Book a Week 2020 - BW17: A Bookish Quest

[Robin M]

Good morning and happy Sunday, dear hearts.  Since we all seem to be more in a sipping mood lately rather than feasting on one book, I have a bookish quest for you.  Find the oldest or an older book, meaning purchased more than a couple years or so ago, in your stacks whether it be physical or e form and read it or at least start reading it this week. For Kindle, the oldest books in my virtual stacks are Tent Life in Siberia, a nonfiction book of essays about Siberian travel adventures and survival and David Baldacci’s The Innocent. On my nook, is K.M. Weiland’s A Man Called Outlaw.  I already started sipping Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay last week which has been lounging on my physical shelves for quite a while.  Think I’ll look through my bookshelves and pull another oldie but goodie out as a secondary.   I checked Audible and discovered a few started but unfinished books, so going with the oldest which is James Rollin’s Devil Colony to listen to while meandering about this week.

Start taste testing this week, a bit here, a bit there, and throw in a poem or two or three as we wind up April and National Poetry Month. 

 

Here are two to get you started.

 

Notes on the Art of Poetry

by Dylan Thomas

I could never have dreamt that there were such goings-on
in the world between the covers of books,
such sandstorms and ice blasts of words,
such staggering peace, such enormous laughter,
such and so many blinding bright lights,
splashing all over the pages
in a million bits and pieces
all of which were words, words, words,
and each of which were alive forever
in its own delight and glory and oddity and light.

 ******

 Book Lover

 by Robert William Service 

 I keep collecting books I know
I'll never, never read;
My wife and daughter tell me so,
And yet I never heed.
"Please make me," says some wistful tome,
"A wee bit of yourself."
And so I take my treasure home,
And tuck it in a shelf.

And now my very shelves complain;
They jam and over-spill.
They say: "Why don't you ease our strain?"
"some day," I say, "I will."
So book by book they plead and sigh;
I pick and dip and scan;
Then put them back, distressed that I
Am such a busy man.

Now, there's my Boswell and my Sterne,
my Gibbon and Defoe;
To savor Swift I'll never learn,
Montaigne I may not know.
On Bacon I will never sup,
For Shakespeare I've no time;
Because I'm busy making up
These jingly bits of rhyme.

 Chekov is caviar to me,
While Stendhal makes me snore;
Poor Proust is not my cup of tea,
And Balzac is a bore.
I have their books, I love their names,
And yet alas! they head,
With Lawrence, Joyce and Henry James,
My Roster of Unread.

I think it would be very well
If I commit a crime,
And get put in a prison cell
And not allowed to rhyme;
Yet given all these worthy books
According to my need,
I now caress with loving looks,
But never, never read.

Please share a pic or two if  you choose of your morning view.  

 Link to Week 16

 Visit  52 Books in 52 Weeks where you can find all the information on the annual, mini and perpetual challenges, as well as share your book reviews if you like.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Robin M

[Robin M]

 I finished Amanda Lee's  Witchin USA in which the lead character just seemed so very young and immature and I couldn't figure out what the romantic lead saw in her but it was a fluffy, lighthearted read nonetheless.   I also finished the latest book in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood, The Sinner.  I think I'm going to have to read it again because the climax, the end of the war between the vampires and the lessors was very anticlimactic and maybe I missed something, but Goodreads reviews seem to agree with me.   

Besides sipping from the books mentioned in the opening thread, I'm sipping form Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird which is both amusing and giving me inspiration to write. 

When she gets all angsty about writing, "I finally notice the one-inch picture frame that I put on my to remind me of short assignments.  It reminds me that all I have to do is write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame....    E.L. Doctorow once said the 'writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard."

 

[Kareni]

Last night I finishedThe Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh. 

I'd heard good things about this book, found it a pleasant read, and may read further in the series at some time. Anyone else here read it?

 "The first volume of the Chanur saga, set in the Alliance-Union universe, featuring the alien crew of spaceship The Pride of Chanur and the human Tully.

No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company of humans―a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown―and he was a prisoner of his discoverers and captors―the sadistic, treacherous kif―until his escape onto the hani ship, The Pride of Chanur.

Little did he know when he threw himself upon the mercy of The Pride and her crew that he put the entire hani species in jeopardy and imperiled the peace of the Compact itself...for the information this fugitive held could be the ruin or glory of any of the species at Meetpoint Station."

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Today only, free for Kindle readers ~

Bulldog Drummond by H.C. McNeile

 "The thrilling debut of Bulldog Drummond, England’s bravest veteran 

In the waning days of World War I, four men gather in a Swiss hotel. Two are German, one is American—and the last is a citizen of the world and a master of disguise. To enter this exclusive club, there are only two requirements: a desire to see England destroyed and the means to make it happen.

In London, Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, formerly of His Majesty’s Royal Loamshire Regiment, grapples with the tedium of civilian life. Eager for action, he places an ad offering himself up for adventure licit or illicit—anything so long as it is exciting. He is soon hired by Phyllis Benton, whose father has come under the sway of the sinister organization plotting to bring down the British government and replace it with a dictatorship. Bulldog will risk life and limb to save not only his beloved England, but the charming Miss Phyllis, as well.

The first installment in H. C. McNeile’s postwar adventure novels revolutionized the thriller genre and introduced one of popular fiction’s most enduring heroes. "

Also free~

Into the Labyrinth: Mage Errant Book 1 by John Bierce

 "Hugh of Emblin is, so far as he's concerned, the worst student that the Academy at Skyhold has ever seen. He can barely cast any spells at all, and those he does cast tend to fail explosively. If that wasn't bad enough, he's also managed to attract the ire of the most promising student of his year- who also happens to be the nephew of a king. Hugh has no friends, no talent, and definitely doesn't expect a mage to choose him as an apprentice at all during the upcoming Choosing.

When a very unusual mage does choose him as apprentice, however, his life starts to take a sharp turn for the better. Now all he has to worry about is the final test for the first years- being sent into the terrifying labyrinth below Skyhold."

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

I finished a book with an interesting cover that I actually think it’s cute ....historic home wallpaperish. 😉 The cover is probably what attracted me to read the description and check out the book.  I really wasn’t expecting it to be a pretty traditional historical romance with four unhappy young women trying to have the right to choose who they marry in a world where men decide everything.  The Earl Not Taken is a very much a historical romance but the author AS Fenichel has written some urban fantasies also.  So if anyone recognizes the name, I did, this book may not be quite what you are anticipating.  This is the first in a new series that I will read more of if I happen to see them......... 
 

[Negin]

I read The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up - 2 Stars - Although I have Marie Kondo’s original book, and I keep telling myself that I’ll read it someday, I don’t think that it will be anytime soon, if at all. I struggle with the self-help/self-improvement genre. Knowing that I will likely never read the original book, I picked up this edition when we were in my favorite bookstore in Miami almost a year ago.

This was a quick and fun graphic novel. I assume that it’s a condensed version of the original book. I didn’t care for the character Chiaki or the romance/story aspect of it, probably because I’m too old. The art is cute and simple.

I’ve watched a few episodes of her show and I get the idea. It’s not really for me. I may take her up on how to fold some of my clothes. That’s about it. I’m not going to fold all my clothes. I want to see them, plus I don’t have enough drawer space. I’m also not able to only keep things that spark joy. There are many things that I am obligated to keep that don’t spark joy. I’m also not into some of the Shinto practices – thanking items, clapping books, and so on.

