ffortsa's second for 2013

My reading ticker - that froggie is still hopping.




The Warden- Anthony Trollope
In the Shadow of the Glacier - Vicki Delaney
Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear
The Coffin Trail - Martin Edwards
The Golden Ass - Apuleius
Pago Pago Tango - John Enwright
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy, P&V translation
The coroner's lunch - Colin Cotterill
The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

One Writer's Beginnings - Eudora Welky
the Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham
The Golden Scales - Parker Bilal
Poker Face - Katy Lederer
Thirty Three Teeth - Colin Cotterill
A Door in the River - Inger Ash Wolfe
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit - Sloan Wilson
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Disco for the Departed - Colin Cotterill
The Iceman Cometh - Eugene O'Neill

A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley
The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Potzsch
Hadji Murad- Leo Tolstoy
Life and Fate - Vasily Grossman
The Doctor Stories - William Carlos Williams
My Antonia - Willa Cather
The Spellman Files: Document #1 - Lisa Lutz
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
In The Garden Of Beasts - Erik Parson
Birds of a Feather - Jacqueline Winspear

The Upside of Irrationality - Dan Ariely
The Boy in the Suitcase - Lena Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
The Bostonians - Henry James
Celebrity in Death - J. D. Robb
Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics - ed. Lawrence Block
The Patience of the Spider - Andrea Camilleri
The Paper Moon - Andrea Camilleri
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
August Heat - Andrea Camilleri
Shosha - Isaac B. Singer

Delusion in Death - J. D. Robb
The Invisible Ones - Stef Penney
Night Rounds - Helene Tursten
The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout
Fatally Flaky - Diane Mott Davidson
My Antonia - Willa Cather (reread)
Thankless in Death - J. D. Robb
The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer - Sarah Bakewell
Fadeout - Joseph Hansen

Calculated in Death - J. D. Robb
The Inspector and Silence - Håkan Nesser
How the Light Gets In - Louise Penny
The Absent One - Jussi Adler-Olsen
Scoop - Evelyn Waugh

As soon as I'm able to, I'll post the 'coming home' photos from our cruise, and maybe the portraits we got on the ship. They were pretty good.

Tonight is the discussion of A Clockwork Orange, so I'll add my two cents tongiht or tomorrow.

ETA: Now why don't the books on the list in the first post show as touchstones? I copied the HTML with the brackets from the last thread.

2: Are the brackets still there when you edit? I've seen the brackets disappear when I post... maybe when I haven't waited for the touchstone list at the right to populate?

I had problems getting the touchstones to work when I created my new thread yesterday, too.

Brackets are clearly there, and I even overtyped one set just to make sure. Sigh. Well, the titles are visible, that's the main thing.

ETA: magic! I re-entered the entire last row, and all of a sudden they all showed up. Technology. Good thing I don't earn my living at it, huh?

39. August Heat by Andrea Camilleri

Ah, the series is back in form. Crisp comedy had me laughing out loud over my lunch, but the denoument was much more nuanced and human and touching. 4 stars, maybe 4 1/2

Happy New Thread! Must start Camilleri one of these days.

The stories are really a treat, and really fly by.

I posted this on Darryl's thread when he was talking about introducing himself to Shakespeare, and then thought I should cross-post for my own.

Aside from the filmed stage production of Hamlet, which Jim and I are already scheduled to see in December, there is Shakespeare galore in the city.

Last week we saw a production of Romeo and Juliet that I would NOT recommend, in a theater on 13th Street. There's another one on Broadway this season, with Orlando Bloom, a casting I'm not sure I can fathom. We are not yet scheduled to see that one - R&J is not our favorite Shakespeare.

Last night, however, we saw a fabulous production of Twelfth Night (spelled in the original way as Twelfe Night), done by an all-male troupe headed by Mark Rylance. Rylance is a dazzling stage actor, and it's not the first time I've seen his group do an 'authentic' production of one of Shakespeare's plays. What does authentic mean? All the players are male, the stage setting is pretty bare, the costumes are painstakingly constructed from similar fabric with similar closures and methods, and so forth. That wouldn't of itself encourage me to go, but these folks can do Shakespeare!

'Twelfe Night' is one of the most accessible plays in the cannon. None of us would have had a moment's trouble with the language or the characters or the plot. If there is any way to see this in the fall (I think they are extending the run, but it's become a hot ticket), I urge you to do so. It is a hot ticket for all the right reasons - terrific acting, direction, spirit, comedy - a deeply satisfying performance.

The company is performing this in repertory with 'Richard III', a very different type of classic, and I'm eager to see it in a couple of weeks.

In addition to that, an all-female troupe is doing 'Julius Caesar' at a theater in downtown Brooklyn. We were going to skip it, but then it got such wonderful reviews, we thought to go. Next week, I think.

And we are seeing a production of 'MacBeth' as well, at Lincoln Center, starring Ethan Hawke in the title role. I've seen him on stage in Stoppard's trilogy 'The Coast of Utopia', and he can command a huge stage and rivet an audience, so I'm hoping for a good production.

There's another one around, a production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at Theater for a New Audience in Brooklyn. It's directed by Julie Taymor, and might have some interesting ideas, but I'm worried about the potential for messing up, and it's not my favorite play, although it can be very funny when done well.

Directors who think they have to 'add' to Shakespeare, or 'interpret' his work, often mess it up. I have my fingers crossed for all of them.

