April 2021

So much coming and going this month. Two (2)- count them -Picnics! Getting back to the usual stuff.

4/5  Post Office; CVS; Stop&Shop (first time in a supermarket in over a year!)

4/6  (am)Mah Jongg; (pm) library; JC Farms: Uncle Bob's Garden Center for roses 

4/7  Picnic! Gillette Castle (food from River Valley Provisions)

4/8  Dentist; Lino's Market

4/13 Mah Jongg

4/16 Em (housemate) 2nd Pfizer dose; Neils donuts

4/20 CVS; Mah Jongg; Neon Deli

4/22 Library (indoor); Lyman Orchards

4/23 Stop & Shop

4/27 Vote (fire district budget); Mah Jongg; Istanbul Gyro & Kabab

4/28 Robert's Food Center; picnic Chatfield Hollow 

4/29 Gassed car; library

  

And, of course, plenty of reading. Most of it good with a couple of disappointments. 

Fiction: 

5 of 5 stars;

The Liar's Dictionary by Williams, Eley

 lots of word fun...

Eleven Sooty Dreams by Draeger, Manuela; translated from the French by Mahany, J.T.

Leapfrog and Other Stories by Rosales, Guillermo; translated from the Spanish by Kushner, Anna
Madrid Tales by Constantine, Helen: translated from the Spanish by Costa, Margaret Jill

A Thousand Ships by Haynes, Natalie
Northernmost (Eide Family, #3) by Geye, Peter

   Liked this better than #1, haven't read #2 yet.
Cobble Hill by Ziegesar, Cecily von

4 of 5 stars:

Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Sudbanthad, Pitchaya
Transcendent Kingdom by Gyasi, Yaa
An Elegant Woman by McPhee, Martha
The Lighthouse Road (Eide Family, #1) by Geye, Peter 

3 of 5 stars:
The Sculptor by McCloud, Scott 

 graphic novel
The Sirena Quest by Kahn, Michael A. 

 somewhat silly adventure by somewhat grown-up former college boys
Half Life by Cantor, Jillian

 Alternative lives of Marie Curie. 

The Killing Tide (Commissaire Dupin #5) by Bannalec, Jean-Luc; translated from the French by Millar, Peter

 Not a bad diversion, may read a couple of more from the series when the mood strikes me.
 

2 of 5 stars:

Sarahland by Cohen, Sam

Afterlife by Alvarez, Julia

Nonfiction:
Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses by Caminos Oria, Josephine 

  A modern romance set to food and place (4 of 5 stars)
Fortune's Many Houses: A Victorian Visionary, a Noble Scottish Family, and a Lost Inheritance by Welfare, Simon

 Interesting house, interesting lives but too much detail of the houses and not enough on the lives. Loved the historical footnotes. (3 of 5 stars)
de Gournay: Art on the Walls: Everlasting Beauty, Hand-Painted Interiors by Gurney, Claud
 Beautiful to look at but I couldn't live in most of these rooms (3 of 5 star)

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames by Cowan, Justine

  Psychological damage in a childrens home... (3 of 5 stars)

Online:

 

Not your "what I had for Lunch" on Instagram food shots: Family-meal image wins international food photo contest.

 

From Project Gutenberg some lovely Floral Illustrations of the Seasons by M. Roscoe

"Consisting of The Most Beautiful, Hardy and Rare HERBACEOUS PLANTS, Cultivated in the Flower Garden, from Drawings by M^rs. EDWARD ROSCOE"

 

Looking into Lost Persian Architecture through Safavid Manuscripts 

Noor Completes Reconstruction of the Mirror Palace in Iran 

March 2021

Now that I'm fully vaccinated I've resumed some activities but I'm still sticking to essentials. Next month I'll have a dental check-up and resume my mahjong games. Also can do more as my housemate will also be vaccinated. I read plenty this week--lots of library books plus one off my "owned-but-unread" shelves. Once again I think I added more to the latter than I read...

Activities:

3/1   Library to pick up holds and browse! Yes, I went inside but only for about 5 minutes. 

3/4   Library (book drop only); JC Farms: Lyman Orchards 

3/10 Lab Work

3/11 CVS Cromwell

3/12 Eye Dr 

3/15 DR; Library; gas

3/16 Tree removal. I didn't leave home for this (other than moving the cars to neighbor's driveway) but I did have to interact with tree guy who was probably not vaccinated.

3/24  Library pick up & browse; Durham Dari-serv

3/24  Took E to Uconn (Munson) for 1st dose vaccine; Neil's Donuts

Reading:

 

Fiction (roughly in the order I liked them but The Rib King was the only real disappointment among the fiction):

Dear Child by Hausmann, Romy; translated from the German by Bulloch, Jamie
Lost Girls: Short Stories by Morris, Ellen Birkett 

 A fine collection.

Elemental International short stories by various authors and translators (my copy)
The Caretaker by Arbus, Doon
Indelicacy by Cain, Amina

Mona and Other Tales by Arenas, Reinaldo; translated from the Spanish bt Koch, Dolores M.
The Bass Rock by Wyld, Evie
Inheritance from Mother by Mizumura, Minae; translated from the Japanese by Carpenter, Juliet Winters
The Glorious Ones by Prose, Francine 

Archipelago by Roffey, Monique

The Last Garden in England by Kelly, Julia
The Rib King by Hubbard, Ladee

  Started out fine but bogged down...I admit to a bit of skimming...

 

Nonfiction (three good, one meh, and a bomb):

Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, an Address Book, a Life by Benkemoun, Brigitte; translated from the French by Gladding, Jody
The Chiffon Trenches by Talley, André Leon
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Cooper, Arshay

The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Shah, Sonia 

  this was kind of disjointed and, not exactly to the point (of the title), wish I hadn't bothered..

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Knighton, Conor 

  Too much "I" more a memoir than a travelogue, he tried to give a thematic presentation but ended up just wandering. His skipping all over the place made me want to do the same with his book.  Didn't make me want to visit any park I haven't already visited (and some that I have visited were barely recognizable). 

 

Online:

 I somehow stumbled onto to the site Olive Oil Times which has a lot of good stuff of interest to the industry and the consumer, see:  Remains of 2,500-Year-Old Mill Discovered in Italy  and Volunteers in Italy and Spain to Track Spittlebug Activity both by Paolo DeAndreis. In addition to news there are producer profiles, health info, and a bunch of recipes.

 

Paolo DeAndreis

Paolo DeAndreis

The Mystery of New England's Gray Corned Beef  by Anne Ewbank

 I was wondering about this as we ate our boxed take-out St Pat's dinner.

Yaupon: The rebirth of America's forgotten tea by Matt Stirn

 Humm..wonder is this stuff will grow in Connecticut...according to the USDA apparently not...see  Plant Guide: Yaupon and Plants profile: Ilex vomitoria Aiton yaupon and Willis Orchard Company: Yaupon Holly Tree

 

Iceburger No, not some crazy frozen dessert. This is an oddly compelling site that lets you create an iceberg an see how it floats. 

How Cats Walk In case you were wondering...

10 Incredible Women of Route 66 by Candacy Taylor (Moon Travel Guides). Interesting sidelights for a road-trip. A couple of the links are broken but easily found by Googling. The hotel in Winslow, AZ is where I want to stay if I ever go to the area again. (We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Williams on our cross country trip in 2001.)

Evolution of the House Plan in Europe: from the Industrial Revolution to the Interwar Period

 by Hana Abdel & Christele Harrouk

January 2021

Another month of quarantine but maybe there's a little light coming--I got my first (of two) jab of the Pfizer  Covid vaccine. So here is the total of my outside contacts. Not impressive. 

Errands  etc.

1/2 Library to pick up holds.

1/8 Library returns; Lyman Orchards for produce & bread. 

1/12 ditto of 1/8

1/21 cvs

1/21-??? phone problem

1/25 covid vaccine dose 1

1/26 land phone repair (a stranger had to enter our house!)

Most of the  reading this month was good. A mixed bunch. Five from my shelves (first group), two Advance review copies (second group), and eleven from public libraries (third group plus the nonfiction). Of the fiction, Polar Vortex was the only one I didn't like at all. The Smiley, Moore, and Osman books were fun light reading. I needed that!

 

In nonfiction, The Dan Rather book was the weakest. I just didn't learn anything from it at all, certainly not what the title suggests.