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper - 2 Stars - The concept of this book appealed to me and I was so looking forward to reading it. I love Mary Cassatt’s art, impressionism, and reading about Paris during those years – with Degas, Renoir, and so on. This ended up being a monotonous read and I couldn’t get into it. The paintings in the book were pretty, but the story was missing something. It was boring.

   

[Liz CA]

The challenge of finding the oldest book is so uncanny...just an hour ago I found the first book I ever read (yes, I still have it) in a box in the garage. After I read these two fairly short books and found out that a book can take you places you may never go otherwise, I was hooked forever on reading. I think I may have been around 6 or 7 years old.

Reading:

Finishing "Smoke Screen" by Blackstock. I got a little sidetracked during the week and read portions of Shauna Niequist's "Bread and Wine." Then I was inspired to do her Blueberry Crisp recipe and been spooning it straight out of the fridge ever since.

Audiobooks:

"Present over Perfect" by Niequist. Finished it and had some good points but couldn't help thinking that not everyone has as many options as the author has.

"Exposure" by Brandilyn Collins
"Boundaries Face to Face" by Cloud / Townsend.  This is very much a refresher but always useful.

I have several books and audio by Brene Brown on my waitlist.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Liz CA

[Miss Tick]

I was straightening the living room - which is generally the children's domain, and I discovered a book I checked out for myself 5 weeks ago before the library closed. I sat down and read the first 5 chapters of The Hidden Things by Jamie Mason. So far so good, there is one character who may not head in the direction I'm hoping, but I'm interested enough to stick around and find out! I'm also reading Cibola's Run from the Leviathan series, but I'm happy to stretch that one out. I also have Oedipus the King to read for discussion this week, and a few more chapters of History of the Medieval World. Oh! and this morning I read the short story The Yellow Wallpaper after having received two separate recommendations this week. Deliciously creepy!

[Junie]

I have no idea which book has been sitting on my shelves the longest.

However, I have been trying to work through my TBR shelves (while pre-reading for the kids).  I have also challenged myself not to re-read anything this year (other than the Bible or books in a foreign language) to try to get my shelves under control.

[Ali in OR]

Still reading the same 3 books as last week...The Thames River Murders (Captain Lacey mystery), Whispers Underground (Rivers of London #3), and The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm enjoying them all, and that's why I'm not done with any of them--my reading time is being split. I do end every day now reading for an hour on the sofa, and that's becoming a treat I look forward to. I'll probably be moving on to the next in each of those series as I finish these sometime this week. Also need to get our next book club book, The German Midwife (WWII).

I do have a few older books I may get to at some point...

[Lady Florida.]

I"m actually starting to finish books! Recently finished:

Audible edition of Russka: A Novel of Russia - I liked it but I think I liked Old Sarum better. 

The Secrets We Kept -  A fictionalized telling of the CIA's plan to get Dr. Zhivago printed in Russian and smuggled back into the Soviet Union. It also highlighted the CIA typists. Many of them had been spies and had dangerous jobs with lives on the line, but after the war they were shuffled back into "women's work". 

Henry IV Part 2 - part of my ongoing personal Shakespeare reading challenge

My currently reading list looks long but I'm really actively reading just three and listening to one so those are the ones I'll post.

Educated - If this was on my Kindle I'm sure I would have finished it by now. Instead I have the hardcover version that was given to me, and I just don't think to pick up a physical book as much as I think to pick up my Kindle and start reading.

Leviathan Wakes - Dh and I have been watching the tv series The Expanse and it made us both want to read the series on which it's based. He's farther along than I am because he only reads one book at a time. 😄 

Death Below Stairs, by Jennifer Ashley. She also writes the Captain Lacey mysteries under the name Ashley Gardner. I needed easy reading for those times when I can't concentrate on much, and this fits the requirement.

The Bully Pulpit, by Doris Kearns Goodwin is my current audio book. I had the next Agatha Raisin audio book on hold and it came in yesterday. Both are library loans so I have to manage my listening time to be able to finish both before the loan periods end. 

 

On 4/20/2020 at 8:20 PM, mumto2 said:

 

@Lady Florida. Wondering how you move is going?

It's coming along. We close on May 12th but have had no offers on this house and only one more showing. I hope once we move and/or things open up a bit more people will come to see it and one of them will decide they need it. I feel like I'm living in a weird sort of limbo. Much of my stuff is in storage but when I put it there I thought I'd have it out and in the new house by now. I have nothing on my walls, no personal decorations around the house, and very few books. While everyone is cleaning and baking, and sewing during the pandemic I've done neither. I cleaned thoroughly in preparation for putting the house on the market. My stand mixer is in storage and though I could bake by hand I don't want to. My sewing machine is in storage too and I wish I could have been making masks to give away. I don't know if I should start packing things around the house just yet or wait. It's all just odd. Anyway, it will be over soon and I'll be in my new house getting to decide where to keep all our stuff. I hate packing for a move but I enjoy the feeling of starting over in a new place so I look forward to unpacking.

 

We had a few nice mornings the past week so I took advantage of them. Usually it's too hot to sit outside even early in the morning. Last week I sat on the porch and enjoyed what might be the last time I get to view my big backyard. We'll have a screened porch at our new house but my view will be of our back yard neighbors since the property is much, much smaller. I was joined by Cookie, the tuxedo cat I took off my cousin's hands a few years ago. 

ETA: Yes, my patio chairs are rusty. We plan to offer them as a freebie for anyone who wants to give them some tlc. For now though, they're all we have to sit on outside.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Lady Florida.

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, Liz CA said:

just an hour ago I found the first book I ever read (yes, I still have it) in a box in the garage.

Now I'm curious as to the title of the book. I have absolutely no idea as to what was the first book I ever read.

2 hours ago, Liz CA said:

Shauna Niequist's "Bread and Wine." ...I was inspired to do her Blueberry Crisp recipe and been spooning it straight out of the fridge ever since.

That sounds delicious! Can you share the recipe?

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

And a free compilation of books for Kindle readers ~

Sword & Magic: Eight Fantasy Novels

 

Eight complete epic fantasy novels in one set.

All the magic, dragons, castles and quests you will ever need!

Innocence Lost by Patty Jansen

Beneath The Canyons by Kyra Halland

The Last Priestess by Elizabeth Baxter

Book Of Never by Ashley Capes

Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard

The Dragon’s Champion by Sam Ferguson

Float: The Enchanted Horse by Demelza Carlton

The Silverleaf Chronicles by Vincent Trigili

Regards,

Kareni

[Liz CA]

2 hours ago, Kareni said:

Now I'm curious as to the title of the book. I have absolutely no idea as to what was the first book I ever read.

That sounds delicious! Can you share the recipe?

Regards,

Kareni

 

Didn't see a link to the recipe so here it goes:

4 cups of blueberries - fresh or frozen

TOPPING:

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, almonds, pecans or whatever nut you like

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 t salt

Mix up all topping ingredients. Pour berries into 8x8 pan or round pan. Layer crisp topping over it. Bake at F350 for about 40-45 minutes or a little longer if berries were frozen until fruit is bubbling and topping is crisp and golden.

[mumto2]

1 hour ago, Lady Florida. said:

I"m actually starting to finish books! Recently finished:

Audible edition of Russka: A Novel of Russia - I liked it but I think I liked Old Sarum better. 

The Secrets We Kept -  A fictionalized telling of the CIA's plan to get Dr. Zhivago printed in Russian and smuggled back into the Soviet Union. It also highlighted the CIA typists. Many of them had been spies and had dangerous jobs with lives on the line, but after the war they were shuffled back into "women's work". 

