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What are we reading? 31st August 2021
Having made an argument in favour of the continuing relevance of Wharton, an argument that have been seen as provocative, I've been feeling a little for not coming back. I had no intention to drop a bomb and leave. Whilst I stand by the argument (and could have extended by noting that Wharton's very blindness to race is interesting in itself) I would never argue anyone should or must read her. More particularly, I would never argue that she (or James, or any writer) should be considered immune from criticism, whether because of their classic status or for any other reason. More than anything, I'd hate to think this is not a space in which anyone feels they cannot expresss their honest opinion, on any book. Elsewhere, on Friday I finished Marcia Chatelain's "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America" on the deep, complex, and surprising entanglement of McDonalds and black America. This is very good: incisive analysis, compassionate, very thoroughly researched, and well-written. A scholarly body I'm associated with gave it a book prize earlier this year, but - perhaps slighly more significantly - Chatelain has since also won a Pulitzer.
Yesterday I picked up Brit Bennett's "The Vanishing Half," primarily because I wanted to read some fiction after two histories and this was just about the only thing left on the shelves that I've not read. I'm not awash with enthusiasm so far but, to be fair, I've not yet read far.
MK wrote: "Any Swallows and Amazons here who are also in the UK? If so, here's a treat for you - Arthur Ransome’s favourite yacht, Nancy Blackett, will be seen nationwide on ITV1 this Sunday at 11:55am.She w..."
was a big fan as a kid, passed down by my mother who was also a fan, i also liked the 1970s film, or was it early 1980s?
Thomas Jefferson in Notes on The State of Virginia continues to be a very enriching and refreshing read, perfect late 18th century prose and enquiry about all things to do with his home state.In the section i read just now, he looks at religion and the indolence of the established Anglican Church that led to the dis-establishment and the laws on freedom of religion after the revolution,observing how NY and Penn have had such splendid diversity of sects and thoughts on religion, never having had an established church.
He also hopes that slavery may become a thing of the past due to the acts of the masters in emancipating the slaves. He feels that the examples of master/slave relations are bad for society and for the examples it extends to generation after generation, which suprised me.
Have you heard of an Irish author named Sally
Soon, hype for the third novel by Ms. Rooney, the 30-year-old author of “Conversations With Friends” and “Normal People,” who has been hailed as the first great millennial novelist, began to fuel a secondary market. According to The Guardian, one galley sold on eBay for $209.16 in June, despite the publisher clearly indicating that such copies were “not for resale.”https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/st...
As the release date has drawn nearer, anticipation has approximated streetwear-drop levels. In August, Ms. Rooney’s publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, distributed yellow bucket hats and tote bags (featuring the novel’s cover illustrations, by Manshen Lo) to celebrities, journalists and other so-called literary influencers. They have been encouraged to post about the book using the hashtag #BWWAY.
Bill wrote: "Have you heard of an Irish author named Sally Rooley Rooney? Evidently she needs some help getting word out about the fact that she has a new book coming out. No doubt that Franzen fellow is once ..."
Do insecurities abound?
Yay! August bank holiday weather! Even if it is a week late.
Paul wrote: "It makes me appreciate more an author like Tom Drury, who can shade his scenes with a single word, where a brief glance can call back a sentence in a previous book and change the lighting of the scene. Drury would tell you that his character decided to wear high heels to the date, and that would reveal whole layers of thoughts and internal debates and hopes and expectations...."
I'm going to admit that I tried The End of Vandalism a few weeks back and couldn't find the rhythm of the writing at all. It's now on the discard pile.
I'm going to admit that I tried The End of Vandalism a few weeks back and couldn't find the rhythm of the writing at all. It's now on the discard pile.
Mod
I went to an exhibition of Eugène Atget's photographs of late 19th/early 20th century Paris at the Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson. It was lovely but I regret the move from the old building which I loved.
for @Sandya (with just a dash of 'tongue in cheek') -
.
Warm here but nicer than a midsummer blast as the long summer days are fading, so the heat is balanced more and my house loses the sun at around 6pm(always good)Anne Applebaum in Between East and West describes how the Liths, Poles and Belarussians all have a claim on the poet Adam Mickiewicz.
