June 2021

I wasn't planning on listing my non-reading, used to be routine, activities but getting my hair professionally cut for the first time in sixteen months was a really Big Deal! I cut it myself three times (with in between trims on the bangs) during quarantine: the first time I did a really good job but who could see it? the second time was so-so but it looked OK for a medical visit; the third time was a real mess and by the time I was fully vaccinated it looked terrible! 

Another biggie! I resumed my water exercise class. Ahh, did it feel good to be back in the pool! 

As for the reading...some surprises, a couple of disappointments, but mostly good reading.

Fiction:

 Abide with Me by Strout, Elizabeth
  Always reliable Ms Strout

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Zapata, Michael

 I loved this!

Summer : a novel by Wharton, Edith 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  Unusual Wharton - it's not about the gilded privileged set.

Checkmate to Murder: A Second World War Mystery by Lorac, E.C.R.
 So enjoyable to read the classic mysteries from the British Library/Poisoned Pen Press. Ah the world without smartphones!

Maids by Skelly, Katie
  A graphic interpretation of a real crime (murder) that took place in France in 1933. Grisly but good. 

They Were Found Wanting - They Were Divided (The Writing on the Wall: The Transylvania Trilogy #2-3) by Bánffy, Miklós; translated from the Hungarian by Thursfield, Patrick and Bánffy-Jelen, Kathy
   The Trilogy has been on my to-read list for ages, I'm glad I finally got to it.

 

Turbulence by Szalay, David 

 Linked short stories. One of my favorite reads this month.

A Passage North  by Arudpragasam, Anuk
  I really liked the author's The Story of a Brief Marriage so I was looking forward to this. I received an electronic review copy from the publisher and it was a real struggle to read in that formatI think I need to get a print copy and read it again.

The Charmed Wife by Grushin, Olga  

 I enjoyed this modern day look at the aftermath of the Cinderella story, but I liked Grushin's Forty Rooms more.

Migrations by McConaghy, Charlotte  

 An Irish/Australian woman breaks her parole to follow the migration of arctic terns from Greenland to Antarctica. 

How Beautiful We Were by Mbue, Imbolo 

 An African village vs American Oil interests. This one fell flat for me.

Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop edited by Penzler, Otto

 Seventeen short mystery stories, each by a different author, set in and around Penzler's Manhattan bookshop.  A fun "summer" read.

 Authors:  Charles Ardai, Lisa Atkinson, George Baxt, Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Thomas H. Cook, Ron Goulart, Jeremiah Healy, Edward D. Hoch, Rupert Holmes, Andrew Klavan, Michael Malone, Ed McBain, Anne Perry, S. J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Donald E. Westlake.

 

Juvenile fiction:

A Tale of the Summer Holidays by Mockler, Geraldine

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  I was surprised. This was written in the 1890s. I expected tame and sedate. I got a contest the resembled the grass-bomb wars we had defending our "forts" in 1940s rural California.  Good fun.

 

Poetry:

Mortal Summer by Van Doren, Mark

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 What a mishmash! Greek deities and Christian archangels journey to America and mess with rural (hillbilly?) society. Why? Not Van Doren's best effort.  It made little sense.

Nonfiction:
Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way by Gaines, Caseen

 A learning experience.

 

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History by Givhan, Robin 

  High fashion never made much sense to me. Still doesn't.

 

Letters to Camondo by Waal, Edmund de 

  Well worth the read..

 

Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline by Kahrl, Andrew W.

 Some Connecticut history. Wish it had been better organized because it's an important story.

 

Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook by Lipe, Mi Ae 

 Great book but its 4.1 pound weight overwhelmed me even more then the overabundance of collards, chard, lettuce & other greens in our very own CSA box!

My Summer in a Garden, and Calvin: A Study of Character by Warner, Charles Dudley 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  Warner was a neighbor of Stowe and Twain in the Nook Farm area of Hartford. Similar writing style to Twain. Fun to read. Gardening is not easy in these parts which is why I don't do it.

Online:

Enough with Copenhagen! It is Time for U.S. Cities to Learn From Models Closer to Home by Juan Miró 

Six Degrees of Wikipedia: Find the shortest path between any two Wikipedia pages

 

Several short pieces at New World Writing (published on June 11):

 

   Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things
   Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement
   Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats
   Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces
   Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

 

The Filing Cabinet by Craig Robertson "The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of the 20th-century. Like most infrastructure, it was usually overlooked."

 

20 Best Zucchini Recipes We signed up for a CSA subscription and expect the zucchini will soon be filling the box. I do know lots of zucchini dishes but more is more. In addition to the recipes, this site has tips for handling (including freezing) the squash.

Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things

Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement 

Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats

Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces

Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

High Voltage

Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things

Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement 

Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats

Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces

Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

June 2020

 Books in the Time of Quarantine

Durham, Connecticut, June 2020

Even though the state is slowly reopening I continue, because of my age, to self quarantine. It's been warm and humid so I haven't been getting much exercise. Outings have been limited in June. Two for library curbside pickup which I combined with a trip to a farm market. Another was also a produce run combined with a stop at a fish market. Then, on the most comfortable day weather wise, we had a picnic!

Reading:

Lots of good books this month...

On Lighthouses by Barrera, Jazmina; translated from the Spanish by MacSweeney, Christina - 3 stars
I enjoyed these essays but this didn't give me much that was new to me.

Gathering of Waters by McFadden, Bernice L. - 4 stars
I liked this a lot but not as much as her The Book of Harlan which I read in 2016. I think when interlibrary loan opens up I'll be reading more of her work. I also enjoy following her tweets. 

b, Book, and Me by Kim Sagwa; translated from the Korean by Sunhee Jeong  - 4+ stars
A kind of  "almost coming of age story." It's worth a re-read.

Big Machine by LaValle, Victor - 5 stars
The Craft Is All the Same: A Conversation with Victor LaValle; Ayize Jama-Everett interviews Victor LaValle. Another author to add to my list of writers to read.

Conjure Women by Atakora, Afia - 5 stars
A Conversation with Afia Atakora, Author of Conjure Women

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions (Auntie Poldi #1) by Giordano, Mario; translated from the German  by Brownjohn, John - 4 stars
Fun, but not sure about following the series...

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Washburn, Kawai Strong - 5 stars
How Kawai Strong Washburn Opened Up the Legends of Hawaii for Mainlanders author interview with Anderson Tepper (Vanity Fair)

The Man in the Red Coat by Barnes, Julian - 4 stars
Dr Samuel Jean Pozzi was the man in the portrait but this gossipy book is about so much more...

Berkeley Noir edited by Thompson, Jerry -  4 stars
One of the better anthologies in the Akashic Noir series.

Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River by Jung, Young-moon: translated from the Korean by Jung Yewon  - 4 stars
Korean writer Texas culture.

Online: 

Rayuela by Hugo Passarello Luna
"This is a series of portraits, taken in Paris, of friends and readers of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Depicting Writing
This was a double treat: a fine, nicely illustrated essay AND my discovery of The Crews Project! Thanks to The Literary Saloon (29 June 2020 blog) for leading me there.

Whonamedit? - A dictionary of medical eponyms
I found this when I was looking for more information about Dr. Pozzi. (See The Man in the Red Coat in my reading list above.)

New World Writing
I'm finding lots to like at this lit magazine.

Transformations
A new online site featuring narrative essays.

Breaching the Levee of Rage
A moving piece on taking a knee at a peaceful George Floyd protest/vigil. By David Abrams.

Joie de Vivre in Joyce's Garden
Another private garden tour by Jana Milbocker. This one, in Natick Massachusetts, is especially colorful.

Providence Pedestrian Bridge
A place I want to visit when I'm ready to expand my circle of comfort...

Collecting Guide: Wayne Thiebaud
Thiebaud turns 100 in November! That calls for cake and ice cream!

Cake Rows (1962)

 

Three Cones (1964)

Read in April

No real duds for April and some excellent:

Fiction (in most liked to least liked order):

These two got 5 stars:

Everything Under by Johnson, Daisy

Murmur by Eaves, Will

Four stars for these:
Waiting for Bojangles by Bourdeaut, Olivier; translated from the French by Kramer, Regan
Arturo's Island: A Novel by Morante, Elsa; translated from the Italian by Goldstein, Ann
Little Faith by Butler, Nickolas
Virgil Wander by Enger, Leif

Three+ stars for these:
The Winter Soldier by Mason, Daniel
The Shape of the Ruins by Vásquez, Juan Gabriel; translated from the Spanish by McLean, Anne

Three stars for this:
The Betel Nut Tree Mystery (Crown Colony #2)by Yu, Ovidia
 OK, but not a series I want to follow

Nonfiction so diverse that they can't be listed by preference. I am glad I read them:
Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Taylor, Yuval   
Nature's Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present by Blom, Philipp
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Reichl, Ruth


And from my online reading:

A gender fight over an Italian dish by Stefania D'Ignoti

August (fifth week) 2018 Reads

I had planned to be away from home most of the week, but the place had no air conditioning.  Monday night was quite pleasant, Tuesday night was miserable so we gave up and came home on Wednesday morning. It was too hot to do anything but read so I made a dent in the owned-but-unread stack.