 

Finally, I spent a lot more of my online time reading stuff other than the news. Still, it was such a pleasure to see competence that I became addicted to White House Press Briefings on CSPN.

 

Fiction
The Regal Lemon Tree by Saer, Juan José
That We May Live by Si'an, Chen and others, various translators (Short Chinese speculative fiction.)
Joseph Walser's Machine by Tavares, Gonçalo M.
Harmada by Noll, João Gilberto
Life Went On Anyway: Stories by Sentsov, Oleg

 

Here Lies a Father by Cassidy, Mckenzie (ARC via LibraryThing. Coming of age--surprised I liked it.)

Polar Vortex by Mootoo, Shani (ARC via LibraryThing. I didn't like it at all.)

Perestroika in Paris by Smiley, Jane
Facing the Bridge by Tawada, Yōko
Igifu by Mukasonga, Scholastique
Missing Person by Modiano, Patrick
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Hamnet by O'Farrell, Maggie
Shakespeare for Squirrels by Moore, Christopher
The Thursday Murder Club by Osman, Richard

Nonfiction

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Townsend, Camilla
City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World edited by Marron, Catie
What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Rather, Dan
      

Online

Gamey Meat: Here’s the Deal by Hank Shaw

Shaw's blog -- Hunter-Angler-Gardner-Cook -- is always a good read even if one isn't into game meat, foraging, etc. 

 

The History of Esculent Fish By Roger North. 

Includes descriptions of several edible fish and an essay on the breeding of fish and construction of fishponds. There are notes on what the fish eat, where to find them and how to catch them, but nothing about preparation and cooking. The plates, drawn and engraved by Eleazar Albin are what made me want to keep going back to this. Here is his Haddock:

The Smoky Valley  by Birger Sandzén

 I found this on Gutenberg and it was a nice introduction to an artist I'd never heard of. However the works are all in black and white so it was nice to find a resource that has them in color.

Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery 

November 2020

Activities:

 

Not much outside the house.

11/5 doctor 

11/16 lab; gassed car

11/24 pickup at libraries (2); jc farms for pie!

Books:

 Some good novels and lots of non-fiction this month.

Fiction:
Lovely War by Berry, Julie
Jean-Luc persécuté by Ramuz, Charles-Ferdinand; translated from the French by Baes, Olivia
How to Stop Time by Haig, Matt
Autopsy of a Father by Kramer, Pascale; translated from the French by Bononno, Robert
The Midnight Library by Haig, Matt
Forty Rooms by Grushin, Olga 

Poetry:

The Golden Goblet: Selected Poems of Goethe by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von; translated from the German by Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna and Turner, Frederick  

Nonfiction: 
The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War by Nasaw, David
For the Love of Music: The Art of Listening by Mauceri, John
The Simpsons: A Cultural History by Fink, Moritz
A Promised Land by Obama, Barack 

Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Slaght, Jonathan C.
Music to Eat Cake By: Essays on Birds, Words and Everything in Between by Parikian, Lev

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Harris, Kamala

Online:

Sabine Meyer

 While reading For the Love of Music and Music to Eat Cake By I wondered why I was reading about music but not listening to music?  So I put the books aside and went searching for music, specifically Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. As a result I've spent a least an hour a day on YouTube listening to Sabine Meyer play. Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms,....

Sublime Swimming: 14 examples of custom pools by María Francisca González

  I sure do miss my swims ... sigh...

Wagenhallen Stuttgart Cultural Center ArchDaily article

Wagenhallen official site

 a part of Stuttgart I've never seen (because it was something else when I lived in Germany)

October 2020

 Another exciting (ha) month of quarantine....but some really good reading

Activities:

10/1 Library curbside drop off/pick up; JC farms for produce.

10/3 Furnace guy

10/5 Doctor 

10/6 Furnace guy

10/9 Library curbside drop off/pick up; JC farms for produce; Durham Market for cold cuts; mailed ballot

10/15/ local foliage drive; short walk at Miller's Pond 

10/23 Library curbside drop off/pickup; JC farms

10/27 Drive to Old Saybrook

10/29 JC Farms Closed!; Lyman Orchads

Reading:

Fiction:

 A Million Aunties by McKenzie, Alecia

   A novel told from several points of view making it read like very closely linked short stories

 How to Pronounce Knife by Thammavongsa, Souvankham 

   short stories

 That Time of Year by NDiaye, Marie; translated from the French by Stump, Jordan

 The End of the Day by Clegg, Bill
 Here We Are by Swift, Graham

 Verena in the Midst by Lucas, E.V. (on Project Gutenberg) 

 The Gathering by Enright, Anne

 The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o; translated from the Gĩkũyũ by the author 

 The Silence by DeLillo, Don

Poetry:

 Home: New Arabic Poems by Hawwash, Samer Abu and others; various translators

Nonfiction:
 This Tilting World by Fellous, Colette; translated from the French by Lewis, Sophie
 James Monroe: A Life by McGrath, Tim

 Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Jerkins, Morgan

 Having and Being Had by Biss, Eula

Online:

Marmalade: A Very British Obsession by Olivia Potts

September 2020

Still staying home...

Activities outside the house:

9/2 Library curbside; JC Farms; Lyman Orchards; Lino's Deli

9/11 Lib returns; JC Farms; Lyman Orchards

9/18 JC Farms

9/22 library curbside; Gardener finally came and cleaned up tree debris from Isaias

9/24 bank (atm); gas (full serve); car maintenance  

Books Read (ratings don't seem to reflect much so I won't put them in. These are listed in reverse of order read. All were good but the Clapsaddle was my least favorite. Best is a tossup between Makumbi and NDiaye):

A Girl Is a Body of Water by Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga
Even As We Breathe by Clapsaddle, Annette Saunooke
The Cheffe: A Cook's Novel by NDiaye, Marie; translated from the French by Stump, Jordan
Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-nan; translated from the Korean by Hong, Janet
Time After Time by Grunwald, Lisa
Summer (Seasonal, #4) by Smith, Ali
Beethoven: Variations on a Life by Bonds, Mark Evan

 

Online:

Portuguese Landscapes: 12 Projects Exploring the Relationship Between Natural and Built 

 OK, this just makes me want to go back to Portugal and go for a walk.

 

A 16th-Century Portuguese Plan of a Moroccan Palace by Jonathan Bloom

 and this makes me want to read Bloom's book Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700-1800. (Yale UP, 2020)

100 Essential Books by Iranian Writers: An Introduction & Nonfiction, by Niloufar Talebi

 Introduction to a five part series which includes "Poetry, Hybrid Works, Anthologies"; "Graphic Novels, Culinary Books, & Children’s Literature"; "Classics in Translation", and "Fiction."

I've read a few of these, mostly in the fiction category. A good resource from Asian American Writers' Workshop.

August 2020

Lousy weather, great reading. 

8/4 - Tropical Storm Isaias - 12 hour power outage; several limbs from maple tree down in driveway fortunately not to large for us to drag aside.
8/5 - Internet/phone out - about 36 hours
8/7 - PO to mail primary ballot
8/13 - library curbside pickup; JC Farm; Lyman Orchards

Fiction:

Echo on the Bay by Masatsugu Ono: translated from the Japanese by Angus Turvill

At Least We Can Apologize by Ki-ho Lee; translated from the Korean by Christopher Joseph Dykas

Garden by the Sea by Mercè Rodoreda; translated from the Catalan by Martha Tennent and Maruxa Relaño

The House with a Sunken Courtyard by Won-Il Kim; translated from the Korean by Ji-Moon Suh )

Stingray by Kim Joo-Young; translated from the Korean by Inrae You Vinciguerra and Louis Vinciguerra

Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yū; translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles
  
Girls Lost by Jessica Schiefauer; translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel

Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong; translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce

A Hundred Million Years and a Day by Jean-Baptiste Andrea: translated from the French by Sam Taylor (review copy, LibraryThing giveaway)

Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma (review copy, Goodreads giveaway) 

Fiction/Poetry:

The Love Story of the Century by Märta Tikkanen; translated from the Swedish Stina Katchadourian

A Grave is Given Supper by Mike Soto 

Nonfiction:

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

Cape Town: A Place Between by Henry Trotter 

Online:
The Easiest Eight Thousand Words Ever Put Together: the story behind the story of David Dodge's To Catch A Thief. by J. Kingston Pierce

