The Ides of March

351px-Brutus_and_the_Ghost_of_Caesar_1802

“Beware the Ides of March,” says the soothsayer warning Julius Caesar of his impending assassination on March 15. In this play by William Shakespeare, the question of superstition versus the thin veil between the worlds. In this case, Caesar’s failure to listen to dire warnings caused his demise on that exact day.

Available through the Worcester Public Library:

The tragedy of Julius Caesar / Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

822.33 SJ8m5 2011

 

Julius Caesar / Freeman, Philip, 1961-

B CAESAR, J. FREEMAN

The death of Caesar: the story of history’s most famous assassination /  Strauss, Barry S.

E-book

Brutus: the noble conspirator / Tempest, Kathryn.

937.05092 TEMPEST

Et tu, Brute? : the deaths of the Roman emperors / Novak, Jason, 1979-

937.060922 NOVAK

Essential Shakespeare handbook / Dunton-Downer, Leslie.

822.33 Xd86e

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo

konmar coverMarie Kondo is a queer duck. Her logic seems sound, but while you are taking her word for things, you kind of feel like you are slipping and sliding into a tidying cult, and Marie Kondo is the cult leader.

Ms. Kondo guarantees that if you “tidy” your house top to bottom in one fell swoop, you will never need to tidy again, other that putting things away after you have used them. This is a good idea, but she recommends that you follow the program for 6 months. Who has 6 months to spare?

Marie Kondo is adamant about following the steps completely and in order. She says that tidying up a little at a time will never work, and that she recommends a “special event.” She calls this process the KonMar method. Kon(do) Mar(ie). She made it up.

There are two main points. First that the process requires discarding. She has very little patience for people who only store things. Keep the things that “spark joy.” Second, it is very important that you discard by category and not by room. This avoids duplication of your efforts.

These are the categories:

  1. Clothing
  2. Books
  3. Papers
  4. Komono (Miscellaneous items)
  5. Sentimental Items

Why would anyone listen to this tidying-obsessed nut? I have seen her TV show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” Not only does she, herself, spark joy, but her insistence that we create joy around us is catchy. I would love to join her cult. If only I had six months…

 

 

 

 

Nevertheless, She Persisted: Celebrating Women’s History Month, 2018

Rad American Women A-Z

by Schatz, Kate

 

I Am Malala

by Yousafzai, Malala

 

Wild

by Strayed, Cheryl

 

When Everything Changed

by Collins, Gail

 

When Janey comes marching home: portraits of women combat veterans

by Laura Browder

         

Reading Lolita in Tehran

A Memoir in Books

by Nafisi, Azar

 

Rad Women Worldwide

by Schatz, Kate, author

 

 My Life on the Road

by Steinem, Gloria

 

Marie Curie

A Life

by Quinn, Susan

 

Joan of Arc

A Life

by Gordon, Mary

 

Persepolis

by Satrapi, Marjane

 

Infidel

by Hirsi Ali, Ayaan, 1967-

 

A Fighting Chance

by Warren, Elizabeth

 

Sister Citizen

by Harris-Perry, Melissa V. (Melissa Victoria)

 

Together we rise: behind the scenes at the protest heard around the world

by the Women’s March organizers and Condé Nast.

 

Enchantress of numbers: a novel of Ada Lovelace

by Jennifer Chiaverini.

 

The Beauty Myth

by Naomi Wolf

 

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood

 

Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden

 

The Yellow Wallpaper

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Books I should be reading

  • Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • The Golden Bough, by George Frazer James
  • Ulysses, by James Joyce
  • Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
  • Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
  • A New Earth, by Echhart Tolle
  • You Shall Know Our Velocity, by Dave Eggers
  • The Complete Works of Shakespeare
  • Foucault’s pendulum, by Umberto Eco
  • Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

I know this is an “older” book by now, but I still consider “Seabiscuit” to be one of the best written and accurate, fascinating accounts of horse racing life. It is way better in book form than the movie!! – probably a thousand times better! -Anonymous

SEA MUSIC by Sara MacDonald

I just wanted to recommend SEA MUSIC by Sara MacDonald. An English writer, this is her first book to be published in the U.S.

This book really appealed to me – in fact I read it in one day! It is a beautifully written story about a family living in Cornwall. The members of the family are unaware of the grandparents’ secrets. Relationships are not always easy between the members of the three generations. A chance discovery of the secrets and the effect on each member of the family make this a very interesting story. The setting of the story is the present, but the memories of different characters take us back to the days of WWII.

-Terry Beckwith