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Seven of Hearts; the selection is The Provincials by Daniel Alarcón (in The best American short stories, 2013, Kindle ed.)

Online...
The Illegal Ramen Vendors of Postwar Tokyo: Black markets and American wheat imports popularized ramen. By Hunter Lu
Two of my favorite topics - Postwar Japan and Food.

from my shelves...

When Adam Opens His Eyes by Jung-Il Jang; translated from the Korean by Sun-Ae Hwang and Horace Jeffery Hodges
 Coming of age...

Lost Cities Found Objects, linked stories by Robert Fagan
 OK, but it was my least favorite of this week's reading

The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini; translated from the Italian by Michael F. Moore 
 bio-fic inspired by the life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti

Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf; translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem    
 A young woman muses on her family relationships (including a disabled older brother) whilst engaging in research on the polar regions and other icy things. Excellent!


Sight by Jessie Greengrass
 Advance Review Copy. As in Brother in Ice, a young woman muses on her life and family (especially pregnancy and mother/daughter/grandaughter relationships) whilst researching. This time the research involves Freud, Rontgen, and William and John Hunter. Also Excellent!
Allmen and the Dragonflies by Martin Suter; translated from the German by Steph Morris
  Underhanded shenanigans in the world of art collectors and thieves. In this case the art is five missing Art Nouveau glass bowls created by renowned French artist Émile Gallé. Fictional account of what might have happened the the bowls.

The Baklava Club (Yashim the Eunuch #5) by Jason Goodwin 
 A pleasant mystery--not nearly as much fun as Allemen (above)--but OK.  I haven't read the others in the series, I might pick one up at the library when I want a not too demanding diversion.

The Endless Summer by Madame Nielsen; translated from the Danish by Gaye Kynoch
  Had trouble getting into this but it turned out to be a favorite. It just took a while to click. 

April (third week) 2018 Reads

Slow reading week...juggling several books...

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Five of Hearts; the story is Malaria by Michael Byers (in The Best American Short Stories, 2013)
So so story..

Gutenberg finds... 

Patroon Van Volkenberg : A Tale of Old Manhattan in the Year Sixteen Hundred & Ninety-nine. by Henry Thew Stephenson; Illustrated by C. M. Reylea

"I turned on my heel to look at the town in which I intended to lodge for the night. It was now late and fully dark, and one or two dim lights were all that I could see in Gravesoon by way of welcome. At that moment a feeling of loneliness took such 2strong hold of me that I cast my eyes once more upon the open sea for the meagre companionship of the pirate crew that was gliding away into the dark. But the ship was already so far from shore that the sounds that always accompany getting under way could no longer reach me, though I strained hard to hear them. In ten minutes even the vague outline of the vessel against the sky had completely blended with the darkness. Then I realized for the first time that I was all alone in a strange land. My only companions were the heavy sorrow in my heart and a strong hope that this sorrow would soon be turned to joy by virtue of the errand that was now bringing me to New York.'

Don't know if I'll finish this...am on Chapter three...

The Book of the Feet :  A History Of Boots And  Shoes, With Illustrations Of The Fashions Of The Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks, And Romans, And The Prevailing Style Throughout Europe, During The Middle Ages, Down To The Present Period; Also, Hints To Last-Makers, And Remedies For Corns, Etc.
B y   J.   S p a r k e s   H a l l, Patent-Elastic-Boot Maker To Her Majesty The Queen, The Queen Dowager, And The Queen Of The Belgians. From The Second London Edition, With A History Of Boots And Shoes In The United States, Biographical Sketches Of Eminent Shoemakers, And Crispin Anecdotes (American Edition, 1847)

Didn't read the entire text, but loved the illustrations.

from my shelves...

Angelica's Smile (Commissario Montalbano #17) by Andrea Camilleri; translated from the Italian bt Stephen Sartarelli
It was OK, but I think I've now read one too many in the series (and I haven't read all 17). Put in the donation pile.

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?
 

January (second week) 2018 Reads

The "Deal Me In" story this week was a so..so one about a new mother.  The three novels I read were all really good, the noir was good, and the non-fiction on translation theory was excellent.

Card: 6 of Hearts
Story: Bravery by Charles Baxter (in The best American short stories, 2013)
Meh...

from the Library...

The Strays by Emily Bitto
Australian girl grows up in the shadow of her best friend's eccentric family. Set in the 1930s.

