Triumph and Disaster, and Genius and Discovery, by Stefan Zweig. Pub 1927-1940. Translation by Anthea Bell. These editions published 2016, from translations published in 2013. Reading these was inspired by two previous reads: Stefan Zweig last year, and Benjamin Labatut earlier this year. I really enjoyed Zweig last year, and so wanted to read more,... Continue Reading →
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Annual #tellastory day and Pop’s birthday, and so another pop tale. I don’t recall exactly when it arrived in our home, but at some point when I was young, Pop acquired a banjo. He would spend hours in the evenings and weekends plinking and plunking away, often playing along with something on the stereo or... Continue Reading →
Coming Through Slaughter, by Michael Ondaatje. Book report unnumbered (2021)
Coming Through Slaughter, by Michael Ondaatje. Pub 1976 I sought out this book earlier in the year after finishing But Beautiful, the lovely book of stories about storied jazz musicians. In several reviews of that book, people had gushed about the wonderfulness of Ondaatje's short novel/novella about jazz musician Charles "Buddy" Bolden, a short-lived and... Continue Reading →
But Beautiful, by Geoff Dyer. Book report #9 (2021)
But Beautiful, by Geoff Dyer. Pub 1991 (although my copy is an American updated version from 1996). I wish I could recall exactly when I got this book, likely more than 10 years ago. I attempted to start it a few time, but never got hooked. This time, I was all in, and what a... Continue Reading →
Remembering Pop
It is a week of remembrances, in a month of loss, in a year of change and fear. Pop left us 10 years ago today, and like most of the recent past, it seems like both a lifetime ago and just yesterday. In a book I read recently, the main character and his friends have... Continue Reading →
The Goldberg Variations, by Nancy Huston. Book report #16 (2020)
The Goldberg Variations, by Nancy Huston. Pub 1981 in French, translated to English by the author, pub 1996. This is yet another leftover, found in the same pile as Nocturnes and so likely purchased about the same time. I don't know why I didn't finish it when I first started, but since I remembered little... Continue Reading →
Construction of a Father
27 April is both #tellastory day and my Pop's birthday. Pop would have been 73 today, pretty close to the same age as James Taylor (a current favourite of mine). I don't know that Pop was a fan, but his other favourites - Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin - share the same sad, confessional, troubadour... Continue Reading →
Letters on film
This year's first cinematic list takes a look at letters in movies (or epistolary film, which I was somewhat surprised to learn is not only a genre, but has subgenres). As my lists must include films I've actually seen, my own experience of examples is somewhat limited. Here are the ones I know and love:... Continue Reading →
Tell me another one…
Today is Tell-a-Story Day. It is also what would have been my Pop’s 69th birthday. So it seems highly appropriate to tell a story about him. There are many to choose from, some quirky and delightful, some not so much. Sometimes, when I’d tell him something strange or fantastic, or if I attempted a fib,... Continue Reading →
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