Here are Haydn's Paris Symphonies.
See the pretty little pink bits? I managed to occupy Hercule the Destroyer with an eraser while I typed. Like to see what I'm typing on? I'd like to ring my little Ringneck's neck. Unfortunately parrots are like three year olds holding scissors that you can never discipline.
And I got to type with Percy on my head. I wish you could hear him whistling along with Haydn.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is the story, first person diary form, of a little blonde girl from Little Rock, Arkansas who is apparently so mesmerizingly pretty that every man who comes into contact with her wants her for himself and finds himself, not always willingly, spending oodles of money on her, in New York and abroad. This little blonde is able to swindle any man, married or single. She is the ultimate gold digger.
The writing is fluid and funny in that the protagonist, Lorelei Lee, writes like she is some wide-eyed air head, yet she knows what she wants. Stuff. Expensive stuff and lots of it. Men are her means of getting it. One wonders if she knows this is a young woman's profession and she might want to get a nursing degree or something before she ages out of her career.
While initially I enjoyed the book, it got a little monotonous and, frankly, I didn't like Lorelei very much. She gives a bad name to women, although I know the author, Loos, was parodying a type, I found myself rooting for the stupid men she came across.
The book is much better than the movie. Unless you like watching Marilyn Monroe and Rosalind Russell pose around, singing inane songs.
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But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady by Anita Loos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes is the follow up to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Both are tongue in cheek satire on the expected inter relationship between men and women as portrayed in Hollywood movies. Rich man falls in love with poor, sweet, innocent girl from nowhere.
Except though Loos' women may be innocent, they're not stupid. Men seem to helplessly fall in love, or at least have wolfish objectives, yet the women somehow come out on top. Often this seems to be due to dumb luck, more than anything.
In this book, Lorelei is still writing in her diary, but this time instead of writing about herself and her love life, she writes about her friend Dorothy, whom we met in the first book as a sidekick of Lorelei's.
We learn Dorothy grew up in a carnival, but was "rescued" by a sheriff who had "noble intentions" to make her an honest woman. It turns out the sheriff is not able to carry out his heroic plan due to a blonde secretary that apparently has enough information on him to keep him away from Dorothy.
So Dorothy ends up eventually in New York where she joins Zigfeld Follies and is discovered by a rich man who wants to marry her, however, his mother does not think she is quite their kind. All sorts of shenanigans follow, a la Buster Keaton and Dorothy ends up marrying a sax player who ends up being a lout, so the rich guy pays for her to travel to Paris to get a divorce, only the mother pays for a lawyer to make it so Dorothy has no grounds for divorce.
It's all very silly, but written with such fluid grace and wit that it is easy to zoom through the whole book, rather like riding a toboggan down a snowy hill.
I don't know if I'll read more of Loos. The two books I've read were all fun and games, however, I think I'm satiated with her brand of social satire. But who knows?
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Here is piano music by Jeroen van Veen.
I've been reading a lot of books and frankly, I don't have time for indepth reviews for the moment, so here's the skinny on the last three books I've read:
Washington's Monument: And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk by John Steele Gordon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is a lively and fascinating account of how an obelisk was chosen and built to commemorate our first president. It also provides an interesting history of the obelisk itself and how European countries and later America came to possess some of these ancient relics of the past.
It sounds like it would be mundane, but some of the best parts was learning about the men who carried out the transporting of these giant stone structures and how they did it. No mean feat before modern technology.
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The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and their Patients by Lucy H. Spelman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a lucky impulse buy. I couldn't resist the title and the book did not disappoint.
Spelman, a veterinarian, has compiled a large collection of essays by her fellow veterinarians who have exotic animals for patients.
We not only meet a rhino whose sore, blistering feet from the cement in the zoo, gets temporary shoes until a viable habitat is made, we also meet a moray eel who refuses to eat, an ill octopus, a polar bear with a stomach ulcer, a giraffe who needs a leg brace, a hippo who gets a root canal, even a pet goldfish with cancer.
All of the essays are written with charm and by vets who dearly love their patients. Any animal lover would enjoy this book.
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A Cotswold Mystery by Rebecca Tope
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Thea is back and this time she's not only house-sitting, she's granny-sitting as well.
