frahealee 2020 50bks or 15,000pgs

Nothing like the close of one year and a gentle nudge into the next. Last year I was bursting at the seams to get the most out of the year, and my enthusiasm waned by autumn. I reached my goals but want to conduct myself differently in this next attempt, in order to preserve the pleasure of reading. I will use this thread more as a valued resource than as a climbing apparatus.

My first year, was all about the numbers. Having never tracked my reading habits, I was simply curious to know time versus template. What was I reading and how long was the turnaround. The knowledge was helpful but it removed all aspects of reading for reading sake. Thus, in the second year of tracking, I listed each of my accomplishments but without the numbers, so I could dip in occasionally to take stock. It seemed to work well, but this year will be different again. It will be focused on reading what I have at hand, sifting in what presents itself to me along the way, and happily enjoying the surprises for what they're worth to my inner sense of accomplishment rather than the list(s) they might qualify for.

That being said, I've copied two lists that I refer to occasionally, for quick peeks and comparison, not to blast through as quickly as possible. 50 novels and 50 short stories plus poetry/non-fic will do nicely.

AUTHORS (alphabetical reference for 'cravings')
BIG FAT BOOKS (my book tag is 'hefty')
CANLIT (goal limited to 12 writers)
GENRES (gothic, sci-fi, weird tales, faith, etc.)
TBR (goal limited to 12 with film theme tie-in)
1001 BYMRBYD (myriad of ideas for consideration)
KOBO/ebooks (full list of read vs. unread)

Happy reading everyone! Wishing you all the best in 2020.
My resolution is more fibre, in my books and diet! =)

JAN/FEB/MAR2020
Goal: daily short stories, as I finish off 'hefty' leftovers from 2019

Short Stories:
01 The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (1888) = 21m audiobook, voiced by Stephen Fry
02 The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar Allan Poe (1845) = Kobo/ebook
03 The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius (2nd/3rd century?) = Kobo/ebook
04 The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale (Dec1863) = Kobo/ebook
05 The Real Thing and Other Stories (1893) by Henry James = Kobo/ebook, 1h audiobook
Sir Dominick Ferrand, Nona Vincent, The Chaperon, Greville Fane
06 The Voice of the City by O.Henry = Kobo/ebook
07 The Ransom of Red Chief by O.Henry = Kobo/ebook
08 Strictly Business by O.Henry = Kobo/ebook
09 The Trimmed Lamp & Other Stories of the Four Million (?) by O.Henry (1862-1910) = audiobook 5h55m (total time for 25 tales) https://librivox.org/the-trimmed-lamp-by-o-henry/
A Madison Square Arabian Night, The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball, The Pendulum, Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen, The Assessor of Success, The Buyer From Cactus City, The Badge of Policeman O’Roon, Brickdust Row, The Making of a New Yorker, Vanity and Some Sables, The Social Triangle, The Purple Dress, The Foreign Policy of Company 99, The Lost Blend, The Harlem Tragedy, The Guilty Party...An East Side Tragedy, According to Their Lights, A Midsummer Knight’s Tale, The Last Leaf, The Count and the Wedding Guest, The County of Elusion, The Ferry of Unfulfillment, The Tale of a Tainted Tenner, Elsie in New York
Where are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates = 38min online audiobook; short story re: Laura Dern/Treat Williams in Smooth Talk (1985)
The Demon Spell, The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet
In the Dark, The Power of Darkness, The Shadow, Carrington's Wedding, The Violet Car, Man-size in Marble, The Ebony Frame by Edith Nesbit
The Judge's House by Bram Stoker
(48)
Laura Silver Bells, An Account of Some Strange Disturbances on Aungier Street, The Phantom Fourth, Dickon the Devil, The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh, Madam Crowl's Ghost by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73) = Kobo/ebook (sometimes alongside online audiobook)
Dagon, The Haunter of the Dark, The Rats in the Walls by HPLovecraft = Kobo/ebook
The Doll by Daphne du Maurier (1937) = TWT grp online
(58)
Twice-Told Tales including; The Gray Champion, Wakefield by Nathanial Hawthorne (1804-1864) as well as Ethan Brand, The Gorgon's Head, The Great Stone Face, The Miraculous Pitcher, My Kinsman Major Molineux, The Snow Image, Three Golden Apples, etc. (TTT online audiobook 17hrs)
Rip Van Winkle, The Adventure of the German Student by Washington Irving = Kobo/ebook, 15m10s audiobook online
The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner = Kobo/ebook alongside 5h19m online audiobook; novella?
The King in Yellow by Robert William Chambers (1895) = Kobo/ebook (10 short stories) alongside 6+hr audiobook online; C/I deluxe edition hardcover, 160p.
(80)
The Spook House by Ambrose Bierce
The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter by Adolphe Danziger De Castro and Ambrose Bierce (1911) = 2h45m audiobook alongside online text *see notes in posts below... 37/38?
The Phantom Farmhouse by Seabury Quinn (Jerome Burke) = short story or novella?
Pigeons From Hell by Robert E. Howard
The Hill by William Faulkner = 6m15s audiobook
(LibriVox short story collection volume #59, 7h54m total runtime)
It! by Rudyard Kipling = 9m25s audiobook, as above
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant = 21m audiobook, as above
The False Rhyme by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley = 9m18s audiobook, as above
The Coup de Grace by Ambrose Bierce = 15m audiobook, as above
Willyum by Richard Marsh = 15m audiobook, as above
(90!)

Other:
01 Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace (1901) = ancient (printed 1959?) Dell paperback, 332p. with 18 chapters
(FYI - The LibriVox audiobook of 23h22m matches online text of the Gutenberg version, but not my tattered paperback.)
02 Light in August by William Faulkner (1932) = Kobo/ebook; C/I paperback is 528p. (BFB grp)
03 Sonnets and Poems by William Shakespeare = hardcover, 207p.
04 The White Peacock by DHLawrence (1911) = Kobo, alongside 12h48m audiobook; C/I paperback, 410p. (this was DHL's very first novel)
05 The Rainbow by DHLawrence (1915) = Kobo, alongside 19h16m audiobook; C/I paperback, 544p. (OUP) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjXKNRjIWsM (BFB grp)
06 Aaron's Rod by DHLawrence (1922) = Kobo, alongside 11h40m audiobook; C/I paperback, 368p.
07 Kangaroo by DHLawrence (1923) = Kobo; C/I paperback, 18 chapters, ?p.
08 The Fox by DHLawrence (19??) = Kobo; C/I paperback, novella 112p.
09 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926) = 7h02m online audiobook; C/I paperback, 27 chapters, 304p. (HarperCollins) (1001 list)
10 The House by the Churchyard by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1863) = Kobo; C/I paperback, 518p.
11 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1824) = Kobo; C/I paperback, 272/336?p. (GothicLit, 1001 list)
12 The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton (1925) = hardcover, 217p. (actual, C/I site states 228p.)
13 Blonde: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates (2000) = 8h23m online audiobook; C/I paperback, 752p. (HarperCollins) (1001 list)
14 Jurassic Park: A Novel by Michael Crichton (1990) = 13h30m audiobook; C/I paperback, 464p.
15 The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1860) = 16h13m audiobook alongside online text; C/I paperback, 432p. (OUP) (1001 list, GothicLit)
16 The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1852) = 8h48m audiobook alongside online text; C/I paperback, 320p. (OUP) (1001 list, GothicLit)
17 A Prisoner in Fairyland by Algernon Blackwood (1913) = Kobo/ebook; C/I paperback, 532p.
18 ABC Murders by Agatha Christie (1936) = audiobook
19 A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence (1966) = paperback, 227p.
20 A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart (2005) = paperback, 371p.
21 The Red Lamp by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1925) = paperback, 289p. + 6p. introduction
22 Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson (2017) = paperback, 316p. (CanLit, Gothic Lit groups)
23 The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (1968) = paperback, 314p.

xOates (A Fair Maiden, Black Water, Marya, Them re: 1001bymrbyd)
+++++
FYI: Page counts c/o Chapters/Indigo online resources; hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback, large print, etc. depending on the version most appealing at the time.

APR/MAY/JUN2020
Goal: more satire, allegory, light humour, farce

Short stories:
Red by Somerset Maugham = 56m audiobook online
The Diary of a Successful Man by Ernest Dowson = 42m audiobook
The Woman's Rose by Olive Schreiner = 9m audiobook
The Invisible Portraits by Stanley J. Weyman = 43m audiobook
The Wooden Doll by Lucy Clifford = 3m audiobook
The Headswoman by Kenneth Grahame = 42m audiobook
Mary Smith by Booth Tarkington = 45m audiobook
Forewarned by Saki = 16m audiobook
Buttercup-night by John Galsworthy = 20m audiobook
The Crystal Egg by H.G.Wells = 47m audiobook
Autobiography of a Monkey by Albert Bigelow Paine = 11m audiobook

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare = 5 act play, MIT WS Archive online
Twelfth Night (2011) = dvd of Stratford (Shakespeare) Festival in Ontario - RIP Brian Dennehy ♡
Coriolanus by Shakespeare = 5 act play, MIT WS Archive online
Coriolanus (2018) = dvd of Stratford Festival in Ontario with André Sills
King Lear by Shakespeare = 5 act play, MIT WS Archive online
King Lear (2014) = dvd of Stratford Festival in Ontario with Colm Feore
Macbeth by Shakespeare = 5 act play, MIT WS Archive online
Macbeth (2016) = dvd of Stratford Festival in Ontario with Ian Lake
The Tempest by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
The Tempest (2018) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Martha Henry
Timon of Athens by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
Timon of Athens (2017/2018) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Joseph Zeigler and Ben Carlson
Love's Labour's Lost = play, MIT WS Archive online
Love's Labour's Lost (2015) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Mike Shara
Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
Antony and Cleopatra (2014) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Geraint Wyn Davies
The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
The Taming of the Shrew (2015) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Ben Carlson, Deborah Hay
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
Romeo and Juliet (2017) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Sara Farb
The Adventures of Pericles by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
The Adventures of Pericles (2015) = dvd of Stratford Festival (saw this one live) with Evan Buluing, Deborah Hay
King John by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
King John (2014) = dvd of Stratford Festival with Tom McCamus
Hamlet by Shakespeare = play, MIT WS Archive online
Hamlet (2015) = dvd of Stratford Festival (saw this live too) with Jonathan Goad
The Sistine Chapel, Special Edition for the Vatican Museums and Galleries = art book paperback, 95p.
Morning in the Burned House: Poems (1995) by Margaret Atwood = paperback, 127p.
Some Other Garden: Poems (2000) by Jane Urquhart = hardcover, 88p. (7 photos of Versailles)

Other:
24. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1940) = paperback, 220p.
25. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1994) = paperback, 246p.
26. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (1947) = Kobo, 347?p.
27. Omerta by Mario Puzo (2001) = paperback, 369p.
28. Story of a Soul The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (?) = paperback, 306p.
29. The Confessions of St. Augustine (complete and unabridged) (300-400AD?) = paperback, 426p.
30. The City of God by St. Augustine (300-400AD?)= paperback, 903p.
31. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (?) = 3-4hr. online audiobook read by John Gielgud, C/I clothbound hardcover, 336p.
32. The Dark Arena by Mario Puzo (1953) = paperback, 283p.
33. The Collected Works of St.Teresa of Avila Volume Two (published 1980 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, Inc./ICS Publications) = paperback, 554p.
34. The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964, 1971) = paperback, 555p.
35. The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel (1955) by Flannery O'Connor = paperback, 243p.
36. Robert Louis Stevenson: Four Complete Novels (includes Treasure Island, The Master of Ballantrae, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped) (publ.1983) = hardcover, 583p.
37. Trilby by George du Maurier = Kobo, alongside 11h12m online audiobook (339?p.)
38. Waverley by Walter Scott (1814) = online text alongside 12h31m online audiobook; mass market paperback by Random House, 688p.
39. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (1949) = paperback, 236p.
40. The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio (2009) = paperback, 294p.

JUL/AUG/SEP2020
Goal: more non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel books

Short stories:
xThe Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson = Kobo/ebook

Other:
Catechism of the Catholic Church by Image Books for Doubleday = paperback, 826p.
Holy Bible, RSVCE = imitation leather paperback, OT/1005p.+NT/250=1255p. (indexed/blue)
41. The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence (1926) = Kobo ebook
42. The Fourth K by Mario Puzo (1991) = paperback, 479p.
43. Fools Die by Mario Puzo (1978) = paperback, 531p.
44. Six Graves to Munich by Mario Puzo (1967) = paperback, 216p.

OCT/NOV/DEC2020
Goal: more plays ie. Shakespeare, Chekhov, Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, Henrik Ibsen, etc.

Short stories/etc:
A Prayer Journal by Flannery O'Connor = hardcover, 96p.

