Not many trips this week--too hot.
Monday - picnic Wickham Park, Manchester/East Hartford. Not a state or city park. It's a private foundation. $5 a car entrance fee. Lovely gardens, nice picnic areas.
Wednesday - picnic (with wading) Wadsworth Falls State Park, Middlefield/Middletown
This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Two of Spades; the story is On the Beautiful Blue Danube by Georgi Tenev; translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (in Bat City Review, Issue 10, 2014)
The Danube is not anything near beautiful in this story of hazmat disposal.
online...
The Two Most Beautiful Words in Doughnut Language
from my shelves...
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
A pleasant read to fill in between more serious stuff. Actually this covered some serious stuff, but with a light touch. Not too dense.
Advance review copy from publisher.
Fashion Climbing. A Memoir with Photographs by Bill Cunningham; Preface by Hilton Als
It's fun to read a memoir by someone who had a passion for his work. This covers Cunningham early life and his struggle to make a living designing hats. Some inside stuff, some gossip, some goofy parties, and what it's like in the salons when designers parade their new lines. Fun to read. I was a bit disappointed that this didn't cover the latter portion of his life when he was a street photographer.
Advance review copy from the publisher.
Bat City Review, Issue 10/2014 (see here for contents)
Literary journal from the University of Texas at Austin. Poetry, Fiction, and Art.
from the library...
In the Land of Eternal Spring by Alan Howard
Young Americans get tangled up in the 1960s political situation in Guatemala.
Crimes of the Father by Thomas Keneally
Difficult subject matter--child abuse.
Revolution!: Writings from Russia: 1917 by Pete Ayrton (Editor)
Three that I checked out for home improvement ideas:
Dream Porches and Sunrooms: Designing the Perfect Retreat by Michael Snow
Pretty pictures and none of it fits my budget or daily life style. Nice places to visit.
Ultimate Guide: Porches by Steve Cory
A couple of these might actually be something I would want to add to my house.
Ideas for Great Patios & Decks by Sunset Magazines & Books
Maybe, if I still lived in California...
Showing posts with label Bulgarian Lit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bulgarian Lit. Show all posts
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Saturday, April 07, 2018
April (first week) 2018 Reads
This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Two of Diamonds; the story is Old Man Savarin (on Project Gutenberg in Old Man Savarin and Other Stories, by Edward William Thomson)
A fun story about fishing rights in Canada. Difficult to read because of the dialect.
online...
This Spanish Architect Wants to Revolutionize the Home—by Getting Rid of Kitchens by Samuel Medina"Few spaces of the home are as coveted as the kitchen. But Anna Puigjaner is showing the way out of these wasteful private cooking boxes toward more efficient “shared” alternatives."
from the library...
The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse by Hermann Hesse; Translated from the German by Jack D. Zipes; Illustrated by David Frampton (Illustrator)
from my shelves...
The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov; translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
I've been reading this as part of Season Four of the Two Month Review
A great read and I really enjoyed the podcasts and essays on the Three Percent blog.
Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones
An excellent collection of short stories of African Americans in Washington, D.C.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
February (second week) 2018 Reads
Started Season 4 of the Two Month Review: The Physics of Sorrow and I'm really liking this Bulgarian novel by Georgi Gospodinov.
This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Ace of Spades and the story is On the Steppe by Samanta Schweblin (in The Future is Not Ours). So far, this one of the best stories from my 2018 Roster.
from the library...
The Island (A Grand & Batchelor Victorian Mystery Series, #4) by M.J. Trow
A stand alone run-of-the-mill mystery. Rather disjointed, several red-herrings, Mark Twain tossed in for no particular reason, muddy motives, too many characters...etc.
from my shelves...
Never Any End to Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas; translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
No, there really isn't any end to Paris and no Paris is like any other Paris. I like this "fictional memoir" of Vila-Matas.
Fat City by Leonard Gardner
The life of two fighters at the lower end of the 1950s boxing world. One is a has been who works as a laborer in the fields and orchards in order to survive. The other is an up-and-coming youth, who works in a gas-station. This classic is set in Stockton California. Excellent! How did I miss reading this years ago?
Saturday, February 04, 2017
February (first week) 2017 Reads
While there was still a little bit of January left I tried
to trim my "owned-but-unread" shelf but too much came in the mail.
Actually the shelf now has 409 books which is exactly one less than it had on the
First of January.
I read my fifth short story for the “Deal Me In 2017!” challenge; in fact, I ended up reading the entire collection that contained it. I also picked up a couple of library books, surfed a bit, and started a couple of books.
From the library...
Mister Monkey by Francine Prose (kindle edition)
We get to go not only backstage, but all the way home with a theater troupe (and audience members) trapped in a really awful production of a really terrible musical for children. It moves from character to character and it's almost like reading linked short stories. I loved it!
