As I noted in an earlier post on my book shopping spoils, last weekend I found myself in Minnesota. I guess that makes it sound like it was an accident or a surprise when it was neither. As I do with most travel, I knew months in advance that I was going. I haven’t been back for about five years or so and thought I would take advantage of the holiday weekend and the fact that John had a work trip that encroached on the weekend.

One of the first things I did once I decided to go was to see what the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra were up to that weekend. Thankfully both of them had programs I was interested in hearing and thankfully both of them were playing both Friday and Saturday nights so I wouldn’t have to choose between the two.

Friday: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

For as long as I lived in the Twin Cities and for as often as I went to orchestra concerts there, I can probably count on my hands the number of times I have heard the SPCO play in person. It’s nothing against them, they are a phenomenally good orchestra, but I tend to prefer the repertoire of a much larger, symphony orchestra. For me a lot of chamber music is background music. Beautiful and eminently worthy, but harder for me to sit through in a concert setting. But sandwiched in between a Bach violin concerto (No. 1) and Schubert’s fifth symphony was one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). A lovely piece of music for strings based on a the poem by Richard Dehmel and written before Schoenberg moved on to his atonal phase. I’ve only ever heard the piece in concert once before. In 1994 at the Kennedy Center performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Orpheus is a great band, so it had to have been a good performance, but the experience didn’t really leave an impression on me. After my experience in St. Paul last week, I think I know why.

The SPCO plays at a variety of smaller venues around the Twin Cities; churches, temples, and until now mainly at the Ordway Music Center–a largish venue that is also the home of the Minnesota Opera. Much to my surprise, something that had completely gone under my radar, is the fact that the Ordway recently completed construction of a purpose-built concert hall especially for the SPCO. The new venue has about 1,100 seats and was designed to compliment the SPCO which numbers about 30 musicians depending on the piece of music. To be able to hear such a fine chamber orchestra play in such intimate setting with wonderful acoustics was truly a transcendent experience. Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night was shimmeringly beautiful. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times, but watching the musicians make the sound at such close range really heightened my awareness of what was going on the piece. More than once I felt like I was in Europe, the experience seemed too special to be happening domestically. There aren’t many professional chamber orchestras in the world, with the SPCO being the only one in the U.S., and to have such a perfect venue on top of it…it all just seemed too good to be true. Could this really be normal? Especially with the equally fine Minnesota Orchestra performing about 10 miles away on the other side of the Mississippi?

The whole evening put me in such a good mood and had me plotting future trips to Minnesota just to hear the SPCO. Sounds crazy but I once went to Cleveland on spring break (and two more times since then) just to hear the Cleveland Orchestra.

Saturday: The Minnesota Orchestra

About a year ago things seemed doooooomed for the Minnesota Orchestra. The venerable group had never sounded better and its reputation and recordings were lauded around the world, but a labor dispute had the orchestra silent for over a year. Reading the stories in the New York Times as all this was going on was crushing for this hometown fan. But that was then. Now the Times is writing about the orchestra’s historic concerts in Cuba and the orchestra and conductor have contracts going to 2020 and 2019 respectively. A perfect time for me to hear them again.

 

I wasn’t necessarily thrilled with the evening’s program. Brahm’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Garrick Ohlsson and Beethoven Symphony No. 7. Both great pieces, but alas, both are also warhorses. I would have preferred something a little more adventurous. Still, I wasn’t about to miss my opportunity to hear the orchestra. (I wish I could be there for the season closer in June for Sibelius 6 and 7, and Mahler 1. That is a great program–although still not adventurous.)

The concert didn’t disappoint. It was especially heartwarming to see the orchestra’s Conductor Laureate, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting. The man is 91 years old and can still wave his arm for two hours. And he still travels around the world to do it.

The thing that struck me most about the evening was how lively the crowd seemed. Young students, in the recently expanded lobby, horsing around on a baby grand during intermission added a rather fun twist to the normal milling around with a drink in a plastic cup. No doubt the orchestra and the SPCO the night before are trying to entice/retain audiences by letting people bring in beverages into the hall. Part of me thinks this is a stupid idea, but part of me kind of likes how it seems to be loosening the whole thing up a bit. I used to be the cranky old man who was ready to cut someone dead with the stink eye if they so much as breathed the wrong way during a concert. I am rather still prone to be that old curmudgeon, but it was kind of nice to just think, what the heck, and sit back and enjoy the show.

Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with Savidge Reads or The Readers knows that he doesn’t like novels that take place on ships. I don’t quite understand his aversion. Although I am prone to motion sickness and wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to a book that takes place on a little sail boat, I do love ships and have read some really good books that take place on them.

There is no part of me that thinks that I will change Simon’s mind, but I hope I can convince him to give Katherine Anne Porter and her amazing novel Ship of Fools a chance. Of course I am also aware that he has so many books on his TBR pile that convincing him to read anything is unlikely. But hey, a boy can dream.

Although I do not e-read, I do love that Open Road Media continue to focus on amazing neglected fiction by reissuing both e-books and actual printed books. (Barbara Pym!) One of their latest e-book reissues is Ship of Fools.

Pre-World War II, a German passenger vessel making its way from Veracruz to Germany. A really interesting story about the disparate lives of the first class and mostly anti-Semitic passengers, the way they mix and the way they don’t mix.  It was one of my favorite reads in 2009 and one of the Modern Library’s Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century.

 

Over Memorial Day weekend I was back in the Twin Cities for a whirlwind trip of seeing old friends, doing a bit of ancestry research, some great classical music, and three or four trips to Dairy Queen. My uncle and aunt live a stone’s throw from a Half Price Books. I didn’t think I was going to pop in this time but then a friend of mine who works there let me know HPB was having a 20% off sale that weekend. How could I say no to that? So, on my way to meeting some friends for lunch I had just enough time to pop in and pick up a few things.

With only 30 minutes to browse (which turned into 34) I only got through about the letter L. By that point I started to really just skim and then had to have a really adult moment and walk away from the rest of the alphabet. Probably a good thing given that I already had 14 books in my basket.

The Plato Papers – Peter Ackroyd
I think this one is the biggest gamble of the bunch. In addition to thinking that Ackroyd is not my cup of tea (don’t know why) this one takes place in the year 3700. I am quite intrigued. 

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
I’ve seen the 1990s film, but never read the book. How could I pass up this retro-vintage edition?

A Kind of Anger – Eric Ambler
I’ve read a library copy and I just finished the audiobook so why do I need a copy? I’m not sure, but it is a cool old copy that was fairly inexpensive.

The Brimming Cup – Dorothy Canfield
After reading and loving the Persephone-published novel The Home-Maker I have picked up some old copies of Canfield novels hoping I would like them half as much. I tried reading The Deepening Stream but found it tedious and did not finish it. It kind of put me off Canfield but the fact that Virago reissued this title makes me think it would be a good one for giving her another chance.

The Sea House – Esther Freud
It had the word village on the jacket flap and a cosy looking cover. Total roll of the dice.

Innocent Summer – Frances Frost
Vermont in the summer, pretty cover, lovely illustrations. This could fall into the buying it just because it’s pretty camp. Fingers crossed.

The Matchmaker – Stella Gibbons
Everyone loves Cold Comfort Farm. I don’t. I haven’t been able to finish the book and I don’t like the film. Despite the farm inspired cover of this lovely Vintage edition, I’m hoping it doesn’t include an untidy farm that needs tidying so that it is so damn untidy. (Can you see why CCF didn’t work for me?)

& Sons – David Gilbert
I remember when this one was all over the blogosphere, but I didn’t remember anything about it to the point where I picked it up, decided to get it, discussed it in a Tweet, and yet still didn’t make the connection that this was that book until I just sat down to write this blog post.

The Comedians – Graham Greene
The Lawless Roads – Graham Greene
Travels with My Aunt – Graham Greene
I’ve already read TWMA but given my recent interest in Greene I decided I need to own a copy. The other two I haven’t read and don’t really know anything about either of them.

The Diary of a Nobody – George and Weedon Grosssmith
I try to stay away from the Folio Society editions–I don’t like the slip cases for one thing–but the illustration of the lamp on the book spine got me to take it off the shelf. It appears to be a London-y tale written in diary format. I’m just hoping it isn’t too madcap.

In Our Time – Ernest Hemingway
I’ve never even heard of this one. In general I like Hemingway. Might have also been influenced by this old Scribner Library edition.

Free Air – Sinclair Lewis
I’ve read a lot of Lewis, but I had never even heard of this one. It was published the year before his breakthrough hit and seminal work Main Street.

