Tuesday 31 December 2019

Happy New Year

Traunsee, Gmunden, Austria by Margret Asmund


May the new year bring you peace and joy, my dear blog readers!

image by our daughter Margret Asmund
- taken 29/12/2019 by Traunsee, Gmunden, Austria



Thursday 19 December 2019

№ 22 reading list: Christmas 2019

My № 22 reading list · Lisa Stefan


Here it is, the reading list I have been promising for some time. It's almost two in one, as I meant to post one in October and one before Christmas. Life just got rather hectic. At some point on this term when trying to balance school and family life I thought of lines in Joan Didion's book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which became my mantra: 'In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control.' Once I looked them up, I knew I had to reread it yet again. Didion's book about grief and everything life can throw at you was my reward during study breaks. Didion grounded me. She kept me studying. Information was control. I need to thank two publishers for books on the list: Eland Books for So It Goes and Fitzcarraldo Editions for I Remain in Darkness. Both are translations that I will be reviewing in the New Year.

№ 22 reading list:
1  Year of the Monkey  by Patti Smith
2  So It Goes  by Nicolas Bouvier
3  I Remain in Darkness  by Annie Ernaux
4  Genius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read
5  Life with Picasso  by Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake
6  Look Homeward, Angel  by Thomas Wolfe
7  Essays in Disguise  by Wilfrid Sheed
8  Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction  by Jonathan Culler
9  The Year of Magical Thinking  by Joan Didion [rereading]

Translated by: 2) So It Goes: Robyn Marsack; 3) I Remain in Darkness: Tanya Leslie.

These past months, when I have found time, I have been reading some of the books on the list and have already finished Life with Picasso and I Remain in Darkness. It was time to include Wilfrid Sheed on a reading list. A long time ago I bought a used copy of this essay collection, after hearing John Williams at the New York Times Book Review praise it on their podcast. Every other week the staff talks about the books they are reading in their spare time and Williams's taste in books comes close to mine, and I usually agree with his views.

This year I'm breaking tradition and not rereading a classic over the holidays. I will, however, be reading Louisa May Alcott's Little Women into the New Year, a tradition I started in Scotland. Last Friday I listened to editor David Remnick's interview with Greta Gerwig on The New Yorker Radio Hour and now I cannot wait to see her film adaptation.



Saturday 14 December 2019

Sleepless Nights · Elizabeth Hardwick

The cover of Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick (Faber) · Books & Latte


I have fallen so hard for Elizabeth Hardwick since reading a collection of her essays released in 2017. I had already put Sleepless Nights (1979) on my to-read list when Faber & Faber released this new edition last summer, which they describe as 'a kaleidoscopic scrapbook of one woman’s memories; a collage of fiction and memoir, letters and essays, portraits and dreams, and one of the greatest New York novels of all time.'

Cover image: © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation
Cover design: Faber

Simultaneously, Faber also released her essay collection Seduction and Betrayal (1974), which you will find on a reading list one day. Another book I have added to my wish list is the newly published, in the US, The Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle, edited by Saskia Hamilton (FSG).

Sleepless Nights
By Elizabeth Hardwick
Paperback, 144 pages
ISBN: 9780571346998
Faber & Faber



Thursday 12 December 2019

Reading journal 2017: Didion, Sontag, Hitchens ...

Notes from my reading journal: Didion, Sontag, Hitchens ... · Lisa Stefan


Reading journal 2017 ... yes, you read correctly. Honestly, I don't know why it has taken me so long to share my view on some books that appeared on a reading list in October 2017. Well, I always allow time to pass between sharing a list and posting a reading journal entry related to it, but this time I probably set a new record in procrastination. If you have read any of these I would love to hear your opinion, even if you disagree with mine.

Reading journal, № 12 reading list, 4 of 9:

· South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion. The keyword here is a notebook. I ran to the bookshop to buy this one when walking would have sufficed. This is a slim volume, about 130 pages with a large font, and probably directed towards the hardcore fans. Starting in New Orleans in 1970, these notes taken on a road trip are mainly about the South. Didion is a keen observer and what struck me was how some of her observations still felt relevant in 2017.
The isolation of these people from the currents of American life in 1970 was startling and bewildering to behold. All their information was fifth-hand, and mythicized in the handing down.
I would not recommend this book to those new to Didion. To get the right impression of her as a writer, choose The White Album, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, or The Year of Magical Thinking. As a fan of Didion, it almost breaks my heart to say that it feels as if this publication was a way of cashing in on her fame. That it was made available the same year as the documentary was released, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017) by actor Griffin Dunne (the nephew of Didion's late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne). Writers also have to make a living but I think many who bought the book expected something more substantial. By the way, I love that documentary.

· Autumn by Ali Smith. This one has beautiful prose. It's one of those meditative novels without a plot. It's about the bond between Elisabeth and Daniel, a friendship that starts when she, as a little girl, interviews him, then just an old neighbour, for a school project. Unfortunately, this novel has gotten a Brexit tag, it's referred to as the first post-Brexit novel, and people seem to think it's political. It's not. The outcome of the referendum is there in the background but in no way does it drive the story, which is filled with life and art.

· Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens. I say this with great respect for the memory of Hitchens, but this book put me off anything Hitchens for good. I remember standing in Waterstones with a collection of his old articles in my hands and spotting the memoir, which had escaped me, feeling sure I was in for a treat. I enjoyed reading the story of his mother - he calls her Yvonne, not mother - who hid the fact that she was Jewish (he finds out in his forties). He hardly writes anything about his wife and children, which left a gap in the narrative and felt egocentric. Unsurprisingly, this book is all about politics, and in it many stories about people who perhaps only a few have heard of but get so much space. Sometimes when Hitchens was ranting about people he didn't agree with I began rolling my eyes. Clearly, he was not a fan of Bill Clinton and when it's already fully established to the reader how much he dislikes him, Hitchens uses every opportunity to rub it in. It comes off as childish. Honestly, I often thought about tossing the book but read on so I could at least express my opinion. When he described becoming an American citizen and expressed his support for the Bush administration and the Iraq War he had completely lost me. Obviously, Hitchens led a remarkable life that brought him all over the world, but to me, he wasn't the right person to write that story. And given his status, I'm guessing either no one edited this book or had the guts to point out its flaws before publication. How this book ended up number 5 on the NYT critics' list of 'The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years' is beyond my understanding. (If you are interested in a book review that covers the politics I would recommend the one by David Runciman for the London Review of Books.)

· Against Interpretation and Other Essays by Susan Sontag. I wasn't sure whether I should say something about this classic, but it gave me a chance to end with a quote that still feels relevant. These essays were written in the Sixties, between 1961 and 1965, and many of them feel outdated. I cannot say that I would recommend this book to anyone except students and fans of Sontag. The only part that I have reread is Part I, the first 36 pages that consist of the essays 'Against Interpretation' and 'On Style'. In the former, she observes: 'What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.'

[Please visit separate blog entries for these two from the list: Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo, Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson.]

image by me, appeared on Instagram 10/09/2017



Friday 6 December 2019

Life with Picasso · Françoise Gilot

The cover of Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake (NYRB) · Books & Latte


The term has finished and I have a study break until January. This morning I watched two episodes of Kiljan, a weekly literary TV program in Iceland, read the first pages of Patti Smith's new book, Year of the Monkey, and caught up with books podcasts, which I haven't had time for since mid-October. In the coming weeks I intend to enjoy days like these to the fullest.

When I last signed in I had some ideas about how to keep my blog alive during my studies, for example with a new category about beautiful book covers, and nothing happened. This is the cover I wanted to feature first, a new edition of the memoir Life with Picasso (1964) by Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, which was published by New York Review Books last summer.

Cover image: Françoise Gilot, Self-Portrait, 1953
Cover design: Katy Homans

Françoise Gilot, So Far, So Near, 2016, oil on canvas (The Elkon Gallery) · Books & Latte
Françoise Gilot, So Far, So Near, 2016

In 1943, Gilot was just over twenty when she met Picasso, then 61 years old. They never married but their relationship lasted ten years and they had two children. The book will be on my next reading list, which I meant to share in October, and I can recommend it to anyone interested in art. The sections of the book containing her and Picasso's conversations about art are a joyful read.