The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Taniguchi
Ten year old Japanese-American girl searches her family background to better understand her disturbed parents. Set in 1978 San Francisco and Japan. Narrative moves between the girl's account and that of her great uncle. The uncle's story has many flashbacks to the time of the post WW2 American occupation of Japan.

Trieste by Daša Drndić ; translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursać
A complicated story of Jewish-Italian family in WW2. Fictional narrative is interspersed with much factual documentary of Nazi atrocities, particularly the Lebensborn project. Very difficult read.


from my shelves...

Montreal Noir edited by John McFetridge and Jacques Filippi
Most of the ten anthologies I have read from the Akashic Noir series have been good, but this one is one of my favorites. The stories feature a variety of protagonists and situations. Who expects to find, among the usual suspects, guys who hunt coyotes for sport in the burbs of Montreal?
Free review copy from publisher through Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

Literary Translation and the Making of Originals by Karen Emmerich; Brian James Baer (Editor), Michelle Woods (Editor)
Excellent! 

December (second week) 2017 Reads

A good reading week and now snow so there will be plenty of time for more reading.




The  Deal Me In story this week is Hill Clan Cross from Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories by Frank Bill. I liked this gritty story so much that I went ahead and read the rest of these violent stories of crimes fueled by booze, drugs, and revenge.  Really good rural noir writing.

Love the cover--it fits.





Card: Ace of Hearts. Considering the body count in these stories this card from crackmatrix at DeviantArt seems like a good choice.






from my shelves...



Ramen Is Revolutionary: A Book for Beginners and Fans by Yoshihiro Kaneda (Kindle ed)
A short and savory read. There are several delicious illustrations.






 


The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen; translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers (Kindle ed)
Mystery, myth, magic, and the creative process come alive as the newest member of the Society tries to figure out what she's gotten herself into.





 


Affections by Rodrigo Hasbún; translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Outstanding novel based loosely on the family of cinematographer/explorer Hans Ertl, who resettled in Bolivia from Germany after World War 2.
Free finished copy from publisher through Goodreads giveaway.







The Italian Party by Christina Lynch
A young mixed-up couple living in Italy in 1956. They have lots of secrets from each other and from everyone else--or so they think. It's a fun diversion and pretty accurate about how things were in the 50s.
Free advance review copy through Goodreads giveaway.

Like the era appropriate cover.


 





René Magritte: Selected Writings by René Magritte: translated from the French by Jo Levy; Kathleen Rooney (Editor), Eric Plattner (Editor) 
Short pieces, notes, commentaries, interviews, etc.





 

Traces of Time by Lucio Mariani; translated from the Italian by Anthony Molino; Preface by Rosanna Warren
Sixty poems in the original Italian and the English translation, plus an essay (the English translation only).

Not a great cover but the mirror image does suggest the dual language aspect which is an important feature of the book.   




Best of Ohio Short Stories: Volume 1,  (Kindle ed) Brad Pauquette, editor; stories by David Armstrong, Mark D. Baumgartner, Joseph Downing, Ann Brimacombe Elliot, Scott Geisel, Maria Hummer, Brad Pauquette, Brooks Rexroat, Anna Scotti, S.E. White, Brad Pauquette. 

A very good anthology of stories by Ohio authors. Not all the stories are set in Ohio, but the ones that aren't still have an Ohio connection. 

November (fourth week) 2017 Reads

This week was a mixed bag of short stories, non-fiction, a mystery, and not much time for making notes on the books and uploading cover images. I'm really surprised that I've been pretty faithful with the Deal Me In challenge.
A lot of my reading this week had to do with places I've been.

Deal Me In

Story: The Boar-Pig (in  Beasts and Super-Beasts by Saki)
A short piece involving party crashers, a mischievous girl, and a ferocious beast. This is a gentle story, not one of Saki's macabre pieces.






Card: Ten of Diamonds.
This card from Roy at Deviant Art has nothing to do with the story. I just thought it was a fun design.








from the library....
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (Kindle edition)


from my shelves...
Conversations on Art and Aesthetics by Hans Maes
One of my better wins. This is a keeper. 
free finished copy from publisher through Goodreads

Russian Émigré Short Stories from Bunin to Yanovsky by Bryan Karetnyk (Editor/Translator)
Super anthology. 

Old Rendering Plant  by Wolfgang Hilbig: translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole
Not crazy about this one.

Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology by Eric H Cline, Glynnis Fawkes (Illustrator) (Kindle ed)
Kind of a refresher course for me. Read it mostly to get updated on recent stuff.

