Guest-Blog: Roy's Shelter-In-Place Reading List

More book recommendations, these ones from my friend Roy in Sante Fe, New Mexico:

As for books…I’ve read some interesting ones lately. The most recent was “Tacky’s Revolt”, by Vincent Brown. It’s a history of the 1760 slave revolt in Jamaica, which back then was owned by the British and was a huge revenue source for Britain because of the sugar plantations there. I’d never heard of any of this, but it was a bloody and anxious time, and terrible things happened on both sides.  Also recently finished “This Land Is Their Land”, by David Silverman. The subtitle is, The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the troubled history of Thanksgiving. It’s the story of what REALLY happened around the time of the 1620 landing of the Pilgrims on Cape Cod. Reader alert:  it doesn’t end well. I never knew that for 2 or 3 years just before the Pilgrims landed, the entire area had been hit with a pandemic that wiped out up to 90% of the native population. It’s assumed the virus/pandemic was introduced by European sailors who’s increasingly shown up along the coastal areas. I grew up in CT, but never knew anything of this. 

Also recently finished a book I really enjoyed,  “Spying on the South”, by Tony Horwitz. Back in the 1850s, the guy who designed Central Park in NYC, Frederick Law Olmsted, took a trip from New England into the South, ending in TX. He wrote a book about it. Fast forward to today…Horwitz (who also wrote an earlier book I enjoyed, “Confederates in the Attic”) decided to retrace, as much as he could, the Olmsted’s route from the 1850s. So, it’s a commentary on not only the book, but his observations of modern life. Really enjoyed it, and was saddened to learn that Horwitz recently died while on a book tour to promote “Spying on the South”. Very good writer, and I’m sorry he’s gone.

 

Guest-Blog: Eddie's Shelter-In-Place Reading List

Books I'm currently reading...

The Seven Who Fled, by Frederic Prokosch, an elegant novel of Europeans trekking across harsh Asian landscapes in the 1930s.  I'm a big fan of rich sensual prose and this book is teeming with it.  Prokosch is most noted for a 1983 memoir that was later vilified as an utter hoax. 

Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Tales, a classic collection of mid-1800s gothic obsession and paranoia.  Macabre tales for macabre times.      

Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal, by Jay Parini, an intimate biography of the novelist, essayist, and rather acerbic public intellectual.  This is actually the 3rd Vidal biography I've read, the prior ones being the novelist's own 2006 memoir Point to Point Navigation and Michael Mewshaw's 2015 remembrance, Sympathy for the Devil.  

Burr, by Gore Vidal, an historical novel of the life of Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson's Vice President, and killer of Alexander Hamilton in an infamous duel fought at Weehawken, NJ in 1804.  The acerbic wit is on parade here as our Founding Fathers' foibles are laid bare.  

Everyman's Library Pocket Poets: Sondheim, a wonderful selection of clever and evocative lyrics from the career of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim. 

March 28, 2020:

Today brought a cold snap.  We took a short walk.  The few people that ventured out skirted each other with ample strides. The sky looked doomy.  London felt menacing.  We wasted no time returning to the comfort of our flat, passing Edwardes Square with its serpentine paths and wooded glades created over 200 years ago.  We passed the Scarsdale Tavern where one summer day in 2016 Piers Morgan met with Meghan Markle for a drink, after which she jumped in a taxi bound for a fateful blind date with a certain prince.

I love this street alongside Edwardes Square

It's a long street, like so many in London

Scarsdale Tavern by Edwardes Square

A Walk to The Boltons

March 27, 2020:

Today, on our daily exercise outing, we continued exploring the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.  I was surprised to read that it is the smallest borough in London as it seems rather vast to me.  It's a delightful district in which to wander, with distinct neighborhoods that include Notting Hill, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, and Kensington, each with its own character.  Something all these neighborhoods have in common are private communal gardens restricted to residents of surrounding homes.  There are over a hundred such gardens in the Royal Borough.  Every few blocks we encountered another and each was flaunting its springtime splendor.  We eventually stumbled on The Boltons, an upscale neighborhood in which one finds some splendid Victorian villas.

Looking at St. Mary Abbots from Kensington Church Street

An empty tea shop on Kensington Church Street

The Boltons' home of Jenny Lind, "the "Swedish Nightingale,"

One of the 19th century's most highly regarded singers

St. Mary The Boltons Church

St. Mary The Boltons ensconced in Garden Square

A Victorian Villa in The Boltons

Homes Facing Hereford Square Garden

Hereford Square Garden

St. Mary The Boltons Church

Austin Mini Circa 1970 (Britain)

Daihatsu Copen Circa 2009  (Japan)

Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Circa 1965 (Britain)

Fiat Nuova 500 Circa 1960 (Italy)

Wednesday, March 25, 2020:

Eddie, Luna and I arrived in London Friday, December 6, 2019, almost four months ago.  We never expected that a mysterious virus would suddenly alter life everywhere and that expressions like ''social distancing," "self-isolation," and "shelter in place," would become so pervasive.   We are fine and are keeping ourselves occupied in our flat.

Today we went to Waitrose, our local supermarket.  It is permitted to go outside for grocery shopping and/or to exercise once a day. Yellow tape was placed on the sidewalk outside the grocers indicating where people should stand to regulate distancing; only a certain number of people are allowed in the store at one time.  Fortunately, the items we needed were still on the shelves.  The streets are eerily empty and quiet.  How strange it is to be able to cross a street without fear of being struck by an automobile.  

Today we read that Charles, Prince of Wales, tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating in Scotland with the Duchess of Cornwall.

Out & About

March 21, 2020:

Pembroke Square

Camellias

Virginia's Woolf's House

Author of National Velvet

Parrot in Kensington Gardens

Vintage MG

Vintage Mini Cooper

Vintage Cars on London Streets

Sunday, March 15, 2020:

Morris Minor Circa 1959 (British)

Nissan Figaro Circa 1990 (Japanese)

Citroën 2CV6 Dolly Special Circa 1987 (French)

Fiat Nuova 500 Circa 1960 (Italian)

Holland Park on the Cusp of Spring

March 11, 2020: