BACK<<<to the CLASSICS discussion

I loved The Housekeeper and the Professor

It's on my to-read list, and i thought it looked terribly good. A friend and I read Ms Ice Sandwich last month. It's part of a collection with some cool bookcovers.

Good morning!

In mathematics, a perfect number is a number that equals both the sum and product of its factors. The lowest perfect number is 6, because both 1 + 2+ 3 and 1*2*3 = 6.

I recently finished listening to the unabridged audiobook of The Master and Margarita (posthumously published in 1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940). The book of magical realism, written in the 1930s during Josef Stalin's (1879-1953) regime and being a satire involving a witch, a giant cat and apricot juice that gives people hiccups, depicts Soviet life so accurately that it could be published in only censored form in Russia nearly 27 years after its author's death. Satire evidently is a threat to totalitarianism.

Good day Jim! I love that book, a tippy top fave!

Jim wrote: "Good morning!

In mathematics, a perfect number is a number that equals both the sum and product of its factors. The lowest perfect number is 6, because both 1 + 2+ 3 and 1*2*3 = 6.

I recently fin..."

Speaking of numbers and math, have you read The Housekeeper and the Professor ?

My eldest daughter majored in math, but I just tend to like numbers nowadays--I got turned off studying math due to bad experiences in high school.

I have it on my to-read list!

I have it on my TBR as well, which is so large that Goodreads can't handle it.

Jim wrote: "I have it on my TBR as well, which is so large that Goodreads can't handle it."

There are things about numbers in it, as you may already know :)

"Because you enjoyed The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe:
Keys to Drawing
by Bert Dodson"

That is weird, Jazzy. I've received goodreads recommendations in languages I don't understand-like Russian.

I get those too. I think we only have to read a book by a Russian author.

And I do read a lot of Russian authors!

Jazzy, I see that you are reading City by Clifford D. Simak. I loved it, but Sci Fi is a favorite genre for me. Hope you enjoy it!

oh yes thank you! I'm liking it a lot so far, I do like sci-fi too :)

Good afternoon!

Just finished an unabridged audiobook of The Three Musketeers (1844) by Alexandre Dumas (1802-70). I really enjoyed it.

Now listening to an unabridged audiobook of Middlemarch (1872) by George Eliot aka Mary Ann Evans (1819-80).

Good day to you sir! Sounds like a wonderful afternoon you had Jim!

Jim wrote: "Good afternoon!

Just finished an unabridged audiobook of The Three Musketeers (1844) by Alexandre Dumas (1802-70). I really enjoyed it.

Now listening to an unabridged au..."

I liked the first, but only read about half of the second before I dnf it.

I've finished the Naoki prizewinners up to 1980, and found some great personalities in the lot. Starting 1981-1985.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

As part of a Read My Age challenge in another group, I'm listening to another nonfiction, Desert Solitaire (1968) by Edward Abbey (1927-89), his first nonfiction and a moving account of his early years working as a park ranger in Arches National Park, outside Moab, Utah USA.

Born August 10, 1963, in 2022 I am attempting to read or listen to at least one book, in any genre, published in each year that I've been alive, including both 1963 and 2022.

Sounds like a good plan! sorry if i havent been around much im looking for a flat to move to :)

This is not a classic, but a fun book with a lot of 20s references and clothes is Twenties Girl

ooh sounds spiffing!

I'm away til Friday

Keep Calm
&
Read On

Okay! You're away on

I just got back from a three holiday in Germany with my husband. We had a one-week river cruise from Berlin to Hamburg, which was relaxing and fun. For the other two weeks we visited different cities and travelled by train. Our last stop was Berlin, and I lost track of how much walking we did-it's huge!
Today I feel like a pirate who walked the plank.
Yesterday was our travelling home day and I was exhausted-but we had all our luggage.

Rosemarie wrote: "I just got back from a three holiday in Germany with my husband. We had a one-week river cruise from Berlin to Hamburg, which was relaxing and fun. For the other two weeks we visited different citi..."

I hope you had a wonderful holiday even if you do feel like a pirate who has walked the plank from exhaustion, etc!

I did. It was my first time overseas in three years!

Rosemarie, glad you had a blast and left the dynamite at home.

Thanks, Jim!
The two art galleries we visited at strict rules of what you could carry. In Bremen you were allowed a small handbag and had to check anything oversized and your jackets in a locker. You got your coin back at the end. In Dresden you weren't allowed to carry anything, so make sure your jeans have pockets.

In Berlin we went to the interactive and very fun DDR Museum, about life in the former East Germany. It was great and we didn't have to check our bags. There were lockers for oversized bags because it's more fun if you don't have to lug them around.
After our airplane terminal and train experiences, I know why suitcases are called luggage!

Sounds like a fab holiday Rosemarie!

I went to Riga, Latvia, where I visited the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum, very small space - and yet 30,000 people shoved into it to live. The museum is both indoors and outdoors in different sections. There are lots of photos and information to read, and a lot of artwork, which people would travel silently from point to point. I stood in a boxcar used to ship tens of thousands of people to their deaths and it was all very emotional.

Then I went to the KGB Building - Museum of the Occupation of Latvia - and took a tour of the place where thousands were interrogated, beaten bloody, falsely imprisoned, and murdered. We sat in the interrogation chairs, damp and overcrowded cells, and stood in the room that had been discovered to have so many bullet holes and blood traces even after being cleaned and more new walls being put up to hide the evidence. I don't think i was prepared for the smell - and that was only the damp which had always been in the building, and hard to imagine the other smells of human waste, blood, body odour, etc that would have been ever-present.

That comprised Tuesday and a lot of walking and looking at the old town and then going to a club called Cuba for the Salsa dancing til 3 am.

My husband and I do a lot of walking on holiday, but we don't go out dancing afterwards!

Jazzy wrote: "Sounds like a fab holiday Rosemarie!

I went to Riga, Latvia, where I visited the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum, very small space - and yet 30,000 people shoved into it to live. The mus..."

Wow--you must have been exhausted when you got to bed!

Karin - After 2 more fun filled days and the trip back I slept 12 hours when I got home!

Jazzy wrote: "Karin - After 2 more fun filled days and the trip back I slept 12 hours when I got home!"

Okay, you have a LOT of energy!

Pinch, Punch - First of the month!

White Rabbit!

G.K. Chesterton and several other literary figures were asked one evening what book they would prefer to have with them if stranded on a desert isle.

One writer said without hesitation: "The complete works of Shakespeare."

Another said, "I'd choose the Bible."

They turned to Chesterton. "How about you?"

And Chesterton replied, "I would choose Thomas's Guide to Practical Ship Building. "

And I would add how to survive in the wilderness.

by Bear Grylls ? ☺️