Ffortsa fiddles around in 2020 second song

I caught this giant bulb and tiny ant in 2017 in Riverside Park. Suitable for late spring, I think.

My reading has been scattered during this pandemic. As much as I thought I'd have time, it gets away from me even more staying home. I've been sewing masks, doing my own housework (!), fiddling, watching TV, and sometimes even cooking. Walking too, in the teasing, wonderful weather. Unfortunately, it's all been coupled with eating, with predictable results.

A new ticker for a new activity. Last year, I decided to start playing my violin again. It's been quite an effort, and of course takes time away from the books, but I think they will get along over the year.

Last year I had an off-the-shelf ticker, but I hang my head in shame - only counted 7 books. I'll keep a count this year, but quietly.

Icons denote ebooks, library books, off the shelf, etc. modified from Bianca's list
♬ audiobook
✔ off the shelf
@ e-book
✿ TIOLI
↩ reread
✗ dnf

January -

1. @The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
2. @Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
3. @I Shot the Buddha by Colin Cotteril
4. @The Galapagos: A Natural History by Henry Nicolls
5. Blood From a Stone by Donna Leon
6. Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik
7. Gigi by Collette
8. Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
9. Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson
10. Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
11. Fatally Flaky by Diane Mott Davidson
12. Galapagos Wildlife by David Horwell
13. @Tehran Noir by Salar Abdah
14. How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden
15. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
16. @The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty
17. @A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
18. @I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty
19. @The Purrfect Murder by Rita Mae Brown
20. @A Voice in the Night by Andrea Camilleri
21. @The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lillian Jackson Braun
22. @In the Morning I'll be Gone by Adrian McKinty
23. @Still Waters by Viveca Sten
24. Through a Glass Darkly by Donna Leon
25. ♬Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
26. @The Chessmen by Peter May
27. @Games to Keep the Dark Away by Marcia Muller
28. @Ten Second Staircase by Christopher Fowler
29. @Negative Image by Vicki Delaney
30. @Circe by Madeline Miller
31. ♬Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
32. ✔Speedboat by Renata Adler
33. ✔Winter Count by Barry Lopez
34. ✔@Diamond Solitaire by Peter Lovesy
35. @Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon
36. @March by Geraldine Brooks
37. ✔The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
38. The Girl of his Dreams by Donna Leon
39. @In The Woods by Tana French
40. @The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg (dnf)
41. ✔ Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
42. @The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley
43. @The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
44. @The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
45. ✔The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
46. @The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson
47. @The Knowledge by Martha Grimes
48. @A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Dafoe
49. @Roseanna by Sjowall and Wahloo
50. @The Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser
51. ✔A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
52. ♬How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
53. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
54. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
55. @Cobalt by Nathan Aldyne
56. @The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
57. ♬My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
58. @Hornswoggled by Donis Casey
59. @First Degree by David Rosenfelt
60. @Blue Water Hues by Vicki Delaney (dnf)
61. ✔ Lugging Vegetables to Nantucket by Peter Klappert
62. ✔About Face by Donna Leon
63. ♬My Michael by Amos Oz
64. @The Surrogate Thief by Archer Mayor
65. @Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
66. @Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger
67. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

Magazines:
Scientific American July 2020
PaknTreger Journal of the Yiddish Book Center summer 2020
Smithsonian March 2020
Scientific American May 2019
Smithsonian September 2020
Smithsonian May 2020

Happy new thread, Judy.

Happy New Thread, Judy! Love the big bulb topper!

Happy new one, Judy!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Judy! I really like your topper picture.

Happy new thread, Judy.

Happy new thread, Judy. I know what you mean about thinking you'd have more time! It seems like there are a lot more things available than usual to fill up the available hours.

35. Suffer the Little Children by Donna Leon

This was a tough read. Brunetti is called to the hospital when a doctor is brought in after a raid by the cabinieri. In the process of investigating the incident, Brunetti learns of the practice of 'selling' babies to infertile Italian couples. But that is not the only way laws, human and moral, are imposed to do damage.

Happy new thread!

Thanks to Jim, Meg, Reba, KarenMarie, Anita, Mark, Katie and Paul for stopping by. I thin this is a personal best! And thanks for commenting on my topper.

The sun is out and I'm going to join it, appropriately dressed and all. I'll be back.

Judy, I miss you when I'm here for such a short time every day. I wish you good reading and hope to be back now and then on this particular thread of yours.

Thanks, Peggy. It is tempting to read through thread after thread, but there are many other things to do too - like reading!

Well, lots of excitement here yesterday. I live half a block from Union Square, which is a traditional and historic place for rallies and protests, and they sometimes tip out onto the street and become marches. That happened three times in the last two days, and I found myself leaning out my open window like a 15th floor yenta to keep an eye on things. After dark the activities became more alarming as people torched trash cans up and down 14th St. and up 5th Avenue as well. I'm not sure anything else was damaged here, but in other parts of the city I know police cars were set on fire and people were arrested.

Sigh. I can't blame people for protesting the horrific events of the past few weeks. But I do worry about provocateurs inciting police actions against more restrained demonstrators. There has been some evidence of this here, at least according to newscasts in the moment. Add to that the frustrations of the pandemic and its restrictive solutions, amplifying the tension.

I think of the J.D. Robb 'In Death' series and its talk of the Urban Wars. In my bleakest moments, I think of moving somewhere out in the country and planting vegetables.

Happy new thread, Judy!

>1 ffortsa: lovely picture, I would like to see that peony in full bloom.

Demonstrations continue. I can hear them chanting outside now.

I was going to post a picture I took this morning, but it comes up sideways (grr). I found a homeless person, covered up entirely, with a manikin on the blanket next to him, her head covered. It was probably stolen from a broken window a block or two south. But the image was so sad.

eta: had to crop the picture

>18 RebaRelishesReading: So many sad things the past days -- this one is right up there. I wonder what he wanted with it -- company?

Hi Judy--Love your topper photo! Happy new thread. : )

>10 ffortsa: I have to get back to Donna Leon's Brunetti series.

>17 ffortsa: : O

Stay safe.

36. March by Geraldine Brooks

March is Mr. March, husband of Marmee and father to the four girls in Little Women Brooks takes the opportunity to give us his story, from his point of view, in parallel with Alcott's Little Women, and as he writes home while troop chaplain and teacher of slaves, we learn about his early days, his courtship of Marmee, the pleasures and frictions of their marriage, and of course, the Civil War. It is a portrait of an earnest but largely clueless good man, confronting over and over the realities of slavery and war, learning a little, still somewhat clueless at the end. White privilege? a little. Male privilege? definitely. While the war might take center stage, I was intrigued with the insight into the marriage, and the way communication can be misconstrued and denied.

>20 ffortsa: - This one has been on my shelf for a while. I've liked all the Brooks I've read, so I really should get to it sooner rather than later...

>20 ffortsa: Great comments on March. Since it had been years (and years and years) since I had read Little Women I reread it just before reading March and was glad I did for the ability it gave me to compare the two perspectives. Both great reads, aren't they?

>22 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks for your comments. I haven't read Little Women since I was quite young, when I read that and Little Men and Jo's Boys all in a rush. The first sticks in my mind, the latter two not so much.

None of the mysteries I have lined up appealed to me, but Lauralkeet's ambition to read all of Toni Morrison sparked interest, and I found The Bluest Eye on my very own shelf. Now I'm most of the way through it. Quite captivating, and sad.

Happy new thread, Judy. Stay safe.

The Bluest Eye is an amazing first novel.

Hm. I've just taken a look at the new 'series' options in LT. My list of series seems to include any and all book titles that might be construed to be in a series of any kind, which I guess is legitimate, but not of that much use to me. Filtering through to a series I might care about, I realize again that I am not as scrupulous as I might be about entering titles I've read. Two are missing from the Sue Grafton series, for instance, and I can't find them in my library or on my threads. The perfectionist in me is crabby.

37. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

I can't believe I had this fine book on my shelf for so long and hadn't read it.

Morrison tells us the story of two girls, and two families, in a black neighborhood in Ohio. Claudia has a stable family life, and we see her go through the discoveries of childhood, the adventure of buying sweets, the trials of school and its social strata. Pecula's family is poor, and everyone finds her ugly and withdrawn. We learn her family's story, first sweet, then bitter; she longs for the bluest eyes, which will make her beautiful, happy, loved. That's not what happens to her.

Morrison's writing is luminous, never cliched, and her scenes and dialog are never strained, always vividly alive.

This is a FIRST novel. Wow.

>25 ffortsa: I have several books not entered in the series, mostly because I have only entered what I have read since joining and what's in my shelves (and I still have 8 to go there). Sigh. Not enough time in the day.

>26 ffortsa: Awesome, right? I think I may reread that one soon.

Happy Saturday!

Well, now I am unsure whether I've read The Bluest Eye. I haven't read it since starting on LT (2011) so I'm adding it to my wish list and will plan to read it soon.

I enjoyed March but I think The Year of Wonders is her masterpiece. Have you read it? I so recommend it.

Hi, Judy! I'm glad that you're staying safe and not only reading, but reading stuff that I know a bit.
Like Ellen, I enjoyed March. Don't you think her decision to make "Marmee" a childhood name is a little weird? In my mind it's so clearly what a young child might call her mother. I agree that *YofW* is the better book, and I've yet to read The People of the Book or Caleb's Crossing, so we both have good things to look forward to.
I've skimmed (when a student was reading it) but not really read The Bluest Eye . Morrison is amazing! Beloved still slips around in my head, and so does Paradise. More good stuff!

Hi, Kim and Ellen and Peggy! Nice to see you.

Ellen, The Bluest Eye is very compact, for all its flashbacks. I'm sure you could polish it off in a weekend.

I was wondering about Year of Wonders (ha). It certainly seems timely. I didn't remember Brooks wrote People of the Book too. Lots to read.

And yes, I always thought Marmee was the girls' name for their mother. It's quite strange as a childhood nickname.

I've just dragged the remainder of my summer clothes from my storage locker, since summer seems to have settled in. The locker is across town, about a mile each way, so it's a decent walk. Of course I should have taken one of our wheeled carts and didn't even think of it. Now I'll pack up the winter sweaters and heavy sweatpants and see what condition the summer stuff is in. I discovered some woeful holes in my favorite sweaters last year.

My obsession with mask-making is revealing creaky sewing skills. I tried out a new pattern today and sewed it backwards twice! Blech. I think the obsession has to do with not having that much else to do that feels of any consequence. My weekly exercise session (online) feels like medicine, and playing the violin alone is only a partial pleasure. The teaching gig is closed for the pandemic. All the chores feel like medicine too, of course. And there's only so much time I can spend sitting at this computer (who would have thought that?). Of course I could read...

Maybe it's just being indoors or in the same neighborhood in this beautiful season.

I think maybe I need a mystery.

Ah, sometimes the cure is the right mystery.

38. The Girl of his Dreams by Donna Leon

The body of a girl found drowned in a canal leads Brunetti to a Roma camp, one of many in Italy where people from eastern Europe have settles as refugees. He and Vianello have a hard time understanding a culture that sends children to steal, but that is how the young girl fell off a roof into the canal. Was she pushed?

Brunetti unwinds the case until he finds the likely sequence of events. In the meantime, he also discovers a so-called religious guru sucking contributions from gullible Venetians and renews acquaintance with a classmate of his brother who spent 20 years as a missionary to the Congo.

What surprised me the most in this novel was the occasional moodiness of Signorina Elletra. I hope we don't lose her in subsequent installments.

I just deaccessioned two books by Dostoyevsky, penalized for their age and tiny type. I'm not going to read The Devils with a magnifying glass!

>33 ffortsa: - I've done that with a lot of mass market paperbacks. Sometimes I check to see if the library has them and I make a note, so I remember I was interested in reading them.

>15 ffortsa: Hi Judy, I too am alarmed at the violence occurring in some of the protests. I understand the anger, but cannot understand looting and burning. I hope all is well and that you and Jim are enjoying the summer!

>16 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Linda. We are doing ok, feeling a little confined. Spring seems to have shot past us at record speed!

39. In The Woods by Tana French

I could not put this book down last night; consequently, 1am came and went.

It's mainly Rob Ryan's story, told from his POV, attempting to solve a murder in what was once his own hometown. It's also the story of his partner Cassie and their friendship. Ryan has suffered a trauma in his boyhood, in the same area as the murder, but he disguises it from almost everyone because he is desperate to solve the case, or maybe remember what he has blocked out of his mind about the events of his youth. As the strain begins to tell on him, he makes mistake after mistake, with all the best intentions.

I guessed the villain early on, and wondered how he didn't see it himself. But that's part of the story, of course.

Terrific read. I've never read Tana French before. I won't let go of her now.

Hmmm. I read the first Tana French too, loved it, bought the next, and haven't read it yet. What's with me?
(I just got off the phone with my dear hometown friend who is desperately worried about the Antifa in Seattle. I told her that while there was plenty to worry about, she could let that one go. Then I bit my tongue and changed the subject. Oh well.)

Hi Judy!

>37 ffortsa: I, too, loved In The Woods.

>38 LizzieD: Peggy, we're in the same boat here. I have all her Dublin Murder Squad books and they're patiently sitting on the shelves waiting for me to get going.

>37 ffortsa: - Such a good book! The second is good, too, but not as... And I still haven't gotten to the 3rd yet....

>38 LizzieD: It's sad that people have gotten frightened of nothing, as your friend has. We know who is spreading the fear, but believing him suggests a terrible feeling of vulnerability, beyond all topical logic.

From Berly's thread:

POPSUGAR Bookclub. Great game for book lovers. The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here.

Want to play? Copy this into your post. Look at the list and put an "👍" after those you have read.
80 for me!!

Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen 👍
2 The Lord of the Rings -JRR Tolkien 👍
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte👍
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 1/2👍
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 👍
6 The Bible - The Torah
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 👍
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 👍
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 👍
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 👍
11 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott👍
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 👍
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 👍
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 👍
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 👍
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkner
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 👍
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot👍
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 👍
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald👍
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 👍
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 👍
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 👍
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 👍
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck👍
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll👍
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 👍
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 👍
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 1/2 👍
34 Emma - Jane Austen👍
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 👍
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis 👍
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 👍
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 👍
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 👍
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 👍
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney👍
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 👍
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy👍
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 👍
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 👍
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert 👍
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 👍
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon👍
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 👍
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 👍
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon👍
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 👍
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 👍
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 👍
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 👍
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 👍
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 👍
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - HelenFielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 👍
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 👍
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 👍
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 👍
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce 👍
76 The Inferno - Dante 👍
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray👍
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens👍
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell👍
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro👍
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 👍
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 👍
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 👍
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid BLYTON
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 👍
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Eupery 👍
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 👍
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole👍
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 👍
97 The Three Musketeers - Aleandre Dumas 👍
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 👍
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers👍

I'm a little behind Kim - only 72. And a lot of the remaining ones are children's books I somehow missed, like The Wind in the Willows and Charlotte's Web.

Are we entitled to be insufferably smug?

I would have expected the BBC to be more careful about including works twice -- Hamlet & the Complete Shakespeare; The Lion, With, Wardrobe & The Chronicles of Narnia.

>43 ELiz_M: Hi! Yes, I noticed that. It saved me a little, as I read the Lion (etc) but not the whole series, and I know Hamlet quite well but there are some plays I might not have read or seen.

It's the children's books I really should catch up on. Jim has some, I think.

How are you doing in this mess? I can't imagine live performances of any kind coming back soon, and that must affect your work.

>44 ffortsa: Personally, I am doing fine. More importantly, none of my family or close friends have gotten sick. I am one of the few people still employed by my performing arts organization, even though they cancelled the entire Fall season (I still expect to be furloughed for a month or two if they really don't plan to resume operations until December).

I am such an introvert that there hasn't been much impact on my social interactions, but now that the weather has turned beautiful, it is harder and harder to remain content in my teeny-tiny Brooklyn studio. I miss brunch and working my shift at the co-op and visiting museums and just the feeling of being able to go where I want, when I want.

~deep breath~ Just a few more weeks....

>42 ffortsa: smug away, Judy -- you're way ahead of me :)

>45 ELiz_M: I'm really glad you haven't been furloughed yet, and that you haven't had any illness among your family and friends. No fall season. Ugh. We are both retired and healthy, but our extended families are not entirely unscathed.

And we have a bit more space than you do, in a one-bedroom apartment, but no terrace or other private outdoor space. (I think a studio would drive me mad.)

I've been walking everywhere, especially on these beautiful days. Early voting on Houston St., repeated trips to my storage locker, about a mile away, to get successively larger portions of my summer wardrobe - any excuse. But our friends are mostly way uptown, and I haven't risked the subways yet. That's the biggest problem.

>46 RebaRelishesReading: I wouldn't have thought I was that far ahead of you - not that it's a contest! I keep being distracted by other books, and by my book group reads. And there are some books I don't think I'll ever read. (Mitch Albom? Really?) But the gaps are interesting. Le tme know if you tackle anything we each haven't read. It will be an incentive.

>48 ffortsa: Yeh, I'm not sure why Albom's book is on the list either but I've read them both (were there more?) and my memory is that they're a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours with a cup of tea or glass of wine and do provide a few thoughts to ponder (briefly).

Grr. checking my series entries, I realized I hadn't entered a review for the second Fiona Griffiths mystery, and now I can't even find a note for when I read it. I HATE that.

40. The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg

I've decided not to finish this Scandicrime. Sadistic stories of abused and murdered women are something I can do without.

41. Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

I was reading through another book of (very) short essays, thinking that I should really read something longer, and as I was right next to my shelf, I picked one.

A young Englishwoman decides to go to India (somewhere in the 1970s, I think), after reading the letters of her grandfather's first wife, who abandoned him for a minor Indian prince. The stories run in parallel, and we see the India of the Raj and the India after the Raj through the eyes of two young women. The similarities and differences of the women and their situations make a satisfying double exposure.

This book won the Booker Prize in 1975.

> Exactly why I don't read Scandicrime, Judy. Is it the long, dark winters that makes them write that way?

Wow! I have a copy of Heat and Dust. It now climbs its way up Mt. Bookpile. Thanks, Judy.

>54 LizzieD: I'm eager to hear what you think of it.

I picked up an unread New Yorker from 2010 (I don't really understand my anal determination to read these past issues.) In an article about Eric Holder prosecuting Khalid Sheik Mohammed, I read this:

One demonstrator against the trial in a civilian, rather than a military court, had this to say:
"How can someone who is not an American have any right to our rights?"

I just don't understand this.

Hi Judy!

>42 ffortsa: A strange list indeed, but congrats on reading 72 of them. I, too, have read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe but not the entire series. I've read other Shakespeare, but not Hamlet, and not the complete Shakespeare.

I hope you and Jim are doing well.

>56 karenmarie: We are ok. Jim went to vote in Queens today (that's where his official address is), and I joined a small march that started a few blocks from me, but bailed about half-way along the route. I don't do well in the heat these days, and it wasn't even that hot. No other dramas unfolding here!

>20 ffortsa: I really like Brooks' books, including that one although that one is probably my least favorite of hers. Not exactly sure why, but it may have to do with my love of Little Women through the years.

>26 ffortsa: Yep, I still need to get to some Toni Morrison. I have tried Beloved twice and just could not get into it. Maybe The Bluest Eye would work better for me.

>37 ffortsa: You are in for a treat with Tana French's books, Judy!

>52 ffortsa: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation!

>57 ffortsa: No dramas unfolding is good these days!

I took my first subway ride since the pandemic sheltering started. I had joined a march that started at Washington Square, and it was fine, but by the time we got to Canal Street I was hot and late to st up my violin lesson, so I took a chance and jumped on the subway. I had taken gloves with me, so it felt pretty safe, and it was very empty.

Monday I get to see my dentist, and that's a little too far to walk if it's hot, so I might take yet another ride. It will be really nice to have more mobility as the city frees up, although the traffic is already beginning to annoy me!

>59 ffortsa: - Very brave!

>60 katiekrug: I'm hoping that my hairdresser is back at work on Monday and texts me that, because his salon is only a few blocks from my dentist and I can limit my subway exposure if I can fit them in on the same day. I'm not concerned about my hairdresser, since he has already recovered from Covid-19. Alas, he lost his partner of 35 years to the disease. Poor guy.

>55 ffortsa: More from this issue: a portfolio of portraits of Black activists, quite wonderful - but we are still there 10 years on.

>61 ffortsa: - Oh, how terribly sad!

>61 ffortsa: So sad for your hairdresser. I can imagine it would be extra hard to lose someone close to you when you can't do the normal rituals of grieving. Hope he's recovering and that you can see him soon.

"All of It" on WNYC, and the New York Public Library have joined in a project called 'GetLit', where each month there is a livestream discussion and other podcasts about one book. This month the book is The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, and the livestream date is June 30th. I started the book a few days ago, and made the mistake of allowing myself to get interrupted a few times. The story jumps around a bit, so be warned that interruptions don't serve. But I'm persevering.

>65 ffortsa: - Their program on My Dark Vanessa last month was excellent. I thought about joining this month, but the book doesn't hold much appeal for me.

I worked at the primary polls on Tuesday, which is normally a very long day and this year even longer, because we were short-handed and a lot of those who did work were new to the job. It's a good thing we didn't have a lot of traffic, although normally I wouldn't say that. But we had mail-in voting (for those whose mail-in ballots arrived in time!) and early voting, so maybe the turnout wasn't worse than usual for a not-so-interesting primary. But because of the new people, and extra districts in one polling place, the close took us twice as long as usual, so it was a 5AM to 11PM day. I'm still flattened.

I'm sorry it was such a tough day but good for you for volunteering!!

>68 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks. I might try to work some of the shorter early voting stints in November, although if we have another wave of COVID-19, the Board of Elections will be very short-handed again come November 3.

I took an old New Yorker to read and was amply rewarded. If you want to see what the end of February and first issue of March 2010 had to entertain me, you might look at my thread here. Sometimes these old issues are duds, but these were gems. I find if I don't annotate them, I tend to gloss over the articles in a sort of late-night haze.

42. The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley

I seem to be in the minority, but this entry in the Flavia de Luce series is, in my opinion, a total dud. Ophelia gets married, and an incident at the wedding sets up Flavia and Dogger on their first official 'case' as detectives. People drop dead, mysterious poisons appear, and the only saving grace is that cousin Undine is set to become the same sort of impossibly brilliant and wayward child as Flavia was and is. Flavia herself is overshadowed by Dogger, and is portrayed as unusually thick.

By the end of the novel I was falling asleep. Others found it hilarious. I found it empty.

>70 ffortsa: - I think the earlier entries in that series are much better than the later ones.

>52 ffortsa: In the mid-70s the Booker prize was in love with tales from the Raj and beyond as the winners in 73, 75 and 77 were all on that topic. Of the three I felt Heat and Dust was the weakest but still a good read for all that.

>55 ffortsa: That sort of comment makes me sad. Reminds me of when I was in Egypt and one of our guys had a traffic accident when an Egyptian drove straight into him at a junction. The Egyptian sued him as the Egyptian driver was inadequately insured. The Court found in the Egyptian's favour and asked my colleague to pay to restore his car and the court costs on the basis that if he hadn't come to Egypt the accident would not have happened.

Surely the USA is better than that.

>72 PaulCranswick: on the basis that if he hadn't come to Egypt the accident would not have happened.

Wow. That shows a very different way of thinking, even if it was just to justify the verdict. I think some people would say that in a weird self-justifying logic when things go wrong.

>73 ffortsa: It is more than 30 years ago, Judy, but still......

Yesterday Jim and I finally got around to seeing the Great Performances (PBS) recording of 'Red', about the abstract expressionist painter Marc Rothko. Alfred Molina played the artist and Alfred Enoch his assistant, over two years during which Rothko painted the famous Red murals that were intended for the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York. It's a straight-down-the-slope no-intermission duet that starts with Rothko in all his overbearing brilliance and ends with his assistant holding his own. The performances were wonderful, the physicality amazing. There's one scene where the two of them prime a canvas in a ballet of action that is breathtaking.

Rothko is at the point in his career where his work is being displaced by Pop Art, where he is known but no longer the leader. So we see the artist at the height of his power just as he is being pushed aside.

Very poignant and powerful. If you can get it on Passport from PBS, I recommend it.

I've been listening to How to Be An Antiracist and also My Family and Other Animals - nw there's a pair of books! Adn I have to read The Namesake before Tuesday's book group.

I also read
43. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

It was the subject of a GetLit interview, which I caught last night.

The book is the story of two half-siblings, a Ponzi scheme, growing up at the northern tip of Vancouver Island, a pretentious hotel there, and assorted other stuff. It's told in slices that flit back and forth in time and gradually come together like a jigsaw puzzle. Some people might not like the non-linear form, but I liked it a lot. The author has sympathy for all her characters, even the Ponzi schemer. Oh, and I forgot the ghosts.

The Glass Hotel - I've been refusing to look at it since I am overwhelmed at the moment, but the BB caught me squarely. Thanks, Judy.

I was excited to see the next GetLit book club choice is The Nickel Boys, which I have been wanting to read. Now no holds on the e-book at NYPL!

Oh, Katie, thanks for mentioning it. I didn't check to see what was coming up.

Hi Judy!

>77 LizzieD: Interesting juxtaposition, for sure. A friend is sending me her extra copy of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, also by Ibram X. Kendi.

I'll pick up The Glass Hotel, but still have The Lola Quartet on my shelves waiting to be read. I loved Station Eleven and The Singer's Gun.

I hope you and Jim have a good Saturday and 4th of July!

>80 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen. You and Bill too.

I was rearranging the furniture for my video physical training session this morning, when I happened to glance at the titles on one of the bookshelves. So many of these books are waiting to be read, some titles I didn't even recognize. It might take me two years to read them all. According to my book records here on LT, they number almost a thousand.

Sigh. I wonder how many of them I will really enjoy, and how many (and which) I could deaccession without ever even looking. Isn't it funny how some collections of things weigh one down?

In this difficult year with an unprecedented pandemic and where the ills of the past intrude sadly upon the present there must still be room for positivity. Be rightly proud of your country. To all my American friends, enjoy your 4th of July weekend.

Thanks, Paul. We are doing our best.

Unfortunately, a significant percentage of my fellow Americans seem to have lost their minds. Dysfunction seems to be the order of the day.

I hope your family can unite soon.

Hi Judy. The Glass Hotel sounds interesting.
I hope you all are well. And hanging in there.

>84 EBT1002: How nice to hear from you. Yes, I did find it interesting. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

And I hope you and P are well as well, of course.

Hi Judy! Woefully behind here. Glad you survived public transit unaffected and your reading seems to be going well. Nice of you to volunteer at the primary. Did you get your hair cut? (Sorry about his partner.) Wishing you a wonderful week!!

>86 Berly: No haircut yet. Scheduled for the 16th, at which time my hair will be longer than any time in the last 20 years. I did want to see how my real color was aging, and now I know that I'm about one-third grey or white. Not enough to quite coloring my locks!

The city is opening up bit by bit. Stores are open now, although indoor dining and gatherings are still prohibited. I've been getting out and walking when it's not too hot. Now if I could just eat a little less!

And I just finished both The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri and The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol. So things are ok.

I'm really glad Walt seems to have recovered finally.

44. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
45. The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol

I read The Overcoat because of its relevance to The Namesake. It's the longest story in my paper copy of a book of Gogol short stories, on my shelf forever and nearly too small type to read. I'm sure I read other Gogol short stories - I read a lot of Russian short stories in college - but I can't recall them now. I did read Dead Souls a few years ago for one of my f2f groups. Of course, it's a classic, and the clothes-make-the-man theme is relevant to more than just the Lahiri.

I had trouble at the beginning of The Namesake. Somehow the book didn't grab me until about 20% in (ah, Kindle influence showing there.) Then I was able to get more interested in Gogol and his trials, but felt throughout that something was lacking. I wasn't glued to this story and might not have finished the book if it weren't for the f2f group that met this Tuesday on Zoom. And others in the group voiced what I had only puzzled about. Gogol is not quite passive, but he becomes American by accepting circumstances he encounters in American society, whether that of a rich family in NYC or customs at Yale. It is only when his father dies that we see a hint of complexity. I wish there had been more of that. But this is Lahiri's first novel. Maybe Unaccustomed Earth is deeper.

currently reading:

How to Be an Antiracist (audio)
My Family and Other Animals (audio)
The Main Corpse

46. The Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson

Number 6 in Davidson's funny Goldy Schultz murder mystery series delivers its usual mixture of improbable escapade and terrific recipes. In this one, Davidson adds a sad-sack bloodhound to the usual mix.

The Glass Hotel is one of the books featured in the summer reading list for the Vancouver Writer's Festival. It sounds interesting and any of the books featured on the list will have the authors in the virtual festival most of which runs from Oct 19 - 25. There are so many writers events available online these days from all kinds of different places that it is hard to keep up!

Enjoy getting your hair cut at last, Judy. I really should go and get mine done too but something keeps coming up that I need to do instead.

Hi Judy. Your recommendation of In the Woods prompts me to try to find it somewhere in this house. I vow to take on the major project of noting where each book is in the house.

Hi Judy, thank you for visiting my thread and for posting the link to Chatauqua, which I am struggling to spell! I was particularly interested in their events around the anniversary of women's right to vote. I'd not heard of In the Country of Women so will have a look for that.

Reading your account of the BLM protests reminds me of the difference in living in a big city. Sometimes (despite the virus not respecting city boundaries) things have felt very disconnected from world events here.

I couldn't cope with the ending of In the Woods, but I can acknowledge (begrudgingly) that the fact it still makes me (a lot less now) cross is probably a sign of a well written book!

The library reading group sounds brilliant - and what a great book to choose next.

Hi Judy!

I've got My Family and Other Animals on my shelves and have tagged it '2020 read'. We'll see if that actually happens, of course, but maybe.

Hope you and Jim are doing well.

>91 Familyhistorian: Meg, nice to see you. I hope you enjoy The Glass Hotel. Mandel's interview here in NYC was quite enjoyable as well.

>92 Whisper1: Linda, hi! As I said, I did love the book, but it can be a tough read. Note Charlotte's response above.

>93 charl08: Charlotte, you're very welcome. I'll keep you in mind whenever I see a link to a book festival. Note the comment in Meg's post above yours. You can put the Vancouver Festival on your October calendar.

The protests seem to have quieted down a little, although they still occur. The virus, the weather (hot, with downpours lately), and maybe just a little protest fatigue may be the cause. I hope the people who protested get to registering voters for November.

>94 karenmarie: Karen, this is a very funny book, and the audio has a luscious British male voice. A very soothing read.

Sigh. Trying to tackle chores around here. When we got our new(ish) rug for the bedroom, the bedframe ended up slightly more away from the wall, and things we used to perch under the headboard fell through. So today we moved everything out of the way, took the bed apart (it's a platform with drawers) and tried to reset it. Unfortunately, we couldn't seem to get it closer to the wall, so we still have the problem. Jim bought a pool noodle, which I thought I could cover with a cheerful fabric, but it is too narrow. I'll have to wrap it in batting or bubble wrap or something, and then cover it. Sigh.

And I'm trying to decide on a sewing table. I've gotten to the point of looking for adjustable height folding tables (instead of children's desks), but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I should probably just close my eyes and click.

And my order of new baking sheets from Wayfair came, and the larger one will not fit in my oven. Rats. It's just about an inch too long. So I've been trying to return it, but the website isn't cooperating.

One of those weekends.

>96 ffortsa: It's so frustrating when doing one little thing triggers a chain of problems to solve!! Sorry you're dealing with that and hope you get it all worked out soon.

>97 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks. Things have a way of working out most times. The Wayfair website was working today, and I took the box of oven baking shhets over to FedEx to return. I realized that the typical foam roller was a good diameter for the bed problem, so i will try to get one of the styrofoam ones that can be cut to size. I bought a folding sewing table, but may have to get rid of an old chair to make room for it open. Oh well.

And I balanced all our accounts today, did my exercises, practiced my fiddle, ordered a Bluetooth enabled turntable so I can play my old vinyl - it's been a very busy day!

And while waiting on line at the post office, I had time to read Rebecca solnit's first essay in A Field Guide To Getting Lost. A pleasure.

How was your day?

>98 ffortsa: Sounds like you had a very positively productive day!! Good for you. Mine is going well so far. For once I got myself dressed immediately after I got up (one of the great joys of retirement to me is to have breakfast and 'do' the computer in my robe each morning) and went for a walk while the shadows were still long and the temps cool (although today isn't supposed to be too hot anyway) so now I can be a sloth for the rest of the day and not feel bad about it :)

And I had a productive day again today! Laundry was on the list and is done. But the big event is that I gave blood. I had wanted to give blood before this, but unwilling to walk a mile and a half each way to the nearest standing blood center, especially unwilling to walk back as I might be a little woozy. But a new location has been set up just around the corner from me, so I hurried over.
I even found and presented my ancient gallon club membership card.

There has been so much on offer from various sources that I just hit overload and didn't plan anything. But last night WNYC began a radio presentation of Richard II in coordination with the Public Theater, which would have staged the production in Central Park now. It's eminently clear and so far well done, along with commentary and interviews, an hour each night through Thursday. A real treat for us theater starved folks. And some of the actors' comments are so telling. John Douglas Thompson, an actor we know well from classical productions in New York, said this was the first time he, a Black actor, was directed by another person of color. THE FIRST TIME in over 20 years of his career!

Sounds like you have been busy and productive recently, Judy. I like that feeling when I get things accomplished, maybe I should try that.

Jim and I listened to the full radio performance of Richard II this week, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It is a play for our times, as much of Shakespeare seems to be always, but the deposing of a neglectful king is certainly relevant today.

I'm not sure how long this will last, but I've suddenly gotten really motivated to read the magazines that come into our place.

The July issue of Scientific American, which I usually let sit, was very engaging and I read it cover to cover. In addition to the feature on the coronavirus, the articles included
- treating patients without focusing on weight
- a possible new type of neurtrino
- weather forecasting
- how farmers conquered Europe (really fascinating)
- research on adversity, focusing on our current situation
and lots of short pieces on all sorts of stuff.

The Journal of the Yiddish Book Center, which I get because I sent them a few beans a while ago, was similarly interesting. I still have one article to go there, about a cockeyed optimist who thought a Jewish homeland could be set up in the Australian outback. I especially enjoyed the article of how a self-taught Klezmer musician from the Ukraine, and his wife and family of 13 children, built a wide-ranging musical dynasty in Europe and the U.S. Quite remarkable.

I have to back up and read the June issue of SA now, which also features coronavirus in addition to other interesting stuff.

On Thursday I had a scheduled haircut, and since it was a blessedly cool day I walked the two+ miles up toe 58th street to the salon and then took a turn in Central Park, which was exquisite. Geese and, I think, an egret were enjoying the shallow pond on the park's south end, and I eventually found a hot dog cart and indulged in hot sausage and saurkraut for an early dinner.

Today my phone tells me it's 89F out amidst blazing sun. I'm inside reading, although I might take a tiny walk later, just to see what things feel like outside.

Thursday was lovely, wasn't it? We went and got an early dinner outside at a restaurant. Today is hot but it's not humid (at least here), so tolerable when I take the dog out.

Grr. That's mainly for me, partly for LT. I was cleaning up the list of links that appears at the top right of my thread, and got all tangled up. I've figured out now that both the book on the list in >2 ffortsa: and the mention elsewhere in the thread have to point to the correct link, but it was a tooth-puller. But bad me for continuing to be careless.

47. The Knowledge by Martha Grimes

What a story! Gambling, tanzanite, Grimes's version of the Baker Street Irregulars, rare paintings, astrophysics, smuggling, trips to Kenya - it's got everything. And as many endings as a Beethovan symphony, which is quite a lot. A grand addition to the Richard Jury epic.

>103 ffortsa: Oooh, the Scientific American sounds interesting, I'll have to see if my library subscribes. And how cool that you get the Journal of the Yiddish Book Center. My youngest brother works for them (he does video editing of interviews with Yiddish speakers, I believe), I'll have to ask him about it.

Uh-oh. I think the blues are settling in a bit. We were hoping to go up to a resort we like near New Paltz, N.Y., but a) they are charging a huge premium this summer and b) getting up there is going to be either fraught or expensive - or both, of course. We are late to think of getting out of the city, of course. Lots of people are already gone for the summer, or part of it. But given the contagion situation, options are scarce. We'll keep thinking, but the next six weeks will be hot and, I fear, confining.

>109 ffortsa: - I'm sorry, Judy. I can sympathize in that I am getting itchy feet and would like to go SOMEWHERE. But I'm not comfortable enough to do it yet. But at least I have some outside space here to enjoy (when it's not blazing hot...).

Hi Judy!

>103 ffortsa: Magazines, eh? I know that if I were to subscribe to a print edition of any magazine I’d just let it sit after the first month or two. Yay you. The Journal sounds interesting. I love Klezmer music.

>109 ffortsa: I’m sorry about the blues settling in a bit. I hope you can find something. I had plans to visit my sister and my aunt/uncle in southern California and northern California respectively, and my friend Karen in Montana this year, but won’t get onto a flying petrie dish even if it was safe to go to any of those three places. We also agreed with our daughter that visiting didn’t make sense right now either even though she’s only 3 hours away.

>103 ffortsa: Your imagined problem with magazines is definitely mine. Remember all the New Yorkers I have in boxes? I did read another one, from 2010, and found out all about Esperanza Spalding.
Now to find her music.

But I'm pledged to get better. I just read the June 2020 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, which graces my coffee table courtesy of my cousin in Portland who gave us a free membership when she renewed her own. This issue ranges pretty far and wide, as usual, from an article on Phillip of Macedonia to animal rescue on Kangaroo Island in Australia to the origins of craft beer to an effort to document all the lost synagogues and artifacts of the Jews of the (non-Israeli) Middle East and North Africa. Interesting stuff. I think it's accessible online, but I'm not sure if membership is required for a full read.

I feel your pain, Judy! It's been a long time since I've been this unable to travel -- also hear you re magazines. I've pretty much stopped taking print journalism (sorry) because I just can't keep up with it. Some how it doesn't nag at me as much when it's sitting on my computer rather than my coffee table :)

Here's to survival and better times ahead!

>113 RebaRelishesReading: I've switched to online for one publication, The Nation, mainly because it is on newsprint paper without pictures, and because I was more interested in the cryptic crossword than the contents. But I never read it online, and they've stopped publishing the puzzle!

My sister reads The New Yorker online, but I like the layout of the physical magazine too much to do that. Now if I would only read them!

We've begun to get The Atlantic. Many of the articles come to me in email as well, and I read them that way if the topic catches my eye. Today there was an essay by John McWhorter excoriating Robin DiAngelo's book and workshop White Fragility, and the way things are these days, I'm sure some will call him an Uncle Tom, but he is never shy about speaking his mind. His arguments are interesting. I've read essays about her, but not the book yet. So it will be an interesting package when I get there.

The physical magazine list is currently:
The Atlantic
The New Yorker
Scientific American
Time (Jim keeps trying to cancel it, refusing to pay, and they just keep sending it!)
The Economist
The Smithsonian

And the magazine from the Museum of Natural History, and a few other less frequent publications.

The coffee table is full.

Hi, Judy! I too cannot deal with magazines on a timely basis, and I've stopped trying. My DH still gets North Carolina Wildllife as a gift from my mom, and that's the only one that comes into the house except for her copies of The State and Southern Living sometimes. I miss Smithsonian, but they did pile up. I still get daily briefs from Newsweek online. The New Yorker is long gone, as is The New Republic. (*NR* really is!) If only N. Cousins were still with us, I would subscribe gladly to Saturday Review. I think that's pretty much a history of my magazine reading. I'm sure you wanted to know!

>115 LizzieD: Indeed I did!

I forgot. I also get New Scientist electronically. When I was working, it was a delightful distraction during breaks, but since I've been retired, it 'piles up' electronically. I just can't bear to cancel it.

Hi Judy!

>114 ffortsa: I’ve listened to McWhorter’s The Story of Language twice in the last 10 years and if I commuted and had more time in the car, I’d listen to it again. He is absolutely brilliant. I just read The Atlantic Essay by him and can only say that he raises many valid points about her book and work.

So many magazines. You must have a huge coffee table.

>117 karenmarie: LOL The coffee table is a 3' by 3' square glass over a wire crate. I got it years and years ago from a store long gone. the clear look helps it not overwhelm the room, but the stacks of magazines do detract! The New Yorkers are mainly elsewhere, of course.

I have The Story of Language on my iPod, but haven't gotten around to it. As it happens, McWhorter is married to a cousin of an old boyfriend (and still good friend) of mine, but I haven't met him.

I'm a big McWhorter fan too. I listened to The Story of Language and then Hubby and I did a "TheGreatCourses" series with him. I hope he's as nice as he seems and as he is interesting :)

Grump! I bought a Sony bluetooth enabled turntable so I could finally listen to my records again, and I am missing the AC adaptor, which I kind of need to get power to the mechanism. Sony website is a little cranky. Now I have to wait for an email. GRUMP!!!

eta: returned it to Amazon.

>120 ffortsa: How disappointing!

>120 ffortsa: Yes, but partly my fault, I think. I noticed on the box that the item was marked 'used' and also on my purchase order, so clearly I wasn't paying attention. I might go elsewhere to find this turntable, which was recommended by one of the rating magazines, or another one, preferably with visible buttons. Why does Sony think that black-on-black labels for its buttons are so clever?

I'm 3/5 through A Journal of the Plague Year, and will probably finish it by Thursday. It has evoked horror, pity, and eventually a sort of transmitted terror that I have to shake each time I put the text down. Many of the observations in the (docudrama) novel are so close to what we are going through now that the fear is as transmissible as the disease.

>122 ffortsa: I have no idea why black-on-black labels are so chic not why remote controls these days are tiny and require all kinds of odd actions to get them to do anything. Really is 2"x6" with a button for everything really such a problem? (thank you, I feel better for that rant).

Well, now our whole cable connection is down. Took me ages to set up my phone not to keep trying the WiFi.

There are books, of course.

>96 ffortsa: I certainly understand about frustration revolving around the house. I've purchased a lot of new furniture, including a new dining room table. But, the person who wanted my current table, which was Will's, and very well used, was going to pick up the table in two days, and I haven't heard from her.

I had the living room and dining room painted. It looks great! Pier One is having their go-out-of business sale, and I couldn't resist buying chairs and a beautiful cabinet. The princes were low, but they don't deliver. Luckily, I found someone who had a truck and they were willing to pick up the items. I paid him to help. I am very pleased with what I purchased..But, I wish they would deliver.

I am on a mission to give away books which I know I will not read. Thus far, I gave about 300 to the local library.

Overall, things are going well, but I am finding keeping a house in order by myself is difficult. Will retired a long time before I did, so he did a lot of the chores. I miss him in many ways.

I hope you and Jim are enjoying your summer. Did you see Hamilton?

All good wishes.

Good morning - I hope your wifi comes back, soon! It's such a lifeline during the stay at home pandemic.

>109 ffortsa: I also understand about the itchy feet and the tentacles of depression creeping in. Even though I have ten acres and a small farm in Montana and you are in the city, it sounds like we are both feeling quite claustrophobic.

>122 ffortsa: Even my credit card has black on black numbers. I have to hold it at an angle to see the raised digits.

Are you familiar with Tim Fain? He's been doing lovely violin concerts each Saturday online. His previous concerts are archived on his FB page. https://www.facebook.com/timfainmusic/

Hi Judy!

>118 ffortsa:. That’s very interesting about McWhorter being married to a cousin of an old boyfriend. Nothing I’ve seen online about him even indicates that he’s married.

>122 ffortsa: Why does Sony think that black-on-black labels for its buttons are so clever? What I end up doing is using the flashlight function on my cell phone when I need to actually see what the buttons are.

>123 ffortsa: I pulled A Journal of the Plague Year off my shelves a while back but put it back. I need to read it. I’ll pull it again, bring it back to the Sunroom again, and see when it actually calls out to me. Brava for tackling it.

Hi, Judy. You have struck an almost universal chord with that hatred of black-on-black buttons. HATE!!!!!
I'd like to read *Journal/Plague*, but I don't think I'll get to it now. I hope that by the time I do, it won't be so timely.
Just got in from a walk for the first time since the beginning of the month. It was amazing to be outside even if the sun did come out and go for melting us.

>127 streamsong: Hi. Wifi back in action. Turns out it was a loose connection down the hall. So we still have our recordings and equipment and all that. Very pleasant tech, too.

And I have that black-on-black credit card too. Maybe it's a security measure, but it's a pain.

And I haven't heard of Tim Tain but I will surely listen. Thanks!

>128 karenmarie: Hi Karen. Yeah, McWhorter's wife is a nice Jewish girl. If they are still married. I didn't find any personal info on the web either.

cellphone flashlight is a lifesaver in many ways, isn't it?

The Dafoe Journal does not feel like a novel, more like a memoir, although he was only 5 or 6 when the plague struck. It's that difficult 17th century writing style too.

>129 LizzieD: Peggy, hi! Walks are good, even if it is hot.

Ay. I was so pleased that the temperature had fallen into the 70s until I went out in it and discovered the humidity was about 100%. Sigh. Maybe it will improve tomorrow.

I picked up My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Underground Railroad from the swap shelves downstairs in the laundry. There were others, but I resisted.

Off to finish the Dafoe.

I've sent you a pm about the letter project.

>131 ffortsa: I'm interested to see what you think about My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Underground Railroad. I loved one and seriously disliked the other.

Good luck with the humidity :(

Actually the weather improved yesterday in the afternoon, and I spent a few hours in the nearby park. It's not a big park, but it'll do in a pinch.

This morning I read a series of articles on Gizmodo about cutting ties to the big five tech companies that covet our data: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and especially Amazon. It takes work and really disrupted Kashmir Hill's life, of course. But the experiment was telling as to what was disrupted with each blocking, and what was disrupted with all blocked. There were surprise benefits, of course. I wonder where LT gets its server services.

Meanwhile:

48. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

This book reads more like a documentary than a novel, although Defoe was 5 or 6 when the great plague hit London. Statistics and history are interspersed with more specific stories of people escaping or attempting to escape the ravages of the disease, and the adherence or lack of adherence to what were presumed to be safety measures. Not much has changed.

The work dates to 1722, and the complicated writing style, combined with a lack of chapters, made it a little difficult to read. But I highlighted a lot of passages to think about in light of our current predicament.

49. Roseanna by Sjowall and Wahloo

An old favorite I haven't read in decades, from way back when there weren't cellphones and HIPPA rules. It's the first Martin Beck police procedural, set in Sweden, and the authors introduce the characters that will carry through the series. They also do not minimize the patience and determination necessary to find a culpret who didn't leave any clever telltale clues. As the case drags on, I could feel the desperation that batters the police and the flares of hope when a new piece of information comes in. I even took the time to check the geography of the crime. Who knew that there is a series of canals and lakes that cut right through Sweden from one arm of the ocean to the other? If I ever travel to Sweden, I will look that up!

eta: As long ago as this publication, Swedish noir was emphasizing sex crimes against women, and distorted views of sexuality as a source of violence. It's quite a theme in the Swedish mystery series that I've read. I wonder why this is so prevalent? I haven't noticed it as much in U.S. or British series. Any thoughts?

50. The Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser

This is the first of the Van Veteren series of Swedish police procedurals. Published in 1993, it fits with the other police procedurals that have come out of Sweden in its characters, its emphasis on gritty police work, and, unfortunately, its inclusion of sex crimes against women.

Aside from that, I had some trouble with the character of Van Veteren as a rude and irascible inspector, at least to his subordinates, and the repeated statement that he could 'sense' the villain in almost all cases. Nesser also allows Van Veteren to withhold information from his own staff, seemingly because he wants to mull it over himself, or perhaps because he needs to be the one to solve the case.

For all that, it was a good read. I'm not sure if I've read other titles in the series, but I will look for them from time to time.

I've started reading White Fragility in order to participate in a series of discussions about it hosted by some acquaintences. After reading the NYTimes article on the author a few weeks ago, and John McWhorter's scathing critique in the Atlantic, it will be interesting to see how these discussions go. First one on Saturday.

>134 ffortsa: I just noticed that the BBC dramatisation of the series are online again. They were unusual (at least in my experience) in that they chose to have two narrators (one the amazing Lesley Sharp) - I read somewhere this was to mirror the authors' collaboration.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mnxnc

I don't know what the answer is re women and violence. For me what was striking for a book written when it was, that (at least in my memory?) the victim got justice rather than being written off because of her "lifestyle". But maybe I need to reread?

>134 ffortsa: & >135 ffortsa: I am a lover of Scandi or Nordic Noir, Judy, and there probably wouldn't have been such a movement without Sjowall and Wahloo paving the way.

Hakan Nesser is often rather unfairly overlooked in lists of Scandi writers as his series and Van Veteeren books are solid and sometimes a bit quirky.

I suppose what marks our Scandi as a movement would be three elements:

1 The locale (fairly obvious but it normally adds to the flavour)
2 The hero and/or heroine are normally portrayed warts and all with all their human foibles
3 The realism sometimes graphically so

It is an unfortunate, tragic and undeniable fact that violence towards women is still prevalent in society and therefore often assumes centre-stage in Nordic books.

>137 charl08: Charlotte, that's a find! I'll have to see if we can get the dramatisation on one of our Brit-centric cable channels. Thanks. And yes, the victim was not criticized for her lifestyle, as she certainly would have been in The States back then. I would venture to say what we know about her indicates a woman of unusual joie de vive.

>138 PaulCranswick: Paul, I know well that such behavior is still present. But I find the Scandi twist is often pathological, rather than endemic to the society as a whole, and often based on religious upbringing regarding sex. It just appears with alarming regularity in the Scandi procedurals I've read, and I ended at least one series because of it.

I love the settings, the police characters, actually all the characters in most of the books, but between endangered children and endangered women, the crimes investigated make for a very dark world view.

Thank you both for your comments!

Hi Judy!

>131 ffortsa: I really liked My Sister, the Serial Killer and hope you do, too.

>133 ffortsa: Congrats on getting through A Journal of the Plague Year.

The discussion of the Defoe in our little zoom reading group was quite nice, with several attendees enthusiastic about how the observations of the narrator during the bubonic plague are so aligned with what we are experiencing now. To see such helplessness in the face of natural disaster is humbling; I was never mor afraid of our current situation than in the middle of this narrative!

My magazine reading continues with the March 2020 issue of the Smithsonian, wherein I learned about Florence Nightingale (not much new to me),;the Hunley, a Confederate war submarine in which all the crew died instantly from what is called a 'primary shock' after their attack on a Union ship; a German design for a 'flying wing' bomber now at the Smithsonian Museum; a little bit about wolverines, which seem to be quite nasty animals; brief bios of Madam C.J. Walker and Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses; and not least the story of Gene Stratton-Porter, who wrote A Girl of the Limberlost, and whose nature studies and conservation efforts seem completely prescient.

There are lots of other bits and pieces on art and history, and a collection of (real) ads in the back pages for hats, kayaks, something called a Nine Planets ring (didn't get the memo), cruises and coins. I find them rather old fashioned and charming.

It may be a heavy reading month for me. Due next is A Brief History of Seven Killings which I have in an uncorrected proof. Then Station 11. And a slow read for a discussion of White Fragility - and I need to finish up How to Be an Anti-Racist before friends here decide to Zoom discuss it.

Maybe I'll read a mystery today.

>142 ffortsa: never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until next week

>143 magicians_nephew: - Amen.

Not much reading going on. Yesterday I more or less cleared my desk, and had my exercise session via Skype, and updated my Quicken with the newest figures and paid the cards. Should be enough for one day, right? This morning I woke up early and after getting on the scale (!) decided to take a walk before the rains came. Quite nice, if a little muggy, and got home just as the first plops plopped. Resisted buying bagels on the way. Figured out on Google that I walked a little more than 3 miles, so I'm satisfied.

Today, I need to make time to fiddle before my lesson tomorrow, do some sewing, and finally get my reading in.

Oh, Jim and I saw the first episode of 'Ozark' last night. I'd say we are hooked.

>142 ffortsa: I admire your reading the heavy stuff. But a good mystery never hurts.

I keep meaning to give 'Ozark' a try - maybe you and Jim will finally spur me to it.

Way to go on the 3 mile walk. I consider it an accomplishment if I take the dog around our neighborhood :-P

Today I woke up and immediately knew I had to walk again. I wandered around Chelsea looking for restaurants open for sidewalk brunch on Sunday. Then I passed a wholesale/retail grocer on my way home and of course stopped in, lugging the rewards by hand the remaining distance. Strong like bull!

Nothing brief about those 7 killings, Judy! I have a copy, but I've never been able to push it ahead of several other monsters that I also haven't read.
My mom lately read *Girl/Limberlost* and wondered why it had been her favorite book as a child. That made me a little sad. I used to enjoy Smithsonian, but I won't make time for magazines these days. (My uncle's beach cottage is named *Smithsunian,* btw. I wonder how many thousands of those there are.)

7 Killings is a difficult book in some ways. Each chapter is a monologue by one of the many characters. I spent a little time yesterday to tag each chapter heading with a post-it note with the character's name on it, in case I want to go back to the last episode. And I'm a little sorry that I'm reading it and not listening, as there are so many different accents and rhythms. I may yet plug my phones in if Audible has a recording.

I'm another fan of Ozark, Judy. That first season in particular is wonderful.

>151 PaulCranswick: We just viewed the second episode. Laura Linney always amazes me.

I'm a little more than 200 pages into A Brief History of Seven Killings, listening and reading at the same time because I want to get the voices and rhythms of the various characters. It took a little while for me to get into it, I think because I didn't use the audio. But now I'm truly caught up in the converging story lines.

The only thing that limits my reading are my eyes, which suddenly lose their reading focus after a period of time. I don't think readers would help much, but I'll ask my optometrist AGAIN what I can do about it. I would hate to find that I can't read as much as I would like.

Some of it might be all the time I spend on electronics close up (phone, tablet), especially in the semi-lockdown we are living in. I'm hoping to find a solution soon!

Up early for an emergency visit to the dentist for a sometimes-pulsating tooth. There is no sign yet of a need for a root canal, but we agreed that it was probably coming anyway. I just hope I get through our trip to Mohonk next week before it really ripens. It's very distracting.

Almost halfway through A Brief History of Seven Killings. Quite a few killings so far. I'm very curious to see where this story goes next.

>153 ffortsa: Sorry to hear about your eyes, Judy. I have the same problem from using my Fire for stupid gaming. I'm trying to wean myself of it a bit and not to stare at it when it's loading new stuff. I'm always aware of my still-slight (I think) macular degeneration.
Good luck!
You make me want to move *7 Killings* up Mt. Bookpile.

Eyes, teeth -- everything has to happen at once and at the least convenient time, right? Hope you get it resolved quickly and easily.

We are off to a short stay at Mohonk Mountain House, and I'm my usual nervous self about travel. I'm driving this time, which will be good, because I haven't driven in a long time (not really nervous about that - I've driven for most of my life), traveling always makes me nervous until I start out. But we need the break from the city, even just a few days.

I'm 3/4 through Seven Killings. Still gripping, still sometimes confusing.

Hi Judy!

Sorry about the tooth and the eye/reading problems. Have a wonderful time at Mohonk Mountain House.

(I finally decided to keep my biannual dentist appointment and am apprehensively going in tomorrow. I will definitely be wearing my favorite-of-the-three masks you sent to me - the first one.)

>157 ffortsa: Have a wonderful trip, Judy. A little time in the mountains sounds perfect!

Hi Judy - Mohonk is such a beautiful spot! Hope you enjoy your stay and get some nice walks in. Love those gazebos!

GOOD for you, Judy! Y'all travel safely and enjoy the mountains. In fact, enjoy the mountains a little bit for me too.
(I seem to need to put this somewhere, so I'll use your thread for it. Just looked at our local news. A S.C. highway patrolman died last week of Covid. His memorial service was today with troopers and supporters lined up by the hundreds: not a mask in sight. What is wrong with people?????????) Sorry.

Thanks >158 karenmarie:, >159 RebaRelishesReading:, >160 vivians:. The drive was aggravating but uneventful, and it is beautiful here. As for the SC patrolman's funeral, I have no idea how so many can be so stupid.

51. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

High praise for a incredibly engrossing book. James gives us a set of arias by characters involved in the power struggles in the slums and government of Jamaica in the 1970s, and the fallout from the gang wars, political corruption and CIA involvement of the time, bringing the era forward to track the participants in the aftermath. The narrative is structured as overlapping monologues that don't hide the truth, but do provide different points of view so that the reader can piece together the action.

These monologues give the characters amazing clarify, whether in Jamaica, in the era of Bob Marley, or New York or Miami. in the years that follow. Central are the characters of Josey Wales, brilliant and vicious, and Nina Burgess, a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, scrambling to stay alive. As the political struggles, the fate of the slums, begin to fade into the cocaine and crack epidemics of the 1980s, we learn the fate of each of the people we have come to know.

I'm reminded of the Schopenhauer curve described in The Naked and the Dead, as the drama and intensity climb through the narrative, and abruptly fall in the final chapters.

I did become impatient toward the end as each character still alive reached, in their own way, a point of release. But that really did not diminish the power of this story.

One thought about the language. James gives each character their own accent, dialect, and rhythm. I started reading the text, but decided to listen along to the recorded version to absorb the rhythm, pattern and grammar of Jamaican speech. Well worth the time.

>163 ffortsa: Wow! That's inspirational, Judy. Thanks for the review.
I guess what it should inspire me to do is polish off The Mad Patagonian so that I can take up another passingly similar book.
Happy weekend!

Is anyone else getting a required authentication of sorts when logging in? Each time, I have to pick the cookbooks from a set of 8 book covers. Annoying. Also, I didn't have to actually log in before - I was automatically logged in, which may have to do with my password manager, i guess.

>165 ffortsa: - I rarely have to log in, but when I do, I get that cookbook thingy...

I changed my password manager settings, and I think that helped.

I use finger print recognition but that's all I need to do.

>168 RebaRelishesReading: very classy

Y'all are way out of my league. I log in each and every time. Sometimes I have to do the cookbooks; more often, not.

52. How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

I listened to this book and sometimes wished I had the text in front of me. Kendi is honest and sometimes scorching about his own journey from assumptions he calls racist to an understanding of actions and beliefs he deems anti-racist. Because he illustrated each component with his own life history, the 'education' of each chapter stings a little less.

I was especially interested in his appraisal of Brown v. Board of Education, which in his view was both racist and unhelpful. It determined that black children were entitled to attend well-funded schools but did not mandate that majority black schools be well-funded. Nor did it mandate that all schools have role models black students could relate to, or that black culture be attended to with dignity. That really opened my eyes. Even an attempt to 'do good' can be harmful.

53. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Warning. This is a pandemic book.

Mandel follows a set of interconnected characters from just before a cataclysmic virus kills 99% of the people in the world, through the next 20 years, showing how the survivors manage and in some cases thrive. While the disaster is preeminent, the story is gripping in many different ways. A third of the way in, I was so immersed in the story that I had to remind myself forcefully that we are not in this deep a predicament. now.

The characters, pre and post-pandemic, live for connections, some to the past, most to the present, the tasks of survival and friendship. There is a bogeyman, of course. But there is also hope.

Our trip to Mohonk last week was part refreshing and part frustrating. I wish wecould have stayed longer and done less each day. There's a railroad bridge that has been converted to a pedestrian crossing of the Hudson that we would love to tramp over, but we couldn't fit it in, nor did we have time to visit Hyde Park or any of the other area delights. I'm thinking of finding an Airbnb in New Paltz to visit in the fall, since Mohonk is definitely $$$$.

>173 ffortsa: - I looked into Mohonk at some point and yes, definitely pricey. Though I guess meals are included? Still....

Have you stayed on the other side of the river (Dutchess or Columbia County)? Those are my childhood stomping grounds - Hyde Park, winery in Millbrook, Rhinebeck is lovely, Hudson is artsy and fun, Olana (home of the painter Frederic Church), Martin Van Buren's house, I could go on :)

And while you're in that area have a nice meal at the Culinary Institute!

>174 katiekrug: We did go up to Rhinebeck once, a while ago, but not recently. It does seem to be an area full of interesting places. The only real expense would be the car, but I have to remind myself that I'm not maintaining my own car or paying monthly for parking, and can afford the luxury of a week's rental. I've seen some nice Airbnb places online in the area, and would certainly consider either side of the river. Dia is in the area as well, right? We did visit there and loved it.

Given the state of vacationing these days, I imagine most of the really nice places to stay are well booked, but maybe in the fall we will find a few days to spend there. We should probably book now!

eta: Yes, meals are included at Mohonk, and they are very good. Breakfast and lunch used to have buffet options, but not in this era. Cookies and tea at 4PM, lovely, lovely grounds, theme weekends, gorgeous facilities. But definitely an indulgence.

>174 katiekrug: the Martin Van Buren house in Kinderhook is pretty interesting - went there many years ago. Gore Vidal in Burr waggishly suggested that Van Buren was Aaron Burr's illegitimate son

BTW he wasn't

Hi Judy!

>163 ffortsa: Listening and reading along is a great idea, one which I just recommended on my thread to answer your question about George Saunders.

>165 ffortsa: I stay logged into LT but had to go through the authentication when I switched browsers. I am charmed that it’s cookbooks rather than the ridiculous motorcycles or stop lights.

>171 ffortsa: Interesting about Kendi’s appraisal of Brown v. Board of Education. An ‘unfunded mandate’, as it were.

>173 ffortsa: I’m glad about the refreshing part. At least the frustrating part wasn’t something horrific, more in the line of too busy and too short.

>176 ffortsa: - We've been looking at airBNB and VRBO for a place in late October either on the shore or in the mountains. I need to hunker down this weekend and make a decision...

Dia is in Beacon, so farther south than what I was thinking. I grew up in Northern Dutchess County, close to Columbia County so that's what I know best. There's lots to do in the area.

>177 magicians_nephew: - I'm sure there are people who believe it was true because they read it in a book ;-)

54. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

A true noir story told entirely dead-pan. Two sisters in Lagos, one of them, as the title states, a serial killer. No spoiler here. Both are damaged by a brutal father, damage that plays out in different ways, sometimes clear and other times ambiguous.

The story left me sad, almost anxious, without the more conventional noir ending of order restored. The narrator, the older sister, eventually decides to continue to protect her young, beautiful sibling. And something about the ending left me wondering how exactly that brutal father died.

Terrific writing and pacing, a noir of our time.

>180 ffortsa: Glad to see you liked that one, Judy. I found it surprisingly enjoyable and had a similar reaction to the ending and the father's death.

>181 bell7: Mary, how nice to hear from you. How are you doing in this era of confinement? Is your library open? I hope your family and friends are ok, of course.

>182 ffortsa: The library is currently curbside-only, with the town Board of Selectmen discussion opening town buildings at their mid-September meeting, and I have no idea if they're for or against. I'm enough of an introvert that aside from huge schedule changes throwing me for a loop and then re-adjusting, I'm enjoying quiet time spent at home and reading & knitting. I've been fortunate in that my job paid me all along and there weren't any furloughs. So far all my family and friends have been well, though my brother and his fiance have had the challenge of planning a wedding in all of this. After a couple of date and venue changes, it's now going to be in my parents' backyard with a small enough guest list to follow state guidelines. Hope you are doing well also!

>182 ffortsa: Sounds good! We are ok, and while I feel busy, boredom is also a problem. I've returned to playing my violin, and aside from a few physical problems rearing their familiar heads, it is very good. Reading, knitting, walking in the mornings when it's not too hot. And as with your family, mine is so far unscathed. One of Jim's cousins lost her partner of many years, very sad.

Keep safe. I hope we keep the numbers down until we get this bug under medical control. So many people have been hit hard, financially and otherwise. We are lucky.

>180 ffortsa: I thought My Sister the Serial Killer was quite good. And the ending sat well with me.

My current job is tackling the back yard, which the blackberries have overrun. It's hard to to keep up with the forest right behind us, but I do love it. Air quality problems (due to fire smoke) will force a day of rest tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get some LT time in.

>185 Berly: Oh, I didn't realize the fires would affect you.

Hi Judy!

>180 ffortsa: I felt sad about the ending, too, for the same reason. Very glad I read it though.

>184 ffortsa: I'm glad you and Jim are okay. I'm not exactly bored but finding it difficult to get motivated to do some of the things I should be doing. My reading's going well, though... *smile*

Hooray for the violin, Judy! I am not making progress on the cello. I had forgotten (from a long-ago attempt at guitar) how long it takes calluses to form, nor am I doing enough to make that happen. In the first place, we haven't solved the problem of slipping pegs, but I can still get a decent D major scale in some other key. But!!!!! I thought that finger placement would be the hard thing, and it's not. Bowing is horrible. Keeping position and grounding my thumb are horrible. I'll persevere but in fits and starts. I also wish I were playing the piano some since that's what I can do. I should be able to make 30 minutes a day to go home and work on one easy something, but it hasn't happened yet.
So I'm not bored.

>188 LizzieD: Oh, sorry that it feels so difficult to get your position right. It was really weird for me too, at the beginning, but that wore off, thank goodness, and I think I'm on the track of a better shoulder support. In fact, I just came back from playing trios with two other ladies, who forgave me for all the missed flats. Good luck figuring out how to get that thumb position back!

55. Cobalt by Nathan Aldyne

Ugh. Why did I bother?

I seem to have lost a brain cell. How do I look at my books as a set of series? I'm sure I was able to do that before, but I can't find my way in.

eta: never mind. I didn't expect to find it under tags, since I don't use tags.

>190 ffortsa: LOL - I know that feeling although it's a rare feeling since I get such reliable recommendations from all my friends here!

I'm glad to hear you are going back to the violin as one from of entertainment and self-care. Knitting, etc. I am looking forward to being able to go for walks, even short ones around the block! Not long now....

I think you liked My Sister, the Serial Killer a bit more than I did but I love your assessment that it's a noir for our time. In retrospect, it has "kept" better than many other reads.

I loved A Brief History of Seven Killings and I could absolutely see how listening to the audio in conjunction with reading the text would enhance the experience.

Keep hanging in there and taking good care.

there's an article in The New Statesman about Goodreads and how frustrating it can be. I don't use Goodreads, so I can't attest to that, but what interested me is that Goodreads is owned by Amazon, which also has a 40% stake in LT! I didn't know that. It makes send from a marketing point of view, but it does make me a little queasy.

here's the article.

There's also a new website in the works, called TheStoryGraph, due out next year, which will attempt to be more crowdsourced and more intuitive in its recommendations. I doubt it can improve on our group, but it might be interesting to look at.

So the story of ownership is a little more complicated. Tim owns the majority stake in LT. Abebooks owns 40% (Tim sold shares to raise some capital). Amazon subsequently bought Abebooks and is operating them as an independent subsidiary. So technically Amazon owns that 40%, but well removed from day-to-day operations. Tim’s pretty adamant that Amazon has no impact on LT.

On the other hand, TheStoryGraph could be kinda fun!

Good to know the history of that. And I agree, TheStoryGraph might be a nice addition. Of course, then I wouldn't have any time to read actual books, would I?

Thanks for the article and the comment, Judy and Jim. I'm relieved about the 40% even though Amazon has never been less than fair to me.
I do not need one more website. Not one!

57. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

This is a pleasant and amusing audiobook memoir by Gerald Durrell, brother to Lawrence Durrell of Alexandria Quartet fame. It covers the 5 years the Durrells spent on Corfu while Gerald was a boy, and combines personal memoir, affectionate family comedy, and Gerald's budding naturalist interest in and adventures with animals, from insects to birds and snakes to - well - whatever swims, flies, walks or crawls. Durrell's family is portrayed as a group of eccentrics - cranky and suercilious Larry, stereotypically girlish Margo, and middle brother Leslie, who comes off rather like a farcical Teddy Roosevelt, and Durrell's widowed mother, all breathy and uncertain in affect. A revolving cast of inhabitants of Corfu and friends of Larry keep the stories from becoming insular, and the author has a flair for ironic understatement and comedy. The audio has that David Attenborough-like British accent and rhythm, very easy to listen to.

58. Hornswoggled by Donis Casey

Second in a mystery series set in 1912 Oklahoma farm country. What I like about this series is the attention to detail of rural life of the time, the rhythm of a large family (10 children, I think) and a small community. The clues are honest and complicated to unravel. I'll keep reading these.

59. First Degree by David Rosenfelt

Also the second in a series, which takes place in and around Paterson, New Jersey, more or less present day. The protagonist of the series is a wisecracking lawyer who has inherited a potful of money from his supposed paragon of a father (see first book) and thus can be picky about who he defends. At what Kindle told me was 49% through the text, I knew who done it, why he done it, what clue was staring the principals in the face, and how it would end. After gnashing my teeth at such obviousness, I finished it anyway. I may continue the series, for only the lightest of reading.

This month's Smithsonian Magazine has an amazing (and sickening) story of a massive multiyear theft of maps and plates from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's rare book room. Imagine buying material you thought was legitimately on sale through a reputable dealer, only to be asked to hand it back years later because it was stolen goods! No tunneling necessary - an inside job.

Wow, that would be awful. I’ll look up the article - sounds like an interesting one.

Not quite the same thing but your article reminds me a bit of a recent documentary I saw, called Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art?

https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/docs/made-you-look-a-true-story-about-fake...

Also quite shocking.

>199 drneutron: yes, quite a comment on ethics.

>200 jessibud2: I've heard the title but haven't seen it yet. Thanks for mentioning it. I'll have to see if I have access.

I wonder if there is a film library in the afterlife, so I can spend eternity catching up on movies?

60. Blue Water Hues BY Vicki Delaney

I borrowed this from the library be a use I liked some other mysteries Delaney wrote, but if I had checked my review of the first in this series, I wouldn't have bothered.

two weeks ago I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Yesterday I put on my ski jacket to mail a postcard. Ok, that was a little much, but it's been a precipitous drop. Time to get out some of the sweaters.

I broke out some cold weather clothing this weekend...

aaarggghhh. I am hyperventilating seeing how far behind I am getting on some of my favorite threads. How does my retirement time get eaten up like this?

Thoughtful evaluation puts at least some of the blame on too much email, and too many computer games. First world problems, of course.

You think you are behind on the threads?!? LOL. I have you beat. : )

But I made it here!!

Stay warm.

Hi Judy!

The biggest area I see on LT with Amazon influence is when adding a new book. The book cover defaults to an Amazon cover. I immediately go back and find a user-uploaded cover that matches mine or scan mine in if necessary. Of course, I didn't start this right away and have quite a few covers I need to update. Definitely a first world problem.

>205 ffortsa: Lately I've tried sorting by unread/messages and try to read the threads with the most unread first. It doesn't always help, but I'm trying to feel less 'aaarggghhh' about it.

Ugh. Just had a look at Facebook, and the home page is horrible. I can't figure out how to narrow the noisy side panels either. I guess I'll just have to hang out here.

I share your pain, Judy. I try to keep up by reading the threads with the fewest new messages and maybe one longer one. My allotted time goes way too quickly.
How's the fiddle playing? I'm doing several 10-minute sessions a day with the D scale and trying to pick out this and that on the cello - just messing around really. I hope that's enough to earn my calluses eventually. I still can't tune my two lowest strings. Oh well.

Sorry to hear about the cello woes. I think you said the pegs were slipping, right? If they look worn, maybe you could order some new ones. Just don't remove more than one string at a time. The string tension is what holds the bridge in place.

My trio playing is quite challenging, but it's nice to make music with other people.

I take your tack with the threads, trying to keep up with at least a few people. But it's like trying to keep up with all the conversations at a cocktail party!

Exactly, Judy, except that cocktail parties are not my favorite glass of wine, and I love to schmooze around here.
I think the problem with the pegs is that they are brand new with no wear at all, and I don't have the strength to push them in far enough to seat them. My DH will get to the low two eventually. Meanwhile, the A & D strings do hold a perfect fifth even if not up to A440.
I'm off to add a bit to my fingertips.
Playing in a trio would be amazing! If I had been aware of the ocean of chamber music available, I might have been a piano major after all. I thought only about solo performance though, and considered that the world didn't need another 3rd rate pianist.

You might take a piece of sandpaper and roughen up the pegs that are slipping. Or here's a wild idea - cut strips of sandpaper and wrap them (rough side in, of course) around the pegs.

That is an idea, Judy! Thanks. I'll add it to my husband's think-and-do list for cello maintenance.

61. Lugging Vegetables to Nantucket by Peter Klappert

I finally took this slim volume off the shelf yesterday. Years ago when I bought it what intrigued me was the title, which seemed to bode well for humerous content. Not so. I've put in a call to my favorite poetry expert for some help, because although the words are all familiar, the symbols and references are not, and I need some collaboration. Anyone else familiar with Klappert?

>198 ffortsa: Argh. This theft of public material makes me so cross. I know the frustration arriving at an archive/ library to find something had "disappeared" mysteriously.

My winter sweaters aren't out yet, but it won't be long, I think.

>205 ffortsa: LOL -- and here I am wishing I could retire so I could do a better job keeping up with threads and reading oodles of books every year! *smirk*

First pass for deaccessioning: I went through my main fiction shelves and compared the books to my kindle library and managed to cull 8 volumes. Not that much, but any little bit helps. Next round will be various non-fiction shelves, although I don't expect a lot of duplication there.

It makes me a little sad, as I still do read on paper, but between the real estate and my old eyes, electronic is often better. And I listed most of them on Bookmooch and Paperbackswap, depending on the reported interest. Passing them on would be nice. In fact, here's the list. If you want any of them, send me a pm.

Waiting by Ha Jin
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (warning -small type)
Howard's End by E.M. Forster (more small type)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch (more small type)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - hardcover!

eta:
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (more small type)

62. About Face by Donna Leon

One of the better Leons I've read, and very welcome. Of course, it's the usual battle between the corrupt government and the honest policeman, with some very interesting additions of Comorra activity the crisis of garbage, both toxic and putrefying, in Italy. The sense that Brunetti is getting even more disheartened is palpable.

I'm listening to Amos Oz's novel My Michael - wonderful narration.

More deaccessioning:

Out of the Garden edited by Christina Buchmann and Celina Spiegel
The Complete Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Three Cases for Mr. Campion by Margery Allingham

Hi Judy! I hope you and Jim are doing well. Our state of NC has (ridiculously) gone to phase III of the Covid plan, opening things up so that more people can congregate when they shouldn't. I'm still pretending we're in phase I.

Congratulations on deaccessioning. I need to cull some more since I've been adding books - I want to keep it 1:1 this year.

>221 karenmarie: I always admire your cull count.

63. My Michael by Amos Oz

Discussion tomorrow night.

>203 ffortsa: Fall is here. The darkness arrives earlier, and the nights are chilly.
While there is not frost, I can foresee this soon.

I haven't read as much as usual this year. I'm re doing a lot of things in the house. I'm getting rid of some of Will's large furniture and making purchases of smaller items. The living room and dining room are newly painted, as is the downstairs bedroom. I tried painting the ceiling and quit when I wisely knew my neck and back were hurting, and it isn't wise go on a ladder when I am alone.

I hired a new person (less expensive than the other painter), who will finish painting the bedroom ceiling.

Pier One went out of business, and I was able to buy some nice chairs and a lovely cabinet for very good prices. A friend visited and gave me some decorating ideas.

I hope you and Jim are well, and enjoying the pre-fall weather.

All good wishes.

>224 Whisper1: Hi, Linda. Jim and I are fine, and I'm so glad the weather has turned. I've been walking at least three times a week for 3 or 4 miles now that it's cooler.

You've certainly done a lot of sprucing up and redefining your space! I try to do a little at a time, but Jim and I have a lot of stuff in this apartment, and whittling away at it is difficult. Updating the apartment itself will be easier when there aren't so many things in the way!

Jim and I have been keeping busy, sometimes too busy. I've been playing my violin, exercising, trying to do my little bit for the election. Jim has his own occupations. It's not so different from before March, except that we see friends face to face very seldom, of course.

Thanks for thinking of us.

I'm supposed to be reading The Transit of Venus, but I stopped along the way to read Iron Lake - now who recommended it to me? Katie? Reba? Anyway, so far, so good. And I have two weeks to read the Shirley Hazzard.

Twas not I!

I've been playing my violin, exercising, trying to do my little bit for the election. That seems a perfect definition of "adulting" at this point! Good for you!

(Did I read Transit of Venus? I don't think so.)

Hi, Judy. I continue to noodle away on the cello but not enough to have built up calluses; just enough to have strained my bow thumb. I do need help.

Ah. Don't squeeze the bow, it's not heavy. You might try some bow pushups, holding the bow vertical and curling your fingers to push it up and back, gently.

I'm trying my best to reduce the tensions I've always held in my body while playing the fiddle. Strangely, the more I relax my body the better my tone gets. Who knew? Having some trouble keeping my right shoulder relaxed. We all develop these unhelpful strategies.

Today I'm meeting a friend to practice sight-reading. Oy.

And thanks for the adulting comment. Now if I could only get to the apartment fixes...

Sight-reading among friends sounds pretty dire to me. My most dreaded part of my weekly piano lesson in college was reading through Mozart duets with my prof. I'll not bore you with my reading problems. Well, I will, but I'll be brief. I have a really good ear. I didn't learn to read music at all until after about the 6th month of lessons because my teacher always played the new pieces for me. I can look at a piece of music and hear it, I can sight sing, I just don't sight-read well at the piano.
As to the bow. I'm doing those exercises. I think that the main problem, which now has me tightening as I try to correct it, was holding my thumb straight rather than curved. That was a strain. I'll try.
Not surprising that tone improves with body relaxation. I had a fabulous, Julliard-trained coach 40 years ago who revamped my piano technique with hours and hours of tedious relaxation exercises. I'm forever grateful.
Please don't speak of house fixes. Please.
Off to read more of Utopia Avenue. David Mitchell has written an engrossing traditional novel about a 4-person band in England in the 60s. Good stuff!

Popping in to say Hi! Glad you are finding outlets in you violin, and your walks, and your books. : ) Stay happy and healthy. And maybe do an apartment fix or two, but don't strain yourself.

>231 Berly: Never fear, my apartment list never strains me. That's why it's so long!

65. Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
66. Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger

The library had an ebook omnibus available containing the first three of this series, so after I finished the first one, I just plowed on through the second. Nice reads, both of them althoughI didn't like the Hollywood ending of the first one. Good upcountry setting, Native American community (which I can only assume is described accurately), the typical ex-cop with a painful past. Good reads for distraction in this aggravating time.

Hi Judy! I hope you and Jim are doing well.

I have also read the first in the Cork O'Connor series, >233 ffortsa:. I've got the 3rd, Purgatory Ridge, on my shelves.

The newest Microsoft Windows updates have me steaming. Something about them is definitely unstable, or doesn't play well with others. As it's been noted quite publicly, I do hope they fix things pretty quickly.

>235 ffortsa: - Interesting to see you reporting this. I have been in almost constant contact with my computer guy because of this. He did reinstall the newer version (last week) but I am still having issues. It doesn't seem to save my passwords for ANYTHING. I live alone and am the only user on my computer so I never log off the sites I visit regularly, including LT, and my own emails. Yet I have to log in with user name and password every single damn time. I had the bright idea to just not use microsoft any more and I switched to google chrome as my browser. For awhile it seemed to be working but when I shut down at night and power off, in the morning I have to do all the log ins all over again, despite having clicked the pop up box, inviting me to save the password to my computer. No passwords are being saved and it's really annoying.

I am now wondering if this is happening to other people too.

>236 jessibud2: Rats. I wrote a whole reply to you, but it's disappeared. I must have failed to post. Anyway, I'm experiencing very slow startup time, and occasional freezes, which is frustrating. No problems yet with passwords and such, but I use a password manager, not windows or my browser, for most of the sites I visit. Let's hope the publicity pushes Mr. Softy to hurry up with some fixes.

And another Rats. I thought I was already marked as trained for election day work, so had ignored some emails that encouraged online training. Wrong move. I just took the election day training, but early voting training is no longer available, so I will probably be working on Nov. 3, a really long day. Oh well. I've done it before. Maybe I will remember to clarify instructions the next time!

>237 ffortsa: - Speed has not been an issue for me (yet, she whispers), but the password thing is really driving me around the bend. What's a password manager?

>239 jessibud2: It's a piece of software that stores your user ids and passwords in a password protected file and will generate suitably complicated passwords when requested. One of them is LastPass, which I use. You should be able to find others, and reviews, etc. online. Most of them have levels that are free (that's what I use) or you can pay an upgrade fee for more features if you need them.

>240 ffortsa: - Hmm, that's good to know, thanks. I never heard of that. I will ask my computer guy about this tomorrow!

EMERGENCY ALERT!

One of the world's greatest bookstores, The Strand, is struggling to stay in business. With the Christmas season coming, here's what they are asking their friends and patrons to do:

What can you do to help?

Visit our website and shop our gift guide at www.strandbooks.com
Visit our stores—828 Broadway at 12th St. (open – 11am-8pm) and 450 Columbus Ave at 82nd St. (open 11am – 6pm)
Give gifts from Strand – choose from books, gift cards, subscription boxes, journals, totes and more.
Encourage your friends to shop at Strand Books.
Spread the word – forward this email and post about us on your social media using the hashtag #savethestrand.
Shop Early and Shop Local!

#savethestrand

What!? How can the Strand be in trouble? I assumed they were doing well financially when they took over the Columbus Street location from BookCulture.

>243 ELiz_M: Nope. That had been in the works and I guess they thought more home time meant more reading. It's a great location, of course. But they just don't have the foot traffic and the students they usually have.

New York has been particularly beautiful this fall. It's always the best time to be here.

This is from the park along the Hudson, looking downtown:



About the same time, some tree decided to feed the birds in Union Square:



Then, the other day, we had fog:

67. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

Wow. More comments later after discussion on Monday, but wow.

Lovely photos, Judy. Sad about the Strand. I hope they make it.

Thanks for letting us know about the Strand, Judy; I've probably purchased more books there than any place else over the years, dating back to at least the late 1980s. I have several books that I would like to purchase this year, and since I probably won't visit NYC until 2021 I'll order them online from the Strand instead.

ETA: I just ordered four books that were high on my wishlist: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire by Roger Crowley, and Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture by Ed Morales.

Hi Judy!

>242 ffortsa: I just saw an article in the WaPo that customers came through for The Strand. There so many online orders that apparently at one point their website crashed.

>249 karenmarie: oh good. Some people have complained about the owner's wealth, but I'm more interested in preserving the Strand than urging her to bankrupt herself until it fails. Jim and I haven't made it down there yet, but we did see the lines.

#67 continued. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard.

It can be hard to have a good book group discussion when everyone agrees that the book is terrific, multi-layered, superbly written, and subtly subversive of the reading experience. All true. Two orphan girls and their older half-sister migrate from Australia to England after WWII. The two orphan girls experience different traversals of their own social and love lives. So far, it sounds pretty average. But the novel is full of the effects of change, moral choices, attempts to define personal freedom, illusions of integrity, impact of war, and fascinating character studies, especially of the women in the book. By all means read this book - preferably twice!

I'm happy to hear that the Strand is safe for now. I never buy new books, so I couldn't do my part.
I do, however, have a copy of *TofV* that I always forget but always want to read when I come across it. One day!
Meanwhile, I continue to dream about the cello even if I don't get to it more than a few minutes a day. I haven't done enough even to develop calluses, but I persevere.

I look, sometimes, at the books I and another LTer share, and what we would recommend to each other. It's always a jolt to see how many of my books are still unread. I know we all say we need to read off the shelves, either real or electronic, but the sheer psychic weight of all these unread books is taking its toll!

Well, the new year is coming and I can always make a resolution, or goal, or attempt at reading what I already own. What a concept.

At the moment I am starting Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, for my downtown (virtual) reading group. And I have some mysteries from the library that will have to be read and returned in a few days. After that, maybe I can start on that resolution...

So I've been waiting a while for a book from the library on the Little Ice Age, because someone recommended it. But I couldn't find anyone I knew who had commented on A Cold Welcome: The little Ice Age and Europe's Encounter with North America. But I did find two other books, in Benita's library list,
Nature's Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present and The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850. So now the question is, Benita, did you recommend one of these, or would you, and if so, which one?

Or was it someone else?

I should have kept notes.

I was looking forward to a new mystery story, and picked up The Unquiet Dead from the library, but I don't think it's for me. I know it's the first in a series, and firsts get special leeway, but it's too histrionic for my taste, and somehow I find the descriptive writing tedious. YMMV, of course, but I'm sending it back.