Tag: biography

What’s More Scary?

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I have been in physical therapy for my hip for more than a month now and here’s the sad, sad thing. I don’t feel much different. I still have trouble sleeping a night (last night I woke up every two hours) and runs haven’t been that much easier. I managed over sixty miles for the month and finally finished the dreaded half (the one I have been babbling about for months now. Yeah, that one). I definitely made more time for the books. Here is the ginormous list:

Fiction:

  • Aristotle Detective by Margaret Anne Doody (finished in a week).
  • All Hallows’ Eve by Charles Williams.
  • Discarded Duke by Nancy Butler (finished in a week).
  • Beautiful Children by Charles Bock (AB / print). Word to the wise, don’t do it!
  • Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe

Nonfiction:

  • Whatever You Do, Don’t Run by Peter Allison (AB / print; finished in less than a week).
  • Sense of the World by Jason Roberts (AB / print).
  • I Will Bear Witness: a Diary of the Nazi Years (1933-1941) by Victor Klemperer ~ in honor of Mr. Klemperer’s birth month.
  • In the Valley of Mist by Justine Hardy

Series Continuations:

  • We are Betrayed by Vardis Fisher.
  • Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman ( finished in four days).
  • Henry James: the Treacherous Years by Leon Edel (Can you believe I actually finished this within the same month?).

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina (read in four days).

Henry James: the Treacherous Years

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Edel, Leon. Henry James: the Treacherous Years (1895 – 1901), Vol. 4. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1969.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April, in honor of James’s birth month.

The “treacherous” years, as Edel calls them cover 1895 to 1901. In the beginning of this installment Edel pays special attention to James’s playwright period. My favorite piece of history from this time is of H.G. Wells as a theater critic. I had no idea. Because of James’s limited success in the theater his plays are all but forgotten when one thinks of the works of Henry James, which is a pity since he cared about them a great deal. The failure stays with him for a long time and is referred to often. It is also during this time that James writes the well-known piece, “Turn of the Screw” and he settles down enough to buy Lamb House in Rye, East Sussex, England. First, as a long-term rental agreement and then as an outright purchase (the biggest of his life). He ends up spending nearly twenty years in this house; a sure sign the bachelor is finally starting to slow down. During this time he surrounds himself with youth, preferably talented, sensitive young men.

Favorite confessional line, “Memory has a way of telescoping fact, and Sir Edmund’s reminiscences must be retouched by documentary evidence” (p 84).

Favorite fact about James: Dictating James and writing James were two different artists using two different voices. I find that really interesting.

Book trivia: Edel goes back in time and recounts details previously outlined in the Middle Years. While researching the Treacherous Years he found new details about the previous portion of James’s life.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Literary Lives: the Americans” (p 144). I have to ask. Can someone who has spent nearly his entire adult life residing in Europe really truly call himself an American?

Boo to You October

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The month had finally arrived for the half marathon, my first and only of 2017. Enough said about that.
Here are the books I have planned:

Fiction:

  • The Aristotle Detective by Margaret Anne Doody ~ in honor of Greece’s Ochi Day
  • All Hallows Eve by Charles Williams ~ in honor of what else? Halloween.

Nonfiction:

  • Whatever You Do, Don’t Run by Peter Allison ~ in honor of the first safari leader’s birth month (Major Sir William Wallace Cornwallis Harris born October 1848. How’s that for a name?) (AB / print)
  • Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts ~ in honor of James Holman’s birth month (AB)

Series Continuations:

  • The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman ~ to continue the series started in September in honor of Grandparents Day.
  • Henry James: the Master by Leon Edel ~ to continue (and finish) the series started in April in honor of James’s birth month
  • We are Betrayed by Vardis Fisher ~ to continue the series started in August

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina ~ and we are back to nonfiction.

