penwithlit

Although I have a tempting pile of new Australian releases waiting for me, I’m continuing my holiday reading from the TBR, with an added reason to take up Simon Mawer’s Prague Spring from 2018, because I have just bought Ancestry, his most recent one — and I really should read what I already have first, right?

There’s a review at The Guardian which recounts how in 1975 Mawer was caught in an avalanche on the North Face of Ben Nevis and had to cling to an ice ledge for 22 hours.  Whether this experience informed his ability to capture the suspense of existential moments I do not know, but while Prague Spring is not a cliffhanger, it becomes unputdownable as the pages move towards their inexorable conclusion.

It is history that makes the conclusion inexorable.  Set in 1968 when Czechoslovakia enjoyed a brief taste of freedom under Dubček before…

A random survey of self-portraits created by women through the centuries

British (active in USA) interdisciplinary artist
Erica Deeman (born 1977)

1. Untitled 11 (Self Portrait), 2020 / Cassius Obsidian clay / Image: Anthony Meier Gallery, Mill Valley, CA

2. Untitled 14 (Self Portrait), 2020 / Cassius Obsidian clay / Image: Anthony Meier Gallery, Mill Valley, CA

3. Self Portrait #2, 2020 / Instax film / The Svane Family Foundation, San Francisco, CA

[4 embedded links above]

In recent years, the British Library has been doing a sterling job with its reissues of various vintage mysteries by the English crime writer Edith Caroline Rivett. While many of these novels were written under Rivett’s main pen name E. C. R. Lorac, others were published in the guise of Carol Carnac – including the excellent Crossed Skis, a fabulous winter holiday read.

Crook O’ Lune (aka Shepherd’s Crook) is another splendid addition to the list, an absorbing slow-burn mystery with an excellent sense of place. The setting is the fictional farming community of High Gimmerdale, which Lorac based on the parish of Roeburndale in the Lancashire fells, an area she knew very well. It also features her regular detective, Chief Inspector Macdonald, who continues to impress with his sharp mind, likeable manner and thorough investigative skills.

With an eye on his future retirement plans, Macdonald is staying…

This is just a quick review because I am a bit preoccupied with rescuing some data from a trial software program before I lose access to it. (Because #LongBoringStory I am not going to pay for it all over again!)

Nora is, as the subtitle says, a love story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce, known to booklovers as the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, even if they haven’t read them. Nora was selected for the One Dublin, One Book program and I won a copy of it in a giveaway for Reading Ireland Month from Cathy at 746 Books.

#Digression: Intrigued, I looked up the previous books chosen for the One Dublin, One Book program. It turns out that I’ve read or have on the TBR some of the titles chosen over the years, and a couple are reviewed on this blog:

• 2006: At Swim Two Birds

Sad Young Man in a Train – Marcel Duchamp. 1911. Wikioo.

“Like you’re trying to be a man when you’re just a scared kid, trying to keep under control when you really want to scream, cry, or maybe hit someone. Ever feel like you’re breathing underwater and you have to stop because you’re gulping in too much fluid…?”

Alex Flinn

• Men And Emotions: MessagesThroughHistory

It is difficult to find artwork showing men crying. Mostly, it is women who are depicted shedding tears on canvas.

Rembrandt A Weeping Woman. 1644. Wikimedia Commons.

“I have been crying,” she replied, simply, “and it has done me good. It helps a woman you know, just as swearing helps a man.”

Horace Annesley Vachell, The Romance of Judge Ketchum

In fairly recent history, men have been brought up, and socialised, to be ‘fearless,’’brave,’ and not to show feelings, being told in no uncertain terms…

A random survey of self-portraits created by women through the centuries

American artist, printmaker, illustrator, author, and translator
Wanda Hazel Gág (1893-1946)

1. Self-Portrait in a Three-Way Mirror, ND / Graphite and black crayon / Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

2. Self-Portrait, 1914 / Charcoal and chalk / Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

3. Self-Portrait, 1915 / Pastel and charcoal / Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN

4. Self-Portrait in Dresser Mirror: Cream Hill, 1930 / Brush and black ink / Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

5. Self-Portrait, 1943 / Linocut / Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

[6 embedded links above]