Book reviews, thoughts about books, basically a blog about books
with my face planted in summer. There is ice cream off camera as well, and some books, and naps, and even a little piano practice.
Today I'm back and tomorrow I will be obliged to start real life again. But for today, it's nachos and denial.
Have a great Sunday!
I also got a huge project to work on from YIVO, an 86-page transcription project, describing the photo archive of a photographer and writer named Alter Kacyzne who died in a pogrom in Poland in 1939. He had a US visa and could have left for America at any time, but chose not to. So that's very sad. His daughter survived and lived until 1999, and worked to preserve his legacy. It’s fascinating and I really appreciate both being of service to an organization that does such important work, and the opportunity to learn about Jewish history through the work I’m doing.
So I'm going to be working on that today and picking out a new book to read since I finished If I Had Your Face last night. I'll review it soon.
I have no plans for the Fourth beyond walking down the river to watch fireworks and cooking up some dumplings with my husband. That's ok. Summer fun is on the way, just not right now.
What are you working on today? I hope it's a good nap or a yummy snack. Have a great Sunday!
If you're interested in checking it out, you can visit at this link.
I think it will be once per week, probably on Fridays, and cover some of the things I cover on the blog as well as TV, movies, music, podcasts, things that interest me that I think might interest you too. I'm going to try to make it chatty and fun and not too serious. I hope you come along!
I'm doing the Substack to support my adventures in creative writing and to broaden my audience. It seems like a platform that's gaining some ground as blogging is kind of receding. And I've found out that a lot of my friends and family want to keep up with me but aren't blog readers, so it's also for them.
I had a lot of ups and downs last week and I'm really hoping that things can settle down and be "normal" for a while. I don't know what that means. Do any of us?
Have a great Sunday! :)
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| Stairs going up to Grub Street |
Later in the day I visited Raven Used Books and Harvard Bookstore in Harvard Square as well as Barnes & Noble in Burlington.
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| Porter Square Books, Seaport |
We caught up with our friend for dinner last night but missed out on brunch and another visit this morning unfortunately.
We came home early today and are settling back in nicely. It was a whirlwind but a really great weekend. Now I'm looking forward to a fun busy week and more writing and reading.
What are you up to?
I had a pretty busy week with this and that. My piano teacher was back from two weeks away and it was great to see him and get a lesson in. We've been on the same piece for over a year and I'm still loving it, Joe Hisaishi's "One Summer's Day." For a beginner like me there are so many layers to dig into.
Books continue to pile up. I have enough for another "New on the Shelf" post if I get bored. I also have another pile building for sale/discarding. My quilt guild had its last meeting of the season yesterday which was a lot of fun. Speaking of discarding I donated a quilt to a charity drive and gave away some things. I also came home with a little haul from the free-stuff table as usual. So it was a good day but I'll go into more detail on my sewing blog sometime this week if anyone is interested.
I'll probably finish my audiobook tomorrow so I might finally have a new "It's Monday" post. That's Billy Porter's Unprotected that I'm finishing up. Next up I think has to be the new Samantha Irby.
What are you up to today? Have a great Sunday.
I went to a quilting retreat on Friday and came home early, before dinner on Saturday, because reasons. Most of those reasons had to do with my husband not feeling well. He's fine and we're just glad to be home.
Today I don't know what's up. I'm almost done reading A True Novel (probably two more nights, maybe one) and I'm looking forward to a little César Aira palate cleanser before tackling another chunkster.
Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water is out now and you could read it now. It's going to be the kind of iconic read that Cutting for Stone was. In fact people were talking about Cutting for Stone at the retreat this weekend and I tried to make sure everyone knew about the new book too.
So I'm going to get back to my podcast and maybe a cookie or something. Whatever you're doing I hope you have a great Sunday.
Two vans travel the country and stop off every weekend at malls each weekend. One stays west and one comes east. This week the east coast van came to New Jersey so I skipped my quilt guild meeting to buy a bunch of Hello Kitty merch.
Jeff totally enables me. We got there early (around 7:30am for a 10am opening time) and waited about 40 minutes once the van opened. It was a nice warm morning and we brought chairs and books and had fun. I felt really bad for people arriving on or after 10am who saw huge lines and probably had to wait for a very long time. Last year we went to this location for the van and didn't come early and most things were already sold out when we arrived. This time we can home with lots of stuff.