  

The Lawrence Durrell Travel Reader by Lawrence Durrell, Clint Willis (Editor) (Kindle ed)
And this was a bit of a trip down memory lane.

San Francisco Noir by Peter Maravelis (Editor) (Kindle ed)
I've read a bunch of these anthologies in the Akashic Noir series and this is my least favorite. I really didn't much like any of the stories.
Stories by  Domenic Stansberry, Barry Gifford, Eddie Muller, Robert Mailer Anderson, Michelle Tea, Peter Plate, Kate Braverman , David Corbet , Alejandro Murguía, Sin Soracco , Alvin Lu, Jon Longhi, Will Christopher Baer, Jim Nesbit, David Henry Sterry.

Ccaspian Rain by Gina B. Nahai (Kindle ed)
A tragic story of a Jewish family in Tehran immediately preceding the 1979 Revolution. I really liked this. 

Return to Dust (Rick Van Lam Mystery #2) by Andrew Lanh 
Set in Farmington, Connecticut with a Vietnamese-American private investigator. An ok read with nice local color.

September (third week) 2017 Reads

Another week of eclectic reading...

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story:   In Our Forties by Kojima Nobuo (in Long Belts and Thin Men)
A forty-something man can't seem to be content with his family's house. He continually renovates it in fact and in his mind but the real problem is not the house.




Card: 6 of Spades
I picked this card by C.J. Freeman because it shows a ruin--which is pretty much what the protagonist of the story ended up with.

Information about the card and the deck it comes from can be found on Bonnie Cehovet's Tarot site in her Review – Playing Card Oracles




from my shelves...

 
Long Belts and Thin Men: The Postwar Stories of Kojima Nobuo by Nobuo Kojima; compiled and translated by Lawrence Rogers
I am drawn to works set in the post WW2 period of Japanese history--especially those written at the time. This excellent collection had an added bonus with three of the stories being the adventures of a Japanese man visiting in the post war USA.  

contents: The rifle -- The American school -- The smile -- Voices -- The black flame -- Buffoon in an alien land* -- The house of the hooligans*-- A certain day*-- In our forties.
*set in USA 




The Gurugu Pledge by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel; translated from the Spanish by Jethro Soutar

A tale of people from all over Africa living in a camp in northern Morocco hoping to get to Europe. Told with warmth and compassion, this is an excellent read. 







The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy
Not high literature, but an oddly compelling read. It was fun to ride along with Finn Murphy and see how he grew and developed a professional attitude toward his craft. His stories about his colleagues and customers reveal a world most of us only see from one side. I've moved over twenty times (about two thirds of those using professional movers) and I really appreciate guys like Finn.
Advance review copy






Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance  by Bill McKibben
A rather simplistic story about a secessionist movement. Sorry, this just doesn't make it as a movement. It's a rather elitist view to think that drinking locally brewed beer, shopping at farmer's markets, and boycotting Walmart and Amazon in favor of local small business is going to make things better.
Advance review copy





from the library...

Miraculous Mysteries  by Martin Edwards (Editor)
Interesting anthology of classic British locked room mysteries.
Contents: The lost special / Arthur Conan Doyle -- The thing invisivble / William Hope Hodgson -- The case of the tragedies in the Greek room / Sax Rohmer -- The aluminum dagger / R. Austin Freeman -- The miracle of moon crescent / G.K. Chesterton -- The invisible weapon / Nicholas Olde -- The diary of death / Marten Cumberland -- The broadcast murder / Grenville Robbins -- The music-room / Sapper -- Death at 8:30 / Christopher St. John Sprigg -- Too clever by half / G.D.H. and Margaret Cole -- Locked in / E. Charles Vivian -- The haunted policeman / Dorothy L. Sayers -- The sands of thyme / Michael Innes -- Beware of the trains / Edmund Crispin -- The Villa Marie Celeste / Margery Allingham.






Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong (Kindle edition)
Very good story about a thirty-year old woman coping with her father's dementia.








online...
I found these three because of  references in  Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller (p 202) Búkolla the Magic Cow by  Nanna Árnadóttir, The Loa is here! [Lóa, but I'm not sure this is what was being referenced] and Kjölur highland route interior F35 in Iceland (Gullfoss to Varmahlíð - Blönduós)
And this because of p 204 Bladderwrack and from p. 211 Informational plaque about Jón Eiríksson

elsewhere online...
The Fortean Limes  a short story by Yoss: translated by Lawrence Schimel.

Top 10 contemporary short stories 
 "Ahead of 2017’s National short story prize, Jon McGregor reluctantly chooses ‘swoony’ work from recent years...."  Of course the Guardian asked the impossible of McGregor and everyone faced with the task would chose a different set of stories. But these all look good and there are links to where they can be read online.

