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One of our subscribers, channeling his inner Mark Twain, pointed out a typo in my blog posting: Joan of Arc by Mark Twain.
“immorality of the soul” – I think he did believe in that
Immortality, on the other hand, he might have struggled with
Here at Curmudgeon-Alley.com we are always open to corrections, and semi-open to differing opinions since we consider ours as the unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed and unapologetic ramblings of a very tired old Okie.
And so it goes.
I would have to call this book a two-fer. You have a historical novel, accurate in its facts about the subject, Joan of Arc, delivered by a masterful story teller, Mark Twain. It was the last book of Twain’s published while he lived, and he considered it his best work. Who am I to argue with Samuel Clemens? It is remarkable that this book is not better known. I had no idea until a few weeks ago that he had written such a book. I had bought a two volume set Continue reading “Joan of Arc by Mark Twain”
I have a friend, Jeanne Felfe, who writes novels and short stories. She also works with other authors to edit their work and aids them in bringing their books to the self-publishing marketplace.
Today on her blog, Jeanne interviewed, Shirley Anderson, a newly published former nun who she termed an absolute delight. Shirley has lived quite the adventurous life, and shared some of wonderful stories in her memoir, Poverty, Virginity & Love.
To read the complete interview follow this link: Jeanne’s interview with Shirley Anderson.
Okay, okay… I got the title a little wrong. Steinbeck’s book is actually titled The Pearl. I started thinking about this book because the current value of the Mega Millions lottery is $850 million. The current value of the Power Ball lottery is $730 million.
The Pearl is a wonderful, concise novel of about 90 pages. It is not near as well known as Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, but it should be. The language and the imagery are captivating and the narrative is spellbinding. If I remember the back story of this novel it is based on an old Spanish legend.
The story is situated somewhere in South America. The primary protagonists of the story are an exceedingly impoverished indigenous couple, Continue reading “The Lottery by John Steinbeck”
I bought this book a while back for Señora after hearing the author 
interviewed on an NPR podcast. He sounded like an interesting fellow and the two readings that he did during the interview were (wait for it) delightful. With Señora’s health issues she occasionally struggles with her mood. This book struck me as a possibility to shine a little light into her days. She was grateful for the gift and placed it on the nightstand on her side of the bed.
I noticed after a while that she was not reading it much as the bookmark had hardly marched past the first few pages. In fact she had only read the first 11 essays. Since she was not reading it, I placed it in the downstairs baño Continue reading “The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay”
I have a friend, Jeanne Felfe, who writes novels and short stories. She also works with other authors to edit their work and aids them in bringing their books to the self-publishing marketplace.
She recently interviewed a sexagenarian, a fellow author, on her blog.
Here is the link to that interview: Jeanne’s chat with a sexagenarian
I have a friend, Jeanne Felfe, who writes novels and short stories. She also works with other authors to edit their work and aids them in bringing their books to the self-publishing marketplace.
She recently completed her work with one such individual, Ken Lee, and his book Voices from the Bible: An Anthology of Single-Character Plays
Long time readers of my blog will know that this is the type of book that would make me do an 180 and run off like a horsefly bitten colt. BUT I do know a lot of folks that this type of literature is right up their alley. So in the spirit of open mindedness I am sharing a link to Jeanne’s blog and a chat she had with the author.
To access Ken’s book on Amazon.com here is the link: Voices from the Bible: An Anthology of Single-Character Plays
Keep well.
The peerless Señora Weinhaus has two long term friends, Greg and Jeanne. She met the both of them when all were taking classes in Reiki some 20 years ago. In fact she has two other long term friends from the same class, a retired meteorologist from Sicily named Vincenzo and his partner Maury. Despite living in this country for 50 years Vince still has a fairly thick Italian accent, but I believe his command of English is better than mine. You will not find many other folks more interesting to converse with than Vincenzo. Maury hails from Brazil, but I thought him a native North American the first time I met him as his accent is so perfectly Midwestern. Maury can give Vince a run for his money in the conversation department… when he can get a word in edgewise. That is always Continue reading “The Magic of Dogs”
I just finished listening to the audio book of Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country. This is a wonderful book in whatever format it is experienced. However, the reader of the audio book was absolutely perfect, pegging the South African accents of various peoples.
The book was published in 1948 and set in 1946. It is a book of many flavors including that of a cautionary tale. Knowing a little of the history of South Africa after Continue reading “Keep Well, Go Well”
I had a very brief and exceedingly undistinguished career in the Boy Scouts of America. I am going to attribute the briefness to the frequency to which my family moved due to the nature of my father’s work. I started the Boy Scouts in Toms River, New Jersey. I do not remember much about that experience except we met in the basement of a church of some Protestant denomination. I remember learning the Scout salute, handshake and some knots.
Best I recall I went on one camp out with the troop to a larger jamboree of Continue reading “I Finished a Task Started in Childhood”