**** spoiler alert for A Clockwork Orange ****

Okay, just to honor commitments, the discussion of A Clockwork Orange was interesting, in that we all felt the violence portrayed in the book must have been quite alarming when it was published, but not extraordinary at all in our current culture. The last chapter, which Burgess insisted be included in the newer US edition, and which is not included in Kubrick's movie, adds a deflating view of our narrator and j.d Alex's future, as he ages all the way to 18 and find the nasty life no longer to his satisfaction. It changes the book from a paean to individuality at all costs to a much more dreary view of violence as an inevitable phase of life after which the bad boy subsides into the grey ordinary future and potential family life under a totalitarian controlled society.

*** end alert ***

My copy, sans that last chapter, was from the 70s and crumbling, and I tossed it right after the discussion.

My 40th book will be the next Camilleri. I am SO delighted that I can get them so easily from the library. The 3M software is even easier to use than the Kindle-based loan - if the book is available, a single click request does the trick. I didn't figure out how to move books from my tablet or computer to my Kindle - just read them on the tablet, which is fine if I'm not outside where the backlighting is a problem.

But today, I'm cleaning closets. We have so much stuff crammed in the closets in this one-bedroom apartment, and I knew we didn't need to keep a lot of it. Empty boxes from equipment we'd long-since vetted, for instance. Items like an elaborate picnic basket that we may use someday, but not now that it's colder, which can go in my storage locker. Appliances we've stopped using, or never used, that can be donated. Board games we won in years past at Mohonk on the puzzle weekend, but which sit in the closet unplayed. So now the apartment looks like it has endured a closet explosion (not far from the truth), and I had to take a break before contemplating how to put back the stuff I want to put back, and face the management of everything else.

ok. closets more or less done (at least the set in the foyer - 9 feet worth), and some items donated to the nearby thrift shop, and boxes thrown out, etc etc. Some stuff is still to be properly disposed of, but I did stop before we had our next cultural excursion,

which was a concert by Garrick Ohlsson, who is a fantastic classical pianist. We subscribe to a couple of concert series that are held at a nearby high school auditorium with really good acoustics, and excellent players come to play as a sort of lagniappe (is that the right word?) to other activities in NY. The tickets are an incredible buy ($37 for a six-concert series), but the seating is open, not assigned, so we generally bring books and get there way before the doors open.

The program was Brahms, Liszt, Debussy and Chopin, but I'm afraid I gave up after the Liszt. Not that it wasn't wonderful - how does anyone play all those notes at once, the erstwhile violinist says - but I was exhausted and Jim was suffering from allergies and we left at intermission. I'm sure the rest of it was wonderful.

Tomorrow we see another open rehearsal of Julius Caesar. The whirl never ends.

I've started the next book club book, Shosha by I.B. Singer. Page 28 and so far ok.

Glad to know you eventually got back to your closet cleaning. : ) Enjoy all the Shakespeare!

Julia Spencer-Fleming is giving a talk on Oct. 31 in New York, and admission is free if you RSVP, which I just did. While doing that, I discovered the Center for Fiction, which is based in a library I loved dearly years ago when I worked in Midtown. The Mercatile Library was founded in 1820 or so to provide readers with a base and a club at which to meet and discuss books. Center for Fiction has taken over this place and provides talks, classes, a lending library that works like Netflix - I'm so excited to rediscover this place! You can take a look at it at

www.centerforfiction.org.

We love Twelfth Night (and Twelfe Night), Judy. If it sticks around for a while, maybe we can see it on a visit. Mark Rylance is a charmer.

If you visit New York and do not meetup with Judy and I you will have some 'splaining to do, mi compadre!

Ha! We should be there in early April, Jim. If that works for you, a meetup is in the cards. Plus I'm lousy at 'splaining. More details to follow as we get closer to that.

Judy, I have been out of action a little lately but I must comment on your lovely photos from the previous thread. Looks like a great trip and I am so pleased the minefield that is getting photos onto your thread was so successfully negotiated.

Have a lovely weekend.

Paul, sorry to hear about the eye-strain. I hope you're all recovered now. And I applaud your decision to drop the excess weight, although I know it's not a trivial matter, as I've been stuck myself for the last 6 months or so. Good luck on your efforts.

On another note, I attended an author event on Thursday for Julia Spencer-Fleming at the Center for Fiction (see #14 above) and discovered another book store in NYC! The first floor of the Center, at 17 East 47th Street, is a very pleasant bookstore that carries, among other imprints, both Europa and Archipelago books. I didn't check for Virago, but I bet it's carried as well. And although I'm personally trying not to buy new books just now, and I escaped unscathed, I would suggest that New Yorkers and visitors stop in - very pleasant.

And, to continue my theatrical journal, Jim and I saw two plays this weekend. On Friday, we saw 'The Snow Geese', by Sharr White, a Chekhovian view of a family in upstate New York in 1917, just as the nation has entered WWI. It deals with facing reality (like most good family dramas), the finances of the time, the social climbing of the time, the prejudice against Germans, even those who have been citizens for decades, brothers, sisters - all the good stuff. Jim and I enjoyed it quite a lot, even though many of the reviews were negative. A nice surprise.

A more negative surprise was in store today, when we went to see Ethan Hawke in a production of 'MacBeth', directed by Jack O'Brien at Lincoln Center. In spite of a mostly most capable cast, a plethora of bad dramatic choices weighted the show down. This is one Shakespeare that should fly, and it was inert. The stage is very large, and most of the critical scenes were played way upstage. There was no pace, and some of the set pieces were spoiled by either shouting or bad acting. And somehow, the director got it into his head that the witches were the center of the play. Yuck. Not recommended.