 

This may see a little premature, but I am already starting to think about what kind of reading material I am going to take on my August vacation. Usually this means I have two weeks of reading opportunities that I need to try and fill. If we are headed somewhere via car, often up to Maine, it means that I take about 10 books for 14 days and buy 20 more along the way. But this year we are headed to Idaho to go on a whitewater rafting trip. Not only is this kind of trip probably not very conducive to reading, but we have severe luggage limitations. For six days on the river we are limited to a fairly small “wet bag” and most of that needs to be filled with things like thermal clothing and rain gear.

But they do suggest having a book to read. So what should it be? It needs to be long enough to last. It needs to be lightweight. It needs to be a copy I don’t mind ruining. My first thought was to take something long that I know I want to read but have a hard time committing to when I have dozens of other books at hand. But I could find myself getting easily distracted and then not doing any reading. Would that be a bad thing? With a group of 16 people in remote wilderness with no phones or anything else electronic, surrounded by amazing views and scenery. Constantly looking over my shoulder for bears and mountain lions. Maybe I shouldn’t have my head in a book.

My second thought was Trollope or Wilkie Collins. I kind of wish I hadn’t already read The Three Musketeers. That seems like a perfect book for this sort of thing. What do you all think? What should I take? What would you take?

I should add that the rest of trip will offer plenty of reading time. Flight to Denver. One night at an airport hotel. One night in Stanley, Idaho. Six nights on the river. Four nights in Portland, Oregon and then a flight from Portland back to DC. That is going to require reading material as well. Maybe if it is a big chunkster, it could last the whole trip. And god knows that books will be purchased at Powell’s in Portland.

I love a dilemma like this. But not one like the one below…

This isn’t the outfitter we are going with, but this video gets me really excited and makes me think I might not need a book after all.

After being away from our home for a year, it is nice to be back and watch things pop up in the garden. Granted, much of the yard, especially the back, is in shambles after the construction and won’t look good again until next year. But, the stuff that is still around looks rather pretty. John will have to fill me on the variety of iris because I think it is a beaut but don’t remember what he told me.

Those that know me know that I love to set myself up for failure when it comes to bookish goals/challenges. Perhaps failure isn’t the right word. I did, after all finish Simon Thomas’s beastly Century of Books. And I have a decent success rate with the infamous TBR dare on James‘ blog. Maybe what I mean to say is that I set myself up to be miserable–but no, even that is too strong.

I guess, like it is for many of you, it’s really a love/hate thing with me and challenges. I love to join them or think them up, but I don’t always love doing them. But then today I bounced over to Lonesome Reader and saw Eric’s post about the shortlist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for fiction and I started to get that feeling. He has reviewed five of the six books and possibly read the sixth already. I’ve read none of them. But I think I am going to…oh dear…trying to fight it off…can’t. hold. back. I’m going to read them all. (Cut to image of Kermit the Frog flailing his arms and saying yaaaay.)

I know that part of what has me bamboozled is that I am just in one of those moods where I want to read everything. But there are other reasons as well:

1. This a good opportunity to see what passes for good, prize-worthy fiction these days. Given my predilection for old books, this is a good thing.
2. Simon Savidge has sung the praise of The Bees repeatedly in print and on The Readers.
   The Ali Smith cover is just too cool.
3. I feel like everyone has read Sarah Waters and I haven’t. Given this one is set in 1920s London I think I could like it. Hopefully not too many flappers.
4. Ironically, at a recent book blogger get together Frances of Nonsuch Book couldn’t tempt any of the seven or so bloggers in attendance to take a free hardcover edition of the Anne Tyler. She ended up leaving it on a free table in front of Capitol Hill Books. Now I will have to buy it. The last time I read Tyler was 1989–The Accidental Tourist. Even though I liked it I haven’t tried anything else.
5. The others I know nothing about.

I will not be finishing them prior to the winner being announced, whenever that is. I just know I won’t.

Lucy asked me if she could help announce the winners of my book give away. Look at that face, how could I say no?

The randomly chosen winners are…

Crampton Hodnet 1 – Karen K

Crampton Hodent 2 – Laura C

Civil to Strangers – Jennifer

Famous Last Words – Cal

The Magnificent Spinster – Kathy

Gerald and Elizabeth – [edited 5/6/15] Ellen B

I will leave a reply on the winners’ comments just in case there are duplicate names. If you are a winner please email your mailing address to hogglestock [at] outlook [dot] com