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Ducks, Newburyport by Ellmann, Lucy 5+ stars
This would be at the top of my "Best of 2019 List" if I made such lists. Fun discussions on the Two Month Review podcast. I had to read ahead of the group because the library wants it back.
Five Stars:
Olive, Again by Strout, Elizabeth
Olive Kitterage: do you love to hate her? or is it the other way around?
The Parisian by Hammad, Isabella
Shedding light on Palestine between the two world wars...
The Man Who Saw Everything by Levy, Deborah
Four Stars:
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Shafak, Elif
What it's like to live on the fringe in Turkey. (Would have another star except for the slapstickish bit toward the end)
It Would Be Night in Caracas by Sainz Borgo, Karina; translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer
Three Stars:
The Confession Club (Mason, #3) by Berg, Elizabeth
I needed something like this to break the intensity of Ducks and this worked but it's just a little too sweet.
Two Stars:
Agent Running in the Field by le Carré, John
So what does a Cold War specialist do when the Cold War is gone? He creates a has been spy who is just as confused and uncertain in his loyalties. He's like an athlete who plays one match too many before retiring.
The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Féret-Fleury, Christine; translated from the French by Roz Schwartz.
Maybe this should have been titled "The girl who pretended to read on the train and got into a mess."
Nonfiction
The Movie Musical! by Basinger, Jeanine
Loved this film history. Give it 5*
The Yellow House by Broom, Sarah M.
Memoir of a family displacement from Hurricane Katrina. 4*
Starlight Detectives: How Astronomers, Inventors, and Eccentrics Discovered the Modern Universe by Hirshfeld, Alan W. 4*
Much of the technical detail was a bit over my head (not sorry for the pun) but I enjoyed the historical overview and the biographical information. Free finished copy from Publisher as an extra from a LibraryThing giveaway.
Online...
The day the Crystal Lake dam breached by Jordan Fenster
A bit of local history.
The world's oldest-known recipes decoded by Ashley Winchester
When I was reading the list of ingredients for one of the recipes I came across "1 c rocket, chopped." I've often come across "rocket" in my reading and realized from content that it was some sort of green. I never bothered to look it up but this time I did and found out that it is Arugula, or, Eruca vesicaria.
On Project Gutenberg...
The Book Of The Bayeux Tapestry: Presenting the Complete Work in a Series Of Colour Facsimiles; The Introduction & Narrative by Hilaire Belloc; Chatto & Windus; 1914
The Cubies' ABC by Mary Chase Mills Lyall; illustrated Earl Harvey Lyall, 1913, Putnam
This send-up of the Cubists was a response to the Armory Show which introduced the movement to the USA. Here's a sample (original spacing & size not retained):
’s for Kandinsky’s Kute “improvisations”—
The Kubies abound in delight for his art:
They say there’s a Klue to his Kryptic Kreations.
By means of Picabia’s deep ratiocinations
Some day we may really decipher his heart.
—K’s for Kandinsky’s Kute “improvisations.”
