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

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

That's interesting! Just great really. Here I thought I would find them dense, as I did, and you would love them. What a smart approach to just look at the rhyming ...

Why do you think Stallings is so enthralled with her work?

John:
Please let us know your response to her poetry. I just read three of her poems- and for me they are dense, but I am also really, really tired from all the farm work. Good night...

Hello-- For Joan Didion fans here is an exciting opportunity-- Libray of America is offering a few event on Joan Didion -- Pacific Time May 19th-- WED at 3 p.m.

Registration is free -- please read about Library of American Online programs here...

I been to everyone except two in the past year-- Att

https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/16...

okay- I found all the stories in PDF by searching for the author, name of story in quotes and then followed by PDF. I've got them all bookmarks and I am ready to go. Will start before June 1 -we'll see how far I get.

Translations are important, but I will just read what I have been able to find - mostly edu type sites--

Larry wrote: "Sher, here you go ... all seven are listed ... along with the versions he's reading (with some strange formatting for quotation marks in that section) ...

CHEKHOV - IN THE CART
TURGENEV - THE SING..."

Thanks Larry!
I am starting to work on this now.

Steven wrote: "Looks as if I have some homework to do..."

Right-- and let me know Steve if you find any online sources for the stories that are free. I will barely have the time to read each story-- but I do want to do my best, and that will help me better understand what Saunders is trying to get at regarding the importance of literature or more specifically Russian lit.

I like "LoveJoy Street"-- the last stanza best

Perhaps they reap our roses
In an antique jelly jar.
And maybe they are happy there,
And do not know they are.

to reap the roses - and it is not in "the" antique jelly jar, but an antique jelly jar- as though perhaps this has come about by chance... like their happiness- they are but maybe they don't know it.

And this first stanza is great too-- they were on the wrong side of the tracks but they were happy there...

I have a copy of _Hapex_ John, at your recommendation- have't started it yet... I'm reading Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver at the moment.

Larry:
Could you please list the first three of the stories our book covers, so I can get going and get copies ... my book isn't here yet...

Thank you-- Sher

I just ran across this poem by A. E. Stallings, and I like it very much!

Fairy Tale Logic

Fairy tales are full of impossible tasks:
Gather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat,
Or cross a sulphuric lake in a leaky boat,
Select the prince from a row of identical masks,
Tiptoe up to a dragon where it basks
And snatch its bone; count dust specks, mote by mote,
Or learn the phone directory by rote.
Always it’s impossible what someone asks—

You have to fight magic with magic. You have to believe
That you have something impossible up your sleeve,
The language of snakes, perhaps, an invisible cloak,
An army of ants at your beck, or a lethal joke,
The will to do whatever must be done:
Marry a monster. Hand over your firstborn son.

Larry- I ordered a copy of the book , and I am wondering -- are the stories in the book, or do we need to find them separately? Sounds like we need to find a copy of each story, but please let me know.

Jeffrey wrote: "Carol wrote: "Jeffrey wrote: "Small brag. Red, my 18 month old Belgian Tervuren, had a very successful weekend herding. He capped it off Sunday with First place in his class, High score in trial, a..."

Congratulations Jeffrey! What a stunning dog, and a nice accomplishment for you both. I just saw this post!

Introducing Moderator's Choice Book Discussions-- occasional--

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Larry, Sher, Steve, and Jerome will read and discuss A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life June 1- July 1st, 2021-- this is a moderator's choice book presented by Sher.

Please let us know if you would like to join in this discussion--everyone is welcome.

This book is also available on Audible...possibly Kindle, and hard copy. I plan on listening...
Though-- because of the nature of this book, it might be best to have a copy in hand. I may see if I can find a used copy...

Hello Everyone:
Larry and I have decided to occasionally run a Moderator's Choice Book Discussion. As you know this group is for sharing the best nonfiction. The group is primarily a resource for books! We also have sections covering poetry. Larry or I will occasionally present a book in nonfiction or poetry that we would like to read, and we'll open it up for you to join us. This event won't happen on a regular basis, but periodically throughout the year.

Thanks Larry- sounds intriguing and a contemporary project. I love to see what people come up with in 2021 re. poetry.

John-- thanks for sharing the Roethke find...

Thanks John and your comments about Dickinson- so apt. I love this last line
'Twas lighter—to be Blind

Hello Everyone- I'd like your opinion or maybe even an answer to this question.

How would you pronounce this woman's name? The name is from the 19th C.

Emmeline

so Emmee line
Emme lin
Emmelon

Emmeleen????

And, is it Emmeeee

Or Emma ? Thanks I am kinda stuck... Sher

That's a funny anecdote Larry!

I have also heard that about poets -- terrible until suddenly ---all that practice and being in the poetic mind helps.

John,
Where did your grandma live?

What type of memories?

Mine are also very much related to kitchen and food-- West Virginia?

The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks
Overall I found this collection excellent. Library of America has selected poems from Brooks's earliest and middle period, and late works. I read all of these works out loud, and speaking them is a great experience-- the rhythm is perfect to follow. Set in Chicago- these works cover black lives, white lives, and quite powerfully the interacting between blacks and whites mid to later 20th C. One of the best poetry collections I have read so far in 2021.