#UPDATE: May reading list

Update: 28 April 2022

1. Last month I still struggled to fall into my comforting reading zone.
2. All I could do in de evenings was
3. …’binge watch’ some series on HBOmax, Disney+ and Netflix.

• Our Flag Means Death (SE 1) – very funny
• Schitt’s Creek (finally finished SE 1-6)
• Anatomy of a Scandal and The Dropout (DNF…just too slow, boring)
• The Mauritian (…expected more from a Jodie Foster film) score 4/10
• Ozark and Better Call Saul (…in progress, enjoying the final seasons)
• I enjoyed the distraction… but after a few days ...I need to get back to books.

1. I looks like this UKR-RUS crisis is going to continue for months.
2. I cannot let this situation dictate my reading
3. ….I need to feed my soul AND continue to follow the news!

May reading list:  NEWS

1. Freezing Order  (2022)- B. Browder 
2. Update:  Disappointed
3. Read if just a few hours
4. …but most of what Browder writes about
5. has been in the news already.
6. Very quick read….if you’re still interested.
7. Finished: 29.04.2022
8. __________________

1. Everything Flows (1970) – Vasily Grossman (novel)
2. Im Schatten des Kreml (2019) – Udo Lielischkies (former chef ARD-Studio Moscow)
3. Policor in de Polder (2021)– S. Valkenberg (Dutch philospher) (Dutch political correctness )
4. De wraak (revenge) van Poetin (2015) – H. Smeets (Dutch journalist @NRC)
5. Putin’s World (2019) – Angela Stent
6. On ne peut pas tou dire (2022) – S. Fontanelle (cancel culture in France)

1. This Will Not Pass: (03.05.2022) – J. Martin – A. Burns – READ
2. Update:  
3. Readable….but nothing  earthshattering.
4. Worth reading/skimming….
5. No real ‘bombshells’ other than the tapes
6. we all have heard reported on in the news.
7. Good quick scan of events March 2020 – Dec 2021
8. …but if you read the news, nothing much new in this book!
9. Finished: 07.05.2022
10. ———————

1. Gier, Gas und Geld – Jens Hovsgaard (Danish investigative reporter) – READING (28/313 pg)
2. “Greed, gas and money” show who pulls the strings at Nordstream,
3. who contributes to this trillion-dollar business, and
4. how Putin’s network wants to divide the European Union and bring it under Russian control.

May reading list:  ART, HISTORY, LITERATURE

• La littérature de A à Z  (référence sur la littérature française – F. Aguettaz
• …this reading will continue for a few months

• Varennes: La mort de la royauté – Mona Ozuf

• Mon musée imaginaire – P. Veyne

• Petite Encyclopedie de l’ Impressionnisme – G. Crepaldi
• …this reading will continue for a few months

• Bonnard: Colour of Daily Life – A. Terrasse

• Henri IV of France: His Reign and Age – V.J. Pitts

• Cézanne: Puissant et solitaire– M. Hoog – READ

1. Update:
2. No, Cézanne didn’t slice off his ear (Van Gogh) or disappear to a Polynesian Island (Gaughin).
3. He was content to live in his beloved L’Estasque in the south of France.
4. His method was simple:
5. Mont Saint-Victoire
6. images rich vegetation contrasted with panorama’s and breathtaking skies.
7. Still life: light, composition and perspective…a mixture of smooth surfaces of fruit (apples)
8. decorative earthenware and table cloths draped irregularly to create a contrast.
9. …I never knew there could be so much to see in a still life!
10. Portraits: …there were many of his wife Hortense who always looked somber and constrained.
11. Favourite paintings:  Vue de lac d’Anncey
12. 

Pont de Maincy

1. Just look at  “Le Pont de Maincy” by Cézanne…
2. This is a breathtaking painting of “verdure réfléchie dans une onde (pond) douce.”
3. Cézanne said:
4. “…it is not important what you paint…but HOW you paint it!”
5. This was a beautiful book
6. ….just 128 pages…an introduction to one of the best French painters 19thC.
7. Finished: 04.05.2022

• Le Caravage, peintre et assassin – J. Frèshes – READING

1. UPDATE:  Excellent! 
2. Caravaggio – José Frèches – REVIEW
3. Finished: 28.05.2022

• Le maniérisme – (2004) P.  Falguières  – READ 

1. Update:
2. Excellent book to brush up on your French reading skills
3. With many beautiful images you can learn about
4. ….a period of art history that often forgotten!
5. The mannerists – Le maniérisme 1520-1580- …throwing caution to the wind
6. and rejecting the classic style of High Renaissance and plunging into
7. the frivolousness of avant-garde art, nature and architecture!
8. Maniérisme:
9. Three words that are the essential for the mannerists:
10. in painting and sculpture:
11. contrapposto – figure standing with weight on one foot
12. (slight curvature of the torso)
13. serpentine – twisting, winding form
14. sperzzatura – a certain nonchalance.
15. …book is very interesting!
16. Waves of art keep rolling and in 1580-1600 there came a fracture and
17. … baroque became the ‘style of the day’.
18. Finished: 29.04.2022
19. ———————