Spotlight: Renzo Piano by Rory Stott
A look at the works of the Italian architect. Includes an interview.

Bout Update (6)

Bout of Books 20

Nice and quiet Saturday
Saturday Challenge: "Who's the character you LOVE to HATE? For today's challenge, share with us one (or more!) of the characters you love to hate."

When you read a lot of noir stories--as I do--you kind of love to hate most of the characters. Otherwise the stories wouldn't be noir. Like Mrs Danvers (in Rebecca) and Amy in (Gone Girl), the dark characters are what make the stories work.

Montana Noir by James Grady & Keir Graff, editors
179 pages(98-277) Finished
(I liked all of the stories in this anthology but some more than others. I've highlighted my favorites from today. Of the three I read on Thursday,   Ace in the hole / Eric Heidle was my favorite.)
The eleven I read today:
  Fireweed / Janet Skesien Charles
  Dark monument / Sidner Larson
  All the damn stars in the sky / Yvonne Seng
  The road you take / James Grady
  The dive / Jamie Ford
  Bad blood / Carrie La Seur
  Oasis / Walter Kirn
  Motherlode / Thomas McGuane
  Trailer trash / Gwen Florio
  Custer's last stand / Debra Magpie Earling
  Red skies of Montana / Keir Graff

The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk, translated from the Estonian by Christopher Moseley
126 pages (12-137) Wasn't sure I wanted to stay with this but I'm 1/3 through so I guess it's a go.

Totals:

Monday:         80 pages

Tuesday:       116 pages
Wednesday:  156ish pages

Thursday:      257 pages

Friday:             58ish pages
Sturday:         305 pages

August (third week) 2017 Reads

This week I continued with the Two Month reading of Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller, plus three of my library holds came in so I'm juggling a bunch of stuff.

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story: Happy This, Congratulations That by Lauren Fox, Illustrated by Roman Muradov
This story of a divorcee rebuilding her life while working in a supermarket bakery department is part of the CNET Technically Literate short story collection.




Card: 10 of Hearts which I found here on a rather complicated web site (but fun to explore). The artist is Emmanuel Jose.

I thought the pretzel cookies went nicely with the bakery in the story.







 from my shelves...

Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Twelve Stories after Cervantes and Shakespeare
edited by Daniel Hahn and Margarita Valencia. Introduction by Salman Rushdie. Stories by Ben Okri, Kamila Shamsie, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Rhidian Brook, Valeria Luiselli, Yuri Herrera , Nell Leyshon (Goodreads Author), Marcos Giralt Torrente, Hisham Matar, Soledad Puértolas, Vicente Molina Foix, and Deborah Levy. Translations by Anne McLean, Lisa Dillman, Samantha Schnee, Rosalind Harvey, Frank Wynne, and Christina MacSweeney. Overall, an excellent  and diverse collection.

New Haven Noir by Amy Bloom (Editor)
Stories by: Michael Cunningham, Roxana Robinson, Stephen L. Carter, John Crowley, Amy Bloom, Alice Mattison, Chris Knopf, Jonathan Stone, Sarah Pemberton Strong, Karen E. Olson, Jessica Speart, Chandra Prasad, David Rich, and Hirsh Sawhney.

I really like the Akashic Noir series and this one is especially good. There is a real sense of New Haven, both the Yale part and all the rest.




The Madeleine Project  by Clara Beaudoux,  translated from the French by Alison Anderson
When Clara Beaudoux moved into a Paris apartment she found a storage room full of a former tenant's possessions. She decided to archive the objects on Twitter ( #Madeleineproject ) and try to discover more about the woman who kept them until she died. This book grew out of that documentation.

I enjoyed the book and was as fascinated by the author's dedication to the project as I was with the things Madeleine kept.



One object leapt off the page and triggered a bunch of personal memories. In a box that belonged to my grandfather we found a pair of binoculars exactly like this pair--including the same lined leather case--that Beaudoux found among Madeleine's things. How we loved to use them.



And here is some strange Food Prep on You Tube

Tarantino's Spaghetti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55m-oJq0Lko​
Wes Anderson's Smores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51sqHeClZ3s
Alfonso Cuaron's Pancakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_hpJHNt4IE
Michael Bay's Waffles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIsy3iS7SYE​

June (second week) 2017 Reads

For my Deal Me In card this week I pulled the Eight of Clubs. This was originally assigned The Bronze Horseman: A Petersburg Tale by Alexander Pushkin (narrative poem). I forgot it was on the list and read it in January when I was on my Pushkin jag, so I made it a WILD CARD.  On my roster, Clubs are supposed to be something "different" (narrative poem, short play or skit, graphic, clever title, narrative essay, etc.) I chose a couple of news stories and an essay related to an important local event.

