The one good thing about all the extra time spent at airports these days is the books that are read. Tricia had mentioned novellas a couple of blogs ago on Library Q. I just finished my sixth in the past 2 weeks. First, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I read the Agnes Brown trilogy (The Mammy, The Chiselers, and The Granny) and the prequel (The Young Wan) by Brendan O'Carroll about a woman from birth to death (1934-1992) in the Dublin tenements as a single mom to 7 children. Wow! (Aside from the language, I laughed out loud too many times to count.)
Then I read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the story of a man and his family in Africa during the incursion of the white man. ("It is like the story of white men who, they say, are white like this piece of chalk...And these white men, they say, have no toes.") This was truly a Greek tragedy.
The book I read during Monday's trip home was the latest by Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, sort of a Don Quiote/Sancho Panza journey through 10th century Turkey. One of the best this year.
Next on my list is Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, definitely not short. I think I will wait to start that one until I have a reason to fly back to SFO or to Phoenix in April, whichever comes first.
Happy reading, everyone.
1 comment:
I love your life full of literature! I've never read "Things Fall Apart" but people in my department love it.
I highly recommend reading Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon (call it Old English if you prefer, just don't think that means Shakespeare, as one of my students did). I know the Heaney translation got great reviews, but really, I take issue with quite a lot of it. Think of it more as a modern poetic read of Beowulf, but not the original in a lot of the language and structure...
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