Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

Carol wrote: "I see in the Wiki article it was written: the emperor Augustus. I am still trying to decide when a capital letter should be used with names like King, or Emperor. I would have thought that it shoul..."

I have problems with capitalization myself.

It is fascinating what we know and don't know about Ovid, even to the point of whether he was actually banished from Rome by Augustus. There is a good Wiki about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid

The male children of the royalty are expected to serve, including in positions that will put them in harm’s way. It is one of the more noble aspects of the nobility.

I didn’t say this Carol, but your original summary of the book was one of the better things I’ve read about the book. I do hope that love will bring these people back together over the longer run.

"So what if he always carries everywhere with him a tattered, broken teddy bear which accompanied him all through his appallingly abusive days at Gordonstoun. It's amazing he emerged as well as he did from such an experience. " Several British airmen carried Teddy bears on every mission with them. If it gave them comfort, no one else seemed to mind ... or to care.

I served in Australia in 1980/81 on exchange with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Economics. My clerk, Audrey, was an older woman whose grandson, Alex, in England had Lady Diana Spencer as his nursery school teacher and sometimes babysitter. After I had returned to Washington, Audrey retired and took a train trip across China and the Soviet Union. She went on to England, picked up Alex and came to stay with us for a while. We talked about a lot of things during those two weeks but never about Diana. Alex was about eleven years old and for him she had really just been a teacher and babysitter. Audrey was much more interesting herself anyway. She had run guns for the Republicans in the Spanish Revolution before she met Peter, a guardsman at Buckingham Palace. They had moved to Australia before 1939. Peter went on to become regimental Sergeant Major at Duntroon, the Australian Royal Military College. When I would travel in Australia, my wife and son would go to stay with Audrey and Peter ... I always felt that they were safe in their hands.

John,

I read the New York Review of Books free through Libby and my local public library. I bet that most public libraries don't include it among the titles that they offer, but you should check. I know that I wouldn't pay that much for it either.

Larry

Makes sense to me, John.

Byron, such a bad, bad man ... and such a good poet.

Good article from the British Library here: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victo...

John wrote: "My Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy in Kindle format does not contain Winter Words....."

John, those Delphi Complete Collections are amazing bargains. The Thomas Hardy one is $2.99 and includes all the fiction (both novels and short stories) and all the poetry, six critical studies (including one by D.H. Lawrence) and two biographies by Hardy's wife. The early Delphi Collections were sometimes poorly (but not terribly) formatted. The more recent ones have not had this problem. The Delphi Collections for more recent authors, e.g. P.G. Wodehouse, may be missing a good number of books, because more recent books are still under copyright, but they still are good buys.

John wrote: "That poem came from Hardy’s last book of poetry, Winter Words. It was published in 1928. Harold Bloom considered it one of the greatest books of poetry in the 20th century. I think he was right."

I just bought the Delphi Complete Works of Thomas Hardy with the hope that Winter Words would be included. Complete doesn't always mean "complete." It depends on copyright matters. But my hope was rewarded in this case. That book is indeed included.

I learn so much when you all post poems and when you all comment on the poems.!

I just bought a Kindle copy of The Delphi Complete Works of Pepys. I had two other copies of his complete diaries, but both were Kindle copies with extremely poor formatting of the text. (I can already report that the Delphi version is much better formatted.) I have a abridged edition of his diary, the Folio Society's The Shorter Pepys, but his diary is one that I really want to read in complete form.

The Delphi Complete Works has really nice notes inserted into the text of the diary, which I think are necessary for almost all readers of this diary to really understand a lot of the references to people and places.

Carol,

I just finished Act of Oblivion. What an amazing historical novel! The characters change over the years, which is what they well should. And yet one obsession remains. I think that it is so great in how real parts of history, the English Civil War, the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London, and King Phillip's War are interwoven with the personal stories. I cannot remember reading a better historical novel in years.

Dirda, of course, is always erudite … never to the point of showing off but sharing with us gems that explain a book or a subject. He ends that review with this sentence, “Even the critic Kathryn Hughes, who once called Dahl “an absolute sod,” concluded, quite rightly, that “despite so many reasons to dislike him,” he nonetheless remains “one of the greatest forces for good in children’s literature of the past 50 years.”

John, I’ve read many of Dahl’s books, and they are all good! I especially recommend his adult short stories.

Happy New Year to all!

Carol, if you have Kindle Unlimited, there are a number of free graphic novels for borrowing.

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "Carol wrote: "Have stopped giving my grandchildren books for presents as they don't appear to read and although I have had a practice of giving my son, Gareth, a book every Xmas and b..."

I would say that graphic novels and manga are siblings.

Carol wrote: "Have stopped giving my grandchildren books for presents as they don't appear to read and although I have had a practice of giving my son, Gareth, a book every Xmas and birthday, I failed miserably ..."

Carol, do they have any interest in graphic novels? I read some of those myself. Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE was good as a novel, not bad as a video adaptation, but I still think it was best as a graphic novel. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere

Carol wrote: "Napoleon undoubtedly brought great benefits to Europe, dragged parts out of a feudal, backward state and helped to save the Revolution. He was an incredible man but I felt Roberts' praise of him was more fulsome than mine is, when considering his later years and the suffering he caused...."

Without having read the book yet, I think that I will probably still have the same opinion of Napoleon after that I do before ... and it is close to your own.

Carol wrote: "Have stopped giving my grandchildren books for presents as they don't appear to read and although I have had a practice of giving my son, Gareth, a book every Xmas and birthday, I failed miserably ..."

It is a tough situation ... my granddaughters certainly have different choices than I do when it comes to books that that might want to read.