If there is time:

  • Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe (fiction)
  • The Discarded Duke by Nancy Butler (fiction)
  • In the Valley of Mist by Justine Hardy (nonfiction)
  • I Will Bear Witness (vol.1) by Victor Klemperer (nonfiction)

So Long September

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What an absolutely bonkers month. September was…How to describe September? The family had a reunion of sorts. The island suffered its fifth shock of the season with a quadruple murder. Running was another head-scratcher as I officially resumed physically therapy for my twisted hips. But. But, But! I was able to log over 30 miles. Nowhere near the 70+ I wanted, but it’s something. At least I haven’t stopped entirely. And the reading? Here are the books:

Fiction:

  • Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (AB/print)
  • The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
  • Burton And Speke by William Harrison (fictionalized history/historical fiction…whatever)
  • My Dream of You by Naola O’Faolain (AB/print)

Nonfiction:

  • O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre – Confessional: didn’t quite get all the way through this)
  • Everybody was so Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy, a Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill
  • Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins

Series continuations:

  • Passions Spin the Plot by Vardis Fisher
  • Henry James: the Treacherous Years (1895 – 1901) by Leon Edel

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • Boat Runner by Devin Murphy (fiction!)

Everybody Was So Young

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Vaill, Amanda. Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy – a Lost Generation Love Story. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

Reason read: F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in September. His novel Tender is the Night is based on Gerald and Sara Murphy.

I am trying to wrap my brain around just how special Sara and Gerald Murphy’s reputation was between post World War I and pre World War II. Just the who’s who name dropping when describing their inner circle alone is spectacular. Even at an early age, both Sara and Gerald hobnobbed with notables (Sara was warned not to wear a long scarf while flying with the Wright brothers and Gerald was schoolmates with Dorothy (Rothschild) Parker). The Murphys vacation spot of choice was a rocky beach in the south of France. It was easy to rub elbows with the big names for Paris was a hotbed for creativity during the 1920s. Artists, photographers, writers, poets and fashionistas alike flocked to the city center and soon made their way to the French Riviera. Gerald and Sara knew how to entertain all ages. Their children were treated to elaborate parties including a scavenger hunt that took them by sailboat across the Mediterranean. It was a charmed life…until it wasn’t. Interspersed with the good times are episodes of tragedy – illnesses, death, Fitzgerald’s drinking and subsequent estrangements from longtime friends. But, it was probably the tragic deaths of their two sons, Baoth and Patrick that were the most devastating and marked the end of an era for Sara and Gerald.

Pet peeve about Vaill’s book: many of the photographs Vaill refers to are not included in her book. The Fitzgeralds frolicking in the ocean; Sara with pearl looping down her bare back. Even the Pamploma photograph, which Vaill describes in great detail is not the same one included in the book. Hadley does not look at Gerald and Pauline does not look at her lap. Instead, all are looking straight into the camera. This might be why Pearl recommends reading Everybody was so Young with Living Well is the Best Revenge because Living Well includes more photographs and a section on Gerald’s art.

As an aside, I cannot help but think of my paternal grandparents while reading Everybody Was So Young. Their wealth and society was a mirror image of Gerald and Sara’s. To top it off, Sara’s family was well rooted on Long Island, just a short distance from where my Grandmother lived for many, many years in Quogue.

Favorite trivia: Gerald named his boat after a Louis Armstrong album, “The Weatherbird.” When having the boat built he had a copy of the record sealed in its hull. How cool is that?

Author fact: Everybody Was So Young is Amanda Vaill’s first book.

Book trivia: Everybody Was So Young includes two sections of 84 interesting photographs.

Nancy said: Nancy suggested reading Everybody Was So Young at the same time as Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Living Well is the Best Revenge. by Calvin Tomkins.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the interesting chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62).

Burton and Speke

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Harrison, William. Burton and Speke. New York: St. Martin’s, 1982.

Reason read: September is National Curiosity Month. What better way to satisfy curiosity than to go exploring the source of the Nile?

