Diane and I donned our N95 masks and arrived at Shea’s Performing Arts Center to see an elegant classical musical, My Fair Lady. This touring company version didn’t stint on anything: the sumptuous costumes, the impressive rotating set pieces, and an orchestra worthy of the music.

Based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady was first produced on Broadway in 1956 starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, with Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Music by Frederick Loewe. It won six Tony awards, including Best Musical, and ran for 2,717 performances, which was a record for that time.

The 1964 film version of My Fair Lady, which won the Oscar for Best Picture and was the second highest grossing movie of the year (only Mary Poppins made more), was controversial for its replacement of Julie Andrews for a bigger star, Audrey Hepburn as Eliza, whose voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon (who also dubbed Natalie Wood’s Maria in the 1961 film of West Side Story. Ms. Nixon was quite a busy woman at that time).

Lerner and Loewe collaborated on sixteen musicals including, to name a few: BRIGADOON, PAINT YOUR WAGON, CAMELOT, and GIGI. My Fair Lady was their biggest hit.

Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl transformed into an elegant lady on a bet by altering her speech, delighted us with her wonderful voice. Laird Mackintosh is a convincing obsessive/compulsive Henry Higgins although this production presents Professor Higgins as an obnoxious dilettante.

If My Fair Lady shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you consider seeing this old fashioned, classic musical with its wonderful songs. Are you a fan of My Fair Lady? GRADE: B+

Musical numbers:

Act I “Overture” – The Orchestra”Busker Sequence” – The Orchestra”Why Can’t the English?” – Professor Higgins “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” – Eliza and Male Quartet “With a Little Bit of Luck” – Alfred Doolittle, Harry, Jamie and Company “I’m an Ordinary Man” – Professor Higgins “With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)” – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble “Just You Wait” – Eliza”The Servants’ Chorus (Poor Professor Higgins)” – Mrs. Pearce and Servants “The Rain in Spain” – Professor Higgins, Eliza, and Colonel Pickering “I Could Have Danced All Night” – Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants”Ascot Gavotte” – Ensemble “On the Street Where You Live” – Freddy”Eliza’s Entrance/Embassy Waltz” – The Orchestra

Act II “You Did It” – Colonel Pickering, Professor Higgins, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants “Just You Wait (Reprise)” – Eliza “On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)” – Freddy “Show Me” – Eliza with Freddy “The Flower Market/Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? (Reprise)” – Eliza and Male Quartet “Get Me to the Church on Time” – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble “A Hymn to Him” – Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering “Without You” – Eliza and Professor Higgins “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” – Professor Higgins “I Could Have Danced All Night (Reprise) / Finale” – The Orchestra

Norman E. Rosenthal is a psychiatrist who believes poetry has the power to heal. Rosenthal selected 50 poems–many of them well-known–that can help readers deal with common problems of Life: loss, grieving, love, aging, anger, longing, and many more.

Whether or not you believe Rosenthal’s theory of the healing power of poetry, Rosenthal has assembled a wonderful group of poems that can just be read for pleasure. How many of these 50 poems do you know? Any favorites? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION — 1

PART ONE: LIVING AND LOSING

CHAPTER ONE: Is There an Art to Losing? — 9

“One Art” by Elizabeth Biship

CHAPTER TWO: Can Love Transform You? — 15

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

CHAPTER THREE: The Heart versus the Mind — 22

“Pity me not because the light of day”. by Edna St. Vincent Millay

CHAPTER FOUR: Love in the Moment — 29

“Lullaby” by W. H. Auden

CHAPTER FIVE: When Love Fades — 36

“Failing and Flying” by Jack Gilbert

CHAPTER SIX: Getting Over a Breakup I: Acceptance — 43

“Why so pale and wan fond lover? by Sir John Suckling

CHAPTER SEVEN: Getting Over a Breakup II: Reclaiming Yourself — 48

“Love after Love” by Derek Walcott

CHAPTER EIGHT: Declaring Your Love — 55

“Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” by William Shakespeare

CHAPTER NINE: Consoled by Love — 63

“Sonnet 29: Whe, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” by William Shakespeare

CHAPTER TEN: In Praise of the Marriage of True Minds –71

“Sonnet 116: Le me not to the marriage of true minds” by William Shakespeare

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Loss of a Loved One — 77

“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone (Funeral Blues) by W. H. Auden

CHAPTER TWELVE: Will I Ever Feel Better? — 83

“Time Does Not bRing Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Love Remembered — 86

“When You Are Old” by William Butler Yeats

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Love After Death — 91

“Remember” by Christina Rossetti

PART TWO: THAT INWARD EYE

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Transcendence in Nature –101