Henry IV Part 2 - part of my ongoing personal Shakespeare reading challenge

My currently reading list looks long but I'm really actively reading just three and listening to one so those are the ones I'll post.

Educated - If this was on my Kindle I'm sure I would have finished it by now. Instead I have the hardcover version that was given to me, and I just don't think to pick up a physical book as much as I think to pick up my Kindle and start reading.

Leviathan Wakes - Dh and I have been watching the tv series The Expanse and it made us both want to read the series on which it's based. He's farther along than I am because he only reads one book at a time. 😄 

Death Below Stairs, by Jennifer Ashley. She also writes the Captain Lacey mysteries under the name Ashley Gardner. I needed easy reading for those times when I can't concentrate on much, and this fits the requirement.

The Bully Pulpit, by Doris Kearns Goodwin is my current audio book. I had the next Agatha Raisin audio book on hold and it came in yesterday. Both are library loans so I have to manage my listening time to be able to finish both before the loan periods end. 

 

It's coming along. We close on May 12th but have had no offers on this house and only one more showing. I hope once we move and/or things open up a bit more people will come to see it and one of them will decide they need it. I feel like I'm living in a weird sort of limbo. Much of my stuff is in storage but when I put it there I thought I'd have it out and in the new house by now. I have nothing on my walls, no personal decorations around the house, and very few books. While everyone is cleaning and baking, and sewing during the pandemic I've done neither. I cleaned thoroughly in preparation for putting the house on the market. My stand mixer is in storage and though I could bake by hand I don't want to. My sewing machine is in storage too and I wish I could have been making masks to give away. I don't know if I should start packing things around the house just yet or wait. It's all just odd. Anyway, it will be over soon and I'll be in my new house getting to decide where to keep all our stuff. I hate packing for a move but I enjoy the feeling of starting over in a new place so I look forward to unpacking.

 

We had a few nice mornings the past week so I took advantage of them. Usually it's too hot to sit outside even early in the morning. Last week I sat on the porch and enjoyed what might be the last time I get to view my big backyard. We'll have a screened porch at our new house but my view will be of our back yard neighbors since the property is much, much smaller. I was joined by Cookie, the tuxedo cat I took off my cousin's hands a few years ago. 

ETA: Yes, my patio chairs are rusty. We plan to offer them as a freebie for anyone who wants to give them some tlc. For now though, they're all we have to sit on outside.

I really loved The Expanse books,  I probably should watch the show.  I watched the first episode months ago and realized it was the prequel which I hadn’t read so I stopped watching intending to read the prequel.....well, I read The Butcher of Anderson Station but never watched the show again.
 

😂I think we are all in a weird sort of limbo.  Compared to normal I have created very little in this odd time.....the need to make masks is almost a compulsion. I will admit I find them oddly satisfying and am in the process of mailing several to England to friends who do not sew so won’t be able to make masks for themselves when the time comes.  Mask making is not the big thing there.....everyone is making scrubs and scrub bags to donate to the NHS.  From reading the papers I suspect masks will be part of the loosening policies so am sending a few over to friends.  

Your yard is huge by Florida standards!  I think our neighbors with minimal yards and kids are dreaming of having a yard right now.  I suspect your house will sell quickly as soon as people feel comfortable looking again.

 

[Kareni]

52 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

4 cups of blueberries - fresh or frozen

TOPPING:

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, almonds, pecans or whatever nut you like

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 t salt

Mix up all topping ingredients. Pour berries into 8x8 pan or round pan. Layer crisp topping over it. Bake at F350 for about 40-45 minutes or a little longer if berries were frozen until fruit is bubbling and topping is crisp and golden.

Ooh, that does look tempting...and doable. The only ingredient we're lacking is almond meal. I wonder if one could substitute flour.

Thanks very much for sharing, Liz!

Regards,

Kareni

[melmichigan]

Thanks for the heads up on The Expanse series on Netflix!  I don't think I've read the prequel.  

I finished reading the two Glimmer Lake books by Elizabeth Hunter that are available on Kindle unlimited.

 

[Lady Florida.]

1 hour ago, mumto2 said:

I really loved The Expanse books,  I probably should watch the show.  I watched the first episode months ago and realized it was the prequel which I hadn’t read so I stopped watching intending to read the prequel.....well, I read The Butcher of Anderson Station but never watched the show again.

 

I thought Leviathan Wakes was the first book. Is it a prequel? So far what's happening in the book matches the first few episodes of the series but with more details. 

14 minutes ago, melmichigan said:

Thanks for the heads up on The Expanse series on Netflix!  

 

It's on Amazon.

14 minutes ago, melmichigan said:

 

I have no idea why this is here and I can't delete it. 😀

[mumto2]

46 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

I thought Leviathan Wakes was the first book. Is it a prequel? So far what's happening in the book matches the first few episodes of the series but with more details. 

It's on Amazon.

I have no idea why this is here and I can't delete it. 😀

On Goodreads they list it as 1.5 but it takes place at the same time as the beginning episodes or chapters of Leviathan Wakes.  If you are enjoying the show don’t worry.  I was being a really picky fan girl at that point.

It explains/details why Fred is the Butcher of Anderson Station which is how he is referred to as the book series continues.  Short, 40ish pages. Right after reading it I compared it to episode descriptions and think (that is completely think) is the same time period as the first season. Probably not essential at all for enjoying the tv show, defiantly not needed for the books .....I was watching the tv series after reading the entire book series except that teeny tiny piece which is what the tv series was concentrating on.
 

Btw  I ended up reading all of the novellas in this series and only really found Butcher of Anderson Station and Strange Dogs really good, important?, useful😂

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11570653-the-butcher-of-anderson-station?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=arSJrII3Cb&rank=1

Apparently there is a new novella.....Off to research......

@Robin M  I just finished Nora Roberts Taming Natasha which I must have read in 1990 when it was first published.  Just got the second in the series ready to read.....Luring a Lady.  What a title!😂. These definitely deserve to be counted as old book friends.

[Violet Crown]

This week I finished The Evolution of a State; or Recollections of Old Texas Days, by Noah Smithwick, d. 1898, who was an itinerant blacksmith, a Texas Ranger, and after the Revolution, a mill owner near Marble Falls, Texas (just northwest of Austin). It's a strange experience reading about wild west adventures in places that are now familiar developed areas. I had no idea there was a notorious Indian massacre up where my mom lives, or that a settler named Barton, after whom Barton Springs was named, moved out to the cold spring area because it was out in the wilderness, far away from the overcrowded capital (it's considered central Austin now). At one point, desperate for a District Attorney, the citizens of Travis County dragooned an 18-year-old law student for the position as the most qualified man available.

Smithwick himself barely missed several of the crucial events of Texas history -- too late on the scene to be massacred at Goliad or the Alamo, and a day too late for the victory at San Jacinto because his commanding officer detoured to avoid a Mexican army detachment that turned out to be a herd of loose cattle. But he was there for the Runaway Scrape: the panicked evacuation of the settler families, mostly women and children, across the Texas rivers in spring flood, as they tried to reach the United States ahead of Santa Anna's army. (Santa Anna didn't murder civilians, but the news of the atrocities at Goliad and the fate of the Santa Fe Expedition terrorized the settlers.) Smithwick fled Texas right before the Civil War when his speaking out against secession put his life in danger.

Necessary reading for all locals. Surprised I'd never heard of Smithwick before.