Why is Malaysia’s Chinese Population Leaving in Droves? by Wing Wong 
 found this because I needed some background for one of the stories in Lake like a Mirror

August 2019 Reading

Fiction 
these I gave 5 stars out of 5
When the Plums Are Ripe by Nganang, Patrice; Transleted from the French by Reid, Amy Baram
  Giveaway Goodreads
Bright by Pimwana, Duanwad; Translated from the Thai by Poopoksakul, Mui
  From my collection 
From the Shadows by Millás, Juan José; Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Bunstead, Thomas and Hahn, Daniel
  Giveaway from LibraryThing 
Tales of Japan: Traditional Stories of Monsters and Magic by Chronicle Books
   Giveaway from LibraryThing

these got  4 stars 
Blood Ties by Fradkin, Barbara
  Giveaway from LibraryThing
Illuminations on Market Street: a story about sex and estrangement, AIDS and loss, and other preoccupations in San Francisco by Shepard, Benjamin Heim
  From public library
Hunter's Moon: A Novel in Stories by Caputo, Philip
  From public library 
Chances Are... by Russo, Richard   
  From public library 
The Hotel Neversink by Price, Adam O'Fallon
  From public library

these got 3 stars
Who are You, Calvin Bledsoe? by Clarke, Brock
  Giveaway from LibraryThing
The Century World's fair book for boys and girls: being the adventures of Harry and Philip with their tutor Mr. Douglass at the World's Columbian exposition by Jenks, Tudor
  From Project Gutenberg 
The Lightest Object in the Universe by Eisele, Kimi
  From public library

Periodical  
 5 stars
Two Lines 30 edited by Evans, Cj
 From my collection 

Nonfiction
these two got  4 stars
Schumann: The Faces and the Masks by Chernaik, Judith
  From public library 
Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War  by Matzen, Robert
  From public library
 
this one got only 2 stars (boring)
Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World by Gordinier, Jeff
  From public library

Some online reading

Gertrude Jekyll - Sedate revolutionary By Judith Taylor
Colour in the flower garden by Gertrude Jekyll
 and then there's this place where we went on a day trip in June The Glebe House Museum and Gertrude Jekyll Garden.

After 53 Years, Athens’ Kentrikon Restaurant Serves its Last Meal By Philip Chrysopoulos
 A bit of nostalgia for me. This was our favorite spot when we stayed in the neighborhoodmany years ago.

How Tree Trunks Are Cut to Produce Wood With Different Appearances and Uses by José Tomás Franco
 This kind of stuff fascinates me.

Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic; Translated by F. S. Copeland; Illustrated by Vladimir Kirin
  I haven't read this yet, but the illustrations are super.

Swamp skiing competition held in northern Finland  Photos by Matti Matikainen/Xinhua
 and, closer to home, SEEN: Mud Volleyball Tournament 2019 by Jenna Seward; photos by Lisa Nichols

A Day at the Beach and Some Other Interesting Times at the 2019 Venice Biennale by David Ebony

July 2019 Reading

All good reading for July, with one exception.   

Fiction (in no particular order within the star ratings)

5 stars: 
If Beale Street Could Talk by Baldwin, James (public library)
War, So Much War by Rodoreda, Mercè; translated from the Catalan by Maruxa Relaño and MarthaTennent (my collection)
Hollow Kingdom by Buxton, Kira Jane (Advance Review Copy, Shelf Awareness)
Eight Stories: Tales of War and Loss by Remarque, Erich Maria (translators unidentified) (my collection)
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Lombardo, Claire (public library)
The Imagined Land by Berti, Eduardo; translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Coombe (my collection)
Solovyov and Larionov by Vodolazkin, Eugene; translated from the Russian by Evgenij Vodolazkin and Lisa Hayden (advance review copy, LibraryThing

4 stars:
L'Amour by Duras, Marguerite; translated from the French by Kazim Ali and Libby Murphy (my collection)
The City Where We Once Lived by Barnes, Eric (public library)
The Vagrants by Li, Yiyun (my collection)
San Diego Noir edited by Hart, Maryelizabeth (my collection)

3 stars:
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Lefteri, Christy (Advance Review Copy, Shelf Awareness)
The Quest by Baroja, Pío; translated from the Spanish by Isaac Goldberg (my collection - Amazon freebie)
Smoking Kills by Laurain, Antoine; translated from the French by Louise Lalaurie Rogers(blog win)
The Evenings: A Winter's Tale by Reve, Gerard; translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett (public library)

1 star
The Skin Is the Elastic Covering That Encases the Entire Body by Rasmussen, Bjørn; translated from the Danish by Martin Aiken
I did actually finish this but did not like it. Yes it was poetic, well written, etc. Best I can say about it is that it is short. (from my collection but I'm not keeping it!)

