Sorry for being AWOL, but I have been reading and listening and need to get back on track. The past couple of months have been characterized by WWII, opera, and LA lawyering.
Let's start with the LA lawyer--I've been listening to Michael Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer series with my husband on our car trips. Listening to the first book in the series, The Lincoln Lawyer in Maine in September, then the second book, The Brass Verdict in Victoria, BC in October, and most recently, The Reversal on a trip across the mountains and back last week. I really love this series--Mickey Haller is a great character and I am fascinated by the details of the courtroom and defense and prosecution approaches. I know nothing about lawyering beyond The Good Wife, so this is really fun and interesting.
Now for opera. Opera? you ask. Yes, I grew up with opera and it never really left me. Colorado Opera in Denver started pinging me on social media with ads for their fall production of Verdi's Rigoletto. I decided to treat myself for my birthday--my husband had knee replacement surgery in October (so begged off with an ironclad excuse)--and decided I needed a refresher course. So, I ordered the libretto (Italian/English side by side), watched a YouTube video of Pavarotti's movie version, and listened to a 24-hour long, 32-lecture Great Course on the life and operas of Guiseppe Verdi, delivered by Professor Robert Greenberg of San Francisco. All of it was fantastic. The Pavarotti music with libretto in hand, the live production in Denver, and the detailed analysis of the opera with biographical context (there were 4 lectures on Rigoletto alone!). I finished the course yesterday, which culminated with 6 lectures on Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. Greenberg has another Great Course on how to listen to opera, which I will probably do in 2023.
On to WWII. Another Great Course, World War II: A Political and Social History, delivered by Professor Thomas Childers, followed by The Knight, Death, and the Devil, a fictionalized biography of Hermann Goring by Ella Leffland--this was a reread, but since I read it over 30 years ago, it was like reading for the first time. I also listened to two other related Great Courses: The Berlin Wall: A World Divided and Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age.
Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. Thanksgiving was fun and relaxing (we dined out!), and I started transforming the house to its Christmas wardrobe today. Next weekend, the tree.
Looking forward to visiting all my favorite blogs and catching up with what you all have been up to.