Hay gathering season is here again but no word from my father on when to stand by, am clearing thistles with him on Weds morning, in the 27c heat will be sweaty work!
Experience, Martin Amis’s memoir, is a fantastic book. I feel a bit mean saying a novelist’s memoir is their best work, but this is the one I have the fewest reservations about. The memoir was written in response to his father’s death, and he writes with intimate knowledge of Kingsley’s highly-strung mannerisms. Kingsley is fascinating in his own right, but plenty of other writers make appearances, notably his step-mother, Elizabeth Jane Howard. But clearly many other writers were family friends of his father (in addition to Martin’s own friends), and there is a fair amount of name-dropping. There are plenty of surprises, such as the startling appearance of a daughter Amis wasn’t aware of. Far worse was the disappearance of his cousin, Lucy Partington, who was exhumed from a serial killer’s basement twenty years later. The event clearly overhangs his childhood memories, and he says he keeps a picture of her on his desk. One of the things that makes Amis a good writer of non-fiction is the depth of his own reading. Sadly, it sounds like he reads everything on the Frederick West killings, but he also refers to the correspondence of Nabokov and Joyce when it’s relevant (both writers share his bad teeth problems), and of course his father. He makes far more references to English poetry than I would have expected. I’m likely to read more of Amis’s non-fiction.For now, I’m going to turn to The Princess Casamassima by Henry James.
Bill wrote: "
Have you heard of an Irish author named Sally Rooley Rooney? ...
You can't open a paper here without seeing yet another piece on Rooney. I'm starting to feel some sympathy for her. There's no way that she personally has invited all this attention, I reckon.
Have you heard of an Irish author named Sally Rooley Rooney? ...
You can't open a paper here without seeing yet another piece on Rooney. I'm starting to feel some sympathy for her. There's no way that she personally has invited all this attention, I reckon.
AB76 wrote: "Warm here but nicer than a midsummer blast as the long summer days are fading, so the heat is balanced more and my house loses the sun at around 6pm(always good)"
I think you're right that it feels more bearable. I was just chatting to a friend the other day about Indian summers and mourning the loss of them. Delighted to be proved wrong.
I think you're right that it feels more bearable. I was just chatting to a friend the other day about Indian summers and mourning the loss of them. Delighted to be proved wrong.
Anne wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Warm here but nicer than a midsummer blast as the long summer days are fading, so the heat is balanced more and my house loses the sun at around 6pm(always good)"I think you're right..."
though adjusting to keeping cooler is a novelty after 15 days of very cool temps
Anne wrote: "And finally, please be upstanding for @SydneyH, who has reached a milestone:I’ve finished Martin Chuzzlewit ...
This was the last work of fiction I had to read of the great novelist. There may be some obscure stories I haven’t encountered, but otherwise all that is left is the non-fiction, of which there is a sizable quantity. I feel a sense of terrible sadness about becoming a Dickens completist, yet one positive is that I will have the headspace to read some other doorstoppers.
I'm sure I'm not the only person here who has derived much pleasure from Sydney's loving reviews of Dickens's work over the years. A round of applause, please."
Just in the last couple of years I've read the last two Dickens novels I hadn't done up to now, Barnaby Rudge and Dombey and Son. And like the weak-spirited person that I am, one who always adopts the opinon of the last person who's spoken no matter how violent the debate, they are as of this moment in time,my two favourite Dickens books.
Unlike SydneyH, I still have the short stories to look forward to, apart from the first two Christmas books, which I have read - which are the best or most comprehensive collections, does anyone know?
And for the non-fiction, any recommendations? I've read bits of American Notes, long ago, and I know there's a Penguin selection of some of his journalism, and that's enught to start with, but any other ideas?
Berkley wrote: "Unlike SydneyH, I still have the short stories to look forward to, apart from the first two Christmas books, which I have read - which are the best or most comprehensive collections, does anyone know?"I don't have a comprehensive collection. I have The Sketches by Boz (Penguin), The Selected Short Fiction (Penguin) and A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books (Oxford).
Never thought i would see Trumps "The Art of the Deal" listed on the books mentioned in this topic! Though i know it was without reverenceBetter political books by world leaders are "Chiles Road to Socalism" Allende (Pelican) and a short book by Trudeau Snr "Approaches to Politics(1970)". I read them both and enjoyed them
JK Rowling and, more recently, Pullman, were widely condemned for their views, so was Kate Clanchy for using racist tropes.Yet nobody seems to bat an eyelid about Lionel Shrivers views. With the exception of Kenan Malik. Who, ironically, is often quite critical when it comes to verbal and real expressions of (for want of a better word) "woke-ism".
Shriver's article in the Spectator is titled:
Would you want London to be overrun with Americans like me
This sets the scene for a deeply dishonest framing of her views. If the flimsy veneer of disguise is stripped of we get (bold is by me):
Councils are searching for big, many-bedroomed properties to rent or repurpose, as fleeing Afghan families can have a dozen members.
In the past 20 years, foreign-born residents of the UK have doubled to nine million, going from 8 per cent to 14 per cent of the population. In tandem, the white British proportion of the population has fallen from 89 per cent to 79 per cent, while ethnic minorities have grown from 10 per cent to 21 per cent.
More than a third of UK births now involve at least one foreign-born parent; in parts of London, 80 per cent of births are to foreign--born mothers......in 20 years, ethnic-minority children will constitute more than half the students in state schools.....
Even delivering those dry statistics feels dangerous. As for their implications, none of you readers is supposed to care. In particular, white Britons who greet those figures with anything short of delight know perfectly well to keep their traps shut. The lineages of white Britons in their homeland commonly go back hundreds of years. Yet for the country’s original inhabitants to confront becoming a minority in the UK (perhaps in the 2060s) with any hint of mournfulness, much less consternation, is now racist and beyond the pale. I submit: that proscription is socially and even biologically unnatural.....
These groups claim territory and, under normal circumstances, defend it. For westerners to passively accept and even abet incursions by foreigners so massive that the native-born are effectively surrendering their territory without a shot fired is biologically perverse.
Many of these [Afghan] refugees will be wonderful people...But in the big picture, along with the native populations of other western countries, white Britons needn’t submissively accept the drastic ethnic and religious transformation of their country as an inevitable fate they’re morally required to embrace without a peep of protest....
I wouldn't be shocked if I read this in a far-right rag.
But it is the Spectator, where a well-known bestselling author is allowed to spout blatant racism and abhorrent white supremacy ideology.
Where is the shitstorm?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/w...
AB76 wrote: "Never thought i would see Trumps "The Art of the Deal" listed on the books mentioned in this topic! Though i know it was without reverence..."Indeed - that was me... but it was relevant: the original comment referred to working one's way through books written by USA presidents, and so I simply wondered when the author was going to get around to Trump's masterpiece?
Georg wrote: "I wouldn't be shocked if I read this in a far-right rag.But it is the Spectator, where a well-known bestselling author is allowed to spout blatant racism and abhorrent white supremacy ideology."
You surprise me. It appears that you don't know that The Spectator is, indeed, a far-right rag, so the publication of this sort of article is entirely in line with its current ownership. From Wikipedia:
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph ... Its principal subject areas are politics and culture. It is politically conservative...
Editorship of The Spectator has often been a step on the ladder to high office in the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.
Given that Boris Johnson was a long-time columnist for the Telegraph, to the point that its support for Johnson earned it the nickname "The Daily Borisgraph" in Private Eye - with ample justification - then the fact that tax-dodging Channel Island owner Barclay holds and promotes extreme right wing views via The Spectator and other titles is only to be expected!
(Without having looked at the arguments in detail, I tend to feel that both Rowling and Pullman were hard done by; no idea about Clanchy.)
Mod
But it is the Spectator..."
"It appears that you don't know that The Spectator is, indeed, a far-right rag"
Don't forget that Johnson was the editor of The Spectator.
scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "I wouldn't be shocked if I read this in a far-right rag.But it is the Spectator, where a well-known bestselling author is allowed to spout blatant racism and abhorrent white suprema..."
I am not unaware of the Spectator's political stance. Who could, after the Michie poem about the Scots that was published under Johnsons aegide as an editor?
But: is it regarded as a far-right (and I mean "very far-right") rag? Kathy Balls is not infrequently featured as a columnist in the Guardian....
Anyway, that was not foremost in my mind. The fact that Shriver's despicable views have not garnered any response to speak of was.
Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "I wouldn't be shocked if I read this in a far-right rag.But it is the Spectator, where a well-known bestselling author is allowed to spout blatant racism and abh..."
The Spectator has been a filthy right wing rag for last 20 years, with the sack of lard masquerading as Prime Minister spreading lies and discord throughout the 2000-2010 era from those pages.
I am not at all suprised it lets things like this get published, with the ex-editor as PM, the Spectator is almost an in-house Tory journal of little Englander drivel
I have seem some criticism of Shrivers comments but anti-immigration is a vote winner with the GB news/Spectator crowd. During the fall of Kabul, GB News was peddling an editorial line of good immigrants and bad immigrants like it was a simple truth
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Never thought i would see Trumps "The Art of the Deal" listed on the books mentioned in this topic! Though i know it was without reverence..."Indeed - that was me... but it was relev..."
good point
Gull by Glenn Patterson continues a strong line of Northern Irish novels i have read or am reading in last four years.Its incredibly light to read compared to most of my recent reading, a very typical modern novel but with a fascinating topic, the car designer John DeLorean and his early 80s project in Troubles Era Belfast.
A hinted at romantic storyline may kill my interest but so far its a nice very easy read, possibly the easiest novel i have read in decades.
I've read the Shriver screed (not just Malik's column) and there's not even a fig leaf to cover the white supremacy. Gross does not even begin to do it justice.
On another topic, for truly important books by political leaders one need look no further than "Capitalism and Slavery" (1944) by Eric Williams, historian and first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. The book is still shaping historical debates around the relationship between capitalism and slavery in the Atlantic world.
Veufveuve wrote: "I've read the Shriver screed (not just Malik's column) and there's not even a fig leaf to cover the white supremacy. Gross does not even begin to do it justice."Shriver has been a regular right wing contrarian voice on Question Time over here for a good 5-6 years, so i am not suprised she feels as she does in that article.
Its dissapointing this wasnt accompanied by an editorial line or perspective but as i said earlier, a large percentage of the UK public agree with and support anti-immigrant stances. The tories under Johnson have been stoking this up, i loathe this stance but a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric is greeted with silence now since Brexit
I've been aware of Shriver's growing "contrarianism," but she really, really nailed her flag to the mast with this one. When we get to talk of biological perversity then we've tipped over into something else.
Mod
Veufveuve wrote: "I've been aware of Shriver's growing "contrarianism," but she really, really nailed her flag to the mast with this one. When we get to talk of biological perversity then we've tipped over into something else..."Indeed.
Gpfr wrote: "Don't forget that Johnson was the editor of The Spectator"I dimly remembered that, but had no time to check as I needed to dash out... thanks!
Edit: glad you also enjoyed the Jonathan Coe!
Georg wrote: "The fact that Shriver's despicable views have not garnered any response to speak of was."It probably has to do with the fact that most of the British press is currently owned by tax-dodging Conservatives with extreme right-wing views... so you won't be seeing their papers stirring things up, if they agree with the views expressed.
They do enjoy causing trouble between differing camps on the left, though - 'divide and rule' has worked very well for them over recent years.
Georg wrote: "JK Rowling and, more recently, Pullman, were widely condemned for their views, so was Kate Clanchy for using racist tropes.Yet nobody seems to bat an eyelid about Lionel Shrivers views."
@Georg, I’d expect you to know the script by now: leftists only attack their own, where they can reasonably expect the response on the part of the wrongdoer to be retractions, groveling for forgiveness, and edifying sessions of self-criticism.
scarletnoir wrote: "Georg wrote: "The fact that Shriver's despicable views have not garnered any response to speak of was."It probably has to do with the fact that most of the British press is currently owned by tax..."
I agree, divide and rule is the way they play it, some of the dodgy online right wing news sites(like Guido Fawkes) have now started supplying stories to BBC shows, which totally upset the balance, as its more right wing stories created to attack anyone but the Tory party.
Georg wrote: "Sandya wrote. But it's OK for all the white people here to describe the anti-racist stuff THEY are reading in endless detail, as has been the case lately, but not OK for me to criticize a so-called..."I agree-I am not looking for an echo chamber. I was very annoyed and signed off for a couple of days, plus it is the Labor Day weekend but truth to tell there are few places I can go to read, if not participate in, intelligent discussion of good books. Most of my friends would wonder why I got so het up about Wharton-I was in fact rather appalled by the change in my own attitude.
Hushpuppy wrote: "@Sandya, I think I get where you're coming from, and the change of mood - or tolerance - you've observed in yourself I can see @booklooker has felt herself, and I have too. There are things that I ..."RE Classics for children: The only relatable one I came across as a child, who was a POC, was Mowgli in Kipling's Jungle Book and he wasn't much use as he is a boy. I wish Kipling had written as good a book about an Indian girl, but he didn't.
There is however Taffimai Metallumai in one of Kipling's Just So Stories-"How The First Letter Was Written"-she is Neolithic, "but not a Jute, Angle, or even a Dravidian-which she might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why", and I loved her as she was smart, adventurous, and in control! It's why I still remember her!! Kipling should have done more! In just checking the text I now see that Kipling thought Taffy JUST might be Dravidian, which as I am Dravidian, is a wonderful "Just So" discovery! OMG!
For the most part I loved the stories I did read and I don't necessarily think we need an identical avatar to love a story or derive good things from it. I inhabited the "gaps" in the books I loved. For example, people today complain that The Hobbit is just for White boys, but right at the start JRRT says that Gandalf encouraged "lads and lasses" to go off on adventures. This. In 1937-pretty advanced if you ask me and so I never felt The Hobbit was just for boys or even just for White boys. I saw and absorbed this the first time I read it, aged 8! There was room there for me too. It is another reason I prefer fantasy to books like "Ballet Shoes" or horse stories...so totally upper middle class white people's stories. There was more room in a fantasy story to feel I fitted in somewhere.
Finally, while they are not children's books and I didn't find them until I went to uni, I have always loved Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books because she purposely chose to portray the dominant race as having brown and black skin. The White people are limited to those barbarians, the Kargs..... It was so refreshing! I definitely noticed and I definitely felt there was a space for me in her books.
AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "In this week's newsletter, Ron Charles talks about how Ayn Rand is infiltrating school syllabi: A few weeks ago, my wife received an email message that began, “[Fname], you may not kno..."RE: Ayn Rand, who like you I despise as one of the Founding Mothers of the Libertarian Movement, since I am writing about children's books with only White protagonists, let's not forget the OTHER Founding Mother of Libertarianism, Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of....Laura Ingalls Wilder! I adored the Little House books growing up and I still reread them. I admire Laura Ingalls herself, but I was seriously disturbed to learn about her daughter, in great detail in a very good biography I acquired couple of years ago, Prairie Fires, by Caroline Fraser. Rose Wilder Lane was a bona fide R Wing nutcase.
Right, this will mostly be a grumbly post. There is a plus side at the end. Hope you will bear with me. If you would rather not, I have marked the grumbles:1) Book grumble:
I took Hilary Mantel's Fludd from the shelf today, as I want to read it as part of "Reading Justine". The 2010 Fourth Estate edition is a booklover's whimpering nightmare: It is not a normal print, but they must have scanned an older edition and just printed that one out. The writing is readable, but blurry and the letters look grainy. Gah! I compared this to The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher from the same publisher and the difference in quality is very noticeable. Why can't they warn you of this in advance? And offer a discount for those who are willing to accept this (I would not be).
Sorry, bookworm's rant over.
2) Grumble regarding the Spectator debate:
The quote from the Spectator makes me feel both enraged and sick. I have spent quite a few hours recently discussing and planning with some people what we can do from here as well as for Afghan people here, who are worrying themselves ill about their relatives, feeling guilty for not being there,... you name it.
Yes, with refugees you get human beings, with all their human faults, and a few of them, as may turn out later, you might maybe rather have kept away. Not all are model refugees, as some soppy welcomers claimed in 2015 here (I was a sober, yet welcomer, and have remained so). In my view, that's the price of humanity, and of leaving people some dignity, not to say their lives. Which that writer pretty much seems to be against.
On the plus side:
Very glad you are back here again, Sandya!
