Thursday, April 22, 2021

Cat Thursday - Cats in Art (44) A Miscellany

I can't believe it has been a year since I've done a cats in art post! Long overdue.

Winter: Cat on a Cushion

Date: 1909

Artist: Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen

French, born Switzerland, 1859-1923

Three cats watching fish in an aquarium

1938 - Copson, Clyde A.

Two Little Fraid Cats
1863
Currier & Ives, publ., American

The Cats’ Rendezvous

1868

Artist: Édouard Manet

French, 1832-1883

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Classics Club Spin # 26 - The lucky number is....

11

Here's mine. I've had a couple of stops and starts with this one. Maybe this will finally be the time I get past the beginning. It's not that I'm not liking it when I'm reading. Something just always comes up and I put it aside. It's time to mark this one off my list!

What did you get?

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Cat Thursday - Kittens...again!

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Classics Club Spin 26 #ccspin

I finished my last spin book which was On Becoming A Novelist by John Gardner. So, here I go again. Here's my list:

1. Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu
2. Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande
3. If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland
4. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
5. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
6. Negotiating with the Dead by Margaret Atwood

7. Emma by Jane Austen
8. Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg
9. Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot
10. The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron
11. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
12. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
13. The Legends of Parsifal by Mary Hanford Ford
14. The Collector by John Fowles
15. Writing Past Dark by Bonnie Friedman
16. Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin
17. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
18. Take Joy by Jane Yolen
19. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
20. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

What will I get?! Are you doing the spin this time?

In case you're curious about all the writing books on my list (some which may not seem to be classics to some), check out this post where I outlined restarting/revamping my list in 2019.

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Cat Thursday - Authors and Cats (102) Anne McCaffrey

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author (with a birthday during the month), pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.

Having a harder time finding authors with cats images so I've decided to go back to the beginning of when I started featuring the author in their birth month and revisit authors featured in the past.

I was even able to dig up this image of her I did not find last time I posted about her.

Anne McCaffrey was born on April 1st, 1926, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Her parents were George Herbert McCaffrey, BA, MA PhD (Harvard), Colonel USA Army (retired), and Anne Dorothy McElroy McCaffrey, estate agent. She had two brothers: Hugh McCaffrey (deceased 1988), Major US Army, and Kevin Richard McCaffrey, still living.

Anne was educated at Stuart Hall in Staunton Virginia, Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey, and graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures.

Her working career included Liberty Music Shops and Helena Rubinstein (1947-1952). She married in 1950 and had three children: Alec Anthony, b. 1952, Todd, b.1956, and Georgeanne, b.1959.

Anne McCaffrey’s first story was published by Sam Moskowitz in Science Fiction + Magazine and her first novel was published by Ballantine Books in 1967. By the time the three children of her marriage were comfortably in school most of the day, she had already achieved enough success with short stories to devote full time to writing. Her first novel, Restoree, was written as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in s-f novels in the 50s and early 60s. It is, however, in the handling of broader themes and the worlds of her imagination, particularly the two series The Ship Who Sang and the fourteen novels about the Dragonriders of Pern that Ms. McCaffrey’s talents as a story-teller are best displayed.

She died at the age of 85, after suffering a massive stroke on 21 November 2011. (Goodreads)

Thursday, April 1, 2021

#ThrowbackThursday (2) The Time Traveler's Wife

Davida at The Chocolate Lady hosts this Throwback Thursday meme monthly and I've decided to participate. The idea is to highlight/share a previously published book review. I've been blogging since 2009, so I have a lot of reviews to revisit (even if I have slowed down in more recent years, I used to be quite a prolific reviewer).

I'm basically going in order of reviews published (last month I shared the first review I published here on this blog) so this month will be the second review posted. I will continue in this vein unless a particular review does not spark my fancy.

This month is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (review originally published on August 21, 2009). This book is one of my favorites and I'm so excited there is a series version coming to HBO. I also loved the film, though the book and film are both poignant and heartbreaking.

My review...

I am crying as I write this so let me warn you--when you read this book, you had better be prepared to cry...and to laugh...and to be amazed. How does one describe a book that so seamlessly combines science fiction, comedy, and tragedy?

Henry and Clare have a relationship that transcends time...literally. Henry is what is known as a chrono-displaced person, or CDP. There are no time machines or devices. He just disappears from one time leaving a pile of clothes behind and appears in another time completely naked. He meets Clare when she is a child and they develop a friendship that carries on every time he travels back to her time, as she is growing up. When she finally meets Henry in his present, he doesn't know who she is, but she has known him for years. It all seems very confusing here as I describe it and that's the problem. This book defies description. But I'm not saying this in a negative sense. When you actually read the book, it's not confusing and that, in itself, is the beauty of it. To explain the story further here would give too much away and I do not want to do that, dear reader.

So I will focus on the storytelling. The author has taken a difficult situation (to say the least) and made it both comic and tragic at the same time. Who in life hasn't tried to see the funny side of a grave situation? I know I have. It's human to look on the bright side and Henry and Clare have a love that withstands the obstacles because of their ability to focus on the good. In the end, it has been their love that has seen them through. As Henry says to Clare, "Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust." Their love has been the only constant in time.

It is rare for a book to really touch a person to the core. This book does just that in a way that is soul-soaring and heart-wrenching, but also manages to invoke a smile in the back of your mind.

Original post here.

I reviewed the film here.

Join in! Click the link to The Chocolate Lady blog for all the info on how to participate.

Cat Thursday - #Cats love April Fools Day

#TuesBookTalk - Join us on Goodreads & we now chat on Slack!

TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs's currently-reading b...

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Les Misérables: Volume One
by Victor Hugo
Start date: January 1, 2013

Les Misérables: Volume Two
by Victor Hugo
Start date: January 1, 2013

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Which literary heroine are you?

You are Josephine March from "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. Opinionated and outspoken, your bold nature can sometimes get you into trouble. You must constantly make a conscious decision to seem gentler to people when you first meet them -- those who do not know you well can sometimes find your passion abrasive or overly aggressive. The happiness of others is your greatest source for happiness of your own -- you want nothing more than to provide for your family and friends, to make them happy.