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 

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

October 2019 Reading

A nice mix this month. Yesterday I hurt my hand carrying an especially heavy bag (of books, of course,  what else is there?). So I couldn't do anything but read, hence I read One Day in one day.

 

Fiction:

The Women’s Courtyard by Khadija Mastoor; translated from the Urdu by Rockwell, Daisy (5 stars) The Shadow King by Mengiste, Maaza  (5 stars)

Frontier by Xue, Can; translated from the Chinese by Gernant and Chen Zeping  (5 stars)

Girl, Woman, Other by Evaristo, Bernardine  (5 stars) 

We, the Survivors by Aw, Tash  (4+ stars)

The Memory Police by Ogawa, Yōko; translated from the Japanese by Snyder, Stephen  (4+ stars) Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels by Libling, Michael (3+ stars) 

Grand Union: Stories by Smith, Zadie (2 stars--so disappointing because I liked Swing Time so much)

Women Within by Parrish, Anne Leigh (2- stars--the rather abrupt ending really bothered me)

Nonfiction:
Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box by Albright, Madeleine K. (4+ stars)
Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay by Zickefoose, Julie (4 stars)
One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America by Weingarten, Gene 4 stars)
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith (4 stars)
Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright by Hendrickson, Paul  (3+ stars)
Scholars of Mayhem: My Father's Secret War in Nazi-Occupied France by Guiet, Daniel C. and Smith, Timothy K (3+ stars)
To Feel the Music: A Songwriter's Mission to Save High-Quality Audio by Young, Neil  (3 stars)

Reading notes:   

I love it when stuff like this happens.

While I was reading The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, a novel set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia:
   Abiy Ahmed Ali, the current prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
   and A new Ethiopian restaurant opened in my town

Then, while I was reading the Frank Lloyd Wright bio, I serendipitously stumbled on this cool map from Home Advisor: A map of Frank Lloyd Wright homes in (nearly) every state.

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

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)

October (second week) 2018 Reads and day trips

Saturday - a return to Rodgers Orchards in Southington. In addition to an apple pie for home we got an apple cider slush and an apple cider donut each. Couldn't wait to get home so we stopped by Memorial Boulevard Park in Bristol for a snack.

Sunday - Picnic - food from River Valley Provisions (95 Bridge Road, Haddam); Picnic at
Hurd State Park, East Hampton.

Wednesday (an unseasonably warm day) - Picnic -  Food from The Bronx Deli in Oxford CT. Picnic and walk at Southford Falls State Park Southbury. And on the way home ice cream at Sweet Claude's Ice Cream in Cheshire.

Saturday - Leaves are turning so we explored Suffield, Granby, and a little of the part of Massachusetts that dips into Connecticut. Lunch at Three Figs in Suffield. Went for dessert at Lost Acres Orchard in North Ganby. Too full from lunch to eat more so we got some apple dumplings, some gingersnaps, and a loaf of cheese bread. Had the dumplings for supper at home. Delicious.

Read this week:

The "Deal Me In" card this week is the Eight of Hearts; the selection is Viewer, Violator by Aimee Bender (in Watchlist : 32 stories by persons of interest)

Gutenberg find...
Hawaiian Flowers by Loraine E. Kuck and Richard C. Tongg; Illustrated by Ted Mundorff
Pretty to peruse.

from my shelves...excellent issues of two of my favorite periodicals...

Korean Literature Now (Vol. 41, Autumn 2018) edited by Agnel Joseph
Two Lines: World Writing in Translation (Issue 29), The Japanese Vanguard edited by CJ Evans

August (third week) 1018 Reads

Sunday day trip - an afternoon drive to and around Cogamond Lakes.
Ice cream at Moolicious Farm, 258 Feeding Hills Rd. (Route 57), Southwick MA.


This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Two of Hearts; the selection is
Testimony of Malik, Israeli agent, prisoner #287690 by Randa Jarrar (in Watchlist : 32 Stories by Persons of Interest)

Online...

Fact and Fox: enter the world of Dubravka Ugrešić’s new novel, a visceral study in elusiveness

Georgi Gospodinov: enter the world of the Bulgarian writer taking on empathy, sorrow and stereotypes

from the library...

In The Shade Of Spring Leaves: The Life Of Higuchi Ichiyo, With Nine Of Her Best Stories
by Ichiyō Higuchi: Introductory biography and translation of stories by Robert Lyons Danly

from my shelves...
 
At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien; Introduction by William H. Gass

August (second week) 2018 Reads

 A quiet week - no trips (weather), well I did go to the library.

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Eight of Diamonds; the selection is Fanutza by Konrad Bercovici (in The Best Short Stories of 1921)
Ah well...

Gutenberg find...

The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — Complete by Charles James Lever (originally published 1939)
I'm going to try to read at least some of this. I have to after I spent too much time getting it onto my Kindle...






from the library...

Quicksand by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki; translated from the Japanese by Howard Hibbett
To me this seemed a bit soap opera-ish.

One Station Away by Olaf Olafsson and Walking Into the Night by Olaf Olafsson
I loved both of these.

