By the time you read this post, Diane and I will be flying to JFK Airport. Once we land and pick up our luggage, we’ll be traveling by Lyft, Uber, or cab to Patrick’s apartment in Brooklyn where Patrick and Katie will have a Thanksgiving feast waiting for us. Our nieces Elise and Kristen will join the celebration as well as some “strays” who have nowhere to go on Thanksgiving. I’ll add some pictures of our Thanksgiving Feast to this post later today so check back and see what delights Patrick and Katie prepared.
The Buffalo Bills will be playing the Detroit Lions while we’re in the air to NYC. The Bills are favored by 9 points.
David Mitchell’s blurb on the cover of Claire Keegan’s novella, Foster, says “As good as Chekhov.” I wouldn’t go that far based on reading Foster, but Keegan is a very good writer. Foster is the story of a child taken by her wretched father to live with some relatives in rural Ireland while her mother gives birth to yet another child.
The little girl doesn’t know if she will ever be brought home again. The farming couple, the Kinsellas, provide the girl with a structure missing in her oversized and impoverished family. She’s cleaned up, given clean clothes, and taught to take care of herself. Mrs. Kinsella insists on truth, but the girl learns a few of the secrets of this new household.
Keegan’s story follows the development of the nameless girl over the summer. Mrs. Kinsella teaches her how to read. The girl’s narration of her experience with this couple operates on several levels. Yes, learning is going on. This life with the Kinsellas is vastly different from the grinding deprivation of her own family.
If you’re in the mood for a moving, subtle, and nuanced story, Foster provides in heart-rending glimpse into a desperate situation. GRADE: B
Based on the internationally best-selling novel (2003) by Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram follows an Australian fugitive going under the name “Lin Ford” (Charlie Hunnam) looking to get lost in vibrant and chaotic 1980s Bombay. Alone in an unfamiliar city, Lin struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from in this new setting. After falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla, Lin finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue.
I’ve watched the first episode and the fabulous location of Bombay with its many schemes and unusual characters drew me in. The series will consist of twelve episodes directed by Justin Kurzel and Bharat Nalluri. Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% approval rating. It’s too soon for me to assign a grade, but I’ll be watching this series in the weeks ahead.
Jen Adams collected nearly two hundred of the most provocative stories submitted to the tumblr blog TheBooksTheyGaveMe.com to capture the many ways books can change our lives and loves, revealing volumes about the relationships that inspired the gifts of books.
These stories are, by turns, romantic, cynical, funny, dark, and hopeful. There’s the poorly thought out gift of Lolita from a thirty-year-old man to a teenage girl. There’s the couple who tried to read Ulysses together over the course of their long-distance relationship and never finished it. There’s the girl whose school library wouldn’t allow her to check out Fahrenheit 451, but who received it at Christmas with the note, “Little Sister: Read everything you can. Subvert Authority! Love always, your big brother.” These are stories of people falling in love, regretting mistakes, and finding hope. Together they constitute a love letter to the book as physical object and inspiration.
Do you give books as gifts? Have you received books as gifts? How many of these gift books do you recognize? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION — xv
Burroughs, Dry — 1
Pernice, Meat Is Murder — 2
Yeats, The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats — 3
Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept — 4
Mulford, Love Poems by Women — 5
Rombauer, The Joy of Cooking — 6
Nobody. — 7
Beatty & Dixon & Lopez & Martin. Batgirl: Year One — 8
Harvey. The Chicago Way — 9
Anonymous. — 10
Taleb. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable — 11
Burroughs. Possible Side Effects — 12
The Life and Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa — 14
de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince — 16
Gregory. Unpossible and Other Stories — 20
Percy, The Moviegoer. 21
Milton. Complete Poetry and Essential Prose — 22
Wright. Tony and Susan — 24
Winterson. Art and Lies and Art Objects — 25
Wallace. Infinite Jest — 26
Tayli. 60 Indian Poets –27
Vonnegut. Cat’s Cradle — 28
Various. A Treasury of the World’s Best Loved Poems — 30
Tolstoy. Anna Karenina — 31
Lamont. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life — 32
Waters. The Night Watch –34
Kundera. The Unbearable Lightness of Being — 35
Styron. Sophie’s Choice — 36
Gibran. The Prophet — 36
Stoddard. The High House — 37
Poe. The Poe Reader — 38
Baum. The Oz Books — 38
Bradford. Red Sky at Morning: A Novel — 39
Gorey. Amphigorey — 40
Tolkien. The Children of Hurin — 42