Life with Picasso
By Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake
Paperback, 384 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 9781681373195
New York Review Books
Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot (NYRB) · Lisa Stefan


bottom image by me, appeared on Instagram 03/07/2019 | Françoise Gilot painting via The Elkon Gallery



Thursday 26 September 2019

Glimpses of life in Austria

Traunsee lake, Austria · Lisa Stefan


I haven't made it a habit to share on the blog the images I post on Instagram, but these last months the time for blogging has been limited and a lot has happened: We recently moved to Austria, both our daughters went to university abroad and I decided to switch gears: I started my Master's in Museology, which I'm fortunate to be able to study online at the University of Iceland. Textbooks, lectures and assignments are keeping me busy but I felt the blog needed updating and decided to use images from my archive, of the Traunsee region, a bookshop in Vienna and two study-related still lifes.

This was my first visit to the Traunsee region and I will never forget the moment I first spotted the lake: My heart skipped a beat. The scenery was achingly beautiful. On a sunny Sunday we drove through small villages, enjoyed lunch by the lake in Altmünster, and afterwards headed to Gmunden. Later we were invited to a garden party in Gmunden, where we dined al fresco on the hillside overlooking the lake, with the Traunstein mountain so close it almost felt as if we could reach the hand out and touch it.
'I Remain in Darkness' by Annie Ernaux (Fitzcarraldo) · Lisa Stefan


I love finding books in my mailbox. The staff at Fitzcarraldo Editions sent me a copy of I Remain in Darkness by Annie Ernaux, published last week in the UK (translated by Tanya Leslie). This is how I described the book on Instagram: 'It's the author's account of losing her mother to Alzheimer's disease. This short book is powerful, filled with raw, gut-wrenching emotions. Sometimes I need to take a break from the reading to let a sentence, or one word only, sink in.' The book will be on my next reading list and later I will review it.
Shakespeare & Co., Sterngasse, Vienna · Lisa Stefan


After accompanying our oldest daughter to the Vienna airport one morning, I spent the rest of the day in the city. I hadn't been there in a long time, headed straight for the metro and got out on the Schwedenplatz station. From there I walked a short distance to Sterngasse, a street where Shakespeare & Co. is located, a bookshop that sells English books (independent, not a brand of the one in Paris). It's small, vintage-looking, with a surprisingly good collection.

Shakespeare & Co., Sterngasse, Vienna · Lisa Stefan


After strolling in the vicinity of the bookshop, I headed east along the Fleischmarkt and Postgasse streets. This part of the city was bursting with life, people everywhere sitting outdoors at small cafés and restaurants. Wonderful mood, distinctively European, if that makes sense. I grabbed sushi and found a bench in Stadtpark where I sat in the shadow of a tree and did some people watching. Then I headed south towards the Belvedere Palace and enjoyed its beauty. This time I didn't enter the museum; I have been there before and promised my daughter that I would later go with her to see The Kiss by Gustav Klimt and other paintings.
Grad school life · Lisa Stefan


As I will be busy with my studies, I will not have much time for pleasure reading, and for photographing books, but soon I intend to share a new reading list. I have some ideas about how to keep my blog more alive during my studies and one is starting a new category where I feature book covers.

You may have noticed that I renew and rotate covers in the blog's sidebar and footer. These are new editions that I'm particularly interested in, and sometimes books coming out in paperback for the first time. I would like to give some of these covers a more permanent place on the blog, mainly to praise a beautiful book design. Then there are a few entries that I still owe, mainly Reading journal entries. If you think not much is happening on the blog you can always check my Instagram, where I occasionally share photos of books, mainly.

images by me, appeared on Instagram in August & September 2019



Tuesday 11 June 2019

№ 21 reading list: essays by Zambra

№ 21 reading list: Alejandro Zambra, Grace Paley, Virginia Woolf, Anna Burns · Lisa Stefan


Well, it's time for the summer's first reading list. In keeping with tradition, it has an essay collection, Not to Read by Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra (No Leer in Spanish). In the opening essay he, as a kid, admits to watching Madame Bovary (1949) for an exam instead of finishing the book. Next to a red F his teacher wrote: 'Vincente Minnelli!!' These short essays are the book lovers' treat. I meant to include a novel I had started reading, The Friend by Sigrid Nunez which won the 2018 National Book Award. I found it interesting, especially the literary references (the narrator is a writer), but then I got bored of the writing style and I didn't finish it. It's therapeutic to reread something good after a disappointing read; I chose The Seagull by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.

