I have always had a fascination with Victorian and Edwardian gentleman and gentlewoman adventurers. That much drive and passion combined with so much racist blindness is always fascinating. The drive and foresight needed to get to the other side of the earth and then the inability to really see the people never ceases to amaze me ( Read more... )

Just finished Kate Christensen's Trouble, which iss amazing. Christensen improves with every book, going deeper and getting more incisive with writing and with her characters. More than most authors she has no fears with having her main characters being less than totally charming every moment ( Read more... )

Every time I think I've got it all back under control, something blows up. Usually not anything dire, but just enough to suck up all my time ( Read more... )

Took the first day of vacation off. Did nothing but read and walk the dogs and nap. Tomorrow I have to plant and weed, but today just enjoying the weather and the new Kate Christensen.

All of which made for one happy little dog:


( Read more... )

I think, if I could have any job in the world, I'd be the editor in chief of NYRB Classics. Digging up all the great books that have gone out of print and bringing them back in beautiful editions - I could spend my life doing that.

That was driven home all the more by reading Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benatar. I can't remember a time ( Read more... )

I'm always amazed by how much stuff I simply know nothing about. Interesting, fascinating stuff that I think I know something about but really don't.

Case in point: the Byzantine Empire, which I always vaguely thought of the eastern Roman empire and which fell not long afterward. So reading something like Lost to the West: The Forgotten ( Read more... )

The weather goes from dumping anywhere between six to nineteen inches of snow or being below zero which has really given me time for reading.

It gave me the time read a book I've always meant to, The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. The book is of course dated, and Jacobs can certainly ride a hobby horse; but there is ( Read more... )

After seeing this all over my friends list, I decided to try:

15 Books Meme
You're not supposed to think too long or too hard on this one. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- list the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes. Don't take too long to think about it.

1. Grimbold's Other World by Nicholas Stuart Gray
2. ( Read more... )

The sidewalks were still icy this morning, but the main streets were better. My little street is still an ice cube.

Which makes me want to stay in and read. I've finished Kathryn Davis's The Thin Place, which coming after the Gertrude Bell's politic heavy biography was dizzy making. Well, it would have dizzy making any time, as Davis is a ( Read more... )

The entire city is coated in ice. I just tried to take the dogs for a walk and didn't get past my own sidewalk. Everything, everything is coated in ice. Hopefully when the sun comes up in an hour or so, this will melt; but until then there's no going anywhere. I have a couple of very disappointed dogs, but even they were losing their footing ( Read more... )