Nonfiction
 
5 stars:
The Man Between: The Life and Legacy of Michael Henry Heim by Heim, Michael Henry (and others) (my collection)

3 stars:
Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln by Glückel von Hameln; translated from the German by Marvin Lowenthal (my collection)
On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Guendelsberger, Emily (public library)
Fire and Ice by Mingle, Jonathan (Advance Review Copy--from ages ago)
Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Prior-Palmer, Lara (public library)
 

June 2019 Reading

An enjoyable bunch of books this month, only a couple I didn't much like. Only online reading was the Ibsen play.

Fiction 
Exposed; Blondel, Jean-Philippe; translated from the French by Anderson, Alison *****
City of Jasmine; Grjasnowa, Olga; translated from the German by Derbyshire, Katy***** (advance review copy through LibraryThing)
77; Saccomanno, Guillermo: translated from the Spanish by Labinger, Andrea G. *****

A Brightness Long Ago; Kay, Guy Gavriel ****
The Porpoise; Haddon, Mark ****

Lifelines; Diehl, Heidi **** (advance review copy through Goodreads)

Southernmost; House, Silas ***
The Spies of Shilling Lane; Ryan, Jennifer ***
The Electric Hotel; Smith, Dominic ***
All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother; Teller, Danielle ***

Mistress of the Ritz; Benjamin, Melanie **

Short Stories
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories; Rubin, Jay, editor*****

Orange World and Other Stories; Russell, Karen *

Play
The Lady from the Sea; Ibsen, Henrik ****  (on Project Gutenberg)


Nonfiction
Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler; Olson, Lynne ****
1941: The Year Germany Lost the War; Nagorski, Andrew ****
A Foodie's Guide to Tuscany: Places, Flavours, Itineraries, Must Do for the Epicurian Explorer ; 20 Fabulous Recipes; Lepore, Gabriella **   (Kindle freebie)

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

These Caught My Attention Because...

Because this is the land where I was grown...
The Land Where Birds Are Grown.  A visit to the engineered wetlands of California’s intensively cultivated Central Valley by Cynthia Hooper

Because procrastination is a thing with me...
I've Been Meaning to Talk to You About Procrastination by David Abrams

   and on the same note...

When you're writing, it's good to give yourself little rewards along the way.
For example, once I've typed a word, I allow myself to look at the internet for 4 hours.

— Chris Kelly (@imchriskelly) March 6, 2019

Because I went to the eye doctor yesterday and something he told me led to my googling and finding this...
Mayo Clinic Q and A: Fish oil supplements and dry eyes By Liza Torborg 
I've been taking this stuff for other reasons for years and didn't know I was helping my eyes.

Because he was Connecticut based... 

“Form-Generating is Similar to Music – You Try to Compose Music and Suddenly the Melody Comes”: In Conversation with Kevin Roche  by Vladimir Belogolovsky

Because lit in translation...Yes
The Catalan Paradox: Writers, Editors, and Translators on the Literature of a Stateless Language
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi interviews Quim Monzó


Between worlds: in praise of the literary translator by Miranda France

Gendered “Revenge” in Emma Ramadan’s Reworking of Brice Matthieussent’s Meta-Novel
By Arshy Azizi

It's rare that I read a review or interview concerning a book I'm currently reading but I couldn't resist this one. I was about 2/3 of the way through the book when I succumbed to the temptation to google to find out if the translator (Emma Ramadan, that is--everyone in this book is a translator of sorts) had given any interviews on this work. I found this review and decided to read it. It goes beyond where I had read so there was a chance of spoilers. But I didn't think anything could spoil the marvelous book. I was right. There are some revelations but, for me, no spoilers though other readers might not agree.