Martin. The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice — 43
Smith, Zadie. On Beauty — 44
Smith, Lane. It’s a Book — 45
Slang — 46
Salinger. Franny and Zooey — 47
Shakespeare. Henry V — 48
Spoto. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock — 50
Schlink. The Reader — 52
Welch. Trainspotting — 53
Russell. The Sparrow and Children of God — 54
Walters. Clean Food; Loux. The Balance Plate — 56
Reclam Verlag. Various — 57
Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone — 58
The World Book Encyclopedia — 60
Wyndham. The Day of the Triffids — 62
Nabokov. Lolita — 63
Dylan & Rogers. Forever Young — 64
Hemon. The Lazarus Project — 66
Moore. Absolute Watchmen — 68
Plath. The Collected Poems — 69
Gaiman. The Sandman Vol 9: The Kindly Ones — 70
Waller. The Bridges of Madison County — 71
Rilke. The Book of Images — 72
Smith. Just Kids — 74
Kipfer. 14,000 Things to be Happy About — 75
Romeo & Romeo. 11, 002 Things to be Miserable About — 76
Robbins. Jitterbug Perfume — 77
Bukowski. Ham on Rye — 78
Rimbaud. Rimbaud Complete — 80
Lawrence & Lee. Inherit the Wind — 81
Disney. Beauty and the Beast — 82
Seuss. Oh, the Places You’ll Go!— 84
Brown. The Runaway Rabbit — 85
Bronte. Withering Heights — 86
Seth. A Suitable Boy — 88
Mayhew. The Soup Bible — 90
Suskind. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — 91
Ghosh. The Calcutta Chromosome — 92
Plascencia. The People of Paper — 93
Nabokov. The Original of Laura — 94
Creeley. For Love: Poems 1950-1960 — 95
Levithan. The Lover’s Dictionary — 96
Cervantes. Don Quixote — 97
The Oxford English Dictionary — 97
Mrozek. The Elephant — 98
Kenyon. The Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook — 100
Redacted. — 101
Rand. Atlas Shrugged — 102
Pynchon. Gravity’s Rainbow — 103
Pullman. His Dark Materials — 104
Eugenides. Middlesex — 106
Pausch & Zaslow. The Last Lecture — 107
Pancake. The Stories of Breece D;J Pancake — 110
Ochsner. People I Wanted To Be: Stories — 110
Neruda. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair — 112
McCourt. Angela’s Ashes — 113
Arthur. The Autumn People — 114
Klosterman. Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story — 115
Kerouac. The Subterraneans — 116
Joyce. Ulysses — 116
Krakauer. Into the Wild — 117
Quinn. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit — 118
Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 — 120
McKillip. Riddle-Master — 121
Bryson. The Mother Tongue–English and How It Got That Way — 122
Dickens. Great Expectations — 123
Du Bois. W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader — 124
Martel. Life of Pi — 125
Cohen. Leonard Cohen — 126
Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go — 127
Maugham. Of Human Bondage — 128
Lightman. Einstein’s Dreams — 129
Krauss. The Physics of Star Trek — 130
Fadiman. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader — 131
Hofstadter. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid — 132
Hesse. SIDDHARTHA — 134
Hesse. Siddhartha — 136
Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises — 137
Fitzgerald. Tender Is the Night — 138
Gaarder. Sophie’s World — 139
The Book of Mormon — 140
Warren. PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God — 142
Tengbom. I Wish I Felt Good All the Time — 143
Rilke. Letters to a Young Poet — 144
Krakauer. Under the Banner of Heaven — 146
Anthony. The Source of Magic — 147
Brooks. The Zombie Survival Guide — 148
Austen & Grahame-Smith. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies — 148
Antunes. Knowledge of Hell — 149
Burroughs. Magical Thinking — 150
Blake. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake — 152
Allen & Greenough. Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar — 153
Erdrich. Love Medicine — 154
Goodkind. Wizard’s First Rule — 156
Eggers. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius — 157
Faulkner. Light in August — 158
Bittman. How to Cook Everything: The Basics — 159
Bishop. The Complete Poems 1927-1979 — 160
Milne. Winnie-the-Pooh — 161
Murkoff & Mazel. What to Expect When You’re Expecting — 162
Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises — 163
Heller. Catch-22 — 164
Heller. Something Happened — 164
Flynn. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City — 165
Hay. A Student of Weather — 166
Gelardi. Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria — 167
King. The Dark Tower — 168
Hass. Sun Under Wood — 170
Khayyam. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam — 171
Tolkien. The Hobbit — 172
Rawicz. The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom — 174
Spillane. The Long Wait — 175
Evanovich. One for the Money — 176
Albom. Tuesdays with Morrie — 177
Jones. Light Boxes — 178
Saterstrom. The Pink Institution — 180
Robertson. Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker — 181
Because of the Lake Effect snow event that pummeled Western NY, the NFL moved the Cleveland Browns vs. Buffalo Bills game to Ford Field in Detroit. Despite the disruption, the Bills are still 8-point favorites. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?
