Fall is here.

Coffee. Books. Soft, well-worn flannel sheets. Books. Sounds of geese overhead, flying South. Books.

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

—Emily Dickinson—


So what books are RfMers reading or wanting to read?

I’m hoping to get to:

Patrick Modiano - Such Fine Boys

Rousseau - Reveries of the Solitary Walker

Theodor Storm — The Rider On The White Horse

Eve Babitz — Slow Days, Fast Company

Robert Musil — The Confusions Of Young Törless

(Done & Done, have you read that last one, by Musil?)

Human

The Man Without Qualities: I read that a few years ago.

You read serious stuff!

I just finished “Pearl,” a medieval poem of a grieving parent’s beautific vision of a dead daughter. Simon Armitage produced a remarkable translation from a Middle-English dialect that brought me to tears.

The Board’s atheists might find it interesting as a relic of a believing age. Theists might find in it a glimpse of our faith’s promise from a more certain age.

Pearl prompted me to begin re-reading the Lord of the Rings. Ah Lothlorien and My Lady, maketh me now a papist? The Catholic-by-longing’s Boner.

I'd never heard of The Confusions of Young Torless by Musil. Thanks for the tip off. Just looked it up and I would say it's a "must" for me. Ordering it.


I'm just starting book called "Your Duck Is My Duck" by Deborah Eisenberg. Has already inspired my posts of last week or the week before. Short stories. Her writing leaves my mouth open and have to read some lines twice or three times just for the pleasure.

Here's one of someone talking to their therapist. "I'm hurtling through time, strapped to an explosive device, my life. Plus, it's beginning to look like a photo finish--me first, or the world."

I'm not exactly reading this book, but rather listening to it on Audible as I work:

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

By Daniel James Brown

The scrappy working-class crew that other teams poo-pooed? I think they were from University of Washington?

Whoa! Just checked out all the books on your list Human. They all intrigue. You choices surprise me though after all the posts I've read of yours.

Also, I'm going to re-read Free Electricity by Ryan Rhodes on Amazon.

Cassandra by Christa Wolfe. It is the retelling of the Trojan War through the eyes of the Trojan princess/seer, Cassandra



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I'm reading these!

https://www.facebook.com/events/2025608347473062/

NOT!

I actually pulled out the copies of The Three Musketeers and Les Miserables I bought while on my mission in France, and am re-reading them. My French is getting rusty, and I wanted to brush up :)

That makes you a Hugonaut.

And a Dumasite?

Teach Like Your Hair is On Fire. I lnow, I'm retired, but after 42 years of teaching, it's hard to just go cold turkey.

Deceptively simple and then I couldn't stop thinking about it and had to read it again.

I think this was a reading club book.

Richard III for Shakespeare Class, The Books of Blood by Clive Barker on my own.

Good play but Richard didn't commit most of the murders and others are questionable. He also wasn't a hunchback although he did have scoliosis



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2018 03:25PM by bona dea.

My professor mentioned that Richard may not have been a hunchback and that the appearance of a hunch in his portraits was added later.
It's a play, so Shakespeare changed a few things for more dramatic effect.

True and Shakespeare was politically astute enough to realize that Queen Elizabeth was the granddaughter of the man who stole Richard's throne.He was definitely not going to make Richard the hero. Richard's body was discovered buried in what is now a parking lot. He definitely was not a hunchback and he would have looked perfectly normal when dressed. He was really villified and Shakespeare played a big part in it



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Exactly.

If you get a chance, try Richard II. Its language is perhaps Shakespeare's best: a truly gorgeous, if brutal, play.

Not yet. I finished "The Damnation Game" earlier this year and plan to work my way through "Imajica," but I'll get around to "The Great and Secret Show."

"Kennedy Babylon," by Howie Carr. The life I wish I had led.

The owner's manual for a Suzuki V-Strom 1000 XT. Just picked one up yesterday and want to get some riding in before it snows.

My wife is reading this and has shared some good stuff from it.

http://teachbreathelearn.com/mindfulness-education/teach-breathe-learn/

That shit is heavy.

I'll stick with reading about the greatest gathering place of last 2500 years. The Penthouse Forum, uhm, I mean the Roman Forum.

Beth Wrote:
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WAs that interesting? I've never read a thing about them but I'm sure there are scandals and intrigue and tons of super rich
gossip.

The book is about finding the Romanovs' bones and losing them and finding then and the international fight over identifying them. It happened around Glasnost, and the US was going to help and then the USSR was like, "Da!" and then was like "Niet!" never mind. And then the English were like, "Right-o. May we borrow these bones?" And the USSR was like, "Da!" then like "Niet!" then "Da."

So, it's not really about the Romanovs' lives or anything, but it's about the crazy ass fight over their bones, the need to hide them in the first place, and all these folks who said they were the ones who killed them.

For some reason, I love it.

Oh ok ... thanks Bethie.

The joy of Watercolor 40 Happy Lessons For Painting The World Around You, written by Emma Block, 2018, published by Running Press

Watercolor Masters and Legends Secrets, Stories and Techniques from 34 Visionary Artists, written by Betsy Dillard Stroud, 2016, published by North Light Books

Painting in Watercolor The Indispensable Guide, written by David Webb, 2016, published by Quarto Press

guides to see life's beauty 8 make it real around me guided by my digital photography of gardens mostly & sketches of daily photos - Painting

"It's Even Worse Than You Think," by David Cay Johnston.

Yet another book about the current inhabitant of the White House. I seem to have a morbid fascination with this topic. I can't think why, since politics and politicians generally don't interest me much.

It would be like reading everything I can get my hands on about cancer, having been threatened by it earlier this year. For the time being, as far as I know, it's over and done with, so I don't think about it.

But the current political situation (barring something unforeseen) will have to be endured until at least 2020, and I find that terrifying.

Maybe it's like continually picking at a partially-healed scab and then being annoyed because it hasn't healed yet.

I should probably go back and re-read the "Outlander" series. That would be healthier. And maybe by the time I'm done with that, the ninth book in the series will be on the market. One can always hope.

A Column of Fire by Ken Follett.

Heidi GWOTR Wrote:
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> A Column of Fire by Ken Follett.


I have that but I haven't read it yet... I've read the first two books in the trilogy but not this one. I love his books.


How do you like it so far?

I've written four chapters and I'm enjoying it very much.

I've been reading a few mysteries by Mary Higgins Clark. She's a master.

I am so glad you are continuing to write!

I am almost finished with the Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan. I needed something light. Quite interesting and funny. All three books are a good quick read.

Next up, my drug dealer got me the complete works of J Sheridan Lefanu in honor of Halloween :)

The Coddling of the American Mind and
So You Want To Talk About Race

Fortunate to hear Jonathan Haidt speak about his book at Biola University. He had to keep apologizing when he slipped and used a swear word.

auntsukey Wrote:
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> Fortunate to hear Jonathan Haidt speak about his
> book at Biola University. He had to keep
> apologizing when he slipped and used a swear word.
I think he is a brilliant, independent thinker and love his Heterodox Academy efforts to reform colleges and Universities by injecting much needed counterbalance to the illiberal orthodoxy plaguing American campuses.
The counterpoint to Haidt is, So You Want To Talk About Race? Which is also thought provoking and challenging for this old, cis-gender straight entitled white man to hear.

Do It!!! Let's get off our buts!

I also thought the title ended in get off our 'butts', however, it is get off our 'buts'.

As in I would do X, 'but' abc.

Apparently I'm not a fundamentalist. ;)

So, I will talk about children's novels.

I decided this year to carve out some time at the end of the day to read aloud novels to my class of 2nd graders. (My fondest memory of elementary school is of a teacher who used to do this, and I've done it at times over the years, although not very recently.) I just finished, "Stone Fox," which IMO is one of the finest novels for young children ever written. The story is deceptively simple, about a 10-year old boy in frontier Wyoming who has to step up when his family's fortunes plummet. The theme of the novel is sacrifice -- heavy stuff for an eight-year old.

I'm currently reading "Charlotte's Web." I hope to lead the children to realize that the theme of the novel is deep friendship.

I'm open to other suggestions. I'm considering "A Little Princess," but am concerned that it may perhaps not be boy-friendly enough. I used to read "Misty of Chincoteague" years ago, but I think it may be a bit dated at this point. I love "Tuck Everlasting," but wonder if the concepts are too advanced for my young ones.

I think it is good for kids to read about other times, places and customs even if they are dated.Teaches them about the.world and opens their minds to other ways of thinking and doing things.

It has been a long time since I had a little one and don't remember how old I was when I read these but thought I would throw them out :)

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

And of course the Wrinkle in Time books.

Also, there used to be a whole series of classics that were redone for kids. My grandmother bought me several before I convinced her I could read the REAL books just fine thanks. I think those would be great to expose kids to. As I look around I think they were Classic Starts?

Of course, anything that teaches them how to reason. Encyclopedia Brown was a great series.

My nephew had a fav at that age, Captain Underpants :)

When I was in 1st grade our teacher read us the first three Little House Books. Everyone seemed to love them.In a later grade we got Where the Red Fern Grows and Misty of Chincoteaque. They were favorites too. Some of my students said they had read the Great Brain Series by John D. Fitzgerald when they were kids and seemed enthusiastic about them.



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...is the best. I've voted for it umpteen time in "The Great American Read".

And "The Boxcar Children". I still have former students, now adults, contact me and say, "Do you remember when we sat on the rug and you read "The BoxCar Children"? Something about that book touched a chord.

Another fav to read aloud: "The Brothers Lionheart", by Astrid Lindgren.

I had forgotten The Boxcar Children. One of my teachers read it to us. I loved it. My grandmother read me Heidi which was probably my favorite.I read it over and over.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I will keep all of them in mind, since I seem to reading aloud to them at a fast clip. Some of the children audibly sigh in disappointment when I must finish for the day.

We have an upcoming reading unit on the American West, so the Little House books seem to be a particularly good fit right now. I'll start with Little House in the Big Woods and return to the series later in the year.

I loved those books and devoured them whole several times.

The first three, 'Little House in The Big Woods', 'Little House on the Prairie' and 'On the Banks of Plum Creek'
are about Laura and Mary as kids.In the later books they are teenagers or adults and thus may not appeal to younger kids.

"Diary of a Sex Fiend" by Abby Lee, Skyhorse Publishing, 2011


Who knew literature could be such fun?

The Aretha Franklin biography

A Criminal History of Mankind by Colin Wilson


Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston


1493 Uncovering the new world Columbus Created by Charles C. Man

And one more that I can't find about the sexual habits of
Early man.

Beth Wrote:
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Holla !!!!! I read that a couple of years ago Girlfriend... a masterpiece.

"Foe" by Iain Reid. Chilling!

"The Children Act" by Ian McEwan. Also "Atonement" by the same author. (library books)

1/3 the way through "The Selfish Gene". Beginning to question some of his theories - altruism, aggression, etc. But mostly very informative.

Yay! I used to post these types of threads- but alas, I don’t come here anymore. I just hopped on today on a whim to read conference updates ;)

I just started reading Missoula- Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer.

I need to get on here every now and then. I recognize some monikers from when I was an active poster!

Hi, Pil-Latté! I remember you. Do check in when you are able.