Elizabeth > Recent Status Updates

A slow start for me because I had to look up numerous historical & geographic references, but it’s picking up steam.

I’m intrigued…

Was highly recommended by a few friends and my library had it available..

(In 1957, just 12 years after WWII) People were tired of atrocity stories; their one desire was to dismiss those unspeakable happenings from their minds; … and they were reconciled to the violation of law and the perversion of justice. (p. 3)

Listening on Audible mostly at the gym so it will take a while. Entertaining and perceptive.

I wish the author trusted her readers more. For example, after noting that a soldier’s legs were blown off, she adds that his uniform was covered with blood. Well, duh. Similarly, after chapters of describing her main character as young, naive, and inexperienced, she feels she must tell us Frankie is a “good girl.” It’s annoying.

Not getting much traction with this.

I’m having to look up a lot of historical references and make notes in the margins so I don’t forget! Worth the effort.

Doyle confirms what I’d heard before: that in early 1975, John was in the verge of working with Paul again until Yoko interceded. I’ll never understand why Paul helped Yoko get back together with John.

Slogging through the various lineups of Wings is less interesting to me…

This version has the original Italian on even-numbered pages with English translation facing it on the odd pages. A January project to improve my Italian so it will probably go slowly!

Not much I haven’t read or heard before so far, but seeing it all together makes me appreciate just how audacious McCartney was in the early 1970s — and how he could easily have succumbed to the overwhelming depression he slid into in late 1969.

Author should have researched Chicago more. Logistics of where things are supposedly happening make little sense.

Classic New Yorker mistake on p. 69: Chicagoans wait IN line not on line.

She read that opening sentence three times before she understood. She looked at the title of the book. Middlemarch. Why couldn’t the writer be clearer? She read on, only because Ghosh had managed to keep reading. Little by little, she found herself immersed in the story. P. 164

Disk 2 of many finished! I listen while driving. A bit heavy on background of the rivals but interesting.

“For the Eritreans to have their lands handed to Ethiopia was an unimaginable wound, akin to giving liberated France to England merely because the people of both countries were white and ate cabbage.” P. 35

I’ve listened to the first of a many, many, many disks.

“We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot.” Sobering words on p. 6.

Listened to a few hours of the audiobook while driving yesterday and laughed myself silly. If you’ve enjoyed “Fisk” on Netflix, you’ll love this too.

The narrator “voice” is remarkable.