Wednesday reading - nostalgia and other things from the past
What I've been reading
I read The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, a book I've been meaning to read since back when it was published and much buzzed about. It really is that great, especially the three entwined biographies of (relatively) ordinary people that make up most of it. I was not at all surprised to read at the end that Wilkerson interviewed thousands of people before she settled on them and then became part of their lives as they shared their stories with her.
I reread The Documents in the Case, although as I said before, it was about as close to being a fresh read as possible, and my thoughts about it could not wait until Wednesday.
I reread The Woman in the Wall which is, conversely, a book I've reread so many times I practically have it memorized and which still delights me. It's the source of this icon (although I don't have a hardcover copy with that jacket art and I think I should try to find one because I feel that it is fairly important to the reading experience). I might request it for Yuletide and see if anyone else is interested. It was a very formative book for me.
I also reread Owl in Love, which off the top of my head I didn't remember as well as The Woman in the Wall but on rereading I was like, nope, this is all intensely familiar.
I read Catullus: A Poet in the Time of Julius Caesar, which is a fitting subtitle since for a supposed biography of Catullus it seems to have at least as much about Caesar and some other contemporaries in it as it does about Catullus. But then the sources are better for Caesar et al., and it's not like the political situation isn't intensely relevant to his life and work. For no very apparent reason it quotes a miscellany of translations from all different centuries. My favorite was when he used the 17th century Richard Lovelace translations, because eh, why not?
I read Home is the Place, the fourth and final book in Ann M. Martin's Family Tree saga, which brings the story into the present day (and actually seven years into the future). Unlike in the other books, the women from the earlier books occasionally break in with their own chapters in service of bringing everything full circle.
What I'm reading now
Rereading Little Women, thanks to a post chez
mctabby. This is another book where if I don't actually have it memorized, I could definitely finish its sentences. Jo's Boys will be the book I reread the least (…that's not saying much) and so will probably be the most interesting in that respect.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s)
I read The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, a book I've been meaning to read since back when it was published and much buzzed about. It really is that great, especially the three entwined biographies of (relatively) ordinary people that make up most of it. I was not at all surprised to read at the end that Wilkerson interviewed thousands of people before she settled on them and then became part of their lives as they shared their stories with her.
I reread The Documents in the Case, although as I said before, it was about as close to being a fresh read as possible, and my thoughts about it could not wait until Wednesday.
I reread The Woman in the Wall which is, conversely, a book I've reread so many times I practically have it memorized and which still delights me. It's the source of this icon (although I don't have a hardcover copy with that jacket art and I think I should try to find one because I feel that it is fairly important to the reading experience). I might request it for Yuletide and see if anyone else is interested. It was a very formative book for me.
I also reread Owl in Love, which off the top of my head I didn't remember as well as The Woman in the Wall but on rereading I was like, nope, this is all intensely familiar.
I read Catullus: A Poet in the Time of Julius Caesar, which is a fitting subtitle since for a supposed biography of Catullus it seems to have at least as much about Caesar and some other contemporaries in it as it does about Catullus. But then the sources are better for Caesar et al., and it's not like the political situation isn't intensely relevant to his life and work. For no very apparent reason it quotes a miscellany of translations from all different centuries. My favorite was when he used the 17th century Richard Lovelace translations, because eh, why not?
I read Home is the Place, the fourth and final book in Ann M. Martin's Family Tree saga, which brings the story into the present day (and actually seven years into the future). Unlike in the other books, the women from the earlier books occasionally break in with their own chapters in service of bringing everything full circle.
What I'm reading now
Rereading Little Women, thanks to a post chez
mctabby. This is another book where if I don't actually have it memorized, I could definitely finish its sentences. Jo's Boys will be the book I reread the least (…that's not saying much) and so will probably be the most interesting in that respect.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s)