Things I Read: February 2016

"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Friday, February 26, 2016

Shadows on the Rock (Willa Cather, 1931)

Book club selection (via me; session held February 21, 2016).

Third time I've read this short novel.

I much enjoy, find it valuable, selected it for our little book club (session held February 21, 2016).

Something fun: my little wife made up a delightful cassoulet to serve.

My prior discussions are here, and (to a lesser extent) here.

I find it impossible to wander around Quebec (city) without thinking of Jacque and Cecile.

Cather researched carefully and makes it possible for the reader to imagine this tiny rock . . . across a wild ocean . . . amidst a sea of green/trees . . . the effort to preserve French (home) culture . . . etc. The excitement as the ships arrived from France after so many months of complete isolation. Entirely wonderful.