Category Archives: books

More books

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Two gifts and three purchases; shelved.

This morning I finished Paradise Lost, but it remains on the stack beside my favorite chair because I am rereading it, this time for a Roundtable course. Other books I’m (re)reading for Roundtable courses this month include Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri; 1999), The Color of Water (James MacBride; 1995), Troilus and Criseyde (Chaucer; 1380), and Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare; 1602). For my reread of Dante’s Inferno, which will continue through November, I am using both Mary Jo Bang’s translation and John Aitkin Carlyle’s. With my daughters I’m reading The Magician’s Nephew (C.S. Lewis; 1955) and Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang; 2002). In advance of the first episode of A Great Book with Barack Obama, I’m reading The Fire Next Time (James Baldwin; 1963). My husband and I continue our slow read of Oliver Ready’s translation of Crime and Punishment. And before bed most nights, I read a few pages of Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession (Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell; 2021), which absolutely delights this unabashed true crime (and graphic works) fan.

New books

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A reading friend sent me the Brooks and the Quashie; an article in The Atlantic led me to the Rosenberg biography; and because I owned only a tattered mass paperback of Frank’s diary, I picked up the definitive edition. (If you’re considering Anne Frank: The Exhibition, I would say, Go. It’s moving and important if a bit basic.) Late last week we visited the Kenosha Public Museum for fossils and the watercolor exhibition. (I cast my “people’s choice” vote for “A World of Design” by Thomas Schaller. See below.) On the way home, we stopped at a delightful independent bookstore, where I picked up The Stone Catchers.

Currently reading

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Years ago, I worked with an educational content provider. They assigned me topics to research, and after identifying grade-appropriate online resources, I submitted short descriptions of the websites to help young researchers choose the most appropriate for their projects. One of my first topics was cuttlefish, so I thought I knew a bit about them — until I beheld flamboyant cuttlefish at the Shedd Aquarium on Friday. Unfortunately, it was all but impossible to capture a good photo of them, so here’s a link, instead.

Rather than cuttlefish, then, you get a photo of my July reading stack. Love in the Time of Cholera and Infinite Jest are for Roundtable courses, and Pattern Recognition is the next selection for the philosophy book club. I’ll be rereading Ulysses for another month and a half. (Speaking of rereading, I first encountered Love in the Time of Cholera about forty years ago, about five years before I first encountered Ulysses. Perhaps it’s not so much that books are wasted on our younger selves but that they often land so much more effectively on our older selves: These have been much richer experiences.) My older daughter gave me the Kanakia (which I think I first heard about at Jared Henderson’s site), and the Jansson biography is for a project a friend and I will begin in August. (With this same friend, I recently read Jon Fosse’s The Other Name, which we will discuss tomorrow.)

PSA: The heat wave loosened its grip on our area Friday night, but the weather has been difficult, hasn’t it? Wherever you are, be careful; be safe.

Field trips

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On Tuesday, we visited the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art, which I first heard about on WBEZ. The scrimshaw of Richard Kovanda caught my attention at the end of our visit. (Yes, I’m reading Moby-Dick for the third time this year, this time with Roundtable.)

This is the time of year when my flute is at the shop for its annual COA, and I’ve taken to using the shipping and repair time (approximately ten days) as a break of sorts; hence, a recent flurry of field trips. In addition to the Lizzadro, I’ve been to the Art Institute to see the Willem de Kooning exhibit, into Wilmette to see the Shakespeare Project of Chicago in Antony and Cleopatra, back into Chicago for the spectacular TUTA Theater production of Crime and Punishment, and to the Milwaukee Art Museum to see the exhibition of German Romantic artists.

Carolus Linnaeus

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Seen at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

More than six years ago, before the world tilted on its axis, I had found the adult equivalent of concert band — a group that meets twice weekly, includes a sectional, and chooses music that is fun but not too challenging. For so many reasons, I was unable to return until now, so I am currently “test-driving” the program, using the shorter summer session to see if I’d like to make a long-term commitment. So far, so good.

The Botanic Garden is not far from where we practice, so on one of the last cool days in the forecast, I grabbed an overpriced coffee and walked a couple of miles. Just lovely.

Currently reading: Septology (Jon Fosse; 2019-2021) with a dear friend; Moby-Dick (Herman Melville; 1851), The New York Trilogy (Paul Auster; 1985-86), and An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (César Aira; 2000) for Roundtable courses; The Iliad (Homer, translated by by Emily Wilson; 2023) for a seminar; and Hole in the Sky (Daniel H. Wilson; 2025).