I don’t have a book to tell you about today, friends. I know! I’m sorry! But rather than go silent, I thought I’d give you a little photo tour of what I’ve been up to lately that explains why I haven’t been reading at the usual pace… well, it’s more complicated than that, but look at these pretty pictures first and then I’ll tell you about the books at the end.
When not reading, I have been:
But seriously, I have been reading as furiously as ever; we’re just caught in a strange lull right now, for a few reasons. For one, I’ve been doing a lot of reading for the book reviews I write for Shelf Awareness, which means that I read a book, write a review, submit it for editing & publication, and then am able to post said review after it publishes – which is easily 6-8 weeks after I read the book. So I’ve got a backlog of great reading to tell you about, but none of it is ready to post yet. In between, I’ve been listening to The Hunchback of Notre Dame on audiobook, which is great but long and means I won’t have an audiobook to tell you about for another week and a half at least.
All of which are just excuses, and I’m sorry that I don’t have a great book to tell you about right now! But speaking of excuses – I have now justified showing you pictures of my fun times & the beautiful people in my life, so we’re all winners on that count. 🙂
Happy Friday, and thanks for your patience, friends. Maybe I’ll read another de Maupassant short story over the weekend and have that to write up for you on Monday! In the meantime, more bikes in this lovely spring weather, please!
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Tomorrow, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Happy holidays!
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Friends, I’m taking two days off for the winter holiday. Wish you all the joy, love, family & friends, book reading and bike riding that I am planning on enjoying myself!
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I shall try to keep this brief for you; but I want to at least list the things I saw and did on my trip up north in late October. With pictures.
I flew to Boston on a Friday night after work to join my parents where they were house-sitting for a month in a lovely home belonging to family in Concord. We spent Saturday in Boston, walking the Freedom Trail there, which exhibits historical landmarks like cemeteries, churches, and monuments (and starts and finishes in Boston Common – lovely). We had lobster for lunch (out) and swordfish for dinner (in) and it was an exhausting, but exciting, first day.
greenhouse in our Concord home
Granary Burying Ground in Boston
Thoreau’s cabin site at Walden Pond
statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne in Salem
I was scheduled to head to Vermont on Tuesday – Pops driving me up there, isn’t he a peach – but we took the morning first to revisit the Battleground Road between Lexington and Concord, again at a faster-than-ideal pace. We had stopped off at the Old North Bridge, where the American Revolutionary War began, on Sunday evening. It made an impression. And we had glimpsed the Old Manse from without – I regret not finding time for a tour of the interior. Now we visited a few stops along the Battleground Road (think Paul Revere, “the British are coming”).
statue of a colonial soldier at the Old North Bridge: they put down their plows and they took up their muskets…
Wednesday I had a fairly lazy day on the farm in Vermont, which felt well-deserved after the busy days in Massachusetts. I was reuniting with my old friend Molly, who moved here with her husband and new baby this summer, and is now just 100 yards away from her parents.
Molly and I on the deck
green and mossy
look how he’s grown!
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Hello, friends! I’m home! It was a whirlwind week. I intend to write up the week’s activities in another post for you. In a nutshell, I visited lots of sites in Concord, Boston and Salem, Mass. of literary and historical interest; visited several pubs in Boston; kept a fast pace with my parents in Mass. generally; and then had a slower-paced few days in Vermont with a friend’s family on their farm.
As for the reading, I have less to report than I might have – this reflects the fast pace of the first part of the week, and the relaxation of the second part. I mostly gazed at the mountains rather than at the page. I did finish listening to The Shining (because listening is compatible with gazing), and I finished Walden on my long travel day homeward-bound. So those are two reviews that I owe you. Just give me a few days.
I also carried with me James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, which I started but may have to return to the library unfinished… and Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, and Edward Abbey’s The Brave Cowboy (wasn’t I ambitious?), neither of which I started but both of which I’m excited about when I find the time…
So I owe you two book reviews and one travel write-up. For now, I’ll leave you with a few choice photographs!
Salem, Mass. harbor
Walden Pond
unread books on the deck in Vermont
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I am nearing the end of my weeklong vacation and I am homeward bound this weekend. Hopefully I have seen lots of sights in Concord, Salem, and Boston, Mass.; visited some great pubs; had plenty of quality time with my parents, and with my girlfriend and her family in Vermont; tromped the woods, tickled the baby, and possibly even slept in some. And what about my reading material?? So glad you asked! I do owe you some book reviews upon my return. (We’ll have to see if I can get on top of it for Monday morning…)
The books I packed for the trip include:
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden
Stephen King’s The Shining (audio version, on my iPod)
James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son
Thanks for bearing with me during this week that I’ve been away. I’ll be back in the flesh (so to speak) on Monday, assuming the creek didn’t rise! And back home to my Husband and dogs, which will be sweet.
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While not necessarily a big gushing cooing fan of babies in general, I’m genuinely excited to see my high school BFF’s baby again. When I saw him last he was something like five weeks old…
me with the new baby. Bearded Husband in the background.
And now he’s 4 1/2 months! Will be so much bigger. Baby book recommendations??
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Mid-week sometime, so perhaps about now, I will be leaving Concord, Mass. behind and heading up to the mountains of Vermont. There, I have a dear friend from high school who has recently moved up to her parents’ farm, with her husband and new baby! The advantages to me are several and obvious, right? I hope to be hiking in the woods, tickling the new baby, and spending some quality time. While we may drive out into the world for a beer or some such (Rock Art Brewing is nearby!), I expect this will be the more relaxing, slower-paced part of the trip. Plus, check out the view from the deck:
And I get to visit with the dogs as well!
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Henry James called Concord, Massachusetts “the biggest little place in America.”* Concord was home to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa May. Walden Pond is in the neighborhood. (More recently, according to Wikipedia, contemporary authors gather there as well, including Patricia Cornwell, Gregory Maguire, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and the late Robert B. Parker.) In other words, there is no shortage of literary sites to visit while I’m here. These may include…
the Concord Museum, filled with artifacts relating to the American Revolutionary War and the Transcendentalists
the Emerson House
the Orchard House, home to the Alcott family, and presumed setting of Little Women.
And without question, I will be visiting Walden Pond
and the cabin there.
(this is a replica.)
In truth, there are enough places to see in Concord that I may not fit them all in. It’s a delicate balance, while on vacation, to do all the things you want to do and still relax a bit – so as to not need a vacation when you get home!
*Henry James: Collected Travel Writings, “The American Scene: Concord and Salem,” 1907
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Good morning in the land of possibilities, friends. This post is the first of a weeklong series that I have scheduled to publish in my absence. As you may recall, I’m gone this week, visiting family & friends & seeing the sights in Massachusetts and Vermont. These posts give a quick sampling of the kinds of activities I may be engaged in while I’m gone – and act as placeholders while I’m not around writing book reviews & whatnot. (I’ve done something like this before.) And don’t worry, there are a few literary tidbits thrown in as well.
Okay! It’s Monday. Hopefully I made it to Concord, Mass. on Friday night to begin my time there with my parents. We will be making a few trips into Boston to explore the range of pubs on offer there…
And we also intend to make a day trip to Salem, Mass., for the pleasant harbor area and a few points of interest, literary and historic…
the Corwin House, for its role in the Salem Witch Trials
House of Seven Gables – see also Hawthorne, Nathaniel
And of course there’s plenty to do in Concord, as well! Stay tuned!
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