This novel by Louis Bayard focuses on some aspects of the life of Oscar Wilde, the playwright and novelist who spent two years in prison for sodomy and gross indecency. His libel suit against the father of one of the objects of his affection resulted in his criminal conviction, as the accusation made by the Marquess of Queensberry was factual. This book focuses on his family members, chiefly his...
After watching a four-part series made in 2016 called Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit, I looked for an audiobook by her. She was on the screen every minute, along with views of the Roman Empire beginning with Rome and going to the far reaches of empire from the north of Britain to North Africa. It was an engaging series and I am now a fan of Mary Beard, a classics scholar...
Fifteen years ago I read a book about this same period and, as in this one, Manet was a central figure. Judgment of Paris juxtaposed Manet and Messonier and how the hardly-known Messonier was rich and revered at that time while Manet was reviled then and is much respected now. The Second Empire and the terrible year of the war with Prussia, the siege of Paris, and the Commune were also a focus...
My friend Jim mentioned listening to this book and that has prompted me to do the same. And for that I must thank him as this as it has been a fun audiobook listen. The Hippie Trail is the journey made by young western travelers with no money that stretched from Istanbul to Kathmandu and beyond. It was popular from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s and ended with the Islamic Revolution in Iran and...
It was thanks to Cathy’s mention of reading this that I decided to dive back into Greek myth territory. My last book there was the wonderful Ithaca by Claire North. This one takes us to Achilles, and reminds us of that vulnerable bit of our body, the Achilles tendon. I have to say right up front that in this version, he doesn’t die from an arrow shot into that part of his body, the...
I do love a book that takes me into a new world. This memoir by an indie-rock musician whose mother was Korean, her father American did take me to a new place. Her focus is her time growing up in Eugene, Oregon as a difficult child, a more difficult teenager, and then her mother’s cancer diagnosis and death when she was 25 years-old. After reading comments on Goodreads, I wondered if her...
In 2009 on a break from looking at online real estate listings for houses in his price range, Bill Dedman was distracted by the most expensive house for sale in New Canaan, Connecticut for $24 million dollars. The house had been unoccupied since this owner bought it in 1951. He first learned the name of the owner, Huguette Clark, then everything else he could learn about this reclusive woman...
This 24-hour-long audiobook was ideal for me at this time. And while Robert Massie’s 624-page treatment of Catherine the Great could have been overwhelmed by dull facts or obscure political struggles, it was consistently engaging. I was happy to have this to listen to as I worked on jigsaw puzzles. Catherine the Great lived from 1729 to 1796 and reigned as empress from 1762 until her death...
I will begin by saying that I prepared for the “worst case scenario” for my medical procedure on January 27 to remove cancer cells from my face by arranging for plenty of food and help, as well as an audiobook and print book that I had underway. It turned out that I was not able to read or listen to an audiobook for about a week. I am happy to be better at last and have finished the...
This book was a good audiobook for a frigid winter week as it takes place during the beach week of a family with grown kids who all love good food. Our narrator is Rocky, the mother, who by her account is always mad and not always sure why, and whose default is to worry about what bad thing might happen. And oh yes, she’s experiencing menopause and has some pretty detailed descriptions of...