Finished reading: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett 📚
I came for the essays on the craft of writing, but stayed for her views on RV life, dogs, opera, marriage, friendship, etc. An eclectic collection, but all Ann Patchett. What a writer. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner 📚
A poignant novel on retirement, the fleetingness of life, and all those many paths not taken. One to savor. ★★★★★
Finished reading: The Elephant Whisperer by Anthony Lawrence 📚
I enjoyed these episodic adventures in the wilds of South Africa amongst elephants and the incredible struggle to preserve and cohabitate with these massive and intelligent animals. An Immense World by Ed Yong introduced me to the ways in which elephants see the world from a scientific basis. Here, the author tells the story from practical experience.
Anthony is a good storyteller. Much of the book feels more like a suspense novel than memoir. The writing isn’t great, but the stories are good enough to look past that.
What I didn’t expect was the sadness mixed in with the joy. There were hard losses sprinkled throughout the book that spoke to the necessary interchange between growth and decline, life and death. I was pretty emotional at the end with the loss of two brave souls, one then the other.
I was saddened to learn that Anthony passed away a few short years after publishing this book. May he rest in peace with the knowledge of the incredible legacy he left behind. ★★★★☆
Currently reading: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett 📚
Finished reading: Spook Street by Mick Herron 📚
The fourth Slow Horses book was fun. These books follow a formula, yet are so well written. Now I can watch the Apple TV version … ★★★★☆
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Finished reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚 My straight-through reading of this mammoth 11-volume history continues. Volume VIII shares a detailed view of Europe in the 17th Century. So much war and bloodshed and atrocity, and yet brilliance too. From Durant: Let us agree that in every generation of man’s history, and almost everywhere, we find superstition, hypocrisy, corruption, cruelty, crime, and war: in the balance against them we place the long roster of poets, composers, artists, scientists, philosophers, and saints.
Finished reading: Somehow by Anne Lamott 📚
I loved Lamott’s Bird by Bird memoir on the writing craft. The writing here was good, but forced. Too many similes, too many quotes from others. Great life advice: be kind to yourself & others, all we need is love, etc., but too much hand-wringing. ★★★☆☆
Book-wrapt — that beneficent feeling of being wholly imbooked, beshelved, inlibriated, circumvolumed, peribibliated …
— The Private Library by Reid Byers 📚
Finished reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚
I’ll read anything that Amor Towles writes. He’s one of my favorite living writers. This collection of six short stories and a novella hit the mark, though each left me wanting more, to know happens next. A master storyteller. ★★★★★
Wednesday, September 4, 2024 →
I was getting tension headaches from too many hours of looking down at a book at night, so I bought this Levo book stand. It holds the book securely and rotates into any position I need, even fully reclined. Expensive, but worth it. Headaches are gone!
For fun, I asked ChatGPT to create a cover image for an essay I wrote. The essay mentions old books and a Kindle: note the hybrid book/eReader lit by candlelight, and how the leather wing chair barricades the door. “Don’t bother me, I’m reading,” it seems to suggest. ❤️❤️❤️
Currently reading: Somehow by Anne Lamott 📚
Finished reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚
Currently reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚
Currently reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚
Finished reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚
Who knew a book about Chess could be so intense! This was a great, great book. ★★★★★
Currently reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚
Finished reading: City of Glass by Paul Auster 📚
A strange meta-detective novel with an unreliable narrator who slowly dissolves into insanity. I followed maybe half of the literary and Biblical allusions. Not at all what I expected, but oddly satisfying.
Currently reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚
Finished reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚
My quest to read all eleven volumes of Durant’s Story of Civilization continues. Volume VII has returned to the shelf with hundreds of scribbles and notes and many, many exclamation marks. If you think the world is crazy now, you ought to revisit these darker times of wholesale human butchery, religious wars and inquisitions. This has been an eye-opening and hair-raising experience.
Finished reading: Here is New York by E. B. White
Finished reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚
Finished reading: Move on Down to Mexico by 📚
Finished reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚
Currently reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚
Currently reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚
Finished reading: You Like It Darker by Stephen King 📚
This is a wonderful collection of short stories and novellas by our generation’s master storyteller. I enjoyed every piece, but particularly liked Rattlesnakes, a sequel of sorts to Cujo. It’s meditation on the persistent grief of losing a child masquerading as ghost story. I’ve read most of Stephen King’s shorter works. This newest one tops them all.
Finished reading: Dead Lions by Mick Herron 📚
My second Slow Horses book and just as good as the first. There were a few more departures in this book frm the TV version, which kept me guessing. Herron is a talented writer.
Currently listening: The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚
How could it be that my wife of 27 years, a bookworm like me, has never read The Lord of the Rings? We’re heading out on an extended roadtrip in our little RV, and we were struggling to agree on an audiobook for the journey. When I learned she hadn’t read these books, it was easily decided. I can’t think of a better story to complement a cross-country adventure!
Currently reading: Dead Lions by Mick Herron 📚