Weird_O Bill's Warped and Whacky World (of Reading )

 Judi and Weird_O Bill, Christmas Day 2015

Welcome

Current Reading


  Completed Vol. One 2/5/16. [Parts One through Eight]



On Deck...

 

Organization is the key to productive reading. If you want to read the classics, the prize-winners, the best-sellers…well, you just have to get organized. **Bronx cheer** So I've built a framework or format to display the various challenges I've bought into. **Yah yah yah yah** I'm trying not to commit myself to reading particular books, especially not at particular times. ** Uh huh; sure sure sure.** Because I'm doing to American Author Challenge, I am agreeing to read a book or books by specific authors, and do it in specific month. That agreement drives some readings for other challenges. **Oh golly!**

Each month I intend to post my reading selections in the following categories:

American Author Challenge (AAC)
Pulitzer Prize Novel (PPN)
Pulitzer Prize Miscellany (PPM)
Dead Weight Doorstop
Wedge Doorstop
Murder 'n' Mayhem (MnM)
Non Fiction Challenge (NFC)

I'll endeavor to combine reads and categories whenever I can; e.g. for January, a reading of Breathing Lessons will satisfy both AAC and PPN. Reading Angela's Ashes likewise will satisfy PPM and NFC.

In the coming months, we see who's kidding who, who's fooling who. And also answer the critical question: Is he nuts?

Of the 11 specific authors in this year's American Author Challenge, only Ivan Doig is absent from my bookshelves. I have multiple unread books by Anne Tyler, Richard Russo, Jane Smiley, Joyce Carol Oates, John Irving, and Don DeLillo. The two Annies—Proulx and Dillard—each have a single unread book on my shelves.I have a lot of Steinbeck's books shelved, most of them read at some point or other. I have read numerous Michael Chabon novels, so I'm going to have to buy or borrow something by him for October (lots of time, so I'm not worried).

To make this all look plausible, here's my list of books by author: (tk)

Realizing that quite a few Pulitzer Prize winners were languishing unread on my bookshelves, I resolved to read them; at least one a month. Moreover, acknowledging how many winners in other than the fiction categories I have, I further resolved to read one of them each month.

Am I nuts?

Here are lists of books from which I'll choose:

Fiction Candidates
1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton ROOT
1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck ROOT
1939: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ROOT
1952: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk ROOT
1956: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (9/13/16) 
1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty ROOT (5/3/16) 
1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker ROOT (11/2/16) 
1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry ROOT (4/28/16) 
1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler ROOT (1/26/16) 
1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos ROOT
1991: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike ROOT
1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley ROOT (3/11/16) 
1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx ROOT (6/19/16) 
1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri ROOT (10/16/16) 
2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo ROOT (2/14/16) 
2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides ROOT
2004: The Known World by Edward P. Young
2006: March by Geraldine Brooks ROOT (7/10/16) 
2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy ROOT
2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz ROOT (8/7/16) 
2013: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson ROOT
2014: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Miscellany Candidates
1922: Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill (Drama) ROOT (11/25/16) 
1929: John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét (Poetry) ROOT (4/31/16) 
1937: The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865 by Van Wyck Brooks (Hist.) ROOT
1938: Our Town by Thornton Wilder (Drama) ROOT (2/3/16) 
1944 The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Carlton Mabee (Bio) (7/21/16) 
1948: Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto (Hist)
1949: Roosevelt and Hopkins by Robert E. Sherwood (Bio) ROOT
1949: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (Drama) ROOT (2/27/16) 
1954: A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton (Hist) (3/25/16) 
1969: So Human an Animal by Rene Dubos (GenNF) ROOT (6/30/15) 
1970: Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department by Dean Acheson (Hist)
1972: Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash (Bio) ROOT
1973: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald (GenNF)
1976: Edith Wharton: A Biography by R. W. B. Lewis (Bio) ROOT
1978: Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate (Bio)
1978: The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan (GenNF) (10/28/16) 
1981: Peter the Great: His Life and Work by Robert K. Massie (Bio) ROOT
1989: Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann (Bio) ROOT
1993: Truman by David McCullough (Bio) ROOT (6/2/16) 
1993: Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills (GenNF)
1997: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (Bio) ROOT (1/24/16) 
2002: The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand (hist) (10/23/16) 
2007: The Most Famous Man in America by Debby Applegate (Bio) ROOT
2011: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (Bio) ROOT
2013: Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King (GenNF) (10/20/16) 

Since I concocted this dreadful Doorstop Challenge lunacy, I feel I'm obligated to go ALL IN. Here therefore is my list of 15 "dead weight doorstop" books, some fiction, some non-fiction. A dead weight doorstop, to me, is at least 601 text pages, discounting introductions and notes and indices. The challenge is to read one a month, so each month I'll select a book from the list that's appealing at that moment. Yeah, if all goes well, I'll have three on the list still unread—but only three.

Weird_O's Dead Weights

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1672 pages) (hc) ROOT (3/22/16) 
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes (692 pages) ROOT
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (729 pages) (pbk) ROOT (2/27/16) 
The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (729 pages) ROOT (1/15/16) 
The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (604 pages) ROOT
Middlemarch by George Eliot (821 pages) (hc) ROOT
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (945 pages) (mmp) ROOT (4/28/16) 
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (623 pages) (pbk) ROOT
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (615 pages) (mmp) ROOT
Truman by David McCullagh (992 pages) (hc) ROOT (6/2/16) 
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner (635 pages) (mmp) ROOT (8/31/16) 
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (602 pages) (pbk) ROOT
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (752 pages) (Pulitzer finalist 2001) ROOT (8/16/16) 
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (720 pages) (pbk)
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (704 pages) (pbk)
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (760 pages) (pbk) (9/13/16) 
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry (670 pages) (pbk) ROOT (10/10/16) 

       

        

The balancing element of the Doorstop Challenge is the wedge division, comprising books that are shorter than 200 pages, i.e. those that are 199 pages or less. Yeah, I'm ALL IN for this part of the overall challenge. My 15-book list is just below; I'll read one a month, which ever one of the remaining unread appeals to be at the moment.

Sula by Toni Morrison (174 pages) ROOT (11/13/16) 
The Quiet American by Graham Greene (189 pages) ROOT (1/7/16) 
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (167 pages) ROOT
The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (180 pages) ROOT (6/13/16) 
The Body Artist by Don DeLillo (128 pages) ROOT (12/9/16) 
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (178 pages) ROOT
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (108 pages) ROOT (2/16/16) 
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (160 pages) ROOT (8/2/16) 
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (116 pages) ROOT (3/8/16) 
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (165 pages) ROOT
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (181 pages) ROOT (7/23/16) 
The Stranger by Albert Camus (123 pages) ROOT (5/6/16) 
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov (123 pages)
The King by Donald Barthelme (157 pages)
Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis (176 pages)
Nobody Move by Denis Johnson (196 pages) (6/7/16) 
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (76 pages) (10/12/16) 
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (198 pages) ROOT (10/16/16) 

       

         

Not too long ago, it struck me that I've accumulated quite a few books in what's been termed the Murder and Mayhem genre. I enjoy them. They're like dessert or a reward: fun, engrossing, a little treat that goes down easily. Except I've been denying myself the reads yet continuing to snap 'em up at library sales.

The remedy is this: read one each month. Okay, occasionally more than one a month.

Here's my archive:

Eric Ambler
A Coffin for Dimitrios (pbk) ROOT (5/5/16) 

Vincent Bugliosi
Helter Skelter (pbk) NF ROOT (10/10/16) 

Caleb Carr
The Alienist (hc) ROOT (4/4/16) 

Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (hc) ROOT (7/4/16) 
Toward Zero (hc) [February addition]

Mary Higgins Clark
Where Are the Children? (pbk) ROOT (8/7/16) 

James Ellroy
L.A. Confidential (pbk) ROOT
White Jazz (pbk) ROOT
American Tabloid (pbk) [February addition]

Robert Galbraith
Career of Evil (hc) ROOT (1/5/16) 

Carl Hiaasen
Nature Girl (pbk) ROOT
Bad Monkey (hc) ROOT
Tourist Season (pbk) ROOT (11/9/16) 
Stormy Weather (pbk) ROOT (7/25/16) 
Star Island (hc) [February addition]

Denis Johnson
Nobody Move (hc) [May addition] (6/7/16) 

Dennis Lehane
Mystic River (hc) ROOT

Walter Mosley
Fear of the Dark (hc) ROOT
Cinnamon Kiss (hc) ROOT
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (hc) ROOT (2/5/16) 
A Little Yellow Dog (pbk) ROOT
The Right Mistake (hc) ROOT
Little Scarlet (hc) ROOT
Devil in a Blue Dress (pbk) [February addition](3/22/16) 
A Red Death (pbk) [September addition] (9/30/16) 
White Butterfly (pbk) [September addition]

Richard Price
Freedomland (hc) ROOT
Lush Life (hc) ROOT

Martin Cruz Smith
December 6 (hc) ROOT

Amy Stewart
Girl Waits with Gun (hc) ROOT (12/2/16) 

January (8 read)
1. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (1/2/16) ROOT AAC3--January ®
2. The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Raspe and others (1/3/16) ROOT
3. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (1/5/16) ROOT MnM ®
4. The Quiet American by Graham Greene (1/7/16) ROOT Wedgie ®
5. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (1/9/16) ROOT AAC3--January
6. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (729 pages) (1/15/16) ROOT DwD ®
7. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (1/24/16) ROOT PPM NFC ®
8. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1/26/16) ROOT PPF AAC3--January ®

February (11 read)
9. Our Town by Thornton Wilder (2/3/16) ROOT PPM ®
10. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley (2/5/16) ROOT MnM ®
11. The Tycoons by Charles Morris (2/10/16) ROOT NFC
12. The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, vol 1 by Neil Gaiman (2/13/16) ®
13. The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, vol 2 by Neil Gaiman (2/13/16) ®
14. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2/14/16) ROOT AAC3--February PPF
15. The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Power-House by John Buchan (2/16/16) ROOT Wedge ®
16. March Book One by John Lewis (2/23/16)
17. March Book Two by John Lewis (2/27/16)
18. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (729 pages) (2/27/16) ROOT DwD
19. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (2/27/16) ROOT PPM ®

March (4 read)
20. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (3/5/16)
21. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (3/7/16)
22. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (3/8/16) ROOT Wedge
23. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (3/11/16) ROOT AAC3--March PPF ®

2nd qtr

somethin' somethin'

What a fun gif at the top of your new thread, Bill! I love it.

I look forward to tracking your progress and especially to learning more about somethin' somethin'

Happy New Year to you and Judi! Happy Reading in 2016!!!!!

Happy New Year, Bill!

Happy new year, Bill! Dropping off my star, so I can find my way back....

What a great opening, Bill. Happy reading 2016.

Love the top pic. Brilliant.
Happy reading, and happy New Year!

Great thread topper, Bill! I hope that you and your family have a prosperous and blessed 2016.

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread, Bill! Love the topper. You have been a perfect addition to the Mighty 75, my friend and I am looking forward to following you through a full year of books and book chatter.

Happy New Year, Bill! I keep seeing you around the threads, so I thought I would check out yours and drop my star. Looking forward to following your reading this year - we have a lot of the same books on the shelves!

Love the topper, Bill!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back!

What a great opening image.

I look forward to following your thread, and meeting you in 2016!

Happy new year Bill - lovely topper. Looks like you're gong to be v busy with all those challenges. The crime sounds like fun, and there's some names I've not come across, so I'll definitely be following those. Last year I tried to find some international crime which was fun. I'm going to try and catch up with Walter Mosley's backlist and start reading Elmore Leonard too.

What a fun thread. Love the image at the top, and I admire anyone who doesn't wilt with that display of giant books facing them! I've read a few of them and have one on the agenda for sometime this year (The Brothers Karamazov).

Just dropping in a star :) Can't wait to se how you guys manage on the dead weight challenge! There is no way on earth I'd have enough time to do that this year so I'll settle for cheerleading! Oh and beware the Goldne Notebook - it may be one of the shorter of your tomes list but it took me about 10 times as long as Lonesome Dove, which was in my top 5 reads of 2015 and is great fun. Hmmm that sentence sort of got away from me...

What a fantastic moving picture! Great to see your 2016 thread up and running!
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2016, Bill!

>1 weird_O: Delightful!

Man, your Doorstop Challenge is intimidating...I thought I was doing well to commit to reading War and Peace over a three month period.

Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!

Have a wonderful bookfilled 2016, Bill.

Unique opener!

>28 PaulCranswick: Well...o...k...Is hockey getting cheerleaders?

Thanks for the good wishes, and welcome, Ellen, Steve, Katie, Barbara, Megan, Darryl, Mark, Mamie, Amber, Jim, Linda, Charlotte, Ursula, Bekka, Lori, Linda, and Paul.

Here's my reading card for January 2016.

AAC: Anne Tyler
    The Accidental Tourist
     Breathing Lessons
     Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Pulitzer Prize Novel: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1989)
Pulitzer Prize Miscellany: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (1997 Bio)
Dead Weight Doorstop: The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (615 pages)
Wedge Doorstop: The Quiet American by Graham Green (189 pages)
Murder 'n' Mayhem: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
NFC (Biography/Memoir/Autobiography): Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

2015 Leftovers: The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Raspe et al
    Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris

Group Read: War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Half way through The Accidental Tourist. Forty pages to go in Munchausen. Not many pages into Uncle Remus.

ETA: All these are ROOTs.

>30 weird_O: You're way up on your ROOTing, Bill.

>30 weird_O: - Great list! I'm about a third of the way into Breathing Lessons and enjoying it.

Happy New Year Bill!



"I wish you never-ending dreams
and the furious desire to realise some of them."
— Jacques Brel

What a cool gif you've got up there! Lovin' it! :-)

I think I'll borrow a page from you and make a list of those doorstoppers I'd like to tackle this year. Goodness knows I'm not lacking for those. I don't think this will be the year of Moby Dick or Don Quixote for me (feels good to be able to say "no" sometimes), not that I'm not looking forward to those, but there are so many I've more or less committed to already it'll be interesting to see how it goes! Looking forward to picking up a few Pulitzer-winners, I'd let go of that challenge for some time. Because as we know, there is a dearth of challenges in this group... ;-)

Hi Bill, Happy New Year! Love your gif on top of your thread!

When you get to The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Lonesome Dove, I think you'll be surprised by just how fast they fly by. I loved them both and was sorry when they ended!

Happy Sunday, Bill. Love that January reading card. You have some fine Tyler reading ahead of you.

I am starting my first Doorstop...

I didn't post here on the 1st? Hmm, apparently not. Too overwhelmed by the lists, I guess.

Happy 2016!

>1 weird_O: Ha! Terrific, Bill.

I'm going to be surprised if you don't love Lonesome Dove. I resisted it for a lot of years, mainly because so many people recommended it (what a great reason, right?), and it turned out to be one of my very top books for 2015.

Happy New Year! Hope you've been having a good holiday break.

I "found" you on Paul C's thread, commenting on your thread topper. Cool, of course.

You've gots of interesting reads planned, some of my favorite authors included. I re-read Helter Skelter every 5 years or so - I'm from LA and remember the craziness there when I was in my mid-teens. The Bug has quite a few other good books, too.....

I am looking forward to following your progress during the year.

Bill, you are indeed very organized! I am going to loosely join you in the doorstop challenge although I won't try to read one per month. I'm not even setting a number (you know, me of the No Pressure in 2016 mantra) but I do want to read a few that have been collecting about the place: The Luminaries and A Brief History of Seven Killings to name two. So, it seems only fair that I get to join you in the wedge bookstop challenge, too! I'm sure I have a few volumes around here that come in at under 200 pages. I see that Cannery Row is one of yours: that is perhaps my all-time favorite Steinbeck. And I love Steinbeck.

Hi, Bill - welcome back!

Happy new year Bill! Love the gif topper!

Stopping by to drop off a star of my own - good luck with it all!

Happy New Year, Bill! Stopping by to drop my wee little star. Looking forward to following your reading this year.

I'll be ROOTing for you!

A week into 2016, I have completed four books, one of which I started in 2015. The four are:

1. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (1/2/16) (AAC3—January) ROOT
2. The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Raspe and others (1/3/16) ROOT
3. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (1/5/16) MnM ROOT
4. The Quiet American by Graham Greene (1/7/16) Wedge ROOT

Currently, I'm reading The Gulag Archipelago by Nobelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a second Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and a second carry-over, started in 2015 but not finished, Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris.

# 1. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler Finished 1/2/16

 

On the surface, The Accidental Tourist is about a marriage damaged by a child's murder. The parents are devastated. They carry on, going through the motions of life as in a fog, barely communicating with each other or anyone else. The husband and father, Macon Leary, struggles to get on with his work of researching, updating, and revising a line of guidebooks, called "The Accidental Tourist," for business travelers. Months after the murder, but in the opening pages of this novel, Sarah Leary, wife and mother, tells Macon she is moving out of their small house into an apartment. Macon is left with the house, the cat and Edward the dog.

Edward spurs Macon's first crisis as a single man. To embark on a business trip, Macon must board Edward. His sister and two brothers won't take him because he's snappish and undisciplined. The familiar kennel rejects Edward because he bit someone on his last stay. At a new kennel, Macon's confronted by an overly friendly, almost bumptious young woman who takes Edward in, but further asserts she can train Edward in nothing flat. Not content to leave it at that, Muriel, for that's her name, calls Macon at home to promote her dog-training services, but also to try to get to know him, to ingratiate herself. Trolling for friendship.

The story progresses at a methodical pace (too slow for some, I know); it moves at Macon's pace. He is patient, calm, loath to conform to convention. Ultimately we see that marriage isn't the theme, but Macon's passivity, his inability to decide the direction of his own life.

He reflected that he had not taken steps very often in his life, come to think of it. Really never. His marriage, his two jobs, his time with Muriel…all seemed to have simply befallen him. He couldn't think of a single major act he had managed of his own accord.
Was it too late now to begin?
Was there any way he could learn to do things differently?

As his life befalls him, we meet Macon's two older brothers, Porter and Charles, and his sister Rose, all of whom live in the house left them when their grandfather died. We meet his boss, Julian, who is cheerful and supportive; he keeps after Macon, not allowing him to stall. All are quirky, irritating, funny, and maddening. Tyler sets out the "logic" behind individual quirks, gives voice to plans and dreams, bickering and harmony. If you have an eye for details, an ear for authentic dialog, and a little bit of patience, you'll enjoy The Accidental Tourist. I did.

Wowza! FOUR Roots! Quite impressive!

>31 Ameise1: Working with a stacked deck is really helpful, Barbara. For at least the first quarter of the year, likely be reading ROOTs.

>32 katiekrug: Katie, you are a bit ahead of me on Breathing Lessons, but I'll get it read this month.

>33 Smiler69: You have a lot on your plate, Ilana. It'll be great if you can get two or three doorstops read.

>34 Copperskye: My big concern with the Stegner and McMurty tomes is that I'll be reading them in mass-market paperback format--small page size, tiny typeface, and thick as bricks. I bought my first-ever Heritage Press book, Tom Jones, specifically because the mmp version was too much of a struggle to read. I'm having the same war with The Gulag Archipelago right now. All the Russian names aren't making it easier. Ha Ha. And soon I must begin War & Peace.

>35 msf59: Mark, you are surely done with the Doorstop. Amirite? One-and-quarter Tyler's read, and yes, I'm enjoying. One-and-three-quarters to go.

Hi Bill

May 2016 be a year filled with good reads.

Happy New Year!


The next Bethlehem Library sale is Feb. 4 & 6. Are you able to meet up on the 6th?

Happy Friday, Bill! Good review of The Accidental Tourist. Nice to see a positive reaction. A few readers were slamming it over on the AAC thread.

Good luck with Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. I hope to start my copy soon.

And I am still working on A Little Life. It is a Big Brutal Book!

>36 qebo: Oh Katherine, you know you aren't alone in Overwhelmed. I'm still there--can't find the door!!! Trying to catch up on my own thread; and I've got two others to check on. What have I done?!

>37 jnwelch: Glad you like the topper, Joe. Our son was egging us on as we were leaving for home, just holding the shutter button down. When you upload such stuff to Google Photo, the sequence is recognized as gif fodder, and with your sanction, a gif is what Google will prepare for you.

McMurtry's LD would NOT fit in last year's schedule, so I concocted the Dread Doorstop Challenge specifically to fit 'er in for 2016. Looking forward to reading it.

>38 karenmarie: Karen, I am looking forward to progress myself. :-) I borrowed Helter-Skelter from my daughter, and she wants it back. So I've gotta read it.

Back in the 1970s, I bought a remaindered copy of The Family by Ed Sanders; reporting on Manson et al. Sanders was a member of The Fugs, a radical rock band given to parody, satire, and lewness (I have 'em on vinyl!). The book seemed like a strange departure for Sanders.

I'm aware of Bugliosi's mammoth debunking of every known Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. What else did he write?

>39 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. The organization is a scrim. Chaos may still overwhelm; the year is so new! :-) Join in with a Doorstop read or two if you've a mind to.

Apropos nothing, I saw this on FB and thought I should share it. Perhaps you've already seen it. (I also posted it to Liz's thread, since she's chosen owls as her toppers.)

Captured by a traffic cam in Montreal.



Maybe this is Hedwig.

>45 weird_O: Great review, Bill. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

>51 weird_O: Saw this on FB, too. It's so cute.

That Snowy Owl video is amazing. I saw the still pic on FB. What a capture! Congrats on reading four of your own books so far, Bill. I read my first Doorstopper which is also a ROOT book.

Four books already! Go you! I really liked your comments on The Accidental Tourist. I think you are spot on.

Wishing you a most lovely weekend, Bill.

I'd love to think that Hedwig is happy in Montreal.....

You are off to a great start, Bill! I loved your review of The Accidental Tourist - really enjoyed that one when I read it. I will give it my thumb if you posted that review.

That owl is gorgeous - thanks for sharing.

I think I actually liked the movie better than the book on The Accidental Tourist.

Completed Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant today (1/9/16). Good book.

I've mentioned that the copy of The Gulag Archipelago I have has been giving me fits. I'm going to suspend reading it until I can find a more satisfactory edition. Instead, I've turned to Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale as my Dead Weight Doorstop for this month.

ETA: I have Angela's Ashes on deck. It was on top of a pile, and my wife asked about it, then picked it up to read the flap copy, and suddenly she's reading it! Wha' th'? So I went back to Miss Tyler. Now both Bill and Judi have finished their reads. Judi's moved on to The Grand Sophy, AA is back on deck, and I'm reading The Old Wives' Tale.

Bill, thanks for the snow owl gif. I stole it to post it on my FB page (giving you credit) and have gotten quite a few "likes" on it already.

I certainly hope I can manage at least a half dozen doorstoppers this year. So many of them I can't wait to get to which I keep putting off. I'll post my progress whichever way it goes.

>45 weird_O: aaaah, the sweet memories of reading The Accidental tourist are returning after reading your review. I thoroughly enjoyed that book.

Will be starting on Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant next week sometime so I am pleased to see you liked it. Have a great Sunday.

Great thread, Bill! I love all of your pictures! Oh course, living in Canada and all, I've seen the snow owl video a lot! :) Organized reading ? I'm a bit of a fly by my pants reader, but I do try to follow the prizes - Booker, Orange aka Bailey's Women's Fiction Prize, and the Canadian Lit prizes.

I am hoping to read most of the Canadian author challenges. If I can find time, I'll read some of the BAC and AAC books too. Love Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler and I've read quite a few of her books in the past. I also enjoy Susan Hill of this January's BAC challenge. Great gif of you and your wife! :)

Love the owl video. And the Tyler love.

Great review of The Accidental Tourist, Bill.

And that Owl Cam (I know, it's a traffic cam) -- it's magnificent!!!!!

Like Ilana, I'm hoping to complete half a dozen doorstops this year. We'll see how that goes.
Maybe at least three....

# 3. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith Finished 1/5/16

 

Bloody HELL! The third installment of J.K. Rowling's* Cormoran Strike murder mystery series is indeed bloody. A villain with a grudge against Strike plans to avenge himself—all the suspects are men—by harming his (Strike's) attractive partner Robin Ellacott. She accepts a package from a courier upon arrival at work one morning and discovers it is not the wedding-reception paraphernalia she's expecting but a woman's lower leg and foot. Shivery. Before long, the remainder of the young woman is found. Dismembered.

It is hell. Scattered through the book are chapters from the villain's viewpoint, revealing his thoughts and plans, without, of course, tipping us to his identity. We immediately learn how twisted he is; here are the book's first words:

He had not managed to scrub off all her blood. A dark line like a parenthesis lay under the middle fingernail of left hand…a momento of the previous day's pleasures…recall[ing] the smell of the torrent that had splashed wildly onto the tiled floor, spattering the walls, drenching his jeans and turning the peach-colored bath towels—fluffy, dry and neatly folded—into blood-soaked rags…
They belonged to you once you had killed them: it was a possession way beyond sex. Even to know how they looked at the moment of death was an intimacy way past anything two living bodies could experience.

Through these chapters we soon realize he's smart, skilled, devious, and intent on a surprise meetup with Robin. But still we don't know if he's one of Strike's three prime suspects, and if so, which one. Of course, each suspect is concentrated evil, sporadically stirring up suspicion, just begging for the Big Slam.

Series books usually display elements of soap opera, and the Strike series is no exception. Robin is still intending to marry her accountant bf, Mathew, though he still denigrates her chosen career and harbors jealousy of Strike. Strike still struggles with and mostly represses his affection for his only co-worker. He enjoys hot sex with striking, cultured, well-heeled ladies but ultimately finds them vapid and forgettable. The police resent Strike's investigational brilliance (and persistence) and the fawning publicity that attends his successes. He still cleans up good, still attracts the ladies, intimidates the men. Robin proves again and again her tenaciousness, self-reliance, resilience, toughness, reliability, compassion, and loyalty. And we learn more about her past. Quirky friends and contacts still emerge from under rocks, usually to save a day (or at least embarrassment).

Career of Evil is pretty long (most Rowling books are). She has a lot to say about her villains, her protagonists, and even her supporting characters and bit players. But it was a pretty quick read to me, for it pulls you along relentlessly. I'll give it two thumbs up.

 

*Oh come on!! Surely you know by now that "Robert Galbraith" is a pen name J. K. Rowling, famous for the Harry Potter books, adopted for this series.

I'm sure there are a couple of people who missed the whole "Robert Gailbraith is J. K. Rowling" memo, but I don't know what rock they were hiding under. :) Glad to see that you're already making progress on your reading goals Bill.

Hope you had a great weekend.

That was one of my favorite reads from last year, Bill. Nice review!

>66 weird_O: I enjoyed this one a lot. And despite the perspective of the killer, it didn't put me off as Alex Grecian's portrait of the inside of Jack the Ripper did in his third book in his Scotland Yard series. Rowling showed us how the man thinks, but she didn't try to make us feel like him...I think that's the difference.

Great review. I'm looking forward to the next one...

Thanks for the approval, Rachel, Mamie, Linda, and Charlotte.

I'm busy reading The Old Wives' Tale for the Dead-Weight Doorstop Challenge. I set up a ticker to display progress through this 729-pager. It's up there at >2 weird_O:, which is my "current reading" post. This novelist, Arnold Bennett, was a contemporary of Henry James and Edith Wharton, and I observe that he's so much more readable. He pokes fun at the foibles of one and all. Depression doesn't appear to be his interest.

I also took some time to flip through my two-volume edition of War & Peace to make myself a reading agenda. I have to read 385 pages of the first volume in the next eleven days. Be still my heart!

Glad you had a good time with Career of Evil. For me, it was the best yet in that series. And now I can't wait for the next one!

Hi Bill, Visited your thread to read your review of The Accidental Tourist. Great review, I've read the book ages ago, and decided I am going to do a reread.

And I loved the owl...

I have read War and Peace, and found it very readable, and very good, but I did need time and patience, as I couldn't read more than one chapter at a time. But it was great.

Thanks, Ella. I am going to start on W&P by early next week, and I see how it goes. Some people have ripped right through it a matter of days; right, Joe?

Good review of Career of Evil, Bill. I hope to read the 2nd installment, in the coming months.

I did finish my first Doorstop Whopper and I plan on starting W & P next week, which should count as 3 Chunksters.

Next up: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

Roddy Doyle posted the following tribute to Alan Rickman on his Facebook page. F-bomb alert.

-See Bruce’s pal died.
-Alan Rickman.
-Yeah. Hans Gruber.
-Brilliant.
-F*ckin’ brilliant. The best. ‘I am going to count to three. There will not be a four.’
-He was great in everythin’ - the Harry Potters. Everythin’.
-The f*ckin’ head on him.
-Like, Bruce is the man – no question. But he’s only as good, really, as the baddie in the fillum. An’ Hans was the f*ckin’ best.
-Ever. Up there with Lee Marvin.
-When I was watchin’ Die Hard – the first time, like – I knew there’d be a sequel. I just knew, like. And – swear to God now – I was hopin’ Hans would win so we’d see him again in the sequel.
-Instead o’ Bruce?
-Yeah.
-You wanted Hans to f*ckin’ trounce Bruce?
-Yeah.
-Wait now – hang on. I know wha’ you mean – kind of. I think. But you wanted Bruce to die?
-Only for a bit – a fleetin’ moment, like. Hans was just so f*ckin’ great.
Like, I know it’s blasphemy an’ tha’ – sayin’ that I wanted Bruce to get killed.
-Says a lot about Rickman, but – doesn’t it?
-The same age as Bowie.
-Saw that.
-Frightenin’. Will we have another pint?
-‘What idiot put you in charge?’

>75 msf59: It is appropriate that the Mighty 75's brilliant warbler should drop the 75th post on my thread. I kinda like that; thanx!!

My first DwD (Dead-Weight Doorstop) is 32 pages from completion. I'm really surprised how quickly I've gotten through it. Sure glad it isn't depressing like the one you read. I may have missed it, but I don't think you've described the plot, other than to say it's a bummer but well written. Soooo, why would I want to even consider reading it? Heh heh.

I gotta start W&P myself. I'm thinking I'll slot it as my DwD for March, assuming I do get through it. Hey, if Joe can, so can I!

>76 weird_O: Brilliant. Remember hearing that Rickman's part was cut back in Robin Hood as Kevin Costner was so grumpy about being outshone. Not sure how true that was...

>76 weird_O: Love it.

>78 charl08: Oooh, I can picture Costner chaffing at being overshadowed! Oh yes. Ha ha ha.

>79 scaifea: :-)

Finished The Old Wives' Tale at about 12:45 a.m., so I date its completion as 1/15/16. Seven hundred twenty-nine pages; my first DwD of 2016. Number six of the year. All of them ROOTs. Should I give that a *woot*? Haven't ever performed a *woot*.

Now about 10 pages into Angela's Ashes.

"Mighty 75's brilliant warbler." Sounds like I better start working on a T-shirt, Bill. Grins...

It has been many years but I absolutely loved Angela's Ashes. Not, as relentlessly bleak as A Little Life but it sure has it's moments.

A Little Life: "When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride."

That is the summary. The rest is the gut-wrenching details, told in an almost hypnotic narrative.

I love the opening of Angela's Ashes about miserable childhoods. Hope it's a good read for you, Bill!

I'm almost afraid to ask , because I should know, but what is a ROOT?

>83 vancouverdeb: ROOT--Read Our Own Tomes--it's a group where we set a goal of how many TBRs on our shelves we want to read this year, and then keep a group goal & count, and encourage our group mates to read those ROOTs! Check us out: http://www.librarything.com/topic/208668

What I like is that the rules are pretty much up to you as to what you consider a ROOT. For me, it's anything on my shelf (or Nook or tablet or audiobook) acquired before Jan 1, 2016.

>76 weird_O: OMG, Roddy Doyle if f*cking brilliant as well! Can we please hold on to HIM a while??

All you The Grand Sophy lovers! My wife has read the three books I gave her for Christmas. They are: The Lady in Gold, Girl Waits with Gun, and of course, The Grand Sophy. That last one was her favorite of the three. I do want to fit them into my own reading this year.

>85 laytonwoman3rd: Agreed, Linda.

All good wishes for a weekend filled with reading!

>87 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda. I did get some reading done, but I let football be a little too dominant.

Spent time messing with a piece on Baron Munchausen. I have two different editions of his adventures, one of which I read over the holidays. I think it would be a grand GN, but probably there's no market for it. The Terry Gilliam film of the stories cost $46 million to make in 1988, but grossed only $8 million; don't know if that's Gilliam or the story. Anyway, it does cry for visuals. More later...maybe.

I set aside Angela's Ashes to get started on War & Peace. The group schedule calls for the first three parts (385 pages) to be completed by 1/23/16, which is Saturday. Finished Part One this morning (at 1:30 am). Want to push on through to Part Three, then get back to McCourt.

Completed Part 3 of W&P on time (!!?!!!). Now I am back with the McCourt family in Limerick.

I can't keep up with the reading I want to do and all the threads. Overwhelmed.

Judi is reading John le Carre: The Biography, which was given to me for Christmas. "I'm not sure I'm going read this," she said. But she's still reading.

Over the holidays, I read The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen Here's one adventure:

I set off from home on my journey to Russia, in the midst of winter…[N]ight and darkness overtook me…Tired I alighted at last, and fastened my horse to something of a pointed stump of a tree…and lay down in the snow, not far off, where I slept so soundly, that I did not open my eyes till it was full day light. Great was my astonishment now, to find myself in the midst of a village, lying in the church-yard. Nor was my horse to be seen, but I heard him soon after neigh, some¬where above me. On looking upwards I beheld him tied and hang¬ing to the weather-cock of the steeple. Matters were now very plain to me: The village had been covered with snow that night; a sudden change of weather had taken place; I had sunk down to the church-yard whilst asleep, gently, and in the same proportion as the snow had melted away, and what in the dark I had taken to be a stump of a little tree appearing above the snow, to which I had tied my horse, proved to have been the cross or weather-cock of the steeple.
Without long consideration I took one of my pistols, shot off the halter, brought down the horse and proceeded on my journey.

 

Hi, Bill. Please do not get overwhelmed by the pace of this crazy place we call our LT home. Step back, if you need to take a breather. We have all done it.

I am so glad the wife loved The Grand Sophy. I also have Girl Waits With Gun on my To-Read list.

# 4. The Quiet American by Graham Greene Finished 1/7/16

 

Graham Greene was such a great story-teller. The Quiet American is a short novel, set in Saigon in the early 1950s, depicting the death of an idealistic young American attached to the U.S. Embassy. The narrator is Thomas Fowler, a veteran British journalist who has been covering the First Indochina War. Fowler is living with a 20-year-old Vietnamese former dance-hall girl named Phuong. He'd marry the girl if his wife back in England would grant him a divorce (but she won't).

By chance, Fowler meets Alden Pyle, ostensibly an embassy aide, recently graduated from college and just arrived from the U.S., eager to find "the third force" and enable it to defeat the warring factions. The concept of "the third force" is the chimera of an academic who's never been to Vietnam, never engaged with conflicting communities, never identified an actual third force. It's just unproven theory. Though Fowler tries, he isn't able to persuade Pyle the idea is nonsense. As time goes on, Fowler sees evidence of Pyle's meddlesome activities, including a bicycle bomb detonated in a busy public square that kills and maims innocents.

To make matters more personal for Fowler, Pyle has proposed to Phuoing and won her away.

One evening, Pyle's corpse is fished from a canal. French authorities investigating the death suspect Fowler knows more than he tells them.

The story was inspired by conversations Greene, then a war correspondent, had with an American aid worker (really a CIA agent) in French Indochina in 1951. Greene felt he was being lectured on finding a third force in Vietnam. At the time The Quiet American was published (1955) it was widely reviled in the U.S. as anti-American. Sixty years later, it seems quite prescient.

I do believe we'll be getting some snow late tonight and through tomorrow. We're ready for it, and happily, it appears we are just far enough north and west to avoid a double digit accumulation. My older son was in the Silicon Valley all week, expecting to return to Newark on Saturday. He's rebooked to arrive Sunday night; hoping that'll stand up, rather than being further delayed. The Grands will surely get to try out the new-to-them steerable sleds (originally belonging to my wife and her brother--family heirlooms!) They live only three blocks from a terrific sledding hill in a city park. Our younger son and his family live in south Jersey, in the 12" to 18" zone. Oh my...

In reading news, I'm about half-way through Angela's Ashes, and damn glad the author survived that childhood of his. Next week I'll blaze through Breathing Lessons, then get back to W&P.

War & Peace is good, not difficult to read at all. The supplemental I wished for was a character list. I did the google, and found a good one at Wikipedia (like, duh. Wikipedia...) Unfortunately, it included some spoilers--deaths, marriages, etc.

Happy Friday, Bill. I am not sure if you saw my comments up in #91 or not?

I am plugging away at W & P. I am into Book 2 now, with Pierre joining the Freemasons.

Have you read Robertson Davies? I am nearly done with The Manticore, the second book is his adept ford trilogy and it is excellent. I really think you would like this guy.

#90 That just made me snort by breakfast coffee :) Sounds brilliant!

Very nice review on The Quiet American, Bill. I have applied my thumb. Adding that one to the list - I have only read one book by Greene, Our Man in Havana, and I quite liked it. Happy Saturday to you!

Happy weekend, Bill. Stay safe and warm.

>93 weird_O: Doesn't your edition of W&P include a character list? I couldn't survive without it. Even the kindle version has one that I can access readily. My problem is keeping track of which Countess, Princess or Prince is talking when no other name is provided.

>94 msf59: I appreciate your concern, Mark. I've just been funnin', being a bit overdramatic.

Haven't read any Davies. I got one novel in a library sale; recognized the name and grabbed the book. Turned out to be the middle of the Cornish trilogy. I'd be reluctant to start in the middle; the reader's dilemma.

>95 BekkaJo: :-) Glad you enjoyed.

>96 Crazymamie: I've read several of Greene's novels but not Our Man in Havana (I have seen the movie, starring Sir Alec). It's on my "Buy This 4 Me" list.

>98 laytonwoman3rd: Nope. I have two editions of W&P, and I opted to read a 2-volume Heritage Press version. It has the French translated in footnotes, running heads telling you what book and part you are reading, occasional maps, and a few illustrations. Translation by the Maudes. But no character list. The other edition is a single volume, no translation of the French, no running heads at all. But it does have a brief list (one page) of the main characters (and no spoilers). Ha. I'm dealing with it. :-) It's a good read, and I'm enjoying it.

A little distracted by the snowfall.

Looking out the windows...



 

WHOA! Beautiful, but I'm glad that I don;t have to deal with that. Great photos, Bill!

That's called loads of snow. I hope have it cosy and warm inside your home.

WOW! Hope you guys are okay! Give us a holler! Hope you are just hunkered down with your books.

Ooh snow. I'm jealous (I don't have any imminent travel plans, if I did, definitely would not be jealous). Hope the grands had a wonderful time sledging.

>101 Crazymamie: >102 Ameise1: >103 msf59: >104 charl08: Snow outside, warm inside. Homemade chili, espresso and cappuccino, lazing with books and the internets. Then the plowguy called and said he can't push the snow up the driveway. Our drive is about a quarter mile long, straight and an upgrade from the road, and he said the snow is too deep and heavy for him to move. So we've got to find someone with a front-end bucket to scoop out an entry. Haven't had this trouble before.

Charlotte, the grands have had a great time, so we hear. My oldest son, who is a skier, is stuck in California; he may get a flight to Newark (where his car is) tomorrow or Tuesday. The flight he'd re-booked from a Saturday arrival to a Sunday night arrival was cancelled early yesterday. His wife shared a few photos of the three girls:



The snow on the sledding hill near them turned out to be too deep for sledding. Should be better today or tomorrow.

Woo, looks like a lot of snow, Bill. Chili, espresso and cappucino, books and them internets sound perfect. Sometimes Mother Nature brings all our running around to a stop.

Wow! Look at all that snow! How fun for you. You don't really have to keep up on everyone's threads. I really don't either. I just kind of skim through my starred threads once a week and make comments if I can think of something to say. And then I'll just take a break for months at a time. :)

ETA: Hope you have a great week ahead!

Great photos Bill and a reminder of the fun the snow can bring in its wake along with the mayhem.

Enjoyed your review of The Quiet American which occasionally occupies position as my favourite Greene novel - he wrote so many good ones that it is difficult to choose just one I couldn't be separated from.

Keep warm and stay safe.........oh and keep those photos coming.

Great photos, Bill. Your grands must enjoy it very much.

Great photos, Bill! How much snow did you get?

Have you managed to dig out yet?

>106 jnwelch: >107 The_Hibernator: >108 PaulCranswick: >109 Ameise1: >110 kidzdoc: >111 thornton37814: Thanks all for stopping by. At the Lehigh Valley airport, the official total was 30.9 inches. So we were in that neighborhood. We got plowed out Monday afternoon. Lots of sun that day promoted melting, so the paved part of the drive is clear. Supposed to be in the 40s for the next week, so I imagine it'll all be gone by next week.

>105 weird_O: What great photos! It was a whopper of a storm indeed. It took 45 minutes to get from the Lehigh campus to Third Street tonight. As you may remember, getting to the campus can be problematic with so many narrow streets. When it snows, there are cars on each side of the already narrow street. Then, it is difficult trying to navigate when your tires don't fit in the grove already made by previous cars. There were many accidents this morning and this evening.

When I arrived at my office, it was raining frozen like stuff! Poor students were trying to walk down from their dorms, only to be greeted by steps that were not cleared, or if they were cleared, were icy.

What do you remember of your days from Lehigh and navigating around campus?

Yikes! Glad it seems to be melting. In western Massachusetts, I think we had all of 2-3 inches. It was a little disconcerting to hear about all the weather and know it was... south of me. Also, my brother-in-law and sister in DC got to show snow to their six-month-old. She liked it just fine until she touched it, and suddenly looked really confused (maybe she doesn't like the cold?).

Finished Breathing Lessons last night. Third Tyler read in January, her Pulitzer winner. Have to pull together some book reports.

Meanwhile, I'm going back to W&P.

>113 Whisper1: The two photos in >105 weird_O: were taken (not by me, of course) on College Hill in Easton. Nevin Park is on the eastern flank of the hill and is a fabulous sledding place. But only after the snow gets packed down.

I was a townie, so my recollections of Lehigh in winter tend to be of the travails of getting there from the west side of Allentown. Once at the campus, getting around was easy.

>114 bell7: We're out in the country, and while it may take a day or two before the roads get plowed open, we don't have the kinds of woes that beset urban areas. Streets too narrow to plow, no place to pile snow, bickering over parking places.

>100 weird_O: - Wow, look at that snow! I want to go play in snow.

.... and I love your covered balcony/deck area!

Like you, I am finding W&P to be a rather easier read than my previous attempts at the story. I am still confusing the odd character - I do wish the characters didn't have pet names and family names and formal names to add to the name confusion, but other than that, Tolstoy seems to write a straightforward, if long-winded, story. I just wish sometimes that he hadn't gone to such effort to capture minute details like he has. ;-)

Love your snowy pictures. We totally missed this event up here in the Scranton area, and it's been a while since we had a snow of that magnitude. Here I am with no need to go anywhere, and clear roads all winter so far! Not that I'm complaining, but it can be fun to sit inside and watch that fluffy stuff pile up as long as the power stays on and the pantry is well-stocked.

With January near its end--and my January reading goals met--time to set the February reading lineup.

February

AAC: Richard Russo Empire Falls
    Secondary: Bridge of Sighs
Pulitzer Prize Novel: Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2002)
Pulitzer Prize Miscellany: Our Town by Thornton Wilder (1938) Drama
    Secondary: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller 1949 Drama
Doorstop Heavyweight: David Copperfield by Chuck Dickens (729 pages)
Doorstop Wedge: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Murder 'n' Mayhem: The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
NFC (History): The Tycoons by Charles Morris
    Secondary: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

2015 Leftover: Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris

Group Read: War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

• I'll read War & Peace through Part Eleven, which is the target for March 5, 2016. (W&P will be completed in March and scored as the March DwD.)
• Top priority reads are the primary books for the seven challenges I've undertaken.
• If time is left, I'll tackle the secondary books listed in three challenges.
• The 2015 leftover is the lowest priority book for February.

NOTE: All books are ROOTs except The Boys in the Boat

 

I like your February line-up. I'm listening to The Boys in the Boat, and it's very good. Loved The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Mosely is favorite of mine).

Love the pics - just had to stave off a jealousy attack from my eldest who spotted the pics on my screen (we haven't had a single flake this winter!).

Oh, I hope you enjoy The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Bill. I thought it was excellent. Walter Mosley seems to me to be an under-read author on LT.

Great reading list, Bill. I've seen the play Death of a Salesman when I was MUCH younger. I liked it very much.

Happy Sunday, Bill. Love the books. Glad to see Mr. Russo, in there. And The Boys in the Boat is fantastic.

Hope you are having a good weekend. Is the snow gone yet?

Bill, the photos of your snow are wonderful and amazing! It will take a while to melt....

I have yet to read the first of the Cormoran Strike novels. There it is. I can see it across the room on the TBR shelves....

I am a HUGE fan of Boys in the Boat. I hope you do get to it in February.

>118 weird_O: great plans for February. Good luck!

On Sunday Judi and I had an all-day outing with Son the Elder and his family. For Christmas, they had gotten us tickets to see The King and I at Lincoln Center in NYC with them. We rode to the city, had lunch, then attended the matinee performance. Home by 9 p.m.

At lunch with Helen and Gracie and a whole lot of glasses. 

 Shall We Dance? Kelli O'Hara and Hoon Lee.

Anna (Kelli O'Hara) and the King's children. 


A Siamese staging of Little Eliza's escape, from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Uncle Thomas at left.

Claire, Helen, and Gracie at Lincoln Center. 

Oh, what a gorgeous present. What a wonderful day. You're a lucky man, Bill. Thanks for sharing these fabulous photos.

They really are great pics!

Fabulous photos, Bill! Thanks for sharing - your granddaughters look like they are having a great time!

>127 Ameise1: >128 drneutron: >129 Crazymamie: Why thanks all. I didn't take a one of them. Two--the first and last--were taken by my son, the three of the show come courtesy of the internets. Yes, Barbara, I AM a lucky guy.

>126 weird_O: Lovely photos. (The one of Little Eliza isn't showing up, though.) Looks like a really fine day in the Big Apple.

>131 weird_O: Great movie. One of my tops ever.

>131 weird_O: One of the Best. Movies. Of. All. Time. Cracks me up every time.

Lots of celebration -- Puxatawney Phil is predicting an early Spring!!

Well, if you like it that much, drop by this evening. It's playing here. But only once.

# 8. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler Finished 1/26/16

 

Maggie Moran, a late-40s mother of two, is often the bain of her family and friends—and even herself—in Anne Tyler's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Breathing Lessons. Maggie is also the bain of many would-be readers of the book; witness the number of LTers who ditched or panned the book because they can't stand Maggie. I won't say I liked her, but I followed her path of misconception, misguidance, mischief, and mayhem all the way to the end, and I am glad I did. A very fine accomplishment, Ms. Tyler. Ordinary people doing their ordinary things are worth a few hours of your time. If you invest some time, you may discover that neither the people nor the things are all that ordinary.

Here's the setup: Maggie is married to Ira, a man who had dreams of doing medical research but now runs a small picture-framing shop. Maggie wanted nothing more than to assist in a nursing home, and that's what she does. Daughter Daisy is intense, capable, but curiously estranged from family; she practically lives with a friend whose mother Maggie calls Mrs. Perfect. Son Jesse is a talent-free loser, a high-school dropout half-heartedly pursuing fame and fortune as a rock performer. He got a girl named Fiona pregnant, married her, and, less than a year after the birth of their daughter, was divorced by her.

Nothing special about the Morans (though Tyler does seem to be signaling us by giving them that name). The shop Ira runs was started by his father Sam who lives in the apartment above it with his two damaged and dependent daughters (Ira's sisters). Upon Ira's high school graduation, Sam announced that he had a heart ailment; Ira would have to take over the shop to support his father and sisters. Partly as a consequence, the author tells us, Ira was "fifty years old and had never accomplished one single act of consequence.''

For her part, Maggie's been belittled by her own mother as well as her daughter. ''How have you let things get so common?'' her mother had once demanded, oblivous to the fact that, though her father was a lawyer, her husband was a garage-door installer. Then not long ago, Daisy asked, "Mom? Was there a certain conscious point in your life when you decided to settle for being ordinary?''

The story recounts a single day in Maggie and Ira's life, devoted to a round trip from Baltimore to a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania, just off Route 1. Maggie's best friend from high school is holding a memorial service for her husband, now dead from cancer. As she starts her car, the radio comes on, tuned to an AM call-in show, and she hears a familiar voice, a caller, telling the host that she first had "married for love" but would now—next weekend—be marrying "for security." Maggie "hears" Fiona admitting she still loves Jesse but that she's marrying someone else in a week. Not much time for Maggie to act!

All her life, what Maggie has wanted to do is help people, to ease friction, smooth the bumps, bring people together, help them to be just as good as she "sees" them being. ''It's Maggie's weakness," Ira explains. "She believes it's all right to alter people's lives. She thinks the people she loves are better than they really are, and so then she starts changing things around to suit her point of view of them.''

Nice review of Breathing Lessons, Bill.

a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania, just off Route 1

Did the book say which town that was? My parents live in a medium sized town in SE PA, just off Route 1.

Great review of Breathing Lessons, Bill. You are doing such a great job on these AAC reads.

>136 weird_O: Lovely thoughts about a book I also enjoyed.

I'll echo others -- great review of Breathing Lessons, Bill. And I love the photos from your night day on the town.

# 6. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett Finished 1/15/16

 

Modern Library's list of the 20th century's 100 best English-language novels was my introduction to Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale. Published in 1908, it bobbed on the waves of nearly 100 years of literary output to beach itself at #87 on that list. At 729 pages, it isn't short—in fact it was my first Dead-weight Doorstop challenger for 2016—nor is it upbeat. But it was not, for me, a wallow in misery and despair.

Principal characters of Part One 

The story is that of sisters Constance and Sophia Baines. Their parents own and operate a draper's shop in a small English town. (A draper sells fabric and notions and makes clothing.) By the time the sisters are in their teens, Mr. Baines has suffered a catastrophic stroke and is bedridden, largely helpless. Mrs. Baines is running the shop and directing the work of the several employees. The sisters display different temperments. Constance, as her name suggests, is reserved, obedient, practical, conscientious. Sophia, several years younger, is impulsive, independent, passionate.

Sophia chafes at the prospect of a life behind the shop counters and, through persistance, persuades her mother to allow her remain in school beyond the time girls usually quit. She wants to be a teacher; until, that is, she is smitten by a traveling salesman. Convinced he intends to marry her, she sneaks away and is squired to London, with the next stop to be Paree. He gets her to Paris, but only after marrying her (which of course was never his plan. Because of her impulsive elopement, Sophia cuts herself off from her family, certain they want nothing to do with her. Her husband burns through all their money, then badgers her to solicit funds from her family. When she refuses, he abandons her.

Back in England, Constance remains with her mother, working in the shop. She marries the business manager of the shop and they take over when Mrs. Baines dies. She maintains the same domestic routine of the household her mother established. The business grows. Constance has a son. Her husband dies; she carries on.

The book is structured in four parts. The first is devoted to the sisters' lives with their mother. The second tells of Constance's life, the third of Sophia's life in Paris. In part four, Sophia contacts her sister and returns from Paris to her birthplace in England. Both women are financially well off, yet neither can break out of her now-well-established life routine.

In an introduction, Bennett wrote that a chance encounter in a Paris restaurant inspired the book. A woman he described as "grotesque" came in and attracted his interest.

It was easy to see that she lived alone, and that in the long lapse of years she had developed the kind of peculiarity which induces guffaws among the thoughtless…One ought to be able to make a heartrending novel out of the history of a woman such as she… the mere fact that every stout ageing woman was once a young girl with the unique charm of youth in her form and movements and in her mind. And the fact that the change from the young girl to the stout ageing woman is made up of an infinite number of infinitesimal changes, each unperceived by her, only intensifies the pathos.

            

It was the signboard that, more startlingly than anything else, marked the dawn of a new era in St. Luke's Square. Four men spent a day and a half in fixing it; they had ladders, ropes and pulleys, and two of them dined on the flat lead roof of the projecting shop-windows. The signboard was thirty-five feet long and two feet in depth; over its centre was a semicircle about three feet in radius; this semicircle bore the legend, judi¬ciously disposed, "S. Povey. Late." All the signboard proper was devoted to the words: "John Baines", in gold letters a foot and a half high, on a green ground.
The Square watched and wondered, and murmured: "Well, bless us! What next?"

            

The clamour became furious as a group of workmen in blue blouses drew piece by piece all the components of the guillotine…As each part was bolted and screwed to the growing machine, the man in the high hat carefully tested it. In a short time that seemed very long, the guillotine was finished save for the triangular steel blade which lay shining on the ground, a cynosure. The executioner pointed to it, and two men picked it up, slipped it into its groove, and hoisted it to the summit of the machine. The executioner…actuated the mechanism and the mass of metal fell with a muffled, reverberating thud. There were a few faint shrieks, blended together, and then an overpowering racket of cheers, shouts, hootings, and frag¬ments of song.

            

The proof of [Sophia's] success was the unique Frensham's.
"…[S]he says she doesn't want the place any bigger. She says it's now just as big as she can handle. That isn't so. She's a woman who could handle anything—a born manager—but even if it was so, all she would have to do would be to retire—only leave us the place and the name. It's the name that counts. And she's made the name of Frensham worth something, I can tell you!"

>137 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. In the book, the town is called Deer Lick. I think it would be in Chester County, maybe Delaware County.

>138 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I do have two Russo books and three (unread) Smileys, but I don't think I'm going to get all of them read. The Pulitzer winners for sure.

>139 ursula: >140 EBT1002: Thanks. I'm certainly glad I'm not entirely alone in liking Anne Tyler's work.

>141 weird_O: What great illustrations. I'm looking forward to meeting you on Saturday at the Bethlehem library sale.

>132 laytonwoman3rd: I changed the source for that Little Eliza photo, Linda. Take a look and see if it shows now.

# 9. Our Town by Thornton Wilder Completed 2/2/16

EMILY:
       In a loud voice to the stage manager
I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another.
       She breaks down sobbing.
I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back—up the hill—to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look.
Good-by. Good-by world. Good-by Grover's Corners…Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking…and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths…and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anyone to realize you.
       She looks toward the stage manager and asks abruptly, through her tears:
Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?

STAGE MANAGER:
No.
       Pause.
The saints and poets, maybe—they do some.

 

Our Town, a play by Thornton Wilder, was written and first performed in 1938. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama that year. (Wilder had received a Pulitzer in 1927 for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and got a second drama Pulitzer in 1942 for The Skin of Our Teeth.) Our Town has been filmed for theatrical release, filmed for television, and performed on stage countless times—on and off Broadway, in regional theaters, in amateur, college, and high school productions.*

In three acts, the play shows us the everyday lives of the citizens of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire between 1901 and 1913. The first act, set in 1901, introduces us to the Webbs and Gibbses, next-door neighbors, and particularly to teenagers George Gibbs and Emily Webb. In act two, set three years later, George and Emil are married. In act three, nine years later, we witness the burial of Emily who has died in childbirth.

The play is notable for its minimalist staging, following Wilder's dictums: "No curtain. No scenery." The audience is confronted by a bare stage. Wilder's stage directions: "Presently the Stage Manager, hat on and pipe in mouth, enters and begins placing a table and three chairs downstage right. He also places a low bench at the corner of what will be the Webb house, left…As the house lights go down he has finished setting the stage and leaning against the right proscenium pillar watches the late arrivals in the audience. When the auditorium is in complete darkness he speaks…" He identifies the town and points out the landmarks, none of which the audience can see. The milkman walks across the stage, accompanied by an imaginary horse and milk wagon. He delivers imaginary milk bottles. In the same fashion, the paperboy delivers imaginary newspapers. Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibb pantomime breakfast preparations in their respective imaginary kitchens. And so it goes throughout.

