Enjoying a little rain. I‘ve been hiding from the world in this 14th-century text.

This was a truly great and special, if too brief, experience for me. I had never read ED. Her poems are short, their meanings slightly hidden, their power in a lingering aspect that takes some time to pick up on.

So my reading experience was very much about adapting, and learning. Also gained a lot from The Prowling Bee, a blog on Dickinson. Highly recommended: bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com

See, collar off. 🐕

Starting my 12th from the Booker longlist.
#booker #booker2024 #longlist

Ok. It had a lot of information I didn‘t know, that i did find interesting. He‘s thorough on facts, but he‘s soft on that kind of look-back analysis. And the writing is just poor.

Not sure exactly what Wharton was doing here as her artist wanders through all sorts of writing and social circumstances, and his one time muse, now lover, gets neglected, left behind, forgotten. I waited for her seek independence, but Wharton wasn‘t writing for me. I merely got a wink. Still, it‘s pleasant reading. #whartonbuddyread @Lcsmcat

My pup is out of this lion costume collar now. Surgery went well, recovering largely done.

Powers is an author determined to make quality fiction out of pertinent science. Here he tosses us a red herring, when a social media leader, author of AI-based Playground, suffering from a disease that affects his mind, looks at the oceans. I was waiting for the environmental hammer, but his focus is different. Thought-provoking. Not subtle.

Just getting going on audio. It‘s ok so far.

I‘m reading a fantastic book on Keats. This is my introduction to him. (I keep seeing the word “Keatsian”. Lately in reference to Wilfred Owen and Emily Dickinson. I‘m trying to understand what this word means.)

By the way - Lucasta Miller undermines “Therefore” above - which she says he knowingly knew was inappropriate here. 🙂

A woman has become mute. She has lost her husband, teaching job, and custody of her 8-yr-old son. Lost herself, she takes a course in Ancient Greek taught by an instructor about her age who is losing his sight. Somehow a gentle warm story comes out of this, layered onto of darker histories and life pains, and terrific interesting prose. This completes my two week run through Han‘s four English-translated novels. (Another is due out in January)

Han begins with a room of unclaimed corpses. South Korea has a dark history. In May 1980, in response to a coup, university students and young female factory workers joined to inspire an uprising in Gwangju, a university town. The government responded with an intentionally brutal crackdown and massacre. Han, a born in Gwangju, is uncharacteristically direct here, and brings us to the crackdown and to its long aftermath. It‘s an important book.

This is an old obscure book left on my mother‘s shelves. I think it‘s actually a 1963 printing. Anyway, I‘ve started. The author grew up in Hawaii. Molokai was the leprosy quarantine island in the 19th century.

Starting the next book - more from Nobel winner Han Kang

This reads like a collection of prose poetry. A series of white things, with a theme on an older sister who only lived a couple hours. Each topic gets a page or so. A blizzard is characterized by "this oppressive weight of beauty", a handkerchief is falling "like a soul tentatively sounding out the place it might alight". Very interesting, if generally mystifying to me.

Working through Han‘s novels. They‘re short! And only 4 in English. I started with her International Booker Prize winner. Ok - you might know the theme, the wife who turns vegetarian driving everyone crazy. What you may not know is how fun this book is up front, and how opaque is becomes. We never get her view. Only those around her, and these narrators have serious issues. But also it always undermined what I expected. Thought provoking.

I‘ve been listening to this. It‘s an example of awkward writing mixed with seemingly excellent information. The writing is about as finessed as the audio cover image - an audiobook produced by the author. Despite all that, I‘m getting good stuff out of this so far.

This is an attempt to use William Faulkner to explain southern culture. The idea is maybe the unspoken, Faulkner being known for not telling us what he‘s reading about. The Civil War and its mythology are central to Faulkner‘s work and yet lightly touched, at best. Another oddity is that Faulkner the writer was a better person than the RL Faulkner. He was moderate on race (ie racist), but his writing demanded more human treatment.

Tough day for Pepper. Two weeks of this thing on her head. Meanwhile I‘ve started another Han Kang novel.

