Brief update this week. I am tired and burned out, and need to focus my attention elsewhere.

The only new pages to arrive in the past week belonged to the latest issue of The Rain Taxi Review of Books, which never fails to be interesting and full of compelling titles. I considered cancelling this subscription as part of the Great Expenses Purge of 2021, but as it is only $24.00 a year, and the magazine takes up less than a quarter inch of shelf space, it easily made the cut.

In reading news I am about 200 pages into S.A. Chakraborty’s The Kingdom of Copper, and it is really good! I read the first book in the series, The City of Brass, well over a year ago, and I now regret not immediately diving into Kingdom.

I am also somewhat over 100 pages into A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. So far he has gone through Chekhov’s “In the Cart” and Turgenev’s “The Singers”. We have just started Chekhov’s “The Darling”. I don’t think I have read any of these stories previously. Saunders is brilliant at showing how the stories are constructed without resorting to jargon to deconstruct the text. Though ostensibly aimed at undergrad or graduate level readers, these essays/teachings/contemplations are accessible and well worth the read.

In writing news, still not a lot to report, though I do have some more notes jotted down. I doubt I will find a useful intersection of time and energy for creative pursuits before the first of November.