My mom with her 10 brothers in birth order (L to R) in 1963. She was the only one to get a college degree, at the age of 46. She would have been 96 today. I feel grateful that she passed just before COVID hit. She would have struggled to comprehend why no one could visit her.

A hefty contribution to the #1937Club : 8 Doorstoppers, from 300+ to ~1,000 pages, all chock full of 1930s life, love, politics, and economic struggles. If you've got a month to spare, consider Elmer Rice's Imperial City or Meyer Levin's The Old Bunch.

neglectedbooks.com/?p=10228

Bought at the Standa in Verona, Italy in 1966. The thing was, I didn't understand that there were several 'Bang Bang's. I thought it was the 'Bang Bang' I'd heard two Puerto Rican G.I.s playing (Joe Cuba's). This was a cover of the Sonny and Cher song. I was so disappointed.

If you've read Ali Smith's Artful and found it as moving, baffling, amusing, intriguing, and thought-provoking as I have, please join the conversation on Wednesday, 15 May.

Register free on Eventbrite:

eventbrite.com/e/a-conversati…

This reminds me that from time to time I think about starting up a local in-person reading group called Men Reading Women, where we'd just read and discuss books by women. But would this be less useful than something open to everyone?

Today's #WaferThinBook : The Relation of My Imprisonment by Russell Banks (1983, 121p.)
Daniel Defoe meets the experimental novel. A 17th C. carpenter has been in prison for 12 years for the crime of making coffins. More complex than it gets credit for, it tends to split opinions.