So far, we are one for four with our Shakespeare this season. We thought 'Othello' was misdirected, although Rory Kinnear as Iago was wonderful. We hated the 'Romeo and Juliet' we saw off-Broadway, loved Mark Rylance's 'Twelfe Night', and were disappointed with this 'MacBeth'. Oh well.

We see 'Julius Caesar' on Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

40. Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer

We'll discuss this tonight, and I'll update afterwards.

eta: I was surprised by which of the members of my Tuesday reading group did NOT like this book, and it was mainly because they found the main character egotistical, selfish, and too self-aggrandizing a portrait of the author. I didn't agree. Singer has a talent for recreating a time, a place, a culture so that you can taste it, smell it, hear it - quite wonderful. That the community in question is living in Warsaw, between Hitler and Stalin, at a time when all shades of Jewish life, commitment, and philosophy are in flux is what made this book so memorable for me. The ending is a little convenient and a little too obviously symbolic,; nevertheless, I'm glad to have read it.

I hadn't read any of Singer's novels before, and I will now put them on the list.

41. Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb

Ah, when life and reading get too serious, what's better than a futuristic mass-murder mystery coupled with hot sex between consenting adults? Fun, as usual, with the usual caveats about unbelievability and invulnerability. But then, our heroes have to survive, right?

Well. That sounds like just what the doctor ordered!

As you know, Judy, I can't resist the in Death books either. I figure that, because they're set in a future time, what is unbelievable now will be realistic then. Sure, Joe. She sneaks in some funny stuff, too, like Peabody's hots for Roarke, and Eve trying to get Peabody to focus on police work rather than her personal life.

Yep. What the doc ordered indeed.

I was caught working from home last night, and am rather goggle-eyed this morning. Or is it afternoon already? Sigh. Tonight, another play (OMG another play!) - Richard III.

Maybe I'll sleep in tomorrow.

Next book up is a Stef Penney, The Invisible Ones. I have an ominous feeling that this one was in the drawer when The Tenderness of Wolves hit, and she was able to peddle the formerly rejected one. Hope not.

Both of these books were from the library. IN HARDCOVER. Whatever will become of me?

42. The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney

Ah.

I love my series my series mysteries, like the Camilleri and J. D. Robb, but sometimes they are a little like cotton candy. I take a big bite and it all melts into a happy little sweet sludge and is gone before I know it.

Then there are times when I read something a little more dense, something that gets its little serif hooks into me and makes me sorry I have to come back to work or get a normal amount of sleep. Books like this one, more about the characters than the mystery, more about an angle on the world.

As I wrote above, I was worried about this one, thinking it might have been an almost-right that was rescued from the bottom drawer after The Tenderness of Wolves was so well received. Rest easy, this is lovely. It takes place at the fringe of English life, among the travelers, or gypsies, that still keep to the caravans and countryside and traditions. Our detective is half-Roma himself - he knows just enough of the territory to recognize it, and be recognized by it. When he tries to find a missing young woman who has run away from a new marriage and a chronically ill child, the case seems straightforward enough, even if the trail is more than a little cold.

But nothing is as it seems to him. Nor is it as it seems to a young Gypsy boy who gives us his perspective on the world too. Penney keeps the two versions of the world interlaced but clear, so that we see the mysteries with a sort of literary binocular vision that leads to a most illuminating ending.

Highly recommended.

The downstairs bookswap shelves in the laundry have had an unusually good selection recently, and I've been raiding. Last week I found the following:

Three Junes by Julia Glass
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Game by A.S. Byatt
Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon
Kennedy's Brain by Henning Mankell
Depths by Henning Mankell

Then today, another foray yielded:

the Jewish War by Josephus
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

OMG. And I had promised myself not to acquire more physical books. The shelves are certainly overflowing.

I can't help thinking that some of the books came from the home of an acquaintance of mine in the building whose long fight with pancreatic cancer ended last week. If that's the case, she left us with some choice gifts. Thanks, Cynthia. Sorry you're gone.

eta: The Colum McCann is an advance reader's edition.

>25 ffortsa:: the Penney sounds very good indeed! I liked The Tenderness of Wolves.
>26 ffortsa:: oh, that's so happy and sad at the same time! I'm so sorry. But I think it's really cool that you have book swap shelves in your building!

I love your adventures with cleaning and Shakespeare! I'm not sure I'm cut out to live in NYC, but oh my, I'd be in hog heaven surrounded by all that theater!

Hope things are well with both of you! Keith says Hi!

Oh my, TransAtlantic! What a lovely surprise that was. I can't say I'd want to sit down and read Josephus outside a class, but it's very interesting.

The Absolutely True Diary, too. Finding books like those sure lightens the load of doing laundry.

The Tenderness of Wolves was one of my top reads the year I read it.

You liked *Invisible Ones* more than I did, but I certainly didn't dislike it.
I can't imagine finding books like those in your latest haul anywhere around here - much less in the laundry of an apartment building. Oh well.

43. Night Rounds - Helene Turstein

Thursten is a little wordy for me, putting in extraneous comments in a sometimes ungraceful manner. The story was quite good, however, involving a hospital, a ghost, and a homeless woman, with a side trip to the disruptions vegan teenagers can cause in a household and a society.

