Sunday Caught My Interest

It has been a week of raking leaves here in the hinterland. And still more are coming down so it will continue to be the focus. We have leaf pick-up next weekend and Himself thinks the leaves will not all be down in time. Oh well – perhaps we can compost a few bags or so. Yesterday was all about cross-country and we watched the boys team run to a first place finish at state. It was wonderful and exciting and a little bittersweet that Youngest wasn’t here to watch or that he got a chance to experience running at state. Most of my reading this week was guidebooks as I am starting to plan our trip to Europe to see youngest in December. All the choices and information is a little overwhelming.

Here is what caught my interest this week:

I was fortunate to have a wonderful professor when I was studying for my English Literature degree who specialize in the Romantic Period. I still remember his lecture on Keat’s Eve of Saint Agnus reciting the poem out loud, making it come alive literally before our eyes and giving many of us a deep love of for the poetry of John Keats. Two books caught my  interest this week and reminded me of this professor. The first is from His Futile Preoccupation and Guy’s review of a Stefan Zweig novella, Confusion. Confusion is about the reminiscence of an elderly university professor and his relationship with his English professor. It sounds wonderful and I really enjoyed the author’s novel, The Post-Office Girl. Zweig has a spare writing style and an ability to get right to the heart of his characters. The second book is a new biography of Keats by Nicholas Roe called John Keats: A New Life. The book comes out in mid-November  and is said to bring a modern interpretation to both Keat’s illness and his life and how they impacted his poetry. Dovegrey Reader gives this new biography a very favorable review.

Swapna of S. Krishna’s Books reviews A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei the story of three generations of Chinese-American women traveling in China. Irene Shen, recently widowed, wants to reconnect with her family including her three daughters, her mother, and her sister. A road trip novel, travel in a foreign country, and a look at the relationship between the different women in a family all sounds like a good read to me. Swapna did feel there was a certain note of detachment in the book but also points out that this novel would be a good book group choice with plenty of things to discuss.

Happy Reading.