Verity Reads Books (lots of them)

I did my last proms of the season this week, with two on the same night as Rufus Wainwright did symphonic versions of his Albums Want One and Want Two. These were my fourth and fifth Proms this year and my third and fourth time seeing Rufus live. I was expecting it to be good, but it was even better than I expected. It wasn’t shown on TV, but there are a few clips of rehearsals and the like on social, so have this one of Go or Go Ahead as a teaser.

Anyway, apart from the fact that I love Rufus’s music one of the reasons why it was so brilliant was because I think I’ve found my favourite seats to sit in at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve told you before – recently and maybe ad nauseum – that I used to play clarinet in concert bands. I didn’t do it because I like performing in front of audiences, in fact I would go as far as saying that I dislike playing in concerts, but I do it because that’s what you do in a band. What I like is being part of the music going on around me. And sat in the west choir was the closest I’ve felt to being in a performance, without the stress of having to actually play.

I was right behind the trumpets with the trombones to the left of them and the timpani and drum kit to the right. It was so close you could almost read the music: I could read the song titles at the top and then I could see where the blocks of rests were and where the entries were and a bit of the types of notes but not the detail. And it was wonderful. Yes, a little heavy on the brass and percussion in the mix, but as an experience it was something else.

And the added bonus in all this, is that the orchestra was the BBC Concert Orchestra who have an amazing trumpet player as their head of section and I could listen to her play close up. Her name is Kate Moore and I first spotted her a decade ago in a film music prom where she was playing all the good bits in the James Bond Medley. I’ve listened to that time out of number – including on a lot of night shifts where I used to use it as an accompaniment to a particularly risky task I had to do – where if you got it wrong you could take a TV channel off air! Have a watch and tell me it’s not amazing:

Any ways, there were plenty of lovely trumpet entries to listen to her play close up; and if I had been a percussionist I would have love to have played the timpani so being up close there was great too. And for all that I was behind Rufus, it was still the closest I’ve sat all season. Just lovely.

If you want to listen back to Rufus – it’s on BBC Sounds – here is Want One and this is Want Two. Enjoy.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

I know I already mentioned on of this week’s new releases when I reviewed Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other on Tuesday, but I wanted to flag this one as well – even though I haven’t finished it yet – because it’s actually already in Kindle Unlimited. I love books about old Hollywood – whether they’re non-fiction ones or novels and this is about a fictional teenager who heads to Hollywood from Chicago in 1916 and becomes a movie star, and then builds a giant fairy house for reasons that I haven’t quite discovered yet as I’m not far enough through! It’s based on the life of real silent film star Colleen Moore, who I’d never heard of before, but now want to read more about. So I’m sure I’ll report back on this one. In the meantime, if you want some more stuff about Hollywood, I’ve got posts about novels about the movies and actor memoirs and reviews of non-fiction like Women in Hollywood, Karina Longworth’s Seduction, Furious Love (about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) and novels like Mr Wilder and Me and American Blonde.

Enjoy!

It’s the first Wednesday of a new month, which means it’s time for another batch of quick reviews of some of the stuff I read last month that I haven’t already told you about. I’ve got another three for you this month – covering essays, Young Adult and romance.

Fence: Striking Distance by Sarah Rees Brennan

I’ve mentioned the Fence graphic novel series before – the first one was a BotW back in 2019 in fact – and this is the first novelisation to go with the series. If you haven’t come across the graphic novels, it’s about a fencing team at an all boys boarding school some where in America (I want to say New England, but I’m not 100% sure about that!) and the rivalries and romances that ensue. This follows the members of the team (switching point of view between them) as they complete a team building exercise set by their coach to try and bring the very different personalities on the squad together and make them a closer unit. I really enjoyed it – and liked getting a glimpse what is going on with each of the team members beyond what you can see in the panels of a graphic novel.

Crane Wife by C J Hauser*

I still can’t quite work out what I think of this. Yes, it took me a while to read it, but I did go back and start again at one point so I don’t think you can really count that. There are some essays that I found really powerful, but as a whole I wasn’t sure it quite worked. I found that I was left a little frustrated at the end by a lack of conclusion. But perhaps that is what the author wanted. I also didn’t really like the author – or at least the way she portrayed herself – so maybe that played a part in it all. Still there are some really good high points in this – not just the Crane Wife essay that people may have encountered before.

I Like You Like That by Kayla Grosse

Our heroine is Birdie, a plus sized woman and successful musician – complete with industry accolades like Grammys – who has a problem: it seems someone is stalking her. When her record company and team insists she gets a body guard she is not enthusiastic – but when the guard in question turns out to be her former school friend, Liam, she’s outright angry. They haven’t spoke in a decade – after Liam rejected her. Can they find a way forward together? So firstly: do not let the cover fool you, the stalker in the blurb is not an idle threat, this does have a strong element of romantic suspense running through it, despite the drawn cover and the pastels. That’s not a reservation- that’s just a note to expect peril! My reservations on this were revolved around Liam’s rejection of Birdie back in the day, which for reasons I can’t really explain without spoilers was either completely un fixable or something that should have been solved immediately by having a simple conversation. In any event: don’t confess your love via DM/IM.

And that’s your lot for this month – a reminder that the Books of the Week in August were Chef’s Kiss, Small Miracles, Dating Dr Dil and Forget Me Not.

Happy Wednesday