Richard Francis Burton was a legendary adventurer who also had a reputation for being a great lover. John Hanning Speke also had a reputation for being an adventurer and a lover, albeit of a different kind. When they first met, Speke needed Burton in order to get to Africa. Luckily, Burton was already going that way. Burton’s mission in Somaliland was in four parts:

  1. Discourage slavery
  2. Establish a camp for later use
  3. Search for gold
  4. “Examine” the women to study their sexual practices

As with any expedition into the unknown, Burton and Speke encounter many trials and tribulations. More often than not, their equipment and supplies were either being broken or getting lost. Crews and guides were constantly deserting them. It didn’t help that Burton and Speke couldn’t be more different from one another when it came down to leading the expeditions. Burton prided himself on his intellect, especially when it came to native languages across the regions. (He would go on to translate Arabian Nights and  The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.) He had an understanding of the necessity of breaking down language barriers. Instead of brains, Speke valued his brawn, his hunting capabilities and his sheer physical strength. While Burton sought the company of many different beautiful women, Speke wouldn’t turn away a pretty boy. Their differences soon drove them apart and made them fierce rivals. In the end, it was Speke who discovered the source of the Nile but because he lacked the scientific evidence to explain how this came to be he was ridiculed and almost discredited. Richard Burton became faithful to one woman and became an anthropologist.

As an aside, I liked manservant End of Time’s name. That’s it – End of Time.
A cringe worthy moment – when the beetle crawled deep inside Speke’s ear and he went mad trying to dig it out with a knife.

Quote I liked, “Aloofness was a bore – especially when practiced amidst life’s frailties” (p 133).

Author fact: Harrison has written a bunch of other works, but this is the only one I am reading.

Book trivia: Confessional: I thought this was a nonfiction before I received the book.
It’s actually a historical novel.

Nancy said: Burton and Speke tries to solve an age-old debate of who found the source of the Nile.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explorers” (p 85). Pretty straightforward.

Living Well is the Best Revenge

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Tomkins, Calvin. Living Well is the Best Revenge. New York: Viking Press, 1962.

Reason read: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month is September. Tender is the Night is (sort of) based on real life characters, Sara and Gerald Murphy. Living Well is the Best Revenge was also written about Sara and Gerald Murphy.

What is it about Sara and Gerald Murphy? Was it their personalities that made them so attractive? Or was it just the era they were living in at the time? This was back in the day when people gave houses as wedding gifts and didn’t worry about the red tape and mountains of paperwork that went with it. Maybe it was the people they associated with that made their light glow a little brighter. For Sara and Gerald Murphy could call Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, John Dos Passos, and, of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald as their friends. Maybe it was their talents. Gerald, encouraged and inspired by Picasso among others, spent nine years as an artist, creating breathtaking paintings. Sadly, he only produced ten works of art and many are either missing or have been destroyed. Together, Sara and Gerald knew how to throw an intimate, yet memorable party. They had personality and flair. Although this is a tiny book, Tomkins gives a succinct portrait of the captivating couple.

Quote I liked to describe Gerald, “Organizer of private gaiety, curator of a richly encrusted happiness” (p 86).

As an aside, I found it interesting to compare Tomkins and Vaill in what details they both considered worthy of inclusion in their books. For example, they both thought the story of Gerald falling through the ice and being made to finish a walk with his father in frozen clothes a telling detail of Gerald’s character.

Author fact: Tomkins has written a bunch of other works but I’m only reading Living Well is the Best Revenge.

Book trivia: Living Well is the Best Revenge is an incredibly short book, less than 150 pages. It is made even shorter by 44 pages of 74 fabulous photographs.

Nancy said: Living Well is the Best Revenge should be read together with Everybody Was So Young and Tender is the Night. They belong together.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 62).

Back to School September

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September starts out with sunny skies and a promise of a return to normalcy. What is “normal” anyway? I’m hoping to run without pain (have a whopping 72 miles scheduled). I’m also hoping to get back on track with the reading:

Fiction:

  • Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald –  in honor of F Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month.

Nonfiction:

  • O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
  • Burton and Speke by William Harrison – in honor of September being Curiosity Month (and isn’t that what exploring as all about, being curious?)
  • Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins – in honor of F Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month (& the reading of Tender is the Night)
  • Everybody was So Young by Amanda Vaill – in honor of F Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month (& the reading of Tender is the Night)

Series Continuation:

  • Passion Spins the Plot by Vardis Fisher – to continue the series started in August in honor of the day Butch Cassidy robbed a bank in Idaho.

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • The Boat Runner by Devin Murphy (the first fiction I have received in a long time!)

Henry James: the Middle Years

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Edel, Leon. Henry James: the middle Years, 1882 – 1895 (Vol. 3). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1962.

