Classics Club Spin #34

And the spin landed on #13...The Werewolf by Montague Summers

I'm thrilled!

Failed miserably last time. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Motto of my life. 

1. Mastering Witchcraft - Paul Huson
2. Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol
3. Where Angels Fear to Tread - E.M. Forster
4. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
6. Murder in the Cathedral - T.S. Eliot
7. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
8. Vampires and Vampirism - Montague Summers
9. Taras Bulba - Nikolai Gogol
10. The Centaur - Algernon Blackwood
11. The Collector - John Fowles
12. The Devils of Loudon - Aldous Huxley
13. Werewolf - Montague Summers
14. Grendel - John Gardner
15. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
16. Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
17. The Human Chord - Algernon Blackwood
18. In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires - Raymond T. McNally, Radu R. Florescu
19. The Witch of Ravensworth - George Brewer
20. The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson

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Cat Thursday - Precious and silly at the same time

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often 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.

We lost Alice two years ago on June 13.
Still missing her every day. 

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Cat Thursday: Authors and Cats (120) - Jirō Osaragi

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 acros s, 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, pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.

I apologize for not posting last week. I kid you not, by the time I remembered, it was already Friday! Guess it's time to set a weekly reminder. 

Jirō Osaragi

The Osaragi Jirō Memorial Museum in Yokohama, Japan is dedicated to the author Jirō Osaragi and features numerous cat ornaments as an integral part of its feline-themed decor. Osaragi wrote several novels connected to Yokohama, including Gento (Magic Lantern) and lived at the Hotel New Grand for over 10 years (in room 318). It's often said that the Shōwa-period author cared for over 500 cats throughout his lifetime at his home in Kamakura, Japan—which is sometimes open to the public. Visitors can lounge on Osaragi's terrace and sip tea while picturing the hundreds of semi-feral cats that once frolicked in the gardens.

Credit (including image): https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/77982-10-authors-and-their-cats.html

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portraits of red and gray: memoir poems by James C. Morehead - Review

I was a teenager in the 80s. I was 14 years old when the 17 year old James embarked on his school trip to the USSR. I can't even imagine traveling to Russia at the height of the Cold War. I remember spending a lot of time in the 80s fearing nuclear war. James' poem, portraits of red and gray, detailing his visit is wonderful. His descriptions of the conditions there are vivid and heartbreaking. I can see why multiple readers of his poems wanted to read this one in its entirety. It is beautiful.

I had to laugh at Four Summers in Florida (82-83-84-85) because he really captured what we GenXers are always saying...

1982

I spent my teenage summers working in Florida, living alone, programming computers. That forty years ago, when parents let their sons fly two thousand miles south, from Toronto to Florida, to live alone, and program computers all summer.

I was fifteen and couldn't drive, so I brought a hand-me-down bike with saddlebags for carrying groceries. That was forty years ago when parents let their sons live alone, without a car, two thousand miles away. At least my parents did, I can't speak for other parents.

...our parents really didn't care what we did back then. I could tell some stories of my own, I kid you not.

This collection is a must-read. I learned so much about a person and a life in these lines, verses, and prose. The final poem, lost (and found) just gets getting older, our forgetfulness, and that slow (but is it slow?) march to the end.

these things we lose track of

a puzzle piece clinging to a sweaty forearm

an unpaid bill the anniversary card bought last week

a ring of keys all tucked away too safely

i worry most of all about the pages

ripped from a daily calendar on my desk

then crumpled and thrown away

one day closer to a final tear

See what I mean? Again, a must-read.

About the book:

Take an unforgettable journey from the Cold War USSR to Savery, Wyoming, from the mountains of Tuscany to the peak of Yosemite’s Half Dome, from the Canadian wilderness to the beaches of Normandy. James Morehead’s (Poet Laureate – Dublin, California) acclaimed collection is built around a series of memoir poems that takes readers into pre-perestroika Soviet Union through the eyes of a teenager, from Moscow to Tbilisi to Leningrad (and many stops in-between). The striking cover, designed by Zoe Norvell, is based on a 1982 lithograph by Igor Prilutsky.

Advance Praise:

“In this second collection of poems, James Morehead’s imagery is vivid, spare and elemental, and it is consistently chosen and arranged to achieve intensely poetic effects. The rhythmic control is impeccable. The centerpiece of this collection, a long series of poems that chronicle a trip through the former Soviet Union, is a fast moving, impressionistic feast of imagery. Sunglasses, denim shirts, vodka debauches, dollars, rubles, steely-eyed Russian authorities ever on the lookout for forbidden deals – all of it is transparent and engaging.” – Carmine Di Biase, Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus – Jacksonville State University

“In portraits of red and gray by James C. Morehead we travel with him through boyhood and manhood: camping with his dad, working in his high school years far away from home every summer, his time as a teen in Russia traveling during spring break with his school. The vulnerability and humanity expressed in these poems is moving. Morehead writes, ‘…I had to wait / for my tears to dry before dropping in quarters to call home.’” – Angie Trudell Vasquez, Author and Madison, WI, Poet Laureate

About the Poet:
James Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, CA. portraits of red and gray is his second collection, and he hosts the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast. James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning animated short film, “gallery” was set to music for baritone and piano, and his poems have appeared in numerous publications. He is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Find the book:

Amazon

Goodreads

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Cat Thursday - More funny cats

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often 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.

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Cat Thursday - I do what I want, I go where I want

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and often 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.

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Cat Thursday: Authors and Cats (119) Toni Morrison

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 acros s, 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, pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.

Toni Morrison at her upstate New York home in 1980 

(photo by Bernard Gotfryd)

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford) was an American author, editor, and professor who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."

Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye , Song of Solomon , and Beloved , which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. In 2001 she was named one of "The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal. (Goodreads)

Morrison passed away on August 5, 2019.

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