vagansmom

I just started a school vacation, so am happily reading what I please for a change. Currently, it's Robt. Gottlieb's Reading Dance. I'm skipping through at the moment, picking and choosing. Also, thanks to Ed Waffle, I'm about to begin reading Val McDermid's crime novels about Tony Hill, the psychologist profiler. I had discovered on the crime novel thread that the BBC series I've been watching, "Wire in the Blood," is loosely based on the McDermid books. I finished watching the TV series today (LOVED it!) and will begin McDermid's first Tony Hill book tonight. I guess I'm discovering that I like crime novels. Nice to be back to my own choices for the next two weeks. However, I've begun one Italian lit book that's on the reading list for one of my tutees: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani. It takes place beginning the 1930's in Italy, and is about a Jewish family. So I know right there that this is going to be a sad read.

I also agree about Rachel Flatt. I hope she changes coaches and that the first thing the new coach does is to have her take ballet classes at a really good school. It would vastly improve her upper body carriage. For all that I didn't like Yevgeny Plushenko's skating this year (he looked out of shape), his body carriage is that of a danseur and I have a lot of respect for that. However, I also think it's partly what's responsible for the "arrogant" label he's always had (the other part responsible is his own personality! ). I'm most excited about Mirai Nagasu. I've been too busy lately to pay much attention to the figure skating season, so my first look at her was at the Olympics. She was such a delightful surprise! Like the others, I adore Jeremy Abbott's skating. I DID see him skate at U.S. Nationals and became a huge fan of his then. I fear, though, that he might be one of those skaters, like Sasha Cohen, Todd Eldridge, and even Michelle Kwan (at Olympics) who chokes at the most important venue. As an aside, how I miss her expansive spirals! I find the current spirals (the second one in most skaters' sequence of spirals) to be downright ugly in most skaters. Has anyone else gone nuts at the mispronunciation of Kim Yu Na's name? It s/b almost yaw-nuh with accent firmly on the first syllable. The English language doesn't have a comparable phoneme for the vowel in the first syllable, but yaw is close enough. The Olympic officials got it right when they announced her name for both the short and the long programs, but none of the USA announcers did. Not once. And whoever announced her name for the exhibition skating got it wrong too. I'm a reading specialist. Didn't it ever occur to the Americans newscasters and announcers to ask how to pronounce her name? Such a simple and respectful thing to do.

I've watched a lot of Olympic snowboard competitions. A former student of mine injured herself a few days before the Olympic trials in December - such a heartbreaker as she would probably have made the team. Because of her, I've taken a keen interest in the sport. However, I'll admit that it terrifies me, and I don't think I would've been able to bear watching her in action! As an aside, a sibling of hers was taking ballet a couple years ago as a way to crosstrain for snowboard. Don't know if it was kept up once she moved up to Stratton Mtn. to train full-time.

I'm not a mystery book reader for the most part, so I'm no help, Ed. But I've been watching a British TV series, "Wire in the Blood" that I've just discovered, through your post, is based on Val McDermid's detective series. Love the Tony Hill character. Is the book series as gruesome as the TV series?

I'm reading Alberto Moravia's The Conformist and rereading Beowulf because a student I tutor is in the midst of it. PeggyR, I've read The Raj Quartet one and a half times. Never finished the second run through as I got bogged down in schoolwork. I'd like to go back and reread them all again, especially in the current political climate.

On New Year's Day, I received another book: Kathryn Stockett's The Help. It's written in first person by three different characters, two of whom are black maids/nannies in early 1960's Mississippi, and the third a young white woman who wants to write their stories. Stockett does a fine job conveying life in that era. It's her first book, so I am looking forward to equally thought-provoking books from her in the future.

As a classical musician most of my 55 years (till too much arthritis forced me to quit), I must say that I love Andre Rieu's performances . They make me happy too. I love seeing people swaying, dancing, and singing along to the music. I love that Rieu takes classical music and makes it approachable to people who may have little or no prior exposure. It's a good thing! He creates a jumping off point for so many people who then go on to explore more and more classical music. For others, he brings them their youth: many people in those audiences are older folks who remember waltzing to the great Strauss pieces, and singing traditional folk tunes. That world is getting lost nowadays, and I'm so grateful to Rieu for reviving it. Classical music need not be lofty to be good; it should suit many settings and need not be confined to only serious discourse. There's nothing wrong with kitsch! Mozart himself knew that! The Joffrey Ballet once provided me with the same kind of experience. Back in the 1970's, I saw them perform Tharp's As Time Goes By and several other programs in NYC. Up to that time, my only experience with ballet was the year that my ballet teacher (a nun) slapped me across the face when my 6-year old self chickened out backstage and refused to lead my line of dancers out onto the stage. I attended the Joffrey performances only because my boyfriend at the time was a balletomane. To be honest, I had no interest whatsoever in attending that very first performance. But the Joffrey program, while not pure classical ballet, sparked a lifelong interest in ballet, especially the classics.

New York by Edward Rutherford The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (per my request after reading about it here on BA The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver The Complete Novels of Flann O'Brien also per my request after reading about them here

Haven't seen the movie yet, but I DID see Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis, Kate Hudson and maybe Fergie (if so, she was forgettable) on some talk show recently. It must have been the day I was home sick because I never see talk shows; for the life of me I can't remember which one. Maybe "Ellen"? Anyway, as each star was interviewed, a movie scene of them singing was shown. I thought Kidman's singing was painfully awful. The others were OK.

I loved it, Ed. Lots going on inside those pages. It portrays a childhood friendship between two boys that deepens into love, and gives us a solid Irish history lesson (Easter Uprising), portraying class differences marvelously, especially through one character who is beset by personalities speaking inside his mind (O'Neill's 10 years at the psyche ward put to good use). I especially loved that character, a fellow whom I initially found repugnant. In some ways, his character is the glue holding the novel together. A friend loaned me the book; she had said it was the best contemporary novel she'd read in years. It's beautiful, rich, funny and tender prose. She knew that, because I'm surrounded by all things Irish, I'd want to read it. What she didn't expect was how much fun it was for me! There's lots of Irish humor here. O'Neill knows his Irish music history: many, many song and dance references are worked humorously into the novel. It's an extra spark for people like me who live and breathe Irish music history. But since my friend has no knowledge of Irish music and still considered it her favorite novel of late (and she's a prolific reader), one certainly doesn't need to get all those references to enjoy it. I hope you pick it up.

Ed, thank you, thank you, thank you! I now know who I'm going to read over the holiday break from school. I've spent my adult life amongst the Irish (in America, mostly, but sometimes Ireland), and am always looking for a new-to-me Irish author. Also, I had such a good laugh reading the name of one of O'Brien's books - At Swim Two Birds. Last year I read Irish author Jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys, so now of course I am wondering if there's anything besides the title of O'Brien's book that links the two works. I'm looking forward to these books - thanks for making my day!

I read Time Traveler's Wife a couple years ago and enjoyed it very much. I also saw the movie, but found it so-so. I don't think it's possible for a movie to parallel the book. The movie had a sickening sweet feeling, but the book didn't at all. What I found interesting when I was reading the book was that I knew quite a number of men who read and loved it. I think the time travel aspect and the author's matter-of-fact writing hooked them. I couldn't remember if I'd mentioned that I'd read The Leopard by Lampedusa, so in checking the threads, I see that Bart reread it this year. This was my first time, and I found myself living in its aura for days after completion. The story centers around a nobleman, Don Fabrizzio, in Sicily, around the time of Garibaldi's successful invasion of Sicily which completed the unification of Italy. It's based on the life of the author's great-grandfather. The protagonist, Don Fabrizzio, is caught between two worlds, the aristocratic one he's known his whole life, and the newly emerging democratic world. He's caught between both worlds, believing in the value of each, but grieving because he knows that he cannot fully live in either. I'm just starting a book of short stories, Cavallieri Rusticana written by another Italian author, Giovanni Verga. I'm looking forward to it. I visited Italy this summer and decided to spend this year reading Italian authors. So if anyone knows any other good books, please share. I'm also reading a book of essays titled Healing Trauma: attachment, mind, body, and brain. It's edited by Marion F Solomon and a favorite author of mine, Daniel J. Siegel whose essays are among those included in the book. Siegel's The Developing Mind and Parenting from the Inside Out are books I strongly recommend to all teachers and parents. They are not "how to" books, but provide a framework for understanding our relationships with children. Oh, and members of my family are trying something new. My 24 year old daughter expressed an interest in reading Tolstoy's War & Peace. I've mentioned on this board that I read this book once a decade. I just reread it a year or two ago, but said I'd read it again so that we could discuss it together. My husband decided to join in, as he hasn't read it since his college years. So we each have our own copy of the same translation, one I haven't read, and are discussing it together over the phone - our own version of a book club.

Sandy, thank you. You just solved a mystery for me. That has happened to me a lot. So very frustrating.

Somewhere in this long thread, someone noted that Geimer was paid $500,000 by Polanski. That WAS the original information spread by the news media when Polanski was taken into custody. But more recent articles muddy the waters quite a bit as this LA Times article states: Geimer's lawsuit Also, I'd just like to note that the first person to sign that petition was Woody Allen. 'Nuff said.

SanderO, I heartily agree. I don't get the hubbub about it. He should be treated like any other person who's committed that crime.

I'm happy to see that Amber Neumann, who was also an Irish step dancer, is now with Joffrey! Ballet dancers who are also Irish dancers tend to be terrific jumpers and have very quick feet. I've never seen Ms. Neumann dance, but I look forward to hearing reports from Chicago.

Tiffany, I really enjoyed The Glass Castle too and like you, I found it riveting. I read it aloud to my husband a few weeks later. We constantly wondered how those kids managed to not be placed in foster homes. I forgot to mention that earlier this summer, I also read a collection of E.B White essays, entitled One Man's Meat. It was published in 1942, and is a collection of his New Yorker essays from 1938-1942, when he'd first moved to a farm in Maine, and took up "gentleman farming." From a historical perspective, this book gives a wonderful perspective on the beginnings of WWII. I'd previously read his other essay collections and letters, and loved them all. I'm a great fan of E.B. White. I'd read his three children's books as a young adult, and in 1980, fell in love with the man himself the day after I gave birth to my first child. I read a NY Times interview with him that day where he spoke about his marriage and how much he missed his wife, who had died in 1977. Here I was, just really at the beginnings of my marriage, and he was looking back lovingly through the 48 years of his marriage. I was so touched that I saved that article. It sits in my son's baby book to this day! Two of White's books of essays are a staple on my bedside table, and are well-worn as I love to thumb through them before going to sleep. This particular collection predates his children's books, and in one funny essay, we find out what set him thinking about getting started on writing children's books. The rest is history, of course.

Alexandra, that was either a very small theater or a VERY LARGE cockroach if everybody could see it!

I remember the plagiarism allegations about two of Goodwin's books. I thought, though, that much of it was attributed to research assistants? It's always such a treat to see her on the Sunday morning talk shows.

I am 300+ pages into A Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I'm only up to Lincoln's 1860 inauguration, but it turns out to be an easy read, so I should be finished with it soon. I've always been fascinated by William Henry Seward's historical reach, and this is satisfying a lot of my questions about him. Also almost done with a Julia Glass novel, I See You Everywhere. Very disappointing. I loved her first novel, Three Junes, but didn't think her second one was very good, and I'm disappointed again with the third. I don't think I'll read any future novels of hers unless they win a big prize. This one feels rushed and doesn't give me any insights whatsoever about anyone, and even if it eventually does, I don't much care about these characters anyway. It's a very quick read, though, so I'll finish it. Contrast that Glass novel with one I just finished a couple days ago. Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize winning Olive Kitteridge is a terrific novel (in 13 stories) whose main character is someone I'd probably dislike intensely. Doesn't matter though. Strout makes me want to understand her, to root for her even when I'm cringing at her behavior, and to want to know how the book resolves her life. I found it masterful. It's one of those books whose aura sticks with you for days and days after you've finished it. I've also returned to a nonfiction book I started a few years back, but never finished: Leonard Shlain's The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. It's about literacy throughout history and how reading the alphabet has changed civilizations by changing our brain structure. Shlain develops an interesting theory about literacy's effect on women's lives. Fascinating. This has been a terrific reading summer for me. I've had the great luck of being able to arrange my work schedule so that I can sit on a beach at the lake and read for a couple hours every single day. I NEVER get that kind of consistent reading during the school year except for the books my students have as required reading.

I realized recently that I have spent much of my summer reading what I call "quiet novels." These are the kinds of books I avoided through most of my life, but happily discovered about a decade ago. Mostly contemporary novels, although Willa Cather and Rumen Godden's books often fit the category. Often, these books are loaded with visual imagery, but don't have much dialogue, hence my term "quiet." I'm halfway through Olive Kitteridge, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize novel by Elizabeth Strout. It's billed as a novel in short stories where we learn more about Olive Kitteridge within each short story, even though she's often peripheral to them. Strout's prose is poetic and, my terminology again, quiet. This summer, I've also been immersed in Alice McDermott's novels. I started off rereading Charming Billy, a portrait of an Irish Catholic alcoholic. I then went on to Child of My Heart, a devastatingly sad book. I'm now almost finished with "At Weddings and Wakes", a novel that's told through the eyes of the Irish Catholic children. Spare, possessing even less dialogue than most of her other novels, but riveting. Her books are often character portraits, and they're peopled by personalities I grew up with. And then for just plain fun, I'm reading Tana French's The Likeness. I'd read her first novel, In the Woods, and liked it even though it's a mystery and I wouldn't call myself a mystery book reader. Everyone tells me that this second book of hers is much better. So far so good although I have the same quibble with this book as I did with her first novel. She's set both books in Ireland, but the words and phrases her characters use are by and large American, not Irish. Luckily, her stories are interesting enough to make me forget.

Very sad to hear of Frank's passing. I knew him a little bit. He was very active in the local arts and spoke frequently at various functions I've been involved with throughout the years. He was a funny, funny, self-deprecating man, and a very generous one, taking a special interest in young local writers. We in this part of CT will miss him dearly.

I think their acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the evening! They were so overwhelmed and shy when they got up on that stage to accept their award. I also love that we got to see so much dancing in this year's award show. And I was so happy to see that the re-released Folger's commercial with Irish dancers featuring Cara Butler, sister of Jean Butler (first female star of Riverdance), was used. The Butlers trained with NYC teacher, Donny Golden. Nice tie-in with Trent Kowalik, one of the Billys, who also trained with a NY area Irish dance teacher, Sean Reagan, at his school, Inishfree. Trent also starred as Billy in the London production. Irish dancers are well represented in "Billy Elliot". David Bologna, who plays Michael, is also an Irish dancer from Inishfree, Sean Reagan's school. Heather Burns, one of the dance class girls, is also an Irish dance from Petri School. Oh, one more (non-Irish dance) tidbit: The newest Billy, Tommy Batchelor, was recruited for "Billy Elliot" when he performed in the finals of the Youth American Grand Prix in NYC.

I'm rooting for Billy Elliot.

I've been waiting for it to reach my neck of the woods, but discovered yesterday that it has already been here! It's playing in isolated small cinemas that show independent films. I found one an hour away, and will be going to see it this afternoon. Am looking forward to it.