Dance has been my go-to exercise during the pandemic. I'm in the market for some ballet wrap skirts to go over my yoga pants. Maybe something like this one. Although maybe I should just go all in and get a tutu, lol. And, hey, let's not fail to mention the House Dress Trend. I have succumbed 🙂 My uniform: work-out shorts with a cell-phone pocket and a work out top. Cellphone in pocket and earbuds in ears. Throw house dress on top when I need more coverage. For those, you know, moments of high adventure like taking out the trash or walking to the mailbox. If I am just sick of seeing myself in the workout clothes, I throw the house dress on over the work out clothes and thread the earbuds up through the neckline. Because, like @Matryoshka, getting dressed in work out clothes is key. One thing I have done for myself lately is start wearing perfume again. I put it on in the morning and again at night after my shower. It makes me happy 🙂 My allergies kept me from being able to wear perfume for decades. Now that I can wear it again, by golly, I want to wear it! And I since I am very conscious of not inflicting scent on those who cannot tolerate perfume, I think wearing it at home is actually a pretty good idea. Bringing it back around to books, I remember a great discussion here about a book that was about the lost art of dressing up. Or something like that...It was when I first joined BaW so that would have been circa 2016. Any of the long time posters remember which book it was?

They are indeed a cute family! I'm sure it wasn't easy for Princess Mary to marry into the family, but the Danish press is gentler on its royals than the British press. Prince Henrik, the Queen's husband (d. 2018) took quite a bit of flak from the press over his French-accented Danish but Mary seems to receive praise over her Danish. Queen Margarethe is SO talented. She has designed costumes for the Royal Danish Ballet, and her illustrations for LOTR were used in a Danish edition. I went to a premier performance of the Royal Danish Ballet in November 2019. My friend and I were sitting in our seats, and all of a sudden everyone stood up. The Queen had just entered her Royal Box 🙂 The show we saw was Blixen, based on the life of Karen Blixen / Isak Dinensen. Wow, that is such a great pre-pandemic memory. Such a short time ago and yet so long ago...

iI enjoy following the Danish royals, especially the Queen. Princess Mary, who is married to the heir apparent to the throne, is from Austraila, and she is also interesting to me. Don’t be embarrassed, @Dreamergal I finished two more Sophocles plays: Philocetes and Women of Trachis. Tomorrow is the Theater of War production and I am very excited about it! Actively reading this week: Light in August by William Faulkner Lisbon Poets, a bilingual book. I am getting a good intro to five poets: Luís de Cameos, Cesário Verde, Florbela Espanca, and Mário de Sá-Carneiro.

I am not into reading noir, which often made me feel like an oddball reader when I lived in Denmark. I’ve read some Scandinavian crime novels, but they just don’t appeal much to me.

I finished three books since my last update: one poetry, one play, and one nonfiction. Poetry: Felon: An excellent book of poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts. I am not sure that I would have appreciated it as much without reading his memoir first, but I do think it stands alone just fine. His best known poem is perhaps "When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving," which you can read with the link. I also became very interested in the visual artist who did the cover art: Titus Kaphar. The link goes to a short YouTube video about him and his work. Play: Antigone (transl. Reginald Gibbons) by Sophocles. This was my first time reading a Sophocles play, and I did it because I wanted to watch the Theater of War production that @Melissa M told us about. Melissa, I can't thank you enough for alerting me to the Theater of War production company. I loved everything about it. I have already signed up for the next live stream on the 19th, and will hopefully read Women of Trachis (transl. Robert Bagg) and Philocotes (transl. James Scully) before the event. I more-or-less knew the story of Antigone already, but these next two are completely new to me. I'm not being picky about the translations. I'm just using what I can get from the library. Nonfiction: White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. This was certainly a book worth reading and contemplating, but I think that at this point the ideas have been so widely disseminated across the internet that I often felt like I had already read it. That being said, it was useful for me to read the ideas as they were written in the book.