And I am looking forward to reading Fludd, despite everything, especially after reading Justine's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sandya wrote: "let's not forget the OTHER Founding Mother of Libertarianism, Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of....Laura Ingalls Wilder! I adored the Little House books growing up and I still reread them. I admire Laura Ingalls herself,Yes! Lucy Ellmann, in her Things Are Against Us, has devoted one essay to Laura Ingall's books, which I enjoyed reading. I am not sure whether I should recommend the whole Ellmann book to you. (And I am too lazy-tired to write a review, for now, by which you could decide for yourself. Maybe more on this later.)
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Sandya wrote: "let's not forget the OTHER Founding Mother of Libertarianism, Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of....Laura Ingalls Wilder! I adored the Little House books growing up and I still reread..."Ack....I don't think I can face it. I wrote on the front page of my copy of Prairie Fires in 2018- "I have to say it-I've always hated Rose Wilder Lane, a libertarian crackpot without any empathy or compassion. Poor Laura Ingalls Wilder".
MK wrote: "for @Sandya (with just a dash of 'tongue in cheek') - ."Lol. Very nice! Thank you! I own "Bar Harbor Police Beat" an anthology of the local paper's (Bar Harbor Times) news column. I myself was once listed in Police Beat for reporting a noisy neighbour to the police!
Hushpuppy wrote: "@Sandya, I think I get where you're coming from, and the change of mood - or tolerance - you've observed in yourself I can see @booklooker has felt herself, and I have too. There are things that I ..."I own 2 very large solid bios of Wharton, one signed by the author, Eleanor Dwight, that I bought in Bar Harbor in 1994- and have read ~ 4 of her novels, plus her books on decorating and gardens, which latter topics have always been interests of mine. I have also read a fair amount lit. criticism. I haven't read her short stories as they were not easily obtainable when I was reading her.
Sandya wrote: " Finally, while they are not children's books and I didn't find them until I went to uni, I have always loved Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books because she purposely chose to portray the dominant race as having brown and black skin ..."
I haven't read them, but the Earthsea books were in the children's section of my library when I was growing up.
I haven't read them, but the Earthsea books were in the children's section of my library when I was growing up.
Sandya wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "@Sandya, I think I get where you're coming from, and the change of mood - or tolerance - you've observed in yourself I can see @booklooker has felt herself, and I have too. There ..."my kids reading went through Moomins, Swallows and Amazons, Dr Suess and the Hobbit and then moved into young adult novels from the mid 1980s about nuclear war and the aftermath. I particularily remember "Brother In The Land" . It was unsettling and bleak in those cold war days (found a photo of that book lying on a canal boat table, in a photo from 1987, so i was 11)
AB76 wrote: "Sandya wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "@Sandya, I think I get where you're coming from, and the change of mood - or tolerance - you've observed in yourself I can see @booklooker has felt herself, and I h..."I remember the vogue for these depressing dystopias. I avoided them like the plague then and still do.
Sandya wrote: "I avoided them like the plague then and still do."Sorry, but due to the recent growth in the number of anti-vaccination and anti-mask protests, "avoiding something like the plague" is no longer an operative phrase. It has been relegated to the Hall of Obsolete Clichés, along with "sober as a judge".
Sandya wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Sandya wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "@Sandya, I think I get where you're coming from, and the change of mood - or tolerance - you've observed in yourself I can see @booklooker has felt her..."at the time i was quite conscious of the nuclear situation and Chernobyl had been imprinted on me hard as my local village had a dozen kids from the area (i think Ukrainians mostly, though i remember a Belarussian kid)staying for the entire summer, it suddenly seemed very real.
Bill wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I avoided them like the plague then and still do."Sorry, but due to the recent growth in the number of anti-vaccination and anti-mask protests, "avoiding something like the plague"..."
that image made me laugh.....thanks bill
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Books mentioned in this topic
Invisible Ink (other topics)Fludd (other topics)
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories (other topics)
Things Are Against Us (other topics)
Leaving Sardinia (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Patrick Modiano (other topics)Hans-Ulrich Treichel (other topics)
Paolo Cognetti (other topics)
Peter Matthiessen (other topics)
Angela Carter (other topics)
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Yes, I think she deserves to be better known.
I have read several by her and haven’t had a duff one yet.