№ 21 reading list:
1  Not to Read  by Alejandro Zambra
2  The Collected Stories of Grace Paley 
3  Milkman  by Anna Burns
4  Disgrace  by J. M. Coetzee
5  The Voyage Out  by Virginia Woolf
6  Journal of Katherine Mansfield  ed. by John Middleton Murry
7  The Seagull  by Anton Chekhov

Translated by: 1) Not to Read: Megan McDowell; 7) The Seagull: Laurence Senelick

Those who follow my blog know that Virginia Woolf is one of my favourites. The Bremen University Library has old editions of all her works by Hogarth Press, which she founded with her husband Leonard. They are attractively green hardbacks and initially, I borrowed The Voyage Out, her first novel, just to leaf through it. It's not my favourite book by Woolf but I couldn't resist the temptation and decided to read it again.
№ 21 reading list: Alejandro Zambra, Grace Paley, Virginia Woolf, Anna Burns · Lisa Stefan


Sometimes, I have to admit, I do miss my old way of blogging, when I collected images of interiors in folders and couldn't wait to share them. As you may have noticed, I sometimes use images of paintings in my blog posts, but this time I decided to add two spaces in the Chelsea home of artist Sarah Graham, featured in House & Garden UK. These artistic corners - that glimpse of the coffee table and the bookshelf by with window - spoke to my inner interior enthusiast. Elegant and tasteful.

Chelsea home of artist Sarah Graham. House & Garden UK · Greg Funnell | Books & Latte
Chelsea home of artist Sarah Graham. House & Garden UK · Greg Funnell | Books & Latte

Chelsea home of artist Sarah Graham. House & Garden UK

images by me | credit: House & Garden UK · Greg Funnell



Friday 26 April 2019

№ 20 reading list | Lee Krasner exhibition

№ 20 reading list | Lee Krasner: Living Colour exhibition · Lisa Stefan


I am sitting on the patio, under an awning, taking in the spring, the scent of purple and white lilacs from a corner of the garden. One by one, book podcasts are playing on the tablet. Let's take a look at the reading list. Last year a new translation, by poet Michael Hofmann, of the classic Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin was published by New York Review Books. I like their book design and have added many of their titles to my wish list. I never read the old translation and therefore, have no comparison. It's set in the underworld of Berlin, the Weimer Republic in the 1920s, and the book starts when Franz Biberkopf - shall we say the colourful? - is released from prison, determined to turn his life around. The other book I bought for the list is The Years by Annie Ernaux, which I mentioned in my last entry. The others are from the library.

№ 20 reading list:
1  The Years  by Annie Ernaux
2  Berlin Alexanderplatz  by Alfred Döblin
3  The Wife  by Meg Wolitzer
4  The Mexican Night  by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
5  The Garden Party  by Katherine Mansfield
6  It All Adds Up  by Saul Bellow
7  The Diary of Anaïs Nin 1931-1934 

Translated by: 1) The Years: Alison L. Strayer; 2) Berlin Alexanderplatz: Michael Hofmann

It has been years since I read a volume of Anaïs Nin's diaries and it felt soothing somehow to pick up the one on the list, which starts in 1931. For a long time, I have been meaning to read stories by Katherine Mansfield, having been introduced to her work through Virginia Woolf's diaries and letters. The short story collection The Garden Party starts well and the writing style already appeals to me. Mansfield was only 34 when she died and one can only imagine what she could have accomplished as a writer.


Lee Krasner, Desert Moon, 1955. LACMA. © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation · Books & Latte
Lee Krasner, Desert Moon, 1955

This summer I wouldn't mind taking a cultural trip to London, to see the exhibition Lee Krasner: Living Colour in the art gallery of the Barbican Centre, which opens on 30 May. Lee Krasner (1908–1984) was an American artist, born in Brooklyn; a pioneer of abstract expressionism. The catalogue says that her 'energetic work reflects the spirit of possibility in post-war New York' and the exhibition 'tells the story of a formidable artist, whose importance has too often been eclipsed by her marriage to Jackson Pollock.'