People in Denmark are certainly not stupid. One thing that is helping them a lot right now is that the fundamentals of the society are built upon concern for the common good, not individualism. You are correct that mask-wearing has not been widespread in Denmark. However, the situation is not static. Denmark's cases are on the upswing with a particularly alarming outbreak in Aarhus, the 2nd largest city. Lots of changes were announced within the last two days. Masks are now required in Aarhus on public transport, and local mask shortages are being reported. Yesterday, the PM released a long statement. Here is my imperfect translation of part of her statement, specifically the part about masks: "I know very well that this is new for most of us. It is not something we are used to here in Scandinavia. But we must learn to be. I believe that we have only seen the beginning of mask usage. And, as a government we can not rule out that is will become necessary to introduce it as a requirement in more sectors of society."

Just don’t do it on a sunny weekend and you might find the main streets to be ok. I’d say stay out of the city park though. We avoid it at all times. Side streets are normally ok.

As you know, I am in a densely populated area near you with the same mandates that you have. According to the mandate, people in my neighborhood should be masked while walking around outside because masks are required when social distancing is not possible and we are often too crowded for social distancing. Alas, I regret to inform you that many (if not most) pedestrians are not wearing masks outside. They pop them on to go in a shop.

Don't feel compelled to rush, Dreamergal. I finished two books this week: Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising that Changed America by Martin Duberman. This was my first book of LGBTQ history, and I plan to read several more. I don't think this was a particularly good book to start with. I lost focus when it went into details about various organizations. I have a myriad of complaints about it, the most important being the title. The Stonewall riots were not even mentioned until after page 200! Talk about a misleading title. Sheesh. And the writing style was irksome. But it wasn't a bad book. It was an adequate book. California Dreamin': Cass Elliot Before the Mamas and the Papas was a thoroughly enjoyable graphic novel. Thank you @Kareni for the recommendation. I discovered that Cass Elliot and I share Baltimore as our hometown region, and I was somehow unaware of that fun fact.

Checking in late this week and there was a lot to catch up on! Regarding Jane Austen, I have read all of her novels and have read most of them more than once. But I'm not sure that I have ever seen any of the movies. And for some unknown reason I can't drum up any interest in the spin-offs/retellings. I did go to Bath in the late 1980s and did all the Jane Austen stuff so I hope I can still consider myself a fan 🙂 @Little Green Leaves Welcome! @Dreamergal Your insight into literature from India is much appreciated. I really should be taking notes, and will have to go back through the threads and add some of your recommendations to my TBR. For new and nearly-new BaW posters, my Goodreads account is here. I would love to be GR friends with anyone who posts in this thread. If your WTM name is different from your GR name, please tell me in a message. It makes it easier to keep track of who-is-who 🙂 @Melissa M Thanks to you, I am reading Antigone this week and have signed up to watch the Antigone in Ferguson production on Sunday. I am eagerly anticipating it. Very late notice, but Busboys and Poets (a fantastic bookstore and cafe with multiple DC locations) is hosting a free Zoom dinner party with Alice Walker tonight 6 pm EST. I am hoping to catch at least part of it. Registration link.

I finished another book this week! Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt. This had been recommended to me by @Quill. It was quite good - a nice mix of social science research and personal story. The author mostly focuses on law enforcement, which is her area of expertise. There were some interesting long case studies such as the Oakland Riders Police Scandal (c. 2000) and the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally. There is a good chunk of neuroscience in the book that I really appreciated learning. And she also touches on bias research in other arenas such as orchestra auditions and MLB umpires. I hope to follow it up with Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed By Men.

I did a Hamilton watch party with a friend. We were both on our phone with the phone volume turned down. I didn't talk to her except before, during intermission, and after. But we were able to perfectly syncronize our film that way. For a more casual viewing experience, we probably would have made some chatty commentary during the movie, but that would have been annoyingly disruptive for a first viewing of Hamilton.

@Æthelthryth the Texan I have a vivid memory of reading Pillars of the Earth in 1991. I was pregnant with my first, and I recall being terrified by a birth scene! I can't remember the scene, but I sure do recall the feeling. @Dreamergal Do you have a recommendation for a particular work from either Radindranath Tagore or Mirza Ghalib? Both are new to me. Thank you for the link to Words without Borders. I feel like I have been on that site before, but had forgotten about it. Bookmarked it this time. You might like Lyrikline: 1455 poets 13076 poems 88 languages 19875 translations And all of them read aloud, usually by the poet. @Violet Crown I first heard of Stevie Smith recently when musician Nick Cave published his list of 40 beloved books. He has a lot of poetry on there, and also our dear friend Flannery O'Connor. I love his intro. When asked to compile a list, he said: "Normally, to answer this question I would simply go to my bookshelves and choose forty books. However, my bookshelves are completely empty. The 5000+ books I have accumulated over the years have been shipped to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. They are now part of the completely mind-blowing, heart-stopping Stranger Than Kindness exhibition." Too bad I won't be able to be in Denmark between now and February 2021. I sure would love to see that exhibition.

@Melissa M Thanks for the Theater of War mention. That looks very interesting, and I know there is an as-of-yet-undread copy of Anigone here somewhere. @Dreamergal Welcome! I read a lot of poetry, too. Earlier this year, I listened to Maya Angelou read her memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, and found it very moving. I'd say that my taste runs toward 20th century poetry. Off the top of my head, some of my favorite poets include June Jordan, Lucille Clifton, Wallace Stevens, Philip Levine, Rita Dove, and Linda Bierds. The Danish poets that currently interest me are Yahya Hassan, Tove Ditlevsen, and Inger Christensen. Unfortunately, I think that only Inger Christensen has been translated into English. @Junie I recently read The Outsiders for the first time, too. It is so hard to believe that she was so young when she wrote it! Another author like that is Carson McCullers. She was only 23 when she wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940), and the depth of that book is outstanding.

I finished three books last week! I had been working on all three for some time. All three were very heavy on the heart. The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili: This is quite the chunkster at 944 pages. It is a multigenerational saga of a Georgian family (the country not the state). It roughly spans the 20th century, and is an excellent piece of historical fiction. Warning: there is a lot of violence including sexual violence. Written in German and translated into English, it was Longlisted for the 2020 Booker International Prize. Four stars. A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison by Reginald Dwayne Betts: An excellent memoir by a man who was convicted of carjacking at age 16. He spent nearly nine years in an adult prison in Virginia. Betts is well known for his poetry, and I have begun his most recent book of poems, Felon. Excellent writing and heartbreaking insight into what can happen to a kid who makes one bad decision. Four stars. Yahya Hassan 2 by Yahya Hassan. I think that Yahya Hassan, who tragically died in April at age 24, was one of the most important voices in contemporary Danish literature. His parents were Palestinian refugees, and he grew up in what is sometimes called the parallel society in Denmark. This volume of poems was published late in 2019. Before his death, the book was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, and perhaps he will be awarded it posthumously. Here is a good article about his life and his work. I will no doubt be returning regularly to both of his poetry books. Five stars.

@aggieamy Thank you for the garden tour! It is very lovely. I currently live in a city apartment with a small deck. I planted pots of herbs, and my basil and mint are doing great. The dill and the cilantro got leggy and I more-or-less them die. I don’t usually bother with gardening so this definitely a because-COVID garden.

If you would like a non-amazon-owned source for used books, I recommend Wonder Book. They are local to me, and I look forward to browsing in their massive store again someday. But they also have a huge online inventory. @aggieamy I checked to see if they have The King's Equal, but they probably do not have the edition you want. It sounds like a lovely fairy tale! @Kareni I use the 50 page rule, but I don't know where I got the idea from. But thanks to Nancy Pearl's cleverness, I will now stop on page 44 🙂 I hope you enjoyed your art meeting. And the Mama Cass book looks great - added to my TBR.

I think you will see a lot of improvement. I recently decided to do more rereading in Danish, and am pleasantly surprised that previously hard books are now easy. Alas, many books that interest me remain too hard. There was nothing systematic about the way I learned Danish, and I have a set of vintage readers that I want to read through. I think I have Grades 2 through 7 with a missing Grade 3. I’m trying to be more systematic with Dutch. Right now, I’m just reading Jip and Janneke (children’s lit) every day and doing one grammar lesson daily. Why rush? It’s not like I will be able to get over there and see my son any time soon 😞 I just finished rereading Cambridge 1 Latin. It makes a good reader because the story is continuous. It is easy now! Of course, I spent years learning the equivalent of Latin I and am spending years learning the equivalent of Latin II. Oh well. My daydream is to read Gesta Danorum (it is a 12th c. history of Denmark - literally Deeds of the Danes) by Saxo Grammaticus. Supposedly Medieval Latin is easier than Classical Latin so maybe just maybe I’ll get there someday. ETA: And now you know why I don’t get through my English books very fast.

