially with my husband so took some lessons but the other students and my husband went on to play duplicate bridge which everyone took way too seriously as far as I was concerned. I finally just gave up but I can see where it would be a great way to keep your mind active and I'm in awe of my MiL.

Peggy, I will have to check out Manhunt. It sounds interesting and reminds me that I also want to read Hellbound on His Trail about the search for MLK's killer.

Hi Peggy, driving by to say hello. My work is seriously interfering with reading/LT time at present.

Sorry, Nancy. Work has a way of doing that. I wish you less work, more reading anyway.
Pat, it seems to me that at any level of bridge, the person who knows the most can either be very gracious or very sniffy. I appreciate the gracious ones. Bridge seems to use some strange bridge part of the brain. I have a friend who was comatose for 6 weeks after a car crash and could play bridge as well as she ever did when she was still having trouble putting on her clothes correctly, for example. Likewise, my aunt with Parkinson's and other ailments related to aging still enjoyed the game. Maybe I'll get more serious about it when it's the only thing I can do...
Helen, sometimes the contract killing is not all that polite!
Contract, Lucy! You really don't use your time this way at all, do you?

(And thank you all for visiting and speaking. It may well be the middle of the month before I get to continue into October.)

I'm enjoying our bridge lessons, but I think duplicate bridge would be anxiety-producing!

Roni, that was my feeling too!

I have to agree, Roni and Pat. I have to be very firm with myself even among old friends, or I would still be sitting and stewing over which card to play from Friday afternoon.

THE MILITARY PHILOSOPHERS by Anthony Powell

This entry in *Dance* brings WWII to a close and with it the end of a number of Nick's friends and concerns. I've been waiting for Pamela Flitton, surely one of the most perverse young women in literature. Here she is, and off we go!

134: (And thank you all for visiting and speaking. It may well be the middle of the month before I get to continue into October.)

Oh, just ask. People can chit-chat here as well as anywhere. Perhaps offer cookies?

137--I was often so confused about what was going on in bridge, I'm sure I didn't even realize most of the mistakes I was making. So, in that respect, it was good. I didn't beat myself up about it.

My husband's family is full of serious card players and I mostly avoid playing with them. When they get together for family reunions there are card games that go on until the wee hours.

Just rambling here but hoping to keep your thread going.

Thank you for keeping the thread going, Katherine and Pat.
Cookies would help? How 'bout these???


Here's something dumb I used to do. My daddy (who was a mean bridge player too) and his brothers would play Hearts on holidays when they were all home. When I first got a computer, one thing I would do would be to play Hearts and name the other players for my dad and uncles. I could hear them laughing and saying, "Shoot the moon, Keed."

Oh, I'll drop by a second time for cookies. Have a recipe?

I knew how to play bridge when I was 11 or so; my parents had a group and taught us kids. I haven't the slightest memory.

Oh, goodness, my dad was a devoted Hearts player, too. And he was GOOD at it! Love the Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies. Oh, he was a cookie monster, as well : ). Thanks for the fun memories, Peggy.

Cookies? It would be rude to refuse, thankyou.
Although I'd describe them as biscuits - cookies (to the English mind) are fatter and not quite so well suited for dunking.

Thank you for your visits, Katherine, Nancy, and Helen!
Katherine, I do have a recipe, and I'll hunt it out for you.
Nancy, I could say "Dirty Gerty" before I could say a lot more useful things.
Helen, here are American biscuits - as I expect you know.



Meanwhile, I'm enjoying Indifferent Heroes here on the last day of the month. Mary Hocking really deserves to be better known and better read!

Oh I love the contract killing idea. So Duplicate Contract Bridge would be a double hit?

And should I be posting a lot?

I love your item-of-the-months, so I want to encourage that.

And other folks are so helpful to me.

147: I love your item-of-the-months, so I want to encourage that.
Indeed. What's on the agenda for October? Maybe we could have options to discuss here.

Yes, Lucy, yes! Do post often and a lot - and Katherine too.....
Katherine, I've made up my mind about October's focus already. If you look at the list (which I will hunt up), I'm sure that you'll pick the one! (It's not Sarcastic Month although it well might be.) (I'm afraid it's not going to be Cookie Month here either.)

Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
American Pharmacist Month
Apple Jack Month
Awareness Month
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Clergy Appreciation Month
Computer Learning Month
Cookie Month
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Eat Country Ham Month
International Drum Month
Lupus Awareness Month
National Diabetes Month
National Pizza Month
National Vegetarian Month
National Popcorn Popping Month
Sarcastic Month
Seafood Month

I could cope with an Eat Pizza month - although I doubt my waistline would appreciate it!

Applejack has a certain appeal...... as does popcorn...... Adopt a shelter dog might be good too......

I'm not sure which is more dangerous: Adopt a Shelter Dog or Pizza.

Awareness month has a kind of zen appeal, no?

154: Y’know, I was struggling to say something about Awareness Month, and gave up. You got it perfectly.

International Drum Month strikes me as unnecessarily noisy for a website associated with those quietest of places - the library.

How helpful you all are!
I meant to look back to see whether my copy function left something out of Awareness Month..... Nope. That's it. Very Zen indeed. That's not it, but you have mentioned my choice.
It's not going to be International Drum Month though, Helen. I promise.
Whether I get to read it in October or not, I am going to stretch out with my new (to me) copy of Shakespeare's Lives) and start reading. It's been burning a hole in my "read next" table.

Hmmmm what's going on here Peggy? Cookies and monthly possibilities? I kind of like the idea of sarcastic month. What would that be like? One sarcastic remark after another?

On the contrary, we'd all be terribly terribly nice, positively oozing with nicenesses! Right, Peggy?

Who in the world would sponsor National Sarcasm Month anyway?

Hi Peggy

Stopping by to check in and see what you are reading.

Hugs!

Dear Linda, Lucy (twice), and Bonnie, thanks for the visit.
To my surprise, there is a National Sarcasm Society. Their tees read "NSS - Like we need your support." I think we could all do a better slogan than that.........
I did read some of the Schoenbaum on Shakespeare this afternoon. So far it's pretty much recapping the documentary evidence about WS that he included in Shakespeare: A Documentary Life. It's been 25 years at least since I read that one, so it's good to be refreshed. What this book is doing is looking at all the legitimate and famous attempts to get a handle on the Bard's life, at least in English. I don't know when I think I'm going to have time to read it. Ahead of it in the queue are the following: Zealot, Indifferent Heroes, Books Do Furnish a Room, His Name is Still Mudd, The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Critical Mass (my ER ARC), The Civil War: From Fort Sumter to Perryville, and maybe The Palace Walk and other things.
Ha. There's a topic for sarcasm.

That's a lot of books on the urgent pile. Just don't stack them all in one place - you'd be in danger of being found crushed by the weight of paper and expectation.

Hi Peggy!

Eat Country Ham month?

What is country ham?

And I hope you are enjoying Indifferent Heroes.

What is country ham?
and does the ham have to be from your locality, or can you eat someone else's country ham? I'm thinking there's Yourskire, Wiltshire & Brunswick hams*, but I'm not in anyof them.

* not an exhaustive list by any means!

Hi, stalwart visitors!!!
Helen and Heather, country ham is salt and smoke cured, and it can come from anywhere, but North Carolina and Virginia hams are best if you ask me. (Eat Country Ham Month indeed!)
I am enjoying Indifferent Heroes a lot, Helen. I finally have Alice in Alexandria.
Oh, but the books are all in one place, Helen, and it is a bit daunting and pleasurable too.

We could combine the country ham month and sarcasm month and generally ham it up, eh?

Isn't there some ham poem? Let me go look.....

Well I looked around and didn't find the one I'm thinking of or hearing echoes of in my head. If you start saying 'ham' to yourself your head starts expanding, so I'd better stop.

>171 sibylline:: Isn't there some ham poem?

I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them Sam I am.

Yes, that is THE classic! Probably it is pieces of that book which are boiling around in my head (or is it smoking? Hickory or Maple?)

LOOK! I can continue!!!
Thank you for the great push, friends. Thank you for your exhaustive memory of poetry, Laura!

Maybe we'll get you where you need to go by tomorrow.

Okay here is a daft time wasting idea - remember those exercises where you had to use a whole bunch of vocab in a little story? I'm going to use all the National Etc. stuff. Here goes:

Now wait! Don't you get up leave the room now that I've started telling you this convoluted story about when I adopted my dog, Apple Jack, from the shelter. See, I was at the international drumming festival, and who should be there but our local pharmacist who is really into pow-wow drumming of which I was not aware previously, and during a break for country ham and cookies he was asking me if I knew anything about where to go for some good computer classes because one of his aims is to raise awareness of a number of health issues from diabetes to breast cancer to lupus (of which there is nowhere near enough awareness). As I speared another piece of ham, I murmured, "I wish they were serving pizza and I keep thinking I hear popcorn popping!" and he concurred adding, "I've got a craving for seafood." "But I thought you were a vegetarian," I said kind of surprised. Perhaps I neglected to say earlier I know this man pretty well, as he is actually my fiance? He stared at me and I knew I'd gone too far and that we were nearing the end of the road together, so I said, "Well at least we can't count domestic violence among our sins." "I guess not, although your total lack of awareness about and appreciation for who I am and what I do never fails to astound me. I'm not pharmacist and never have been, I'm a clergyman." With that he twirled his drumsticks and marched off.

That's when I decided to get a dog.

Now one could make a fine argument that I am a person who is either procrastinating or doesn't have enough more important things to do!

Lucy -- LOL love it!

That's a real keeper!!!! Favorited!
Thanks, Lucy.......and the Month of October thanks you too!
(But where did that come from?) (Ah. The mind of the writer.)
Hi, Reba!

the mind of a procrastinator, darling!

175: LOOK! I can continue!!!
So you can. When did this happen? Checking other threads.... 147 can't. 154 can. Suggesting that the magic number is now 150.

Hi Peggy. Just stopping by to help get you to 200.

So one does not have to get to 200 to continue a topic any more. Velly, velly interesting!

Oh, I read Peggy's comment and was sorta scratching my head wondering if I'd missed something.

Which I had.

150 is soooo much bettah!

Many thanks, Lucy, Katherine, Pat, and Roni! If the "continue" was up at 150, I didn't see it. I'll try to pay attention in October. And that means that I can start October in the morning when I can think!
Y'all are great!

185: I didn't notice it in my thread either, but then I never thought to look. People were requesting a change to somewhere around 100-150 a year and a half ago, figured it'd take them about five seconds to do, no response. And suddenly there it is. Sneaky. Maybe they noticed all the month-end hot topics with filler posts.

#177 Now one could make a fine argument that I am a person who is either procrastinating or doesn't have enough more important things to do! Personally, I'd argue, like Peggy, that your story is a keeper, and that you're wonderful for sparing some time to entertain your LT friends : ).

>177 sibylline:: that's brilliant, Lucy!

Anyway, it's a good feature, and I'm off to set up October with thanks!
(Now that I'm there, I hope you will all come back. And thanks again. Katherine, Nancy, and Laura!)