 A new bookstore opened in our town

 Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore.
This is the bookstore for Wesleyan University and also a general indie bookstore. For more on this see: New Wesleyan Bookstore By R.J. Julia Now Open To Public In Middletown and for a little more background on the space see: Wesleyan partners with R.J. Julia Booksellers to open new bookstore in downtown Middletown.

 
The very first special event at the store was an appearance by Andrew Blauner editor of  In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs.  He was joined by three of the book's contributors: Amy Bloom, Peter Blauner, and Nicholas Dawidoff. Of course I attended. Of course I bought the book. Autographs?  All four of course. And some swag: a very nice tote.


It was a good discussion, they didn't do readings. It was a conversation that ranged from  lyrics, the sequence of songs in the albums, and how the songs had different meanings at different times in their lives.
(Local note: Peter Blauner and Amy Bloom are Wesleyan grads. Bloom is now Wesleyan University’s Distinguished University Writer in Residence. Nicholas Dawidoff also has Connecticut connections: he grew up in New Haven and now lives there. He is a Fellow of Yale's Branford College.)

 “Deal Me In 2017!”

So in honor of this event I chose an essay from the book by a contributor who was not at the event. I selected this one because it is available online.
Remembering My Father Through My Favorite Beatles’ Song  Elissa Schappell revisits Octopus’s Garden.

During the week I read the rest of the book. Even though I've never been a huge Beatles fan it was fun to see what songs the writers chose and how they wrote about the choices. Most were personal and some went in to detail about the technical aspects of the music. I don't have a favorite Beatles song and I didn't listen to any while reading this book, but I guess I heard the music in my brain because I ended up with a four-day earworm. Finally got "Yellow Submarine" out of my mind by listening to classical guitar. Other than that It was a very enjoyable collection of essays.

 
And the card: A tiled design in homage to that amazing ceiling in the bookstore. (Do click on the picture above for a better look).

This is from the Piatnik: Jugendstil Art Nouveau Playing Cards deck. This is a gorgeous deck, the face cards are awesome, even the box is a work of art. Google it, there are vintage decks for sale online and the prices are not all outrageous.

Like last week's card,  I found this image on playingcardcollector.net



Poetry online...
Emoticons and Pros by Najat Sghyar
"Born and raised in Casablanca, Morroco, Najat studied corporate law in France and worked as a journalist in her hometown before moving to Istanbul in 2014 to focus on writing. Fluent in six languages, she writes short stories in darija- the Moroccan dialect-, poetry in English and Arabic and is currently working on a novel in French. She is a founder member of the Istanbul writing club Yirmi Yedi."

Lots of clever word-play for this world of social networking. These two excerpts lose the poem's visual appeal because I can't duplicate the formatting and spacing, but the language is a delight.

So I daydream in virtual blur
of good old smileys:
That naughty yellow face
On MSN messenger
Laughing silent hi hi hi's

Or the classic semicolon
resting on its side
With a bracket for a smile
Half asleep
winking deep
Minimal style
Of sarcasm quizz.

And later she speaks of 

Clogged in blogs and vlogs
Instakilograms
in filigran
Of snapshit
and vine.

from my shelves..

The Magician of Vienna (Trilogía de la memoria/Trilogy of Memory #3) by Sergio Pitol, George Henson (Translation from the Spanish); Mario Bellatin (Introduction); Margo Glantz (Afterword)
This is a mixed bag--literary criticism, personal anecdotes, travel stories, and passages on his own writing processes. I really liked the material on writing short stories.

When I read the first two volumes of the trilogy, I spent a lot of time Googling all the people and places that weren't familiar to me.* This volume was different because I recognized most of the authors he discussed. He talks about Chekhov, there are essays on Evelyn Waugh and Henry James, and many others--international in scope. His discussion on the Irish writer Flann O'Brien caused me to order At Swim-Two-Birds.

"On When Enrique Conquered Ashgabat and How He Lost It" (p.204-230) is a very funny episode that took place when Pitol and Enrique Vila-Matis managed to get together in Turkmenistan. It involved crashing a wedding party, a crazy opera singer and his crazier wife, embarrassed interpreters, and Vila-Matis being rushed out of the country.

