Finished Under the Dome by Stephen King and am now about a third of the way through Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristoff. What a horrifying book about the abuses perpetrated on women worldwide.
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard, about a 13-year-old boy and his mother in mid-'80s New Hampshire, who help an escaped prisoner and he changes their life. I’m only on Page 26 so I don’t know whether it’s for the good or for the bad. Told from the boy’s perspective and I’m liking it so far.
I’ve been bored this week so I’ve been rereading old SF: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold, All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman, Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson, and My Name is Legion by Roger Zelazny. (I was at a Goodwill store last week that had a nice selection of cheap books.)
But I’ve broken that streak and just started Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer.
My library didn’t have this (it’s a very small library and doesn’t get many new releases). It sounds interesting, though, so I’ll check back to see if one of the other libraries in the system has it.
I went with “The 19th Wife,” by David Ebershoff, which has been on my list for a while. It’s a novel that goes back and forth between one of the wives of Brigham Young and modern-day polygamists. I’m also starting “A Kiss Before Dying” by Ira Levin.
This is a great, great book. One of my all-time Haldeman favorites, along with The Forever War and Tool of the Trade. If you haven’t already, check out his 2006 short story collection, A Separate War and Other Stories. The title story is told from Marygay’s POV in the last years of the Forever War; the short story “For White Hill” in that collection is also superb.
Finished Dog Eat Dog, by Jerry Jay Carroll. Okay, but not as good as the first.
Now I’m on to The Intellectual Devotional : revive your mind, complete your education, and roam confidently with the cultured class, by David Kidder. Someone around here mentioned they got it for Christmas. It’s a page-a-day sort of thing, each day being a few paragraphs on a different subject. It is organized so that each day of the week is devoted to a certain category. Early on, I gave myself permission to skip all the Music pages, as the topic is completely impenetrable to me. I’ve been thinking about giving myself a pass on Philosophy as well. However, this morning as I was reading the boards, I caught a reference Northern Piper made to Plato, which a couple of days ago would have sailed right over my head, so maybe all this edumacation is doing me some good!
I’m taking a break from time to time with Our Front Pages : 21 years of greatness, virtue, and moral rectitude from America’s finest news source (The Onion).
I also just started a new audiobook, The Help, by Kathyrn Stockett. It seems really, really good so far, which is nice, since it took my husband about two days to download it to my iTouch. The iTouch is a nice toy, but after watching my computer-programming husband go through such difficulties just to get an audiobook downloaded from the library, I think it’s actually increasing my technophobia.
I read that a couple of months ago, and thought it was pretty good.
I’ve been interested in the subject of polygamy since I started watching Big Love on HBO, but I’ve never read any books on it. While I was at the library checking it out, someone noticed it and recommended “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer.
Back in a previous incarnation, I used to teach Religion in America. A lot of what was going on in the 19th century was a series of religio-socio-econo-cultural experiments, many of them involving variations on different kinds of marriage. Interesting stuff.
I also would recommend Krakauer’s book - a good, pungent critique of both historical and contemporary Mormon fundamentalism.
Dung Beetle, my wife’s book club read The Help and they all really liked it.
Last night I read my teenagers a bedtime story: Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies. We are all sorry to have missed it when we were young enough to be properly warped, but my daughter says she plans to inflict it on her own children.
Done. Pretty good if slightly fanciful.
I just finished Music Criticisms by Eduard Hanslick, translated by Henry Pleasants, who obviously identified himself closely with Hanslick. It was fascinating to get an eye-witness report about works that are now firmly established in the repertoire. I can’t say how it would read for the non-musician/non-historian, but I loved it. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only collection (spanning 1846 - 1899) of Hanslick’s critical writings that has been translated into English, which is too bad. My German is way too slow to make it a feasible project for me to read much further.
It was also fascinating to see how the role of a critic has evolved. Hanslick played through the score as often as possible, saw rehearsals and even dress rehearsal if possible and was under no obligation to turn in a review by the next morning, so that his judgement was carefully considered. It’s difficult to imagine in the context of what today’s critics have to go through.
It’s also interesting because poor Hanslick is now seen to be on the wrong side of history - Wagner in particular, but also Berlioz, Liszt, Richard Strauss, Bruckner et al are all part of the standard repertoire.
Among my favourite moments - the review of Brahms (from his first visit to Vienna in 1862; Hanslick was enthusiastic about Brahms the composer, less so about Brahms the pianist -
The review of the premiere of Schubert’s Eighth Symphony, the ‘Unfinished’, in 1865, was interesting for both the review and for the brief comment on the state of Schubert’s works at the time - Schubert died in 1828 and this symphony had only just come to light…
They don’t write reviews like that anymore; and what a delight to follow the course of musical history through the reports of such an eloquent eye witness. Even when I disagreed with his assessment, the depth of his analysis and the clarity with which he expressed his point of view made me respect him. Highly recommended.
And now, on to The Service, Paul Quarrington’s first book, and the only one I haven’t already read.
Just read two books on a noted British engraver, sculptor and font craftsman of the early 20th century, Eric Gill: The Engravings (1990) and The Engraved Work of Eric Gill (1963). He was a very talented guy with a very weird private life (his diaries are filled with cheery admissions of incest with his sister and daughters, as well as bestiality, although he was an ardent late-in-life Catholic). He had several famous friends, including the economist John Maynard Keynes, for whom he carved a picture of a couple having sex, with the engraved title, “Votes for Women.” She was on top, after all. :dubious:
It also makes one want to hear the music. I don’t know whether to budget for the book or for some Schubert!