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You’ve all read Romeo and Juliet. But did you ever wonder just how that famous feud between the Capulets and the Montagues got started? Blixt did, and his answer to that question is just one of the threads that makes up his spectacular debut novel, The Master of Verona

It’s not Shakespeare who is at the centre of this book, however. It is Dante Alighieri, or Alaghieri, and especially his eldest son Pietro through whom we witness the desperate battles between the Guelfs and Ghibellines and the slow-motion tragedy that is the beginning of Verona’s fall. Pietro is an enormously engaging and sympathetic hero whom we follow as he strives to come out behind the shadow of his famous father and make his own way in the world.

And what a world it is. It isn’t fair to compare any author to another, and Blixt’s contribution is wholly original, but I couldn’t help be reminded of the work of Dorothy Dunnett when I read this novel. Like Dunnett’s, Blixt’s characters are larger than life — in a good way — and his battles have real consequences. No one escapes unscathed, either in body or in mind. Astrologers, diviners, illegitimate children, mysterious foreigners, and shrewd teenage girls crowd the page. It is a wild and completely satisfying ride.

elizadee is the name of the beautiful new Etsy shop started by my sister. She is selling some stunning screenprints there, so go check it out. She also does wonderful and original custom embroidery work and makes custom screen print portraits. Here’s part of the portrait she did of my son — not for sale, but all she needs is a digital photo to make one for you of anyone you like:

It’s not so much each individual statue; it is the volume of them all there together. (You can click the photos for more detail)

When they were first painted and carved in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, each parish church must have had one. They wouldn’t have ever seen then all massed together like we do, in this museum and at every episcopal museum in the country.


Some Marys have crowns, while others are simply veiled.

These weren’t the only objects Mares collected. The remaining floors of the museum are filled with rooms containing such random objects as pipes, fans and fan holders, holy water stoups, cigar bands, playing cards, images of Montserrat, scissors, bedpans, carved shells, candle snuffers, creche figures, and really anything else you could gather in mass between the Roman era and the early twentieth century.

I watched the inauguration among a crowd of others at a party given by the American Society at the Meridien Hotel at Barcelona. It is really hard to get a good idea of how many people were there because we ended up split into so many places, from the main room, to the overflow room and then out to the bar and restaurant, but we must have numbered in the hundreds, and our presence was well covered by the Catalan media.
Anyway, here is how the moment looked to us.
I lost it early on, when Malia and Sasha came onto the screen for the first time and I realized, not for the first time, that these little girls who are going to live in the White House had ancestors who came to the States in chains.

I loved Aretha, Rev. Lowery’s benediction, the poem, Obama’s speech. And I adore Michelle’s gloves!

I mentioned the other day that “bullar” was one of the most popular search terms for people finding my blog. Some things are, well, a little more obscure. Lately, I have had people find me looking for answers to questions that I do not answer on my blog, but I could in fact answer in real life. I kind of want to hunt them down and give them the answers they sought, but alas, that is impossible. But, just in case they ever turn up here again, here are a few recent ones:

“What do you call the books where you pick what happens next by choosing different pages numbers?”

What is…a choose your own adventure book!!

“Is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall a fairy tale?”

Oh! I know, I know! *ding* No, it’s not! But it is darned good book anyway, so you should go out and read it.

Some people ask questions that sounds like how long is a piece of string like the not one but two people who asked, “How many tales in Beowulf?”

And this one wasn’t even a question:
“book hidden in stacks lost spain novel bookstore”

But I bet I know the answer — Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind. Another darned good book that begins in a bookstore in Spain.

But the search string I am most proud of was the day someone found me by actually googling “dominican bitches.” Yessssss.

I’ve added a few more links. Check them out!

Scratching your head over what to buy all the people on your list this year? Want something not too expensive, but personal and meaningful at the same time? Save an industry; buy a book. The fabulous Moonrat explains why in her post on the travails of the publishing industry.

Hat-tip: Julianne Douglas

Last Sunday I had a chance to hear Hillary Clinton speak at a small fundraiser for Obama on what was her sixty-first birthday. I was madly curious to go and hear what she had to say.
The crowd seemed like a mix of long-devoted Hillary supporters and true-blue Obama backers, but everyone was enthusiastic and excited to be there. Her speech was good, heavy on the practical logistics of the final week of campaigning and what we all needed to do, and light on soaring rhetoric but it fit the audience. The most interesting part was her answer to two questions asked by members of the audience. The first asked her what role she’d like to play in an Obama government. She strongly ruled out interest in a Supreme Court position and, maybe more surprisingly, not only insisted she would prefer to stay in the Senate to taking a cabinet post but also warned forcefully against Obama stripping the Senate to build his cabinet. That made sense to me.
She was also asked to compare the ’92 and ’08 campaigns. She made some predictable comments about the effects technological changes — the internet and cell phones — and then spoke quite movingly of how much she thought Bill and Barack had in common in their background and their values, from their shared fatherlessness, their age, their message of change, to the fact they both have daughters. “And I think they both married intelligent professional women,” she said, getting a big cheer.
I do have to add one comment about her looks. I hate to do this because it should not be relevant at all. But appearance is hugely important for women candidates and one of the things I admired about her campaign was the way she set a standard for the way women politicians could both look womanly and professional at the same time. Anyway: I have to say that at this event, up close, she looked absolutely fabulous. Stunning. She is a tiny person, and shame on those who have mentioned her hips — so untrue. And those rumours about Botox? Completely false. She was a couple of feet from me with a huge smile on her face and I’ll eat my hat if she isn’t as nature made her.