Happy weekend! I had my wisdom tooth out mid-1961 Club and I am kinda done with it being sore (they did warn me it could be at least two weeks) so hoping for some sunshine and book-related-fun to distract me over the weekend. In fact, I’ll be seeing Rachel’s play tonight. I’d invite you along, but it is sold out! There’s another bookish plan that I’ll tell you about afterwards…
1.) The book – or several books! My book group recently read Margaret Atwood’s Hagseed, which I thought was excellent. It’s part of a series of rewriting/updating Shakespeare’s plays, and is based on The Tempest. It all lay dormant for a while but, excitingly, I see they’ve recently republished all the titles in beautiful new editions – and added a couple to the list too. Mark Haddon has covered Pericles in The Porpoise and Isaac Merion has taken on Romeo and Juliet in Warm Bodies. And now, of course, I need all of these. (Image borrowed from here.)
2.) The link – over at This Reading Life, Brona has reviewed the latest On the Calculation of Volume book. I’m a couple of books behind, so have only skimmed the review – but thought I’d reshare her link to an interview with Solvej Balle that looks really interesting.
3.) The blog post – WHY have I never read Shirley Hazzard? Cathy’s review of The Bay of Noon has made me, yet again, keen to get to her sooner rather than later.
Great to read your miscellany to start the weekend on a positive note; I do hope the soreness eases soon. I have had both my bottom wisdom teeth removed (both in hospital but under local anaesthetic, which was a long and complicated operation on both occasions), so send you lots of sympathy, but also the reassurance that the extractions did pay dividends in that it did cure the recurring inflammation. It’s supposed to be a sunny weekend so I hope you can enjoy some al fresco restorative reading.
P.S Have a great time tonight and enjoy Rachel’s play!
I know EXACTLY what you mean by needing ALL the titles in the retelling/updating series — those covers are gorgeous! I’ve only read a couple of the titles (Ann Tyler’s retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, Vinegar Girl, sticks in my mind) and found they were a lot of fun. As for Hazzard, I’ve been meaning to do a reading project of her novels for years & years. The only one I’ve managed so far is The Evening of the Holiday (think it was her first), which was beautifully written. If you’re interested in commentary, Michelle de Kretser has done a nice short analysis of Hazzard’s novels.
Ohhh all dental extractions are painful, but getting more than one done at a time is pretty miserable, so I hope you are feeling better with each passing day.
Thank you for the link 😊 I’ve actually been doing a little research on these books as I had a bookish serendipity moment yesterday. Will hopefully post my findings tomorrow!
And Shirley Hazzard is amazing – I still think about The Bay of Noon. She’s a writer I think you’d really appreciate too.
Shirley Hazzard was a superb writer! Cathy’s review makes me want to reread all of her novels. I think you’d like her work, and The Bay of Noon or The Evening of the Holiday would be a wonderful choice for Tea or Books?.
So I just went onto your site to see if you had any views on Shirley Hazzard… how funny that this post was only a week or so ago. I have just re-read The Transit of Venus. It is quite extraordinary – deeply sad, but beautifully, beautifully written. Strongly recommend.