August Awakenings
Posted: 2017/08/29 Filed under: audio book, Book Reviews, Early Review, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: Andrea Ritchie, audio book, autobiography, biography, Brenda Wineapple, Early Review, Fiction, florida, idaho, Jack Higgins, Joan Didion, leisure, librarything, Miami, mystery, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nick Bantock, NonFiction, Robert Heinlein, science fiction, series, Vardis Fisher, women, world war ii Leave a commentWhat 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
Posted: 2017/08/03 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust II, NonFiction | Tags: 2017, biography, book lust ii, book review, Brenda Wineapple, july, Nathaniel Hawthorne, NonFiction Leave a commentWineapple, 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.
