Monthly Archives: March 2011
March 2011 Reads
These are the books I read this March. As usual, there are goldmines, also some duds. I think I’m not the only one who’d wish for juju that will allow you to read just the awesome books. But where would be the fun in that? Hur, seriously, this March was fun—enriching, confusing, fulfilling, leave-you-breathless [with […]
On The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
#46 of 2011 • The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson — translated from the Swedish by Michael Meyer — with an introduction by Michael Chabon This, ladies and gentlemen, is an epic. An episodic epic, a gather-around-the-fire-with-your-mouth-open kind of epic. Written in the 1940s, yes, but so confidently structured, The Long Ships is patterned […]
Seven Skinny Pocket Penguins
In 2005, Penguin Books released a set of seventy skinny books that sought to celebrate the paperback revolution and represent the publisher’s history. [See Happy Birthday, Penguin!] The complete set is gorgeous, yes, but a sampling has me convinced that they won’t satisfy me. And not in the way that they’ll leave me hungry for […]
From The Craftsman’s Handbook –
One of the best [better?] things to have taken away from How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall, the discovery of The Craftsman’s Handbook by Cennino d’Andrea Cennini — from which Hall got her title [I like to point out the obvious, much?] I keep reading this beautiful passage — it’s so technical, […]
“And I am asking you, do you still remember?” — Journey Into the Past by Stefan Zweig
#35 of 2011 • Journey Into the Past, by Stefan Zweig – translated from the German by Anthea Bell; – with an introduction by André Aciman. In remembering a poem by Verlaine – In the old park, in ice and snow caught fast / Two specters walk, still searching for the past – a chilling […]