Currently reading The Prisoner of Zenda, as Wee Girl decided I would read that while she reads Kipling's Kim, and then we'll swap. Puffin Classics for the next week then! Zenda is the book you'd get if P. G. Wodehouse wrote The Prince and the Pauper. 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Violet Crown

[Violet Crown]

8 hours ago, Negin said:

I’ve watched a few episodes of her show and I get the idea. It’s not really for me. I may take her up on how to fold some of my clothes. That’s about it. I’m not going to fold all my clothes. I want to see them, plus I don’t have enough drawer space. I’m also not able to only keep things that spark joy. There are many things that I am obligated to keep that don’t spark joy. I’m also not into some of the Shinto practices – thanking items, clapping books, and so on.

Agree with all this. Also this is an inconvenient time for decluttering. There are boxes of books and clothes taking up space in my living room, waiting to be driven to the (closed) thrift store and library discard store.

6 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

ETA: Yes, my patio chairs are rusty. We plan to offer them as a freebie for anyone who wants to give them some tlc. For now though, they're all we have to sit on outside.

The cat seems to find them satisfactory. Pretty kitty! And impressive book-finishing.

[Liz CA]

2 hours ago, Kareni said:

Ooh, that does look tempting...and doable. The only ingredient we're lacking is almond meal. I wonder if one could substitute flour.

Thanks very much for sharing, Liz!

Regards,

Kareni

 

I bet you could. If you have almonds and a food processor, you can make almond meal. Simply grind almonds into fine powder but stop before it becomes almond butter. ☺️

[Negin]

Kindle book on sale today. 

Gilead

Don't know if it's any good. Anyone read this?

 

[Violet Crown]

@Negin I read Gilead for a book group years ago. I remember liking it; but people whose reading opinions usually jibe with mine tell me they disliked it intensely, so there you are.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Violet Crown
spelling incompetence

[Lady Florida.]

I'm happy to say I was wrong about the weather.it was beautiful this morning - low 60s when I woke up though it's about 70 now. Still perfect. And it looks like we'll have some nice cool mornings this week (yes, 60s F are considered cool). Cookie and I both watched the birds at the feeder then I settled in to read.

 

[Lori D.]

6 hours ago, Negin said:

Kindle book on sale today. 

Gilead

Don't know if it's any good. Anyone read this?

 

Check out the Wikipedia description. It has been so long since I read it that I don't remember tons, but I do remember it is a gentle, slow read, from the perspective of an elderly man, looking back on life and pondering meaning, and wanting to leave a legacy of hope and sense of identity to his young second wife and their small son. Christian themes embedded, and a positive, redemptive point of view that life is valuable and meaningful.

[Kareni]

Today only, these two books are free for Kindle readers ~

The Lone Wolf by Louis Joseph Vance

and

Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris 

Regards,

Kareni

[Violet Crown]

Finished The Prisoner of Zenda, and since Wee Girl hasn't yet finished Kim, I have a free couple of days (hopefully) to read something else. New Random Pick: News From Nowhere by William Morris.

[Kareni]

Some bookish posts ~

Seanan McGuire’s Personal Top 10 Urban Fantasy Books for Adults

Oops!  Coronavirus: Library books rearranged in size order by cleaner

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-52412655

Books That Grab You by Jo Walton

https://www.tor.com/2020/04/21/books-that-grab-you/comment-page-1/#comment-864067

From reddit: Could someone please recommend me books with unconventionally attractive/disfigured female protags who completely accept themselves

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/fqydnt/could_someone_please_recommend_me_books_with/

Regards,

Kareni

[Dicentra]

I recently came across an article and I wanted to get the opinion of the readers here...

https://theconversation.com/how-to-read-shakespeare-for-pleasure-136409

I really do want to learn to read the literary stuff.  And I have a copy of The Well Educated Mind that I need to sit down with and make a plan. 🙂  But does the article have merit, do you think?  When I start to read Shakespeare, I feel like I don't "get it".  And my science/math brain wants to understand every word. 😉  So the article's suggestion of ignoring the footnotes makes me feel all anxious. 😬 

What sayeth the BaW readers?

Edited April 28, 2020 by Dicentra

[Kareni]

@Dicentra, I'm decidedly non literary, so feel free to take my opinion with a bucket full of salt.

If it were me, I would first watch a recording of the play (and note that even the article includes links to various productions) and then I would read the play. Read the footnotes or not as you see fit.

Regards,

Kareni

[Lori D.]

2 hours ago, Dicentra said:

I recently came across an article and I wanted to get the opinion of the readers here...

https://theconversation.com/how-to-read-shakespeare-for-pleasure-136409

I really do want to learn to read the literary stuff.  And I have a copy of The Well Educated Mind that I need to sit down with and make a plan. 🙂  But does the article have merit, do you think?  When I start to read Shakespeare, I feel like I don't "get it".  And my science/math brain wants to understand every word. 😉  So the article's suggestion of ignoring the footnotes makes me feel all anxious. 😬 

What sayeth the BaW readers?

Well, I AM strongly literature-based, and I fall strongly in the camp of WATCHING performances (like Kareni).  And watch several versions. THEN consider reading. Plays were meant to be HEARD and VIEWED. Reading is great for afterwards, for catching the lines missed during performance, and for digging deeper into the ideas going on in the play. Also, my DSs found that having a parallel text (side-by-side original language with modern translation) to be helpful when we read Shakespeare's plays.

For me, hearing someone perform who understands what is being said is the most huge lightbulb for understanding what is going on. And it's not just the enunciation and choice of stress in the sentence, but actual performance adds to understanding (sort of like illustrations in a book helping to give visual clues as to what the "big words" in the text might be 😉 ). For this reason, I adore the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing, and the David Tennent version of Hamlet, etc.

All that said -- if the tips in the article feel like they will be helpful to you -- go with their suggestions! There is no "wrong" way to read Shakespeare, IMO. 😉 

Edited April 28, 2020 by Lori D.

[Dicentra]

1 hour ago, Kareni said:

@Dicentra, I'm decidedly non literary, so feel free to take my opinion with a bucket full of salt.

If it were me, I would first watch a recording of the play (and note that even the article includes links to various productions) and then I would read the play. Read the footnotes or not as you see fit.

Regards,

Kareni

 

1 minute ago, Lori D. said:

Well, I fall strongly in the camp of WATCHING performances. And watch several versions. THEN consider reading. Plays were meant to be HEARD and VIEWED. Reading is great for afterwards, for catching the lines missed during performance, and for digging deeper into the ideas going on in the play. Also, my DSs found that having a parallel text (side-by-side original language with modern translation) to be helpful when we read Shakespeare's plays.

For me, hearing someone perform who understands what is being said is the most huge lightbulb for understanding what is going on. And it's not just the enunciation and choice of stress in the sentence, but actual performance adds to understanding (sort of like illustrations in a book helping to give visual clues as to what the "big words" in the text might be 😉 ). For this reason, I adore the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing, and the David Tennent version of Hamlet, etc.

All that said -- if the tips in the article feel like they will be helpful to you -- go with their suggestions! There is no "wrong" way to read Shakespeare, IMO. 😉 

Thank you both!! 🙂  @Violet Crown had mentioned the Hollow Crown series and I mentioned in reply that I had purchased it a while ago but had never gotten around to watching any of them.  It may be time. 🙂  And I'll look for those performances, too, @Lori D..  One can't go wrong with either Branagh or Tennent. 😉  In fact... I think I have an old DVD around here somewhere of the Branagh version of Hamlet - which I also haven't watched.  Hmmmm...  With which to start?