150 pages with maybe 80 pages of actual text, the rest white space. It reads like a series of prose poems on white things. Although not poetic in rhythm, the feelings they left me with are very similar that of Emily Dickinson‘s poetry that I‘m currently reading. Han writes of about an older sister who lived for 2 hours in Korea, while looking out at snowy Warsaw, Poland.

Had some fun with Keats at the library today. I might read the tagged book from 2022. Full title : Keats: a brief life in nine poems and one epitaph. The Motion biography (1993?) has a terrific preface.

I requested Han‘s four English-translated book from my library the morning I found out she won the Nobel. I picked them up today and started The Vegetarian.

Owen died a week before the WWI armistice, in 1918. Before that he had some harrowing experiences, and wrote some poetry based on this. But it wasn‘t until he met Siegfried Sassoon while hospitalized that he discovered his work was good. He worshipped Sassoon, reworked his poetry in his unique style of matching consonant endings (without rhyme). Then he returned to the front until his death, leaving us only his drafts.

Another book i started last week. Slowly making way through. Joy of discovery mixed with drama of the characters lives. Fun stuff so far. #booker #booker2024 #longlist

I‘m so irresponsible giving this a pick. It‘s a mess. Directionless, rushed, sometimes incoherent. But it‘s a Faulknerian mess. It has its joys on flying, New Orleans (lightly fictionalized), Mardi Gras, drunkness, and lust…and its Macbeth themes/parallels. And its neologisms, words like yair, or smashed-together words like umbrellarib. If you can hack through, you might actually find it fun. I did.

Starting a another poetry book. (Our 🐈‍⬛ decorated the loveseat herself)

#whartonbuddyread

Must be on the shortlist of the worst covers ever. I‘ve been reading this for a week, but forgot to post here. ☺️ Wharton is making her readers uncomfortable so far. Harried mistress renationalizing away all her obvious problems. I‘ve read book I of IV, on pace with our buddy read.

What an interesting book. I‘ll have to reread this. It‘s a splintered narrative and I tried to focus on where and when and who, enjoying the romantic touches and the drifty feel, overlooking the mechanical and scientific commentary … until I saw two chapters titled “River Orwell…1984”. Then I started to look for something dark. It‘s a little buried and quiet, but pieces line up. A striking condemnation of our destructive society is built in here.

Sustained wandering reflection. An imagined day on the ISS… reflecting - on life, pasts & futures, practical realities in this tiny station, on the earth out the window, on existence. One astronaut is determined to reach the moon, another works a radio connecting to amateur radio operators on the ground within range. One has just lost her mother, yesterday. This book is one day, 16 rotations around the earth. I floated off with their thoughts.

(Don‘t make me pose, dad! I‘m tired!)

A gentle naturalist classic. He can be a little poetic, but mostly he quietly talks about what he‘s seen, and more passionately talks about what he thinks we are losing (It‘s a 1949 view. He underestimated) There is a lot of naturalist experience behind his writing. Recommended to those interested in the naturalist literary tradition.

This was magnificent! A series of interviews of Judi Dench on her long career as a Shakespearean actress. She just adores Shakespeare and had an absolutely phenomenal career. Her enthusiasm comes out along with her insight in to playing these roles. So many major performances and she embraced them and the texts so deeply. I can't recommend this highly enough to anyone who feels that Shakespeare love. Especially our #Shakespearereadalong veterans.

I found this so bold. And he pulled it off. It‘s a terrific book. Critical of Twain‘s classic, while deeply honoring it. And provoking the reader. Making us uncomfortable. Confront us with this alternate world take. It‘s a brilliant book.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist #shortlist

My last left from the #shortlist - I just started this morning and I‘m have The Sound and the Fury and Tinkers vibes. But it‘s also totally different. #booker #booker2024 #longlist

I think it‘s time to get back to Faulkner. I‘m about to start this one, from 1935

New audiobook. Started this evening.

Terrific introduction. He explains the book as response to the Tea Party lunacy in 2010. He started researching how the contemporary US remembers the Civil War, and why those divisions then still play so prominent a role in American life and politics. He found Faulkner to be ideal for this topic, and began focusing on Faulkner from that perspective.

Starting my next book

#booker #booker2024 #longlist #shortlist

So, I liked Isabel. I liked how every other character revealed themselves responding to her challenging chilled persona. I didn‘t mind the sex. But i didn‘t like the gimmick. So, again, so-so.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

The book that isn't a thriller. But what is it? A spy for big agriculture in France infiltrates a radical commune, and breaks into the emails account of a radical who lives in a cave and tries imagine Neanderthal life instead the destructive contemporary world. The spy narrates, has some nice wine and decent sex. But i thought it just didn‘t really go anywhere or do anything. So, so-so.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

My next from the #booker #booker2024 #longlist

I didn‘t mean to get large print, but I might have been a little click happy on amazon, selecting the slightly cheaper option. ☺️

Remember to keep space on your bookshelves for cats to snuggle.

I finished Creation Lake yesterday (was mixed) and I started this today. #booker #booker2024 #longlist

My 5th and, so far, easily my favorite from the #booker #booker2024 #longlist

This is spare, “stripped to the bedrock”, as our narrator leaves her husband and life and joins a tiny isolated outback monastery as a non-believing nun. It‘s quiet and peaceful, then come the mice, and the past and the outside world in general. This builds up, everything standing out against the blank backdrop. It‘s peaceful, despite the mice. And cathartic.

This ended up being an exercise, for me, in trying to read poetry. And I had at best a mild success. I was able to enjoy several, but most just slipped by. Hence I‘m not rating it.

Side note - this 1967 collection wasn‘t in the database when i started and I submitted a request. No notification, but now it‘s there. Yay!

Wharton inserts a natural writer raised in the vacuous suburbs, without any foundational literature, in an abandoned grand house with a fabulous library, adds a sort of sprite-muse…and then tries to make a plot out of it. Materialism and unhappiness are her themes. But so is the mind of the writer and publishing world and… well, too much more. It all comes to, I guess, a sequel… which we haven‘t read yet. #whartonbuddyread

Arrived yesterday, started today. This will be my sixth on the #booker #booker2024 #longlist

Trying a book of poetry that‘s been lying around the house sadly neglected

My August, according to Bookly. I‘m pretty sure that 74 hours is the most I‘ve ever read in a single month. I could blame the Booker longlist, or credit Rilke, who seemed to encourage me to read more. Good books, but oddly no great ones for me.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

Up next

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

Just finished my 4th. I‘m of different minds. One is to take it as a tale on its own terms, slightly removed from reality. The other is to be annoyed at how it simplifies relevant concerns of reality. Another is just to acknowledge it was ok and be done with it. And another is to embrace Thomas and Grace, give them a pass, and a hug. I am not enlightened, not wowed. Not carried away. Maybe slightly provoked.

Hudson River Bracketed - Books 6 & 7 (the end)
#whartonbuddyread

(Unsure of what image to use, I found Caris Corfman, who played Halo in 1987 in a TV movie: Songs from the Heart: Edith Wharton)

A lot of up and down in Book 6. Then just down in Book 7. I thought it might be nice to reflect on Laura Lou, but the book quickly carries on. And the concludes with a lovely final sentence. But.. there‘s a sequel!

So, where did we all land with this?

My next book. At 24 pages in I can confidently say that whoever compared this with Byatt‘s Possession is nuts. ☹️🙂 It‘s told as a tale, complexities white-washed out. I‘m adapting, shouldn‘t be hard.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

Only my 3rd from the #booker #booker2024 #longlist I just finished. It‘s gentle gentle gentle. The theme of staying safe to a fault echoes through our characters, the prose, the title even. Sometimes you just really don‘t want to stumble into history. I enjoyed this, even if the end dragged a bit. I liked the characters and their flaws, and mysteries. I liked the odes to London and Libya. Not a wow for me, but an enjoyable thoughtful book.

My new audiobook. Dench is magnificent. She‘s about 90 now. And while we must suffer through another reader reading her words (a good reader), her answers have been sparkling through my 1st hour - on Lady Macbeth and on Stratford-upon-Avon. Old #shakespearereadalong peeps - you will want to check this out.