Now that I've read all three volumes, I wish I had an index to them, there's so much to go back and reread. These came to me through my subscription to Deep Vellum and it includes both paper and electronic editions, so maybe I'll get some use of the Kindle search feature.

*See: Pitol readings and More Pitol readings, I didn't do a readings page for this volume.



Death of an Airman by Christopher St. John Sprigg
There were some surprises in this mystery from this British Library Crime Classics reprint. An Australian bishop signing up for flying lessons whilst in the UK made a lot of sense and he was a fine character. There were an assortment of eccentric women, a sappy American judge, a brief appearance by a German aviator, a French connection, some white powder, etc... What fun!
The motives for the crimes seemed rather modern for a book written in 1934.
I love this series. My copy is an advance review copy from Poisoned Pen Press, the USA publisher.

April (fourth week) 2017 Reads

Not much online stuff this week, just the search for the Queen of Hearts--which was fun. The short story this week was one in a collection I own, so I read the entire collection. The novels are a mixed bag and I enjoyed them all for very different reasons.Read one library book, three others in my stack but I may not finish them next week.

 “Deal Me In 2017!”

This weeks story: This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila (in This is Paradise)
A young tourist in Hawaii is observed by three different groups of island residents: young women surfers who see her at a club; some slightly older career women who view her in a hotel lobby; and a group of housekeepers waiting to clean her hotel room. Like many locals in tourist areas, each group has reasons to resent the visitors' rosy visions of being in Paradise. Then something bad happens and each group wonders if they could have done something more to prevent it.

I really liked this story so I read the other five stories in the collection (which was on my "owned-but-unread" shelf). All six of the stories deal with universal themes with a particular Hawaiian viewpoint. I almost didn't read Wanle because it involves cock fighting, but it is more about revenge. The Road to Hana is about young couple on a weekend trip, she is an Hawaiian who was born in Las Vegas; he is a white was born in Hawaii. So what does it mean to be Hawaiian? Thirty-nine Rules for Making a Hawaiian Funeral into a Drinking Game is very much about what it is to be Hawaiian. In Portrait of a Good Father a girl questions her family relationships and in The Old Paniolo Way a gay man ponders whether he should come out to his dying father.

A very good collection which I won some time ago on the blog Guiltless Reading

This week's card: Queen of Hearts. I couldn't resist this delightful teapot which I found in a collection of amazing  Sculptural teapot tempests at one of my favorite websites.

The pot, titled 'The Queens Tea Yara' is by Meryl Ruth (photo by Robert Diamonte). Follow the link to find out more about this one, then explore her site for more ceramics and she also does Fiber Art  



from my "owned-but-unread" shelf...
 
Day In Day Out by Terézia Mora; translated from the German by Michael Henry Heim
A strange novel, part picaresque, part hallucination, and sometimes it almost makes a whole lot of sense. Able Nema's main skill is learning languages. Officially he knows ten. His only other skill seems to be a sporadic ability to pass himself off as normal. We follow him for ten years that he spends as a refugee (in Berlin ?) from an unnamed Balkan country. He has various adventures meeting colorful characters who are almost as weird as he is. I read this in small doses, it was excellent that way.

Cover design and illustration by Milan Bozic

 
On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe

Four African women have been lured to Europe to work in the sex trade. Each has had a traumatic childhood and the promise of a better life has led them to accept becoming prostitutes. When one is killed, the other three bond and reveal their real life stories. The difficult subject matter is dealt with in a rather straightforward, almost journalistic, manner.

Jacket design by Kimberly Glyder
Jacket photo by Debra Lill



 
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Lilian is a widow with two young daughters. She has an alcoholic mother, a bossy sister, and a decent job as an illustrator. Through a gardening class she takes because of her job, she meets an assortment of interesting people and there is some bonding among the group which stretched my ability to suspend disbelief. Still, there was enough substance and sarcastic dialog to keep me reading. There is a snarky comment about Meg Ryan, but, really, this is her kind of role. A pleasant, light read.
Free advance review copy from publisher

from the library...

Celine by Peter Heller
Celine is a tough old broad. A sixty year old private investigator who, in spite of her emphysema, travels in the Rockies to track down a man who went missing 23 years ago. It's a well told story with plenty of well developed, interesting characters. The relationships the missing man had with his two wives and his daughter are revealed as the story unwinds. Celine's own backstory explains some of her actions. Mostly I liked this book, but there were a couple of things that bothered me. One was a showdown Celine has with a motorcycle gang. It really didn't add to the narrative and seemed to have been thrown in just to show her toughness, but it was unnecessary--we'd already figured that out. (Actually this bit could almost stand alone as a short story.)