Ruth, that memoir is on my "wish list". I hope you post a review when you've finished

Thank you, Christina.

Happy Belated Birthday, Ruth! Many blessings for joy and success in the coming year.

By coincidence I'm reading his book of memoirs Unpacking the Boxes which my husband gave me for my birthday.

I am quite excited to share that I bought a hardback copy of Donald Hall, selected poems, from the remainder shelf at Borders. I prefer indie bookstores but had a coupon for Borders so stopped after work and got this book for $ 5.99

Thanks, ladies, for kind thoughts.

What Jan said, Christina. It's the pits to be sick.

So sorry to hear you've been ill, Christina. Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery.

Thanks, ladies, for your responses, and apologies for dropping out of sight for a while. I've been dealing with an emergent kidney ailment, so I haven't really felt up to communicating much. Still feeling drained and listless.

Pamela, if you'd like to share your thoughts about Lolita, I'd love to hear them. I'll start a separate thread for the purpose.

Christina, I am currently over-committed in both work and writing endeavors, so I reluctantly have to pass on joining a discussion group.

I'll contribute what I can. The semester starts in 3-1/2 weeks and I'm working hard on getting my syllabi in order. However, Lolita is my all-time favorite novel, and I'd like to discuss it.

Thanks for your comments, Nina.

Would anyone out there be interested in a book discussion of "Lolita" under a separate thread? I'm about 3/4 of the way through now and would welcome an opportunity to process the experience when I'm finished. Or would that be too cumbersome?

I agree with the comments regarding Lolita. First read it as a young teen, but didn't fully appreciate it until I was college age or even a bit older.

So glad to hear you found it hilarious, too, Ruth.

My first exposure to Lolita was Kubrick's movie version: I was a hideously impressionable 11-year-old dragged along to the drive-in by my married sister and her husband. They fully expected us "kids" to fall asleep after the first feature. Needless to say, I watched the whole thing, riveted in horror, and was so grossed out -- not to mention traumatized -- I couldn't even dream of ever wanting to touch the book. For nearly a half-century, I've assumed all the raves the must be attributable to sheer prurience. Azar Nafisi's recent lecture rebroadcast on NPR intrigued me enough to give the book a try. What a surprise! What a delight!

The first time I read Lolita, it was because I wanted to see what all the scandal was about. I was not impressed. The second time I read it I loved it. Hilarious.

Although I concede both the practical and spiritual values of such a daily discipline for some, I'm afraid I didn't get anything out of The Artist's Way. For me at least, it served as an impediment, sopping up all the time/creative energy I might normally apply to my "real" writing. However, I know some who swear by it.

Current reading: Recently finished Issue #79 of River Styx, which was superb! I cannot recommend it warmly enough. A short while ago, I also picked up David Shumate's book of prose poems, The Floating Bridge, but got distracted by Lolita. I can't believe I've been avoiding Nabokov all my life. Hilarious stuff, and what a feast of language!

I'm a bit leery about The Artist's Way but I'll let you know how it goes. I absolutely loved Cameron's memoir-did you know she was married to Martin Scorcese? It's called Floor Sample.

I'm on page 39 of "Departure" by Rosanna Warren. I'll let ya know.

I did the Artist's Way a few years ago and got about 1/2 through before getting sidetracked and doing other things. I honestly can't say if it works or not. I keep a journal regularly anyway, so the extra morning pages were a bit too much for me. I also regularly do creative activities like visit museums, watch films, explore music, go into nature, and try my hand at the arts (not good at them, but they're fun!)

Cameron is very inspiring, though, and I know that at the time I read the book I was a little fearful and stuck with writing, and it *did* help me in the sense that I felt not so alone in some of my personal feelings.

I definitely have to get a writing schedule. I had one for a while--writing at night, actually. I did that 6 days a week for about 10 months. I was sick for the past few years and around that 10th month my health took a nose dive. Then I had surgery this March, I'm still sort of recovering. I'm moving across country in a few weeks, one of the first things I'm doing is setting up a writing space and, with my new environment/schedule, putting discipline back into my writing. Focus! I need it!

I bought the Artist's Way when everyone was first talking about it. I gave it a try, but it's most definitely not for me.

OTOH, when I was first studying with Jack Grapes and he expected us to read a journal entry each week, and to write one every day, I found that good things came out of that discipline.

I really like October! All of the poems are good, but this one grabbed me.

I return to Cameron's work every year or so. I believe firmly in writing in the morning, but I cannot discipline myself to do it every day. Maybe now that I'm changing schedules a bit it will be easier. I do believe that goodness comes from expecting goodness.

Thanks, Ruth.

Has anyone done The Artist's Way? (Cameron). One of the members of my physical writing group realy wants a few of us to work on it.

The Hostovsky poems were a lot of fun, Ruth.

I think I may have read that divorce book too, Nina.

I took an online workshop on ekphrastic poetry with Hostovsky. Since then we've turned up being published together in 2 different journals.

His poetry is simple and down to earth, just ruminating on such things as a visit to the ophthamologist,or basketball hoops, and things like that.

Here are some links to his poems online.

http://www.wordcatalystmagazine.com/page...

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~simmers/

http://thescrambler.com/may09-hostovsky....

I'm not familiar with Hostovsky. Can you tell me more about him/the book?

I just finished an anthology of poems about divorce-very good book. We Used to Be Wives, edited by Jane Butkin Roth

I recently read, enjoyed and reviewed on Goodreads Robert Bolaño's The Romantic Dogs. It's out in a good facing-page translation, so if you have some Spanish you can try reading it in the original on the left, and glancing on the English on the right for help as you need it.

I'm rereading Ted Kooser's Flying by Night. I love the elegant simplicity of his work.

I'm also reading Paul Hostovsky's Bending the Notes. I'm much attracted to the way he finds poetry in the small details of life. Does anyone here know his work?

I thought maybe we could start a thread about books. Pamela posted about a couple of books she's reading and I'm copying the post over here.

Pamela said I've just received a copy of The Girl with Bees in Her Hair, by Eleanor Rand Wilner. I'll start on it tonight.

I can recommend another great book, Displacement, by Leslie Harrison, who won this year's Bakeless Prize from Breadloaf. I'm going to re-read it before I post a longer review, but it's definitely a 5-star book.