B. Morrison's Blog, page 71

Best books I read in 2012 [2]

I tried (and failed) to limit my list to ten. Click on the link to go to the full blog post.

1. Absalom, Absalom, by William Faulkner

This astounding novel is the story of Thomas Sutpen, a man who came out of the West Virginia mountains with nothing to his name, arriving in Yoknapatawpha County in 1833 to build a fortune and carve out a plantation, expecting to found a dynasty. We learn about him indirectly, through the stories that are told to young Quentin Compson. Re-reading it now I admir...

Best books I read in 2012

I tried (and failed) to limit my list to ten. Click on the link to go to the full blog post.

1. Absalom, Absalom, by William Faulkner

This astounding novel is the story of Thomas Sutpen, a man who came out of the West Virginia mountains with nothing to his name, arriving in Yoknapatawpha County in 1833 to build a fortune and carve out a plantation, expecting to found a dynasty. We learn about him indirectly, through the stories that are told to young Quentin Compson. Re-reading it now I admir...

Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear [2]

We meet Maisie Dobbs as she steps out of the Warren Street tube station, a woman in a navy blue jacket and skirt, with “a way of walking, with her shoulders back and head held high”. It is 1929, ten years after the end of the Great War, but London and all of England have not recovered, indeed perhaps have never entirely recovered. For the British Empire as whole “908,371 ‘soldiers’ [were] killed in action, died of wounds, died as prisoners of war and were missing in action from 4 August 1914...

Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear

We meet Maisie Dobbs as she steps out of the Warren Street tube station, a woman in a navy blue jacket and skirt, with “a way of walking, with her shoulders back and head held high”. It is 1929, ten years after the end of the Great War, but London and all of England have not recovered, indeed perhaps have never entirely recovered. For the British Empire as whole “908,371 ‘soldiers’ [were] killed in action, died of wounds, died as prisoners of war and were missing in action from 4 August 1914...

Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I hadn’t read this book since my teens. Then, I enjoyed it so much I went on to read her poems, diaries and letters. Anne Morrow Lindbergh became the core of one of my first extra-curricular reading projects. For a long time they centered on authors, where I would read the author’s entire oeuvre, one or two biographies, and some critical writing. I went on to projects about some particular interest of mine, like World War I poetry and journals, Canadian literary theory, and English ritual tra...

The Cheese and the Worms, by Carlo Ginzburg

The subtitle to this book is “The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller”. Many of us who are tired of hearing about the parade of wars and failed conquests that make up tradition histories are eager to hear about the lives of ordinary people in centuries long past. The problem, of course, is that there is little in the way of written records about peasants who could not read or write. Ronald Hutton, author of The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400-1700, makes use of churchwar...

Purity of Blood, by Arturo Pérez- Reverte

I was delighted to find this Captain Alatriste adventure at the annual library booksale. Pérez-Reverte is one of my favorite authors. I’ve blogged previously about The Sun Over Breda which actually follows this one in the series. I’ve also enjoyed his mysteries, like The Flanders Panel but two of his other novels are my favorites: The Painter of Battles and The Fencing Master.

The Captain Alatriste series at first seemed to me a departure from his other novels. These swashbuckling adventures...

Dear Life, by Alice Munro

A new collection of stories from Alice Munro is always an occasion for celebration. Her wry, conversational tales give us a slice of life, the life of someone previously unimagined by us but immediately welcome. Her women, men, children and teens mostly live in small towns or other semi-isolated places. Even when they venture into the city, as Ray does in “Leaving Maverley” to get care for his seriously ill wife, they remain within themselves.

I remember working on a dairy farm one year, when...

New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families, by Colm Tóibín

When I heard the title of this book mentioned during Tóibín’s appearance at a local college last week, I knew I had to have it. I first encountered his work at a used tool and book sale in a small market town in the Midlands. Rows of long tables filled the town hall, stacked with old saber saws and wrenches, as well as piles of well-thumbed books. I picked up a copy of The Heather Blazing, intrigued by the title, and devoured it that night. I liked it so much that I made my book club read it,...

Playlist 2012

Songs are stories, too, even when there are no words. Thanks to my friends for all the great music and for all the sweet dances.

Moon River, Frank Sinatra

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, Edith Piaf

La Vie En Rose, Edith Piaf

Rose of Sharon, Jacqueline Schwab

My Wild Irish Rose, Keith Jarrett

Mcferrin: Stars, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin

Morricone: The Mission – Gabriel’s Oboe, Yo-Yo Ma,

Lately, Aengus Finnan

Black Is The Colour, Aengus Finnan

Mandalay, Jeff Warner

Botany Bay, Kate Rusby

Arthur’s Rose, Walt Mi...