“Daffodils” by William Wordsworth

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Memory of Daffodils –109

“Miracle on St. David’s Day” by Gillian Clarke

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Transcendence in Body and Mind — 114

“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey (excerpt)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The Power of Dark and Light — 119

“There’s a certain Slant of light” by Lily Dickinson

CHAPTER NINETEEN: In Praise of Diversity — 126

“Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

CHAPTER TWENTY: A Plea to Save the Natural World — 131

“Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Importance of Being Needed — 136

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: The Choices We Make — 142

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: The Force of Longing — 148

“Sea Fever” by John Masefield

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Finding Hope in Nature — 154

“The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy

PART THREE: THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Power of Hope — 163

“Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Welcoming Your Emotions — 168

“The Guest House” by Jalaluddin Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: The Healing Power of Reconciliation — 175

“Out beyond Ideas” by Jalaluddin Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Leaving Home — 180

“Traveler, there is no road” by Antonio Machado (Translated by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: And Those You Leave Behind — 184

“Letter to My Mother” by Salvatore Quasimodo (Translated by Jack Bevan)

CHAPTER THIRTY: The Importance of Self-Actualization — 190

“On His Blindness” by John Milton

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: The Power of Faith — 195

“PSALM 23, A PSALM OF DAVID”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: The Thrill of Discovery — 199

“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” by John Keats

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: The enduring Thrill of the Moment — 205

“High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr.

CHAPTER THIRTY- FOUR: The Long Reach of Trauma — 211

“The Sentence” by Anna Akhmatova (Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: The Danger of Anger — 220

“The Poison Tree” by William Blake

PART FOUR: A DESIGN FOR LIVING AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Principles for a Good Life — 229

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: Remaining Steady through Life’s Ups and Downs — 234

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: Never Give Up — 243

“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: Putting One Foot in Front of the Other — 249

“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke

CHAPTER FORTY: Should You React or Proact? — 256

“Waiting for the Barbarians” by Constantine Cavafy (Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: It’s the Journey that Matters — 261

“Ithaka” by Constantine Cavity (Translated by Edmund Keeley)

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: Hold On to Your Dreams — 269

“Dreams” by Langston Hughes

PART FIVE: INTO THE NIGHT

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: Should You Just Go for It? — 279

“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” by William Butler Yeats

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Or Should You Be Careful? — 283

“Musee des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: Dying Too Soon — 289

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: Aging by Degrees — 296

“I know I Am Getting Old” by Wendell Berry

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: The Critical Importance of Communication — 301

“Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: Should You Rage? — 310

“Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: Or is it Time to Go Gently? — 317

“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson

CHAPTER FIFTY: I Did Not Die! — 323

“Do not stand at my grave and weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye

A Few Last Thoughts — 329

Source Materials and Further Reading — 330

Permissions — 337

Acknowledgements — 341

Index — 343

About the Author — 365

Picard Season Two showed up on Paramount+ this week with a chatty episode that took a while to get started. This ten episode series releases a new episode every Thursday. Because of the Pandemic, Season Two and Season Three were shot at the same time.

Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation may or may not be happy to see Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan and John de Lancie as Q. But I’m thrilled with Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen! From what I’ve been able to discern from Episode One, Season Two will involve Time Travel and a lot more action. Are you a Star Trek fan? GRADE: Incomplete

Main Characters:

• Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard^[8]
• Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati^[8]
• Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine^[9]
• Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker^[8]
• Evan Evagora as Elnor^[8]
• Orla Brady as Laris^[9]
• Isa Briones as Soji Asha^[8]
• Santiago Cabrera as Chris Rios^[8]
• Brent Spiner as a member of the Soong family
• Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan^[12]
• John de Lancie as Q^[9]
• Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen^[11]

Lily Albrecht, book dealer and one-time novelist, finds herself in a search for a mysterious book: The Book of the Most Precious Substance. The book is from 1620, not printed but hand written, and only five copies were made. Over the years, two of the five volumes of The Book of the Most Precious Substance were destroyed.

Lily teams up with Lucas Markson, an acquisitions librarian specializing in rare books. As Lily and Lucas investigate The Book of the Most Precious Substance, they learn it has been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars and may be worth more than a million dollars to the right buyer. They also learn The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a book of sex magic.

The book describes five spells. After each spell, the participants who follow the directions to activate the spell, will get something they desire. Both Lily and Lucas want money…but for different reasons. Lucas has burned through his trust fund and needs money to sustain his lavish lifestyle. Lily’s husband, Abel, suffers from dementia and Lily needs money to take care of him.