Today will be more quiet. I have a piano lesson and then who knows what I'll get up to. Likely some reading and writing, and we'll see what else. I don't have a movie picked out yet but I'll come up with something. Or I won't! We'll see.
Have a great Sunday.
Yesterday was Independent Bookstore Day, a day to embrace our local indie bookstores and celebrate what makes them special. I went to Princeton, New Jersey, for the day, and went to two indies- The Cloak & Dagger, which was actually participating, and Labyrinth Books, which was not. Cloak & Dagger, as the name suggests, specializes in mysteries and thrillers. Labyrinth is a general-interest indie with a nice selection of rare books, too. Both were fun and I got books at both.
At Cloak & Dagger I bought The Final Silence by favorite Stuart Neville. At Labyrinth I got Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative, by Peter Brooks, and The Oppermanns by Leon Feuchtwanger. I've been to Labyrinth a bunch of times but this was my first time at Cloak and Dagger and certainly not my last.
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| Cloak & Dagger Bookstore, Princeton, N.J. |
I'm pretty sure I'll have a movie review on Wednesday but I'm struggling to come up with a book review right now. I'm only reviewing books I enjoyed so that is going to limit me somewhat. I'm thinking about a new feature called "In the Interim" where I write about books I read and loved during my lengthy blogging hiatus. We'll see. I have to work on my Alina Bronsky feature for later this month and I was hoping to have an author interview by now but I have not heard from the publicist in question, so who knows. I've been taking a little time off my own writing because reasons but I plan to plunge back in on Monday. Then I have this and that to finish up for my outside commitments.
So today it's TV, bagels, piano and maybe some reading. Definitely a nap, and probably a movie.
What about you? Have a great Sunday!
It's spring, kind of. We have a nice day one day, then a rainy day or a colder day, then a nice warm day again. I want it to be more consistently nice so I can wear my pretty dresses. I went to a sample sale in Manhattan this week for the first time since February 2020- one of my favorite brands had a sale and I went twice. I went once on opening day for the best selection, and again on Friday when prices were dropped. I found things both times; the item I really wanted was sold out by Friday so I'm glad I went early and found it on day one. I found a bunch of nice things for the spring and summer, and even a dress for the Christmas season.
Today I have a rare Sunday piano lesson; my teacher is very busy this coming week and this is the only time he can come, although as I'm writing we haven't arranged a time yet. I hope I'm out of pajamas by the time he gets here LOL.
I'm also in the midst of another round of book weeding. I sold a box to Powell's then put two bags of donations together for the local used bookstore. I brought one yesterday and will take the other soon. We also cleared out some clutter via our local Buy Nothing group on Facebook. I love how fast things go.
In French Movie Mercredi news, right when I discovered that a bunch of movies I want to watch are not available for streaming and can only be found for rental on Netflix's DVD service, Netflix announced they are eliminating their DVD service this fall. This is very disappointing. But I will try to make the most of it between now and then.
It occurs to me that I'm coming up on my last Yiddish class in a few weeks. Sad!!!! I'll have to see if I can sign up for another. I am sad. I don't know how to say that in Yiddish but I am sad.
Anyway I hope you are less sad than I am. Have a great Sunday!
Reading-wise things have been steady. Life-wise I've been doing my usual rounds of piano and Yiddish, and the weather has been getting warmer so I'm dusting off my dresses and getting outside more. That's a nice feeling.
Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing and I was more emotional than I expected. The day was horrible but it was the week that followed that was really awful for me and my family. Nobody I know was injured or killed but that doesn't mean we weren't affected. The upshot for me personally was that I started getting regular acupuncture for anxiety after some free trauma treatments offered by the New England School of Acupuncture. I continued that until roughly 2020 and Covid lockdown and I have yet to resume. Probably should look into it.
Today I may do a little fun clothes shopping. One of my favorite brands is having a sample sale in the city this week and I will probably go in for that. Tonight I've got a new French movie to watch, One Fine Morning, starring Léa Seydoux again. So I'll write to you about that for later in the week. Sorry I didn't get to any reviews this week.
Hope you're having a great Sunday.
Back in 2014 when I first moved to NYC with my husband, one of the first things I did was join FIAF, the French Institute/Alliance Française, which is like the HQ for Francophiles in New York, a library and cultural center where you can learn French, borrow books and attend events. One perk of being a member is a free pass to a weekly movie. I went sometimes; I didn't go all the time. In 2020 when the Covid lockdown hit, FIAF started offering free weekly movies online and a discounted online membership. Every week we'd get a code for a movie from one of the streaming services, often Kino Now. Like their in person series, these were current or recent movies, curated selections with stars like Jean Dujardin or Léa Seydoux. Good things.
