Here's the book description from Amazon:
"I don’t believe in God, but I miss him." So begins Julian Barnes’s brilliant new book that is, among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on mortality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and a homage to the writer Jules Renard. Barnes also draws poignant portraits of the last days of his parents, recalled with great detail, affection and exasperation. Other examples he takes up include writers, "most of them dead and quite a few of them French," as well as some composers, for good measure.
The grace with which Barnes weaves together all of these threads makes the experience of reading the book nothing less than exhilarating. Although he cautions us that "this is not my autobiography," the book nonetheless reveals much about Barnes the man and the novelist: how he thinks and how he writes and how he lives. At once deadly serious and dazzlingly playful, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a wise, funny and constantly surprising tour of the human condition.
First of all, it was wonderful to have a new Kurt Vonnegut book to read. This is silly for me to say, because I haven't even read all of his novels yet. However, it was exciting to read his first post-posthumously published work.
Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of short fiction and non-fiction. The introduction by his son, Mark Vonnegut, is great. It was interesting to read about Kurt from someone who knew him so well.
One cool inclusion in the collection is the scanned pages of a letter Kurt wrote in 1945 to inform his family (who had no idea of his whereabouts) that he had been a prisoner of war and survived the Dresden bombing.
Kurt Vonnegut's home town of Indianapolis declared 2007 the "Year of Kurt Vonnegut." Kurt was to return home in April to speak to the community at a big kickoff event for the celebration. Sadly, he died two weeks before he was supposed to give the speech. He had already written the speech, and his son Mark went to Indianapolis to deliver the speech in his memory. The text of this speech is also included in this collection.
The above mentioned pieces were my favorite parts of the book. I also enjoyed the short stories, but I prefer the non-fiction in this collection.
One more thing to note about this book: it's a beautiful edition. It has beautiful paper, and drawings by Kurt are included throughout, some in color.
Mark Vonnegut on whether or not we can expect more posthumously published work by his father:
"We'll catch our breath and see how this one goes. There is a ton of unpublished stuff. We'll figure it out as we go along."
It's strange to think you're almost done with a book (and wonder how on earth it's going to have a happy ending with a page and a half left) only to realize that it 'ends' in the middle of a sentence.
After grabbing another copy of Sense & Sensibility, I realized the new edition I bought was missing the last three chapters.
How lucky I had a spare copy! My beautiful new copy is going to have to be returned tomorrow.
I had an absolutely marvelous weekend with the RSC in Massachusetts!
Thursday evening I took the 6 o'clock bus to South Station, where I was met by Waddo (Emma) and Stevo (Emily). The Red Shoe Cult was reunited in full for the first time since Christmas 2006. We set off, only needing to turn back once when I realized that in all the excitement I had forgotten my suitcase from under the bus. We had a quick snack with Stevo, and then Waddo and I went back to her cute apartment in Clinton.
Friday Waddo and I took the T to Harvard Square, and explored a bit of Harvard and Cambridge. We went to three bookstores in Cambridge: The Harvard Book Store, Curious George & Friends, and The Coop.
Harvard Book Store was my favorite. They had new books upstairs and used books downstairs. I loved the downstairs decor, they covered most available walls with bookmarks and book related cartoons, quotes, and clippings. I also loved Curious George and Friends, which was a wonderful children's book store. The Coop was great as well, but was secretly a Barnes and Noble. I love Barnes and Noble though, and The Coop has an incredible selection, as my neighbor M-----l pointed out already.
Next we headed into Boston, where, if I were to speculate, I would guess the wind was gusting at about 100 miles per hour.
We went to my favorite bagel place, Bruegger's Bagels, for lunch. Man, I miss Bruegger's. There was one across the street from The State News, and it's tied with Cancun Mexican Grill as the East Lansing establishment I miss most.
We walked around Boston all day, some of the highlights were Quincy Market and the Boston Public Library. We also went to two bookstores, Trident Booksellers & Cafe and Brattle Book Shop. Both were great, but I need to spend much more time in Brattle Book Shop. We didn't get there until 30 minutes before they closed, and their sidewalk carts were inside in the aisles so it was really hard to browse.
Saturday was fantastic. We drove around all day and visited Walden Pond, Concord, Sleepy Hallow Cemetery, and Salem. In Concord we went to two more fabulous bookstores, The Concord Bookshop and Books With a Past.
I also loved going to Sleepy Hallow Cemetery, where we visited Author's Ridge: the graves of Hawthorne, Emerson, Alcott, and Thoreau.
If, after waiting for this ungodly amount of photos to load, you have the desire to see more photos from my trip, they can be viewed on my flickr page.
I'm headed to Boston this weekend to visit two very dear friends, Emma (aka Wad) and Emily (aka Stevo).
I'll update with photos when I return.
Books I'm bringing with me for the bus ride: Sense and Sensibility, Brick Lane, and Oh the Glory of it All.
Have a good weekend!
Above: An artifact I found from college, a drawing Emma made of the three of us.
George was a wearer of many hats, including his most famous - founder of the Paris Review.
George was a man of nearly infinite interests. He enjoyed writing and reporting by doing and experiencing. Some of his incredible feats as a human and a writer:
-played the Apollo Theatre
-pitched against the National League
-went through pre-season training with the Detroit Lions
-trained as a goalie with the Boston Bruins
-appointed Fireworks Commissioner of New York
-attended the premiere of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Hunter S. Thompson
More can be read about his incredible life can be found on his wikipedia page.
If you're interested, there's an absolutely wonderful George Plimpton site, run by admirers.
http://plimptonproject.org/
And if you want to read some of his work, I suggest starting with The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, a collection of some of his essays.
Yay! There was a contest to vote for a mascot for the cover of NCAA Football 09 for the Wii, and Sparty won!
You could vote once per day, and I tried to remember to vote most every day.
http://www.easports.com/ncaa09/media.jsp?contentID=wiioverview
Show us something green!
This picture is doubly relevant today, since the NCAA tournament brackets were announced last night and MSU is a number 5 seed. Go Green!
This is our small shrine to MSU that my State News friends and I made at our hotel in New Orleans. We were there for the CNBAM conference in 2005, when both the Michigan State Men's and Woman's teams were in the Final Four.
I've been M.I.A. in all of my regular internet stomping grounds lately. Things are busy and getting busier.
Here's a brief outline of what I've been up to:
Recent books purchased:
-The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
-The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn
Currently reading:
-Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
-The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Song stuck in my head:
Sondre Lerche's cover of "Let My Love Open the Door"
Last movies I saw in the theater:
-Be Kind Rewind
-Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Last movies I saw on DVD:
-Becoming Jane
-Ratatouille
Last cookies I made:
-Chocolate Chip
Recent Visitors:
-My friend ESG! (and her tumor, which has since been removed)
-My friend (and soon to be New Yorker!) Morgan!
Near Future Visitors:
-My mom!
-My dad, Benny, and Grandma!
Where I will be this weekend:
-Boston!
I've been in a major Jane Austen mood lately. Before this year I'd only read Pride and Prejudice. I've always intended to read all six, and watching The Jane Austen Book Club made me realize I want to read all six (re-reading Pride and Prejudice with my new annotated edition) as soon as possible. I started with Persuasion, which I loved. Anne Elliot is a great heroine. I'm now watching the Masterpiece Theater version of Persuasion, and reading Sense and Sensibility.