The play is life in microcosm, showing us how oblivious we are to the interactions of daily life, yet how those familiar events shape who we are.

 Frank Craven was the Stage Manager in the original production.

 
Wilder himself played the Stage Manager for two weeks in the 1938 Broadway production. At right, he pantomines preparing sodas for George and Emily

 High-schoolers George and Emily converse from their respective second-floor bedroom windows.

George and Emily are married by the Stage Manager, doubling as minister. 

*Our Townhas been performed on Broadway five times.
• The original run in 1938 lasted through 336 performances. Frank Craven was the Stage Manager. Making their Broadway debuts were John Craven as George and Martha Scott as Emily.
• In 1944, the play was revived for 24 performances, with a cast that included Marc Connelly as the Stage Manager, Montgomery Clift as George, and Martha Scott reprising as Emily.
• A 1969 revival featuring Henry Fonda as the Stage Manager and Ed Bergley and Mildred Natwick as Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs ran for a total of 36 performances.
• Spalding Gray appeared as the Stage Manager in a late 1988 revival that had 136 total performances. The run extended into 1989. Eric Stolz played George, Penelope Ann Miller was Emily.
• The most recent revival was in 2002, featuring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager. It ran for 59 total performances. This version was filmed and aired on television in 2003.

Our Town has been adapted for other media.
• In 1939 it was broadcast on radio by a cast headed by Orson Wells.
• Hollywood produced a film adaptation featuring William Holden as George and Martha Scott (repeating her original stage role) as Emily. Frank Craven, the original Stage Manager, reprised that role. Aaron Copeland composed a score for the film. Wilder altered the third act to suit filmmakers, transforming it into a dream, so that Emily could survive.
• A musical adaptation was telecast live on Producers' Showcase in 1955. Frank Sinatra performed as the Stage Manager, Paul Newman as George Gibbs, and Eva Marie Saint as Emily.

Paul Newman as the Stage Manager in 2002's revival 

^ I finished W & P! I finished W & P! Hurrah!

Good review of Our Town, Bill. I have never read Wilder.

>141 weird_O: You could make those into adult coloring pages.

>145 weird_O: Great write-up of Our Town. I love the Copeland score from the film.

Thanks all.

You beat me to the end of W&P, Mark. I'm plugging away; reading Part Eight. That's the end of volume one in the edition I'm reading. That'll be it for February. I'll read the second volume in March. But I will get it done!

Just this morning, I finished The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley. A number of folks, including barista Joe and Linda (laytonwoman3rd) warbled about it, and they got it right. A departure from other Mosleys I've read, and very good.

Oh, glad to hear it, Bill. I thought that (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey) was a special one from him.

>145 weird_O: Thanks for sharing the different time photos of this play, Bill. I love seeing the same play during a couple of decades and seeing the different performance of it. Next Thursday I'll see The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The first time I saw it must be 40 years ago. Since then I saw it several times. I'm looking forward to see different performance once again.

Wishing you happy weekend.

It was great to meet you and spend time with you and Diane! We laughed, we smiled, we shared thoughts/feelings regarding books, and did some major book buying!

A fun time was had by me, Linda. I was so glad to meet you face to face at last. And to meet Diane, too.

I got 25 books at the library sale--9 paperback, the rest hardcover. Two duplicates, one intentional, one because I can't remember what I have. I'll list 'em tomorrow.

Think I'll read a book now...

>126 weird_O: What beautiful pictures! I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to the theater!

So nice that you two had a meetup!

Hooray for the meet-up and wonderful photos.

25 books! That's quite a haul there.... Looks like a great time.

Hooray, for a Meet-Up! Just what I expected, Bill, you fit in, just fine around here. I hope this is the first of many.

Congrats on snagging 25 books! Sweet.

Have I seriously not commented here in a month? I've been lurking along... Always enjoy meetup photos. I see the orange shoes again.

Hi Bill. You have to go over and look at my thread! I finally got pictures on it. Not quite perfect yet and definitely not dancing but there they are! Have a great day!

Looks like a great meetup, Bill and Diane. One of the best parts of being a 75er is those in-person meetings.

25 books! You'll have to let us know some time a few of the ones you picked up.

>145 weird_O: What a beautiful post, Bill. Thanks for that.

>152 Whisper1: Great photos - looks like a very fun time!

I was lured to a book sale at the Bethlehem on the pretext that two warm and engaging book lovers would meet me there, and we'd get some lunch. But then, it turned out I had to buy books. I mean HAD TO. Here's what I was required to buy, and more or less why it jumped into my bag. (While not meaning to complain too loudly, I point out that the price of paperbacks DOUBLED since the last sale of 2015. Now they cost a buck! I blame Obama.)



The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (pbk)
     A book that appears on many of those "Best Books of All Time" lists.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (pbk)
     I don't know why, okay?
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (pbk)
      Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1980; an absolute doorstop at 1000+ pages.
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (pbk)
      Another book that appears on those "Best Books of All Time" lists.
American Tabloid by James Ellroy (pbk)
     I like Ellroy. Got a problem with that? Huh?
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo (pbk)
     Novelization of the film starring Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, and Melanie Griffiths.
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (pbk)
     Hey, it's Anne Tyler! Plus my sis recommended this book.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (pbk)
     I think this is one of those books you have to read.
The Stranger by Albert Camus (pbk)
     Slight mistake, 'cause I bought a copy 12/30/15. CRS.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (hc)
     A hardcover copy of a book I have in paperback.
Toward Zero by Agatha Christie (hc)
     It's Dame Agatha, in hardcover. I know nothing about it, but saw neither Marple nor Poirot mentioned.
Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler (hc)
     Well, it's Tyler…again.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (hc)
      Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014
City of God by E. L. Doctorow (hc)
     I like Doctorow's books; didn't have this one.
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (hc)
     I've read this, wanted to have a copy on the shelf.
The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand (hc)
      Pulitzer Prize for History 2002; perfect for September NFC (history of ideas).
Digging to America by Anne Tyler (hc)
      Well, it's Tyler…again.
The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (hc)
     Haven't read any of Dillard's fiction.
Everyman by Philip Roth (hc)
     Roth is a favorite author of mine.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (hc) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1940
     Sometime over the decades, I lost my copy; hardcover replacement.
His Illegal Self by Peter Carey (hc)
     Two other Carey books are on my want list, but this was available. Haven't read him yet.
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote (hc)
     The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (I read it last year) was based on Capote's writing of this book.
In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike (hc)
     I heard somewhere this was a good one by a local writer.
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen (hc)
     Adding to my stock of unread Hiaassens; his books are great fun.
The Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (hc)
     It's that Russo again. Couldn't pass it up.

You bought some gems Bill. Can it be that you might be lured to another Bethlehem Library sale? The next event is March 19th.

>162 weird_O: No wonder you took your books to the car before Linda or I could see! You got some great books! Even though you were forced to buy them!

American Tabloid is on my TBR pile for the next two months. I've the other two of this triology too. Nice book haul, Bill.

I read Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk also for unknown reasons a couple of years ago. I liked it.

And I really loved The Executioner's Song. I read that thing in a weekend, which is something I rarely do with any book, let alone one of that size.

Nice haul! I have only read one of those - The Grapes of Wrath, which is a personal favorite.

Happy Monday, Bill!

>162 weird_O: Nice haul!

Like Ursula, I enjoyed Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk, Bill. I think you'll be glad you picked it up.

What a great haul! You have a bunch there I liked, and like you, I got a copy of Galileo's Daughter for the shelf.

What a haul! Some good reads there, to my certain knowledge. (I will not tell you my thoughts on City of God; I do love E. L. Doctorow...but that one....) And you loved The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey! *happy dance*
Towards Zero is a good Christie..you're right, it's neither Miss Marple nor Hercule Poirot. But it is one of those classic set-ups with multiple potential suspects in a house together, with some genuine clues and some red herrings. This one doesn't start with the crime as she so often does, but leads up to it.

I've seen Our Town performed several times...once with a former boyfriend in the stage manager's role (he was very good). Both Spalding Gray and Paul Newman were brilliant in it. My husband won't watch it with me anymore--it never loses its power.

Great book haul, Bill. Once again...

The Executioner's Song is outstanding but it does not seem to get the love it deserves, plus it would be perfect for the Doorstop Challenge.

The Stegner is also excellent and I really enjoyed Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.

It is great to see so many AAC authors on here, past and present.

Some excellent reviews up above. Went to a lovely production of Our Town at the Williamstown Theater Festival two years ago. Campbell Scott played the Stage Manager. It also starred Jessica Hecht, and Dylan and Becky Ann Baker.

Lovely book haul. Intrigued by Answered Prayers by Truman Capote. Just finished an ARC of The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin. This is her take on Capote's relationship with Babe Paley and the rest of his crowd of moneyed ladies-who-lunch, which he irreparably damaged with the publication of Answered Prayers. Some of Benjamin's plot choices have been questioned, but I just love that the father of "nonfiction fiction" has been skewered by his own genre.

>171 msf59: Once again, I am on the same page with Mark! I think The Executioner's Song is a great book, a bit too long, but still worth the time.

^Thinking of you!

>173 Whisper1: I like being on the same page as you, Linda. Smiles...

What a day! Visited my original home town, borrowed books from my old original library, bought four used books there, then visited briefly with an old friend who had a serious, disabling stroke a couple of weeks ago. And it all started by chauffeuring my wife to her haircutter (her SIL Ruth).

My friend Jack has a long journey ahead of him, but he's being transferred Saturday to the hospital's rehab facility, which is in a different location. He had a tracheotomy and is breathing through a hose. Can't talk. A nurse was going to clear glop from his throat so he could breathe easier; there I made my exit.

Weird coincidence was that the hospital wing he was staying in had been the maternity wing decades ago; my three children were born there. I was born there. The hospital is four blocks from my first home. Three blocks beyond is the library. I am struck by how familiar that library is. The shelving is like it was when, at 5 and 6 years, I'd walk there and spend time paging through the kids books, selecting two or three to borrow.

My first stop was the used-books area, a small balcony overlooking the central desk. I scored paperback copies of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (a Pulitzer finalist in 1991), The Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King (Pulitzer winner in 2013), Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley, and a hardcover copy of Straight Man by Mr. Russo. (Passed up hardcover copies of Nobody's Fool and Empire Falls, which I already have in paper.)

Then I signed out Being Mortal and four GNs: two volumes of Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and two volumes of March by John Lewis and others.

>175 weird_O: Wow, Bill, what an extraordinary day you've had! I hope your friend has a quick recovery. Being Mortal was one of the best books I've ever read.

Happy Valentine's Day, Bill!

Plenty of good, good stuff to catch up on here Bill.

Liked very much your review of Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett which I thought was an excellent novel by a now unfashionable major novelist.

Hardly surprising you both had such a good time with Linda and a thank you for sharing some photos of your meet-up. You seem to be wearing a great pair of shoes too by the way.

Finally a 25 book haul to get my acquisitionary juices flowing. I already have 15 of them.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Happy Valentine's Day Bill!

Sounds like an interesting day!

I'm feeling excessively distracted the last couple of weeks, and partly because of that, I've neglected my own thread here.

>163 Whisper1: Linda, I am pleased with what I bought at The Library Sale. Little early to commit, but I'll probably find it hard to avoid any of the BethLibBkSales.

>164 Dianekeenoy: I took them to my car, Diane, 'cause I didn't want to lug them around. Had enough exercise getting 'em up New Street to God's Acre, where I was parked.

>165 Ameise1: Oh, don't tell me that American Tabloid is one-third of a trilogy. I checked The Wiki and was relieved to learn it's the first. As if it matters; I'm unlikely to get to it this year.

>166 ursula: Glad to hear you liked Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. I think the paperback caught my eye at a supermarket; the title got swept under my brain's rug, so to speak. The Executioner's Song, on the other hand, has been on my mental wishlist for several years, and there it was.

>181 weird_O: I took it with me to Davos and hope I'll read it during our ski holiday. Well, it's snowing so currently I'm on the reading front not the skiing one. To be frank, the trilogy is since 2010 on my mt tbr. I'm far behind reading it.

>175 weird_O: Sorry about your friend, Bill. That sounds like a tough one.

Great score among the library's used books. The Things They Carried and Devil in a Blue Dress would both make my favorites list. There's a good movie of the latter starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle.

Howdy, Bill! Your reading life is a joy to behold. You could be King of The Mighty 75, the way you are going.

I am starting A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain for the Pulitzer Challenge and it happens to be one, I have wanted to read for ages. Win, Win!

>175 weird_O: Now you're talking - The Things They Carried is my favorite book of all time. On a road trip a few years back I made my kids stop with me in Tim O'Brien's hometown.

>185 ursula: Did you stop in the Austin Spam Museum while you were there?

Bill, Awhile back, I also visited the library where I spent many a childhood day. The librarian truly was my first mentor and set me on a path of reading for the rest of my life. If I ever have lots of money, highly unlikely on a Lehigh University salary, I will donate some to the Bangor, PA library in honor of Miss Alice Blake.

I really liked The Things They Carried. I'll anxiously look for your impressions of this wonderful book.

All the best to you on this snowy, icy evening.

>186 Oberon: I didn't go to Austin; although he was born there, he grew up in Worthington and that's the setting for the Minnesota parts of The Things They Carried. We sat on the lakeside and just relaxed for a bit.

>188 ursula: Ah, thought you were talking about Austin. Worthington is a nice town too. Personally, I liked the resort on the Rainy River that is featured in The Things They Carried though I believe the specific resort is fictional.

>182 Ameise1: We're kind of in the same place, reading-wise. I still have two books in the LA Quartet to read before I tackle an Ellroy trilogy. Hope the weather straightens up so you and your family get skiing in.

>183 jnwelch: I knew you'd appreciate my getting Devil in a Blue Dress, but I didn't know the O'Brien book was another of your favorites. (Uh oh. Got an earbug. "Devil with a blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, devil with a blue dress on..." Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.)