Other:
45. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis = audiobook, 5h45m
46. Eugenics and Other Evils by G. K. Chesterton = audiobook, 5h17m15s
47. War and Peace by Tolstoy = Kobo ebook, with some audio
48. The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty = Kobo ebook
49. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood = Kobo ebook
50. Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown = Kobo ebook
51. 52. 53. The Hamlet/The Town/The Mansion - Snopes trilogy by William Faulkner = Kobo ebook
54. The Reivers by Faulkner = Kobo ebook
55. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane by Laird Koenig = Kobo ebook
56. The Wayward Bus and
57. To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck = both Kobo ebooks
(Wayward Bus,1957 b/w film with Jayne Mansfield and Joan Collins)

100 BEST BOOKS OF ALL TIME
(2007 poll by Chapters/Indigo Books)

×01. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown ... (I beg to differ. Ghastly choice.)
**02. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
**03. To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
**04. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell ?
**05. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien
**06. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
**07. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
**08. Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
09. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
*10. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
**11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
×12. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
**13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
*14. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving ? (film)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
**16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
**17. Fall on Your Knees, Ann-Marie MacDonald
18. The Stand, Stephen King
**19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
**20. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
**21. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (reread in 2019)
**22. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
**23. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (film, due for a reread in 2020!)
**24. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (film)
×25. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
**26. The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
**27. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
**28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
**29. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
*30. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom (film)
**31. Dune, Frank Herbert
**32. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
×33. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
**34. 1984, George Orwell
35. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
**36. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
×37. The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
38. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
39. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
40. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel
42. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
×43. Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
*44. The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom (film)
**45. The Bible - RSVCE
**46 Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
**47. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (film, reread in 2021)
**48. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
**49. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
50. She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb
51. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
**52. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
×53. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
**54. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
**55. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
**56. The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
**57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling
**58. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough
×59. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
*60. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (film)
**61. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
×62. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
**63. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (current grapple...)
×64. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
*65. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
66. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
×67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
68. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
**69. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
**70. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
×71. Bridget Jones’ Diary, Helen Fielding
72. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
**73. Shogun, James Clavell
74. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje (film)
**75. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
76. Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay
*77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (film)
*78. The World According to Garp, John Irving (film)
**79. The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
**80. Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White
81. Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley
**82. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
**83. Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
×84. Wizard’s First Rule, Terry Goodkind
**85. Emma, Jane Austen
**86. Watership Down, Richard Adams
**87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
*88. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
89. Blindness, Jose Saramago
×90. Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer
91. In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje
×92. Lord of The Flies, William Golding
×93. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
*94. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd (film)
×95. The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum
96. The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton (film)
97. White Oleander, Janet Fitch (film)
×98. A Woman of Substance, Barbara Taylor Bradford
**99. The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield (I beg to differ. Ghastly choice.)
*100. Ulysses, James Joyce

** indicates completed reading
* indicates incomplete reading
x indicates no intention of reading

CANADA 150 TOP BOOKS FOR 150 BIRTHDAY (01JUL2017) by CBC
(The great Canadian reading list: 150 books to read for Canada 150)

*1. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
2. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
3. Firewater by Harold R. Johnson
4. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
**5. My Best Stories by Alice Munro
6. Susceptible by Geneviève Castrée
x7. The Game by Ken Dryden
**8. Who Has Seen the by Wind by W.O. Mitchell
9. Whylah Falls by George Elliott Clarke
10. Obasan by Joy Kogawa
11. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
x12. The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King (non-fic)
*13. Mabel Murple by Sheree Fitch ?
14. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
15. River Thieves by Michael Crummey
16. The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
x17. Montreal's Irish Mafia by D'Arcy O'Connor
**18. Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
19. Town is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, illustrated by Sydney Smith
**20. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sheila McGraw
*21. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (Cdn gothic)
22. Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing by Tomson Highway
*23. Unless by Carol Shields
x24. No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein
25. From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant
**26. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
27. Essex County by Jeff Lemire
*28. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
29. Cockroach by Rawi Hage
30. Calling Down the Sky by Rosanna Deerchild
31. The Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby
**32. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
33. Saints & Misfits by S.K. Ali
*34. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
35. 419 by Will Ferguson
36. Celia's Song by Lee Maracle
37. One Hour in Paris by Karyn Freedman
38. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté
39. Birdie by Tracey Lindberg
x40. Ru by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman
*41. Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie
**42. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
43. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
44. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
45. Half-Breed by Maria Campbell
**46. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
47. Company Town by Madeline Ashby
48. New Tab by Guillaume Morissette
49. The Illegal by Lawrence Hill
50. North End Love Songs by Katherena Vermette
*51. Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright
52. Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
**53. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
54. Saints of Big Harbour by Lynn Coady
55. Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
56. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
57. Cool Water by Dianne Warren
58. This is Happy by Camilla Gibb
59. The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
**60. Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman
61. They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson
62. The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew
**63. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
**64. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
65. #IndianLovePoems by Tenille Campbell
66. The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
**67. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
68. And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier, translated by Rhonda Mullins
69. The Darkhouse by Barbara Radecki
70. Baseball Life Advice by Stacey May Fowles
*71. The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane
**72. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
x73. A Fair Country by John Ralston Saul (non-fic)
74. Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
75. When The World Was New by George Blondin
x76. Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson (Cdn gothic?)
77. Canoe Country by Roy MacGregor
**78. Alligator Pie by Dennis Lee, illustrated by Frank Newfeld
79. The Break by Katherena Vermette
80. The Just City by Jo Walton
81. Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
82. Lightfinder by Aaron Paquette
83. Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan
84. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock (humour)
85. Kamouraska by Anne Hébert
x86. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
87. A Disappearance in Damascus by Deborah Campbell
88. We All Fall Down by Eric Walters
89. And Home Was Kariakoo by M.G. Vassanji
90. The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe
x91. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
92. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
93. Slash by Jeannette Armstrong
94. We're All In This Together by Amy Jones
*95. Home Sweet Home by Mordecai Richler
96. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
97. I Want to Go Home by Gordon Korman
98. The Perfection of the Morning by Sharon Butala
*99. Naked with Summer in Your Mouth by Al Purdy (poetry)
100. Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner
101. The Shoe Boy by Duncan McCue
102. Next Year, For Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson
103. Testifyin' by Djanet Sears
104. The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis (humour)
105. Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
106. Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman
*107. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
**108. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
*109. Jake and the Kid by W.O. Mitchell
*110. The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
111. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
**112. The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
*113. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
x114. Secret Path by Gord Downie & Jeff Lemire (graphic novel)
115. Indian Fall by D'arcy Jenish
116. The Birth House by Ami McKay
117. Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water edited by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair and Warren Cariou
118. We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night by Joel Thomas Hynes
119. February by Lisa Moore
*120. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
x121. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur (poetry) WRITER OF THE DECADE!?
122. Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
x123. Shake Hands with the Devil by Roméo Dallaire (non-fic)
124. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
x125. Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler
126. Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
127. The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
**128. The Fire-Dwellers by Margaret Laurence
129. Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
130. We Sang You Home by David Alexander Robertson
x131. The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield (non-fic)
132. Where I Belong by Alan Doyle (autobio)
133. A Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
134. King Leary by Paul Quarrington
135. Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
**136. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
x137. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
138. Rockbound by Frank Parker Day
*139. Island by Alistair MacLeod
140. Sing a Song of Mother Goose by Barbara Reid
x141. Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes
x142. Generation X by Douglas Coupland
x143. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
**144. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
145. Next Episode by Hubert Aquin, translated by Sheila Fischman
x146. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
147. Stepping Stones by Margriet Ruurs, illustrated by Nizar Ali Badr
148. I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis & Kathy Kacer, illustrated by Gillian Newland
149. Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway
150. Klondike by Pierre Berton (non-fic)

** indicates completed reading
* indicates incomplete reading
x indicates no intention of reading

LIGHTBULBS: AUTHORS

AICKMAN
DICKENS - Barnaby Rudge, Dombey & Son, Little Dorrit, Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers, 5 Christmas stories.
DUMAS - The Count of Monte-Cristo, La Reine Margot
ELIOT
GASKELL - Cranford, Mary Barton, North and South, Curious If True: Strange Tales
HAWTHORNE - The Marble Faun, The Blithedale Romance (plus ebook collection options)
MELVILLE - Billy Budd, Foretopman (plus ebook collection options)
OATES
SCOTT - Waverley, St. Ronan's Well, etc.
ZOLA

LIGHTBULBS: BIG FAT BOOKS (HEFTY)

I was happy to move four off of my old lightbulb list, with ten completed.

2019 incomplete attempts:
Holy Bible
War and Peace

2020 renewed attempts:
Anna Karenina
Metamorphoses
Middlemarch
The Arabian Nights
The Brothers Karamazov
The Touch
The Portable Thoreau
The Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (500+p.)
Waverley

2021?
Infinite Jest (1000+p.)

LIGHTBULBS: CANLIT

Jan - LAURENCE: A Jest of God
Feb - ATWOOD: The Robber Bride, Morning in the Burned House (poetry), Cat's Eye
Mar - MOWAT: People of the Deer (paperback, 318p.), The Farfarers: Before the Norse (paperback, 484p.)
Apr - ROBINSON: Son of a Trickster, Monkey Beach, etc.
May - WAGAMESE: Ragged Company
Jun - STACHNIAK: Garden of Venus, Necessary Lies, The Chosen Maiden
Jul - URQUHART: Away, Some Other Garden (poetry)
Aug - SHIELDS ? The Stone Diaries, Unless
Sep - MACLEOD ? No Great Mischief, Island
Oct - DAVIES ? Trilogy
Nov - MISTRY ? A Fine Balance, 1 other novel tba
Dec - MICHAELS ? Fugitive Pieces, 1 poetry collection

2021?
Boyden, Richler, Rushdie, Wright, etc.

LIGHTBULBS: GENRES
(per Gothic Literature group, etc.)

2019 Checklist Summary (author): Bierce, Blackwood, Collins, Dickens, D. du Maurier, Le Fanu, Lewis, Lovecraft, Machen, Maturin, Polidori, Radcliffe, Rymer/Prest?, plus a book of 18th century poetry incl. Gray's 'Elegy'

2020:
JAN Le Fanu (as much as possible) & Brown (ebook Wieland/1798)
FEB Hogg & G. du Maurier (2 leftover ebooks; Justified Sinner, Trilby)
MAR Hill, Susan (2 ebook short stories) & Gaskell (ebook Strange Tales)
APR James, Henry (Portrait of a Lady - gothic?)
MAY Hardy (Jude left to read, and a few lesser known options)
JUN Hawthorne (10 ebook stories)
JUL Atwood (Robber Bride) & Daviesx3
AUG Southern Gothic authors O'Connorx2/Welty's Robber Bridegroom/Faulknerx2)
SEP Jackson, Shirley (The Lottery short story collection/ebook)
OCT Carterx2
NOV Oatesx2
DEC Dickensx4 (a portion of the Pickwick Papers is supposedly ghostly, plus 3 more) &/or McGrath

Faith Formation; Pope Francis/Happiness in this Life (hardcover, 259p.), Pope Francis/God is Young (hardcover, 108p.), The Everlasting Man by G.K.Chesterton (hardcover, 228p.), etc.

LIGHTBULBS: TBR

Jan A Jest of God
Feb The Robber Bride
Mar The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane (from 2019)
Apr The Power and the Glory
May Like Water For Chocolate
Jun Under the Volcano
Jul The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Aug The Reivers
Sep Tristan and Isolde (from 2019)
Oct Omerta by Mario Puzo
Nov The Dark Arena by Mario Puzo (war theme)
Dec Wise Blood

LIGHTBULBS: 1001 BYMRBYD

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Room With a View
Aaron's Rod
Adam Bede
Anna Karenina
Arabian Nights (1001 Nights)
Billy Budd
Blithedale Romance
Bunner Sisters
Cranford
Daniel Deronda
Howards End
Jude the Obscure
Kidnapped
Kim
Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Eden
Mary Barton
Metamorphoses (Ovid)
Middlemarch
Native Son
North and South
Notes From the Underground
Our Mutual Friend
Red Harvest
She
Silas Marner
The Brothers Karamazov
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
The Devils (Dostoevsky)
The Fox
The Glimpses of the Moon
The Kreutzer Sonata
The Long Goodbye
The Master of Ballantrae
The Marble Faun
The Mill on the Floss
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Nose (Gogol)
The Nun (Denis Diderot)
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Plumed Serpent
The Portrait of a Lady
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
The Rainbow
The Red and the Black
The Robber Bride
Therese Raquin
Vathek

INCOMPLETE:
(thus carried forward from 2019 to 2020)

A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart
Light in August by William Faulkner
Sisters in the Wilderness (Catherine Parr Traill and Susanna Moodie) by Charlotte Gray
A Writer's Life: The Margaret Laurence Lectures by various Canadian writers
War and Peace by Tolstoy
Holy Bible, Catholic edition
The Graveyard School: An Anthology (poetry)
Romancing the Bard: Stratford at Fifty (non-fic)
3xDHLawrence

COMPLETE: Ben-Hur

CURRENT: Le Fanu short stories, The House by the Churchyard, The White Peacock by Lawrence

CUSP: A Jest of God by Laurence, The Robber Bride by Atwood

Kobo/ebook Inventory:

1st = was 84 books, with 14 unread
2nd = now 90, with 6 added, thus 20 unread
3rd = now 99, with 9 added, thus 29 unread
4th = 3 more (Dunsany) now totals 102
5th = 1 more (Hobbes) totals 103 w/23 unread (been chipping away!)
6th = Kobo library now 105, with 2 deleted, 4 added (MAY2019) = 27 unread
7th/8th = 2020?!

2018 purchase:
3xAlgernon Blackwood (2 short story Megapacks, 1 novel collection)
The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
The Arthur Machen Megapack
The Mammoth Book of Monsters
World of Cthulhu
The D.H. Lawrence Collection (including poetry/essays)
The Edith Wharton Collection (including poetry/essays)

2019 purchase:
Babbitt / Hardy / Le Fanu / FMF-Owl (JUN?)
Bros. Karamazov / 6xEliot collection / 3xnun mysteries / The Lottery & other stories / House by the Churchyard / The Touch by Colleen McCullough / Necessary Lies by Eva Stachniak / Victorian Rogues Megapack / Noir Mysteries Megapack (SEP)
etc.
+++++
95 Timeless Short Stories
50 Hallowe'en Stories
Alcott - Little Women
Blackwood x3
Dunsany x3
Faulkner - novels, short stories
Ford Maddox Ford - Owl
Hemingway - The Garden of Eden
Hesse - Siddhartha
Hobbes - Leviathan
Lawrence, DH - assorted
Le Fanu - collection
Lovecraft - assorted
Machen - assorted
Melville - assorted
Wharton - Sanctuary, poems, etc.
+11 new ones
+++++
Possibilities from the 95:
(this will only count as one book read if I finish the lot!)
??
+++++
Possibilities from the 50:
Brown = Wieland: or, The Transformation (1798) full book, 27chptrs
Buchan = The Keeper of Cademuir (1894) 10p., No-man's-land (1899) 8chptrs
Gaskell = Curious, If True: Strange Tales (full size book of short stories)
Machen = The Inmost Light, The Terror, The Great God Pan, The Novel of the White Powder
Viereck = The House of the Vampire

DEC2019 KOBO/EBOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS
(alphabetical by author)

**Aesop (1)
**Alcott, Louisa May (1)
**Allen, Tom (1)
**Atwood, Margaret (1)
**Austen, Jane (7)
**(de) Balzac, H (1)
**Barrie, J.M. (1)
**Baum, L.F. (2)
*Blackwood, A (3)
**Bronte, A and C and E (1 collection plus 6)
Carter, Angela (1)
**Chesterton (1)
Choo (1)
**Collins (1)
**Cooper (1)
**Cullen (1)
**deWitt (2)
**Dickens (4)
**Dickinson (1)
*Dostoevsky (3 total, 2 finished)
**Doyle (3)
**Dumas (2)
*Dunsany (2)
Eliot (6)
*LeFanu (2)
*Faulkner (9 novels in collection, 4 finished, plus short stories)
**Flaubert (1)
Ford (1)
Gaskell (1)
**Grimm (1)
**Hardy (4)
**Hawthorne (2)
**Hemingway (5)
Hesse (1)
Hobbes (1)
**Homer (1)
**Hugo (2)
**Irving (1)
*Jackson (1)
Joyce (1)
*Kipling (1)
**Koenig (1)
**Koontz (1)
**Laurence (1)
**Lawrence (1)
**Leroux (1)
**Lewis M.G. (1)
**Lewis S. (1)
**London (2)
*Lovecraft (2)
**Lowry (1)
*Machen (1)
Matthews (3)
**Maturin (1)
*McCullough (1)
*Melville (2 collections; 1 novels only, 1 complete works, ?total?)
**More (1)
**Orczy (1)
**Poe (1)
**Radcliffe (2)
Rinehart (1)
Rostand (1)
**Shaw (1)
**Shelley (1)
*Stachniak (3)
**Steinbeck (1)
**Stevenson (1 collection; 2 total)
**Stoker (1)
**Stowe (1)
**Thackery (1)
*Tolstoy (1 collection; 1 underway, ? to go)
**Twain (4)
**Verne (1)
*Wagamese (2 novels; 1 done, 1 to go)
**Walpole (1)
**Wells (2)
*Welty (1)
*Wharton (1 collection; 4 done, ? to go)
**Wilde (1)
Wolfe (1)

Bildungsromans collection
*Mammoth Book of Monsters collection
Victorian Rogues collection
Noir Mystery collection
*Worlds of Cthulhu collection
Gods of Pegana collection
**Curse collection (17 dark faerie tales)
*8 Russian works collection
*50 Hallowe'en classics collection
*50 classic gothic works collection
*95 timeless school short stories collection

** indicates completed reading
* indicates incomplete reading but started

SATIRE

5 in 2019!
Animal Farm / The Screwtape Letters / Hard Times / Candide / Babbitt

4 in 2020?
A Clockwork Orange
Dead Souls (Gogol)
Revolting Rhymes (Dahl)
The Devils (Dostoevsky)
Catch-22
Slaughterhouse-Five
Tristan Shandy, Gentleman
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Lord Byron)
The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Brave New World / Point Counter Point
The Way We Live Now (Trollope)
Cocksure (Richler)
Erewhon (Butler)
Naked Lunch
1984
etc.

Happy reading in 2020 and lots of luck with all your projects and lists! Cheers!

>18 rocketjk: Thanks so much! It is an effective way of repositioning brain clutter. Fading memory, misplaced lists, etc. worsen as years mount. I have no electronic devices and only use my daughter's laptop when she isn't, which limits access to most outlets. Keeping it blopped in one spot works best for me.

I popped in and out of your 2019 50bks thread, sadly many titles were unknown to me so input was absent. Great to see your reading travel path though. “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be him who first cries ‘Hold! enough!’” Happy retirement, btw.

As requested by OscarWilde87, here will be my impressions of a selection of stories, their impact and endurance factor in my own memory. Usually quite a different take than most book reviews since my veins bleed personal experience not academic knowledge. I still owe him a summary of Moby-Dick!

THE HAPPY PRINCE
As with The Little Match Girl, you know it's going to appear to end badly, adding to the double irony of the title. I came into it with The Canterville Ghost as my last foray with Mr. Wilde, so my expectation was more dark comedy than harps and heartstrings but that is the man's breadth and magic. Take one bird, give it a timeline, a fluke diversion and a grinch-like metamorphosis and we have our story. Moral? When you know better, do better. Simple as that. And yep, I wept. Some might see it as melodrama but to me the ending was bliss. Born 16Oct1854, THP May1888, at age 33, astounding. Dorian Gray? 1890.
Spoilers follow!!!
1. There are selfish gits who know what they're doing and why, without remorse.
2. There are selfish gits who know what they're doing and the ripples they cause, but feel guilt/shame.
3. There are selfish gits who learn to alter their behavior, striving toward improvement.
4. There are unselfish charitable souls who are born doing good deeds.
5. There are those, entitled and privileged, who are oblivious to suffering in youth, get pitched a curve-ball in adulthood and spend their life bitter misanthropes.
6. There are those, born to privilege, whose reflex is to share, both as child/adult, but know nothing of the sting of poverty, mediocrity, homelessness, homeliness. Eyesores are unwelcomed intrusions.
7. Then there is The Happy Prince, and his cohort, the swallow...
Subtle unimportant distinctions? I think not. Some see the bird as innocent and unselfish. I do not. Carefree, yes, oblivious, yes, but entirely self-centred and wrapped up in its own agenda. As with the prince, through no fault of his own, he is the sun/son and the world revolves around him, until it doesn't. His clarity erupts through the gesture of yet another selfish git, the Mayor. Suitably adorned, they can both be proud. Position of power, the heights of recognition and adoration. That's what everyone wants, non? To be remembered, honoured, elevated? That's not enough, not nearly enough, and as the prince is held captive to his own soul-searching journey, along comes a mobile mocking featherhead seeking a pretty perch. The swallow finds it, stays as it suits him, constantly threatening to abandon his new friend. Should? Could?? Would??? All are relevant questions that must be asked. Directly. Of us all. They're in the same boat, they confront the depths then dive into it. The true heights that these two compatible souls reach, is literal perfection, through purification and awareness, the fulfilment that emptying the 'my' brings, as it's filled by 'your'. The mortification of 'me' brings life, not indulgence of every impulse. Many fail, but the 'try' is imperative for conversion. The unseen surpasses the seen, by way of humility. Different than humiliation. The Mayor will never get it, as he cooks his own goose. John 15:13? Bullseye!

BEN-HUR
Appropriate to reread this during the Christmas season, since it incorporates a meeting between the Three Wise Men in the desert before their arrival at the manger for a first glimpse of the newborn Saviour. As well as the Nativity and the Epiphany. The Greek, Gaspar, with gold. The Hindu/Indian, Melchior, with Frankincense. The Egyptian, Balthazar, with Myrrh. A chance meeting at the well, when Ben-Hur is in a slave train bound for three years of galley imprisonment, and Jesus offers him water in defiance of the Roman guard's authority, lingers. This significant element invokes Jean Valjean and the candlestick offering at the beginning of Les Miserables. Compassion with a capital 'C'. Job also resonates.
Poignant Quotes:
Book V Chapter XIV
" ...he saw the soul of the man as through a glass, darkly: cruel, cunning, desperate; not so excited as determined - a soul in a tension of watchfulness and fierce resolve. "
Book VII Chapter II
" …suspicion as we all know are weeds of the mind which grow of themselves and most rapidly when least watered… "
Book VII Chapter V
" …about the third hour, out of the pass through which, skirting the base of Mount Gilead, they had journeyed since leaving Ramoth, the party came upon the barren steppe east of the sacred river. Opposite them they saw the upper limit of the old palm lands of Jericho, stretching off to the hill-country of Judea. Ben-Hur's blood ran quickly, for he knew the ford was close at hand." (I wonder if Margaret Atwood read this before crafting The Handmaid's Tale, or if the Bible directly was her source?)
Book VIII Chapter II
" … The rider was bareheaded and clad all in white. When he was in distance to be more clearly observed, these, looking anxiously, saw an olive-hued face shaded by long chestnut hair slightly sunburned and parted in the middle. He looked neither to the right nor left. In the noisy abandon of his followers he appeared to have no part; nor did their favor disturb him in the least, or raise him out of the profound melancholy into which, as his countenance showed, he was plunged. The sun beat upon the back of his head, and lighting up the floating hair gave it a delicate likeness to a golden nimbus. Behind him the irregular procession, pouring forward with continuous singing and shouting, extended out of view. There was no need of any one to tell the lepers that this was he--the wonderful Nazarene! … "

STEINBECK OPTION; TO A GOD UNKNOWN , THE WAYWARD BUS, or??

I love your lists! Good luck attacking them! I saw The Robber Bride come up more than once. It was one of my favorites in 2018!

>21 PaperbackPirate: Teehee, go big or go home, right?! This is me streamlining. Que sera.

I don't know why I feel the need to apologize to myself for revisiting old favourites. That has to stop. I wish I could read every book at least twice, but thirty years apart. I learned that from The Bell Jar, very different vibe as a mature mom than as an angst-laden teen.

I tried so hard to get The Robber Bridegroom by Welty finished (after The Robber Bridegroom by Grimm Bros) before lining up Atwood, but it didn't happen so I'm forging on ahead without her. The Robber Bride ticks so many boxes that all excuses evaporate. I want to do her justice while waiting for her to win the Nobel. It would have made a great 80th birthday gift! =(

Hi and thanks for pointing me here! Dropped a star to be able to follow you more easily. I have to say that I do love your lists! They really bring some structure into one's reading, don't they? They do seem quite overwhelming, though.

I'm with you on your reading for reading's sake and not for numbers or statistics mantra. In recent years I often had the goal of outdoing myself and read more books than in the year before. This did indeed take away the joy of reading somewhat and I just go with the flow now. Whatever tickles my fancy will be what I read. I still keep statisitcs, though. The mathematician in me just urges me to, I guess.

You do not exactly owe me a review of Moby-Dick, so no pressure there. ;) I'm merely interested in your thoughts on books I've read (as with Steinbeck and the Happy Prince, for instance) as you always seem to have some wonderufl insights or personal experience to connect it to, which is something I just like a lot.

So happy reading in 2020 and expect me to be following your reading here.

>20 frahealee:
>23 OscarWilde87:
Here you are, Sir, done 'n dusted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t33NWgOzjK8

>24 frahealee: Thanks! That's going to be my first audiobook, actually. ;)

>25 OscarWilde87: First of this new year or first ever?! =) I wish I'd known about them back in the 90s commuting to/from work 45-90min daily for 11yrs. I miss those old music cassette tapes (Huey Lewis & the News, Chris De Burgh), which I still have someplace. Someone on LT suggested online audio options to me for my daughter to share at day's end, and we went through the whole Roald Dahl inventory and she loved it!

Are you teaching right now? My daughter went back to class today. Germany is 5/6 hrs ahead, so just curious. I forget, everyone has a smartphone except me. I cannot imagine anything worse than non-stop access. Reminds me too much of The Truman Show (1998). Be careful what you wish for kinda vibe. Btw, I wish I was better at math, since I'm procrastinating on last year's page count total.

>26 frahealee: First ever, admittedly. I always wanted to check out audio books but never got really into it as I don't have too much time for reading anyway and then I thought I'd rather read than listen. I will give The Happy Prince a try on my tablet before going to sleep. Doesn't seem all too long, which might make it a good first. So thanks again for the link.

I am back to teaching, yes. Today was my first day after winter break and what can I say, I love my job! :)

I found this random online War & Peace morsel as I searched for an entirely different audiobook. Made me grin, his cheerleading but also his honesty. 300pgs/wk x 4wks, yikes, that would implode my brain cells. His War of 1812 bit about USA loss to Canada made me laugh aloud. =) Hurray Laura Secord & legacy! Her sacrifice, her papa, and her chocolates! I am currently a third of the way through W&P, and this helps resolve/endurance. I will not pick up The Brothers Karamazov until this concludes, thus, the dangling carrot. This guy is not what I picture as an English teacher, not personalities in MY past, but he dispels the precious nature of most classic literature, and gives me permission to have fun with it. That makes all the difference. My only Tolstoy to date has been Three Novellas. Quite the high dive now with 1200+ pages over 6-8-10 months? Still a worthwhile effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikoiasv9-BQ (how to read War and Peace by The English Teacher)

>27 OscarWilde87: A side note, my audiobook introduction, besides kid books, began by accident with a link to Fitzgerald's novel Tender is the Night. Listening to it in the dark, I noticed an odd section that made no sense, compared it to online text, and discovered a whole chunk missing! The same thing happened with an ebook, where an audio version did not match the written text. Likely not a matter of translation, but lazy proofreading/copy-typing or however they get these gems ready for distribution, is my gut reflex. Audio might suit shorter stories, with less investment thus moderate impact (running across errors I mean, or annoying voices even when voluntary), but with a stunning opus, it deserves the precision it demands, if only as respect to the author.

I like the simultaneous nature of listening and reading, when available, because although I have read a lot of stories to others, only one man has ever read to me, and my dad has been dead since 2012. This is his legacy to me, this love of reading. I picture him as a child during the Depression era with a radio broadcast, as a post-war teen studying, then gradually amassing his own quirky collection, from Rilke to Reflexology. All of that runs through my veins and into my 4 offspring, making necessary concessions along the way. Arthritis in knuckles, failing eyesight, ringing Tinnitus, Scoliosis, etc. prevents book shop/public library visits now, but there are ways around any obstacle, in pursuit of a story well told. I wish I could attack literature like a mogul hill at top speed with perfect path and balance, but have learned to accept the grace of aging. There are yet malleable moments of wonder and awe for those profound masters, no matter their geography. Yep, this is what results from a Barter Books video. =D Nostalgic reflection and renewed reading goals! Now for a nap.

>28 frahealee: I can imagine War & Peace is really a piece of work, but it is probably worthwhile. I haven't read it yet, but it is on my list of (distant) future reads.

I do prefer reading to be honest as it does not take away that much from my own imagination because hearing a character's voice changes my imagination, I guess. I do, however, see the advantages of audiobooks as you describe them. Your side not actually makes me want to pick up a book right now. I like how reading connects different generations of your family.

I heard on the radio this morning that it's book nerd day, or some such thing, and that the word bookkeeper is t he only word with three double letters that requires no hyphen. Wonders never cease!

>29 OscarWilde87: I love the way words look, even in poetry, preferring a book in my hands to audio or any screen that needs a plug. Something wonderful in tucking a paper treasure into a pocket or purse and disappearing into the woods out of cell phone range and getting lost in a story. Still my favourite thing to do, just rarer now. Getting my oxygen from trees that give me those pages, is delicious irony.

>30 frahealee: In the end it's just about the stories and the reading experience for me. So audio or paper should not be too much of an issue. But just like you I do enjoy paper a lot.

Love that bookkeeper fun fact. :)

I found this link helpful enough to look for other metaphors in War and Peace, as the book continues to hold my attention:
https://tolstoyswarandpeace.blogspot.com/2011/10/wolf-has-meaning.html

I have seen two or three different translations and find that it doesn't really matter, since none outperforms another. Should it matter?

Here is the link, for later reference:
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/w/war-and-peace/character-list

I feel in a state of freefall, stalled somewhat, after hearing the news of the death of Neil Peart (age 67). I found out yesterday, although he died on January 7th of brain cancer. To lose three monumental musical influences so close together, is jarring. First, Gord Downie (age 53) of The Tragically Hip, then John Mann (age 57) of Spirit of the West, and now Rush's famed drummer and lyricist. It has knocked me off my feet. I have Gord's poetry book Coke Machine Glow (which I've given as gifts to each of my three sons when they left home for the first time for school), and also a hardcover band biography Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush At Home and Away by Popoff. It seems silly, but holding these books, and reading the contents sporadically, helps me cope, almost more than hearing the music. The music makes me feel sadder while the books bring pure joy and comfort, honouring the talent of the men, the words they merged with the music, their gift to me as Canadians. I will need to seek out something concrete from Mann. I've seen all three bands perform live during my time in Toronto.

It might be a fluke, but having just finished Aaron's Rod by Lawrence, had me very much in a musical mindset. Since I had an ebook/Kobo collection by DHLawrence, and noticed seven on the 1001btrbyd list, it made sense to thumb through those first, before continuing with the short stories and poetry. Ironic that piano calms me more than any other string/wind instruments. Brass in jazz is tolerable. My dad played piano by instruction, my mother, by ear. My lessons were agony since I'd rather be outdoors and anything that kept me inside was hostile territory. Wash the car, cut the grass, weed the garden? Absolutely!

This helped ground the story experience for me:
https://dhlawrencesociety.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/jdhls-2018-ian-thomson.pdf

I really don't quite know what to do next. War and Peace will have to wait, since I'm feeling too nostalgic for my own country at the moment. Please God, let The Band's Robbie Robertson be healthy and happy.

To finish off comments on Lawrence, the next will be a novella, The Fox. Set in Berkshire. Here is a Guardian article encouraging the revisiting of Lawrence, the lesser known works, later in life:

" Lawrence was brought up in a mining town but really he was a country boy: the fields and woods were all around him, and are in what he wrote. No writer has ever identified so strongly with the wild, and with beasts. The old shamans did, the storytellers. For them and for Lawrence an animal was never what it seemed. A white peacock is the spirit of a screeching woman. Who could forget St Mawr, the horse who comes out of some primeval world? Even the pheasants' chicks being raised in the dim and dusky wood are like emanations of the forces of fecundity. And here is the fox in this tale. Into the sylvan scene where two young women are struggling for economic survival, a young man comes, impudent, and daring, like the fox.
...
The tale progresses through scenes where every detail has significance, reminding us of how much we miss in life, how much we don't see. March has been wearing farm clothes, breeches and boots, looking "almost like some graceful loose-balanced young man". Now she puts on a dress and for the first time the young man sees her as dangerously feminine, and beautiful. Bludgeoned and shouted at as we are by fashion, and often by nakedness, I cannot imagine a scene in a modern novel where the putting on of a dress, the revelation of the power of a woman's body, could have such an impact. And March, in a dress, is undermined and made defenceless.
…
The man wants the woman to be passive: like the seaweed she peers down on from a boat, she must be utterly sensitive and receptive. He wants her to submit to him, "blindly passing away from her strenuous consciousness". He wants to take away that consciousness so that she becomes, simply, his woman. Well, yes, it is easy to laugh. But women do not seem to be particularly happy having their own way - as Lawrence and the Wife of Bath would put it. And men are certainly not happy. ...A subtle and profound battle of wills taking place in the invisible... " (c/o Doris Lessing, 2002)

After that, will be The Plumed Serpent, since the setting is Mexico. I have a bit of a theme going with Like Water For Chocolate, The Power and the Glory, and Under the Volcano which deals with The Day of the Dead celebrations on November 1st (All Saint's Day). It will likely conjure up memories of PVR vacations past. The combination of cooking and faith and festivities is as good as it gets.

From the University of New Mexico website:

" In March 1924, Lawrence and his wife, accompanied by Dorothy Brett, an English painter and admirer of the author, returned a second time to Taos. On this visit, Mabel Dodge Luhan gave Frieda a ranch she owned located 20 miles northwest of Taos on Lobo Mountain. The 160 acres was known as the Kiowa Ranch because the Kiowa Indians had used a trail which ran through the property when they traveled south to raid Indian pueblos along the Rio Grande. Situated at 8,600 feet above sea level, the ranch was first established in the late 1880s by a homesteader, John Craig. In 1893 he sold the ranch to Mary and William L. McClure who raised angora goats on the property. Luhan purchased the ranch from the McClures in May 1920. Lawrence and Frieda along with Lady Brett, who was the Earl of Esher’s daughter, moved to the ranch in May 1924 and spent five months there. During the summer, Lawrence completed his short novel “St.Mawr” in which he celebrates the special quality and landscape of the Kiowa Ranch. Lawrence also wrote his biblical drama, “David” and parts of “The Plumed Serpent” during his last visit to the ranch (April-Sept. 1925). New Mexico also figures prominently in other essays and stories such as “The Woman Who Rode Away.” After Lawrence died near Vence, France in 1930, Frieda returned to New Mexico to live. In 1934, she had Lawrence’s body exhumed, cremated and his ashes brought to the ranch to be housed in a small memorial chapel. "

The ranch was willed to the UNM by FL a few months before her death in 1955, 25 years after her 2nd husband's death. Not sure what happened to the first and third husbands?!?

Having become fond of this NYU professor's lectures on American Gothic, American Puritanism, Nathanial Hawthorne, etc. the next logical pursuit was Moby-Dick. Melville dedicated his book to Hawthorne in thanks for his support in the literary world, as a mentor and friend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFqmXswwxo (lecture 2) Part 1 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WF-zh8f7Uw (lecture 23) Part 2 of 4
? Part 3 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea-9lMC_h8c (lecture 25) Part 4 of 4

I've read the book (with Cliffs Notes alongside), loved it, and watched these lectures a few times, so I can only try to hit on points of interest than rang true for me. A few movies are also tossed into the mix and themes/ideas might overlap or be 'borrowed' from others, but in my innocence, they matter here.

MOBY-DICK IMPRESSIONS/OBSERVATIONS:
(subtle or otherwise)
- coffin/funeral mentioned in opening chapter, then Peter Coffin, The Spouter Inn landlord, makes an appearance, combined with the actual object that materializes later in the story, and its ultimate importance to 'Ishmael' sharing his story with any of us
- I like the concept that the novel is a cenotaph, to honour the dead, but also the writing of the story is an intentional process of healing for 'Ishmael'
- making sense of that which we do not know, or have no frame of reference for, enriches our human experience by stretching our roadblocks or boundaries to include unusual cultures or obscene circumstances, knowing that we can make it out the other side intact (following the Golden Rule)
- it is possible to show charity (love with legs) to the occult or pagan cultures without adopting their practices, which is a direct contradiction to the First Commandment; I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before me. (ie. Ouji board, tarot cards, seance, medium/psychic, white/black magic, pagan statuary, all channels for potential demonic possession, etc.)
- diversity is admirable for education and broadening our spectrum of experience, but cannot replace God as first priority central to our reason for being here … the old Butler Catechism answers the question 'Why am I here?' with the simple yet whole response 'to know God, to love God, and to serve God in this world and the next' and the best possible practice is to look for the face of Christ in our neighbours, to love them faults and all, and to show mercy at all times by helping them by unifying mutual sacrifice which brings God's grace into the lives of both
- the distinction between the novel Moby-Dick (with hyphen) and the character Moby Dick (without hyphen) was a new consideration
- the varying chapter lengths helped mix up the reading experience, as did dry description about whaling interspersed with more intense character interaction, and the 100+ chapters churned along more quickly than expected, so the whole book was not at all hard to finish
- Toni Morrison called Enlightenment 'the age of scientific racism' and alleged that all American Literature encompasses the white versus Indigenous massacre theme or white versus black slavery theme, even when it's not specifically pointed out, as in Moby-Dick, the white whale is not pure white but appears whiter against a dark blue sea background

(under construction)

Another interesting dialogue about Moby Dick is between authors Margaret Atwood and E.L. Doctorow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODvuQUnIozU

I just finished Ambrose Bierce's The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, a short story (or novella?) from 1892. I find it enjoyable when a non-Catholic (in this case, Puritan parents from England, although the author was born in the USA in a log cabin no less!) makes a concerted effort to write a story of this magnitude and relishes the attempt, determined to describe the detail truthfully/faithfully. It is a tidy bit of writing. It was mentioned in the Gothic Literature 'motifs' thread, since it was included in somebody's library display for the gothic one year. I made note of that assortment and have been chipping away slowly at the suggestions.

What I found interesting, was that it is supposed to be a rewritten story from some lost German original text. If so, he did a great job revamping it. If it's an original composition, then he still did a great job. =) Whether merely a rumour, or a similar device to the first gothic story (Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764), which was supposed to be a 'discovered manuscript', it's completely quaint. (see next post below)

It is a complete fluke that it follows another Puritan bloodline author, Nathanial Hawthorne, with his novel The Marble Faun. Although some of his observations and interpretations made me chortle, his description of the awe and the holy place that inspirational sacred art takes in the Roman Catholic global community and in those who are not, was more than balanced. The Scarlet Letter (1850) also is said to be a 'found manuscript' or scroll with the fabric letter A enclosed, which was just for dramatic effect as part of the fiction. If the overlap is intentional, what a fun homage of one to the other!

Bierce also brought to mind Christian Slater. Never a bad thing! =D As a teenager, he starred in a film with Sean Connery called The Name of the Rose (1986). Although the movie was based on the book by Umberto Eco, the parallels of a young friar having his decision to serve God challenged by temptation (be it body/mind/soul) resonates in both stories. Both showed unique challenges with relationships, with fellow friars/brothers/monks and also with the community they serve, and different results for the ending satisfied the polarity of any potential interaction.

Intro:

Under the name of G. A. Danziger I wrote in the year 1889 a story founded on a German tale, which I called The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter. The story was tragic but I gave it a happy ending. Submitting it to the late Ambrose Bierce, asking him to revise the story, he suggested the retention of the tragic part and so revised it. The story was published and the house failed.
When in 1900 a publisher desired to bring out the story provided I gave it a happy ending, I submitted the matter to Bierce and on August 21, 1900, he wrote me a long letter on the subject of which the following is an extract:
‘I have read twice and carefully, your proposed addition to The Monk, and you must permit me to speak plainly, if not altogether agreeably, of it. It will not do for these reasons and others:
‘The book is almost perfect as you wrote it; the part of the work that pleases me least is my part (underscores Bierce’s). I am surprised that you should yield to the schoolgirl desire for that shallowest of all literary devices, a “happy ending,” by which all the pathos of the book is effaced to “make a woman holiday.” It is unworthy of you. So much vii did I feel this unworthiness that I hesitated a long time before even deciding to have so much of “odious ingenuity” and “mystery” as your making Benedicta the daughter of the Saltmaster and inventing her secret love for Ambrosius instead of Rochus.
‘“Dramatic action,” which is no less necessary in a story than in a play, requires that so far as is possible what takes place shall be seen to take place, not related as having previously taken place.... Compare Shakespeare’s Cymbeline with his better plays. See how he spoiled it the same way. You need not feel ashamed to err as Shakespeare erred. Indeed, you did better than he, for his explanations were of things already known to the reader, or spectator, of the play. Your explanations are needful to an understanding of the things explained; it is they that are needless. All “explanation” is unspeakably tedious, and is to be cut as short as possible. Far better to have nothing to explain—to show everything that occurs, in the very act of occurring. We cannot always do that, but we should come as near to doing it as we can. Anyhow, the “harking back” should not be done at the end of the book, when the dénouement is already known and the reader’s interest in the action exhausted....
‘Ambrosius and Benedicta are unique in letters. Their nobility, their simplicity, their sufferings—everything that is theirs stamps them as “beings apart.” They live in the memory sanctified and glorified by these qualities and sorrows. They are, in the last and most gracious sense, children of nature. Leave them lying there in the lovely valley of the gallows, where Ambrosius shuddered as his foot fell on the spot where he was destined to sleep....
‘Let The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter alone. It is great work and you should live to see the world confess it. Let me know if my faith in your faith in me is an error. You once believed in my judgment; I think it is not yet impaired by age.
‘Sincerely yours, (Signed) Ambrose Bierce.’
++++
I can only add that my faith in Bierce’s judgment of letters is as firm to-day as it was then, when I gave him power of attorney to place my book with a publisher. This publisher embodied The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter in Bierce’s collected works, then sold the right to Messrs. Albert and Charles Boni who without knowledge of the true facts brought out an edition under Bierce’s name.
ADOLPHE de CASTRO.

Those are really interesting thoughts. I especially liked your notes on Moby-Dick (I also learned from you that I have to hyphenate when I'm talking about the book and not the character. I think I just passed over it when reading the novel and regarded it as an inconsistency that didn't bug me too much to follow up.). The religious reading certainly lends itself to Moby-Dick, but with such readings I always find myself exploring unknown territory (or at least territory that I don't know as well). I might have lost out on reading experience not being a deeply religious person per se.

I like how you keep going with Gothic lit. The Scarlet Letter is simply fantastic.

>39 OscarWilde87: I found our 'timing' fascinating though, my Moby-Dick observations were made on February 7th after finishing two stories by Hawthorne, and before reading your post on your own thread of February 9th, basically surmising the same topic, ie. same question, different wording. Themes overlap in literature, often tying them together in unexpected ways. =) I still want to read through Cliffs Notes again for Moby-Dick, as I found the clarity removed some of the intimidation one feels when reading classic literature.

My father was Italian, his grandparents both born in Sicily, and my mother received the Sacraments to become Catholic in the 50s so she could marry my father (to be buried together in a Roman Catholic cemetery, consecrated ground). She was raised as an Anglican by British parents (both born in England) so it wasn't too much of a stretch, but in those days, she was spurned by her own family for it. My folks were married 55 years and had four daughters, twelve grandchildren, etc. so it turned out alright. =)

Point being, my perspective cannot help be what it is, when I have lived a life steeped in Catholic tradition, and have seen my four children receive Baptism/First Communion/Confession/Confirmation. My three sons were altar servers for six years, and my daughter is now 20, with special needs, and we pray the rosary together nightly. I would not know how to look at a book without that undercurrent. My Faith is everything, and as I grow older, I believe more in what I don't see than in what I do see around me. Literature (especially GothicLit) fosters common ground that unites global/cultural/individual interests. Without university training of any kind, I feel akin to those who treasure it as much as I do. Most definitely, you included. Moby-Dick was life changing (as was Don Quixote) with its central madness element, which I see trickles through many stories since. Including the Bierce one I just finished. Those resonate for weeks/months/years and echoes occur in unusual unexpected places/times.

>23 OscarWilde87: " … you always seem to have some wonderufl insights or personal experience to connect it to, which is something I just like a lot."

See, you shouldn't have encouraged me, OscarW, by being so genuinely complimentary, since I may actually believe you and let it go straight to my head! ; D I will therefore work on the vice of pride during the upcoming Lenten season beginning on February 26th...

>40 frahealee: Well, I have to disagree here. I still like your thoughts and insights and wouldn't consider it a vice for you to provide them and me to like them. Receiving compliments and actually believing they are true should not be a vice, should it? So, please, keep going! ;)

>41 OscarWilde87: Meant to be tongue in cheek, absolutely! Compliments and positive reinforcement can be so rare in the age of screen demons of social media, called trolls I think?, that I wholeheartedly accept personal praise at any opportunity. I only hesitate to engage those who are already so busy. But if you want something done well, give it to a busy person, right?!

I am astounded by how often Moby-Dick and Don Quixote and authors like Steinbeck pop up in cultural references and discussions, etc. How many nods and nudges to classic literature have I missed all these years, by waiting until recently to intentionally indulge my literary fantasies, and crush the intimidation reflex underfoot! =D Les Miserables led the revolution so long ago I can barely remember, but I still have my hardcover. From 1987, how's that for context!? Teehee.

>42 frahealee: I am glad to hear that!

I also love discovering classics authors and classic novels. I do enjoy a serious amount of pop fiction too, though. It's just more relaxing sometimes to unwind with King, Grisham or Baldacci after a busy day.
Fun fact: I was born the year your revolution started. ;)

>43 OscarWilde87: And I suppose your first name is really Oscar?! My son just got his first pet at age 23, a 1-year old German hunting dog, a miniature dachshund named Ossie =) which makes me laugh on every level. I won't get roped into house or dog sitting since he's two provinces away. Whew!

I know what you mean but I am not sure contemporary fiction suits me. I avoided classics for many years with the assumption that the majority would be well beyond my grasp. Either that doesn't bother me now or it was never the case.

Reading two Canadian literature novels recently, with a mystery in between, lessened the aftermath of tension. A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart was an exceptional book cover to cover but I had to keep putting it down. Too emotionally raw for me. The protagonist is nearly my age, but has an unspecified condition that we can guess is full on Autism or Asperger's syndrome or amplified OCD etc. Vague enough description that we can insert our own experiences, yet filled with claustrophobic detail about family trees and communities next door that we know so very little about. Also, the mother of this woman was far from compassion and being non-judgmental. She was a piece of work, which would be mine and every mother's worst nightmare, to be perceived that way. The density in this grown up woman's thoughts is suffocating and the lack of ability or opportunity to express it is the real tragedy in this book and beyond.

Then came The Red Lamp by Mary Roberts Rinehart which was not at all what I was expecting. It framed supernatural phenomenon in a rural setting with an inherited estate and mansion antics ensued. I had no clue about the plot being completely gothic in tone. I only ordered this book because it had an image of an old glass lantern lamp similar to one we had sitting on an old English teacart in our living room when i was a child! The book was stylish for 1925 and funny to boot! Perfect fierce farce for the sorbet between two heavier courses.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson was also gothic, with a bevy of witches and ghost phenomenon and indigenous animal symbols and beliefs. I think that I entered a state of shock with the material in the novel that didn't really wear off until the final 50 pages. The character I liked best was only mentioned on a few scrawny pages. Anita Moody.

The first book was started last year and I just needed to do the deed. Finishing it was like going into mourning, although it begins with a tragic death, perhaps preventable perhaps not. It wound around familiar terrain like aging and special needs, but also unfamiliar doses of Alzheimer's disease and Toronto's artistic community.

>44 frahealee: I just love how you find all those personal connections in books that help you fill in the blanks that books sometimes leave for us as readers. This is just perfect as it makes every reading expericence personal and special. I find I'm enjoying books that I can connect with on a personal level more than other books. Or at least they stay with me longer. For everything there's a season (or a book, perhaps?), I guess.

My reading has been slumping a little lately and I have only returned to reading on a more regular basis last week or so. With the corona pandemic affecting almost every aspect of our lives I had to go from teaching in a classroom to teaching online as schools were closed all across Germany. As a teacher I now have to split my time providing students with online work and checking their results and actually going to school every other day (also on weekends) in case students' parents are doctors or nurses and cannot supervise their children in the mornings due to extended working hours fighting the virus. I have to say that the system still works fine and that our students are fantastic and really put in a lot of work from home. I seem to have found a new work routine, too, so this is all good and there will be more time for reading again. Plus, there's Easter break coming up and I'll only have to be in school for a couple of days.

I have just finished Stephen King's Different Seasons which I liked a lot. Last night I started reading the Springsteen autobiography Born to Run which I had been looking forward to doing for quite a while now. The first chapters seem very promising. I will also add a second book to my current reading list as I want to try and split my reading time between fiction and non-fiction.

My real name is not Oscar, actually. It's just that when I signed up for LT I tried to find an anonymous user name and went with an author I love. My real name is Bastian, which is rather rare as it is a shorter form of the more common Sebastian.

How are things in Canada? I hope you're fine!

I gave up screens for Lent, so very little time was spent in the world of fiction. Pope Francis summoned the billion worldwide Catholics to pick up our rosaries and gather for unified prayer and fasting to combat this demonic virus, so that's what we did. Our lives haven't altered much; with one son still working, one home from residence but studying online, and my daughter home from secondary school enjoying the extended break immensely. My eldest is a military paramedic so my focus is on his safety and sanity.

Now that it's after Easter, there's another forty days until the Ascension, then another ten days until the feast of Pentecost, so my Easter season isn't even technically halfway yet! I can use the computer again, and watch films again, but somehow War and Peace isn't as prominent in my mind these days. I'm joined in spiritual communion with the Holy Father and his intentions for global adjustment to traditional ways of caring for the sick, the poor, the destitute, the elderly, the dying. My time is best used to free souls from Purgatory and beg forgiveness for the sins of an indifferent social climate.

Stay safe, everyone!

Marching onward. Ascension Sunday just passed and Pentecost Sunday is this coming weekend. It's been an odd spring, with snow 2wks ago and 33degC. Monday. "I'm melting!" (cackle) Tree buds are finally popping so the pollen count allergy report is invaluable. Out early this morning to beat the heat, a happy little bat flitted overhead munching mosquitoes. =) By 6am, he was gone! Fruit bat variety, I'm guessing, as it paid my overheated menopausal body no heed. No fangs visible! No idea where its home might be, as there are no nefarious caves in my neighbourhood.

Completed: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Current: The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Cusp: Omerta, The Dark Arena, both by Mario Puzo

Ugh. Couldn't finish the first quickly enough and it took foreeeeeever. I disliked the author, what he wrote, the way he wrote, the war, the crisis at hand, the cover-ups, the characters, ugh. I got the impact of the title early on but never agreed with it. The only one I liked was the son of the doctor, and he had 2 scenes. Again, ugh. Glad it's done, and I'll seek the first opportunity to donate it.

Under the Volcano was better than expected. Rich and visceral detail grabbed me by the throat and forced me to stay focused, unlike the alcoholic protagonist. Audiobook of Brideshead Revisited read by John Gielgud was terrific. At under 4hrs, several revisits are planned in future!

I also finished Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel in 2 days. I knew I'd love it and did. The film, seen years ago, sticks with you for a long time, likely due to supernatural elements that refuse to conform to typical fiction. Even its cover made me happy, with saffron yellow, paprika red, deep turquoise evoking restaurants in Toronto named after Steinbeck books. Such a fun jaunt into Mexico. Unlike ...

Graham Greene noteworthy quotes from an unrelenting current:
Pg.19 "Heat stood in the room like an enemy."
Pg.26 "a vulture lay spread out in the sky"
Pg.28 "the real thing was taboo"
Pg.38 "hands brown and fragile as last year's leaves, he gave an effect of immense permanence."
Pg.49 "she looked more fragile than ever and more indomitable."
Pg. 125 "He had always been worried by the fate of pious women. As much as politicians, they fed on illusion."
Pg. 140 "Hope is an instinct only the reasoning human mind can kill."
"...instinct is like a sense of duty, one can confuse it with loyalty very easily."
Pg. 153 "Faith, one was told, could move mountains, and here was faith - faith in the spittle that healed the blind man and the voice that raised the dead."
Pg. 169 "Love is not wrong, but love should be happy and open - it is only wrong when it is secret, unhappy... It can be more unhappy than anything but the loss of God. It is the loss of God."
"...when we love our sin then we are damned indeed."
Pg. 198 "It isn't a case of miracles not happening - it's just a case of people calling them something else."
The Judas character was intolerable but effective. The old women contrasted covered the spectrum. The innocent with the guilty. The young with the ancient. The sick with the sturdy. The pious with the sinful. A colourful collection of images and personalities. No one seems to understand the actions of the whisky priest if they're not God-fearing Christians. It's like incomprehensible code to them. That's the point. It surpasseth all understanding. =) Philippians 4:7, 4:13, Romans 3:20, Revelation 3:20, etc.

Loving Stratford Festival @ Home 12wk filmfest, with 4 down. All heavy material, with Timon, Tempest, Lear, Macbeth. This week, Love's Labour's Lost, a dvd filming of an autumn live past performance. Unable to be there, and having not read the play yet, I rippled all week with anticipation! Comedic interlude welcomed.

>47 frahealee:
Ok, you get to see my first grade teacher experience in action...
You probably did not see a fruit bat - they eat fruit and live in Australia or Asia.
You're right, it was not a vampire bat - they live in South America. They like sipping from sleeping livestock, not people.
Most bats are insect eating and without them we'd have bugs everywhere.
:-)

Also I'm so glad you loved Like Water for Chocolate. Probably one of my favorites.

>48 PaperbackPirate: Oh my dear girl, you've made my day! =D Stellaluna threw me.

It is one of the quirkiest, delicious, unpredictable, heartbreaking, joyful, feisty stories ever. I wonder if it indirectly led to the Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany series by Frances Mayes? Gives off the same vibe. LWFC is even better though, with the overtly mystical elements. I'm not sure I recall the granddaughter narrator from the film. Tita, yes. Her mother and 2 sisters and lover(s), yes. The ranch staff and rebels, yes. But I don't think the daughter of Tita's niece thing clicked until the final few pages. Esperanza? Kept it fresh! Made the film a different sensation than the book. Both great!

Mexico 1910 setting. Time lapse is age 15-17? That's the toughest part for me to wrap my brain around. The doctor is waiting until her 18th birthday to marry her, is that correct?! No wonder the exaggeration is appropriate and densely layered with memory flashbacks since every part of teenage angst feels like the beginning and the end of everything. Swirling vortex of terror!

I see Esperanza and Alex have actors assigned, so the 1994 film must have followed the book closely enough. Right up to the Harvard departure? 1934. Narration by, wait for it, Esperanza's daughter. Time to watch it again! Moral of the story, beware women wielding wooden spoons. =(

>49 frahealee: Ah, I love Stellaluna! Glad you enjoyed my lesson! LOL!

What a great group of words to describe the book! She definitely takes a standard story and makes it one-of-a-kind!

>47 frahealee:
That post got a bit unruly with the dozen memorable quotes from The Power and the Glory. Had to siphon off key bits, but might add extra observations over the next few days, as they surface. Its residual impact is as breathtaking as the literary maze Greene sets up for each reader to follow, according to their own lens. Gritty, gruesome, unbending historical fiction. Just, wow.
*
*
*
+++++
Omerta by Puzo has some interesting tidbits that mirror his other works, but also elements that stand alone. I will try to sort them out during the process of this 'slow burn' (nothing better). These books have personal appeal, since my great grandparents left Sicily pre-1900 to arrive in Canada, children in tow. My great Aunt Jennie (Vincenza) was born in 1899, followed by my grandfather Augustine in 1901, in Toronto. My great Aunt Josie (Josephine) and my great Uncle Joe were both born there. There were more, but they died. Josie is buried in the GTA alongside her husband's family (Amato?) but Joe, Jennie, Gus are all buried here in my hometown RC cemetery, as are their parents. I love the continuity that my folks are both there too, and myself and my daughter someday. My sons, it depends (spouse?). That means my kids are 4th generation Canadian but that Italian blood still flows through us. The Godfather books cannot help but affect my marrow. Although, I've never paid a 'tariff', and am loyal to Roma...

FYI: 5 million inhabitants in Sicily with under 300 deaths due to covid 19? My son says it's because nobody dares to disobey a Sicilian mama! They all stayed home and she cooked non-stop! Seriously though, from a population of 60 million, may the 33,000+ Italian souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. And may perpetual light shine upon them. Amen.

Quotes:
Pg. 3 "His eyes are as green as olives... he has the Sicilian sensibility - romantic, musical, happy. Yet if someone offends him, he doesn't forget..."
Pg. 305 "You have to know these people. First they get you into trouble, then they help you out."
Pg. 308 "He did not understand the resolve of a true Mafioso. Astorre believed in the old tradition. His followers loved him not only because of his charisma but because he valued honour above all. A true Mafioso was strong enough in his will to avenge any insult to his person or his cosca (clan). He could never submit to the will of another person or government agency. And in this lay his power. His own will was paramount; justice was what he decreed justice must be."

* published in 2000, after Puzo's death in 1999, this family interlude doesn't need to be read 'in order' since it can stand alone, although the Corleones factor in
* The Family, was completed after Puzo's death (July 1999) by another writer, and published by his estate in 20??
* the book is dedicated to his sister, Evelyn Murphy, which I admire
* the old world flippant racism wasn't harped on but the few mentions made for uncomfortable reading
* I must admit that the ending surprised me, and had Puzo lived after completing this manuscript, there likely would have been a sequel - loved his St. Sebastian Parish reference, the patron saint of soldiers
* much preferred Omerta over The Family but The Fortunate Pilgrim and The Godfather are still more my style, character-wise, so we'll see how The Dark Arena fares next...

Omerta "food trail" per Puzo:
Pg. 8 = sauteed veal with mushrooms, green salad, red wine, double espresso, Italian pastries
Pg. ? = green olives, black olives, lemons, oranges, alfresco garden meals
Pg. 37 = grilled lamb, homemade bread, wine
Pg. 40 = grilled fresh fish, spaghetti, veal, cheese, fruit
Pg. 95 = a bowl of fruit (yellow pears, russet apples, strawberries, white grapes, dark red cherries), cheese, coffee, omelette, vegetable soup, beans and escarole, a simple cutlet of beef or lamb, salad of lettuce tomatoes onions, anisette
Pg. ? = macaroni
Pg. ? = veal Milanese, spaghetti with sauce and gorgonzola, tiny roasted eggplant, garden salad, selection of French pastries, coffee, wine, brandy
Pg. ? = spaghetti at Le Cirque
Pg. 366 = a pig roasted on a spit over red hot coals, warm ripe field tomatoes, hot loaves of homemade bread, freshly made cheese, olives from barrels, grapes from the vinyard, rivers of homemade wine

Also, Chinese Food takeout was mentioned in several chapters as something delicious that they didn't know how to prepare at home! I found that funny and utterly charming. Too timid to attempt it maybe, or no chance of finding the freshest integral ingredients to assemble for a feast?!

Lots going on here. I like it! Puzo, Greene, bats of various kinds. This thread is both educational and funny and it always pays off lurking here.
I just wanted to drop by and say hello! Hope you are fine!

>53 OscarWilde87: Thanks, Bastian. Happy to provide a giggle amidst bizarre unstable times.
Here's an overlap you might enjoy...
Author of The Never-ending Story published in 1979 (followed by the film NeverEnding Story (1984)) was Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende. Born in 1929 in Bavaria, died in Stuttgart 1995.
I worked in tourism prior to having my family. One gal from Heilbronn came to Toronto for a 6 month work placement shortly after my hiring. We stayed penpals after she returned home, so at 1st opportunity, I spent 3wks in Germany, some of the time with her. She lived in Stuttgart by then, had a brother Andreas, and later married, naming her first son Sebastian. =) I know it means nothing but these similarities just make me happy! The first time I had ever heard the name Bastian was in that book. My trip was planned around my 1990 'champagne birthday'. Best vacation ever. You were 3! Happy 33rd birthday, whenever that might be this year!! German beer, so good, might need to toast you. For health and prosperity. 30 years, shocking. Say hello to the castle on the hill for me! Hohenzollern? I saw Frankfurt am Main, Alsfeld?, Kiel, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Black Forest, Milan. The Alps at sunrise during a daytrip. Spectacular transformative experience. I missed Köln Kirche, insufficient time. =(

>54 frahealee: I was always wondering whether the character in Never-Ending Story was the reason my parents named me Bastian. While I have been wondering about that on and off for a while now (and was actually asked about that quite often) I always forget to ask them... I have to remember next time I visit!
You have probably seen a lot more of Germany than I have. I might want to change that this year with travel restrictions most likely not permitting traveling very far. I do however live relatively close to Cologne and I've been to the cathedral several times. I never went up, though...
Thanks for the birthday wishes. I turned 33 in January. :)

>55 OscarWilde87: You MUST find out and tell me if there are bats in the bellfry! =D
I'm curious if my little dawn chomping bat flies over from the gothic spire a few blocks down the road. I hope there's a whole bunch of them.

I only knew a few locals well enough to visit; Martina, Lottie (her mom), Annette, Anja, Sabine, Silke? Such lovely names, and all fluent in 4 languages. I knew English, studied French for 11yrs and tried my hand at Goethe-Institut German classes for 2 terms, but those gals had Italian too, show offs teehee.

My son was 23 on January 10th. A good month it seems. He'd have made a terrific teacher.

Enjoy your travels. I still have my 1st class Eurail Pass in a photo album somewhere. Travel guides, everything. Took the all night train from Kiel to Heilbronn. The autobahn was also a wild memory! I brought home a nutcracker a foot tall from a charming Christkindmarkt. The cuckoo clock wouldn't fit in my enormous camping backback. Saw my first Picasso and Dali in an art museum I discovered wandering around town with a map. Must have been Frankfurt or Stuttgart, while my friends were at work. Such brazen confidence in my youth. It never dawned on me to travel with anyone else.

Chronological listing of Mario Puzo books, for my own sanity:
1955 The Dark Arena (283p.)
1965 The Fortunate Pilgrim: A Novel (304p. favourite)
1967 Six Graves to Munich (224p., used pen name Mario Cleri)
1969 The Godfather: 50th Anniversary Edition (448p. 2nd favourite)
1978 Fools Die: A Thriller (544p. unread)
1984 The Sicilian: A Novel (416p. 3rd favourite)
1991 The Fourth K: A Novel (496p. unread, political thriller)
1996 The Last Don: A Novel (512p.)
2000 Omerta: A Novel (369p.)
2011 The Family (432p. least favourite due to incest plot)

FYI: His brother is noted in the 'thanks' section of Omerta as Anthony Cleri, so I assume Mario Cleri is the real name and Puzo is the pen name!
Mario Puzo was born 15Oct1920, died 02Jul1999. Two novels were published posthumously. Omerta, solo writing credit to Puzo. The Family, shared writing credit between Puzo and 'friends'.

The Dark Arena
Quotes:
Pg. 156 "The moon was out across the city and made it like a gray deserted fairyland, with wisps of fog and dust interlacing, spinning cobwebs to form a room above the earth, as if everyone were sleeping in a living death."

* set in post-WW2 Germany, Bremen, with train travel through France, opens in USA
* dedicated to his wife Erika, who died in 1978
* opening page is a quote from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, which is on my BFB tbr list
* the insight Puzo reveals, what a man thinks versus what he actually says, is both disturbing and refreshing
* the ptsd effects of war are one thing, but the ignorance of family and friends who expect the soldier to return as the same man who left, is as tragic, their inability to relate or make concessions for what they have no way of understanding paints everyone involved into their own corners, four people in four corners who cannot touch, can never hope to 'reach' each other again
* amazing 1st effort with some sprawling detail but also intensely intimate observations about women and men, wartime and its fallout, old families and new, cronies who want you to buy the next round and the nature of a true friend, where responsibility begins and ends, advice and expectation, alcoholism and sobering events witnessed when young, etc.
* in many ways, it reminded me of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms
* the only complaint was about the typos and crooked binding near the end of the book, legible but annoying, since I would expect better from Chapters/Indigo and the publisher - whether 12 bucks or 200, it needs to be professional if repeat business is the goal

Finished off two Canadian poetry collections this weekend, begun in April for international poetry month, so will use this spot to catch thoughts during reflection process, as they flutter into place.

Some Other Garden: Poems
Jane Urquhart
88p. Hardcover, 2000
* Versailles, France
* palace gardens
* mistresses of the king
* 7 photographs of Versailles by Jennifer Dickson R.A.
* 42 total poems (final one has 11 parts spread over 12 pages)

Morning in the Burned House: Poems
Margaret Atwood
127p. Paperback, 1995
* my favourite surprise is to see 'Half-hanged Mary' included!
* simple poignant scenes depict dreams about a dying father, forest fires, etc.
* gothic bits; raven, crow, vultures/buzzards
* name drops; Ava Gardner, Helen of Troy, Cressida, King Lear, etc.
* poems grouped into 5 sections
* 45 total poems (not surprised, read someplace that MA dislikes unlucky boring even numbers!)

Here will be a catch all for the wonders of Flannery O'Connor. I hope my research about her doesn't cloud her ability to reach inside me personally. I don't want my observations to be merely intellectual or ordered structured thought, I want the experience of recall to be disheveled and gritty, cut to the bone. Her remarkable stories deserve at least that.

+++++

The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel
243p. 1955/60?
* I love the paperback's cover artwork, which suits the plot and its people and place
* she pulls no punches with her satire, it's searing and unsettling, with perpetual tension
* death at age 39 from Lupus in 1964, death of father in 1941 at age 45 when she was a teenager, this novel is dedicated to him
* echoes of Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger (which I enjoyed more than Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn), in both the storyline and characters, but also my stumbling over unfamiliar terms and phrases unique to the Deep South, some often unnerving, as with Faulkner (similar reaction)
* gothic elements; albino child, supernatural presence, arson, suicide, car crash, raving lunatic tossed in an asylum for convenience not necessity, kidnapping, gun threats and shootings, authority ridiculed by fringe outcasts, remote cabin in the woods, criminal undercurrent for stills using corn mash, etc.
Quotes:
Title = "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent bear it away." (Matthew 11:12)
Pg.20 "even the mercy of the Lord burns."
Pg.24 "Remember the Lord's lion set in the path of the false prophet!"
Pg.25 "...the stranger said."
Pg.25 "The sun was like a furious white blister in the sky."
Pg.56 "That's his trouble. He thinks if it's something he can't know then somebody smarter than him can tell him about it and he can know it just the same. And if you were to go there, the first thing he would do would be to test your head and tell you what you were thinking and howcome you were thinking it and what you ought to be thinking instead. And before long you wouldn't belong to your self no more, you would belong to him."
Pg.90 "He gazed through the actual insignificant boy before him to an image of him that he held fully developed in his mind."

Astounding arrogance. Impenetrable pride. This is why Miss Mary Flannery O'Connor cracks open each self-righteous shell with a sledgehammer.

+++++

The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
555p. 1971
* 'The Peeler' introduces Hazel Motes who headlines her first novel, Wise Blood
* 'The Heart of the Park' quotes 'wise blood' in the 1st paragraph and features its primary characters, Haze and Enoch
* 'Enoch and the Gorilla' is also a funny scene in Wise Blood (1979) directed by John Huston starring Brad Dourif, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beattie, William Hickey, etc.
* 'You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead' short story launches her 2nd novel The Violent Bear It Away
* repeated elements; wild turkey, covey hunting, hound dogs, river fishing, formal etiquette and manners, stone lions, wildcats, barber shop shaves, confederacy, peacocks, chickens, fig tree, sunsets, dairy farms, etc.
* gothic elements; blindness, deafness, misanthropy, museums, perverse attractions, monkeys/apes/baboons/gorillas, trains, limited mobility in the elderly, sour natured curmudgeon, conjurers or predictions, carnivals, owls, spiders, twins, missing limbs, wanderers/strangers/salesmen/gypsies, etc.
Quotes:
Pg.140 "He was as frail as a dried spider."
Pg.148 "A fat yellow moon appeared in the branches of the fig tree as if it were going to roost there with the chickens."
Pg.165 "...in the distance, the city rose like a cluster of warts on the side of a mountain."
Pg.175 "She worked at the weeds and nut grass as if they were an evil sent directly by the devil to destroy the place."
Pg.276 "She was brilliant but she didn't have a grain of sense."
Pg.321 "The cows were grazing on two pale green pastures across the road and behind them, fencing them in, was a black wall of trees, with a sharp sawtooth edge that held off the indifferent sky."
Pg.409 "There was in him an evil urge to break her spirit."
Pg.437 "His desire to write a novel had gone down overnight like a defective tire."

+++++

Bottom line? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you don't like what you see, change your glasses. =)

There is birth, childhood, youth, early adulthood, middle age, old age, death. Seven steps in a life well lived. There are shortcuts, omissions, tragedies, etc. For the most part, purification is achieved through reflection.

Some times are more empowering than others. There's a time to suffer and a time to thrive. Removing oneself from the social cyclone allows for improved breathing, seeing, hearing. Stepping back from the chaos allows for the beauty to return, to seep back into the skin, through simplicity. Adjust the lens, carry on.

Recap of the latter:

01 The Geranium
02 The Barber
03 Wildcat
04 The Crop
05 The Turkey
06 The Train
07 The Peeler
08 The Heart of the Park
09 A Stroke of Good Fortune
10 Enoch and the Gorilla
×11 A Good Man is Hard to Find
12 A Late Encounter with the Enemy
13 The Life You Save May Be Your Own
14 The River
15 A Circle in the Fire
×16 The Displaced Person
17 A Temple of the Holy Ghost
18 The Artificial N...
19 Good Country People
×20 You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead
21 Greenleaf
22 A View of the Woods
23 The Enduring Chill
24 The Comforts of Home
×25 Everything That Rises Must Converge
26 The Partridge Festival
27 The Lame Shall Enter First
28 Why Do The Heathen Rage?
29 Revelation
30 Parker's Back
31 Judgement Day

× = previously read

With King John livestreaming tonight (Thursday) at 19:00h on STRATFEST @ HOME, Timon of Athens completes its free run. Having no former knowledge of the play, here are a few memorable lines which resonated with me (but there are sooo many):

Act 1 Sc 1 (Poet) "When Fortune in her shift and change of mood spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants which labour'd after him to the mountain's top even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, not one accompanying his declining foot."
Act 1 Sc 2 "Why, I have often wished myself poorer that I might come nearer to you."
(Apemantus) "Thou givest so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly: what need these feasts, pomps and vain-glories? "
Act 2 Sc 1 (Senator) "Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, which flashes now a phoenix."
Act 2 Sc 2 (Flavius) "Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise, the breath is gone wherof this praise is made."
Act 3 Sc 1 (Flaminius) "Let moulton coin be thy damnation, thou disease of a friend, and not his!"
Act 3 Sc 2 (1st Stranger) "Men must learn now with pity to dispense, for policy sits above conscience."
Act 3 Sc 5 (Senator) "Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy."
Act 3 Sc 6 "Make the meat be beloved more than the man that gives it."
Act 4 Sc 1 "Timon will to the woods where he shall find th' unkindest beast more kinder than mankind."
Act 4 Sc 2 (Flavius) "Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt, since riches point to misery and contempt."
Act 4 Sc 2 (Flavius) "Strange, unusual blood, when man's worst sin is he does too much good! Who, then, dares to be half so good again?"
Act 4 Sc 3 "I am Misanthropos and hate mankind!"
The sun's a thief...
The moon's an arrant thief...
The sea's a thief...
The earth's a thief...
Act 5 Sc 1 (Poet) "a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency."
Act 5 Sc 1 "I thank them; and would send them back the plague, could I but catch it for them."
Act 5 Sc 4 "Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait."

The generosity of this character is astounding, almost naive. The sins of the leeches are undeniable but his own folly seems partially to blame. Not that he did it for the flattery, but that result became his false god, so that once the tables were turned, his overreaction was all the more pathetic and miserable. Wonderful irony with the buried gold. Richly layered compromising truths. Apemantus and the steward were genuine even in their criticism of his actions.

They brought up an interesting aspect, that without a wife or children of his own, he relied on his friends for everything, which was unfair, and when perceived betrayal reached every corner of his world, it jettisoned him from one extreme to another, skipping a sense of moderation entirely. Whether intentional or not, the weight of expectation became too much to bear. Like Atlas dropping the earth off its axis. This play occurs 400BC ish so the mindset is very non-Christian. Very parasitic and political for unceasing advancement and acquisition of 'perks'. Uncharitable, uncanny relevance. Shakespeare covered every character flaw with microscopic intensity, revealing the bad side of a good attribute (Timon, Flavius) and the good side of a bad (Apemantus, Captain Alcibiades). Remarkably astute.

Love's Labour's Lost. I think I've read it before but I had never seen the play performed or watched a film based on its plot.

Observations:
* loved Mike Shara as Berowne/Biron, with lots of mischief extracted from each line, and his humble manner when beaten at his own game was even more fun - he was in King Lear with Colm Feore (as Duke of Cornwall, Regan's spouse) and he played Orsino in my dvd of Twelfth Night with Brian Dennehy as Sir Toby Belch, and Laertes in Hamlet opposite Jonathan Goad, et al, so I was acquainted with his Stratford Festival resume going into this
(see my post #3 abv for list of all 12 filmed Stratford Festival plays, watched/read, c/o temporary StratFest @ Hm stratfordfestival.ca site)
* hoping to order the full set from Stratford Festival bookstore when it resumes operation
* parts of the verbal gymnastics display of wit became annoying or tedious in LLL, even with Moth

Quotes:
Act 1 Sc 2 (Adriano de Armado) "Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love."
Act 2 Sc 1 (Boyet) "Navarre is infected."
Act 3 Sc 1 (Berowne) "O my little heart"
Act 4 Sc 1 (Princess of France) "A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise."
Act 4 Sc 3 (Berowne) "By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax:"
Act 5 Sc 2 (Rosaline) "A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue"

Words/Phrases
* I have for barbarism spoke more than for that angel knowledge
* I am the last that will last keep his oath
* tawny Spain
* sable-coloured melancholy
* with a child of our grandmother Eve
* I'll lay my head to any good man's hat
* sit thee down, sorrow
* green indeed is the colour of lovers
* I do betray myself with blushing
* I am sure I shall turn sonnet
* Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for 3 farthings
* velvet brow
* I profane my lips on thy foot
* for society, sayeth the text, is the happiness of life
* thy love is far from charity
* to see a king transformed to a gnat!
* Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay.
* and mock for mock is only my intent
* by the North Pole I do challenge thee
* I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion

Tonight (July 02) live streams Antony and Cleopatra which I have neither read nor seen. Looking forward to both! Hamlet closes out tonight, and King John has another week to go, so I might do a summary of that rarely performed play also. Hard to believe he ruled for 17yrs. Quite a guy. Pericles I saw live and read before seeing it, so might cover some nostalgic impressions. Loved the Tom Patterson Theatre thrust stage, stunning, immersive, high impact, visceral and dynamic. Its free viewing ends July 16th.

The Adventures of Pericles (performance autumn 2015/dvd out 2016)
Observations
* overtly allegorical, to be used as a restorative, fanciful, imaginative 'voyage' of discovery
* water theme prevalent throughout; the sea, ships, storms, etc.
* themes also of; transformation, rebirth, hope, can't run from your fate, virtue is stronger than distorted selfish passion, etc.
* cast kept referring to how different the perception of the play was, now watching it in summer 2020 as opposed to the performance of it a few years ago, with all that has happened in the theatre community and worldwide, concerning abuse and misogyny and racism, etc. But all felt it ended with hope, which we all need right now. Shakespeare is always astoundingly relevant and so beautifully crafted so as to elevate the experience of living, above the fray, the turmoil, the uncontrollable chaos.
* loved seeing Canadian actress Jane Spidell (Philomen, niece of Cerimon the doctor on Ephesus) in this Stratford play, with final lines no less, and that Marion Adler who played Dian/etc. wrote an original song for this production called 'The Pearl' based on a poem she unearthed during their rehearsal process - it was lilting and captivating - beautiful combined artistry
* prologue was assigned to Dian goddess, rather than to Gower, very effectively but it was still creepy - important contrast of evil father/daughter relationship at the start with sublime father/daughter reunion at the end, born of a joyful father/daughter duo of Thaisa/Simonides, full of hope and gratitude - so movingly conveyed by Evan Buliung as King Pericles (worthy of sobs and sighs)
* Claire Lautier was grisly as Dionyza (also Queen Tamora in Titus Andronicus but found that out later) and kept my attention riveted throughout - totally convincing as a woman who rose from near starvation to the social heights of Tarsus, only to be usurped by her 'ward' in the eyes of her husband, whether he knew it or not - she conveyed envy/greed and malicious jealousy otoward Marina, not only for herself but on behalf of her (oblivious?) daughter, which brings in another tainted father/daughter element, mirroring the opening scene (he spurned both wife and daughter to tutor his adopted daughter with sole focus and overindulgent obsession, creating the rift to be filled with his wife's revenge on both Marina and on Cleon, which she feels is justified) - riveting scenes to see and read - tactile menace!
Words/Phrases
* few love to hear the sins they love to act
* murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke
* who makes the fairest show means most deceit
* they skip from stem to stern
* bear with patience such griefs as you yourself do lay upon yourself
Quotes
Act 1 Sc 1 (Pericles) "But being play'd upon before your time, hell only danceth at so harsh a chime."
Act 1 Sc 2 (Helicanus) "For flattery is the bellows blows up sin"
Act 1 Sc 3 (Thaliard) "if a king bid a man be a villain, he's bound by the indenture of his oath to be one!"
Act 1 Sc 4 (Cleon) "one sorrow never comes but brings an heir"
Act 3 Sc 1 (Cerimon)
"her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels, which Pericles hath lost, begin to part their fringes of bright gold; the diamonds of a most praised water do appear, to make the world twice rich"
Act 4 Sc 1 (Dionyza)
"walk, and be cheerful once again; reserve that excellent complexion, which did steal the eyes of young and old"
Act 4 Sc 3 (Cleon)
"Thou art like the harpy, which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face, seize with thine eagle's talons."
Act 4 Sc 3 (Gower)
"No visor does become black villany so well as soft and tender flattery."

+++

Antony and Cleopatra (performance autumn 2014/dvd out 2015)
Observations
Struggled a lot with this one; power of attraction and obsessive love, vows and duty discarded, immature over the top jealousy, irrationality of spur of the moment choices, bad behavior without consequences or unrealistic and unjust ones, etc. It kept me off balance from start to finish which was exhausting. It felt like the clash between Vietnam war military personnel versus the 60s hippie protesters, which rarely ends well. First time read or watched, likely to be the last.
Words/Phrases
* though it be honest, it is never good to bring bad news

+++

King John (performance autumn of 2014/dvd out 2015)
Observations
As above, first time watched or read, likely to be the last. Seana McKenna was astounding as mum to wee Arthur. Such a disturbing plotline. Smitten somewhat with Antoine Yared, methinks. Born in Lebanon, raised in Montreal, he played the Dauphin in this, the eunuch in A+C, the governor in Pericles, and Romeo. Mid 30s now, he can play younger or older with equal gravitas.
Words/Phrases
* commodity
* made the western welkin blush
Quotes
Act 1 Sc 1
(King John) "Our abbeys and our priories shall pay this expedition's charge." (to France)
Act 3 Sc 3
(Bastard) "Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, when gold and silver becks me to come on." (this refers to a monastery not witchcraft, but hard not to think of Kim Novak!)
Act 3 Sc 4
(Cardinal) "You hold too heinous a respect of grief."
(Constance) "He talks to me who never had a son."
(Dauphin) "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;"
Act 4 Sc 3
(Bastard) "I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way among the thorns and dangers of this world."
Act 5 Sc 2
(Bastard) "And like an eagle o'er his aery towers, to souse annoyance that comes near his nest."
Act 5 Sc 7 (King John) "now my soul hath elbow-room"

Hi there! Just dropping by to say that I like your Shakespeare project. I have to admit, though, that I have neither seen or read any of the plays you mentioned so far.

>64 OscarWilde87: Trust me, without the Film Fest at Home, I would never have read half of them! The history plays are as dry as burnt toast for me to chew on. I need to cleanse my palate frequently with Shakespeare's sonnets! It does offer a sense of accomplishment, though.

>65 frahealee: The Complete Works are sitting on my shelf and I think I read (and then saw) fewer than 10 of his plays. I taught Romeo & Juliet at high school a couple of years ago and my students liked the play a lot (for some of the girls Orlando Bloom playing Romeo was an important factor, though...).

Hah! For me it was Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes and Paul Rudd and John Leguizamo c/o Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet (1996)! I remember studying it in highschool, also. Circa 1981/82.

This spot will be left open for a few options. Not intending to do book reviews or even summaries, but the unintentional thematic overlap is amusing to me.

Kangaroo was started innocently enough in Jan2020, with Australian wildfires sweeping the landscape and news media. Then I hit a Mexico phase (Like Water for Chocolate, The Power and the Glory, UTV, TPS), so currently on 'Serpent' in my Kobo/eReader DHL collection. Both men really deep dive into not just their surroundings, equally captivating and frightening, but into the traumas of the mind. I found this 'madness or not' theme prevalent with Moby-Dick, Don Quixote, Hamlet, etc. Well, remarkably, here it is again. So, after completing the trifecta, I'll revisit my notations for each, and weave together any commonalities that I find.

>34 frahealee:
>35 frahealee:

+++++

Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence
* frightening events reported in Melbourne, including framed prosecution of Cardinal Pell from 2017-2020, in lieu of Becciu revelations, accusations and fraud in the Vatican ie. financial scandals, etc.
* glad to have read this before socialist explosion during covid crisis, since parallels are undeniable and intact, as much now as then
+++
The Plumed Serpent by D.H Lawrence
* a bit bored with Mexico now, after 4 in a row, not author's fault, still excellent writing style, plot lacked colour of Greene though
* most critiques are fairly accurate
+++
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
* lots of allusions to; Don Quixote, Peter Lorre, Poe, etc.
* rock formations, forest fires, decayed ruins, dignity in poverty and despair, etc .
* stray dogs, pampered cats, horses, armadillos, vultures, red birds, etc.
* carnival rides, walking stick, sunglasses, loose pocket change, hat, dress shoes without socks, etc.
* devil masks with red faces, horns, lolling tongues, red capes, skeleton costumes with skull masks

(...under construction...)

This will be a catch-all for reflections on the spiritual. It is not about preaching or instruction, but impact and residual impressions.

Holy Bible RSV CE
+ the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee begins the public life of Jesus, when Mary says "do whatever He tells you" to the water/wine bearers - then the Last Supper concludes the public ministry of Jesus 3yrs later with Him knowing what Judas will do and says "do as I have done" - so these bookends encapsulate the whole New Testament for me, these 10 words reach into my marrow and breathe Life into everything (John 2:5, John 13:15)
+ But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19)
+ Beatitudes / sermon on the mount
+ 5 loaves and 2 fishes, but also Jesus cooking fish for the apostles on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after the Resurrection and before the Ascension
+ knock and the door shall be opened, but also Jesus knocking at our door awaiting an invitation to enter (Revelaton 3:20)
+ Old Testament - loved poor dear Jeremiah! And the 12 gemstones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And the food contrast from OT to NT to now. ie. figs, olives, grapes, wine, bread, milk, honey, nuts, etc. But not so much the locusts?! =)

Catechism of the Catholic Church
+ Butler ? Baltimore? Current revision?
+
+
+
+

Same treatment for Tolstoy and Steinbeck...
+++
War and Peace
Translation variety annoying. Audiobook to match written text is nearly impossible, thus fragmented. 1/3 at a time, over 4mos. Likely a one-off but Karamazov and Karenina were waiting in the wings.
+++
The Wayward Bus
Loved it, although characters are seldom appealing. Tension and friction abound, thus staccato experience is exhausting.
+++
To a God Unknown
Mystical appeal of the landscape and man's ability to conquer it. My fav character was the lone Roman Catholic priest with his portable altar. Sent the protestants into a frenzy!

Romeo and Juliet (performance autumn 2017/dvd out 2018)
Observations? Sara Farb and Antoine Yared were adorable but forceful in conveying the tumult of youth and being on the outside looking in, even amongst their own piers. Romeo had tons of buddies... Juliet? None but the nurse. Age 13 made her sheltered, naive, but a buried landmine waiting to go off when her father stepped on it. Lots of discussion in interviews about domestic abuse/misogyny/etc. in the wake of Hollywood scandals and elsewhere. Riveting at the time, since the Weinstein story broke wide open in Oct2017. Suddenly, theatre seemed frivolous but R+J was entirely relevant, as Shakespeare always is.
Words/Phrases? nil
Quotes?
Juliet: the more I give to thee the more I have
Friar: these violent delights have violent ends
Benvolio: for now these hot days is the mad blood stirring
+++
The Taming of the Shrew (2015/2016)
Observations? Ben Carlson can do no wrong. Won a Canadian Screen Award for his portrayal of Petruchio, worthily. Deb Hay (Katherine) and BC married in 2010, so a comfortable tight fit, free to indulge in allsorts.
Words/Phrases?
* He kills her in her own humour.
* is the jay more precious than the lark because his feathers are more beautiful?
* Content you in my discontent.
* with all her faults, and money enough
* I burn, I pine, I perish
* will you woo this wildcat?
* leave that labour to great Hercules
* I love her ten times more than ere I did before
* Kate the cursed
* wasp
* by St. George
* Roman Lucrece of chastity ?
* vengeance on your common ? hide
* being mad herself she's madly mated
* good sweet Kate be ?
* This is the way to kill a wife with kindness.
* what, is the jay better than the lark because his costume is more beautiful?
Quotes? nil, would be overkill (need a reread to eek out hidden gems)

>59 frahealee: Comparison of 3-by-1 author. Puzo.

The Fourth K (1991)
Quotes
Pg. 408 "And the Devil takes many seductive forms."
Pg.207 (Helen/VP) "And then, when and if she became President, they would most likely try to demean her also. They would, she thought, probably blame her deficiencies on her menstrual flow, the cruel male expression would be the inspiration for comics all over the country."
Pg.121 "They should not suffer for the sins of your enemies."
Pg.110 "Let's say we pass laws to crush crime, we are then punishing the black criminals more than anyone else. And where are those ungifted, uneducated, unpowered people going to go? What other resource do they have against our society? If they have no outlet in crime they will turn to political action. They will become active radicals. And they will shift the political balance of this country. We may cease to be a capitalist democracy."
* this wording propped precisely 30yrs after 1960 and JFK, and 30yrs prior to our current volatility is both prophetic and reflective - I'm shocked it was allowed to be printed, but many other provocative comments by a slew of questionable characters balances out bias and hypocrisy across the gammet!
* written by an Italian about an Irishman fighting for African American interests - all united against the pervasive Ku Klux Klan mentality, and whether Catholic or not (another despised segment of society, they all were spit upon collectively, whether Italian, Irish, Polish, French, etc.) - 1960/1990/2020? I am somewhat relieved to not know much about USA political frameworks, so I don't know which part is fiction and which is non-fiction - ugh =(
* reading this story after Flannery O'Connor's The Displaced Person really resonated the oppression, both intentional and unintentional, of pre and post WW2
* Persian Gulf War went from 02AUG1990 to 28FEB1991 - I very nearly lost my job in the tourism industry since global travel ceased overnight, but because our clients were mostly German-speaking countries and the UK and we were based in Toronto, we survived it - the timing of this book publication date is remarkable!
* lots of plot talk about impeachment proceedings, is it feasible or ethical, is President out of his head or emotionally compromised, is he just in disagreement with the majority of his staff and Congress and the Senate so they want any excuse to get him out of power, or was he right all along and nobody wants to admit the truth, even to themselves?! Very nuanced handling of options, thoughts, bias, etc.
* well crafted overlapping storylines made the pages turn themselves

Fools Die (1978)
Quotes
Pg.77 "Dumas and Dickens and Sabatini, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and later on Joyce and Kafka and Dostoevsky."
Pg.79 "I had a five-room apartment for fifty bucks a month, including utilities."
Pg.86 "You know you can only get rich in the dark."
Pg.98 "Once as an adolescent, beset with guilt and feelings of unworthiness, hopelessly at odds with the world, I stumbled across the Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov. That book changed my life. It gave me strength. It made me see the vulnerable beauty of all people no matter how despicable they might outwardly seem."
Pg.236 "Finally we had a list; Silas Marner, Anna Karenina, Young Werther, Dombey and Son, The Scarlet Letter, Lord Jim, Moby Dick, Proust (Everything), Hardy (Anything)."
Pg.238 "...he told them that he 'umpired the ball, not the player' ... "
Pg.239 "He pointed out that in any national referendum the death penalty would be approved by an overwhelming vote. That it was only the elitist class like the readers of the review that had managed to bring the death penalty to a standstill in the United States. He claimed this was a conspiracy of the upper echelons of government. He claimed that it was government policy to give the criminal and poverty-stricken elements a license to steal, assault, burglarize, rape and murder the middle class. This was an outlet provided for the lower classes so that they would not turn revolutionary."
* loved the contrasting front and back covers, in black and white, like dice
* majority of setting is Las Vegas, not my preference, nor in my top 100 places to go
* his use of the 'c' word 10x by page 212 (always uttered by a male character) left me gutted

Six Graves to Munich (1967)
* no quotes stood out, although it was well written with good characters and a well-paced plot, vivid scenery, twist ending, etc. But it was clear he was trying out a new genre (spy) just to test the waters, so it was unremarkable overall - almost like an aloof Godfather warm-up
* movie/mini-series based on book starred Rex Harrison (final theatrical film), Rod Taylor, Edward Albert, etc. called A Time to Die (1982)
* very quick read, good one to be my last, especially after Fool's Die... ugh.
* excellent binding, high quality, good feel, only one typo - refreshing!