July (first week) Reads

No day trips during the beastly heat wave--just a quick trip to the library.

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Three of Diamonds; the story is De Amicitia (in Orientations by W Somerset Maugham)

Online... 

The Guardian's Poem of the week: Typewriter by Matthew Francis 
Loved the poem; the commentary (by Carol Rumens) following was OK even if it did remind me of those dreary lit classes where we picked at a writing until it was completely dead. 

'My daring grandfather took a bit of East Berlin for himself' by Elaine Chong
The story of  the Treehouse on the Wall, das Baumhaus an der Mauer.

from Project Gutenberg... 


Cliff Dwellings of the Mesa Verde by Don Watson
Published in 1954 by the Mesa Verde Museum Association, Mesa Verde National Park. Colorado
Many photographs. I think I used this as a source for one of my junior high term papers.




from the library...

Fire and Knowledge: Fiction and Essays by Péter Nádas; translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein

 from my shelves... 

Just Call Me Superhero by Alina Bronsky; translated from the German by Tim Mohr 

Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono; translated from the Japanese by Angus Turvill 

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García

April (fourth week) 2018 Reads

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Ten of Clubs; the story essay is The Unexpected Scent of Salad by Yasujiro Ozu; translated from the Japanese by Adam Kuplowsky

Yasujiro Ozu (1903–1963) was a film director and screenwriter. These are selections from his prose writing for periodicals. Marunouchi Staffage: A tour of Tokyo’s commercial strip (1933); The Unexpected Pleasures of Riding Trains (1937); and Here We Are, on Narayama: A few words about my mother (1958).

from my shelves...

Sphinx by Anne Garréta; translated from the French by Emma Ramadan
Stunning!

Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations by Sarah Cleave (Editor), Anoud (Contributor),
Wajdi Al-Ahdal (Contributor), Ubah Cristina Ali Farah (Contributor), Najwa Binshatwan Contributor), Rania Mamoun (Contributor), Fereshteh Molavi (Contributor), Zaher Omareen (Contributor) , Ruth Ahmedzai Kem (Translator), Basam Ghalayini (Translator), Perween Richards (Translator), Sawad Hussain (Translator), William M. Hutchins (Translator), Hope Campbell Gustafson (Translator)
An anthology of stories from writers from the countries whose people the Trump administration wants to exclude from immigration to the USA. Some of these stories are excellent, one or two are not so great, but all give a very human look at the plight of refugees. 

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
I enjoyed this charming epistolary novel. She is in England dealing with a so-so marriage, he is in Denmark grieving the loss of his wife.
Free advance review copy 

Sleeping Mask: Fictions by Peter LaSalle
Very nice short stories. Definitely a keeper to reread.  Publisher sent me a free copy along with an advance review copy of another title (one I requested) through LibraryThing.

January (third week) 2018 Reads

Only brief notes and no images on the blog this week. But I have been reading.
 
The  "Deal Me In"  card this week is the 4 of Diamonds. It brings a nice, old fashioned ghost story: The Shadows on the Wall (in The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural,  by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman).
Freeman (1852-1930) was an American writer. She lived in Massachusetts and Vermont and wrote about New England life. Much of her work is available on Project Gutenberg and also on American Literature.com. 

from the library...

Karate Chop: Stories by Dorthe Nors; translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken 
Loved these stories.

The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki: translated from the Japanese by Edward Seidensticker 
If Jane Austin had been Japanese....

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor 
A beautifully written book that doesn't go anywhere. 

from my shelves...

The Golden Cockerel & Other Writings by Juan Rulfo: translated from the Spanish by Douglas J. Weatherford

November (third week) 2017 Reads

Browser problems this week so post is light on images.


Deal Me In Story:  The cat in the attic by Valerie Martin  (Sea Lovers: Selected Stories)
Not a bad story, but I don't care much for her style. I won this collection in a GoodReads giveaway, read a few of the stories and decided not to review it. Lots of animals being mistreated by people.  Not sure why it's still on my shelf or why I put it on my roster--maybe I decided to give it another try. Will donate to book sale.

 Card: Nine of Hearts: Not looking for a card image this week.

from my shelves...

North Station by Suah Bae; translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith
I did not like this as much as I liked her Recitation and A Greater Music.

A Son at the Front: A Library of America eBook Classic by Edith Wharton (Kindle
A nice freebie (with no strings attached) from the publisher. 

Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera
Novel of Sri Lankan Civil War and Sri Lankans in exile in California.
Free advance review copy.

Bat City Review, Issue 8, 2012

Botchan by Sōseki Natsume (Kindle ed.): translated (1918) from the Japanese by Yasotaro Morri
An enjoyable read. This classic 1906 Japanese novel tells of the adventures of a novice school teacher in a small rural community.
(Also available on Gutenberg)


 Gutenberg finds...


When I Was a Boy in Japan by Sakae Shioya; published in 1906
What a happy find--just as I was about halfway through  Botchan by Sōseki Natsume. Both books were first published in 1906. Botchan is a novel about a young teacher in a rural school. The purpose of this memoir "...is to provide an introduction by telling some of the experiences which are common to most Japanese boys of the present time, together with some account of the customs and manners belonging to their life."