Reason read: believe it or not I started this series in April, in honor of Henry James’s birth month (4/15/1843). I should have finished The Middle Years in JUNE (yes, June). Technically, if I had kept to the schedule I should be finished with the entire series by now…but as it stands, I am STILL reading.

Henry James is approaching middle age. As Edel describes, “…when James is in his forties, the center of his life” (p 18). When we last left off, James had gone back to Europe and preferred a residency there, bouncing between Rome, Paris and London. He no longer considers Massachusetts home. As James builds his literary reputation so grows his social relationships as well. As a self proclaimed “eternal” bachelor, James cultivates long standing close relationships, mostly with married women. Most notably during this time is his friendship with great-niece of James Fenimore Cooper, Constance. We would know much more about James’s social life if he had only stopped burning his letters and asking his relationships to do the same!
It is at this time James starts toying with the idea of becoming involved in the theater. He is asked to dramatize The American and realizes working with actors was a whole different game.

As an aside, reading about Nathaniel Hawthorne and Virginia Woolf at the same time as plodding through James was interesting. The other biographies gave me a different perspective on James and his work.

Author fact: Edel won a National Book Award and Pulitzer for his work on Henry James.

Book trivia: My favorite picture is titled “Henry James at Cornwall” and shows James lounging on a step while Mrs. Leslie Stephen and her son Adrian look on. In the background, with his back to the camera, is an unnamed man presumably reading a book. Another piece of trivia: The Middle Years is also a short story by James. Well played, Mr. Edel.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Literary Lives: the Americans” (p 144).

August Awakenings

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What can I tell you about August? I still have moments of wanting to hurl myself off a cliff. But, but. But! The good news is, by default, that recklessness has made me shed my fear of flying, ants, and flying ants. I went zip lining in Alaska and found myself the first to volunteer; literally throwing myself off every platform.
I was forced to dedicate more time to the run while I punished myself with late-read books from July. As a result of all that, August’s mileage was decent considering 10 days were spent traveling (25 – the most since April) while the reading list was a little lackluster:

Fiction:

  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (AB left over from July)
  • In Tragic Life by Vardis Fisher – such a sad book!

Nonfiction:

  • Hawthorne: a Life by Brenda Wineapple (left over from July)
  • Miami by Joan Didion

Series Continuations:

  • The Eagle Has Flown by Jack Higgins
  • Henry James: the Middle Years by Leon Edel (left over from JUNE)

Early Review:

  • Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

For Fun:

  • Pharos Gate by Nick Bantock – I know, I know. I shouldn’t be reading anything for fun while I had so many July books still on my plate. This took me all over an hour to read and besides, Bantock is one of my favorites. How could I not?

Hawthorne: a Life

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Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: a Life.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Reason read: Hawthorne was born in the month of July – read in his honor.

While I haven’t read any other biographies of Hawthorne (so far) I predict Wineapple’s is going to be my favorite. For starters, while Wineapple delves into Hawthorne’s lineage she isn’t bogged down with multiple generations of pre-Nathaniel Hawthorne history. In fact, she begins Hawthorne’s biography with the briefest of glimpses into his childhood before launching into the period when he first started dabbling with the art of writing (keeping a journal and drafting poetry). Mercifully, a writer is born almost immediately. Wineapple’s biography reveals Hawthorne’s contradictory character with thorough grace, revealing his charms and follies. It’s a shame most of his letters were destroyed, not allowing Wineapple to delve deeper into his psyche. I can only imagine what she would have revealed! I was most touched by Hawthorne’s over-35 year friendship with President Pierce. While Pierce was not the best president of this country, his relationship with Hawthorne was exemplary.

Confessional: July seemed to be the month for reading about writers. In addition to Hawthorne I read about Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Tom Eliot, D.H Lawrence, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Herman Melville and Morgan Forster. Within Hawthorne I also read about Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville,  and William Shakespeare. All these writers!

Author fact: Wineapple has written several other books. However, Hawthorne is the only one I’m reading for the Challenge.

Quote I liked, “Free trade, free labor, free soil, free men and women: 1848 was a year of revolutions abroad and at home” (p 202).

Book trivia: Hawthorne includes photographs and illustrations.