The couple she is sitting for have an elderly mother living next door and, while she's not supposed to really interact with her, or let her into the house. She is somehow supposed to stay on top of her and know when she leaves her home (there's a buzzer connected to the front door).
The old lady, Gladys, is a mysterious character. She acts flighty and senile half the time, but the other half, she's quite lucid and shrewd.
Her daughter, Jessica, has come to stay with her. She has just had a traumatic experience as a rookie cop. She needs a mother's reassurance. However, Thea has her own angst and there is a tug of war as mother and daughter struggle through their relationship with each other.
On top of all that, Thea finds a dead body next door. The dead man, an elderly friend of Gladys, has been stabbed and then dragged into the kitchen. Why? What is the motive? Who had the means and opportunity?
That is the outline, in the meantime we see Thea as she relates with her daughter and how she regards her budding relationship with the police inspector Phil, whom she met in the first of this series.
The characters in this Cotswold village give this American another slice of what small English village life is like, which I enjoy.
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I'm listening to works for the Viola de Gamba by the French composer Marin Marais.
A Cotswold Killing by Rebecca Tope
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
OK, I have to start this review with a little story. As my blog followers know, I belong to an international postcard club. I receive cards from all over the world from interesting people. It's been great fun.
Recently, I received a nice card from the UK by a woman who enjoys writing. Well, I am supportive of aspiring writers and told her I would like to read some of her stuff. She directed me to Amazon where I bought a Kindle version of a Cotswold Killing. Shortly into the book I realized that if this was an aspiring writer she was extremely good. I've read and reviewed so much tripe from people asking me to review their book that I've stopped accepting review requests.
This was not tripe. This was a great read. I believe it falls under the category of cozy mystery and it was just a lot of fun. I should also mention that Rebecca Tope is not an aspiring writer but has three best selling crime series under her belt. Yes, my face is a little red.
But who cares? I'm glad to discover more wonderful weekend reads.
A newly widowed woman, Thea, and her spaniel Hepzibah, have decided to house sit around the Cotswalds. Her first job house sitting brings her to a murder in her very backyard.
And that is the premise. I don't want to give any of the plot away, because the whole point of a mystery is to be mystified until the end.
But I want to tell you what I liked about the story in order to allow all of you to be able to make an informed decision about whether Ms. Tope's writing is your cup of tea or not. I say that because some of the reviewers on Amazon were critical of the very thing that I liked about her story.
We read the story from Thea's perspective in the limited third perspective. This is my favorite method of narration. Either in first person or limited third, I like following along inside the head of one person, getting their perspective, whether reliable or not, because a good writer can present reality through an unreliable narrator.
Thea is a flawed individual. She's depressed. The pain of losing her husband is very raw. She's tired of hurting and she tries to distract herself by hurting herself and by getting out of the environment she spent with her husband. I'll admit that someone hurting herself (not self-mutilation, she keeps a thumbnail sore and bleeding with a pin) was a bit strange to me.
But I decided that this really happens. People who are severely depressed are trying to crawl out of their hole. Other than that little bit, Thea is pretty normal.
Thea's character as well as the other characters are very real and convincing. At first I felt the other characters were all going to be mere shadows. Unpleasant people who make Thea feel like an outsider and they initially come across that way: distant, suspicious, unhelpful.
However, a number of them start to thaw and show a human side to her. Nevertheless, somebody murdered a local farmer and from the evidence they could not have done it alone, so as to be expected, not everyone is going to be friendly and helpful.
But is it as simple as that? Are the unfriendly people guilty of murder or do the friendly people have something to hide as well? There are wheels within wheels.
While starting a bit dark in tone, we see glimmers of light through every character trying to live their lives as best they can while all of them must come to terms with the tragedy that has been thrust upon them.
And, of course for the reader is the question, why was the farmer murdered?
Quibbles? I found it hard to keep track of everyone, but I think a lot of this was due to reading on a Kindle and I don't know how to go back and forth on it so I had to remember the best I could who went with what name. Not very hard, but that is my only complaint.
I look forward to reading more from Ms. Tope.
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I'm listening to Bach's Violin Concertos.
