John Keats died 200 years ago at the age of 25. In her new book, Miller provides an interesting and thoughtful consideration of the poet through close readings and the contextualizing backstories of nine poems (and that infamous epitaph).

QUESTION 5 #NYRBbookclub

What did you think of the ending? Is the ending “happy“ for Sally? Did it satisfy you?

QUESTION 4 #NYRBbookclub

Why does it take her so long (and Teddy's warning) to see Larry for who he was? As you read, how did you see Larry?

QESTION 3 #NYRBbookclub

“And yet he was, I suppose, my first real relationship.” (p. 140) What did “a real relationship” seem to mean to Sally? Why did she leave Jim?

QUESTION 2 #NYRBbookclub

“To my chagrin, I found all my clothes...splitting themselves resolutely into three categories: Tyrolean Peasant, Bar Girl and Dreaded Librarian.“ (p. 56 NYRB edition). Sally alludes to being mistaken for a librarian, has the Dreaded Librarian Dream, attempts to become a librarian, and finally ends up in a man's bed that's in his library. What the heck is going on here?

QUESTION 1 #NYRBbookclub

Sally Jay Gorce is funny and certainly has her faults. Did you also find her to be smart? Silly? Aware of the world? Delusional? Something else? Did you root for her? Why or why not?

@vivastory @BarbaraBB @emilyhaldi @sprainedbrain @mklong @youneverarrived @LeahBergen @Leftcoastzen @Liz_M @merelybookish @MicheleinPhilly @gatheringbooks @saresmoore @sisilia @Reviewsbylola @batsy @Suet624

“...I reflected wearily that it was not easy to be a Woman in these stirring times. I said it then and I say it now: it just isn‘t our century.”
Sally Jay Gorce
The Dud Avocado
1958

#nyrbbookclub

OCTOBER #nyrbbookclub
@vivastory

I hope these will be of interest. The choices are:

1. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
2. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
3. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

@batsy @BarbaraBB @emilyhaldi @sprainedbrain @mklong @youneverarrived @LeahBergen @Leftcoastzen @Liz_M @merelybookish @MicheleinPhilly @GatheringBooks @sarasmoore @sisilia @Reviewsbylola @Suet624

My Emily Dickinson shelf. Understanding her and her process is a minor obsession of mine. Happy birthday, Emily. #EmilyDickson

#NYRBbookclub Free shipping offer expires at 11:59 PM on December 2, 2019 @vivastory @batsy @sprainedbrain @LeahBergen @saresmoore @youneverarrived @merelybookish @mklong @BarbaraBB @Suet624 @Liz_M @MicheleinPhilly @Leftcoastzen @emilyhaldi @Reviewsbylola @GatheringBooks @sisilia

Delusions are easy to sustain when they‘re your only refuge. What happens when delusions fall away? Will you rise up? Or double down? And when your society and faith tradition offer little but judgement, do you even have a choice? A bleak, well-told tale. #NYRBbookclub

#NYRBBookclub #Fridayreads

Reading about a biographer‘s time with Beckett and de Beauvoir—perfect read for a chilly fall day.

Harriet is self-involved, splenetic, pitiful--and funny. Her life “After Claude“ is just plain weird. She is decidedly not a good girl. Or a nice girl. Those smarter than me could probably trace a through line from her to Nadia of Netflix's Russian Doll, or to any other female character who's allowed to be a train wreck. I didn't like her, but I sure kept thinking about her. #nyrbbookclub

My new nonfiction read. A major shout out and thanks to @Notafraidofwords for graciously sending this book to me!

Lepore‘s history book isn‘t comprehensive (no Lewis and Clark), but what‘s not there, you won‘t miss. What IS there (a history of polling, for example) will force a long reading list of future follow-ups. Thankfully, it‘s well-annotated. Haven‘t had a history course since college or high school? Boy, are you going to be surprised by what you think you remember and by what you were never taught. Stirringly written. Highly recommended.

The Tony Awards are tonight and these are the shows that I‘ve been lucky enough to see. They all have merit, but I‘d like to shout out What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck. Nominated for for Best Play and Best Actress, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, it will go on national tour this fall. Catch it if you can. If you can‘t, the script goes on sale in October. Plays demand embodiment, but this one will still be a powerful read.

Summer.

Reading slump? Just buy more books, right? From Montclair Book Center and an NYRB order.
#NYRB #NYRBbookclub #Virago #Viragomodernclassics

Great place to spend a drizzly day.