This is the first major presentation of Lee Krasner's art in Europe for more than 50 years, organised by the Barbican Centre, London in collaboration with these museums: Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern and Guggenheim Bilbao. Coinciding with the exhibition is the Thames & Hudson publication of Lee Krasner: Living Colour by Eleanor Nairne.

In October, here in Germany, we can enjoy the art of Lee Krasner when the exhibition opens in the museum Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.

Artist Lee Krasner in her studio. Kasmin Gallery, NY. © 2017 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation · Books & Latte
Artist Lee Krasner in her studio

Lee Krasner, Palingenesis, 1971. Kasmin Gallery, NY. © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation · Books & Latte
Lee Krasner, Palingenesis, 1971

top image by me | Lee Krasner paintings via Barbican Centre: 1) LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 2) Kasmin Gallery, NY | Krasner in her studio: Kasmin Gallery via Artsy. © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation.



Saturday 13 April 2019

Mood board for spring

My spring mood board, Schuyler Samperton Textiles · Lisa Stefan


In a perfect world. No, let's go with better, perfection is boring. In a better world I'm sitting in a rattan chair on the patio, feeling the warmth of the sun through the awning. On the table is a stack of books; notebooks next to my cup of coffee and the French press. Supporting my back, a thick, soft cushion with a cover made of any of the patterned textiles in my image above, which I call: My spring mood board with Annie Ernaux and Schuyler Samperton Textiles.

In reality I'm indoors. That harsh light of early spring still lingers and even though buds have bloomed, promising, sunny days suddenly turned colder (today we had hail). Waiting for spring is not my forte. The good news is that one of my current reads, Annie Ernaux's memoir The Years, translated from French by Alison L Strayer, has been shortlisted for The Man Booker International Prize. Apart from being smitten with my copy, a Fitzcarraldo Editions publication, the narrative voice, written in the third person, intrigues me. I don't remember having read a memoir in the third person. It covers the years 1941 to 2006 'told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present, photos, books, songs, radio, television, advertising, and news headlines.' I haven't finished it yet, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. It's rewarding when a book one has wanted to read not only lives up to its expectations but exceeds them.

Blooming magnolia, Antwerp, spring 2011 · Lisa Stefan
Magnolia in bloom, Antwerp 2011

We lived in Antwerp when I shot the blooming magnolia above. I cherish the photo - it was my first Belgian spring and I still remember the street corner - but it no longer appears on my old blog. An album connected to it seems to have vanished, which is why I decided to create a new link for the blog, with a slightly different layout. I haven't changed the blog name: I still note down my ideas for blog entries over lunch and latte.

Back to the textiles: Schuyler Samperton Textiles is an American brand my readers should recognise. Schuyler is one of my favourite textile designers. On the blog I have featured many designs from her growing collection. I have been waiting for spring to show you the two designs in my top image. Eden is the design at the top: The pale pink fabric is Eden/Sweet Pea, the pale green is Eden/Meadow. Shalimar is the floral fabric with the white background. The sample with the tag is Shalimar/Mist, a blue and green pattern. Shalimar/Cielo is the blue one. All these are 100% linen fabrics.

Dora Carrington, Farm at Watendlath, 1921, Tate · Books & Latte
Dora Carrington, Farm at Watendlath, 1921

The green palette in the painting Farm at Watendlath by artist Dora Carrington fits my spring mood. In 1921 she spent a summer holiday in the Lake District. The little I know about her life is from the film Carrington (1995), which focuses on her relationship with writer Lytton Strachey, and from descriptions in the volumes I have read of Virginia Woolf's diaries. At first she doesn't seem to have made a favourable impression on Woolf, but in August 1920 the tone in her diary is different: 'Carrington is ardent, robust, scatterbrained, appreciative, a very humble disciple, but with enough character to prevent insipidity' (Vol. 2).

I will be back soon with a new reading list.

images by me | Dora Carrington art via Tate