One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band by Alan Paul
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
People are a little surprised that I like reading books about rock stars. I am largely into classical literature and biography, but I also am very interested in the entertainment industry. Not so much as a screaming fan, although I'm not above that, but because I like to get inside what makes a musician tick, how do they write their music, how did they arrive at national, international success.
I think people, or maybe just me, think of rock musicians as uneducated people that got discovered at a bar. That has not really turned out to be true with most of the biographies I've read, so far, maybe with the exception of the Sex Pistols, who literally were taken off the streets of East London. They didn't last long either, except Johnny Rotten, who showed himself to be both intelligent and creative.
The Allman brothers could easily be dismissed the same way: just a bunch of good ol'boys from the South. Actually these were a group of highly intelligent, highly creative young men who worked their rear ends off. They practiced countless hours every day, honing their craft. They knew their cultural history, the history of the blues.
They were also progressive for their time. They played what back then was considered "black" music and had black members in their band.
It was very interesting to me to read how they wrote their music and put the sounds together on their instruments, how they learned to play off of each other, take turns with the solos.
It is also interesting, though tragic, how drugs were such an ingrained part of the group's culture. The mastermind behind the group was Duane Allman. Success was short for him, dying from a motorcycle wreck at the age of 24. The next year the bassist also died in a motorcycle wreck.
We read about the struggle Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts had with drugs and alcohol. Dickey was eventually booted from the band. Gregg struggled with his demons until after several rehabs, a liver transplant, and finally a live in nurse later, he seemed to conquer them for a few years before he finally died in 2017 of liver cancer. But he was still giving concerts until shortly before his death.
Maybe he couldn't imagine doing anything else. Rock on till you can't.
The band forged on. They had their peaks, their declines, but still they marched on. I cannot believe how much energy these guys had, performing even into their sixties, not only with each other, but they had their own side bands they also toured with. It made me tired just to read about it.
This book is largely based on first hand interviews and reports, each member and others associated with the band, telling their life and history of the Allman Brothers from their own personal experience and perspective.
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Hercule likes raw hide sticks. They've turned out to be a nice, relatively cheap parrot chew toy. Maybe he will leave my pens and paintbrushes alone. Doubtful.
Listening to Chopin's Complete Works.
Brooklyn Bridge by Emil Holzhauer
While in Florida I visited an old friend whom I had not seen in many years. We knew each other in Florida but lost touch when she moved to Spokane, Washington and I moved to New Jersey.
She recently moved back to Florida so I spent an afternoon with her last week while my parents were at a doctor's appointment.
My friend and her family are some of the most interesting people I know personally. Debbie has a sister who is a Hollywood actress, their daughter is a sculptor in Boston and most interesting of all, Debbie's husband, Ed, a journalist and writer, has a famous uncle.
Ed's uncle is Emil Holzhauer, one of the Ashcan Artists. Holzhauer was a student of Robert Henri. Debbie and Ed live in Holzhauer's house on a bayou near my parents' home.
Here are some photos of Holzhauer's work in their house:
The precious lady in the hall is Ed's older sister. She suffers from dementia and is the sweetest person you could meet. Hercule (of course I brought him, he's so clingy) liked her a lot. He politely refused the Teddy Bear she offered him, however.
I asked Ed if he'd Beta-read a mystery I wrote. As I was sending it to him, one of my birds hit the screen and sent the attachment off to the Cloud Grave yard in the sky. So I sent him a ghost story I wrote. Of course now I'm pins and needles hoping he likes it.
For some reason, I didn't take a photo of Debbie and Ed. Oh well. Next time.
The Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig: Burning Secret, A Chess Story, Fear, Confusion, Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This particular review is only of the story Confusion. I have reviewed the previous stories separately.
Confusion is about a young man who becomes the student to a professor at the university he attends. The professor's expertise lies in Shakespeare's works. The student becomes obsessed with this professor and his work. Finally he rents a room in the same house the professor and his wife are living.
Things are strange. The wife is emotionally distant and sardonic. The professor is in turns, kind and gentle and caustic and cold. This puts the young man in turmoil. He doesn't know why the older man is treating him like this.
