Tag: graham greene

Sunday Post #20: Summertime

Posted on by Dana

Sunday PostLooks like summer is starting pretty much all over (at least in the northern hemisphere). I’m beginning to see vacation pics on Facebook, and I’ve been eying my TBR pile, looking for good summertime reads.

I have a bit of a busy summer ahead. I am going to at least four teaching workshops. If anyone tries to tell you teachers don’t work during the summer, don’t you believe it. In addition, I have a new course to plan.

This week, I finished two books. The first I’ve already reviewed: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. The second I have not yet reviewed, but will review and post about tomorrow (so good that it really needs its own post rather than a review rolled into the Sunday Post): We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Both were audio books.

I am still finishing up Walden, though my other books are on a bit of a hiatus, with the exception of I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira. I don’t know if other readers do this or not, but I have to have at least one paper book, one e-book, and one audio book going at all times. The paper books I can read in the tub without fear of destroying an expensive device. The e-books I can read pretty much everywhere, including in bed with the lights off, so I don’t disturb my husband. The audio books I can listen to while I do housework or make soap.

I love to read books set in my adopted home state of Massachusetts, so that was one reason why I liked We Were Liars so much, and I admit, seeing Massachusetts as a setting will push a book higher on my list. Here is a partial list of some of my favorite Massachusetts reads.

           

Some I’m looking forward to diving into or finishing:

    

I wonder if other readers are like me and like to read about places they have lived. I also certainly read a lot of books set elsewhere, too.

I added some books to my TBR list this week:

 

I know what you’re thinking: some variation of either “why haven’t you read The Things They Carried?” or “why wasn’t it already on your list”? It sort of was on my list, to address the second question, but now an oversight is corrected in that it’s on my Goodreads to-read list. As to the first question, yeah, I know.

Not at all a bad reading week, and I’m looking forward to more time (I hope) to read this summer. What about you? Have any recommendations or books you’re anxious to read?

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and things we have received. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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Review: The End of the Affair, Graham Greene, narrated by Colin Firth

Posted on by Dana

I’ve been listening to Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair narrated by Colin Firth as I have puttered around the house, washing dishes or making soap, for about a month now.

This production was the Audiobook of the Year at the Audies in 2012. It is, in fact, a beautifully read audio book (which I will get to in a moment).

The End of the Affair is the story of Maurice Bendrix, who is reflecting on an affair he had with Sarah Miles, wife of Henry Miles. During the war, Maurice’s apartment building suffers damage as a result of German bombing, and Maurice is knocked unconscious. He wakes to find Sarah looking over him, and he quickly realizes something is wrong. Sarah abruptly calls off her affair with Maurice. Thinking it must be another man, Maurice hires a private detective to follow Sarah. Rather than losing Sarah to another man, Maurice discovers he’s lost her to something much larger and more complicated than he imagined.

I was surprisingly moved by this story. I think it was perhaps the unlikely friendship of Maurice and Henry, the wronged husband. I don’t want to give away plot points if you want to read the novel, but the two men form a bond, and the strangest thing about the bond is how “not weird” it is. In fact, the way Greene sets it up, it makes perfect sense in the context of the story. Despite glimpses at her personality through her diary and letters, Sarah remains more of an enigma than Maurice and Henry. Greene’s characterization of all the characters, whether major or minor, is rendered realistically. I did feel as if all the people I read about existed somewhere, and that this story might really have happened to them.

The novel is also an interesting study of psychology. Greene is an astute observer of humanity. Those interested in Kübler-Ross’s theories about the acceptance of death (here applied to the end of an affair), will recognize much of Maurice and Sarah’s behavior, even though Kübler-Ross’s model of the stages of grief was not published until 1969. In particular, the book focuses a great deal on bargaining, which I found interesting. Maurice’s arc as he moves through the stages is particularly fascinating psychologically, but to say much more would spoil the plot.

Colin Firth is an expert reader. Of course, you would imagine that he would be. He renders Henry Miles’s parts in a sort of Mark Gatiss tone that is perfect for the character. I think I could honestly have listened to Firth read the phone book and be mildly entertained. He gives the same breadth and nuance to this performance as he does to his acting performances. He’s an excellent narrator.

Rating: ★★★★½
Audio Rating: ★★★★★

Published in 1951, The End of the Affair is my selection for a 20th Century Classic in the Back to the Classics Challenge.

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Sunday Post #19: Memorial Day Weekend

Posted on by Dana

Sunday PostFinal exams have been taken, and I am finishing up grading for the year. I’m sipping my morning coffee. In a little while, I have to go to school to perform my last weekend duty assignment of the year. I always seem to have duty on Memorial Day weekend. I’m not sure what’s up with that.

Anyone out there use the Audible app and have a major issue with the last iOS version app update? Apparently lots of people were unhappy. I opened my app yesterday to listen to my book while I was making soap, and I had an error message. Nothing I did seemed to work, so I emailed tech support and was told to delete the app and reinstall it (logging out first, of course). I was so nervous about doing that because I was afraid I’d lose all my record-keeping and badges, not to mention my place in the current book. I’m not a big one for taking notes or using bookmarks in Audible, so I wasn’t as concerned. I followed the process, and I did have to mark all the books I had read as “finished” again, but other than that, it seems okay. I will give it whirl later and make sure. If you ever run into the problem, here is the error message I received:

Encountered Error while trying to Upgrade Application. Do you wish to re-try? Warning!Canceling the upgrade will result in loss of data.

All the spaces are just as I saw them in the error message, copied word for word exactly as I saw it.

The steps to resolve it are as follows:

  1. Turn on Airplane mode (not sure this is strictly necessary, but I did it).
  2. Open the Audible app.
  3. Go to settings.
  4. Press and hold on my email address at the top.
  5. At prompt “Reset Sign In,” tap “Sign Out” option.
  6. Delete the app.
  7. Turn Airplane mode back off (not one of the steps sent me, but necessary to proceed).
  8. Re-download it from the App Store.
  9. Open the app and sign in again.
  10. Re-download any current books (my book seems to be where I left off).
  11. Mark any previously read books “finished” again.

This process seemed to work for me. All my badges and records are still intact.

I added some more books to my ever-growing TBR pile this week.

I seriously may have to pick some of these up for the summer. They look pretty good. Gorgeous covers. I’m particularly excited for Language Arts by Stephanie Kallos—one of the main characters is an English teacher who has a son with autism. I think I can relate to that one!

I obviously didn’t finish anything else this week (no reviews), and once again, I’ve only really made any progress on The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. At this point, I’m probably behind in the number of books I should have read to reach my goal of reading 52 by the end of the year, but I’m not too worried because I have been around a book ahead for most of this year, and the summer beckons with more time to read.

In the coming week, I need to focus on finishing my grading and finishing up the year. I’m not sure I’ll get a ton of reading done, but who knows? What are your plans for the week?

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and things we have received. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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Sunday Post #18: Sundays in Spring

Posted on by Dana

Sunday PostI am not sure it gets a whole lot better than Sundays in spring unless it’s Sundays in fall (which is actually my favorite season).

School is winding down. I have one more day of regular classes, then it’s final exams. I only have one final exam this year. I hope not to have any next year. I’m not sure such exams are the best way to assess learning in English classes.

The end of the school year is always so busy right up until final exams, and then it seems to relax. I have had a really good school year—perhaps the best one of my teaching career. I am really happy with some of the things I tried this year, and I think the students did some great work for me. I have wonderful students.

I got up early this morning (for me), and made a batch of Heavenly Honeysuckle soap. I don’t always post my soap pictures here because I have another blog for that, but I really love the colors. Honeysuckle is one of my absolute favorite scents.

It should be ready to cut tomorrow and ready to use in about four weeks.

I didn’t finish any books this week or really write on the blog, but I did keep listening to The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. That’s the only book I’ve made any real progress on this week. I haven’t done a lot of reading, but I did finish watching several episodes of Doctor Who—I’ve had that DVD from Netflix for about a month, so it’s time to send it back already. It’s not the longest I’ve kept a DVD. Though I didn’t do much reading, I did add some more books to my TBR pile.

 

I am especially excited for Circling the Sun. I really enjoyed The Paris Wife. This new book by Paula McLain looks fascinating.

Sometimes I think my TBR pile is just a lovely collection of pretty covers of books I’ll never get to read. I keep telling myself I will someday.

I’ve been listening to my classical Spotify playlists today. I thought you might enjoy the Spring Classical playlist on this lovely spring day.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week on your blog, and showcase books and things we have received. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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