Mount TBR 2022 discussion

According to my KINDLE I have 1352 unread books.
If I want to bring this number down to zero
…I would have to read 10 books a month for the next 11 years!
I better get started and join
Mount TBR 2022!

Have fun!

Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) wrote: "Have fun!"

Thank you!

UPDATE: 06.12.2021

It took me 2 days to look through total 1352 books on my Kindle and select 300 I need to read. I had to be savage and permanently deleted some books that I will NEVER read.
January 2022: total 51 books selected all purchased in 2015!!
Let’s see how many I can read!

So glad you'll be among the 2022 climbers! Good luck, Nancy.

JANUARY
1. by Lucia Berlin
Finish date: 02 January 2022
Genre: 43 short stories
Rating: B+
Review: Slice of life stories that will remind you of Raymond Carver stlye! I enjoyed 50% of the stories with "excellent" and one with "excellent + WOW! (short story Melina ....read it if you can find it!)
Voted 10 Best Books of 2015 by The New York Times.
Best read over the course of a 4 - 7 days...just dip into a few stories and let them settle in your heart and mind.

JANUARY
2. by Yōko Ogawa
Finish date: 03 January 2022
Genre: novella
Rating: C
Review: Bad news: ….novella feels like a thin gruel supplemented by math tricks baseball stats and a old man suffering from dementia.
Good news: the old math professor was an endearing character.
He cannot remember what happened even two hours before,
but what he lacks in memory
...he more than makes up for by his capacity to love.
Worth reading....but skim the "math" if you feel your eyelids closing
...and get to the end of the book.

JANUARY
3. by John Guy
Finish date: 05 January 2022
Genre: biography
Rating: B

Review: From my notes I see that the book captured
my interest starting with the "broken relationship" between King Henry II and Thomas Becket in chapter 12. So You have to plod on during the first 40% of the book that was just a description of a middle class man who climbed the social, academic and political ladder. I was impressed how Becket's mother was keen to see what her son needed for his future (education etc).

Bad news: some key issues (Constitutions of Clarendon 1164, turning point in king-archbishop relationship) took a few chapters to get through. Tip: read about people/issues quickly on www.britainexpress.com ( great reference website ) and it will save you time. The chapters can be 'skimmed' if you then wish.

Good news: This book really gave me an idea what happened in that period 1120 (birth) - 1170 (murder) -1220 (veneration of the saint). Focus is on the ruthless, untrustworthy vindictive character of King Henry II and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury the ambitious, uncompromising zealot and how they clash. Sparks fly!

Personal: The only history about Henry II I knew was from the movie Lion in Winter with Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. I loved the film. It takes place years after Becket's murder and I must admit Henry II is painted in the embellishment of Hollywood colors and does not even divulge what (excusez le mot) a badass he was! Hepburn brought Eleanor of Aquitaine alive for me and I've read more books about her.

Trivia: Eleanor was one of the longest living royalty in the Middle Ages...reached the age of 82 and outlived 8 of her 10 children.

#WorthYourReadingTime

JANUARY
4. by William Styron
Finish date: 06 January 2022
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: D
Review:
Loosely based on a historical slave revolt...
it is written from a slave's perspective by a white man.
W. Styron won a Pulitzer Prize for Fictin 1968.
This book just did not resonate with me at all...bah.
Languishing on my Kindle for 5 years
#GoodRiddance

JANUARY

5. by Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen (no photo)
Finished date: 07 January 2022
Genre: autobiographical anecdotes
Rating: Rating: D-
Review:

The book describes events in 5 parts during the period from 1914 to 1931 concerning the European settlers and the native people in the bush country of Kenya "in British East Africa"... told from the lyrical, poetic viewpoint of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke.

Good News: I finally finished the book. #GoodRiddance
Bad News: The reading was slow going, lukewarm storytelling and I was bored from cover to cover. It was a combination of
Details: native people, the wildlife, the weather and ...her farm being a type of paradise.
Short fragments: stories, ideas.
Shift to tragedy: (part 5)
coffee harvest fails….Denys Finch-Hatton dies. The author sells the farm and paradise is lost.

Personal: Do yourself a favor and just watch the movie Out of Africa
The cinematography is truly breath-taking, especially in the scene with the biplane. As a romance, the story is almost perfect, the performances are brilliant and the soundtrack will haunt you.

JANUARY


6. by Stephen Kern (no photo)

Finish date: 09 January 2022
Genre: cultural history
Rating: C
Review:

Stephen Kern is an Distinguished Research Professor so I should not have been surprised how 'academic, scholarly' this book was But I was a bit bushwhacked. My rating is still C because the book delivered exactly what was intended but it was a difficult read.

Good news: Kern examines a specific factors or motives for murder.
Insightful to read the differences between
19th C Victor Hugo/Charles Dickens:
overbearing religious training producing killers like Frollo Hunchback of ND and Headstone Our Mutual Friend
20th C Patricia Highsmith/André Gide protecting loss of identity (Tom kills Dickie Greenleaf) in The Talented Mr. Ripley desire to commit a 'motiveless crime' (Lafcadio pushes man to his death on a train ...for nothing. In other words: "I kill, therefore I am!") in Lafcadio .

Bad news Not really bad....but you should be warned this book is not for the fainthearted!

Personal There is a lot to be learned in this book and if you see it in the library....take a look!
The best advice I can give is to skim the chapters and select the items that refer to a books (literature) that catch your eye. I will certainly look more carefully in CF, novels for the
true motive (class difference, greed, fear, revenge, hatred, sexually repressed, traumatic childhood)for murder!

JANUARY

7. by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Finish date: 09 January 2022
Genre: CF
Rating: D
Review:

Bad news: The motive in this book was greed. That does not spark my interest. I want the book to be a white knuckling roller-coaster ride....a race against time (kidnapping for example)
not this long dragged out killing off crew members one-by-one on a glamorous yacht mid Atlantic.
Characters were not captivating...just not. The dialogue turned clumsy and the storyline became less and less believable too melodramatic (..oh, the last chapter... who green-lighted that?)

Good news: Main character (investigating lawyer)...her personal life was kept to a bare minimum.

Personal Not a fan of thrillers, CF or mystery so I read them...and that is it. Why do I buy them you wonder? Sucked into a good review, a prize winning CF and I'm just curious if the book meets the grade. Has the required standard been met to render it prize winning. IMO this book did not live up to the Petrona Prize 2015 for a CF set in Scandinavia or written by a Scandinavian author.

I would like to leave this review with a recommendation for one of the most unpredictable suspense novel I have ever read. I read it in 2014 and it still haunts me.
by Pierre Lemaitre.

On a lighter note....I couldn't fall asleep last night so instead of counting sheep I tried to name all the characters in The Silence of the Sea . I feel asleep at 23...and counting!

8. by Kati Hiekkapelto

Finished: 10 January 2022
Genre: crime fiction
Rating: D
Review

Bad News:
Bah, humbug......and this is why:
Crime fiction….it is always about the quality of the writing.
I found NO reason to praise this book

Personal
Kati Hiekkapelto? …crime fiction?
This was the contest of wills between the detective and the killer who is on the loose mixed with a multicultural back round (Serbia – Finland). I found nothing baffling in this CF book….
just another formulaic in which cop and the killer trade knockout blows.
#Disappointed...waste of time.

JANUARY

9. by Jørn Lier Horst

Finished date: 11 January 2022
Genre: Nordic noir
Rating: B+
Review:

Motives: Lust and...concealment (1 murder is committed to conceal another murder!
Irony: Wisting's police badge and gun are taken away. Wisting investigates murder case while he himself is being investigated!

Bad news: I jumped into the middle of the William Wisting Nordic noir books (this is the 3rd book in the Wisting Mysteries)….and the case itself in The Hunting Dogs is stand-alone, much of this story’s impact relies on our connection to its characters, and having a bit of background exposure to them will make readers all the more invested in their fates.

Good news: Wisting series (season 1) is streaming on Netflix!

Good news: Title: Police work in an unconscious process like hunting dogs following the scent (pg 91). ...like other hunting dogs, they had followed the warmest scent without further thought. (pg 166)

Good news: The book captures my attention…immediately.
JonasR had received a phone call 14:17 hr that casued him to call a lawyer and arrange a meeting....7 hours later he was dead. The first pages capture my attention, this is why Nordic noir writers are so successful…the hook! But the book just keeps on giving….so many chapters end with cliffhangers. This is excellent CF writing!

Good news: The book juxtaposes a race against the clock (deadline for newspaper story (Wisting's daughter is a journalist), tense stakeout trying to catch an ex-criminal (Haglund planning his next murder?) ....in one chapter with a by-the-book interview in a dreary room at Internal Affairs (is Wisting charged with tampering the evidence in Haglund's conviction?)...the juxtaposition invites the reader to look more closely at the possible relationship between these two situations!!

Good news: The book is divided into 84 chapters!! Yes, 320 pages in 84 chapters and that is a good thing because I read pages like potato chip bites! Chapters are long enough for a quick read (during commute..between household chores) and an excellent place to stick the bookmark. But a funny thing happens when I have a place to pause……I just keep reading!

Personal:
I cannot for the life of me understand why this book did not win Petrona Prize 2015!
The Silence of the Sea was the winner for the judges....but I thought it was poorly written. Jorn Lier Horst is an exceptional Nordic noir writer and would recommend his books to any CF lover or reluctant CF reader like me!

JANUARY

10. by Lionel Davidson

Finish date: 10 January 2022
Genre: CF
Rating: F-
Review:

Bad news: I found it deadly boring, but I was determined to finish it and after skimming lots of pages (the middle section...completely!!) I managed to get to the moderately exciting last 50 pages. The characters had zero depth, the plot completely implausible, and the writing to be flat. It took "Raven" (main character Johnny Porter) 250 pages to get from Nagasaki-Murmansk 3757 nautical miles on a tramp boat (28 days)....it felt like a lifetime.

Good news: ZILCH!

Personal: I found myself drifting off mid-sentence as the descriptions became ever more elaborate and lengthy. In general, this book was just too long, offering pages of minute details just information on top of information, but not the connection to me as a reader. I would rather do my dirty dishes then read this book! This was a source of invigorating hair-shirt agony.

#TOTAL waste of my reading time....

JANUARY

11. by Dorothy L. Sayers

Finish date: 13 January 2022
Genre: novel wrapped in a mystery
Rating: D
Review:

Bad news: The first chapters are all about a bevy of young women meeting at a 10 yr class reunion at Oxford University. There’s no suspense…no tension…no push to propel the plot! Where is the hook?

Bad news: I was NOT given what I expected. I wanted a "scratch your head" puzzle...who is trolling all these academics with threats?
The center of the story....is NOT the poison-pen letters...but Harriet Vane's issues with marriage!

Good news: Literary challenge - Each chapter is introduced by a quote by an Elizabethan poet/writer and I had fun researching the words mentioned and tied to find the connection Sayers intended to make with that particular chapter.

Bad news: Unfortunately....this literary adventure fizzled out. The clues about the book are so deeply embedded it lofty poetic allusions....I lost interest. This is just not something I was looking for in a mystery.

Examples:

Sir Philip Sidney - (1554-1586) ch 1 - “Thou blind man’s mark, thou fool’s self-chosen snare….” (desire is the snare).
So if desire is a swamp we become lost in, then virtue is the brilliant and guiding sun that leads us out of the it. Once you finish the book this idea could be applicable to the relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Wimsey)...but you'll have to get through some soporific (23 chapters) to understand this high moral, intellectual value Sayers wants to give us.
Not what I'm looking for in a mystery!

Robert Burton (1577-1640) ch 2 - “’Tis proper to all melancholy men…"
Burton treats suicide as an outcome of melancholy, depression. One character we NEVER see unfortunately "blows his brains out" ends. Again you must slog through the book to find out who! Not my idea of building tension throughout the book. I read this and asked myself "Who is this character....?"

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) ch 3 - F. Bacon “…They do best who, if they cannot but admit love.

Is love and marriage worth…the sacrifice? Need she (Harriet Vane) sacrifice her brain to achieve keeping a husband and a home? “…washing, cooking, feeding the cattle and digging potatoes…these things take the edge of the razor." (ch 3).

W. Shakespeare (1564-1616) ch 4 - “...Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill,…

Harriet Vane fears the proposed bond of marriage to Lord Wimsey will not be one of of equals.

Personal: If you want to dream away and enter the gothic and hallowed grounds of Oxford University ...this is your book. If you want a thrilling, dazzling mystery that will keep you up thinking "whodunnit?" ...this is NOT your book. I tired to stay engaged...I tried not falling asleep...I tried to give Dorothy Sayers (one of the Queens of Golden Age English mystery) the respect she deserves but I could not. I did discover Lord Wimsey is the great sleuth....NOT Harriet! He narrows down the list of suspects responsible for poison-pen messages while Harriet sits shell-shocked in the corner of the room!
IMO this would have been a good novel...just a love story and leave the mystery element on the "editing floor".

JANUARY

12. by Isaac Bashevis Singer


Finish date: 15 January 2022
Genre: Short stories
Rating: C
Review:

Bad news: I didn’t have to go far to find the PERFECT words to describe this book.
I found them on page 370 in the story “A Day in Coney Island.
Singer’s friend an editor of a Yiddish paper says it so clearly:
“…no one give a hoot about demons, duybbuks (Yid: wandering souls) and imps of 200 years ago!”


Bad news: Stories are nice, nostalgic but some feel so long and describe just about everything in the village and synagogue! A few stories are TOO long...they feel like novellas.
A lot of devils, the Evil spirit, Satan and imps...sometimes Satan in the narrator and main character!
Sorry, after 5-6 stories about “old Poland” and village life I started to skim them. The stories I most enjoyed took place in Miami Florida or New York City!

Good news: I.B. Singer had the talent to pierce into the hearts of men who are staring at an empty wall and not in the mood for a conversation. (The Cabalist of East Broadway).
Most of the stories are humorous, with an undercurrent of tragedy, and very readable (just sometimes too long as I said earlier). authentically Jewish short stories with wry humor.

Good news:
Style: combined Jewish mysticism with demonology (devils, imps etc)
Nearly all of the stories in this collection make use of the supernatural in some way
Scope: this volume represent roughly one-third of Singer’s published work in short fiction (excluding his children’s books).
Topics: telepathy, clairvoyance, premonition, ability to converse with the dead, Ouija boards, improbable tall tales….about dubbyks (wandering souls), imps and devils.
Theme Individual choice and romantic love thwarted by parental edict and tradition. Singer also touches on "old age". Some of his most lovable characters were either the doddering, depresssed pensioner or an agelss-in-spirit quirky oddball.


Personal
New rule: Avoid buying collected short stories books by any author...it is just TOO much of a good thing. It took me 2 days to read 40 stories and I skipped about 7. They were the same old narrative: Polish village, frantic marriage matchmakers, frantic mothers, dogmatic rabbis and daughters and sons that just want to live their own life.
My favorite story was The Letter Writer: ...connection between a among a solitary man, a mouse, and a lonely woman...will touch a heart string for sure! If you can find this story...enjoy!

I finally can check this book off on my TBR...it has been collecting dust since 18 July 2015.
47 short stories and I really enjoyed 15 ...that is only 30%
Many stories felt outdated, old-fashioned tales about life in pre-WW II Polish villages. The best stories took place later in Singer's life ...settings: New York City, Coney Island, Miami, Florida and Tel Aviv, Israel.
Isaac Bashevis Singer won the #Nobel Prize 1978
...and if you can find them...there are some great stories/novels to read!

JANUARY


13. by Rudyard Kipling

Finish date: 17 January 2022
Genre: novella
Rating: F
Review:

Bad news:
I think this would be one of the most difficult book to teach young readers. Dialogue?
Fergit ut. (forget it) 'T wuz... (it was...)
They'll tell that tale again us fer years.
Fwhat's th good 'o bodderin' fwhat...
Ha'af on the taown, and 't' other ha'af blame fool. (awful!)

Bad news: While reading Captains Courageous I had difficulty with the dialogue. Despite my attempt to read the book...while listening to the and audio version the story never appealed to me. Kipling describes the boats, sail, cross-trees, trawl-buoys, rigging
...in excessive nautical detail. Pages and pages of 'tall tales' the crew members tell each other ...and the 'sing-alongs' sounded corny. My only hope was to find some 'cracker-barrel philosophy' in the text (somewhere)...that would inspire young readers.

Personal
The book is unbalanced: 70% boats, sea conditions, fishing - 20% the crew - 10% Harvey Kipling eventually rejected the novel as simply a "boy's story" ...and he was right. I doubt a young reader would really enjoy this story.
This book was written in 1897 and times....and children have changed.
#NotFavorite childern's classic...at all!

JANUARY

14. by Garth Stein

Finish date: 22 January 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review:

Bad news: Push through the first chapters....sentimental as flowers pressed between the pages of a diary.

Good news: A beloved philosopher dog named Enzo in the one who teaches us everything we need to know about being human. Let the story embrace you...every reader will find a moment to connect at some level. I mean a dog is the narrator...what's not to love?

Good news: My first impression was wrong. This turned out to be a great book…I loved it! Title The Art of Racing in the Rain was just perfect...captures the essence of the book! Drivers are afraid of the rain. Rain amplifies your mistakes.

Good news: I love the sport of Formula 1 so all the references to great champions of the past Emmo (Fittipaldi), Schumi, Senna etc were wonderful. I didn't realize so many life lessons can be learned in the paddock and on the grid. My life lesson? No race has ever been won in the first corner...but plenty of races have been lost there.

Personal: New rule...never write the review on the same day you finished the book! Sleep on it. After a few chapters of sugar-spin sentimentality I hoped the book would get better...and it did. Apart from the 'tear-jerker' content (dying dog, newlyweds, baby, dying wife and in-laws from hell) the book had a larger message for me. The Art of Racing in the Rain was a metaphor teaching me (us) how to overcome obstacles in the long race we call life (pg 314). We all race in the rain at some point. Remember the motto in the book:
The visible becomes inevitable.
The car goes where the eyes go (ch 37)
With fresh tires and a full load of fuel he would prove a formidable force.

JANUARY
15. by Mary McAuliffe

Finish date: 17 January 2022
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: A
Review:

Bad news: No book is perfect...but I had to think very hard to find a minus point in this book.
It was long (400 pages). That is a lot to cover in 2 days. I have the next book on my reading list but will have to wait until I digest this one. Rightly Ms McAuliffe touches on the politics and science (..few pages about Mme Cure) in the Belle Epoque. Honestly, I've read about - seen movie about The Dreyfus Affair so felt I could skim these pages. Also George Clemeanceau and all his band of merry men...don't interest me. Also...there were not many illustrations in the book so I had to depend on Wikipedia/Google.

Good news: Now the real reason to read this book is the world of literature, art, music and engineering! 75% of the book is about the wonderful world of French painters who dazzled the world. We all know the list of names but I fell very much head over heels reading about Pissarro. He tends to fall into the back round when you think about Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Manet brothers and Monet. But Camille Pissarro was the father figure who nurtured and held these men together! PS: Did you know Pissarro was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands?

Good News Having read bio’s about B. Morisot and V. Hugo I could quickly get through the first chapters. Also I’ve read all 20 of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart books….so references to Nana or L’Assommier, L'Oeuvre were familiar characters to me. I knew nothing about the great 4 composers Claude Debussy, D'Indy, Ravel and the wonderful Saint-Saëns. If you do anything listen to his Carnival des Animaux on Spotify…just breathtaking. This book contains tidbits of information that have slipped between the cracks of Wikipedia!

Good news: There were interesting chapters about the history of
the Pantheon in Paris (…..Victor Hugo thought is a wretched copy of St. Peter’s in Rome!) Statue of Liberty - Eiffel Tower. There were...steamy love affairs: between Debussy and older Mme Vasnier (married). Another affair between Claude Monet and Mme Alice Hoschedé (married) was very touching...they stayed devoted to each other for life! Loved the back round information about Rodin’s famous sculpture “The Kiss”…was it inspired by his affair with Camille Claudel or Dante’s Inferno 2nd level Francesca en Paolo?

Good news: Auguste Escoffier shook-up the world of haute cuisine and created Pêche Melba for Australian singer Nellie Melba and Fraises Bernhardt for Sarah, the great French actress. He was just as revolutionary as anything Rodin, Seurat, Debussy or Gustave Eiffel were doing! He looked at restaurant meals from a woman’s point of view….as every chef should!

Good news: Did I learn something I never heard? Sarah Bernhardt was not only an actress but also a sculptor. I got a peak at the installation plans for the Statue of Liberty and Tour Eiffel. Learned about the uproar the controversial sculpture The Bronze Age by Rodin created. The model was a Belgian soldier and so lifelike no one believed it was not made with a plaster caste of the body! What a body! (see Wikipedia)

Personal While reading this book I had Spotify to listen to the music of the composers and Wikipedia to have the many works of art (don't forget the beautiful Art Nouveau illustrations by Alphonse Mucha....beautiful!) by the painters at my fingertips. It is the best way to read this book. Finally after having collected dust on my TBR for 5 years...I discovered this gem!
#MountTBR2022

JANUARY

16. by Thornton Wilder

Finish date: 19 January 2022
Genre: Plays
Rating: D-
Review:

Bad news: The plays felt like homework, outdated lacking in any kind of spark of enjoyment. Every time I started a new play ...it was only to get it done and hope the end of the book would put me out of my misery.

Bad news: I still had enough enthusiasm after a good lunch... to start the last 12 one act plays. I only like 2! So it was a very low return on investment. I literally fell asleep reading part II.

Good news: Stage directions: stage appearance, characters arrangement alone or in clusters...that was the best part of the plays I read. I needed some visual to get my through my reading (Google). IMO this was the best play in the book because it was so unconventional. Strange play….but oh, what a talent Wilder must have been to create this dialogue!! I liked Wilder's use of a stage manager that breaks the 4th wall and speaks to the audience.

Personal These are not plays you can just jump into….there is a lot of allegory embedded in Thornton’s writing. Try to at least read a summary of the play beforehand.

Thornton Wilder….who mentions his name when asked for 3 great American playwrights? Not me! The spotlight is always on Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller. But Wilder is one of the greatest writers of art of allegorical narrative...and that is always difficult to understand and digest. Malcolm Cowley (literary critic 1898-1989) reveals: "(Wilder is) one of the toughest and most complicated minds in contemporary America." Amen to that!

We all have read Wilder's play Our Town and he novel The Bridge of San Luis Ray (Pulitzer Prize 1928)..in high-school ...so if you've read them there is no reason to venture into the one-act plays in this book.
#Disappointed

JANUARY

17. by Terence Rattigan

Finish date: 28 January 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A
Review:

Good news: Setting: The guests gather for a life-changing night at the Beauregard Hotel in
...Bournemouth, an English seaside resort town. We look at the lives of several residents. Guests who have their meals at Separate Tables. We see this all the time...people do not connect.

Good news: This is an absolutely classic English play! Written 1950's Rattigan's play develops familiar themes of loneliness, humiliation and the self appointed moral jurors in the private hotel. Rattigan draws on his own world. He dissects the known realities of the upper-middle-class. Separate Tables is touching, subtle and proof how ...small minds (Lady Railton-Bell) can problematise the unproblematic

Personal: Reading tip: try to put faces on the characters before reading. I used the actors/actresses in the 1958 movie version of the play: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Burt Lancaster. Niven won Best Actor Oscar 1959 for his staring role in the movie.
#MustRead...it takes about an hour of your reading time!

FEBRUARY


18. by Bill Bryson

Finish date: 20 January 2022
Genre: Non-fiction, travel
Rating: D
Review:

Bad news: Not what I expected.... I hoped for a more introspective journey from Georgia to Maine. But Bryson lost me in the first chapters with the 'technical' Appalachian Trail (AT) lenght, AT history possible sickness to be confronted, buying equipment and an obsession with big bears.

Bad news: On page 45 we read the 'hardest part of the AT is getting to it'. With this comment ...it deflates my need to read the book if this is really just a walk in the woods.

Good news: I've tried to find something I really liked...skimmed the notes once again. I did find on pg 50 the words that I could relate to after having biked many miles in my home The Netherlands "...coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill...you can never see exactly what's to come." So there is introspection but you have to look hard to find it.

Personal: I'm hanging up my hiking boots for the foreseeable future. This was my first Bill Bryson book...and it will be my last.
But....if you REALLY want to enjoy a walk and excellent writing...then I highly recommended

by Paul Theroux.

It was nominated for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year (2016)
Paul Theroux never....disappoints this reader!

FEBRUARY

19. by David McCullough

Finish date: 01 February 2022
Genre: Biography
Rating: A++++++++++++
Review:

Bad news: Part 1 - the book does not start with a bang. So please, do NOT give up on this book! Timeline: 8 months: Felt like reading a 18th C. version of C-Span….blow by blow accounts of the Congress of Philadelphia and the difficult birth of a new United Stats of America, July 4, 1776. Nice to read/skim….but all in all boring because we've all read so much about this.

Good news Part II - Now book really picks up steam on page beginning with Adams's departure to France with young son, John Quincy. Adams will join Ben Franklin at French court to negotiate an alliance. I especially liked CH 6…JUST WONDERFUL! It is a tender, loving look at a husband and wife reunited July 20 1784…after a separation of 4 years!! Abigail overcomes her fears of the North Atlantic sea voyage b/c her love for “my dearest “ is stronger.

Good news: Woman's perspective....always great to read!! Abigail Adams’s descriptions of the North Atlantic voyage (ship, crew and weather). She has the eye for detail that just gives the reader a pause from all the ‘history’. Abigail Adams was a down-to-earth New England puritan and her observations about the French Louis XVI court and the snobbish British society are so much fun to read.

Good news: Part III - John Adams's term as 2nd President of US: Intrigue , backstabbing politics and finally returning to Peacefield...his home in Massachusetts.

Personal: Reading this book has given met the needed background to finally watch epic series 2008 John Adams. It won 13 Prime Time Emmy awards including Best Actor Paul Giamatti.

The greatest strength of this book... and also any other books by D. McCullough is the author’s ability to bring history to life! People are living and breathing on every page!
Motto John Adams...I will follow his advice! “You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. You will never have an idle hour.”

Mrs. Adams’s narrative with vivid, insightful details brings a feeling of balance in the book…the frenetic revolution, war, and birth of an independent US….and the tender scenes of domestic life with John Adams and her children.

For all the biographies I've read….never have I enjoyed reading a bio as much as this one. Don't make the same mistake I did, judged the book by the cover...again! I thought this would be just another a stuffy history book. How wrong I was. It was biography with a pulse and also a love story! Call me sappy and overly sentimental, but I was absolutely awe struck by the level of commitment and affection that John and Abigail felt and showed to one another even across great distances and during long years when they hardly even saw each other.
#MustRead

FEBRUARY

20. by Mike Bartlett (no photo)

Finish date: 04 February 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A
Review:

NOTE: 70 years ago today....

Elizabeth II acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive councils shortly afterwards

Good news The play instantly feels different! It is written in Shakespearean form. Barlett uses in blank verse – also known as unrhymed iambic pentameter in common with many Shakespeare plays. This play follows Shakespeare classic 5 act structure …. and even with a ghost.

Good news Charles is a man who has waited all his life for a job – and then it goes horribly wrong! Great metaphor for Charles “…I’m like a book, stuck on the shelf, for years ignored and waiting to be judged….”. This play is not without controversy. For the stage version there were long conversations with lawyers. Even certain actors refusing to be involved because of how it might affect their future career.

Best scene: Charles is living in the 16th C. as a “Shakespearean King”…who thinks he has God given powers. “…Anointed not by man, but God, I don’t negotiate but issue commands.” Act 4 is the explosive showdown between Charles vs William.

Personal: There’s a lot to unpack in this play: royal family and Harry’s desire to “leave the firm” - power of `the Parliament and Prime Minister - privacy vs freedom of the press - the future of the monarchy.

There’s a reason this play is controversial….wow! I thought was going to read a pompous and pretentious play It turned out to be a doozy with a lot of meat on the bone. No wonder no Royals officially came to see the play in London.

The play premiered in London in 2014. BBC broadcasted a movie version in May 2017. It is on streaming...so try to find it. It was nominated for BAFTA's Best Single Drama and Best Leading Actor, Tim Pigott-Smith (1946-2017). Mike Bartlett portrays Charles as a Shakespearean king…with actual power” in the 21st C! In truth kingship in England is only symbolic.

PS: Next month Mike Bartlett's new play in Shakespearean form will open in London. It is about a power struggle...an ambitious man and asks the question: "Do we have a devil in all of us?." The new play is called "47th" ...about Trump!

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21. by Tiya Miles


Finish date: 08 February 2022
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: B-
Review: #BlackHistoryMonth


Good news: Prologue and introduction Do NOT forget to read them. They are very well written.

Good news: There are a few revealing aspects of history that are missing in many books I’ve read about slavery. Examples Ms Miles gives are the conscious diminishing of slaves in the clothes give to them - shaving women’s head if the hair is too straight and beautiful - nicknames or pet names to belittle as child or domesticated animal: Hero, Cupid, Captian, Prince, Samson


Good news The best part of the book for me was chapter 5 Auction Block (functioned like a department store window). The chapter was eye-opening, shocking and what I needed to learn about.This is the raw truth about Charleston South Carolina, slave trade hub.
Workhouse: plantation owners could have slave whipped for a price…the owners don’t want to get their hands messy. There were also female salve holders: don’t hear much about them
…but Ms Miles enlightens us! Ms Miles describes a southern gothic horror made real….in Charleston. Think about all this the next time you feel like a weekend in a B&B in South Carolina.


Personal: Regarding Ashley’s sack…many chapters are completely speculative. There are a lot of “she would have’s, she may have’s, we can imagine and in all likelihood.” That is not what I was looking for. All That She Carried is good…not great IMO.

A GREAT book is David Olusago’s Black and British: A Forgotten History. (highly recommended)
This book seems to be based more on facts than fiction.
by David Olusoga (no photo)

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22. by Lolita Chakrabarti (no photo)

Finish date: 25 January 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++
Review: #BlackHistoryMonth

Bad news: Nothing to mention....

Good new The title kept ringing in my ear ...what is the link between "Red Velvet" and what I'm reading. It is what young Ira sees viewing plays from the high balcony of the Park Theatre in NYC...what we all see when visiting a great theatre...the red curtain! "...something about velvet, a deep promise of what's to come". Aldrige as a child was "...under a spell at the back of the gods (actors), a sea of red below filled with expectations of greatness."

Good news: Structure made the play easy to follow. I always put the scenes in order before I read a play...it helps me immerse myself into the world of the actors...giving me a hint where the play is going. Chakrabarti bookends the play: scene 1 with scene 7
It looks like too many characters..but in most scenes it is a group of actors discussing the play they are to perform, very readable.

Good news: In just a few short scenes ....Ms Chakarbarti conveys to the reader what it is like to be a black actor. What is it like to have your acting skills reduced to the color of your skin.

Good news: Message: politics in theatre...in spite of all the obstacles in 1833 London......talent will always shine through. Issue: a black actor touching, fighting and killing Desdemona in front of a shocked British public and the theatre board members.

Good news: The playwright is very subtle alluding to the new Salvery Abolition Act (1833). We sense the political unrest in London through the actor's dialogue.
Parliament was about to abolish slavery in most British colonies.
This mirrors the "unrest" on stage as well!

Personal: This was how a play should be written..from the inside. Lolita Chakabarti is a trained actress at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and knows what an actor and the audience need. This was a delight to read. If you look at the cover...it is Adrian Lester another RADA actor, he starred in the play and is ...Lolita Chakabarti's husband.

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23. by Theodore Ward (no photo)

Finish date: 11 February 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: D
Review: #BlackHistoryMonth


Bad news: This play was described as one of the most
powerful African American plays on the 1930s. So why didn’t I like it?
Act 1 – too slow, no real set up for emerging conflict…just introduction to characters.
Act 2 – scene 2,3 finally explode in race/family conflict, inter-black prejudice…but it is too little too late for this reader. Yes I noticed themes in 1938…are still relevant today….blacks cut off from opportunity: Vic’s son Les: his scholarship cancelled b/c of skin color but that was not enough to create an emotional connection to the play as…I had with Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hanesberry)
Act 3 -…fizzles out.


Good news: Interested in African American drama? There are better plays to read.
Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry)
Fences (August Wilson)
#WorthYourReadingTime

Personal: The play was relevant in its time (depression era)..offering an exact record of its times. But it was a somber, depressing play. Weak point: There was a constant heavy-handed leftist rhetoric, tone. Vic is Marcus Garvey follower, Pizer (Jewish student, friend of his son Les) promotes socialism. Weak point: The play occasionally shows its age: the family’s horror at the elder daughter’s prostituting herself to a white man seems overdone…and the climax is melodramatic. (Act 2:2,3) Strong emotional appeal with characters shouting and and threatening each other (Vic vs mother-in-law and wife) Weak point: covering a 10-year span from 1922 to 1932 In Act 3 there is a 8,5 year jump, too far to feel like a compact “problem play”. Probably the play needs to be seen on stage…and not read in bed at 10 pm. The sparks that must fly between Vic, Ella, Martha, Dan….that would salvage this story.

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24. by Phil Klay

Finish date: 8 February 2022
Genre: Short Stories (12)
Rating: A+++++
Review:

Bad news: If you enjoy a SHORT story you can read in a few minutes….this is not your book!
50% = 6 VERY long short stories....but it is worth your readng time!

Bad news: NO glossary for terms often used in the military.

Bad news: Writing style…not my cup to tea. (first three stories…)
Stories I would describe as helmet-cam fiction…jolting, graphic and dialogue is an alphabet soup of abbreviations, acronyms and brevity codes:
CASEVAC (casualties evacuation) - SITREP (situation report) - EOD (explosive Ordnance Disposal) - TQ (tertiary care surgical ) - UXO (unexploded ordnance) - FOB (forward operating base) - DFAC (the dining facility) - HUMINT (human intelligence)

Good news: Phil Klay’s intention was to build realism into his stories. He describes a leader and his decision making (narrator, the Sergeant) and gives us a taste of warfare at the platoon and squad level.

Good news Klay tries to keep his book balanced. There are “touchy-feely” stories in which the reader can understand and empathizes with the wants and/or needs of soldiers returning from combat. Klay uses scenes about letters from home while in boot camp, homecoming after a 7 month tour in Iraq, wife with tear streaked cheeks and a devoted labrador to create impressive storytelling.

Good news Just to give you an idea what the book is about...

Redeployment: Flight home….soldier remembers military operation...homecoming. First story filled with shock and emotion….this is the hook to keep the reader reading. I don’t know if I could take more of this type of raw fiction. It is not strange that so many soldiers suffer from PTDS.

Frago: (fragmentary order need to change an order) Urgent situation ….all torture, blood and guts It felt like I was watching a soldier’s body cam.

After Action Report: soldier is guilt ridden after killing an the enemy.
Bodies: - soldier comes home and realizes he's lost the love of his high-school sweetheart….he redeploys and is moving on with life in the marines.
OIF: (code name for Iraqi war) - alphabet soup…just awful...filled with military abbreviations ad nauseam.

Money as a Weapons System: -long..indicating the idiotic attempts to change Iraq!
In Vietnam They Had Whores: - title speaks for itself
Prayer in the Furnace: best story!!
Psychological Operations: - soldier is back to school after deployment….too long, very anti climatic after pages and pages of war....not very interesting.
War Stories: - soldier tells friends what he's been through (they want to know)..but no one really understands.
Unless It’s a Sucking Chest Wound: post Marines…now in law school
Ten Kliks South: soldier's first kill…dogtags and a wedding ring. Story gave me goosebumps…so impressive.

Personal: It’s always hard to read about war and the crushing effect it has on the soldiers. I always have to force myself to open books like Redeployment.
It was a tough walk through all these stories. I will never forget this book when I watch the news about troops in a warzone. The last story Ten Kliks South …dogtags and a wedding ring. Story gave me goosebumps…so impressive. I needed a Heineken to numb my senses from the awful consequences of war. This book deserves ALL the prizes it has won...and then some.
#VeryVeryImpressed

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25. by William Shakespeare


Finish date: February 14 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++++
Review:

Good news: I celebrate Black History Month 2022 not only in books but also honoring IMO the best black actor ever: Denzel Washington. He's charisma and originality shows he's mastery and talent. When I watch a Denzel movie I can't but watch it again. His presence holds so much attention and focus.

Good news: What an impressive play...when you read the text and WATCH the movie version by Joel Cohen! Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are thrilling to watch. At times director Coen adjusts the play for a movie storyboard effect. In Act 1 Coen interweaves scene 4 and 5. So, if you're reading the play while watching...you've been warned!

Good news: Classic play that I will have to read again. There is so much in Shakespeare's play that I cannot absorb in one sitting.

Personal: The black and white visuals in the movie are mesmerizing in its simplicity. Act 5, 6 when Malcom says: "Now near enough: your leafy screens throw down." When you see this in the movie the words come alive! Don't forget the three witches...so impressed with their 'spookiness'!
Bravo Joel Cohen....3 Oscar nominations: Best Actor - Best Production Design - Best Cinematography!

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27. by James Salter

Finish date: 10 February 2022
Genre: short stories (10)
Rating: F
Review:

Bad news: I read the first story...if this is the quality for the next 9 stories...I'll finish this book very soon. I'll give Salter 1 or 2 more stories the chance to convice me he is worth reading. Last Night presents a bleak picture of people whose lives have lost moral focus. Bah.

Bad news: James Salter is a John Updike wanna be. He tries to imitate Updike …without success. Themes: middle-class or upper-middle-class couples - Marriage - divorce - treatment of adultery - from to dinner-party to bedroom conversations.

Bad news: Stories are ‘padded’ with one-note dialogue reminiscent of Abbot & Costello routine “Who’s of first? What’s on second? I don’t know is on third…characters are stuck in a looping!

Good News: ....the stories are very short.

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28. by James Baldwin

Finish date: 20 February 2022
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating:
Review: A

Bad news: The second half of the book was very political and dense. I do remember the Black Panther Party and Angela Davis vaguely….but reading about it now, it felt so far away. But at the time JB was writing this book….there was a fresh black political movement that was awakening and for the times…very thrilling for some …and very threatening for others.

Good news: The first halve of the book was a very personal story about James Baldwin’s life. It just drew me into the book and at times I felt JB just siting here talking to me.

Good news: Excellent writing…and many insights made by JB in 1972…still ring true today. There are hard truths about the lives of black people in America. The doctrine of white supremacy which still controls most white people is a delusion. People who cling to their delusions find it difficult, if not impossible to learn anything worth learning. To be born black in America is an immediate, a mortal challenge. (G. Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Briana Taylor, Duante Wright) Note: 18.02.2022 Kim Potter (ex-policewoman, Minnesota) will serve 16 months for killing a black teenager, Duante Wright…while in Tennessee Pamela Moses was sentenced to 6 years for trying to register to vote while on probation.


Personal: Any book by James Baldwin IMO is electric. There is a lot to absorb. I was struck by some his words written made 50 years ago: -- People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to hem, poisoned.” (pg 191) -- The Western party is over, and the white man’s sun has set. Period. (pg 196) Captivating...when JB tells us in 1971 that ...when the black man's mind is no longer controlled by the white man's fantasies...a new balance begins to make itself felt. (pg 189)
#WorthYourReadingTime

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31. by Lynn Nottage

Finish date: 21 February 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++++++
Review:

Good news Structure: Now this was a real puzzle! Act 1 and Act 2 start the first scene in 2008…then the rest of the act is a flashback to 2000. Act 2 does end with 2 scenes in 2008 to give the play a feeling of closure, bookends the last scenes with the same characters that started the play: Chris, Jason and their parole officer, Evan. You get the feeling that these 2 young men are just out of prison for ….what? Read the play! Every time I read a play I learn more information that helps me read novels. Study one genre….and learn more about another!

Good news: Dialogue: We get a realist picture of life in a factory town. The location reminded me of the Pennsylvania town depicted in the movie Deer Hunter . I always like to put faces on names….and in the play Sweat I could use some of the characters from that movie to breath life into the characters! Oh, I must watch that movie again!

Good news Location: Ms Nottage selected one of the poorest towns in USA in 2017 as the backdrop of the play: Reading, Pennsylvania. We walk into a blue-collar industrial town bar...a place where the factory workers would congregate.

Good News: Writing style: Ingenious how Ms Nottage creates two worlds: inside the bar, the lives of the characters and outside the bar by introducing the “radio news” before each scene. You can just picture barflies hanging over their beer listening to things that are beyond their home grown troubles (Wall Street Bailout, Bush administration, Obama-McCain debate).

Good news: Social commentary: this play had everything that would push the buttons of working class folks: black promoted to management, factory moves jobs to Mexico, union puts a headlock on the workers and wages are going to be slashed.

Good news: Characters: are from ethnic backgrounds including 6 men and 3 women. There is a deep feeling of racially-related disagreements that destroy friendships and turn into violent conflicts.

Personal After reading this play I was so impressed by Ms Nottage. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice in 2009 for Ruined and in 2017 for Sweat and she thoroughly deserved these accolades! While reading Sweat I had to remember a poem by Y. Komunyakaa Fog Galleon The poet describes the return to a industrial hometown USA. in just a few words he summed up what I felt after reading this play:
The whole town smells like the world’s oldest anger…..that turns workers into pulp.

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32. by

Finish date: 22 February 2022
Genre: novel
Rating: B-
Review:

Good news: Narrator: Gertrude Samphire (70+) Historical timeline: pre-independence Jamaica (Aug 6 1962) right up to recent years. Timeline: 2-3 years --> Gertrude's years in the retirement center. Structure: Chapters alternate between present time with 'flashback" moments. Genre: Bildungsroman....but in the opposite direction!
Theme: abandonment.


Personal: Gertrude looks back...to the past...in her memories of her gloomy childhood, impetuous marriage, and struggles with raising a family. She keeps a journal that is filled with insight and dry humour...and takes the book beyond the everyday experience. Gertrude has seen too much,...heard too much and ...lived through too much. #WorthYourReadingTime...but push through the first 60 pages...it does get better!

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33. by Tarana Burke (no photo)

Finish date: 24 February 2022
Genre: memoir
Rating: B

Good news: #MeToo Movement: The movement was started in 2006 by a Black activist named Tarana Burke. Initially, the movement was focused on women of color....and their experiences with sexual violence. In 2017, white women began using the phrase as a hashtag. Their embrace caused the movement to gain a great deal of prominence This is Ms Burke's story...

Personal: To quote the author just sums up the core message: "When you’ve experienced trauma, it fundamentally destroys part of you. But that doesn’t mean that what you create from those pieces isn’t a beautiful thing.” I must admit....this was a difficult book to read. To Ms Burke's credit who is a survivor of sexual assault herself, she has made it her mission with the #MeToo Movement, to find a way to let other women know that they were not alone. Intense...and unapologetically frank...fearless memoir that I probably never would have read...but it is a way to challenge myself to learn who Tarana Burke is and why she is a survivor. Ms Burke was one of the TIME'S persons of the year: The Silence Breakers.

MARCH

34. by Helen Waddell

Finish date: March 02 2022
Genre: Novel (210 pg...almost a novella)
Rating: D-
Review:

Bad news: Ms Waddell was a well known writer in Ireland and her book Peter Abelard was a best-seller. I think one must remember the time when this book was published 1933. I was ground-breaking, shocking description of the lust/love between Heloise and Abelard. The book quietly circulated among convent schooled girls and women longing for a passionate love story. The book was considered explicit. Unfortunately…times have changed. Peter Abelard has fallen between the cracks….for a reason.

Bad news: First lesson in writing...draw the reader in....create a hook. Well, I read chapter 1 but I felt nothing...a word salad without the dressing! It must be me…so I re-read ch 1.

Bad news: The reader is thrown into ‘the unknown’ in chapter 1. It took me so much time to finally figure out who’s who…and what's what? Where are we actually? If I wasn’t determined to finish this book…I would have stopped after the first pages. The style is too coldly academic to allow the characters to escape from the words and become living breathing beings.

Abelard (1079–1142) is now 37 yr (start book 1116) - around 1115, he became master of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame.
William of Champeaux - was Abelard’s teacher- Abelard challenged some of his ideas, and William thought Abelard was too arrogant.
Goswin (1085-1165 ) (classmate of Abelard at St Genevieve school)
Guibert - Abelard’s servant for the last 20 years
Gilles - canon (member religious community) at ND School
Gerbert - elected to succeed Gregory V as pope in 999. Gerbert took the name of Sylvester II.
Denise - Abelard’s sister

Well, now you can start chapter 1 of this book…without all the work I had to put into it!

Good news: Best thing I can think of....finished the book for #ReadingIrelandMonth22. Now time to read something completely different...no more historical fiction for me.

Personal: I took a chance on Helen Waddell and did not win the prize. In the biography of Patrick Kavanagh learned that Ms Waddell was a well respected writer in her day. Alas, NOT my style of writing but I was determined to see how Ms Waddell writes this classic love story. Well, a yule log burning on your TV screen gives off more heat! If you are a dye in the wool historical fiction reader and want to feel how the first writers approached the genre…then read the book. This is an example of a very educated medieval scholar who thinks she's a novelist...it just did not work out for me.

MARCH

35. by Conor McPherson (no photo)

Finish date: 04 March 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: F
Review:

Bad news: This confessional chat (scene 3) patient - therapist was supposed to be the climax of the play. Well, it was just an excruciating read. Scenes 1,2 and 4 were no better: there was a ghost, ex-priest, fiancé, baby, coddling wife, love affair with text messages, a gigolo...and a fight in a brothel.

Bad news: McPherson tries to mirror the private lives of the patient (John) and therapist (Ian). Both have huge secrets from spouse/fiancé...both want to "...believe that something else is my reality" but the whole concept of the play felt …like wading through thick mud, and I found myself longing desperately for some clear, unambiguous writing. Dialogue is so awful that the play becomes borderline incomprehensible:

Mmm…
Okay…
Well, I’m, you know…
No, no no…
No one finished their sentences...ever!

Good news Stage directions were better than the play!

Personal: What did I just read? ...it was a 'train wreck' of a play. Just awful. Scenes filled with …ho-hums, empty chatter…just NO feeling that I’ve read a brilliant play. I never expected to read such a boring piece of writing by Conor McPherson. I really enjoyed his play The Weir Shining City is such a huge disappointment. I still cannot find the link between the play and the title? Am I missing something? This is THE WORST Irish play I’ve ever read!
#WasteOfMyReadingTime

MARCH

36. by Antoinette Quinn (no photo)

Finish date: 08 March 2022
Genre: Biography
Rating: B
Review:

Bad news If you really want to enjoy this book…you’ll have to invest in a 2e book The Collected Poems of Patrick Kavanagh . There are so many reference to Kavanagh’s poetry you will have read both books simultaneously.

Bad news Life is hard and Kavanaugh was 50 yr. old and a middle-aged pauper. He was constantly searching for a a handout, a good meal regular paying job, couch surfing by friends. This was described in detail. It made the book excessively long. IMO it could have been reduced to a few facts.

Bad news A complete chapter (14) about Kavanagh’s film commentary for his column in The Standard….was that necessary…really?

Good news: First chapters are a good description of life in Ireland 1910s the usual barbaric life of the Irish country poor. "Yet in his heart he knew …despite the lack of outward affection, the beatings and the daily tirades of complaint…he was caught in a net of love…” (pg 51). The last 5 chapters were impressive. I was exhausted after reading this extremely well researched biography. Ms. Quinn is THE Patrick Kavanagh specialist!

Good news We read how Kavanagh uses fiction: pastoral (smooth Georgian poetry) —> Dirty realism —> social criticism —> self-liberation writing his masterpiece The Great Hunger (1942). The strongest point of this book is the analysis of his poems.

Good news Ch 10: Excellent explanation of the poem The Great Hunger . Kavanagh belonged to serf class and adopted the role of peasant spokesman. The Great Hunger is his anti-establishment masterpiece. I’d would never have grasped the metaphors, narration or the revelation what really destroyed Ireland’s rural life.

Irony In 1955 Kavanagh underwent surgery to remove cancerous lung. The two months Kavanagh spent in the Railto Hospital “…as among the happiest of his life.” (pg 489). He was feeling safe and secure, protected from unpaid bills.

Irony Kavanagh plagued by debts all his life ended up in his last years marrying a bookkeeper!

Personal How can a man who leaves school at 13 yr...works as a farm hand until he is 27 yr. as ploughman become a London published poet and one of the most famous poet’s in Ireland? If I was asked to describe Kavanagh in 3 words: talented, tormented, ingrate. He was not an easy person to get along with! I’m impressed how diligently Kavanagh studied the great poets. Just reading all the time and he acquired a complete knowledge of English/Irish poetry….as if he had attended an Irish university. New Rule: Try to read the biography of the great poets before I read their poems. Knowing what the man has been through….makes all the difference how you read his poems. Kavanagh could lob a barrage of insults tempered by occasional compliments. Where did that anger come from?…read the biography.

Book recommendation: James Wright: A life in Poetry American poet 1927-1980. This book was unforgettable!. Perhaps you’ve never heard of JW…it is really worth your reading time!
by Jonathan Blunk (no photo)

MARCH

37. by Frank O'Connor

Finish date: 12 March 2022
Genre: 6 essays
Rating: D-
Review:

Bad news: Very disappointed with the 6 essays I selected in this book. I'm even having a hard time writing a review about it! If these writings are considered 'O'Connor's best'...then I have been deceived.

Bad news: I keep kicking myself for not having read some short stories in this book instead of the essays. O'Connor is called the Irish Chekhov...so he must be doing something right!

Good news: I did discover one of O'Connor's books that I ordered from UK. It was $$ but is what I'm looking for. Hopefully I will learn more in his lectures given at Trinity University Dublin than what I read in this book: A Short History of Irish literature: A backward look (1968)

Personal: In hindsight these essays were a waste of time. They lacked depth and I felt that the essays were "...phoned in!" I will at least include my notes. IMO...skip the essays in this book and go right to the short stories...as I should have done!

Introduction to a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
According to FC Joyce’s book is compulsory reading for every young man and woman. I wanted to know why? Didn't really get an answer from this essay. I had no idea that Joyce uses Aristotle’s On the Soul as one the books he consulted while writing his book.

James Joyce: A Post-Mortem:
Such a great first sentence…the best hook: ”I think I almost said ‘Thank God’ when Joyce died." Frank O’Connor examinations and dissects segments of Ulysses ( worth reading) and Finnegan’s Wake (…a colossal failure.) (pg 192)

My Father’s Son - George Russel and W.B. Yeats:
Portraits of G. Russel (editor of the Irish Statesman) and W.B. Yeats, Irish romantic poet 20th C . The essay read like a New Yorker Magazine profile…a little reporting, commentary, and analysis...but not much.

Silgo and Yeats:
This selection was taken from O’Connor’s traveling writings. It is just a few anecdotes of the friendship between O’Connor and Yeats…nothing impressive. Mentioned is Yeats’s self-penned epitaph: "Cast a cold eye on life, on death, horseman, pass by.”

Centenary Address at the Graveside of W.B. Yeats:
This address was written on the 100th birthday of W.B. Yeats. O’ Connor’s task is to say a few things Yeats would have liked him to say about his son, his wife and the greatest weakness of the Irish.

The Tailor and Anstey
The Tailor and Ansty is a 1942 book by Eric Cross about the life of the Irish tailor and storyteller, Timothy Buckley, and his wife Anastasia. The book was banned. O’Connor writes a scathing essay on the effects of this ban that proved…years later to have been unjustified.

MARCH

38. by Oscar Wilde

Finish date: 14 March 2022
Genre: Satire
Rating: A
Review:

Good news: This is a perfect story to read for a bingo card…”space for a satire”. Oscar Wilde pokes fun at Americans with their practicality and common sense and pokes fun at the British with their feeling of aristocratic superiority!

Good news: Irony: The most ironic comical part of the story is that the ghost is more afraid of the family than they are of him! What good is a ghost who cannot scare people?

Good news: Wilde’s gothic setting of an OLD WORLD English castle, Canterville Chase, a traditional haunted castle VS the NEW WORLD residents, Americans…..who scoff at the thought of ghosts! The Americans…. counter the ghost’s chains with lubricant, his bloodstains with Pinkerton's detergent, and his ghostly laugh with cough syrup. Hilarious!

Personal: This story is well-known but I never got around to reading it. It’s fairy-tale quality assures us of a happy ending. I saw the 1944 film version with Charles Laughton and try to imagine his portrayal of the ghost as a great actor with theatrical panache and flair. When you think of it….Sir Simon (ghost) reminds me of Oscar Wilde himself…larger than life! This was a delightful read!

MARCH

39. by Margaret McAuliffe (no photo)

Finish date: 19 March 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: D-
Review:

Bad news: I had to think of a way to read this 'mini' play. No Acts - No Scenes...just a one woman show...a production that lasts just 55 minutes. With the help with a few stage directions when Annie addresses audience during the play I create a structure in the play to help my reading. Two locations: Tallaght Basketball Arena (for competition) - next day in school.

Good news: Title: "The Humours of Bandon" is a well-known Irish jig performed to a tune of the same name. On the eve of the Irish Open championship, we meet Annie, 16 yr old Dubliner, as she takes us through the various successes and disappointments of her Irish Dancing life.

Good news Message: It examines the importance of coming first and why it matters...

Personal: I expected more…the writing itself is repetitive, verbose, and reminded me of string of soundbites overheard at a dance competition. I wanted to laugh but couldn’t manage even a chuckle. I’m sure this type of one woman show is best seen on stage. It is described as a play…but it doesn’t even come close.

MARCH

40. by Sebastian Barry


Finish date: 18 March 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A+++++++++
Review:

Good news: Type of play: A two-hander...with only two main characters. This is such an easy read compared to a large cast of characters (Shakespeare…for instance!) PJ and Christy are a display of opposites. “…Now we’ve lived together in contentment, more or less, for nigh on twenty year. Like turtle doves. – In prison, I mean, for f**k’s sake, the chances of that.”

Good news: Conflict: There is a clear use of conflict that the audience/reader feels between offstage and on-stage. PJ and Christy reflect on what life is like on the outside of prison (hope, torment). The play evokes a feeling of emotion because…we are all imprisoned in some way in our lives.

Good news: Title: What has Sebastian Barry hidden in the title of the play…”On Blueberry Hill.” It immediately reminds on of the best selling 1956 song by Fats Domino! This is what I like about plays…the riddles/surprises that you can discover. No spoilers….if you want to know the answer…read the play!

Good news: Humor: Leave it to the Irish to give us a good laugh at the beginning! The first section “PJ” starts with a quote in Gaelic from bible out of chapter Eoin 1 = John 1: “In the beginning was the word... ( Ann so tosach do bhí an briathar...") What is the link between the bible and the play? Well, I had to laugh…it was a set-up for showing how much fun it was to use the Gaelic word FOCAIL (= word) instead of BRIATHAR ( = word). The former was more FUN…to say! Yes, it sounds like….F**K

Good news: Tension: The two cellmates….address only the audience and never each other! Oh, this is very clever…and comical. The two characters in question often display differences because they are the...BEST of friends and the WORST of enemies.

Personal Goosebumps...when I fished the play. Oh, if you can find this story by Sebastian Barry in the library or better yet buy the Kindle version...please take the time to read this unforgettable play! Mr Barry is one of the best writers in Ireland...and he does not disappoint!
Fats Domino: "I found my freedom, on Blueberry Hill, on Blueberry Hill ….when I found you!”
#Bravo!

MARCH

41. by Marina Carr (no photo)

Finish date: 15 March 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++++++++
Review:

Good news: Structure: I was NOT expecting this! Act 1 beginning - Act 2 the end - Act 3 the middle! ...an Irish Greek Tragedy.

Good news: Theme: (act 3,3) Portia wonders…”Is our lives followin’ a minute and careful plan…or are we flittin’ from chance to chance? (determinism vs fatalism).

Good news: Puzzles: Ms. Carr fills her play with metaphors, images, objects dripping with symbolism and foreshadowing! (ghost of her twin, white horse statue). I love reading a good play…it is more challenging than a novel, IMO! Act 1,2: “…a day to hop the ram in on the ewes”. You might just read over this but it mirrors Shakespeare! Othello: Act 1,1 "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is topping your white ewe."

Good news: Buzz word in the play: MOOD.....and try to connect the dots! Act 1: queer mood — one of your b**chy moods again — Act 3: when your mood changes - her mood has changed again — what sort of a mood? — I’ve lived through every mood.

Good news Tension: Act 2,2 ….after the funeral just an explosive family verbal brawl! Portia’s aunt and old prostitute confronts Portia’s bitter grandmother Blaize: “…You know and I know when the ROT began and HOW the ROT began.” As audience/reader, we must know the truth!

Good news: Symbol: Just by reading the list of characters I get an idea what may happen. Symbol: Ghost: The appearance of a ghost (Gabriel) has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death Seeing one's own ghostly double (Portia is Gabriel's twin) is a related omen of death.

Good news: New Rule: Reading a play is more work than reading a novel. The night before I read a play I make a list of the characters (names, ages etc). Then I list the acts and scenes and place the names of the characters in the specific scene. Then I go to sleep...and try to find connections between the characters, their names. For example in this play two characters were named after angels. This helps me imagine what could happen.

Personal: The measure of success in theater is always 'Does the conversation continue after the play is over? Does the play linger in your mind? Well this play will linger for sure. Ms Marina Carr is a formidable talent and she’s proved it by winning the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize 2017 (165.000 dollar!). Just reading this play was impressive…I cannot imagine the intensity one would feel seeing it on stage. I really miss going to see GREAT performances in a theatre.…so I’ll just have to read plays on paper.