Tag: Richard Bausch

June Jumping

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I see June as jumping over spring. We went from low 50 degree temps to mid 90s overnight. Not sure what to make of this abbreviated spring. I’m not sure what to make of myself either. I all but stopped running (eleven miles for the entire month). Even when I was home on Monhegan I didn’t lace up. My only saving grace is I’m to start training for a half in July. Sigh…

Here are the books:

Fiction –

  • American Pastoral by Philip Roth ~ in honor of Father’s Day (AB)
  • Under the Gypsy Moon ~ by Lawrence Thornton
  • The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett

Nonfiction –

  • Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders by John Gierach
  • Provence by Ford Madox Ford (DNF)

Series Continuations –

  • Cider with Rosie (illustrated) by Laurie Lee
  • Henry James: the Middle Year by Leon Edel (not finished yet)

For the Early Review program for LibraryThing:

  • Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, From River to Table by Langdon Cook
  • The World Broke in Two by Brian Goldstein (not finished yet)

Here are the short stories –

  • “Artie Glick in a Family Way” by Joseph Epstein
  • “Executor” by Joseph Epstein
  • “Mendocino” by Ann Packer
  • “Babies” by Ann Packer
  • “General Markman’s Last Stand” by Tom Paine
  • “The Spoon Children” by Tom Paine
  • “Someone to Watch Over Me” by Richard Bausch
  • “Aren’t You Happy for Me?” by Richard Bausch

“Someone to Watch Over Me”

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Bausch, Richard. “Someone to Watch Over Me.” The Stories of Richard Bausch. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

Reason read: June is short story month

“Someone to Watch Over Me” is like a slow moving train wreck. From the moment the story begins one can tell it is not going to end well…for anyone. Ted and Marlee are celebrating their one year anniversary at a restaurant Ted’s ex-wife recommended. Ted’s mistake number one is telling Marlee it was Tilly’s choice in the first place. Mistake number two was waiting until they were in the parking lot of said recommendation before sharing that tidbit. Mistake number three, the killing blow, was Ted actually taking Marlee there at all. Both spouses have a skewed idea of what it means to take care of the other.

Author fact: Richard Bausch is the twin brother of author Robert Bausch.

Book trivia: There are 42 stories in The Stories of Richard Bausch.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 102).

“Aren’t You Happy For Me?”

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Bausch, Richard. “Aren’t You Happy for Me?” The Stories of Richard Bausch. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

Reason read: June is (still) short story month.

Richard Bausch has this amazing ability to make you feel as if you have been plopped down smack in the middle of the drama belonging to someone else. In “Someone to Watch Over Me” the reader could have been another restaurant patron at a nearby table, overhearing Ted and Marlee’s marital spat. In “Aren’t You Happy For Me?” the reader is witness to a different kind of marital breakdown. This time two parents at the end of their marriage react differently to their daughter’s dual announcement of pregnancy and engagement to a man forty plus years her senior. Ballinger is hung up on the fact the man is nearly twenty years older than himself while Ballinger’s wife can only hope her daughter finds happiness for some period of time.

Author fact: I am reading four other titles by Richard Bausch.

BookLust Twist” from More Book Lust in the obvious chapter “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 102).