Nancy said: According to Pearl, Wineapple makes it clear in Hawthorne that the writer was much more than his work, The Scarlet Letter.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Literary Lives: the Americans” (p 144). If you are keeping score, I’m also reading Edel’s Henry James biography from this same chapter.

August and Alaska

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If I was California dreaming in July, then I will be Alaska cruising in August. Since there were a few books on the July list I didn’t finish I am punishing myself by not starting my August list until the July list is completely cleared. This is a first and totally off the Challenge protocol. Here’s how the reading should go:

To Finish:

  • Henry James: the Middle Years by Leon Edel (280 pages to go)
  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (300 pages to go)

When those are finished I can tackle the AUGUST READS:

Fiction:

  • Possession by A.S. Byatt ~ in honor of Byatt’s birth month

Nonfiction:

  • Miami by Joan Didion ~ in honor of Castro’s birth month

Series Continuations:

  • Henry James: the Master the Treacherous Years by Leon Edel (will this series ever end? Apparently, I am eager for it to be over since I skipped a volume!)

Early Review:

  • Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

July Unraveled

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What can I tell you about July? What a crazy effed up month! For my state of mind it was better than the last simply because the Kisa and I ran all over California for a week. I was terribly distracted from the run and the books. Once you see the numbers you’ll understand. For the run I conquered only two runs in sunny CA and totaled 20.5 miles for the entire month. Here are the books:

Fiction:

  • Anna and Her Daughters by D.E. Stevenson
  • The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins

Nonfiction:

  • Pacific Lady by Sharon S. Adams
  • Hawthorne: a Life by Brenda Wineapple

Series Continuations:

  • Moment of War by Laurie Lee

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • The World Broke in Two by Bill Goldstein

Did Not Finish (still reading):

  • Henry James: The Middle Years by Leon Edel -STILL! Since June!
  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Never Started (didn’t arrive in time):

  • In Tragic Life by Vandis Fisher

The World Broke in Two

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Goldstein, Bill. The world Broke in Two. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2017.

Reason read: a May Early Review from LibraryThing to be published in July.

A great deal of important writing occurred in 1922. Joyce’s controversial Ulysses was published in February and everyone wanted to read it. F. Scott Fitzgerald published in March. Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit were published in September. It was a good year for children’s books, too. The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams) and Dr. Doolittle (Hugh Lofting) were both published in 1922. But, for Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, and D.H. Lawrence 1922 started out primarily as an empty page, a blank stare, a “literary apocalypse” as Goldstein called it. All four suffered from a lack of inspiration; the dreaded writer’s block. Shocking, as all had been successful in previous years. 1922 started with Virginia being perpetually ill with fevers well over one hundred degrees. Tom was busy being intimidated by James Joyce. Morgan was hung up on a relationship he started in India. Lawrence was trying to settle on the perfect place to write. The end of 1922 would see the emergence of Mrs. Dalloway and Jacob’s Room, Eliot’s epic poem, “The Waste Land” would be published in October amid scandal, Lawrence would share his autobiographical Kangaroo, and Forster finds inspiration in the start of A Passage to India.

As an aside, I thoroughly enjoyed certain phrasings Goldstein used throughout his book. To name a few, “emotional slither” and “clawful enthusiasm.” I can only hope the imagery I conjured up as a result of these word pairings is what Goldstein intended.

July with a Bang

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The one good thing about July is that I am starting to train for a half mara in October. I am praying this gets me out of my funk…

Here are the books:

Fiction:

  • The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins ~ in honor of Higgins’s birth month
  • Anna and Her Daughters by DE Stevenson ~ in honor of July being Ice Cream Month (this is further explained in the book review).

Nonfiction:

  • Hawthorne: a Life by Brenda Wineapple ~ in honor of Hawthorne’s birth month
  • Pacific Lady by Sharon Adams ~ in honor of July being Ocean Month

Series Continuations:

  • Henry James: the Middle Years by Leon Edel (didn’t finish in June) ~ to continue the series started in April in honor of James’s birth month.
  • A Moment of War by Laurie Lee ~ to continue the series started in honor of April’s Madrid festival.

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year That Change Literature by Bill Goldstein