44. The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout

I was caught from the start, feeling immediately as though I knew and despaired of each of these sad, closed people. Strout can somehow make me feel inside her characters, which is a wonderful talent, but in the midst of the story I felt their depression in my own psyche. I hope that doesn't discourage anyone - the book overall is very satisfying and I didn't end up depressed at all.

For those who haven't read the other reviews here, this is a story of three grown siblings living with their versions of the truth, the sister in Maine with her teenage son, the brothers in New York City, one very successful, the other struggling to move forward. When the teenager acts out in a very impolitic way, the brothers, both lawyers, are called back to their small home town to help resolve the situation. Old truths prove false, of course, the momentum shifts for all concerned. Terrific read.

45. Fatally Flaky - Diane Mott Davidson

After The Burgess Boys, I needed a palate cleanser, and this mystery set in Colorado was it. Goldy is spritely as always, even though she has to cater the wedding from hell. Events, of course, ensue. Quite enjoyable.

I'm rereading My Antonia for tomorrow's book circle. It's even better the second time.

46. My Antonia – Willa Cather

Rereading this book was a sheer pleasure. I reread my review from earlier in the year, but rereading gives more perspective, more detail, and more respect.

Don’t look to it for plot; it’s more a tone poem or prose rhapsody.

Cather takes us to the almost virgin prairies of Nebraska, seen first through the eyes of a 10 year old boy named Jim and a 14 year old immigrant girl named Antonia. Jim narrates their mutual discovery of the land, with its hardships and joys, and later the town, with its social customs and pleasures. Throughout this phase, Cather builds vivid characters in clear, seemingly effortless prose, so that you know them immediately and think of them as true individuals.

But the story is more than that. Parallelling the maturation of the main characters is the growth of the farms, towns and country in the early part of the 20th century. Jim comes from Virginia, gets to Nebraska, eventually gets back to the east coast for school and career. Because he travels as an adult, we learn that some of the young women in the story end up in San Francisco, Seattle, even in the Alaska gold rush. We are always anchored in Nebraska, but we get the sense of the sweep west of the country from the people we have met in Nebraska and meet again.

Not everyone is good, and bad things do happen, but this is ultimately a story of survival and joy. Highly recommended.

Love My Antonia. Nice review, Judy. I want to re-read it, too, at some point. I'm sure I'd find new things to get out of it, now that I have a feel for the overall story.

>35 ffortsa:: Don’t look to it for plot; it’s more a tone poem or prose rhapsody.
I like that.

47. Thankless in Death - J. D. Robb

Oops - looks like I skipped one. No matter, I'll go back one next time. The usual Roark and Eve make-the-world-safe story, plus sex, family, jokes, and this time, funny ties.

I just realized it's almost time to start on next year's threads. (moan)

39: Noooooooooo! Though we're fortunate that drneutron holds out until mid December. I was horrified when the 14 x 14 folks started creating threads in August.

>39 ffortsa:,40: Last year Jim waited until, I think, the very last week of the year. I know it was later than "mid-December." I was so thankful. Hope he does the same this year!

I've lost track of so many people, I thought the new year might let me start clean. Of course, that's what I said last year.

42: Me too. I've settled on keeping up with a fairly small bunch that aren't alarmingly active.

Having Jim start now would be like putting up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, right? Or like having Hannukah start before Thanksgiving . . . oh, never mind.

Don't worry. Work's going to keep me busy until the end of December. Unless someone else takes over, it'll be after Christmas,before New Year's Day. :)

On the subject of losing track of people, I'm curious to know how many people use the Threadbook. It's a labor-intensive maintenance task, and we've only had a bit over 8000 hits on that page this year. If people use it, great, but if not I'd like to find some other way of helping people keep track of threads. I thought I'd start a thread to discuss likes and dislikes sometime in early December.

I use it to find my own thread, which is usually buried under the bottom of everyone else. But if it wasn't there, I'd just put a link on my profile page. So thank you, Jim for all you do, but if it's too much, then stop and relax and I'll take care of myself!

Hi, Judy!

45: I use the threadbook a lot, though hitwise, I couldn't give you a number. Now that we have the continuation feature, it'd be OK to list only one thread (or every nth for some of the more prolific). Maybe if I had your ability to show up on a thread moments after every comment of interest... This is perhaps not the best place for this question though.

:) it's my superpower. I'll try to only use it for good!

More discussion warranted, but I like at least a list of handles and names. I use it frequently.

I've used the thread book on a number of occasions to find the thread of a person that I haven't come across before.

Jim, do you think you could set up instructions for us to update our own entries, so it wouldn't be so much work for you?

I like that idea Judy. I have updated mine before, but sometimes I find Jim has beat me to it. That must be a really laborious task for such a large and chatty group. I agree we need to find a way to reduce the burden.

Another thought, which might apply to other group admin tasks as well, is to have a team of volunteers who handle specific things on an agreed schedule. Like maintain the Threadbook for a month, or whatever.

Thanks for the feedback! Let's continue this on a new thread. I'll set one up soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Judy! Hope you guys have a great day today! Stay warm!

Happy Thanksgiving, Judy!

Thanks, and happy thanksgiving to everyone.

I was worried about the weather, but it is a gorgeous day, the train left on time, and the whole world looks golden in the sunshine.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and Jim, Judy!

Happy Thanksgiving, Judy and Jim!

