@Violet Crown I will send you a PM tomorrow about Latin. Hope that is OK. I'll tell you about the online class I'm taking, and about my self-study. ETA, I don't mind talking about the self-study on the forum, I just don't want to discuss the class publicly. By the way, when my LoA Faulkner arrived, it came without the dust jacket. Now, I don’t really care about having the jacket, but it was a tad surprising to unbox a naked LoA book. I don’t think I’d ever seen an LoA volume sans the black-and-white jacket, lol.

Same. What is on your wishlist? Beyond the three that currently get attention (Danish, Dutch, and Latin), I’d like to add Portuguese and a Slavic language.

I finished a Miss Read book (Thrush Green #8), which was a lovely palate cleanser. The book I really want to talk about is Lisbon Poets (bilingual edition). It profiles five Lisbon poets. Two have big, international reputations: Luis de Camoes wrote Portugal's big epic poem, The Luciads, in the 1500s. My understanding is that nearly everyone in Portugal reads this in high school. Fernando Pessoa is a Modernist poet. What is interesting to me about him is that he wrote under well-developed, alternative personalities (heteronyms). It is easy to find English translations of both Luis de Camoes and Fernando Pessoa, and I hope to read more of each. The other three (Cesario Verde, Mario De Sa-Carneiro, and Florabela Espanca) do not seem to have much translated into English. Florabela Espanca is the one and only female in the book. She was not taken very seriously in her lifetime, but is being revisited. She was dismissed as too emotive. Too concerned with love from the POV of a young woman to be considered IMPORTANT. And she used exclamation points! Oh the horror! I am not shocked that a young woman writer who died in 1930 was deemed trivial. She committed suicide on her 36th birthday. Even though I do not know Portuguese, it is pretty obvious that the translations did not attempt to keep the rhyme schemes that I see on the Portuguese side of the pages. So I had a grand time listening to some of these poems being read in Portuguese on YouTube. I've added a version of "Amar!" by Florabela Espanca. Maybe, like me, you will just enjoy listening to a bit of Portuguese poetry even if you do not understand it. Here's my book's translation of the first stanza of "Amar!" : To Love! I want to love - love madly! Love just to love - here...there...and beyond... Him over there, and him right there, and everybody... Love! Love! And not love anyone!

@Violet Crown I wonder if the boards got an update last night. Everything looks different and weird!

@mumto2I have a couple of gripes about Goodreads, but they are small things. I wish there was a better way to differentiate translations and editions. I don't use it to help me find things to read, so I don't care about that. The most useful GR thing for me is seeing the ratings and updates of my WTM friends. So, like Matryoshka, I would only migrate if the herd migrated! I don't have my GR account connected to my amazon account, but I don't know if that really matters. I actually find keeping my TBRs on amazon wish lists to be a better system than multiple TBR shelves on GR. I like that I can make comments on the wish list. Glad to have you here, @hopeistheword and best of luck with your teaching year. @Violet Crown I have been around here long enough to have a sense of your reading choices. But I am now curious - is deceased author a normal requisite? What was it about Fr. Anthony Cekada's book that tempted you to venture so close to completing a book by a living author? @Little Green Leaves Bread and Wine looks intriguing, and I see that it is #2 in a trilogy. Had you previously read #1 (Fontamara)?

I'm never comfortable telling other parents what is appropriate for their children. Based on what you wrote previously about the Grimm brothers, I doubt that you will want to give it to your four year old. But the only way for you to really know is to do your own pre-read.

@Dreamergal Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe were the collectors of Norwegian tales, like the Grimm brothers. That's what I meant by that. But your comparison holds true as well. These are not gentle, sanitized tales.

If you follow me on Goodreads, I have decided to rate classics either five stars (yay) or two stars (nay). I kind of hate the idea of rating classics. I used to leave them unrated, but I recall that causing me some no-longer-remembered problem with my database. I finished two classics this week. Both get the five stars. Light in August by William Faulkner. This is definitely the most straightforward Faulkner I have read, but it does not lack depth of plot, style, or character. I'd say that pairing this book with Intruder in the Dust would be an enlightening and disturbing glimpse into the background of current injustices in the USA. Norwegian Folktales by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. The authors are the Norwegian version of the Grimm Brothers. I enjoyed the recurring character Ash Lad (Askeladden), the youngest brother who seems like an underachiever but always manages to complete the perilous deed. There were trolls, but not as many as I had hoped for or expected 🙂 My volume of Norwegian Folktales is part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library. I own a few volumes from this series, but always seek out the older covers as I do not like the new covers at all. The link goes to the new covers. Here is the old cover:

@aggieamy As I am getting closer to actual bone density problems, I need to get caught up on the latest research. I had started doing that some months ago after a disappointing bone density screening, but then the pandemic pushed that research project aside. I’m glad to have the reminder, too. Sending out fervent wishes that our diagnoses and their fall-out merely continue to fade into the rear-view mirror!

