More O’Brian

I just indulged myself with the fifh Aubrey/Maturin novel, Desolation Island.  This was a quick read, but so enjoyable; I was literally holding my breath during the ’stern chase’ in the howling forties with the huge Dutch frigate bearing down on them.  This book leaves so many loose ends – they never even reach Botany [...]

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La Biblioteque

Today I went to the library.  Not only did I go to return an audio book (Masterpieces of short romantic fiction or something like that, one of the cassettes was broken) and to get a new audio book (The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson), but also to get some novels.  Oh, how I miss reading [...]

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Key West Arts

Key West was great fun, with gorgeous weather and great food.  My favorite attraction was the Hemingway House Museum.  It’s a beautiful, historic house with two-story verandas, tall shutters and lush gardens.  The guide was a bit jaded, but told all the amusing stories about the wives, the cats, the pool, etc.  The photos on the [...]

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Aubrey/Maturin IV

I finished The Mauritius Command, which was very satisfying.  I think his writing is improving with each book, which is always a desirable quality in an author if he or she can manage it (Michael Connolly comes to mind).  The personality of Dr. Maturin continues to deepen, the description of Jack as a married man [...]

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Random reading remarks

Thanks to the TeachCo lecture (“Books that Have Made History; Books that Can Change your Life”), I am awash in books.  I am up to Book 18 in the Iliad (Fitzgerald translation, which I’m finding pretty readable).  I’m also perusing The Bhagavad Gita (Sky Light Illuminations edition, translated by Shri Purohit Swami) as well as [...]

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