Cep divides (perhaps wisely) her complicated story into three distinct parts, with the third being the tale of Harper Lee‘s writing life after To Kill A Mockingbird. Cep can write, and there‘s much to recommend this book, but I can‘t help wondering if a more intertwined approach to its telling (especially of parts 2 and 3) would have forced a deeper look at creative desire and thwarted ambition. >>>>

I look forward to discussing this book later this month for the #nyrbbookclub. It has so many layers and the writing and the characters read so fresh, despite the book‘s 1962 publication date.
@vivastory @BarbaraBB

My favorite NYRBs. @vivastory #nyrbbookclub

“Here we all are, he thought, sharing our lives in a former colony, each of us filled with bacterial colonies whose edges are as fixed as the borders of the country—which is to say, not very fixed at all.”

Via three families—indigenous, English, and Italian—Serpell charts the formation of Zambia. The telling is vivid, creative, rambunctious—and overstuffed. At 562 pages, she almost lost me a few times, but good storytelling kept pulling me back.

In the new film, Wild Nights with Emily, Molly Shannon gives us an Emily Dickinson to root for. So much better than that syrupy Belle of Amherst play or the somber Emily of the movie A Quiet Passion. An accurate portrayal? Who knows? Much of the tale, however, fits with what is known about Dickinson‘s 30+ years relationship and correspondence (found in the book Open Me Carefully) with her sister-in-law, Susan Dickinson. Whimsical and fun. #movie

#paris #notredameparis

A family of three join a small college class to live as ancient Britons for two weeks in Northern England. Through this short, deceptively simple—and eerie—story, Moss explores the human need for power and identity. A tiny bit The Lottery, a little bit Lord of the Flies? But really, quite original.

So ends my study of Jefferson via the work of Annette Gordon-Reed (writing here with Onuf). Earlier this year I read (and also heartily rec.) her books, The Hemingses of Monticello and Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, and can say that I almost “see” Jefferson. Now I want to visit Monticello, though perhaps while there wear a t-shirt that reads “I‘m here for the Hemingses.” #americanhistory

Four novels, published in consecutive years, focused on a particular season, and rooted in our current moment. From a lesser writer this would be no more than a stunt, but with Smith it feels like a funny and thoughtful friend is joining us in discerning a way forward through the morass. I await Spring....

1. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Not really my all-time favorite, but the one that is currently helping me deal with the madness of the world right now.
2. How do you choose between Calvin and Hobbes?! Besides, any choice would tell you way too much about me.
3. The teacher, Miss Wormwood.
4. Calvin‘s time machine, of course.
5. @Erinreadsthebooks Thanks @Graywacke

This had some nice Gothic touches, but the ending fell flat. And why three narrators? There seemed to be no reason for it in terms of the narrative. I‘ll stick with Griffiths‘s Ruth Galloway series. The first couple that I read were acceptable little mysteries.

1. In New Jersey, just outside of NYC.
2. I like it here, but Italy would be a nice change.
3. London, Belgium, or Virginia, depending on which book I pick up.
4. Anything. These days, in the winter, we‘re fond of sundubu, a Korean spicy tofu stew, served with rice.
5. Hey everyone!
@j.rye ;) Sorry I‘m late!

@Maddeline

Four 30-somethings, college friends, deal with race in a decidedly non-post-racial world. One gets roughed up (Hamilton star Daveed Diggs) by the police and demands that another in the group “buy” him—and protect him—for a period of 40 days. Parks ALWAYS leaves you thinking, though I‘ll admit I thought Act II had a few too many threads to pull. Diggs (and the entire cast) was superb. Worth a read when the script is published. #theatre #theater

This one is tricky. It has some beautiful writing, a clever premise that asks the big questions (do love and art really have power? What defines a well-lived life?, and so on.) and a wrenching portrayal of 9/11. But...overall it seemed a bit too cerebral and clever for its own good, its characters too removed. Not sorry I read it, just not as wowed as I thought I‘d be.

Bedtime reading on some nights.
“He swung about when I came in, and looked me over in a trice. I knew what the look meant, from having experienced it once or twice in my former places. Then he turned his back on me and went on talking to his wife; and I knew what that meant, too. I was not the kind of morsel he was after. “The Lady‘s Maid‘s Bell” from 1902.

From the 1930s Harvard Classics reading guide: “The woman takes particular pride in having as part of her home this peerless set of books....It gives to her a sense of security that all is well on the intellectual side, as are clothes and food on the material side.” #internationalwomensday

“The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.” And so begins Middle Sister‘s account of navigating political and sexual terrorism, ostensibly in Northern Ireland, but really anywhere a group demands fealty to a community. Riveting...and sometimes really funny.

I feel like I‘ve just returned from 70s/80s Belfast. Extraordinary storytelling right through to the last paragraph in the “Notes on Sources.” Narrative nonfiction at its best.