O'Brien has got some love, I see, viz. >185 ursula: >187 Whisper1: >189 Oberon:. I saw it on one of those "Oh, you must absolutely read this" lists and filed it away in a part of my memory banks I can still access. It was a Pulitzer finalist in '91, losing out to the final installment of the Rabbit Quartet that local boy John Updike penned. I will read it this year. I think...

>184 msf59: Aw shucks, Mark.

>187 Whisper1: Thinkin' of you struggling through this weather, Linda. It was 22°F here at about 7 am, rain glazing the snowcover. When I took the dog out about 2 hours later, it was 20° warmer, lakes in the usual places in the driveway. And now at noon, it's still raining. Glad I don't need to got out. Sorry you do.

Nice to see you all stopping by, dropping off a comment or two.

>190 weird_O: I loved the LA Quartet. I hope you enjoy it, too. Could be still foggy tomorrow. I don't mind, I'm currently reading Russo's That Old Cape Magic. I enjoy that reading very much.

>186 Oberon: Wait! Austin Spam Museum? Is that "Spam" as in "Spam Spam Spam bacon and Spam"? Or as in junk email?

>192 weird_O: It is Spam Spam Spam bacon and Spam. Hormel Foods, the maker of Spam, is headquartered in Austin, Minnesota and they have a Spam museum that you can tour and a very interesting gift shop with all the Spam memorabilia that you could want. Not much else to Austin, Minnesota but an amusing stop if you are passing through.

Edit: apparently it is currently closed but a new and better version is coming this year. http://www.spam.com/spam-101/the-spam-museum

>178 PaulCranswick: I couldn't help comparing Bennett's book with those of Henry James (The Ambassadors) and Edith Wharton (House of Mirth) that I read last fall. The three authors were contemporaries. Bennett is easy to read, writes about the hoi polloi, isn't shy about skewering anyone. And now is unfashionable. James seemed to me deliberately obscure. Both he and Wharton focused on an exceedingly narrow slice of society. I liked Bennett more.

As for acquisitionary juices:

>193 Oberon: Well, good to know. I guess...

ETA: Glad it isn't some poor guy's name...Austin Powers, Austin Spam

>194 weird_O: THAT'S the quote I've been searching for....who said that?

>194 weird_O: Love this picture. Your comparison between James, Wharton and Bennett makes me want to read all three.

>196 laytonwoman3rd: The Google presents a list topped by Michael Lipsey, who has a tumblr thread called "stoicmike".

http://stoicmike.tumblr.com/post/91716884086/having-a-huge-number-of-books-is-no...

I snatched it from the FB page of the Saucony Book Shop, an antiquarian dealer now outside of Kutztown. It used to be in a tiny building in center-city Kutztown and billed itself as "quite possibly Pennsylvania's smallest used and rare book emporium." http://www.sauconybookshop.com/

>198 weird_O: Cute store!

>176 Dianekeenoy: I'm going to get to Dr. Gawande's book soon, Diane (since it does have a return-by date). But I'm about to dig into David Copperfield, my Dead-weight Doorstop for the month.

>177 Crazymamie: >179 The_Hibernator: Thanx for the valentines, ladies.

>180 drneutron: Hi Doc. It was indeed quite a day.

>197 charl08: Glad to share it with you, Charlotte.

>199 thornton37814: Yeah it is cute. Now vacant, since the book guy moved to larger quarters. This was so crammed that you couldn't turn around if standing between two facing bookcases. You had to side-step in between the bookcases. An awful lot of the stock was stored in you-store-it cubicles outside of town, and many of those off-site books hadn't been entered into the data banks either.

>190 weird_O: How nice of you to think of me in this weather. I decided to take a vacation day. When I awoke my entire driveway was a sheet of ice, as well as the streets. I have 30 plus days to use before June, and today was certainly a good day to stay put. I buy many books at a site Bookoutlet.com. Today - 19th is 15% off the already steeply reduced prices. I tell you, it would have saved me money to slip slide into work.

Also, I love the small Kutztown book shop. How adorable.

I hope all is well with you. I'm still thinking of your friend and sending up a prayer.

Just want to announce that I have finished reading my Wedge Doorstop for February, John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Power-House, two novellas, each under 100 pages. The Thirty-Nine Steps is, of course, the basis for the Hitchcock movie of 1935. The book is recognizable in the movie, but an awful lot was changed (adding a girl to entangle the hero...and to win his heart).

Now commencing to begin David Copperfield, me Dead-weight Doorstop.

And if I hurry, I may be able to sneak Being Mortal into February's tally.

 Even if I do gesture myself.

Bill, Good for you in finished a doorstop of a book! Alas, my day was spent reading books with lovely illustrations. I love the artistry of children's illustrated books. In general, I enjoy all forms of art and this genre is balm for a weary soul.

I am anxious to hear what you think of Being Mortal. I loved it!

So how come I haven't seen anything about this here on The Thingie?

>198 weird_O: Hmmm...methinks Mike paraphrases. My search continues.

>205 laytonwoman3rd: Maybe you should check with a librarian, Linda. Do you know any librarians? :-)

# 7. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt Finished 1/24/16

My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born. Instead, they returned to Ireland when I was four, my brother, Malachy three, the twins, Oliver and Eugene, barely one, and my sister, Margaret, dead and gone.
When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

 

After 30 years teaching in New York City's public schools, Frank McCourt turned to writing. Angela's Ashes, his first book, published as a memoir, was an enormous success, selling more than 3 million copies, earning the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for biography and a 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award, and making him a millionaire.The opening paragraphs (quoted above) set the tone.

Malachy McCourt Sr. was born in Northern Ireland, his wife Angela (Sheehan) in Limerick. Malachy couldn't find work anywhere in Ireland because of his Northern Irish accent and heritage, so the family settled in Limerick near Angela's mother and sister. They sheltered in wretched slum dwellings, a room with one bed for two adults and four children. Ostensibly, they lived on welfare and on charity, both only grudgingly awarded. An alcoholic, Malachy would drink up whatever money came into his hands.Ultimately, the twins perished, but sons Michael and Alphonso were born.

The book abounds with tales of squalid living conditions, absence of sanitation, meager and nutrition-free meals, cheating merchants, cold and judgmental neighbors, charity with strings, cold and judgmental priests.

Education is a central theme in Angela's Ashes. Marooned in Limerick, McCourt's mam enrolls him in Leamy's National School.

There are seven masters…and they all have leather straps, canes, blackthorn sticks. They hit you with the sticks on the shoulders, the back, the legs, and, especially, the hands. If they hit you on the hands it's called a slap. They hit you if you're late, if you have a leaky nib on your pen, if you laugh, if you talk, and if you don't know things.
They hit you if you don't know why God made the world, if you don't know the patron saint of Limerick, if you can't recite the Apostles' Creed, if you can't add nineteen to forty-seven, if you can't subtract nineteen from forty-seven, if you don't know the chief towns and products of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, if you can't find Bulgaria on the wall map of the world that's blotted with spit, snot, and blobs of ink thrown by angry pupils expelled forever.
They hit you if you can't say your name in Irish, if you can't say the Hail Mary in Irish, if you can't ask for the lavatory pass in Irish.

McCourt's memories of Leamy's School brought to my mind the same sorts of goads to learning in Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dickens's David Copperfield. Spare the rod and spoil the child, indeed. From the schoolmasters of Dickens in the 1850s to those of McCourt in the 1940s, the "incentives" didn't change. Educators are very slow learners.

It's no wonder, then, that young Frankie wanted to leave school and simply get a job. Any money that got into his father's hands was spent at a pub. Money Frankie earned would go straight to his mam. So he did work while still in school: tough, physical labor. On Saturdays, he helped a nearly lame Mr.Hannon to deliver sacks of coal and peat, and Hannon delivered him some heart-felt advice: "School, Frankie, school. The books, the books, the books. Get out of Limerick before your legs rot and your mind collapses entirely."

Later on, Frank was beguiled by boys he saw delivering telegrams, bicycling around Limerick, earning money, occasionally getting tips from message recipients. Leamy's head master. Mr. O'Halloran, tries to keep him in school:

[Mrs. McCourt] comes to see him [O'Halloran] and he talks to her in the hallway. He tells her that her son Frank must continue school. He must not fall into the messenger boy trap. That leads nowhere. Take him up to the Christian Brothers, tell them I sent you, tell them he is a bright boy and ought to be going to secondary school and beyond that, university.
…She knocks on the door at the Christian Brothers and says she wants to see the superior, Brother Murray. He comes to the door, looks at my mother and me and says, What?
Mam says, This is my son, Frank. Mr. O'Halloran at Leamy s says he's bright and would there be any chance of getting him in here for secondary school?
We don't have room for him, says Brother Murray and closes the door in our faces.

So much for an Irish education.

The success of the book spawned harsh criticism. McCourt's recollections were questioned and disputed. The McCourts were never all that poor, the conditions were never that squalid, the neighbors never that cruel. McCourt's response? "I told my own story. I wrote about my situation, my family, my parents, that's what I experienced and what I felt."

This an excellent book, well-written, involving, ultimately rewarding.

Nice review, Bill! I loved Angela's Ashes when I read it a year or so after it came out - my whole family passed it around. I have the audio saved - it's read by McCourt, and I'm looking forward to hearing his story told in his own voice.

>207 weird_O: Great review, Bill. My local library has a copy of it. With close to 800 pp it's a real door stopper. Have to think about when I get the time reading it.

Excellent review of Angela's Ashes, Bill.

>206 weird_O: “The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity...” A. Edward Newton ( a bookseller, himself, he had a bit of an incentive to persuade people of the truth of this assertion).

This STILL isn't the one I'm thinking of, but it's a good one.

Wonderful review of Angela's Ashes, Bill! I have a copy of that one languishing in the stacks... I think I will try to get around to reading it this year, since it is also a perfect fit for the Pulitzer Prize challenge you are running.

Thank you, Katie, Barbara, Darryl, and Lori. It's a tragic, funny, and inspiring memoir.

>211 laytonwoman3rd: Linda, Mr. Newton should amend his aphorism: "...reaching toward infinity...and beyond!" :-)

I believe I like stoicmike's expression of the idea better.

Have you continued to look? Found anything else?

I've related how, Friday a week ago, I visited my heritage library and signed out both volumes of the graphic novel of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I read both before the weekend was out. Mark (msf59) and Erik (Oberon) then urged me to read the novel. It so happened yesterday (yes, Friday) that Judi and I dropped in on our son's family and I asked "if anyone in this house" had the novel. My son did and reported that it actually was ours, that he had borrowed it, read it, then shelved it at his house. Innocently, doncha know?

I started reading it, as soon as I got home, but set it aside because David Copperfield. Anyway…

# 12. The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, vol 1 by Neil Gaiman Finished 2/13/16
# 13. The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, vol 2 by Neil Gaiman Finished 2/13/16

   

In the dead of night, a family is murdered, one member at a time, by a knife-wielding man. Only one member escapes, a boy child who crawls out the door the killer left standing open and disappears into the night. The toddler gets into an old graveyard, but the killer is turned away. The Owenses, a long-dead childless couple, commit to be this child's primary caregivers, and so the other spirits consent to allow him to remain. Silas, the only graveyard denizen able to leave the cemetery—he's neither dead nor undead, don't you see?—will be the child's guardian and will bring him food and clothing from the outside world. Because he hasn't learned to talk and doesn't know his name, he's called Bod, short for Nobody.

Bod grows, of course, and the spirits conscientiously try to educate him. The youngest of the spirits died a century ago, so a great deal is unknown to them. On other hand, Bod learns about the earliest people buried in the graveyard, about people buried in unmarked graves, about the secrets of certain crypts and their guardians—the Indigo Man and Sleer—about ghouls, monsters, night gaunts, and other creepy, dangerous…ah…creatures. Silas brings the mysterious Miss Lupescu into Bod's world to be his tutor and life coach. She turns up in a crisis or two to rescue Bod.

Naturally, Bod wants to get out of the graveyard and explore the world of the living. He encounters Scarlett, a live girl of his age, in the cemetery, makes friends, then tries to impress her by introducing her to the sinister underworld. It only terrifies her…and her parents, who interpret Bod—they've never met or even seen him—to be an imaginary friend, not a real boy.

The killer, of course, lurks throughout the story, driven to locate and slay Bod. By story's end, they have their confrontation.

Gaiman has imagined a rich and surprising world, inhabited by the living, the dead, and the in-betweens. The illustrations in the graphic novels are excellent, though I was jarred at a couple of places where one illustrator's work segued into that of a different illustrator. I enjoyed the GN package, and I'm sure to enjoy the novel just as well.

>207 weird_O: That on has been on my TBR list for quite awhile. I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.

Oh, I loved The Graveyard Book, Bill, and the audio is fabulous if you ever have the inclination to visit it again. I will have to look out for those GNs, as I have not read those. A very nice review!

I loved The Graveyard Book, too, Bill, and those GNs. Nice review. Mamie is right (of course) - the audio is fabulous.

# 15. The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Power-House by John Buchan Finished 2/16/16

 

The Thirty-Nine Steps probably is most familiar as a movie. Alfred Hitchcock filmed the story first in 1935, and a couple of other theatrical releases eventually followed, along with a couple of TV versions. None were true, really, to the novella, which was first published in 1913.

Richard Hannay is back in London after a decade or more in Africa—South Africa and Rhodesia, mostly—where he worked as a mining engineer. He's approached by a nervous neighbor, who spills a cock-and-bull tale of foreign spies spiriting top secret information out of the country, sinister spies who know he knows, who are going to kill him. The neighbor shows Hannay his pocket diary, its pages filled with encrypted notes about the plot. Hannay takes him in, allowing him to sleep in a spare room. Of course, the man is murdered in Hannay's apartment. The villains ransacked the apartment, searching unsuccessfully for the diary, which our hero finds stuffed in his pipe tobacco jar.

Our hero takes off, boarding a train for Scotland. The police are on to him. He doesn't know who he can trust. Lots of chase scenes. In addition to trains, the chases involve planes (well, one plane) and automobiles. He hoofs it over moors and through forests. No winsome ladies become entangled in the plot or with Hannay. Sorry. That was Hitchcock who did that. Hannay does get to employ his mining know-how to blast his way out of the baddies' basement, and he does elicit the trust of a bumbling wanna-be politico with relatives in the right places, relatives who get the cops off his back.

The "thirty-nine steps" of the title are the steps that scale the cliffs overlooking the English Channel. The baddies will use the flight with exactly 39 steps to access the beach where a yacht awaits to spirit them—and the top secret information—away. I liked Buchan's original; Hitch changed it, and his version also is good.

The second novella in the book, The Power-House, was published the same year, 1913. It features a different protagonist, who discovers a sinister plot to take over the world and manages to thwart it. What the plot entails, what will happen exactly, is never articulated. Meh.

>218 weird_O: I've seen the Hitchcock movie. Sounds like I should read the book and then watch the movie again to note differences. It may or may not happen anytime soon.

Hooray, for The Graveyard Book! I wish you could have read the novel first, there are differences, but I am glad you are jumping right into it, or at least, when David Copperfield gives you a breather.

I have never read The Thirty-Nine Steps, but I did love the Hitchcock film.

Bill, You read such incredibly interesting books!

>218 weird_O: The Thirty Nine Steps is one of those which I will pick up and read from time to time as it was a favourite of my youth along with Moonfleet, Kidnapped, Riddle of the Sands, Tom Brown's Schooldays, Children of the New Forest, Treasure Island and the books of MacClean and Hammond Innes.

Always enjoy it and I am glad you did too, Bill.

Paul and Bill, I was an avid reader as a child. Do you think there is a strong connection between reading in early years and doing the same as we are older?

>218 weird_O: I was thinking that The Power-House must have inspired Pinkie and the Brain.

>222 PaulCranswick: I've owned a copy of Treasure Island since around 1955, and read it just last year. Great yarn. I now have a copy of Kidnapped but I'm not sure when I can wedge it in.

>223 Whisper1: I remember walks to the library as a youngster, and I remember later--6th, 7th, 8th grades--reading a lot of WWII memoirs and tales, many of them non-fiction. To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy, for example. I remember getting some questioning looks from the librarians at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library--Is this appropriate reading for you, kid? My wife is a reader and our children were and still are readers. And their children are readers.

I finished reading book one of March by John Lewis, a graphic novel. I've got book two in hand.



My main current read is David Copperfield, which I'm going to finish this week; it is my Dead-Weight Doorstop for February. I'm about 3/4 through. Matrimony is in the air...or at least in the next chapter. What a convoluted tale!! Judi asks me, "So what's happening?" And it takes me an hour to organize and babble an explanation. This is my first reading of Copperfield, and I am sure that the only scene I've viewed of any of the cinematic versions pairs Daniel Radcliffe (pre-Harry Potter) and Maggie Smith. I don't know how he pulled it off, but Dickens wrote perfect dialogue for Dame Maggie. Aunt Betsey's tartness, cadence, and actions are classic Maggie Smith. Or more correctly the other way around; Maggie was born to be Aunt Betsey. I say that without actually having seen her in the role. Just imagining while reading.

I expect to interrupt Copperfield from time to time to read March Book Two. Along with The Graveyard Book graphic novels and the two March graphic novels, I have Being Mortal out of the library and that I should read right after Copperfield.

Expect to get back to War & Peace in March, along with Jane Smiley, a couple of MnMs, and Venice by Jan Morris.

>223 Whisper1: I do think that our habits inculcated from childhood will influence what we become in later years. None of my immediate family, my Gran excepted, were in any way avid readers never mind bookish and I was the first in my entire family to achieve higher education. I was blessed as a child with a doting Gran and wonderful teachers who encouraged and humoured me but I read whatever was best available to me. The books I listed above were school library stuff and I cherished them all.

>225 weird_O: Yes! I'm a Dickens fan, and I thought those John Lewis March graphic novels were really well done.

>227 jnwelch: Ho ho ho. I am favorably disposed to Dickens myself, Joe. Judi says my next Dickens should be Nicholas Nickleby, a beautiful hardbound copy of which sits on the shelf beside The Pickwick Papers, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and Tale of Two Cities. Nickleby is the only one of those I haven't read, though I've seen the 2002 film--with Charlie Hunnam, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Nathan Lane, Barry Humphies, Alan Cumming, Timothy Spall, Anne Hathaway, Tom Courtenay, Edward Fox, and Sophie Thompson (what a cast!!). That book will stop a bank vault door. Bleak House, recommended by you and Mark, is edging closer to the stove, perhaps. Might rotate onto a back burner (a far back burner) someday...someday... Thanks for the poke. :-)

March. Good.

>226 PaulCranswick: Paul, while you're here, I should mention that the Folio Society edition of Venice by Jan Morris that I bought on eBay arrived at my door on Tuesday. What a well-published volume. Spousal reaction was pretty close to "Meh." All is good.

>162 weird_O: that is some book haul! Excellent. Actually I can see all those books residing very happily on my shelf...

>207 weird_O: great review, I remember reading Angela's Ashes years ago and being shocked at the state of others' childhoods. You have reminded me of my experience of reading this. Thanks.

Loved March. Brilliant idea to use the GN to tell this story. I don't envy you the Copperfield - we did that at school. Our poor teacher was onto a losing campaign with that one!

Happy Friday, Bill. As usual, you are doing some fine reading. I am so glad you got to March. I was very impressed with that GN and the 2nd volume is just as good.

You are in for a treat with Being Mortal. It's amazing.

Yeeehaaa! Completed two books this morning: March Book Two and David Copperfield.

Started a reread of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (you all remember the guy? Husband--for a time--of Marilyn Monroe). The play copped the 1949 Pulitzer for drama.

Between the acts, I'll maybe read Being Mortal.

Finished Death of a Salesman (It's a play, performed in a matter of 2 or 3 hours, so a reading takes little more time.)

Now reading both Being Mortal and The Boys in the Boat.

OMG! Those are 2 fantastic books, Bill! Enjoy!! You are a reading machine, my friend.

I posted the Smiley thread, so we are all good there. Have you read her?

>228 weird_O: That looks like a tome to do mischief for, Bill. Very good writer him her; not that her gender matters a jot.

Have a great Sunday.

# 19. Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller Finished 2/27/16

  

Death of a Salesman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama (1949) by Arthur Miller. Read it of a Saturday afternoon; rereading it for the first time since high school (very same book, by God!). As a ninth- or tenth-grader, I didn't really get it. Hmmm. More than a half-century on, I do get it. I have never seen it performed (no film version either), but I want to now.

The main character's name is familiar to most readers (even if the plot is not). Willy Loman is a traveling salesman who's represented a NYC company in New England states for 30+ years. He and his wife Linda have two adult sons. Biff, the older son, was a high school football hero with solid college-scholarship offers. But he flunked 12th-grade math, never got to college, never got married, and has shuffled from job to job as a ranch-hand in the west. He is perpetually at odds with his father; ordinary conversation veers into conflict and argument. The younger son, Happy (or Hap), has a steady job and his own apartment, and he spends his free time chasing skirt. Like his father, Happy lies to make himself look important and accomplished.

Willy's career is sputtering; the man who hired him has retired, turning the business over to his son. The son has taken away his salary; he's strictly on commission now, and commissions alone won't pay his bills. In this crisis time, Biff returns home.

Throughout, Willy's penchant for inflating his accomplishments and the value and importance of them is clear. He needs to be better than the other guy, he needs Biff to have been a star, to see him build on his teenage stardom, to be a BIG success. He lies to himself and to everyone around him about his own success. As reality demolishes his illusions, he drifts into flashbacks, dreaming and planning BIG things with Biff and Happy. Willy "sees" his much older brother, Ben, now dead, pass through on his way to a train or ship, off on some business trip that promises BIG reward. "When I was seventeen," Ben asserts, "I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich."

Actors are drawn to the Willy Loman role. Lee J. Cobb was the very first to be Willy on Broadway, followed by George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, Brian Dennehy, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Fredric March performed him in a 1951 film. Rod Steiger played him in a 1966 BBC production. Cobb reprised the role in a 1966 television production.

The original production, directed by Elia Kazan, opened on February 10, 1949. It ran for 742 performance before closing November 18, 1950. It garnered multiple Tony Awards, including one for Miller.

   

Lee J. Cobb as Willy and Mildred Dunnock as Linda in the original Broadway production (top left). George C. Scott in a 1975 revival (top right). Brian Dennehy (lower left) won a Tony in a 1999 revival that ran 274 performances. Mike Nichols directed a 2012 revival—limited to a 16-week run—that featured Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy (lower right)

 

Dustin Hoffman (left) appeared in a 1984 revival that featured John Malkovich as Biff. This was filmed and released in theaters in 1985. The original film version was released in 1951, with Fredric March in the lead and Mildred Dunnock reprising as Linda.



Set of the original stage production

Back on January 30, I posted my February reading lineup. The post is here >118 weird_O:, if you really want to see it. But here's a list of the books:

Empire Falls by Richard Russo [AAC3 and fiction Pulitzer Challenge]
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo [Secondary read for AAC3]
Our Town by Thornton Wilder [Miscellaneous Pulitzer Challenge]
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller [Secondary read for the Miscellaneous Pulitzer Challenge]
David Copperfield by Chuck Dickens (729 pages) [Heavyweight Doorstop]
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino [Wedge doorstop]
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley [Murder 'n' Mayhem]
The Tycoons by Charles Morris [NFC (History) ]
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown [Secondary read for Non-Fiction Challenge]

I also planned to read more of War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy for the Group Read and to finish Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris, which I started in late December.

February ends in less than two hours as I write this. I got 'em read except for Invisible Cities, which I postponed; The Boys in the Boat, which I've started but won't finish for another couple of days; and Uncle Remus, which I just didn't get to. (Get over it!)

On the plus side, for Invisible Cities I substituted:

The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Power-House by John Buchan

And I read four graphic novels that I borrowed from the library:

The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, vol 1 by Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel, vol 2 by Neil Gaiman
March Book One by John Lewis
March Book Two by John Lewis

A total of 11 books read in the year's shortest month. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…I love you…Oh, never mind…never mind.

Here's my reading agenda for March. Always subject to change...

1} The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (currently reading)
2} Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (currently reading)
3} A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley ROOT (AAC3 and Pulitzer winner for fiction in 1992)
4} Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King (Pulitzer winner for GenNF in 2013)
5} War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy ROOT Group Read and Dead-weight Doorstop
6} Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark ROOT Murder 'n' Mayhem
7} The Alienist by Caleb Carr ROOT Murder 'n' Mayhem
8} Venice by Jan Morris NFC—travel
9} Train Dreams by Denis Johnson ROOT Wedge
10} Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris ROOT (because I just want to get it read! Okay?)

In reserve I have Good Faith and Horse Heaven, both by Jane Smiley, as well as three or four unread Russos, and numerous unread Pulitzer winners.

>238 weird_O: I'm in the midst of W&P at the moment. I'm managing about 5% each night so far, but I'm only 2 nights into it. I'd like to get a little further tonight if I have a chance. I might take my iPad into the voting line this evening and see if I can manage a bit there. I may not be able to concentrate. I'm just hoping I won't be standing there several hours.

>236 weird_O: Hi Bill, hope you're doing well today! What a wonderful review, I feel like I got to read the book and also see the play as well. You certainly have incredible descriptive powers! Very appreciative of the time and thought you put into your reviews.

>236 weird_O: What a wonderful overview of the various productions of Death of a Salesman, Bill. I thought Dustin Hoffman's portrayal was just brilliant, and this is a story that I feel I have known forever, along with Streetcar, Glass Menagerie, Our Town, The Fifth of July, The Diary of Anne Frank.

Hi Bill, thought I would reciprocate your visit to my thread and pop along to see yours, I will visit more often. I see you have a doorstop challenge so I think you would like the Big Fat Book group we have had for the last couple of years, last year I managed 25 BFB's but so far this year I haven't read one yet but that may change.

Congrats on the review of Death of a Salesman. I've read it many years ago and even was lucky to see the play.

Great March reading list, Bill! Some fine reading ahead of you. I really liked Train dreams too. Perfect wedge choice.

Catching reporting up with reading. Here's a Weird Report.

# 10. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley Finished 2/5/16

 

Ptolemy Grey is a man who "sold his body to the devil, but not his soul." He believes he outwitted the devil, and he's proud of the accomplishment. Too, he is pleased by the exchange because it's allowing him to complete his life as he has wanted and to settle a few scores as well.

Grey is an elderly, widowed black man living alone in a rent-controlled apartment in LA. While he seems to have the money he needs to survive, he knows he's losing the mental clarity required. His apartment is extraordinarily cluttered. The bathroom is virtually unusable—the toilet clogged and stinking, the bathtub full of cartons and stacks of papers. Both his television and a radio are on. All the time. He gets confused, and his mind wanders, sometimes to his life with his second wife, Sensia, the love of his life, dead for years now. Often it wanders far back to a time when he lived in Mississippi with his sharecropping family. He relives chats with Coydog McCann, a wily black man, anxious to teach "Li'l Pea" (Ptolemy) how to survive as a black in the Jim Crow South. Coydog leads the boy to his hidden treasure, warning him to keep the secret in the face of any and all enticements or threats.

And shortly thereafter, Li'l Pea is witness to Coydog's brutal torture, lynching, and immolation at the hands of the white sheriff and his loathsome henchmen who want that treasure.

In present-day LA, Ptolemy doesn't have Coydog to talk to but he does recall, almost daily, his mentor's advice. Too, he's had his own lifetime of experience. What he depends on these days is regular visits from his grand-nephew Reggie, who escorts him to the bank to cash his pension checks, to shop for groceries, and to buy him a restaurant meal (in part so he can use the restroom). He needs Reggie to protect him from a drug-addled Brunhilde who assaults him whenever he ventures out alone, expecting to extort money. He needs Reggie to lead him to the bank and grocery, far from his apartment, and to ensure he gets home again.

In these his last days, a stranger appears at his door. Reggie's been killed, a victim of a drive-by shooting. The stranger is Hilly, a great-grandnephew, who escorts him to the bank, and believing Ptolemy is too confused to notice, pockets the cash from two of three pension checks. After that visit, Ptolemy, having rejected Hilly, gets assistance from Robyn, a teenager living with—but not related to—Prolemy's niece (Reggie's mother, Hilly's grandmother). Robyn is perfect. Perfect. She's had her own tough learning; she's intelligent, respectful, hard-working, problem-solving. She takes charge, clearing the junk from the bathroom, unclogging and cleaning the toilet. She deals with the banking and food-shopping. She goads him to methodically dispose of furniture, collections, and junk.

In turn, he confides in her more and more. Before his life ends, he wants to make a will, to deal with Coydog's treasure, and to avenge Reggie's murder. But is mind is failing him faster and faster, corralling him in confusion and indecision. That's when he sells his body to the devil.

>245 weird_O: Great review Bill.

I only started reading Mosley last year (how did I miss such a prolific writer? No idea) but so glad that I found them. He's such a great writer, and it sounds like this one doesn't disappoint. I shall have to look out for it.

Nice review. I haven't read any Mosley for a while - this one needs to go on my list.

>248 jnwelch: I like that review, too, Bill. What happens after he makes his deal with the devil also is remarkable, right? One of Mosley's best, IMO.

I loved Ptolemy Grey...and it's about time for me to read another Mosley. He's one of my favorites.

>247 drneutron: Oh, do read it soon, Jim. I agree with >248 jnwelch: Joe, it's one of Mosley's best.

>236 weird_O: I was fortunate to see Brian Dennehy in Death of a Salesman at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Riveting performance--he was larger than life.

Reading your thread is always a treat, Bill. It's a feast for the eyes with all the visual effects that accompany your in-depth book reviews. You have a solid line-up of books to read this month. I'm sad I didn't have a Doorstop book in February, but thanks to the local library, I had a plethora of wedges. My plans for early March are to read the books I didn't have time for in February…even with Leap Day. I'm blaming our trip to Disney World.

Your reviews are incredible!!!! Perhaps that Lehigh journalism degree is put to good use!

I hope your weekend provides plenty of opportunity for reading.

Happy weekend, Bill.

I am nearing the end of The Boys in the Boat, and a bit ago I was struck by Daniel James Brown's account of what "The Boys" did with the free time their coach gave the day before the 1936 national championship regatta on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie. With a student manager at the helm, they are cruising up the river in the coach's launch. Someone says, "Let's go see the President!" They dock briefly at a wharf marked Hyde Park Station, and get directions to a small, unmarked cove. They climb out of the launch there, and scramble up the riverbank, across the railroad tracks, through woods, and find the groundskeeper of the Roosevelts' Hyde Park estate. He directs them to the main house.

It's the POTUS's own home! Where's the Secret Service detachment?

At the door, they peer in the sidelights and see a young man at a table. They knock. The young man comes to the door. It's Franklin Roosevelt…junior. Identifying themselves as the Washington varsity rowers, they are invited in. Frank is a jv rower at Harvard. They spend an hour chatting in the library. Back at their boathouse, one oarsman jots in his diary, "Visited the President's home at Hyde Park tonight. They sure have a fine place."

I can see it now…

Knock knock knock! "Uh, hi. We're the varsity rowers from the University of Washington. We're in town for…you know…the regatta, and we just thought we stop by and say hello to the President. Is he home? Oh. Oh, he's not. So uh…uh…you're Malia? Cool. Cool. Can I get your number? You know, maybe a little party-tay after we win the race tomorrow."

>254 weird_O: I loved that anecdote too, Bill. That whole book amazed me...what a grand improbable story it was, from beginning to end. You can't make this stuff up.

Finally got something read to the last page. Two somethings, actually.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown on March 5

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande on March 7

I've already started Train Dreams and A Thousand Acres is chaffing at me.

I'm anxious to hear what you think of Being Mortal. It was one of my top reads in 2015. Thanks for posting your thoughts regarding Lehigh. I appreciate reading this on my thread. Your writing is excellent, especially in free style form when one thought melds into another.

There is a book sale coming up in March, but I don't think I can make that one. Are you able to meet up for the May 21st Bethlehem Library book sale?

Charlotte, Jim, Joe, and Linda, I thank you for your kind responses to my report on Ptolemy Grey. I knew going in that Joe and Linda greatly admired the book. So, Jim and Charlotte, get a copy and read it. As Joe said, What happens after he makes his deal with the devil...is remarkable.

>250 kac522: My daughter asserted that Dennehy gave the finest performances as Willy Loman, so you got to see the best. Lucky you; I am properly jealous.

>251 Donna828: Drop by more often Donna. I know you were away; saw your Disney World photos. Sweet grands you have.

>252 Whisper1: Oh the hyperbole! Stay Calm, Linda, and Read a Book. :-)

Returned the books I borrowed from the library, and then looking at sale books there. Yes, I bought a couple...okay,okay, more than a couple. A few.

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley (hc)
A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton (hc) [Pulitzer Prize for history 1954]
The Hours: A Novel by Michael Cunningham (pbk) [Pulitzer Prize 1999]
Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 by Sarah H. Gordon (hc)
Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirits of the Animals of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz (hc)
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie (hc)
Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes (pbk)
Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (pbk)
The Man in My Basement: A Novel by Walter Mosley (hc)
Songs for the Missing: A Novel by Stewart O'Nan (hc)
The Gulag Archipelago Two (1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation III-IV) by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (pbk)

I see you lack willpower, Bill! Join the club, my friend.

Hope all is well and those books are treating you just fine. It looks like you have quite a list lined up. Good luck.

Your library puts out a good book sale, Bill.

I thought The Hours was a particularly well done one.

Oh, I LOVED The Hours - it was a perfect read for me! I recommend reading Mrs. Dalloway first if you haven't already.

>260 msf59: So you, Mark, believe I lack willpower. You believe that, do you? No willpower, huh? Well, I agree with you. Ha ha ha.

>261 jnwelch: Quite a few libraries in my area have a "sale room" stocked with books culled from the collection, as well as donated books. This particular library has the sale books on a small mezzanine.

>262 Crazymamie: >261 jnwelch: I almost passed on The Hours. Running a finger across the spines on the shelf, I got to the end of the shelf and asked myself, Was that a Pulitzer winner? So I pulled out it and lo, the cover copy said it had indeed won a Pulitzer!

And I have read Mrs. Dalloway.

Finished Train Dreams by Denis Johnson yesterday (3/8/16) My wedgie for March.

Have started A Thousand Acres for both AAC3 and Pulitzer fiction challenge. Gotta hustle.

Completed A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley today. Notch in March's AAC, and notch in the fiction category of the Pulitzer Challenge.

Turning now to W&P.

>259 weird_O: Plenty there to munch on Bill.

I suppose it is for the best that there aren't really much in the way of public lending libraries over here likely to have sales of the kind you feasted on. I could be very replete indeed.

Have a great Sunday.

I was hoping there'd be pie over here!

I've only ever come across a few library sales, but I've picked up some interesting books. I always feel like asking why they're getting rid of the books!

Looking forward to your final thoughts on A Thousand Acres. I hope you found it worthy.

I'm rather a Johnny Come Lately to your thread, but the distribution of Pi today quite caught my eye and my tummy, Bill!

# 23. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley Finished 3/11/16



A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley's 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, re-enacts The Tragedy of King Lear in an Iowa farming community. For decades, Larry Cook farmed land he inherited from his father and grandfather. An ambitious man, he expanded his farm through shrewd acquisitions and investments. Before his wife died, he fathered three daughters, two of whom (Ginny and Rose) married men (Ty and Pete) who now do the actual farming. The third and youngest daughter (Caroline) left home for college and never really returned for more than day visits; she's now a lawyer in Des Moines, a several hour drive from the farm. In setting the scene, Ginny, the narrator, explains the vastness of the farm:

…[O]n this tiny rise, you could see our buildings, a mile distant, at the southern edge of the farm. A mile to the east, you could see three silos that marked the northeastern corner, and if you raked your gaze from the silos to the house and barn, then back again, you would take in the immensity of the piece of land my father owned, six hundred forty acres, a whole section, paid for, no encumbrances, as flat and fertile, black, friable, and exposed as any piece of land on the face of the earth.

Never a pleasant man, Larry is becoming more taciturn and remote as he ages, chosing not involve himself in conversation nor answer questions directed to him. He's demanding, insisting, for example, that someone have his breakfast on his table at 6 a.m., no delays, no substitutions. His temper is always cocked and ready to blow. His sudden and implacable decision to transfer ownership of his farm to his two older daughters triggers internecine warfare amongst himself, his daughters and their husbands, and even some neighbors. If you know King Lear, you know the story is an inevitable, slow descent, injuring everyone swept into it. But this King Lear is told from a daughter's perspective, from a woman's viewpoint.

At a family picnic, Larry lays out his plan:

He glanced at me, then at Caroline, and, looking at her all the while, he said, "We're going to form this corporation, Ginny, and you girls are all going to have shares, then we're going to build this new Slurrystore, and maybe a Harvestore, too, and enlarge the hog operation." He looked at me. "You girls and Ty and Pete and Frank [Caroline's fiance] are going to run the show. You'll each have a third part in the corporation. What do you think?"
…In spite of that inner clang, I tried to sound agreeable. "It's a good idea."
Rose said, "It's a great idea."
Caroline said, "I don't know."
…My father glared at her. In the sudden light of the porch, there was no way to signal her to shut up, just shut up, he'd had too much to drink. He said, "You don't want it, my girl, you're out. It's as simple as that." Then he pushed himself up from his chair and lumbered past me down the porch steps and into the darkness.

Several days later, with the legal papers prepared, the family again gathers, this time with attorney Ken LaSalle. Larry is impatient; "Okay, Kenny, let's get to it. Now's the time." The attorney wants to wait a bit. Ginny sees Caroline coming up onto the porch, "composing herself to be conciliatory." She starts to open the door. "But my father stepped around me and took the door in his hand and slammed it shut in her face, and then he whirled Ken around with a hand on his arm, and said, 'Now.' We went into the dining room."

With the transfer completed, work begins to transform and expand an existing dairy barn for a big hog operation. Tension is up, not simply between Larry and his daughters, but between husbands and wives, and between sisters. Then Larry has a tantrum mostly directed at Ginny.

He leaned his face toward mine. "You don't have to drive me around any more, or cook the goddamned breakfast or clean the goddamned house." His voiced modulated into a scream. "Or tell me what I can do and what I can't do. You barren whore! I know all about you, you slut. You've been creeping here and there all your life, making up to this one and that one. But you're not really a woman, are you? I don't know what you are, just a bitch, is all, just a dried-up whore bitch."

In the face of this withering tirade, Ginny flashes back to her childhood, to an incident triggered by her loss of a shoe.

…[I]t was like he turned to fire right there. He came for me and started spanking me with the flat of his hand, on the rear and the thighs. I backed up till I got between the range and the window, and I could hear Mommy saying, "Larry! Larry! This is crazy!" He turned to her and said, "You on her side?"
Mommy said, "No, but—"
"Then you tell her to come out from behind there. There's only one side here, and you'd better be on it."

Her attention is recalled to Larry's current outburst.

…"How can you treat your father like this? I flattered you when I called you a bitch! What do you want to reduce me to? I'll stop this building! I'll get the land back! I'll throw you whores off this place. You'll learn what it means to treat your father like this. I curse you! You'll never have children, Ginny, you haven't got a hope. And your children [speaking to Rose] are going to laugh when you die!"

He storms off into a deluge, a downpour so intense he wanders aimlessly for more than an hour before a neighbor finds him and takes him into his house. Thereafter, Larry stays with the neighbor, refusing to stay in the house he's lived in most of his life. He has the lawyer file papers to revoke the land transfer. The bank halts the construction. In short order he's being ushered about by Caroline. Larry's moving to Des Moines is the word on the streets of all the Zebulon County towns. His application for revocation is pending.

During this lull, Ginny is in a local clothing shop when she sees Larry, escorted by Caroline, approaching the door. She grabs a couple of blouses and ducks into the changing booth. They're shopping for socks and underwear, when Larry sits and wheedles his daughter to sit beside him. Ginny hears every word of their chat, but remains hidden until they leave. Back at the farm, Ginny goes straight to Rose:

I fell into an armchair. I said, "I was in Roberta's and Daddy and Caroline came in. I can't tell you the tone of voice he used to her. All soft and affectionate, but with something underneath that I can't describe. I thought I was going to faint."
…Rose gazed down at me with utter seriousness, her eyes deep and dark, her mouth carved from marble. She said, "Say it."
"Say what?"
"Say it."
"It happened like you said. I realized it when I was making the bed…in my old room. I lay down on the bed, and I remembered."

I think this book is a hell of an achievement. Smiley has produced a fresh, female-oriented take on an old story. She's enriched it with memorable, recognizable characters, pouring out the full range of emotion such a story provokes. I guess that now I must read King Lear to see if it measures up.

 

Wow! Great review, Bill. It has been over 20-plus years, since I read it, but it sure looks like we had very similar feelings. "A Towering Achievement" about sums it up.

It looks like I need to line this up for a reread.

Hmmph. No pi for me?

Bill--I have found you! 'Course now I have to go back up to the top and actually READ your thread. ; ) Happy Thingaversary!!!

Great review of A Thousand Acres, Bill. I took the bloody thing out to read a coupla months ago and my dear maid Erni cleared away after as she always does but has forgotten where she stashed the book and I simply can't place my hands on it.

Pie in the UK is generally a savoury dish but my home area of Wakefield in West Yorkshire is the largest producer of rhubarb in the nation. So I had to return the favour incorporating our traditional ingredients. This one also includes Bramley apples and is served a la UK with lashings of custard:

>270 weird_O: Well, just what I need...now I am going to have to reread this book! Fantastic review, Bill! I have about 7 of her books lined up (in the hallway, for pete's sake!) to read and now all I want to do is go hunt down this one! Hopefully, I kept it. Have a great day.

>270 weird_O: That one passed through my Little Free Library recently, and I almost snatched it for myself, then let it be. Maybe that was an error.

Great review, Bill, and what a beautiful, appropriate photo.

Is it your Thingaversary? Happy T-Day!

Wonderful review of A Thousand Acres, Bill. I'm one of the ones who's never read King Lear but I still loved the story. It's funny; a friend of mine who has lived here in Iowa all her life and grew up on a farm absolutely hates that book with a passion. I've often wondered if it doesn't hit a little too close to home in some way or another.

I think it's time for a re-read of A Thousand Acres. Great review, Bill!