Also the professor takes to disappearing for a few days, telling no one of his whereabouts.
Furthering the mystery, his fellow students and the other professors have become cold toward the student and begun to exclude him from their circles.
Nothing is solved until the end, and I won't give it away, just to say, that I find so many things unrealistic and wrong about it.
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Here is some lovely music to read by: Liszt in Love.
On the 4th of July I left Texas for Florida. Passing Jackson Mississippi, I saw their fireworks display, which I appreciated. I hate missing out on the beautiful fireworks.
The reason I left on the 4th was so I could stay through to the 11th, and celebrate with my parents in their 63rd wedding anniversary.
My mother cannot walk independently, but that did not slow us down. We simply wheeled her around in the wheel chair. We went to several areas where we could enjoy the water.
I also wheeled her around neighborhoods that she and I both walked through and talked, back when we were both younger.
In the evenings I read to them. I finished three of the Narnia Chronicles, plus read a ghost story I wrote. My mom said she enjoyed it. I know she's my mother, but I think she would tell me if it wasn't any good. My dad said I started to many sentences with the word, "I". He was right. I set about correcting that.
I think for 83 and 84 years of age, they haven't done too badly. They don't get tired of telling how they met at Carswell AFB in Ft Worth, fresh out of tech training while they were still teenagers. They married at the ages of 20 and 21 and have stuck it out through the lovely times and the rough patches. I have the greatest respect and love for my parents.
The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the sort of book that is considered a nice, comfortable mystery to read on a rainy day. Life got really busy so there were gaps between the days I was able to read, so this book took a little longer to finish and I'm afraid I may have forgotten key events or characters. It also may be that they were a little hard to keep track of, but I think it's my fault, not the author's.
A vicar and a doctor meet Monday nights for dinner and sharing stories. Together they pay for a monthly package of mysteries to share. This evening is interrupted by an emergency at a local neighbor's house. They both arrive to find the neighbor, Julius Tregathan, lying dead in his living room. He has been shot through the head.
The shots came from outside, there were three although only one hit its mark, the holes through the window being discernible.
As the story progresses, we get to know the kind of man Tregarthan was and also who would have the motive to murder him.
This story was rather a slow burner, but I really appreciated how we get to try to figure out who murdered the man and why as the Inspector and Chief build up first one, then another, and then yet another theory as to who committed the murder, how they committed it and why. The continual evolution of their theories as new data enters the picture is probably the most interesting part of the book.
I believe I will be reading more of John Bude.
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I posting early because tomorrow I'm leaving for Florida. It might take me a day to answer comments, but I will do my best.
Well, you can listen to it also, but this is what I was listening to when I wrote this review: the Best Blues.
For the month of July I've been sending patriotic post cards. Here are a few:
Fear by Stefan Zweig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fascinating psychological tale about a woman who has everything: wealth, good family, security, whatever she wants. She's not bored, but neither does she care about anything. She calmly drifts through her life. She has children. They are there, but they hold little interest for her. She lets the governess and her husband tend to them.
She's perfectly self-satisfied, self-absorbed and completely non reflective. Her whole life is taken for granted.
There's another man in her life. She doesn't love him, but she enjoys the attention, the time together. The fact that she's cheating on her husband doesn't come into consideration. She simply doesn't think about anything that does not provide personal gratification.
Then one day, she is leaving her lover's apartment when she is confronted by a hag of a woman who accuses her of sleeping with her boyfriend. The hag screeches and screams and demands money to remain quiet about it.
The woman is terrified and gives her all the money she has on her. The hag says it's not enough. She wants more. The woman promises more and rushes away.
This is turning point of a placid, selfish existence into one of horror. The woman cannot sleep or eat. Somehow the hag has found where she lives. No matter how much money she gives the women, it is never enough. The hag is an albatross. She can't escape her, nor can't stand up to her-she's not used to fighting battles.
The woman becomes haggard as time goes on, she thinks of ending her life. Telling her husband is unthinkable. She'd rather die.
This story was a torment to get through, because, even though I did not like the lady, she was so helpless before the merciless hag.
I will not spoil the story, except to say, it ends in an unexpected way.
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Hope everyone is safe and have a wonderful 4th of July.
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