Having appreciated Intimacies by this author, I was eager to read this new one, published in April. And I loved it. First, because it threw me off balance and then with a closer look, it was the artistry that pleased me. It’s appropriately set in the world of theatre as it examines how we live our lives as the roles we inhabit, sometimes for our whole lives, sometimes for shorter periods...
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...
It was Tony’s enthusiasm for it that encouraged me to read this book by an author I haven’t read in decades. And I’m so glad I did as it grew on me as I read. I kept wondering why I found such a low key book so engaging. We learn at the outset the narrator is a prep school administrator with limited skill in social interactions, according to the headmistress. Gail works hard to...
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...
Although I have long been a fan of the Australian Charlotte Wood, I hesitated to begin this one until I read Ron Charles’ enthusiastic review. I wasn’t sure I would appreciate a book with little plot and lots of musings, but I agree with Ron Charles, it is extraordinary. The narrator begins by describing a visit to a monastery she makes seeking solitude. We learn little about her life...
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...
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...