The Tree by John Fowles, Frank Horvat
"owned-but-unread"shelf...
Party Headquarters by Georgi Tenev; Angela Rodel (Translation)
A very difficult book both in subject and format. It has a fictional plot based on the actual official Bulgarian reaction to the Chernobyl disaster, when the Party leaders acted in their own self interest and left the populace in ignorance of the event. In a more fictional scenario, the Party leaders stash briefcases full of cash around Europe as they flee the collapse of the USSR. The narrative wanders in time and point of view and is hard to follow. I read a lot of it twice.
My copy via a subscription to Open Letter Books.
On the Run with Mary by Jonathan Barrow
Read halfway through...skimmed the rest...not going to spend any more time on this. Overkill, a little bit was kinda amusing (almost), but 100+ pages of shit in the face? No thanks. (The same way I felt about Paul Beatty’s The Sellout.)
My copy via subscription to New Vessel Press.
Whispers from the Tree of Life by Frances L. O'Donnell
A book of quiet poetry, nothing spectacular, only a few of the poems spoke to me. It's worth hanging onto because next time I open it, it might be different. Nice illustrations (black and white).
Free copy from author through a blog win.
The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach; Anthea Bell (translator)
An excellent read. The mystery in this crime novel isn't who did it, we know that from the beginning. But, even though he confesses, the murderer refuses to provide a motive. A novice lawyer is assigned to the case as public defender. He is able to discover the motive, but there is a larger question: it has to do with German law, war crimes, and the statute of limitations--all still serious concerns in today's Germany.
My copy from a library book sale
This week's story: Night drive by Rubem Fonseca (The Taker And Other Stories) Clifford E. Landers (Translator)
Once again I unknowingly selected a very short story. It is only two pages but it is complete with an interesting character, some suspense, and a dark surprise. I originally chose it because it is the first story in a collection I own.
Since the story was so short, I read the next story--the title story. It is about a rather vicious killer and I found it extremely unsettling (think American Psycho without the brand names--only this is set in Brazil).
I, somewhat reluctantly, read on thinking "I paid for this book!" The next story, Betsy, about a gentle death was easier to take. In Angels of the Marquees a lonely man tries to help homeless derelicts with dire consequences. In Enemy another lonely man seeks out his old high school buddies. It is both funny and sad. Account of the Incident concerns an accident between a bus and a cow. Pride is about a man who refuses to die because he has a hole in his sock. Notebook is a tale of seduction, with an amusing twist. Eleventh of May is the name of a terminal facility for the aging. In Book of Panegyrics a man becomes a live-in caregiver to a dying man in order to use the place as a hideout, but we don't know exactly what he is hiding from. Trials of a Young Writer is the story of a man more interested in his press image than he is in his writing or his live-in girlfriend. In Other a busy man is harassed on the street by a beggar. Things got (more) violent again in Happy New Year; Dwarf is about an unemployed bank clerk with woman trouble; and Flesh and the Bones didn't make much sense to me.
All in all, it turned out to be a varied collection, most on the dark side, some macabre, some noir, all very readable. I'm not sorry I bought it. I've highlighted the ones that worked best for me.
This is also from my "owned-but-unread" shelf.
This week's card - Nine of Spades is from Oracle - Mystifying Playing Cards created by Chris Ovdiyenko. I found it on their Kickstarter Page but the sale of their cards is on Dead on Paper. The Oracle deck seems to be sold out, but they have other interesting decks and also prints, books, and specially designed coins.
I selected this card because it is dark and mysterious like Fonseca's stories.
online
Continued auditing Modern Japanese Architecture: From Meiji Restoration to Today. This course is from Tokyo Tech.
A suggested reading from the above course:
Kiyonori Kikutake: Structuring the Future by Mark Mulligan
"In the postwar decades, young Japanese architects confronted the challenge of rebuilding the devastated nation. Kikutake was one of the most gifted." Mulligan looks at two of Kiyonori Kikutake's masterpieces: the Izumo Grand Shrine Administration Building and the Hotel Tōkōen.
The Record Company Headquarters that Revived 1950s Hollywood with Iconic Architecture by Alan Hess
Some background on the design and building of the Los Angeles landmark.
Essays from The Destruction of Cultural Heritage project
Artfare: Aesthetic Profiling from Napoléon to Neoliberalism by Kirsten Scheid
The Thing We Love(d): Little Girls, Inanimate Objects, and the Violence of a System by Talinn Grigor
Modernity as Perpetual War or Perpetual Peace? by Esra Akcan
Appendix: A Selection of News Articles on the Destruction of Cultural Heritage in the Middle East by Pamela Karimi
I read my fifth short story for the “Deal Me In 2017!” challenge; in fact, I ended up reading the entire collection that contained it. I also picked up a couple of library books, surfed a bit, and started a couple of books.