[Lori D.]

24 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

 

Thank you both!! 🙂  @Violet Crown had mentioned the Hollow Crown series and I mentioned in reply that I had purchased it a while ago but had never gotten around to watching any of them.  It may be time. 🙂  And I'll look for those performances, too, @Lori D..  One can't go wrong with either Branagh or Tennent. 😉  In fact... I think I have an old DVD around here somewhere of the Branagh version of Hamlet - which I also haven't watched.  Hmmmm...  With which to start?

Well... from both a film-making POV and interpretation of the play POV, I really DIS-like the Branagh Hamlet. Ug -- such an ego-centric portrayal -- he is 2x the age of Hamlet at least, hops into bed with a naked Kate Winslet as Ophelia (really?!?) just 'cause, and the camera circles endless round and round and round Kenneth and his swelled ego. But... that's just my reaction to that version, LOL!

In contrast, I can not WAIT until I have time this summer to watch the Hollow Crown trilogy of Henry plays! Oh.my.word. -- Jeremy Irons is so yummy to listen to!  😍

ETA -- This 2018 version of King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins was a very interesting re-setting of the play into modern times...

Edited April 28, 2020 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

32 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

....Hmmmm...  With which to start?

Actually, I suggest going with one of the more straight forward plays -- Hamlet and King Lear are both so complex and rich, you might want to save them for a little later when you have a bit more Shakespeare under your belt. I do think that the comedies of Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Taming of the Shrew are pretty straight forward story-wise, so it's more about the fun of the teasing, double entendres, and use of language. Macbeth is pretty straight forward for a tragedy. And Julius Caesar is a straight forward history. I haven't seen the Hollow Crown yet, but that might be a good starting point, if you already have it...

Edited April 28, 2020 by Lori D.

[Dicentra]

13 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Well... from both a film-making POV and interpretation of the play POV, I really DIS-like the Branagh Hamlet. Ug -- such an ego-centric portrayal -- he is 2x the age of Hamlet at least, hops into bed with a naked Kate Winslet as Ophelia (really?!?) just 'cause, and the camera circles endless round and round and round Kenneth and his swelled ego. But... that's just my reaction to that version, LOL!

In contrast, I can not WAIT until I have time this summer to watch the Hollow Crown trilogy of Henry plays! Oh.my.word. -- Jeremy Irons is so yummy to listen to!  😍

ETA -- This 2018 version of King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins was a very interesting re-setting of the play into modern times...

I LOVE Jeremy Irons!  And I think Benedict Cumberbatch is in there, too, somewhere. 🙂 🙂  I know the history of that period fairly well (the period of the Hollow Crown series) - that might help, as well?

I have a friend who is an AP English Lit teacher and she always said that the Polanski version of Macbeth was the best but I can't remember why. 😄 

 

[Kareni]

@mumto2, you mentioned last week having read Zero Sum Game by SL Huang. You might enjoy this Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) by the author. I did!

Hi! I’m SL Huang, the author of the Cas Russell series and a Hollywood stuntwoman and weapons expert. Ask me anything!

 Regards, 

Kareni

[Lori D.]

38 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

I LOVE Jeremy Irons!  And I think Benedict Cumberbatch is in there, too, somewhere. 🙂 🙂  I know the history of that period fairly well (the period of the Hollow Crown series) - that might help, as well?

Ooo! Yes! Go for it! That will definitely help, knowing the history of the times... AND it has Tom Hiddleson -- LOVE him as Loki in the Marvel movies, so I'm sure he's great in this too! 😍
 

38 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

... I have a friend who is an AP English Lit teacher and she always said that the Polanski version of Macbeth was the best but I can't remember why. 😄  

I understand that Polanski's film of Macbeth is the most bloody and violent version. It was done right after Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was brutally stabbed to death by the Charles Manson gang, and I have read that Polanski was working out some of the horrors of the very bloody and violent murders of wife and unborn child in that film of Macbeth...

Every time someone asks for a film version for various Shakespeare plays, Macbeth is the tough one to come up with a great version. Patrick Stewart is in a version that is set in WW1, and it apparently has nightmare-inducing nurses for the 3 witches. I understand that the 2015 film version with Michael Fassbender has some great moments, but that it is not the complete play, and that it is also pretty bloody. There's a version with Ian McKellan and Judi Dench as the Macbeths, but from the excerpt I saw, it was staged... a bit strangely...

I've watched parts of the older Orson Wells film version of Macbeth, and it's... odd. I do love Akira Kurasawa's Throne of Blood, a samurai version of Macbeth, BUT it doesn't have any of the language of Shakespeare, just the story. I've only seen excerpts, but the 1983 BBC tv version looks pretty decent.

All that to say, I still don't know what to recommend for watching Macbeth, lol... It's actually pretty straight forward to read.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Lori D.

[Dicentra]

2 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Ooo! Yes! Go for it! AND it has Tom Hiddleson -- LOVE him as Loki in the Marvel movies, so I'm sure he's great in this too! 😍
 

I understand that Polanski's film of Macbeth is the most bloody and violent version. It was done right after Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was brutally stabbed to death by the Charles Manson gang, and I have read that Polanski was working out some of the horrors of the very bloody and violent murders of wife and unborn child in that film of Macbeth...

Every time someone asks for a film version for various Shakespeare plays, Macbeth is the tough one to come up with a great version. Patrick Stewart is in a version that is set in WW1, and it apparently was nightmare-inducing nurses for the 3 witches. I understand that the 2015 film version with Michael Fassbender has some great moments, but that it is not the complete play, and that it is also pretty bloody. There's a version with Ian McKellan and Judi Dench as the Macbeths, but from the excerpt I saw, it was staged... a bit strangely...

I've watched parts of the older Orson Wells film version of Macbeth, and it's... odd. I do love Akira Kurasawa's Throne of Blood, a samurai version of Macbeth, BUT it doesn't have any of the language of Shakespeare, just the story. I've only seen excerpts, but the 1983 BBC tv version looks pretty decent.

All that to say, I still don't know what to recommend for watching Macbeth, lol... It's actually pretty straight forward to read.

Ooooo... Tom Hiddleston!  Yup - definitely going to start with the Hollow Crown series!

That's quite the backstory on the Polanski version!  I did read some Shakespeare in my high school English courses and I believe we read Macbeth in Grade 12.  Weirdly, we read "The Merchant of Venice" in Grade 9, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Grade 10, "Romeo and Juliet" in Grade 11, "Macbeth" in Grade 12, and "King Lear" in an extra senior English course I took.  No Hamlet anywhere and none of the histories.  And even having covered them in high school, I still didn't "get them".

As soon as my courses are done for this year, I'm settling in with my tablet and The Hollow Crown in my "reading" porch with a nice glass of iced tea. 🙂

[Violet Crown]

4 hours ago, Dicentra said:

I really do want to learn to read the literary stuff.  And I have a copy of The Well Educated Mind that I need to sit down with and make a plan. 🙂  But does the article have merit, do you think?  When I start to read Shakespeare, I feel like I don't "get it".  And my science/math brain wants to understand every word. 😉  So the article's suggestion of ignoring the footnotes makes me feel all anxious. 😬 

What sayeth the BaW readers?

Looks like lots of BAWers have good information about dramatic presentations of Shakespeare, and the writer of the article had advice that surely works well for her students at Oxford, and seems reasonable from here.

So take any of this with a grain of salt. I don't know anything about drama, and so I've never approached Shakespeare as drama. It seems to me that what makes Shakespeare so difficult isn't the theatrical aspect anyway; that's why it's hard to read on the page, but so much easier to make sense of when watching it performed.  But I do know a little about poetry, and it seems like it's Shakespeare as a poet that readers wrestle with. The highly condensed meaning, polyvalent language, and four hundred years of language difference make his verse much less accessible than Kenneth Branagh on his horse urging his men into the breach.

On my soapbox for a moment. If you really want to learn to read literature, reading about how to read literature won't do you any good, the Well-Educated Mind won't help, and making a plan won't help. Reading things you think you ought to understand and appreciate but don't enjoy because they're overwhelming absolutely won't help. What you have to do is read literature that's interesting and within reach, sufficiently that you want to read plenty of it. And if you want to read Shakespeare in particular, you have to start by really learning to read verse specifically, and by that I mean traditionally structured poetry, in English, from the 16th through 19th centuries.

If I can give a concrete suggestion, buy a copy of Walter de la Mare's massive 2-volume poetry collection Come Hither. It's out of print but easy to find used. De la Mare wrote it to introduce children to English poetry, but it's a great place for anybody to start. His approach is to just plunge the reader right in, with a few guiding notes, none of them academic or pedantic. As a poet himself he was a great judge of poetic quality. Few of the poems were originally written for children. A number of them are songs from 16th and 17th century plays, which for plenty of the Globe theatre's audience would have been more memorable than the soliloquies. Anyway the important thing if you really want to read pre-modern English literature is to start reading pre-modern English poetry, and so you have to start with something you can read and will like reading. Then you'll start to understand not just the vocabulary but the conventions, from the inside, and before long Shakespeare will just seem like an especially good children's poet. 🙂 And if you never go on to Shakespeare, you have an enjoyable collection of verse to read. Personally I don't even understand the Shakespeare fetish. There's plenty of worthy pre-Victorian English writing, including great Elizabethan dramatists and poets, whom people used to read; but today everyone acts like Shakespeare was the only one writing in English until Jane Austen appeared. 

My two cents, YMMV, and I'm probably wrong.

[Kareni]

The Tor.com Ebook Club Selection for April 2020 is...

THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT
by Seth Dickinson
 

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY

Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people-even her soul.

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire’s civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.

Drawn by the intriguing duchess of distant Aurdwynn, Tain Hu, into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize.

But the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines.
 

---

 

Download before 11:59 PM ET, April 30th, 2020.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Today only, free for Kindle readers ~

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

 "The classic satire of greed, corruption, and paranoia in czarist Russia
 
In a small Russian town, the rich wield the power of the gods over their serfs, who remain enslaved even in death. Life is turned upside down with the arrival of Chichikov, a mysterious gentleman who wants to buy the rights to these useless “dead souls.” What is this strange traveler up to? Is he mad, or does he know something the townspeople don’t?
 
As Chichikov visits local landowners, rumors swirl; some even claim he might be Napoleon in disguise. But avarice is an even more powerful instinct than suspicion in this depraved society, and soon Chichikov owns more than four hundred deceased serfs—what he plans to do with them, no one can guess.
 
A laugh-out-loud satire and an incisive indictment of the corruption at the heart of Russian society, Dead Souls is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century literature."

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, Seasider too said:

This week I am reading Linesman, thanks to the many recommendations in previous BAW threads. 

Six chapters in and I am convinced it should be on film. I believe it could be visually and aurally beautiful. Plus satisfy my need for a new sci-fi flick. 😁

Yay, another taker! I hope you'll continue to enjoy the book, Seasider too.

I'm not generally a movie watcher; however, I would happily watch a Linesman movie!

Regards,

Kareni

[Lady Florida.]

As someone who came to love Shakespeare later in life - the past 15-ish years and only due to homeschooling - one of two things might be true. Either I have no business giving advice being relatively new to his plays or I have a unique perspective on it. Probably a bit of both and I'm going to add my two cents anyway. 😉 

In high school we only read the plays, never saw them, and I found that difficult. In my school system's defense there were few opportunities for students to see plays of any sort in my area, let alone Shakespeare plays. My teachers tried and it was obvious they had a love of his work but, at least for me and some of my fellow students, it wasn't enough. When I was homeschooling and I found out that one of the moms coordinated annual trips to the Shakespeare theater in nearby Orlando (it didn't exist in my school days) I jumped on it because I wanted to give ds the appreciation I didn't have. In the process I learned to love him myself. 

 

17 hours ago, Dicentra said:

I recently came across an article and I wanted to get the opinion of the readers here...

https://theconversation.com/how-to-read-shakespeare-for-pleasure-136409

I really do want to learn to read the literary stuff.  And I have a copy of The Well Educated Mind that I need to sit down with and make a plan. 🙂  But does the article have merit, do you think?  When I start to read Shakespeare, I feel like I don't "get it".  And my science/math brain wants to understand every word. 😉  So the article's suggestion of ignoring the footnotes makes me feel all anxious. 😬 

What sayeth the BaW readers?

I think the article has *some* merit in that seeing performances isn't the only way to enjoy Shakespeare. But what I think the author misses is that you really should see them performed along with reading them. You're going to miss a lot if you try to read them like a novel. It's like reading a movie or tv show script but never seeing the movie/tv show.

16 hours ago, Kareni said:

 

If it were me, I would first watch a recording of the play (and note that even the article includes links to various productions) and then I would read the play. Read the footnotes or not as you see fit.

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

I completely agree

14 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Well... from both a film-making POV and interpretation of the play POV, I really DIS-like the Branagh Hamlet. Ug -- such an ego-centric portrayal -- he is 2x the age of Hamlet at least, hops into bed with a naked Kate Winslet as Ophelia (really?!?) just 'cause, and the camera circles endless round and round and round Kenneth and his swelled ego. But... that's just my reaction to that version, LOL!

In contrast, I can not WAIT until I have time this summer to watch the Hollow Crown trilogy of Henry plays! Oh.my.word. -- Jeremy Irons is so yummy to listen to!  😍

ETA -- This 2018 version of King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins was a very interesting re-setting of the play into modern times...

While I know Branagh really loves Shakespeare I don't think I've loved any of his film adaptations. I like the 2009 version with David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as the king. Tennant is also too old to be Hamlet but he has that boyish quality that makes you forget how old he is. Plus he was at least 12 years younger than he is now at the time it was made.

 

14 hours ago, Dicentra said:

 

Thank you both!! 🙂  @Violet Crown had mentioned the Hollow Crown series and I mentioned in reply that I had purchased it a while ago but had never gotten around to watching any of them.  It may be time. 🙂  And I'll look for those performances, too, @Lori D..  One can't go wrong with either Branagh or Tennent. 😉  In fact... I think I have an old DVD around here somewhere of the Branagh version of Hamlet - which I also haven't watched.  Hmmmm...  With which to start?

I love The Hollow Crown and it has some fantastic, and highly recognizable actors. Definitely watch it if you get a chance.

As for where to start, I'm going to differ with some of our other BaW'ers and say start with a comedy. Think of Shakespeare's comedies as the original rom-coms, though in many of them there's also tragedy or more serious tones. They're not necessarily what we think of as comedies.

Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite and is really a good one to start with (disclosure: I'm currently reading it). I think you could read it without having seen it and still enjoy it. It will get you used to the language but it isn't too long or too deep. I think Branagh's version of it is a bit overdone but still good. For a modern take Joss Whedon's adaptation is fun and is on Hulu. There is criticism for his having implied a prior relationship between Benedick and Beatrice but I still love that one. It stars many of Whedon's usual favorite actors. 

Some other comedies to start with are Love's Labour's Lost or Twelfth Night. None of the three are among his deepest plays but I think they're among the easiest to "get" when reading, especially if you've never seen them, and they're a good place to start. 

[Lady Florida.]

15 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Actually, I suggest going with one of the more straight forward plays -- Hamlet and King Lear are both so complex and rich, you might want to save them for a little later when you have a bit more Shakespeare under your belt. I do think that the comedies of Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Taming of the Shrew are pretty straight forward story-wise, so it's more about the fun of the teasing, double entendres, and use of language. Macbeth is pretty straight forward for a tragedy. And Julius Caesar is a straight forward history. I haven't seen the Hollow Crown yet, but that might be a good starting point, if you already have it...

Keep in mind that some of them, especially The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice will have scenes, characters, and whole themes that go completely against what we know is right. Shrew contains spousal abuse and gaslighting. I've seen it done where Kate is a bit of an Annie Oakley type, which makes it more palatable. Merchant and others often contain anti-semitic comments or undercurrents. That one is favorite for it's speech by Shylock, "Hath not a Jew eyes?" "If you prick us do we not bleed?", etc. Though there's debate on whether or not he's a sympathetic character, he's only redeemed when he converts to Christianity. 

Just keep these things in mind when you read any Shakespeare plays. He was not out of step with his peers in his thinking at the time.

15 hours ago, Lori D. said:

 

Every time someone asks for a film version for various Shakespeare plays, Macbeth is the tough one to come up with a great version. Patrick Stewart is in a version that is set in WW1, and it apparently has nightmare-inducing nurses for the 3 witches.

That one was a bit strange but good, and easy to understand.

2 hours ago, Kareni said:

Today only, free for Kindle readers ~

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

 

Thank you! I downloaded it.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Lady Florida.

[mumto2]

      The Globe Theater is sharing Shakespeare performances right now on YouTube .  Romeo and Juliet is the current one.

https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2020/04/03/how-to-watch-our-free-globe-player-films/

Stratford has one happening too.

[Dicentra]

So much great advice!  Thank you, everyone! 🙂

15 hours ago, Violet Crown said:

Looks like lots of BAWers have good information about dramatic presentations of Shakespeare, and the writer of the article had advice that surely works well for her students at Oxford, and seems reasonable from here.

So take any of this with a grain of salt. I don't know anything about drama, and so I've never approached Shakespeare as drama. It seems to me that what makes Shakespeare so difficult isn't the theatrical aspect anyway; that's why it's hard to read on the page, but so much easier to make sense of when watching it performed.  But I do know a little about poetry, and it seems like it's Shakespeare as a poet that readers wrestle with. The highly condensed meaning, polyvalent language, and four hundred years of language difference make his verse much less accessible than Kenneth Branagh on his horse urging his men into the breach.

On my soapbox for a moment. If you really want to learn to read literature, reading about how to read literature won't do you any good, the Well-Educated Mind won't help, and making a plan won't help. Reading things you think you ought to understand and appreciate but don't enjoy because they're overwhelming absolutely won't help. What you have to do is read literature that's interesting and within reach, sufficiently that you want to read plenty of it. And if you want to read Shakespeare in particular, you have to start by really learning to read verse specifically, and by that I mean traditionally structured poetry, in English, from the 16th through 19th centuries.

If I can give a concrete suggestion, buy a copy of Walter de la Mare's massive 2-volume poetry collection Come Hither. It's out of print but easy to find used. De la Mare wrote it to introduce children to English poetry, but it's a great place for anybody to start. His approach is to just plunge the reader right in, with a few guiding notes, none of them academic or pedantic. As a poet himself he was a great judge of poetic quality. Few of the poems were originally written for children. A number of them are songs from 16th and 17th century plays, which for plenty of the Globe theatre's audience would have been more memorable than the soliloquies. Anyway the important thing if you really want to read pre-modern English literature is to start reading pre-modern English poetry, and so you have to start with something you can read and will like reading. Then you'll start to understand not just the vocabulary but the conventions, from the inside, and before long Shakespeare will just seem like an especially good children's poet. 🙂 And if you never go on to Shakespeare, you have an enjoyable collection of verse to read. Personally I don't even understand the Shakespeare fetish. There's plenty of worthy pre-Victorian English writing, including great Elizabethan dramatists and poets, whom people used to read; but today everyone acts like Shakespeare was the only one writing in English until Jane Austen appeared. 

My two cents, YMMV, and I'm probably wrong.

Ah - the fact that it's more like poetry than anything else probably explains why it doesn't penetrate my thick skull. 😉  I've never managed to get the hang of poetry, either.  I'm going to look for de la Mare's book and then see where it takes me.  Thanks, @Violet Crown!

And I never, never equate "think differently" with "wrong". 🙂  I have a completely contrary view of the value of hands-on chemistry labs at the high school level (spoiler: I don't think they're helpful and are, at worst, a hindrance to helping beginning chemists to understand what's actually happening).  This view is NOT shared by the vast majority of beginning chemistry teachers/instructors.  If that makes me "wrong", then "wrong" I shall be. 🙂  (I do still include labs in my courses, though, as post-secondary institutions expect high school students to have a lab component in their chemistry course.  I just don't make the lab work a focus of the course. 😉 )

 

3 hours ago, Seasider too said:

In response to the theme - here is a selection from one of the older books on my shelf, Southern Poets, copyright 1936.

Ack!  I forgot about this week's theme!  I have a question, though, @Robin M.  Are you looking for the oldest book on my shelves by publication date or by purchase date?

 

2 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

As someone who came to love Shakespeare later in life - the past 15-ish years and only due to homeschooling - one of two things might be true. Either I have no business giving advice being relatively new to his plays or I have a unique perspective on it. Probably a bit of both and I'm going to add my two cents anyway. 😉 

In high school we only read the plays, never saw them, and I found that difficult. In my school system's defense there were few opportunities for students to see plays of any sort in my area, let alone Shakespeare plays. My teachers tried and it was obvious they had a love of his work but, at least for me and some of my fellow students, it wasn't enough. When I was homeschooling and I found out that one of the moms coordinated annual trips to the Shakespeare theater in nearby Orlando (it didn't exist in my school days) I jumped on it because I wanted to give ds the appreciation I didn't have. In the process I learned to love him myself. 

I think the article has *some* merit in that seeing performances isn't the only way to enjoy Shakespeare. But what I think the author misses is that you really should see them performed along with reading them. You're going to miss a lot if you try to read them like a novel. It's like reading a movie or tv show script but never seeing the movie/tv show.

While I know Branagh really loves Shakespeare I don't think I've loved any of his film adaptations. I like the 2009 version with David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as the king. Tennant is also too old to be Hamlet but he has that boyish quality that makes you forget how old he is. Plus he was at least 12 years younger than he is now at the time it was made.

I love The Hollow Crown and it has some fantastic, and highly recognizable actors. Definitely watch it if you get a chance.

As for where to start, I'm going to differ with some of our other BaW'ers and say start with a comedy. Think of Shakespeare's comedies as the original rom-coms, though in many of them there's also tragedy or more serious tones. They're not necessarily what we think of as comedies.

Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite and is really a good one to start with (disclosure: I'm currently reading it). I think you could read it without having seen it and still enjoy it. It will get you used to the language but it isn't too long or too deep. I think Branagh's version of it is a bit overdone but still good. For a modern take Joss Whedon's adaptation is fun and is on Hulu. There is criticism for his having implied a prior relationship between Benedick and Beatrice but I still love that one. It stars many of Whedon's usual favorite actors. 

Some other comedies to start with are Love's Labour's Lost or Twelfth Night. None of the three are among his deepest plays but I think they're among the easiest to "get" when reading, especially if you've never seen them, and they're a good place to start. 

I have a copy of Twelfth Night on my shelves.  Is there a performance of this one that's recommended?

 

2 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

Keep in mind that some of them, especially The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice will have scenes, characters, and whole themes that go completely against what we know is right. Shrew contains spousal abuse and gaslighting. I've seen it done where Kate is a bit of an Annie Oakley type, which makes it more palatable. Merchant and others often contain anti-semitic comments or undercurrents. That one is favorite for it's speech by Shylock, "Hath not a Jew eyes?" "If you prick us do we not bleed?", etc. Though there's debate on whether or not he's a sympathetic character, he's only redeemed when he converts to Christianity. 

Just keep these things in mind when you read any Shakespeare plays. He was not out of step with his peers in his thinking at the time.

Yes, thank you @Lady Florida.- will definitely keep those things in mind. 🙂  This concept of "acceptable for the times" was something I always discussed with DD when we read older books while homeschooling so it's long been on my radar.

 

2 hours ago, mumto2 said:

      The Globe Theater is sharing Shakespeare performances right now on YouTube .  Romeo and Juliet is the current one.

https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2020/04/03/how-to-watch-our-free-globe-player-films/

Stratford has one happening too.

Oooo...  Thanks for the link, @mumto2!

[Robin M]

5 hours ago, Dicentra said:

@Robin M.  Are you looking for the oldest book on my shelves by publication date or by purchase date?

Purchase date or when ever you acquired it. 

 

On 4/26/2020 at 12:53 PM, Liz CA said:

The challenge of finding the oldest book is so uncanny...just an hour ago I found the first book I ever read (yes, I still have it) in a box in the garage. After I read these two fairly short books and found out that a book can take you places you may never go otherwise, I was hooked forever on reading. I think I may have been around 6 or 7 years old.

Wow, that's so neat.  We moved so many times growing up, mom got rid of lots of stuff.  However hubby's mom never got rid of a thing, so we have his old Dr. Seuss books from when he was a child. 

 

On 4/26/2020 at 5:20 PM, mumto2 said:

😂I think we are all in a weird sort of limbo.  Compared to normal I have created very little in this odd time.....the need to make masks is almost a compulsion. I will admit I find them oddly satisfying and am in the process of mailing several to England to friends who do not sew so won’t be able to make masks for themselves when the time comes.  Mask making is not the big thing there.....everyone is making scrubs and scrub bags to donate to the NHS.  From reading the papers I suspect masks will be part of the loosening policies so am sending a few over to friends.  

Yep, I've been taking more naps than usual.  The 'honey, I'm going to lay down for a few minutes' turns into a couple hours.   ZZZZZ!   You are awesome for making so many masks.  I don't sew very often even though hubby bought me a super duper Threadbanger.  I got some bandanas and a few neck gaiters.   I hate wearing masks, too claustrophobic for me.

 

On 4/26/2020 at 7:35 PM, mumto2 said:

@Robin M  I just finished Nora Roberts Taming Natasha which I must have read in 1990 when it was first published.  Just got the second in the series ready to read.....Luring a Lady.  What a title!😂. These definitely deserve to be counted as old book friends.

Yes, definitely old book friends.  Always fun rereading her romances. 

 

On 4/27/2020 at 5:00 PM, Kareni said:

Seanan McGuire’s Personal Top 10 Urban Fantasy Books for Adults

Lilith Saintcrow's Jill Kismet series is very good and I've read Kelley Armstrong's other books.  I devoured Laurel Hamilton's Anita Blake series a few years back. They did turn more and more graphic and erotic in the later part of the series, the sex taking over the plot,  so true, not for everyone but the first few books were really good.   I added Libromancer to my wishlist and will check out the other books too. 

 

On 4/27/2020 at 5:47 PM, Dicentra said:

https://theconversation.com/how-to-read-shakespeare-for-pleasure-136409

I really do want to learn to read the literary stuff.  And I have a copy of The Well Educated Mind that I need to sit down with and make a plan. 🙂  But does the article have merit, do you think?  When I start to read Shakespeare, I feel like I don't "get it".  And my science/math brain wants to understand every word. 😉  So the article's suggestion of ignoring the footnotes makes me feel all anxious. 😬 

Totally understand about the logical brain wanting to understand it all.  I've never really enjoyed reading shakespeare myself, but love the movie reimaginings.  I usually skimmed more often than not if I read any of the plays, let my brain work in the background and let it stew.  As for the other books in the WEM, there are many which are enjoyable. Totally agree with Lori and  love everyone's suggestions. 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Robin M

[Lady Florida.]

On 4/26/2020 at 8:20 PM, mumto2 said:

 

😂I think we are all in a weird sort of limbo.

 

 

I definitely agree but I meant I'm in limbo with the house situation. I feel like I don't quite live here but I don't not live here. I moved a lot in my single days and moving was normal to to me then, but this is the house I've lived the longest in since I left my FOO. We closed on it 20 years ago this month. We don't have anything out that makes it seem personal anymore to make it more appealing to a potential buyer.  OTOH, the new house isn't ours yet but everything on my mind related to a house is about the new one. Home is where the heart is but I'm not sure if my heart is still here or if it already moved.  🙂 

 

 

[Robin M]

I finished a couple cozy books --  Delayed Diagnosis by Gwen Hunter aka Faith Hunter.   Good and poor dr lynch was really put through the ringer! 

"Dr. Rhea Lynch left a suffocating life in Charleston to practice medicine in the ER of a small South Carolina Hospital. Now, Dawkins County is her home, a place that holds the only real family she's ever known. But when she returns from vacation, Rhea is shocked to discover that her best friend, Marisa, is near death and unable to communicate. The official diagnosis: a paralyzing stroke. Despite the family's attempts to keep her away, Rhea is determined to make her own diagnosis. In a surreptitious examination, a hideous truth is revealed. Then a man is brought into her ER with similar symptoms. And then another. Each one of her patients has been willfully, brutally, silenced in a most inhuman way. Desperate to find answers, Rhea must determine who she can trust, as a powerful conspiracy threatens the people she loves-and perhaps the entire community"

Also a steampunk story A Trace of Copper by Anne Renwic (new to me author) which was good but the sex scenes were a bit over the top with the descriptions.

 "New recruit to the Queen's agents, Dr. Piyali Mukherji is given a simple first assignment. Travel to the small Welsh village of Aberwyn and solve the mystery of a young woman's blue skin lesion. A challenging task, for the alarming infection is unlike anything she's seen before--and it's spreading.   Evan Tredegar, the town's pharmacist and the only man to ever capture her heart, knows more than he's telling. Despite his efforts to push her away, her touch reawakens old desires. As more villagers fall victim to the strange disease, he'll have no choice but to reveal his secrets, even if it means sacrificing his freedom.   Together they must move past broken promises, capture a rogue frog, and stop the infection before it spreads out of control."