On a cold snowy night last week, Diane and I drove to Buffalo’s Kleinhans Music Hall to hear the Castalian String Quartet: Sini Simonen (violin), Ruth Gibson (viola), Daniel Roberts (violin), and Stefan Morris (cello). We found the music a little dark, but it fit the wintery weather we were experiencing. The Quartet played well and the 200 listeners in the audience with us clapped enthusiastically at the end of the performance.
Diane and I arrived early to hear the Q&A session before the performance and learned interesting facts about the musicians’s lives and backgrounds. The Quartet will be in Schenectady, NY and then New York City next week. Worth traveling in the darkness and snow showers to hear. Are you a fan of chamber music? GRADE: B
PROGRAM:
STRING QUARTET IN D MINOR, K. 421 — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
My favorite story in The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, 23rd SERIES is John Varley’s “In the Hall of the Martian Kings,” a story of a exploration of the Red Planet with a lot of problems. I also liked Jane Yolen’s “Brother Hart” involving shape-shifting and sadness.
Edward L. Ferman continues the inclusion of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction “Competition” entries. You may or may not like them. I’m not a fan.
I did like Joanna Russ’s essay on “Books: In Defense of Criticism” which extends the discussion beyond Fantasy and SF. Thought-provoking!
The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, 23rd Series is the penultimate volume in this long-running anthology series. Next mouth, the final volume…after two years of monthly reviews on this blog! GRADE: B
There are plenty of songs to like on 70s Soul Gold. I like the mix of well-known songs like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” with more obscure songs like The Originals’ “The Bells.”
I love Smokey Robinson and The Miracles’ “Tears of A Clown,” Chic’s “Le Freak,” and The Staple Sisters’ “I’ll Take You There.” And, then there are classics like Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead,” Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” and The Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone.”
All in all, this compilation delivers great music from the 1970s. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites? GRADE: A-
My favorite story in Nine Lives: Nine Stories of the Dark Fantastic (Five Star, 2003) is “The Island in the Lake,” a story about Eisenstein’s troubadour, Alaric, who has the power to teleport himself…usually into trouble. I also enjoyed “The Amethyst Phial” where Eisenstein explores the nature of revenge.
The stories in Night Lives vary from early stories in Eisenstein’s career to later stories. If you want to read a representative collection of Eisenstein’s short fiction, Night Lives would be a good place to start. GRADE: B
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Straddling the Spectrum – (2003) – essay by Phyllis Eisenstein — 9
“It cannot be that this whole country is only full of killers and thieves,” says Lady Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt), reflecting on the America of 1890, to which she has traveled from England in order to avenge the death of her son. And she’s right: There are also psychopaths, sadists, rapists, racists, idiots, imbeciles, religious fanatics and carnival freaks. They pepper a landscape whose panoramic vistas Mr. Blick emphasizes with poetic intentions, interrupted only now and then by spasms of violence and rivers of blood. –John Anderson, Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2022
The English, an epic tale of murder, revenge, and violence in lawless America during 1888, features Emily Blunt as an aristocratic lady from England who journeys to the United States to avenge the murder of her son. After nearly getting raped and murdered herself, Lady Cornelia allies herself with a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer) as they journey through a dangerous landscape where thugs, bushwhackers, and outlaws attack without warning.
Lady Cornelia believes the man who killed her son can be found in the new town of Home, Wyoming. Along the way, Lady Cornelia learns about Eli Whipp’s savage past and the deadly aspects of his life.
This six-episode series on Amazon Prime Video, with its outbursts of graphic violence in each episode, might not be for everyone. But, if you’re in a spaghetti western mood, The English will take you back to the days of the good, the bad, and the ugly. GRADE: A