Pleased to see that the sun is shining on you both this Thanksgiving weekend. Have a lovely holiday Judy.

Thanks, Joe and Paul and everyone else. Joe, I love the picture with all those pumpkins!

We are at my brother's place in Bryn Mawr, which is a fairly ritzy suburb of Philadelphia. We took a walk up to the main drag, Lancaster Ave., otherwise known as Rte. 30. No one walking around here except us. We toured the shops and found three consignment shops and two violin makers! The movie house that will show 'MacBeth' tomorrow is newly renovated - I think some activity is still underway. The plan is to have four theater spaces. And they have classic films, film seminars, etc. Looks like a great place, and only a mile from the house. We'll probably walk up for an early lunch at a place called Grog (now I wonder what their specialty is?) and then see the movie. Can't wait.

In the meantime, I'm slogging my way through 'The Last Picture Show'. I think this qualifies as a book made better as a movie.

I posted to the meetup thread, but repeating here that I'll regretfully pass on the opportunity to see you. Grog is right near the train station, but the train is on reservation-only schedule for Thanksgiving which makes things less flexible than I'd wish for a day trip to Philadelphia, and it's looking like I'll be working nearly a full day today which squeezes the time I'd expected to have free this holiday weekend.

Judy, I'm glad you made it to Bryn Mawr. If perchance Grog doesn't work out, there's a coffee shop just inside the building where the theater is. While we just had coffee the last time we were there, I think they do sandwiches & salads & such.

Enjoy the play/movie!

Looking forward to your comments on Macbeth!!!

#44/#48 -- splutter, guffaw, chortle.

I have a book about Josephus that I'd like to read soonish, A Jew Among Romans. It's been lurking for a while and clearly demands some attention.

Happy end of Thanksgiving weekend to all. We're home and cozy after a visit my brother's family in Pennsylvania.

On Saturday, we saw the Branagh production of 'MacBeth' from the Manchester International Festival. It has been highly touted, and some of it was very good indeed. The production MOVED, in a wonderfully fluid way, not even taking an intermission. It was set in an old deconsecrated church, which suited the action quite well. And Branagh himself was lovely, easy to understand, creative, powerful. His take on the most famous of MacBeth's monologues was breathtaking and totally natural.

The rest of the production - well, let's say I am glad we saw the film of it for $20 a seat instead of waiting for the New York production scheduled (I think) for the Armory, which will probably cost 10 times that. Everyone was more than competent, but why was everyone else shouting?? Was it the miking, the fact that they were being filmed, the venue (acoustics doubtful)? I got tired of everyone exhorting everyone else.

The dagger effect, done with light, was quite good. Some of the staging was memorable. And Branagh, falling apart in the banquet scene, lets MacBeth regain his emotional ground.

I can see how this play has earned its reputation as cursed, even without incidents to back it up. It's tough.

so much for theater for now.

On to books. I have to record a couple later as finished, but I wanted to record a calculated change of habit first. I've long been one of those who relished the sheer number of books I had at hand, but I'm less and less able to justify the space spent and the dust collected, especially with a Kindle and a tablet constantly present, and a library a few blocks away. So I've begun to troll Amazon for bargains.

What really pushed me is when I saw Edith Grossman's translation of 'Don Quixote' on sale for $2.00. I checked out my own copy on the shelf. From 2003. Still in its shrink-wrap. If that's how I dive into books, I might as well have them in the ether.

To my surprise, I found lots of books I do have are not available on Amazon in e-format. Well, that's interesting. I may not give them away so quickly. Others, of course, are. And so I've swapped about 10 volumes on my shelves for ebooks on my Kindle - mostly classics like the novels of Henry James, many of which I have not read, some volumes of Edith Wharton, and some classics like '...Robinson Crusoe' and 'Gulliver's Travels'. It's not a tremendous dent, but it's a start.

I will always keep the fine print books, and the books that have specific physical aspects in the typography or binding. it will take time to sort all this out. And I worry that if I give a book away, especially a book I haven't read yet, I will somehow forget it exists and never get to it. Well, that's life. There are so many books to read - in spite of the specter of the World Wide Book Famine, I think I can cope.

I'm glad you had a nice weekend in the Keystone State, Judy! I loved the setting for Branagh's Macbeth. And the $20 ticket price!

48. The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry

I read this for one of my f2f book groups, at at first was not wowed at all. In fact, I complained to Jim that it was too episodic and repetitive. But I was quite pleased as the story went on. Mc Murtry does bring the threads together nicely at the end.

It's hard to imagine what it must be like to grow up in a small, small town like that, with few opportunities for privacy, growth, ambition or escape. Yet I know it exists all over, a foreign land right next to my own.

49. How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer - Sarah Bakewell

I've been reading this forever, it seems, one essay at a time, with the major disadvantage of having never read Montaigne himself. Now I'm primed, however. It was a most gracious and interesting introduction to the man, the times he lived in, and the work waiting for me. It should bear repeated reading well.

Sorry I didn’t get to see you, but after a delightful day of work on Friday, I’ve had two days with a nuisance cold, so I’ve been puttering around the house, relieved not to be coordinating with trains. Glad you enjoyed the $20 version of MacBeth. Please let me know if you’re in the area again; it’s fairly simple to get there, but what with a train transfer midway, it’s a bit more awkward than purely spontaneous.

