Summer Wrap-up

Some things that caught my interest - Summer 2024

Welcome to Beyond the Bookshelf, a community of readers and writers sharing unique perspectives on life and literature through thought-provoking essays, captivating interviews, and influential books as we explore the challenges of life's transformative journey.

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Dear Friends,

This summer has been quite busy and filled with excitement. I had a bunch of posts pre-staged to get us through June and July. Here we are in August, so I need to sit and write. Today is a short post to catch you up with my summer and set the stage for the months ahead.

June was my retirement month after 24 years in the Navy. Our days were filled with planning, celebrations, and lots of family time. It was a beautiful way to cap off a rewarding career.

July was all about Italy. We traveled to Venice, Florence, Rome, and Sorrento. It was an opportunity to explore historical sites, taste local cuisine, immerse ourselves in another culture, and spend precious time together as a family. Other than a bit of reading on the plane, I didn’t touch a book for two weeks. That may be the longest reading break of my life, but I filled the time with so many things beyond the bookshelf. Towards the end of the post I will share a few photos from our trip.

I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow. I have some serious issues in my cervical spine that need to be fixed. I am nervous about the surgery but ready to have it done so I won’t be in so much pain. I will keep you posted on how that goes.

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So what comes next? I now have a lot of time on my hands to read and write. Here are some of my plans for the months ahead:

• Finish reading the complete works of John Steinbeck and share my thoughts on those works he wrote towards the end of his career.

• Read Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey in preparation for reading Ulysses by James Joyce. Alongside Ulysses I will be reading James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Study by Stuart Gilbert.

  Constantine Markides
  , a fellow reader and writer, recommended this companion study to me.

• Modify my monthly publishing schedule so it will look something like this:

  • 1st and 3rd Tuesdays - Original essay exploring unique perspectives on life and literature.

  • 2nd Tuesday - Guest post or interview if I have one available. If you want to write a guest post or be interviewed, please contact me. You can respond directly to this post or send me a direct message in the app.

  • Last Day of the Month - Monthly Wrap-up which will include the things I read, watched, and listened to that caught my attention for the previous month.

• I am also looking ahead to 2025 and planning out some things. I would like to do a year-long series similar to my Steinbeck series this year. I want to know what you would like to explore and possibly read along with me. Please vote on the poll below to help me decide.

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Some things that caught my interest this summer:

Books:

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

• Journal of a Novel by John Steinbeck. The journal Steinbeck kept while writing East of Eden. Each entry is addressed to his publisher.

• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

• Off the Grid by C.J. Box.

• Vicious Circle by C.J. Box.

• The Disappeared by C.J. Box.

• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

• The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.

• Blindness by Jose Saramago.

• Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy.

• Leviathan Wakes by James Corey.

• Martin Van Buren and the American Political System by Donald Cole.

• The Race to the Future by Kassia St. Clair.

• American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis.

• Waiting for Word by

  A. Jay Adler
  .

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Articles:

• Bill Davison
  is one of my favorite writers. I was excited to see that in his article, Take Your Cues from the Muse, he discussed authors who love birding.

• Elif Shafak
  shares her experience with emotion and language in her article, Different Emotions in Different Languages.

• I don’t read much fiction online, probably because I consume so much elsewhere. However,

  Claudia Befu Ibarra
  is a writer that I do read. Her focus is on climate fiction, a niche subgenre of sci-fi with dystopian themes. One of her recent articles is Smuggler.

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Music:

• John Halbrooks
  is a friend and writer I discovered through a shared love of great literature. He also has a love for music and is a fountain of knowledge in a wide range of genres. His article, Schubert and Me: A Fateful Afternoon in Chapel Hill, is the first in a series introducing us to this classical master.

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Streaming:

• We have been watching the Olympics and enjoying the opportunity to celebrate the successes of others.

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