California Missions: A Guide To The Historic Trails Of The Padres, by Karl F. Brown; Illustrated With Seventy-Eight Photographs by Floyd Ray; Foreword by Rexford Newcomb; 1939, Garden City Publishing
Just fun to look at all the old photos.

San Juan Bautista

San Buenaventura

November (first week) 2017 Reads

The story for this week is one of the best from my roster, the rest of my reading was also good stuff. (well almost all of it was good.)

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story:   The Song the Owl God Himself Sang, “Silver Droplets Fall Fall All Around,” An Ainu Tale .
Transliterated in Romaji and translated from Ainu into Japanese by Chiri Yukie; Translated from Japanese into English and introduced by Kyoko Selden

This is wonderful. The introduction is quite detailed on the interesting history of the work. The preface to the work, Ainu Shin’yōshū (Ainu Songs of Gods), in which this song was originally published is also included. The song itself tells a story of how the Owl God takes pity on a pauper family.

From the Preface: Long ago, this spacious Hokkaido was our ancestors’ space of freedom. Like innocent children, as they led their happy, leisurely lives embraced by beautiful, great nature. Truly, they were the beloved of nature; how blissful it must have been.

On land in winter, kicking the deep snow that covers forests and fields, stepping over mountain after mountain, unafraid of the cold that freezes heaven and earth, they hunt bear; at sea in summer, on the green waves where a cool breeze swims, accompanied by the songs of white seagulls, they float small boats like tree leaves on the water to fish all day; in flowering spring, while basking in the soft sun, they spend long days singing with perpetually warbling birds, collecting butterbur and sagebrush; in autumn of red leaves, through the stormy wind they divide the pampas grass with its budding ears, catch salmon till evening, and as fishing torches go out they dream beneath the full moon while deer call their companions in the valley. What a happy life this must have been. That realm of peace has passed; the dream shattered tens of years since, this land rapidly changing with mountains and fields transformed one by one into villages, villages into towns. 

From The Song: 
“Silver droplets fall fall all around me
golden droplets fall fall all around me.” So singing
I went down along the river’s flow, above the human village.
As I looked down below
paupers of old have now become rich, while rich men of old
have now become paupers, it seems.
By the shore, human children are at play
with little toy bows with little toy arrows.

 

Card: 7 Clubs, Owl deck from Scout Playing cards at Zazzle

This finishes the club suit for this year. This suit was defined for my roster as "Clubs--different format (narrative poem, short play or skit, graphic, clever title, narrative essay, etc.)." It was fun to set up and fun to do so if I participate again next year I may use it this way again.


from my shelves...
 



Chocky by John Wyndham,  Afterword by Margaret Atwood
My kind of sci-fi. A classic.

And I like the cover too...







Dazzling the Gods: Stories by Tom Vowler
Wonderful collection.  This is one I helped crowd fund through Unbound 
Glad I did that.

Another great cover...


 
 


Not One Day by Anne Garréta, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan
Memories of loves past.  Garréta is a member of Oulipo, but this work is not exactly Oulipo. She does set a rigid form--write at computer for five hours every day, with no revisions, for thirty days chronicling memories of women she has desired or has been desired by--but she doesn't stick to the program. So there are not thirty entries (she abandons the schedule early on) but what there is has wonderful insights, poetic writing and, at times, amusing encounters.

Old Demons, New Deities by Tenzin Dickie (Editor)

An anthology of contemporary Tibetan fiction. Some of these stories were written in English, others have been translated from the Tibetan or, in one case, from the Chinese. I enjoyed this look into the lives of Tibetan exiles.

 I must have been picking books from my to read shelves by cover this week.

 



Post Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven by Antoine Volodine, translated from the French by J.T. Mahany
The most difficult of this week's reads. A complicated fantasy world of experimental authors who are dying off in some sort of prison. When the last man dies there is no one left to tell the story but the story gets told. A book (and an author) to read and read again.

Not a dazzling cover but one that fits the material.



The Octopus: A Story of California (The Epic of the Wheat #1) by Frank Norris (Kindle ed)
I've been reading this off and on for several months--partly because it's on Kindle and I forget about it, but mostly because I found it a bit tedious. I would have appreciated it more if I had read it a long time ago when I was studying California history. Almost a bucket list read. Glad I read it, but also glad to scratch it off the list.

Image Googling will bring up some really fine covers for this, but I have used the generic, forgettable one from the Kindle edition to highlight my problem with remembering to read what is on my kindle.


Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family’s Quest to Heal the Land
by Scott Freeman, Susan Leopold Freeman (Illustrations)
A worthwhile book about an ecology project on a small piece of land in Washington state. This is a salmon breeding area so Freeman gives some background on what salmon need. The book covers the broader picture of how this small property fits into the wider ecology of the creek and the surrounding area and also why this small project matters in the world-wide ecological picture. One message here is: do what you can, every little bit counts.
A nice companion to Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees which I read in August.

free advance review copy from publisher.

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.