As Lily and Lucas follow clues to the locations of The Book of the Most Precious Substance, murders occur. They discover a copy of The Book of the Most Precious Substance, but the pages about the fifth and most powerful spell have been ripped out.

The Book of the Most Precious Substance reminded me of The Ninth Gate, the 1999 neo-noir horror thriller film directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski starring Johnny Depp. If you’re in the mood for an international search for a rare and dangerous occult book, Sara Gran’s erotic thriller, The Book of the Most Precious Substance, takes you on a fascinating and deadly journey. GRADE: B+

I first read H. P. Lovecraft in the early 1960s. Lancer Books published The Dunwich Horror and Others in 1963 and when I read it, I was hooked! Here’s the Table of Contents for that Lancer Books edition:

Introduction: H.P. Lovecraft and his work / August Derleth
	In the vault
	Pickman’s model
	The rats in the walls
	The music of Erich Zann
	The haunter of the dark
	The Dunwich horror
	The thing on the doorstep

After that, I scoured used bookstores more more Lovecraft books. Lancer Books published THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE and Others in 1967. Then, in the early 1970s, Ballantine Books started reprinting volumes of Lovecraft’s works.

Over the years, H. P. Lovecraft–who died in obscurity and poverty–steadily attracted new readers. Lovecraft pastiches proliferated. How did an unknown writer end up with a volume in the Library of America series? T. S. Joshi tracks the growth of Lovecraft’s recognition and status over the decades. If you’re interested in how a writer can go from zero to world renown, give The Recognition of H. P. Lovecraft a try. Are you an H. P. Lovecraft fan? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PREFACE –7

I. Beginnings (1905-1922) — 9

II. The Pulp Era (1923-1937) — 35

III. Arkham House: The Early Years (1937-1945) — 79

IV. The Beginnings of Worldwide Disseminaton (1946-1959) — 115

V. Paperbacks and Movies (1960-1971) — 139

VI. The revival of Scholarship (1971-1979) — 163

VII. Looking Toward the Centennial (1980-1990) — 199

VIII. The Road to Canonization (1991-2005) — 231

IX. Dissemination and Controversy (2006-2020) — 263

Epilogue — 311

Bibliography — 315

Index — 319

I became a fan of Laura Nyro from the moment I heard her songs in the late 1960s. Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists and groups had hits with Laura Nyro songs: The 5th Dimension with “Blowing Away“, “Wedding Bell Blues“, “Stoned Soul Picnic“, “Sweet Blindness“, and “Save the Country“; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul and Mary with “And When I Die“; Three Dog Night and Maynard Ferguson with “Eli’s Comin’“; and Barbra Streisand with “Stoney End“, “Time and Love”, and “Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man)”. Laura Nyro’s best-selling single was her version of Carole King‘s and Gerry Goffin‘s “Up on the Roof“.

Laura Nyro died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997. She was 49,  the same age that her mother died from the same disease. In 2004, SONY released Spread Your Wings and Fly: Live at the Fillmore East May 30, 1971. The concert performance shows Nyro’s love of classic songs like “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, “Spanish Harlem,” “Walk On By,” “Dancing in the Street,” “O-o-h Child,” and “Up on the Roof.”

Laura Nyro was 24 at the time of this concert. She had a relationship with singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in late 1970 to early 1971. Jackson Browne was Nyro’s opening act at the time. Are you a fan of Laura Nyro? GRADE: A-

TRACKLIST:

1		American Dove	5:03
2		Medley: Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing / (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman Written-By – N. Ashford-V. Simpson*, C. King-G. Goffin*, J. Wexler	4:10
3		Spanish Harlem Written-By – J. Leiber*, P. Spector	3:19
4		I Am The Blues	5:04
5		Medley: Walk On By / Dancing In The Street Written-By – B. Bacharach-H. David*, I. Hunter*, M. Gaye*, W. Stevenson	4:59
6		Emmie	4:55
7		Map To The Treasure	6:52
8		Christmas In My Soul	5:38
9		Save The Country	4:59
10		Medley: Timer / O-o-h Child / Up On The Roof Written-By – G. Goffin-C. King*, L. Nyro*, S. Vincent*	8:41
11		Medley: Lu / Flim Flam Man	3:42
12		Mother Earth	7:58

All songs written by Laura Niro except where noted.

Last week I reviewed Erle Stanley Gardner’s Sheriff Bill Eldon stories (you can read my review here). The third and last Sheriff Bill Eldon story was reprinted after 30 years in Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery which was published in 1979.

After reading Erle Stanley Gardner’s “The Clue of the Screaming Woman,” I read the rest of the stories in Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery. I’m a Hugh Pentecost fan and “Jerico and the Studio Murders” delivers a compelling story with a twist at the end.

James M. Ullman is a writer new to me. I found his “Operation Bonaparte” a clever puzzle where two investigators chase a criminal on the run and try to recover his “treasure chest” of wealth. The last line of the story is classic!

My favorite stories in Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery are the three Edward D. Hoch stories. Captain Leopold and his team chases a kidnapper and thief. Nick Velvet gets kidnapped but still figures out a way to steal a worthless object. In “The Spy at the End of the Rainbow” Hoch’s British spy Rand has to solve the murder at a conference in Egypt. All three stories show Hoch at the top of his game.

I found Ellery Queen’s Secrets of Mystery entertaining and so will you. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Erle Stanley Gardner: “The Clue of the Screaming Woman” — 9

Victor Canning: “A Stroke of Genius” — 80

Florance V. Mayberry: “Out of the Dream Stumbling” — 88

Lawrence Treat: “A As in Alibi” — 99

Robert Edward Eckel: The Last One to Know” — 110

Hugh Pentecost: “Jerico and the Studio Murders” — 121

Robert Bloch: ” The Man Who Never Did Anything Right” — 134

Lawrence G. Blochman: “The Killer With No Fingerprints” — 137

Phyllis Ann Karr: “Blood Money” — 160

Lloyd Biggie, Jr. “Have You a Fortune in Your Attic?” — 166

Brian W. Aldiss: “The Lonely Habit” — 182

Vincent McConnor: “Just Like Inspector Maigret” — 190

James M. Ullman: “Operation Bonaparte” — 201

Barry Perowne: “The Raffles Bombshell” — 217

Ellery Queen: “Uncle From Australia” — 234

Edward D. Hoch Tripleheader:

“Captain Leopold Gets Angry” — 239

“The Theft of Nick Velvet” — 253

“The Spy at the End of the Rainbow” — 267

Adam McKay’s dark comedy, Don’t Look Up, with its cast of stars should attract more of an audience in the run up to the Oscars. Check out who’s in this movie:

	Leonardo DiCaprio	Dr. Randall Mindy
	Jennifer Lawrence	…	Kate Dibiasky
	Meryl Streep	…	President Orlean
	Cate Blanchett	…	Brie Evantee
	Rob Morgan	…	Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe
	Jonah Hill	…	Jason Orlean
	Mark Rylance	…	Peter Isherwell
	Tyler Perry	…	Jack Bremmer
	Timothée Chalamet	…	Yule
	Ron Perlman	…	Benedict Drask
	Ariana Grande	…	Riley Bina
	Kid Cudi	…	DJ Chello (as Scott Mescudi)
	Himesh Patel	…	Phillip
	Melanie Lynskey	…	June Mindy
	Michael Chiklis	…	Dan Pawketty
	Tomer Sisley	…	Adul Grelio
	Paul Guilfoyle	…	General Themes
	Robert Joy	…	Congressman Tenant
	Jack Alberts	…	Oliver
	Ting	…	Win (as Ting Lik)

Jennifer Lawrence, a doctoral student, discovers a comet is heading for Earth. It will hit our planet in six months. Her Professor, Leonard DiCaprio, alerts the scientific community, but his news is met with some skepticism. Lawrence and DiCaprio go to Washington, D.C. to warn the President (Meryl Streep) of in impending collision which would be an extinction event.

Like the Pandemic, the prospect of a comet hitting the Earth becomes a political football. Some people believe it, many others doubt it. Adam McKay, who directs this movie and wrote the screenplay, shows how dysfunctional Government can be during a crisis. He shows how Government is influenced by money and power. And, not many people in this movie believe in Science.

If you’re in the mood for a dark comedy, Don’t Look Up will make you smile and frown at the same time! GRADE: B

David Damrosch is the Earnest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature and chair of comparative literature at Harvard University, and director of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature. That should explain why many of the 80 titles in Around the World in 80 Books aren’t familiar to you or to me. In his Introduction, Damrosch cites Harold Bloom’s influential The Western Canon. In this book, Domrosch presents a literary canon for the world by using the device of Around the World in 80 Books to carry his arguments forward.