@Negin I appreciate the menopause book discussion. Cancer treatment forced me into early meno at age 41, which is now 15 years ago. I am always trying to learn more about bone health. Fortunately, I started meno with a lot of bone strength in the bank, so to speak. And I have tried to be proactive. However, all of that was not still not enough to stave off the effects of chemo and five years of an aromatase inhibitor (anti-estrogen drug therapy). I'd like to recommend an excellent reference book to our BaW readers: The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and The Vagina - Separating the Myth from the Medicine by Jen Gunter. I think it is a great book to have around the house. And I really think that it would be a great cover-to-cover read for much of the male half of the population. I also enjoy Jen Gunter's Twitter account. I find her quite funny, personable, and informative. Her social media comes with a Very Strong Language warning, and she is also unabashedly political.

When I was looking it up for @Little Green Leaves I saw that Daniel Berrigan did the intro for the current edition. I have an older edition with a picture of Young Dorothy on it, and I wonder if he did the intro. Alas it is trapped in a storage box several states away, and I am not in the mood for the research. Just for the whine about my far-away books 🙂 BUT! Daniel Berrigan is here and he is inching closer the top of the TBR pile. I should stop putting things on hold at the library. They come in and throw off my plans! I’ll have to read the play (Trial of the Catonsville Nine) online.

@Dreamergal Thanks for your review of Caste. You are the second person I know to speak so highly of it.

I had forgotten about the blue shop towels!

We no longer have to have an appointment to pick up our books curbside. That is a welcome change as appointments are often three days out. We are not being charged fines at the moment. That is lovely, but I guess there is little incentive to return physical books on time. For one book, I have been #2 on the waiting list for a reaaallly long time. I am most eager for ILL to restart.

@marbel Your signature made me smile just now. I also have a son majoring in History, and likewise I could have predicted it when he was five. @Little Green Leaves The Dorothy Day books that I distinctly remember reading are Love is the Measure: A Biography of Dorothy Day by Jim Forest and The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day's autobiography. I was deeply impacted by The Long Loneliness, but that was 20-some years ago so all I remember now is the feeling of loving the book. I also watched the movie Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story (1996) and feeling very moved by it. I don't dare recommend something that I haven't read or watched for 20-some years, but these are the primary pieces that set me on the path of learning about Dorothy Day. I'm definitely overdue for a revisit of her life and thoughts.

What are you putting in your mask's filter pocket? Have you read any recent research on filters? Any thoughts on the disposable PM 2.5 filters ? I bought some and they are a little small. They don't really cover all of the nose and mouth area. But they are readily available and not overly expensive. And I find them breathable. I'm not sure how often to change them out, either. I have read that they last a week. How does that work? Take them out and move them to a clean mask? I have also read that OLY*fun fabric might be a good choice because it holds an electostatic charge.

Ooh so there is a new biography out. I didn't know that! Added to my TBR. I'll get back to you on the ones I have read. I have to look through the internet and the corners of my memory first . I will probably discover that I have not read as much by and about her as I think I have 🙂

Which Dorothy Day biography are you reading? Over the decades, I’ve read a lot by and about her. I have her granddaughter’s book in my TBR pile.

Happy Anniversary, Robin and Amy!

Well, I absolutely love reading Faulkner. Total fan. I am currently half way through Light in August, which is my seventh Faulkner novel. Structurally, Light in August is one of the easier ones to read. It is assigned in high school sometimes.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I had tried Bookfinder this morning. The $24 copy did not really exist on alibris, and I think the condition was only Fair. I just ran the ISBN again and that copy is gone now from Bookfinder anyway. Hmm, interesting that Half Price Books copy does not show up on Bookfinder. You are the Super Finder. Sold! To Me! I remain somewhat shocked that a LoA containing The Sound and The Fury would go out of print. I was not particulary longing for that LoA volume, although I do like their books. I think it is time for me to read the Faulkners in order, and it was going to be kind of pricey to buy Soldier's Pay, Mosquitos, and Flags in the Dust. I read Faulkner too slowly to rely on the library.

Beautiful review, @Dreamergal Thank you for posting it. I would certainly hope that a personal reaction to a book is not considered discussing politics.

@Violet Crown Do Library of America titles typically go out of print? Other posters are free to answer, of course. I just know I have seen VC mention LoA. I want the first Faulkner novel collection, and it is out of print. Used copies are above the list price. I only have a few LoA volumes, and they were all found through serendipitous in-person browsing in used shops. The first time I go to order one, I find it out of print. Waah.

House dresses don’t leave the house! Ok, for quick runs to the trash or mailbox - yes, they do. And anyway, house dresses have come a long way from the ones my dear Nana wore in the late sixties. She called them house coats because they snapped all the way down. “These are not your grandmother’s house dresses.” As the internet likes to say about such things, lol. ETA my work-out tops are kinda skimpy and I am not, um, buff. I am not comfortable in them out and about.

@aggieamy Maybe I should get the tutu for walking around outside. I live on a busy city street, and it would help with social distancing. But the one to get for that has to be this one: (I hardly ever embed YouTube videos here but this one is only 1 min 18 sec. It is from the Dutch National Ballet Company.)