From the library...
Mister Monkey by Francine Prose (kindle edition)
We get to go not only backstage, but all the way home with a theater troupe (and audience members) trapped in a really awful production of a really terrible musical for children. It moves from character to character and it's almost like reading linked short stories. I loved it!
The Tree by John Fowles, Frank Horvat
"owned-but-unread"shelf...
Party Headquarters by Georgi Tenev; Angela Rodel (Translation)
A very difficult book both in subject and format. It has a fictional plot based on the actual official Bulgarian reaction to the Chernobyl disaster, when the Party leaders acted in their own self interest and left the populace in ignorance of the event. In a more fictional scenario, the Party leaders stash briefcases full of cash around Europe as they flee the collapse of the USSR. The narrative wanders in time and point of view and is hard to follow. I read a lot of it twice.
My copy via a subscription to Open Letter Books.
On the Run with Mary by Jonathan Barrow
Read halfway through...skimmed the rest...not going to spend any more time on this. Overkill, a little bit was kinda amusing (almost), but 100+ pages of shit in the face? No thanks. (The same way I felt about Paul Beatty’s The Sellout.)
My copy via subscription to New Vessel Press.
Whispers from the Tree of Life by Frances L. O'Donnell
A book of quiet poetry, nothing spectacular, only a few of the poems spoke to me. It's worth hanging onto because next time I open it, it might be different. Nice illustrations (black and white).
Free copy from author through a blog win.
The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach; Anthea Bell (translator)
An excellent read. The mystery in this crime novel isn't who did it, we know that from the beginning. But, even though he confesses, the murderer refuses to provide a motive. A novice lawyer is assigned to the case as public defender. He is able to discover the motive, but there is a larger question: it has to do with German law, war crimes, and the statute of limitations--all still serious concerns in today's Germany.
My copy from a library book sale
 |
| “Deal Me In 2017!” |
Once again I unknowingly selected a very short story. It is only two pages but it is complete with an interesting character, some suspense, and a dark surprise. I originally chose it because it is the first story in a collection I own.
Since the story was so short, I read the next story--the title story. It is about a rather vicious killer and I found it extremely unsettling (think American Psycho without the brand names--only this is set in Brazil).
I, somewhat reluctantly, read on thinking "I paid for this book!" The next story, Betsy, about a gentle death was easier to take. In Angels of the Marquees a lonely man tries to help homeless derelicts with dire consequences. In Enemy another lonely man seeks out his old high school buddies. It is both funny and sad. Account of the Incident concerns an accident between a bus and a cow. Pride is about a man who refuses to die because he has a hole in his sock. Notebook is a tale of seduction, with an amusing twist. Eleventh of May is the name of a terminal facility for the aging. In Book of Panegyrics a man becomes a live-in caregiver to a dying man in order to use the place as a hideout, but we don't know exactly what he is hiding from. Trials of a Young Writer is the story of a man more interested in his press image than he is in his writing or his live-in girlfriend. In Other a busy man is harassed on the street by a beggar. Things got (more) violent again in Happy New Year; Dwarf is about an unemployed bank clerk with woman trouble; and Flesh and the Bones didn't make much sense to me.
All in all, it turned out to be a varied collection, most on the dark side, some macabre, some noir, all very readable. I'm not sorry I bought it. I've highlighted the ones that worked best for me.
This is also from my "owned-but-unread" shelf.
This week's card - Nine of Spades is from Oracle - Mystifying Playing Cards created by Chris Ovdiyenko. I found it on their Kickstarter Page but the sale of their cards is on Dead on Paper. The Oracle deck seems to be sold out, but they have other interesting decks and also prints, books, and specially designed coins.
I selected this card because it is dark and mysterious like Fonseca's stories.
online
Continued auditing Modern Japanese Architecture: From Meiji Restoration to Today. This course is from Tokyo Tech.
Kiyonori Kikutake: Structuring the Future by Mark Mulligan
"In the postwar decades, young Japanese architects confronted the challenge of rebuilding the devastated nation. Kikutake was one of the most gifted." Mulligan looks at two of Kiyonori Kikutake's masterpieces: the Izumo Grand Shrine Administration Building and the Hotel Tōkōen.
The Record Company Headquarters that Revived 1950s Hollywood with Iconic Architecture by Alan Hess
Some background on the design and building of the Los Angeles landmark.
Essays from The Destruction of Cultural Heritage project
Artfare: Aesthetic Profiling from Napoléon to Neoliberalism by Kirsten Scheid
The Thing We Love(d): Little Girls, Inanimate Objects, and the Violence of a System by Talinn Grigor
Modernity as Perpetual War or Perpetual Peace? by Esra Akcan
Appendix: A Selection of News Articles on the Destruction of Cultural Heritage in the Middle East by Pamela Karimi
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