Slowing Down

Doing some very slow reading recently because:

 1. Back in October I won a lovely book from the Columbia University Press Blog
The book is Remains of Life by Wu He, translated from Chinese by Michael Berry. I started it this week and it's a slow go for me partly because it concerns an incident in Taiwanese history and my knowledge of the topic is thin. Lots of Googling necessary. Adding to that is the format of the book. A stream of consciousness novel with no sentence, paragraph, nor chapter breaks. It is well punctuated with commas, semicolons, dashes, etc. so it actually reads rather smoothly. So smoothly that I didn't actually realize it was all one sentence until about page 45 when I started looking for a place to break, turn off the light, and go to sleep. I finally stopped at a semicolon and had no trouble at all when I picked it up again the next day.

2. The current selection for Chad Post's Two Month Review is Radiant  Terminus by Antoine Volodine, translated from French by Jeffery Zukerman. (Open Letter books) I read this last spring and I'm enjoying this review.

3. When I got the forthcoming notice for Sergio Pitol's Miphisto's Waltz from Deep Vellum I was sure that the moment it arrived I would pop it out of its package and start reading. But it arrived just after I started the Taiwan novel...but I want to read this soon!

4. I also started The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan, Yuri Machkasov (Translator) at about the same time I started the Taiwan epic sentence. I figured I might read them concurrently. That's not happening.

Too much going on. I should make some progress today & tomorrow since its 5℉ (feels like -8) and there is a thin layer of snow/ice from yesterday's squall. Stay inside and read, read, read!

Online
For some breaks from all of the above there's always my daily shot from Bloglovin...which leads to some interesting reading:

Nice profile of one of three presses where I have a subscription (the other two are Open Letter and Deep Vellum)  Small Press Profile: Two Lines Press  by Liz Button

This one struck a chord taking me back to my ex-pat days...Grocery-store Nationalism

October (third week) 2018 Reads and day trips

These posts are getting briefer and briefer...

Sunday - roamed back roads, checked out Hidden Lake and  Robert's Food Center at the 79/80 Rotary Circle

Wed -  Milford - Silver Sands State Park - walked on boardwalk and a short stretch of sand for lunch at The Greek Spot Cafe and Grill, 726 East Broadway, Milford. Then drove around Milford and headed home trying to hug the coast (not easy) to Madison and then cut inland.

Read this week:

The "Deal Me In" card this week is the King of Hearts; the selection is Transcription of an eye by Carmen Maria Machado (in Watchlist)

from the library....

In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano: translated from the French by Chris Clarke

online...
The Literature of Inequality by Nicolas Léger

September (first week) 2018 Reads

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Four of Clubs; the selection is Elizabeth Strout: ‘If I ever return to a small town, I want you to kill me’ 

from my shelves...

Her Mother's Mother's Mother and Her Daughters by Maria José Silveira; translated from the Portuguese by Eric M.B. Becker

Rochester Knockings: A Novel of the Fox Sisters by Hubert Haddad; translated from the French by Jennifer Grotz

The Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments by Ann Quin; Jennifer Hodgson (Editor)

from the library...

Circe by Madeline Miller (Kindle edition)
 

June (fourth week) 2018 Reads & Little Trips

Little trips this Week:
Monday - Picnic & swim (wading, didn't get my hair wet) Day Pond State Park, Colchester CT.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - a little trip to do some more exploring in the northwest corner of Connecticut. Stayed in a cabin at Lake Waramaug State Park. This is not a rugged wilderness.
Spent the three days just poking around the area, wandering , seeing  few local sites, and just relaxing. Very low-key.

Thur. Morning scenic drive to West Cornwall (covered bridge); afternoon wandering around village of Kent (live music at various outdoor venues)
Fri. Gunn Memorial Library & Historical Museum; Institute for American Indian Studies, both in Washington.

  Breakfasts:  Wed. home;  Thur. Nine Main Cafe, New Preston; Fri.  Noel's concession stand at Lake Waramaug State Park.
  Lunches:     Wed. picnic lunch (food from home) at cabin; Thur. J.P. Gifford Market and Catering Company, Kent followed by Ice Cream at Annie Bananie (note 9/28/19: permanently closed); Fri. Picnic at Black Rock State Park, Watertown (food from Marbledale Citco Quik Mart, New Preston)
  Dinners:  Wed. at cabin; Thur. Fantastic splurge meal on the terrace at Hopkins Inn on Lake Waramaug. 


