So, What Are You Reading?

Bought a nice one from the thrift shop over the holidays:

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim - A Florilegium of Her Works. Katharina M. Wilson

I remembered Hrotsvita (several spellings- all correct) (c. 935 - c. 1001) from my German Lit. studies more than 50 years ago. A nun, who wrote in Latin, she was the first known woman writer in the German lands and the first known dramatist (anywhere) in the Christian era.

The books was a pleasant retrospection for me, although Hrotsvita is not my favourite medieval woman writer. I have a few contenders in mind for that honour, by no means all German. The German title, I would certainly award to St. Hildegard von Bingen, (1098-1179) about whom I learned in that same class. Very interesting lady (another nun) who also wrote in Latin. Her work includes the first known description of the female orgasm. Along with St. John of Avila, St. Hildegard was named a Church Doctor by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. In addition to her writing, she composed beautiful music, which is still performed today. Sample here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gK0_PgIgY

Back to Hrotsvita. The modern spelling of her name is Roswitha and an asteroid has been named for her: Asteroid 615 Roswitha. I think the book was well worth the 50 cents I paid.

J.

 

Read Karen DeYoung's Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell.

 

Read Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln.

 

Johann: "Hrotsvita is not my favourite medieval woman writer. I have a few contenders in mind for that honour, by no means all German. ..."

John: Might Julian of Norwich be on your list? With things as they are in my country now, I take small consolation in her frequent message, "Things will be well again, one day."

 

Indeed she is, but not at the top. She was the first woman known to have written a book in English. Her work is quoted in interesting places:
"…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well" - T.S. Eliot, (Little Gidding - Four Quartets)

My favourite? Hard to pick just one. Possibly Hildegard von Bingen, previously mentioned. Maybe Christine de Pisan, the first woman known to earn her living by writing. She was married at 15, widowed 10 years later and supported her niece, her mother and her own two children. Or perhaps Rachel Akerman, (1522-1544) the first female Jewish poet to write in German.

So many good medieval women writers! So little time! :smile:

J.

 

I'm checking updates on B2B right now.

 

Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen. Birthday present from my son. I find people who can write good songs can write good books. Bruce's work is of an exceptionally high standard. That's why he's The Boss. Gritty or soaring, as called for - always vivid and poetic in the best sense. A fabulous read. As a tour-de-force, the book has been likened to one of Bruce's four-hour concerts. Right. We need the concerts - and the book.

J.

 

Today, I finished shelving the last couple of hundred books I bought - mostly thrift shop finds. So how did I celebrate getting this done? I bought another book - Inuit Women Artists, Ed. by Odette Leroux, Marion Jackson and Minnie Aodla Freeman. ($2.60 at Thrift Store - published at $40 in Canada.) My eye was drawn to the book by the cover illustration, "My New Accordion" by Napachie Pootoogook. About 18 years ago, this same painting inspired me to write a short story about a First Nations woman who bought a new accordion, as her late father's very old one, which he had taught her to play as a young girl, was now worn-out - but still a much-loved keepsake.

Nice to see the work again. I have only briefly dipped into the book, as I haven't even been home yet. Hundreds of illustrations. Promising!

J.

 

Read Amber Frey's Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson.

 

I got on an Anne McCaffrey kick lately. She was one of my favorite authors growing up. It happened when I ran across the book "Rowan" in the used bookstore in Manila a couple weeks ago. Honestly her fiction still holds me has stood the test of time unlike alot of other authors from my youth.

McCaffrey - Dragonflight
McCaffrey - Dragonquest
McCaffrey - The White Dragon
McCaffrey - Dragon Song
McCaffrey - Dragon Singer
McCaffrey - Dragon Drums
McCaffrey - Dragon's Dawn
McCaffrey - Rowan

Chambers - A Closed and Common Orbit - sci fi again. Second in a series by a fairly new author. Good books if you like space opera.

Rappaport - Saving Capitalism - picked this up around a theme of short-termism in the management of companies.

Collins and Porras - Built to Last - this book reads a little dated but good concepts overall on what makes good companies.

 

I do books on audio in my car commuting to and from work. I'm ADHD enough that I listen to a disc and move to a different book. I cycle among 6 books. Every time I finish a book I move another book into the cycle.

The Greatest Books: The Best Books - 1 to 50

One Hundred Years of Solitude on the second screen. I have Swann's Way from the top of the list on deck.

The Greatest Books: The Best Nonfiction Books - 1 to 50

Essays by Montaigne at the top of the list. Interesting enough but extremely long.

https://librivox.org/search

Pliny the Elder, Natural History pt 2. I just finished this one so I already have the first disc of pt 3 on deck.

A space opera novel, an old fantasy novel.

From the audio book section of my library

A newer SF novel.

 

Worth seeing. Here it is: Work Detail

J.

 

Read H. Norman Schwarzkopf's It Doesn't Take a Hero.

 

I am rereading Dante's Inferno. I like when he describes certain demons that are so vile and disgusting that they communicate via farting instead of using their mouths! :smile:

 

At long last I have finally finished reading William Watson Davis' The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida. A big huge doorstop of a book at 738 pages.

 

I am reading Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler. I am reading it for the second time....I find it to be a really interesting read

 

Read Peter D. Klingman's Josiah Walls: Florida's Black Congressman of Reconstruction.

 

Civil War Women's Diaries and "She" by Henry Rider Haggard.

 

Really? Which ones? I've got a collection of 72 published Civil War women's diaries.

 

Read Canter Brown, Jr.'s Ossian Bingley Hart, Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor.