BanjoReadsOn2024---Thread # 2

And welcome to my new thread! The photo is from a recent trip to the Columbia River Gorge. And here is a poem that I like:

Rain
by Raymond Carver

Woke up this morning with
a terrific urge to lie in bed all day
and read. Fought against it for a minute.

Then looked out the window at the rain.
And gave over. Put myself entirely
in the keep of this rainy morning.

Would I live my life over again?
Make the same unforgiveable mistakes?
Yes, given half a chance. Yes.

Favorite Reads of 2023:

By The Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Greta and Valdin by Rebecca Reilly
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fanzine Jeffers

And favorites for 24, so far:

Fraud by Zadie Smith
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Future by Naomi Alderman

Currently Reading:

trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Read in 2024

1. Goodnight Irene by Luis Urrea. 1/6/24
2. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. 1/9/24
3. Girl With Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. 1/14
4. Solitary by Albert Woodfox
5. Braiding Sweetgrass
6. St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
7. Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

8. Backcast by Ann McMan
9. Fraud by Zadie Smith
10. I'm Glad My Mom's Dead by Jennette McCurdy
11. A Little More About Me by Pam Houston
12. We are Watching Eliza Bright byA.A. Osworth
13, Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow
14, Magic for Liars
15. The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
16. Permafrost
17. The Flight of the Iguana

18. My Vietnam, Your Vietnam
19. The Future by Naomi Alderman
20. The Bee sting by Paul Murray
21. The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen
22. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
23. Above Ground by Clint Smith
24. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
25. When Women were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

26. Deep River by Karl Marlantes
27. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (re read)
28. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
29. A Man Called Ove
30. This House of Sky (DNF)
31. invisible bridge
32. Mister Monkey by Francine Prose
33. The Enchantment of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt

34. Bad Behavior
35. Two Nights in Lisbon
36. Wild Things by Laura Kay
37. All Fires the Fire by Julio Cortazar
38. Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat

39. The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
40. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
41. Winter Love by Han Suyin

I have been busy, and am pretty behind on my thread. So I do have reading to catch up on, and also a report on our trip to Ashland, which was loads of fun. We saw 3 plays, and also had a chance to relax, take walks, and eat lots of good food.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival has had a hard time of it financially, and have had to cut back quite a bit. The pandemic was a hard time to be a repertory theater. Thus, there were only 3 plays to choose from, but they were all good. We saw MacBeth, a dynamite production, Born with Teeth which is a newish play, centering on imagined conversations between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow. Also From Virgins to Villains a one woman piece about the authors experiences as a Shakespeare actor.

We were also able to attend Prologues for the first two plays, which gave some background about the productions, and really helped us understand them better. It seemed that this year the Festival was really focussed on putting the productions in historical context, so I learned a lot about King James, witch-hunting, and the persecution of Catholics and atheists.

Here are some pictures from the MacBeth production. I thought that the way that they focused on the witches was really cool.

And here's a picture from Born With Teeth. It turns out that a computer analysis found that Henry VI was co-written by Marlow and Shakespeare. Which that kind of co-writing was normal during the time, often playwrights were commissioned for a play and would portion out parts of it to other playwrights. The play imagines a series of conversations with the two as they wrote Henry VI, I thought very well-acted and thought provoking. Marlow and Shakespeare were very different characters, each reacting to their rather difficult historical circumstances.

I couldn't find photos for Virgins to Villains, but it was an exploration of the women in Shakespeare's plays, and how the experience of acting influenced the author, Robin Goodrin Nordli.

Happy new thread, Rhonda. xx

Happy new thread, Rhonda. It feels like it's been eons since I last saw a live theatre production. Hopefully, I will remedy that this summer.

>1 banjo123: Stunning!

Happy new one

>1 banjo123: What a beautiful picture! The view is spectacular, and the clouds in this photo only enhance it.

Happy new thread.

Happy new thread!

Good morning, Rhonda. Love the phot of the gorge and enjoyed the comments on Oregon Shakespeare Festival!

Happy new thread & thanks for the photos! I'm reminded it's been far too long since I spent some time in the Columbia Gorge.

>9 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul!

>10 jessibud2: Thank, Shelley! I hope you get to some theater soon.

>11 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! The gorge is pretty magic

>12 atozgrl: Thanks Irene. I was happy with the photo.

>13 drneutron: Thanks, Jim

>14 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba, we do live in a beautiful part of the world!

>15 ChrisG1: And Hi Chris! The Gorge is such a treasure.

Book-wise, I have several to catch up on.

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

I am not generally a thriller fan; every now and then I will pick one up, it will start intriguing, and then the writing and characters turn dull, and the plot seems obvious. Usually I don't finish. I almost quit on this one, for the obvious reasons, but I kept going and actually enjoyed the end. (I had guessed most, but not all of the plot.)

It's about a woman who is enjoying a stay in Lisbon with her new husband, when the husband disappears, she goes to the police and the consulate. There's a few twists in the plot, mostly around some "me-too" type issues. Some of the writing about sexual violence is pretty heavy-handed---the book would have benefited from sticking to the plot a bit more. Also, IMO, from more character development--but I think that about most thrillers.

Wild Things by Laura Kay

I read this for the Lesbian book group. It's about a group of young people in England, who buy a house in a village (sort of a suburb) of London and name it Lavender House. The main character has a long standing crush on her best friend Ray, and the two of them are in on this group, so, romantic tension.

This book started out cute, but there was too much cute and not enough substance to sustain it.

>19 banjo123: - Rhonda, your touchstone goes elsewhere, lol! (Sendak) ;-)

>20 jessibud2: LOL, I fixed it now! But I do love Sendak.

All Fires the Fire by Julio Cortazar

This is a book of short stories by an Argentinian writer. I enjoyed most of the stories, but they are pretty literary and conceptual, so probably not for everyone. I think my favorite was the first, where a community forms when there is a traffic jam outside of Paris that lasts for days.

Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat

This was published in 2010, a collection of essays about Haiti, and also about being an immigrant/refugee. Danticat is such a good writer! And I learned a lot about Haiti.

Here's a passage:

"I too sometimes wonder if in the intimate, both solitary and solidary, union between writers and readers a border can really exist. It there a border between Antigone's desire to bury her brother and the Haitian mother of 1964 who desperately wants to take her dead son's body out of the streets to give him a proper burial, knowing that if she does this she too may die? So perhaps after those executions when those young men and women were reading Caligula, Albert Camus became a Haitian writer. When they were reading Oedipus Rex and Antigone, Sophocles too became a Haitian writer."

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Rhonda!

Happy new thread, Rhonda. I love the photo at the top.

I really want to attend some plays at Ashland! The plays sound amazing.

>23 banjo123: I'm pretty sure I have this one, and it sounds really good.

Happy New Thread, Rhonda. Love that stunning topper. I also like the Carver poem. I love his short fiction but never really explored his poetry.

Happy new thread! It was great to see you today. : ) I am jealous that you went to the OR Shakespeare Festival. I hope they continue to get back on track -- it's such a wonderful venue. Hope June is a great month for you.

Happy New Thread, Rhonda! Lovely topper! I saw the photo's of the get together in Portland, I think it was, on Facebook and I'm glad you all enjoyed your time together.

Thanks for the new thread greetings, Rachel, Anita, Beth, Mark, Kim, Deborah!

Beth and Kim, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was very worthwhile. I just wish there was a train between Portland and Ashland, so we didn't have to drive.

Beth, I did think of you when I was reading Creating Dangerously It seems up your alley.

Mark, I found that Carver poem in a poetry box in the neighborhood, but since have bought a book of his poetry, and it's good.

And Kim and Deborah, the meet-up was super-fun. It was nice to be in a quieter environment, so we could really talk.

Unfortunate about Powell's; but today we met up with my sister and brother-in-law for coffee on Hawthorne, so stopped by the Hawthorne Powell's, and there was a copy of Chenneville on the sale table, so I bought it.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

I think I mentioned in >18 banjo123: that I am not really a thriller person. We read this for book group. It was actually my pick, but I guess I didn't quite realize it was a thriller. It seems that the thriller genre is low on character development, which ends up being a problem for me. Also, I guessed the story pretty quickly.

I did like how the book gave a picture of the Classical Music world, and what it's like to be an African American in that world. The extent of racism was disturbing, and apparently mostly taken from the author's own experience.

>30 banjo123: Congrats on a sale copy of Chenneville -- I think you'll enjoy it.

>32 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba, I am looking forward to it.

Both of my book groups met this week, so I'd like to report that other people were much more positive than me on Wild Things and The Violin Conspiracy. So if you are interested in either of these books, don't let my griping get in your way.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

I thought this book was really good. It's set in mid-70's in a Belfast suburb, and the main character, Cushla, is a young Catholic school teacher; who balances teaching, helping out in the family bar, and caring for her alcoholic mother. She also has to balance being Catholic during the Troubles, and teaching her young students hope, despite the violence surrounding them. She falls for an older man, who is Protestant, and married.

>6 banjo123: Reminds me of my days when I was in my 20s and used to go to "Shakespeare in the Park" every year. *sigh*

>23 banjo123: I need to read that one! Thanks for the recommendation, Rhonda!

>34 banjo123: I keep putting off reading that one despite Mark's glowing recommendation of it. I really need to get it read! Thanks for the reminder.

Happy new-ish thread!

>31 banjo123: I don't read thrillers (or mysteries) often. I find them easier to predict than other genres. And the whole fun of reading a thriller is not knowing till the end.

>35 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! Trespasses really is good, I hadn't realized that Mark was also a fan.

>36 The_Hibernator: Thanks for stopping by, Rachel! I think with thrillers, I am intrigued at first, but it doesn't hold because I really need more character development. Reading 2 thrillers close together made me realize how important that is to me.

Winter Love by Han Suyin

This one was from my shelves, it had been a pick for the lesbian book group, but I missed that month and had never read it. It's an older book, written in the early 60's; when all lesbian fiction had to have a tragic ending. This book is quite well-written, and gives us an unreliable and unpleasant narrator, Red, who is studying medicine in england in the 40's. She falls for a fellow student, Mara, who is married. There aren't many men around, and close "friendships" between women are common, but it's expected that the woment will eventually marry men.

A difficult book, I don't especially recommend it, but I don't regret reading it either.

>37 banjo123: Agreed. It is a very good novel.

Glad you enjoyed Trespasses, Rhonda. I did too.

Hi Rhonda, catching up on some threads. What a beautiful photo up top. Hope you have a great week!