Reading this week:
This week the "Deal Me In" card is the King of Clubs; the selection is Chung Wenyin, Flesh and Bone Translated from the Chinese by Jennie Chia-Hui Chu
A Taiwanese daughter visits a healer at her mother's insistence.

online....
The Designers Who Made Disco: "The nightclub has always been a fiercely creative and radical architectural typology, a new exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum argues."  by Alice Bucknell

Gutenberg finds...
My Year in a Log Cabin by William Dean Howells
Will download this to Kindle and read next time we stay in a log cabin.

The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre
Didn't read yet.

from the library...

Murder in the Museum by John Rowland
I picked up this British Library Crime Classic at a library book sale as a relaxing read on a little trip. Perfect choice. I read it in a couple of days and left at a little free library at the campground.

Granada by Radwa Ashour; translated from the Arabic by William Granara 
Interesting novel  of a Moorish family during the Inquisition.

Knots: Stories by Gunnhild Øyehaug; translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson
A little uneven; mostly good. 

Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives by Sarah Williams Goldhagen
Meh.  

June (second week) 2018 Reads & Day Trips

There was lots of meandering this week:
   Sunday drive - This time in Fairfield County, CT. with lunch Easton Village Store and ice cream at Holy Cow in Newtown.
   Wednesday picnic - Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT. A gorgeous day to view Long Island Sound and the islands. Did not tour the house, it's open on weekends only.
   Thursday Shopping - three specialty food markets.
      The Olive Bazaar in Berlin, CT - Middle Eastern specialties, halal meats, fresh produce & bakery,  frozen ingredients and entrees, dairy, bulk and packaged staples, lots of special treats. Clean and roomy, a fun place to shop. Owners very helpful and friendly.
      Asia Grocers in Cromwell, CT - large, clean, well stocked with a beautiful produce section. Plenty of Asian foods (mostly Indian). The most "supermarket-like" place of the three.
      Euro Grocery, Rocky Hill, CT - Mostly Greek, but they do have some other European foods. A small shop with a good cheese selection.
  Friday Picnic - This time by the Connecticut River at Haddam Meadows State Park, Haddam, CT
  Saturday Picnic - Picked up picnic stuff at Highland Park Market in Farmington and drove to Topsmead State Forest, Litchfield, CT for picnic and house tour.

There was also a library trip in there somewhere, Wednesday? No, it was Thursday. Picked up 5 books I had requested + 5 from browsing. 

The reading this week...

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Four of Spades; the selection is Together With Chicken by Jung Young Moon; translated from the Korean by Jung Yewon (in A Most Ambiguous Sunday, and Other Stories)
I'm enjoying these offbeat stories.

online... 
What better reading for our day trip season than this?  An Illustrated History of the Picnic Table by Martin Hogue. 

I've been exploring the first issue of Panel Magazine. This Budapest based magazine looks promising.

I love this house! One of my recent enthusiasms is looking at houses with indoor swimming pools. This pool isn't exactly indoor, but then it's not exactly outdoor either.

Issue 52 of The Quarterly Conversation is full of good stuff: Emma Ramadan on being a translator;  Chad Post makes me want read a 640 page book I would never have considered if I hadn't read his review of Lost Empress* by Sergio de la Pava; and J. Daniel Elam reviews Alan Hollinghurst's The Sparsholt Affair makes me so glad I read the book. I'm hesitant to read more of this issue--my TBR list is already so long....
*am delighted to find I can get this at my local library.

Speaking of Chad Post, The Reykjavík Grapevine has a good post about Chad's Open Letter Books.
Ten Years in Translation: US Publisher Of Icelandic Fiction Open Letter Books Fills A Decade

I spent a lot of time browsing at The Reykjavík Grapevine, which bills itself as "Your essential guide to life, travel and entertainment in Iceland." 

from the library...

The People in the Photo by Hélène Gestern; translated from the French by Emily Boyce and Ros Schwartz. A fun read.

Black Vodka: Ten Stories by Deborah Levy 
Can't go wrong with Levy.

from my shelves...

The Tidings of the Trees by Wolfgang Hilbig; translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole