flight paths discussion

Yes Im late this month, due to health issues, could be food poisoning or just a flu. But with a wicked headache I am finding it hard to think let alone read.
May eveyone else be feeling strong and good.

Magdelanye wrote: "Yes Im late this month, due to health issues, could be food poisoning or just a flu. But with a wicked headache I am finding it hard to think let alone read.
May eveyone else be feeling strong and ..."

Oh Magdelanye--I'm so sorry you're unwell. Sending love your way!

Wicked headache is a symptom of Covid (not saying that you have Covid; just a thought, in case it matters somehow).
I hope you feel better soon, Magdelanye. May you feel strong and good soon, too.

I'm currently reading The Woodlanders and listening to The Push.
Both are interesting and keeping me amused. I'm not far along in either to add more right now.

I'm spending as much time in the garden as I can and cleaning out the flower beds, weeding, composting, mulching. Not much time for reading for long stretches in a row.

Petra, I think gardening sounds like the most beautiful--and probably backbreaking way to spend your time.

I'm reading too many books as usual. I just finished Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me which I loved and Elena Ferrante's In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing which was short but dense and very interesting.

Now I'm onto Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (who wrote Convenience Store Woman, which I loved. I've read two stories so far and they're delightfully strange.

I'm also rereading Frank Ostaseski's The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully which I think I need to read every few years.

And continuing my slow but steady progress through Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art (which overlapped beautifully with Also a Poet).

Petra wrote: "I'm currently reading The Woodlanders and listening to The Push.
Both are interesting and keeping me amused. I'm not far along in either to add more right now.

I'm s..."

Petra, I love Hardy. The Woodlanders is one of the few books of his that I haven't read so I'm looking forward to reading your response

thanks Ellie and Petra.
today is my 5th day of being sick, a bit better and able to eat and read a bit between naps.
Finished Amanda Gormans brave and trailblazing Call Us what we Carry. Also loving Braiding Sweetgrass as you both did, a perfect book for convalescing. And just to add more spice to the m

oops...I have started The Octopus Has 3 Hearts, short stories by Rachel Rose.
Petra Ive actually been wondering about your garden. After all the effort spent digging out rocks etc you should be reaping some rewards.
Ellie all your books sound fascinating. Im glad you loved the Ferrante. Didnt you recently dis another of hers?
I would say more but this is all i can manage for now

Must mention the book that helped me through the third hard night. It's called The Lost Soul by Olga Tokarczuk illustrated gorgeously by Joanna Concejo, a fairy tale for grown ups. There is not much more than one page of text. Its likely my illness but I cried all the way through

August is speeding by and I am sure glad to be able to read again. I am also glad that this group got me over my reluctance to engage with audiobooks to tide me over when I couldnt.

Rather ironically I got very engaged with Manhattan Beach, a book I had passed over for years. Its still a slower process than reading but I am enjoying the different narrators and can stay pretty much awake for whole sections.

I'm glad that you are feeling well enough to read, Magdelanye. It's good to see you posting again.

I haven't been getting in much reading time this month and have been doing a lot of painting. I had a number of small carvings from last Winter to paint and I'm taking a 5-week acrylic painting course. I spent a lot of time painting the carvings this month (they're all painted now) so that I start this Fall/Winter's carving without a back-log of unfinished pieces. Also, I'm getting the yard ready for the changing season as well. Some plants are already shutting down and turning yellow. It's kind of sad to see. I'm not ready for the plants to shut down for the season yet.

Keep getting and staying healthy, Magdelanye. It's good to come here and catch up with your Life and reads.

Thanks Petra for your kind thoughts. I wanted to answer immediately, then thought to wait until I was on the laptop so that I could include some links. I am feeling much better but still not that comfortable on the computer in that I tire easily and trying to catch up with the recording of what I have been reading and all the reviews has been a bit of a chore.

I'm not ready for the plants to shut down yet either. The best news is that the squash I planted where my landlady ripped out my flowers, is coming along gangbusters. It looks likes a little jungle in the corner there.

I have been able to work on my notes again and it's a joy to be able to read once more. I was amazed actually when I finally got my hands on a hardcopy of Manhattan Beach to find that there wasn't much I missed listening to the audio. Considering that I had passed on it for years, I have to say that I found it thrilling and I'm now eager to read everything Jennifer Egan has written. The narration on the audio was also superb I thought, with the two narrators. How can I find more of their work I wonder.

Actually my reading lately has brought many surprises. I am loving Darwin and the Barnacle: The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough by Rebecca Stott I never liked Darwin much, but in her lucid and engaging prose I have gained a deeper perspective.

I have been enjoying Poems Selected And New an anthology of P.K. Page work, but the last section is marvelous. I love her quirky style.

All at once I realized I had no fiction in my array, so I have just started Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North. I've liked the two other books I've read of hers and this seems promising.

How great that you are branching out with your painting class, and able to apply your growing skill to your carvings. I see a table at the christmas craft fair in your future Petra!

Hope Ellie and Ice are doing well and eager to catch up on Ice's rambles

Magdelanye wrote: "Thanks Petra for your kind thoughts. I wanted to answer immediately, then thought to wait until I was on the laptop so that I could include some links. I am feeling much better but still not that c..."

I too am so happy you can read again! A true sign of healing.

I loved Manhattan Beach and like you resolved to read more of Egan's work. I also loved A Visit from the Goon Squad and its not-exactly-sequel-but-maybe-companion-although written later-book The Candy House. I read Look at Me years ago and found it interesting although I wasn't swept away by it. I might reread it now, in the light of her other work. I still remember it vividly so that says a lot.

In the light of this conversation, I just ordered a used copy of her first novel, The Invisible Circus.

I'm reading Jennette McCurdy's memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died which I'm finding riveting.

On a more exalted level, I'm also reading Radical Love: Five Novels.

And for fun, Haruki Murakami (because yes I am one of those people who adore him) Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love.

I'm part way through a bio of the painter Joan Mitchell, Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter. I like her work but not, from what I gather from this book which is of course only a partial view, the woman herself. Maybe because I'm prejudiced against the rich and don't care so much about their childhood trauma, which is on me, but also because she seems to have carried that privilege into her adult relationships--tortured maybe but also arrogant and obnoxious. So I may not finish it. Interesting but doesn't really say much about her work.

Switching to the laptop the better to reply to your welcome comments. What an interesting array of books you're reading Ellie.
I looked most of them up and they all sound so intriguing, especial the Radical Love collection. I tend to agree with you re your comments on Joan Mitchell. Did you finish the other book you've been studying 9th street women? I would love that one I think.
I still find the title of I wish my mother was dead too off putting to consider (kind of like People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present, which turned out to be terrific) so I am looking forward to your reaction.
That Murakami! I love him too so I suppose he will find a unique slant.
I'm glad you also found Jennifer Egan engaging. I loved the alternating narrators on the audio version, and am considering doing the audio version for the next one I engage.

I am severely behind on my reviews and am reluctant to add my new batch of books before doing a few more so I don't push past 60 on my currently reading shelf.

I am loving Love of the Salish Sea Islands: New Essays, Memoirs and Poetry by 40 Island Writers edited by my old friend Mona Fertig and enchanted by Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway who was lucky enough to have the support of her family to join the Peace Corps. How would my life have turned out if I would have had had I been able to follow that early dream.

I couldn't resist and had to start A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough which I was hoping might counterbalance Notes from the Burning Age which featured so prominently in last nights nightmare. It's a complex book actually. Claire North raises some problematic issues for sure

Your books also look very interesting.i

I'm not finished with 9th Street but I'm keeping on with it.