Because my husband has a D&D game online every Sunday, Sunday night became my "me time" and I would often watch the weekly film at that time. Sometime in 2021 the online movies ended and FIAF went back to in person screenings but I liked the ritual of finding a French (or other) movie to watch during "my" Sunday nights. When I restarted the blog in 2022 I thought it would be a fun feature to add.
I do it on Wednesdays for no particular reason. The name "French Movie Mercredi" appealed to me for the alliteration, mercredi being the French word for Wednesday.
So that's the story. I get FIAF's newsletter and use reelgood.com to find movies I want to see on the streaming services I get. I'm usually able to find something most weeks though lots of the movies they show are very recent releases that may not have come the US yet and may not for quite some time. Sometimes I luck out and they are available though.
I haven't decided yet what I'm watching tonight. I find Apple+ has a lot of what I end up watching, and Kanopy, the free service I can use with my library card, always surprises me with their offerings. I used to watch a lot through Kino Now too. They are an on-demand service for foreign and independent films that is worth checking out. I should see what's new with them.
As long as Jeff plays D&D I'm good!
I'm getting better at managing the pieces. This week I'll do a review but I won't do a It's Monday What Are You Reading post because I'm on all the same books. I might do a New on the Bookshelf post because I have a couple of things to add.
I am going to let a whole bunch of books go this week, though. Powell's only wants a couple of things, not enough to send in a box, so most of it will go the used bookstore down the street and hopefully I will find something on my wishlist while I'm there. I let my copy of Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People go in one recent round of weeding and I'm regretting it; it's one of the best, most succinct self help books out there and I used to like to skim it when I needed gentle reminders to stay on task. He gives advice that is both extremely simple and extremely easy to follow. I highly recommend it to everyone. I'm hoping to find a copy at the store.
I feel like doing a big weed of galleys but I always (usually) end up regretting that, too. Like why did I ever get rid of my galley of Catherine the Great, or Conversations with Friends? Dumb.
I think this week will be productive on all fronts. I have a writing workshop on Saturday to round it out and that should be really awesome.
What are you up to? Have a great Sunday.
I'm behind on reviews- I finished Vernon Subutex, Jersey Breaks and The Promise of Normal Life and I plan on reviewing all of them soon. I'll probably start with A Girl's Story which I finished a few weeks ago and work my way back. And I've got some plans! I received a box of books by Alina Bronsky, one of my favorite authors, from her publisher Europa Editions and I'm going to start by reading her latest, Barbara Isn't Dying, and then work on a retrospective/appreciation post to be published around the release date of Barbara, in early May.
I want to re-read a couple of her other books as well. I've interviewed her twice and those interviews will be part of the feature; I'm still talking to Europa about what that will be exactly but I couldn't be more pleased that Europa reached out to me with this opportunity. Back in the day I used to work with them a lot and they are still a favorite of mine and Bronsky is probably my favorite Europa writer.
Today I'm starting off with a bagel and my re-watch of My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series based on the Elena Ferrante books (also published by Europa) and I'm continuing reading Barbara (I started last night) and doing All the Things as best I can. And it's Oscar Night! I love the Oscars, I don't care what anyone says. Haters can just watch something else. Don't harsh my buzz. Have a great Sunday whatever you're up to!
Yesterday was my quilt guild's monthly meeting and I had a great time as usual. On the way home I stopped by my favorite thrift shop and picked up a new book! I'll tell you about it later. Today I just want to make some tea, play some piano and do some serious relaxing.
Thursday, March 2 was World Book Day and on social media we were challenged to "introduce ourselves with seven books." Here are mine:
-Possession, AS Byatt, my favorite novel still;
-Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood, my favorite book by my favorite author;
-Persuasion, Jane Austen, my favorite "classic,",
-Dinner, Cesar Aira, my favorite novel by my *other* favorite writer,
-Daniel Stein, Interpreter, Ludmila Ulitskaya, my favorite Jewish book,
-Paroles, Jacques Prevert, my favorite poetry and my favorite book in French, and
-The Goodbye Kiss, Massimo Carlotto, my favorite crime novel.
Of course I can think of more than seven books that define me as a reader or that have been important in my life.