OK, I just called my local store and asked them some questions about bookshop.org. The most important question was: Is this really a good deal for them? Answer: Yes, they love it. And this is important, too: If you choose a store, you will land on their page within bookshop and the store will be displayed in the upper left corner (at least on a laptop). Now I can buy ANY book (Night Watchman is as good an example as any), and that store will get the funds. The funds will NOT go into the pool. The little banner says that I have raised "$X for local bookstores" but she assured me that as long as I choose their store first, they will get the money. So disregard what I said above about only being able to purchase featured books from my local. That was incorrect.

Have y'all talked about Bookshop.org for buying books from indie bookstores? I think it only came online during the pandemic, but I'm not totally sure about that. According to the FAQ, "10% of regular sales on Bookshop.org are added to an earnings pool that is evenly divided and distributed to independent bookstores every six months." For example, I could simply search for Louise Erdrich's Night Watchman. put it in my cart and check out. Alternatively, you can use the Find a Bookstore function and your purchase will support a particular store. A lot of indie booksellers don't have their own online webshop, and this provided an alternative. My local bookstore is part of Bookshop.org but you can only buy the books that are featured on its page. So I can't, for example, order the Night Watchman from this particular store. Nope! That was wrong. I just have to choose the store before I put the book in my cart, and that will make the specific store get the money. -- I whittled my active reading for this week down to a manageable three. I'll talk about them more in another post or when I finish them. The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili (fiction) A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age During Prison by Reginald Dwayne Betts (memoir) Yahya Hassan 2 by Yahya Hassan (Danish poetry) I loved the show but couldn't go beyond the first book. I felt like the writers of the show did a great job creating something impressive out of an unimpressive book. I'll be curious to hear what you think of Book 2.

So much awesome saddness here! Thank you thank you! It will take me a chunk of time, but I am going to listen to every single song posted here. There are a lot of unknown-to-me songs here, which is not surprising given our range of ages and musical tastes. I've been on a mission to expand myself musically, so that's a plus. I'm in my 50s so I probably know all of the older songs, but had forgotten about many of them. I feel like I missed all the good music, movies, and TV of the 90s - the only exception being stuff that toddlers and preschoolers liked. Once I had teenagers in the house, I started to at least hear what they were listening to. Now I've asked my family for their choices. @happysmileylady Based on your user name, I am not surprised that you don't generally like sad songs 🙂

This is great, thank you so much. Keep 'em coming! So far, it is a mixture of "now why didn't I think of that" and "unknown to me." Both categories are appreciated equally.

I'm making a playlist of sad songs just because I like sad songs. I'm just getting started and only have a few so far. So the field of suggestions is wide open. Any genre is fine. I can do an internet search and find more, but I'd like to find some that don't show up on every list. Hurt (Nine Inch Nails/Johhny Cash) Long Nights (Crack the Sky) I am Stretched On Your Grave (old Irish song /various recordings) Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)

Wait. What? Grown people don’t watch Disney movies? I am shocked, lol. I subscribed to Disney+ back in the fall because my kids (all young adults) wanted to see Mandalorian. . But we’ve kept it. It doesn’t get as much use as Netflix, but it gets enough to keep. I don’t know most of the posters on this thread well enough to know if you would appreciate this film or despise it, but one of my favorite cult films is Return to Oz and it is on Disney+. Forget everything you know about the Wizard of Oz from the Judy Garland movie. This is based off the books and it is...something else. It’s like a horror film...for kids. But horror films are not for kids, so I have no idea what Disney was thinking in 1985 when it released this one. It makes a lot of Cult Classic lists.

My watch party is over, and what a splendid afternoon it was. I’ve never seen the show live but am very familiar with the soundtrack. So it filled in some gaps for me. My niece, who has the soundtrack memorized, was part of the watch party. She said there was one extra song. I can’t remember what it was (sorry) but I think Laurens was singing it. I will be floating for the rest of the day, and that is a feeling that has been very rare since mid-March. What a gift Lin-Manuel Miranda has given us. I plan to watch it again this weekend with DH and DS. PS You can only download with the app not through a browser. I had to stream but had no problems.