This is what I like/love about Branagh -- his ability to take these iconic speeches and without forfeiting any of the lyricism or poetry, make them sound somehow organic. It's part of his ability to literally inhabit his roles. That is, when he gets an excellent role. When he doesn't, it's a different kettle of fish, alas.

Glad you liked the Bakewell book -- it was a fave of mine. I've only read some of Montaigne but will be nibbling some more on his works as part of my 2014 essays challenge.

>68 qebo: we are getting more comfortable with going by train ourselves, at least for the major part of our trip, and that may mean our trips get somewhat more frequent. Please let us know if there is a special event you would recommend in your area.

>69 Chatterbox:. Yes, he has some crazy idea that the text means what it says, and that the actor is saying it for the first time. And he makes it work.

Happy Day Judy.

I very much like the picture you paint regarding the MacBeth production.

Thanks, Linda. I hope you are improving at a steady pace.

Amazon is destroying my budget. I've been on an ebook frenzy, and I'm sure it will get worse as the season progresses. Sigh. At least they are all ebooks. Lots of mysteries at first, and replacements for classics disintegrating in the dust of my shelves. Then some stuff Richard pointed out. I checked the bill just now. Yikes! Books on sale can certainly add up.

50. Fadeout by Joseph Hansen

This is the first Brandstetter book. It's a series I dearly love, and Amazon had them all, so I started at the beginning, and discovered I probably hadn't read this one at all. Whee! And it was lovely. Dave Brandstetter is suffering the loss of his long-time lover, throwing himself back into work as an insurance investigator to find out if a death claim is justified, since no one found the body. The first section of the book happens in the rain, and I got off the train so convinced of the weather that I was shocked to find the pavement dry. Good stuff. Highly recommended for mystery lovers.

74: It's just so easy to click...

Catching up on your thread after more than a month. I'm particularly enjoying your theatre reviews, since the small number of play options compared to book options means that my chances of actually seeing the same play are much higher. No overlap yet, though.

I'm catching up too, Judy. Happy to hear about your Thanksgiving fun, the Macbeth and the e-book frenzy. As always, I have more space than money, so my moldering books will stay on the shelf, and I'll read them all if I live to 125.
Hmmm. I see that I have one J. Hansen to look forward to. Thanks for the good word.

Happy Friday, Judy!

>76 _Zoe_: Well, then, I need to add another review. Jim and I saw 'The Habit of Art' via an NTLive rebroadcast last night, at the Cinema 1-2-3 at 60th and 3rd. That's our preferred venue for these filmed staged productions, since the seats above the 'orchestra' are statium style with a really good rake, and Jim and I even caught two seats with no seats in front of us. Sublime.

The play was quite interesting, an Alan Bennett work about W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten, who collaborated in their youth on experimental films and an opera named 'Paul Bunyan', which evidentally was a flop in New York; they had a falling out and never worked together again. It was one of the last performances of Richard Griffiths, who was in 'History Boys' and other work, and a great actor all around. And around is the operative word, as he was, alas, immensely fat, and probably died of same.

Bennett's script eventually became one about making art, as it takes place as one day of a rehearsal of a play about Auden and Britten. So it's about the act of acting, writing, directing, the act of biography (the biographer of Auden and Britten appears and is also a source for the playwright within the play), the work of poetry, the life of artists when they don't do their art or aren't fashionable anymore, as well as sex, friendship, and other habits both nasty and not.

Aside from Griffiths, it stars Frances de la Toure having a grand time.

I liked it a lot.

Zoe, you should get on the mailing list for NTLive. The tickets are only $20 and you see some great plays and first rate acting, while sitting in comfortable seats and sometimes even eating popcorn. There are only a few theater broadcasts a year, so we could probably meet there, an added bonus.

Joe, this is a happy Friday indeed, or so it may be when we are done installing a new system tonight. Hope your weekend is fun.

Peggy, thanks for stopping by. I do understand about space vs. money. How I'll fare with fewer actual books and more electronics remains to be seen. After all, what about power failures? I don't think the hand-cranked radio/charger will really do for all my reading devices.

51. Calculated in Death by J. D. Robb

This is the one I accidentally skipped, and it's the usual fare - hard-nosed female cop in the near future kicking you-know-what and finding the bad guys, although this time she lets a few too many folks die before she nails the baddie. The usual zipless romantic gymnastics occur. Fun.

a few random fixes have been made to older posts to correct typos, numbers, etc.

52. The Inspector and Silence by Håkan Nesser

A well-written but unexceptional Scandi mystery, except that Van Vetteran keeps thinking about retirement, and he also keeps thinking about what the goings-on would sound like in a novel. Right. Pleasant, but out of order. I'll have to catch the others now.

Popping in to say Hi! J.D. Robb is perfect when you want it. I approve. : )

Okay, I will definitely look into NTLive! That would be a fun way to do a meetup.

There's an encore showing of 'Coriolanus' scheduled for January 30th. I think it's at 60th Street and 3rd Ave. at the Cinema 1-2-3. We'd love to see you there, if you're not gallivanting someplace else on the globe!

I've been reading a book titled How to Read A Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch. At first, I was a little dismayed - he seemed to be waxing romantic about poetry without presenting any poetry itself. But it got better. For instance, he cites this Elizabeth Bishop villanelle:

One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! My last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Just being introduced to this poem would have been joy enough. He goes on to introduce and analyze this poem, and poems of Pablo Neruda, Jin Orten, James Wright, John Keats - in a wonderful fragment here:

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming night
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed -- see here it is --
I hold it towards you.

He says Keats wrote this in an interval while writing a longer poem, while he was dying.

Wow.

So far there hasn't been a poem I know already, although I've read a good number of the better known ones. And the analysis is both accessible and interesting. So I forgive him his overblown introductory chapter.

Time for more theater news. I missed the NTLive production of 'Private Lives', due to a reaction to a change in meds (never change meds in the middle of a tense project, that's my advice!), but I was back on my feet the next night to see Rory Kinnear in the NTLive production of 'Hamlet'. And wow, wow, wow. What a production. Crystal clear, fascinating choices made by actor and director, not one line or foot out of place by anyone. Kinnear was terrific - and I've seen a lot of productions, including Burton's in 1965. This one was wonderful.

Clare Higgins plays Gertrude, and she has just the right earthy feel. You know this Gertrude likes her bedtime antics, wouldn't be without them, nor would she be without her scotch. David Calder, the actor playing Polonius, also plays the Gravedigger, and I've never seen the part played where, as happens here, that character catches on that the wanderer who stops to talk is the prince. The scene soars. The 'nunnery' scene is equally specific, and you know exactly when and why Hamlet knows they are being overheard

The director, Nicholas Hytner, noted that this play was written when the court and kingdom were full of spies and paranoia, and he makes an excellent case that this is borne out in the text, so there are silent secret-service-like actors that flow through the scenes. It works brilliantly, and informs so much of the text that I don't know how any director or actor could have not used that before.

Five stars. Six. Maybe ten! If this film of the stage production is playing anywhere near you, drop everything to go see it.

Not going to make 75 this year.

This will be the last week before my end of year vacation. I'll be flying to San Antonio for part of it, to visit my sister, while Jim stays home to enjoy Christmas the New York way. I figure the flights will be reading time - I might even get up to 60 by year end. That will be enough for this year. Next year I hope for a better balance between reading and theater, and less craziness at work. At least that will be my resolution.

I love my poetry, Judy, which seems to be a dying phrase these days. I am not exactly having to bump elbows at the small Kino poetry section in Kuala Lumpur.

Villanelles are fiendishly clever aren't they?

John Keats wrote a dauntingly huge volume of work considering that he died at only 26 years of age.

This is from his "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Paul, I think you would enjoy this book, at least after that first chapter.

I'll definitely look into the Coriolanus, and see what Mark thinks. I don't think he's really a Shakespeare fan, but we'll see. I can at least say that I do expect to be in New York at that time!

Judy--OK. We can both pledge to find reading balance in the New Year! I am still stuck in the high 50's and am pushing to hit 60 by year's end. So glad you have had such a wonderful theater year though. : )

53. How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

We all love Gamache, and Jean-Guy, and Three Pines, and Ruth, and Gabri and Olivier, etc. etc. And this book has all the pace you could wish for, grand resolutions, heroic actions, honor and redemption and - how about twinkly stars and quiet snowfalls, too?

Or am I just crabby today?

I was so glad to get this book from the library, and swallowed it just about whole between yesterday and today, but much like the snowballs Henri keeps leaping for, I think it melted on contact. Gamache is SO GOOD, the bad guys are SO BAD, the writing is SO LYRICAL, Three Pines is SO IDYLLIC. Penny kept a few things back at the end, and I will look for their resolution eagerly in the next book, assuming there is one. But the excesses listed above were problematic. Ultimately, I found the whole story too improbable for my taste.

Heresy. I know.

Next time, I hope we hear more about Yvette Nichol, Constance Ouillet, andsomething other than police corruption.

What fun it is to visit here. I very much related to The Art of Disaster!

Happy Holidays to you and Jim! I hope to see you in 2014.

In happy hopes that 2014 will bring ever greater pleasures to your reading world, Judy:



Celebrate the return of the light with feasts, merriment, and gratitude for all the wonders of this wide green earth.

RMD

Louise Penny may be the master of the improbable story, Judy. I loved How the Light Gets In, but I totally understand your reservations. According to her Facebook postings, she's made it through a draft of the next one.

Thanks, RD. I hope your year is more comfortable than this one has been. All good things.

Joe, I'm glad she's continuing the series. I'd hate to leave Three Pines for good.

I know it's not the new year yet, but I've been thinking of my intentions for 2014, the good habits I'd like to establish. And chief among them is to read the books I have. The OTS problem has been multiplying and that doesn't even include the e-books on my Kindle. They linger without physical substance, but the paper books stare me in the face every day.

I was horrified the other day when I pulled my Pelican Shakespeare off the shelf and its spine came off in my hand. Maybe it shouldn't have been lying down? I don't think that's it. It's old, as is the set of Dickens - even older, since they were once my mother's. Those spines - are they the spines if they are only the outside layer - are coming off too. Lovely letterpress books. I would want to keep the Shakespeare as a physical book. But I think the Dickens will go (RD, stop chortling!).

Books should be read, and some books should be kept. I don't think I can read 100 books next year, but maybe I can deaccession 100 books. Half would be books I have read, or possess but don't intend to read (happens). The other half will be read before I let go of them.

98: good habits I'd like to establish
Oh, yes. As with many habits, merely keeping track helps. There's a ROOT group and a TBR group and a bunch of people had vowed charitable contributions equal to book purchases or some such. I made a spreadsheet this year, which kept things under control until I fell behind in the recordkeeping and then somehow this set off a book buying spree. I _know_ I can't read 100 books in a year, a fact that should be more constraint than it actually is. I'm planning to deaccession some categories next year, categories of perfectly good books that were passing phases and I've either read or will almost certainly never read.

good to know I'm not alone - as if I thought I were!

The passing phase issue is a good one. I have management books on the shelf. When did I ever think I wanted to be in management? Also mystery series books I have read and actually remember. So there is hope of deaccessioning.

after my vacation. Of course.

Judy, stopping by to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year!

Dear Judy, it is always a pleasure visiting your thread. Long may it continue! Have a lovely Christmas. xx

54. The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

This is the second Department Q book, also called Disgrace in the U.K. I found it a little irritating, or the characters a little irritating. The story is focused on sadists, which is also a little annoying - I think more modulated characters are more interesting. But one of the characters, Kimmie, is both unlikely and interesting, and I stuck with the book for her.

BTW - I read it in a large print edition, which was a little weird, but not unbearable.

BTW 2 - It seems that the British editions have one word titles, which I find more appealing and possibly more accurate than the U.S. titles.

Have a wonderful Christmas with the family, Judy and a happy new year!

Thanks for the butterfly, Katherine, and the brilliant flowers.

Caro, that Christmas image is just right!

Merry Christmas to all my friends here at LT.

Did I tell anyone I was going to Texas this week? Well, I did, and I'm in San Antonio visiting my sister, but thanks to the wonders of electronics, I'm still connected. No thread for 2014 until I'm home again.

And speaking of Texas, I had the most wonderful abuelita chocolate ice cream yesterday at dinner. RD, too bad you odn't like chocolate; this stuff is GREAT. It has a real straight-from the-bean edge to it that is just scrumptious.

Mostly I'm not reading on this trip. I'm helping my sister get some house-related stuff in order, and knitting a lot - knitting is one of her specialties, so she can get me out of trouble when I get into it, which is often, since I tend to knit only about every two years. I did finally finish a hat this trip.

When I do resume my reading, I will be reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh for my f2f group next Tuesday. My next group is discussing Dead Souls, but I read that recently and may not go back to read it again, especially since I can't find my copy! So it looks like I won't make 60 titles this year, but that's ok.

Next year, I might stick a toe into the Reading Globally circle, to find some new authors. But I don't think I'll have a thread there - it takes too much time to maintain multiples.

Happy Holidays, Judy! Sounds like you're having a good time in San Antonio. Years ago we had there the best chilaquiles we've ever had. Mmmm, so good.

Hi Judy--I like your intentions for 2014. I think I will have to move a few books along too, make room. And I have to make a dent in the pile by my night table--it is out of control!! See you in 2014!

Hey, Joe and Kim, thanks for stopping by. On to the new year!

As I predicted, no reading on my trip to my sister. I couldn't even read on the way home, because the book I had reserved from the library hadn't finished downloading by the time we boarded the plane! But it was a good flight, barring some turbulence over what I assume was western Pennsylvania, and we were early again.

I thought that would give me time to get home before meeting Jim at 54 Below, a club (as in jazz club) below the once-infamous Studio 54 (which is now a regular theater). But I just missed the NJ Transit train at the junction at 5:30, and had to wait almost 40 minutes for the next one, so there went my early arrival. The train was absolutely packed, so it was not a comfortable ride in, and I'm sure half of Manhattan was in the train station when we arrived, waiting to get on a train outbound. I've never seen it so crowded without an outage. Finally clawed my way through and walked over to the R train and rode up to the show. Jennifer Holiday. When she sang some old Etta James numbers, she was terrific - definitely her material.

At least it was warm the day I landed, especially as I left my fleece jacket in a theater in San Antonio. We saw 'Inside Llewyn Davis', which I thoroughly enjoyed. What a shock to find out my formerly folkie sister didn't know who Dave Van Ronk was! But the theater itself was terrific. It has long tables between each row of seats, and you bring your meal in and eat while watching. Great idea when space is not an issue.

I'll set up a new thread before the 1st. Lots to do between now and then.

Happy New Year to all visitors and non-visitors alike!

Judy, would you and Jim be interested in going to the New Year's Day sale at Book Culture? It seems certain that I'll go, and I plan to get there at 11 am when the bookshop opens.

I'll ask Jim. we do plan to go to the gym in the morning - this would be an incentive to get there early. Not sure we need more books, but it's always a pleasure to see you. This time, I might even take the right train.

Cool. It would be great to see you both! I'll send you & Jim a text message when I get to the city. I probably won't see my aunt at Memorial Sloan-Kettering after all (on my mother's recommendation).

This time, I might even take the right train.

I wasn't going to say anything...

Judy

I'm stopping by to wish you a wonderful New Year!

One of the highlights was being with you and Jim during the Philadelphia meet up. I recall a lovely conversation while we were sitting in the park.

You two are wonderfully kind, intelligent and sensitive folk, and, I am so glad to know you!

and one more!

55. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

A satire, this novel is dated in its language and prejudice, but not in its essence. Through a case of mistaken identity, William Boot is sent by the newspaper the Beast to an African nation to report on the civil war there, only to find that it is almost entirely made up by the journalists he meets there. Waugh skewers journalists, newspapers, capitalism and government corruption, all applicable to our current world, but the combination of his own bigotry and the general bigotry of the 1930s combine to make parts of this book rather uncomfortable.

and that's it for 2013.