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...
Not long ago I read a book by Sy Montgomery about another farm animal that is not especially appealing to me. That one was about a lovable pig; this one works to convince people of the appeal and intelligence of chickens. I can’t say that either of them moved me to think I might be fond of either of these animals. Though I am persuaded that other species in the animal kingdom have much...
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...
It was the enthusiasm of Reading Matters that moved me to put this Booker Prize winning novel by a British author on my Books to Read list in 2023. In the past I have enjoyed seeing videos of Chris Hadfield brushing his teeth in the space station, and that was the extent of my knowledge. This novel does an amazing job of putting you in the minds of those who do this work by following the six...
The author says she has always connected more readily with non-human creatures than with her fellow humans. In fact she credits her pet pig Christopher Hogwood, named for the British conductor, with her increased ability to enjoy other people. She and her husband Howard adopted Chris when he was a runty little fellow on a nearby farm in New Hampshire. He thrived in their care, was able to escape...