-Science and Poetry, by I.A.Richards, the book which is the subject of a regret (long story, maybe I'll tell you some day);
-Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett, the book my husband used to introduce himself to me, when we first started dating,
-Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, my teenage angst novel,
-The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the book that most emotionally scarred me,
-Our Bodies, Ourselves, by the Boston Womens' Health Book Collective, the book that helped me be a feminist,
-Poetry My Arse, by Brendan Kennelly, my favorite book from Ireland, and
-The Passage, by Justin Cronin, the book I most associate with my book blog.
and so on. Each one of these could be the subject of its own book, or at least its own essay.
It just depends how you look at that question- introducing yourself in seven books. How would you introduce yourself in seven books?
Have a great Sunday.
Today? Today I'm trying to get my piano practice up to snuff for my teacher tomorrow and thinking of all the excuses I have for my lack of progress last week. I have a lot of my energy back which is nice but I don't want to push too much. I started a new book and I'm working my way through Jersey Breaks, Robert Pinsky's memoir.
And because I've been under the weather there is so much to catch up on at home. I really want to work on some quilting projects and just you know, get out of the house and do errands. I cancelled some appointments this week and delayed some other things. Most of the week I was too sick to care, but now I do and it's time to get back up and running.
Hope you're having a great Sunday and making the best of it.
Here we are at Galaxy's Edge, the Star Wars land at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The whole week was a blast. I did a ton of rides including some new-to-me things like Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster and others. We had fun with baby yoda Eugenie at the parks too. And we got lots of good pictures!
It was a great week of fun, eating, shopping and more fun. I read a book while I was away, Rebecca Kaiser Gibson's The Promise of a Normal Life but I only brought the one book and when I was done I had to just occupy myself with my thoughts, never a good idea LOL.
I'm happy to be back home and hope to have some good content for you soon!
It's been a fun and busy week. I turned 50 yesterday OMG! Happy Birthday to me!!
My husband and I had a very nice dinner last night and we're hanging out today with some of my favorite people including some royalty. I will tell you more about that later. But the weather is great and we are having a lot of fun.
It's been a relief to get back to my books after that week of no reading. It's so weird not to read at all! I didn't even read a poem. I did read blogs and of course my writing exercises but The Artist's Way was the only book I cracked.
Anyway I have to get back to things and I will talk to you again soon.
Have a magical Sunday!
Going a week without reading has been hard. I was 1-2 days away from finishing one of my books and deep in the thick of the other; dropping them both was a little jarring. I've been good and sticking to the program but I can't wait to start again tomorrow.
Today I'm signed up for a class in conversational Yiddish with Motl Didner, a YouTube dude with a program called 15 Minute Yiddish. He is something like a celebrity in the Yiddish world and I am excited to be a part of this workshop. It's part of the Workers Circle Winter in Yiddishland program taking place online today. Should be fun!
I've also found myself taking a social media break this week. I logged off Twitter on Tuesday and I don't know when I'll log back on again (lol). And I've been taking it easy on Facebook and Mastodon. This has freed up a lot of time in my day which I've been using for piano and writing, but not reading.
What are you up to? Have a great Sunday.
In other news... not much. Winter is pretty quiet in my neck of the woods (or north Jersey) and I'm doing my best to hibernate. Piano practice, language practice and writing exercises take up much of my time. I'm working my way through The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron's legendary course in creativity. It's fun.
Reading-wise I'm still doing course reading and will be for the rest of this week. Then I'll pick some new things off my TBR to dive into.
Have a great Sunday!
The beginning of the year has been kind of busy and crazy. We had a death in the family on New Year's Day; my husband's uncle died suddenly which has been very sad. There will be a memorial in late March.
I am taking a class online called Early Jewish Literature which has been fun. And I just signed up for a Yiddish class in the spring. Hopefully I'm not too slow to catch on this time. /snark
This past week was like a giant reboot with medical appointments, piano getting back on track and more. I missed a bunch of weeks of lessons and my repertoire piece is sounding pretty bad right now but my teacher is a champ and has been pushing me through. He's so great. I love the piano so much.
I also attended a quilting retreat recently and with the return of my sew-jo have been busily working through my current projects. I got a lot done at the retreat, much more than I anticipated, and it's been great to get my momentum back up. There's more stuff about that on my sewing blog, sewverywrongmarie.blogspot.com.
What have you been up to? Tell me in the comments.