How many of these 80 books do you know? Do you see any of your favorites here? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION: The Voyage Out — xi

Chapter one. London : Inventing a City

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway — 1
• Charles Dickens, Great Expectations — 7
• Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes — 12
• P. G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh — 16
• Arnold Bennet, Riceyman Steps — 19

Chapter two. Paris : Writers’ Paradise

• Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time — 25
• Djuna Barnes, Nightwood — 29
• Marguerite Duras, The Lover — 36
• Julio Cortazar, The End of the Game — 36
• Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood — 40

Chapter three. Krakow : After Auschwitz

• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table — 45
• Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories — 50
• Paul Celan, Poems — 53
• Czeslaw Milos, Selected and Last Poems, 1931-2004 — 57
• Olga Tokarczuk, Flights — 61

Chapter four. Venice-Florence : Invisible cities

• Marco Polo, The Travels — 65
• Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy — 68
• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron — 71
• Donna Leon, By Its Cover — 75
• Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities — 79

Chapter five. Cairo-Istanbul-Muscat : Stories within stories

• Love Songs of Ancient Egypt — 85
• The Thousand and One Nights — 89
• Naguib Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days — 93
• Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red — 97
• Jokha Alharthi, Celestial Bodies — 102

Chapter six. The Congo-Nigeria : (Post)Colonial encounters

• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness — 107
• Chinua Achelbe, Things Fall Apart — 112
• Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman — 117
• Georges Ngal, Giambarista Viko, or The Rape of African Discourse — 122
• Chimamanda Negozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck — 125

Chapter seven. Israel/Palestine : Strangers in a strange land

• The Hebrew Bible — 131
• The New Testament — 136
• D. A. Mishani, The Missing File — 142
• Emile Habibi, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist — 146
• Mahmoud Darwish, The Butterfly’s Burden — 150

Chapter eight. Tehran-Shiraz : A desertful of roses

• Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis — 157
• Farid ud-Din Attar, The Confessions of the Birds — 162
• Faces of Love: Haze and the Poets of Shiraz — 166
• Ghalib, A Deceitful of Roses — 172
• Agha Shahid Ali, Call Me Ishmael Tonight — 176

Chapter nine. Calcutta/Kolkata : Rewriting empire

• Rudyard Kipling, Kim — 183
• Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World — 188
• Salman Rushdie, East, West — 192
• Jamyan Norbu, The Mandela of Sherlock Holmes — 196
• Jhampa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies — 201

Chapter ten. Shanghai-Beijing : Journeys to the west

• Wu Cheng’en, Journey to the West — 207
• Lu Xun, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Stories — 211
• Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City — 215
• Mo Yan, Life and Earth Are Wearing Me Out — 219
• Bei Dao, The Rose of Time — 224

Chapter eleven. Tokyo-Kyoto : The west of the east

• Higuchi Ichiyo, In the Shade of Spring Leaves — 231
• Muraski Shikibu, The Tale of Genji — 235
• Matsuo Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North — 240
• Yukio Mishima, The Sea of Fertility — 245
• James Merrill, “Prose of Departure” — 250

Chapter tweleve. Brazil-Columbia : Utopias, dystopias, heterotopias

• Thomas More, Utopia — 257
• Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism — 262
• Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Posthumours Memoirs of Brds Cubas — 267
• Clarice Lispector, Family Ties — 273
• Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude — 277

Chapter thirteen. Mexico-Guatemala : The Pope’s blowgun

• Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs — 283
• Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life — 289
• Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Selected Works — 293
• Miguel Ángel Asturias, The President — 299
• Rosario Casstellanos, The Book of Lamentations — 303

Chapter fourteen. The Antilles and beyond : Fragments of epic memory

• Derek Walcott, Omeros — 309
• James Joyce, Ulysses — 315
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea — 319
• Margaret Atwood, The Penelopida — 324
• Judith Schalansky, Atlas of Remote Islands — 329

Chapter fifteen. Bar Harbor : the world on a desert island

• Robert McCloskey, One Morning in Maine — 335
• Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs — 340
• Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian — 345
• Hugh Lofting, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle — 350
• E. B. White, Stuart Little — 356

Chapter sixteen. New York : Migrant metropolis

• Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time — 361
• Saul Steinberg, The Labyrinth — 366
• James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son — 371
• Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King — 376
• J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings — 381

Epilogue: the Eighty-first Book — 387

Acknowledgements — 391

Credits — 395

Notes — 401

It’s that time of year again to fire up Turbotax Deluxe and go through the tax filing routine. I like the e-filing feature. I like the New York State Tax download. And, I like the Audit Risk Meter that assesses your risk of drawing IRS attention.

I’ve been using Turbotax since the 1990s. Some years the software was better than others. But now, Intuit–the company that bought Turbotax–has this program refined and made it easy to use.

Have you done your taxes yet?