Many thanks to Sheila O’Malley at The Sheila Variations for posting on the stage play An Iliad, playing at The Court Theatre in Chicago. There are more video excerpts on YouTube (see the links shown at the end of the clip) about the play, definitely worth checking out. Sheila links to a review by Chris […]
Month: 12 years ago
After seeing glowing reviews of the works of Bohumil Hrabal, I thought I would read one of his books. Expect to see several more posts on his works over the next few months—I thoroughly enjoyed Too Loud a Solitude. Welcome to the world of Haňtá, a trash compactor in Prague, turning out compressed bales of […]
Richard at Caravana de recuerdos had a post last week on Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann. I’ve mentioned I’m listening to the audio version of William Gaddis’ JR and as luck would have it I heard a brief mention of the story the same day I read the review. I love coincidences like that, with […]
Given how things are going right now I need to remind myself, per Steven Riddle, William Michaelian and other wonderful book bloggers…I need to remind myself to take time out to enjoy and appreciate the wonders around me. This includes the pleasures from books… Because when I read, I don’t really read; I pop a […]
There are so many wonderful things to say about John Williams’ Augustus and the few online reviews I’ve skimmed do a good job of going into detail about many of its strengths. In this post I want to highlight a few aspects of the book I found enjoyable. The novel is full of tensions and […]
In which I continue to use my blog as a personal notebook… A link to an outstanding article on and review of George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis. His fluency in German and Russian, as well as his knowledge of those countries’ histories and literary traditions, combined with a commanding, if […]
I started reading John Williams’ Augustus this week and promptly ran into a problem—finding a particular section in an epistolary novel told from many sources could take quite a while. Since there was no index I thought I would create my own and share it here. (Any misspellings are due to a chronic lack of […]
I participated in the Reading Odyssey‘s reading of Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander this year and wanted to gather all the conference calls in one place. Reading Odyssey “is a partnership between scholars and readers” aiming “to reignite curiosity and lifelong learning.” I enjoyed participating in this program and highly recommend future programs. The listed […]
November is proving it will be a rather rough month so I’m going to take a break from any scheduled posts. Lots of forthcoming news that will interest no one else, but nothing I can share yet. Hopefully I’ll still find time to read and make the occasional post this month, although I’ve only read […]