Joyce Carol Oates’s Top Ten List

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866).

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922).

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929).

The poems of Emily Dickinson (1830–86).

The stories of Franz Kafka (1883–1924).

The Red and the Black by Stendhal (1830).

The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence (1915).

Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence (1920).

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851).

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884).

New List by Ann Patchett

1.Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877).
2.One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967).
3.Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955).
4.The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (1924).
5.The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925).
6.So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1979).
7.The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (1915).
8.Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West (1933).
9.Persuasion by Jane Austen (1817).
10.The Human Stain by Philip Roth (2000).

Link to lists including All-Time Top Ten Lists at https://www.toptenbooks.net/all-author-list

Nestled in a wooded bower, in the middle of spreading cornfields, just over the Michigan line, is the quiet, unassuming home of a couple who have spent their lives simply pursuing their love of the arts.  A humble, delightful pair, who by all modern standards would be labeled quirky children of the ‘60s, Bruce and Ann Tubbs exemplify the beauty that comes from a lifetime of pursuing their artistic dreams.  Ann Tubbs is known throughout the region as one of the foremost potters, specializing in colorfully ebullient majolica ware and tiles with her own distinctive flair.  Bruce, however, not as known locally, has made his impact around the world with his rather unique musical craft.  The retired lower school teacher from Maumee Valley Country Day School in Toledo, Ohio is an expert when it comes to all things French horn.  Not in performance--though he is no slouch in that department--but in the restoration and repair of instruments which have suffered the ravages of time.  His lifelong passion is evident from the moment one enters their wooded drive.  French Horn bells dangle festively from the surrounding trees in a free-form riot of artistic joie de vivre.  “It’s funny, there really are no true horn ‘manufacturers’ these days building from scratch.  Most companies actually just purchase already shaped parts and pieces from individuals who specialize in one part of the instrument:  bells, valves, bent tubing.  The companies assemble them, for a very high price, I might add.  “I found myself as the middleman in all of this.  There needed to be someone who did this for those who could not afford top dollar.  I rebuilt horns for those people; the aficionados who love the instrument but aren’t necessarily the top-tier, world-class players.  My clients are the people who play for the love of playing.”  He continued, “I’ve sent instruments all over the world.  Shipping can be a problem as some countries have very strict rules on the size of parcels which can be mailed.  Several times I’ve solved this dilemma by working with the American Consulates in the countries located near the purchasers.  I ship to the embassy, and the receiver picks it up from them.”  Wayne F. Anthony  https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/music-theater-dance/2020/05/28/restoring-instruments-as-much-an-art-as-playing-them-french-horns-bruce-tubbs/stories/20200528004

According to the Billiard Congress of America, billiards was developed out of a lawn game similar to croquet in the 15th century.  When play moved indoors, green tables were used to simulate grass.  Originally, the balls in billiards were driven by a mace with a large tip instead of a stick and through something similar to a croquet wick.  The game evolved and expanded over time to include pocketed tables and shot-calling for points, enjoying wide popularity in America in the 1920s.  The term billiards comes from the French words billart ("wooden stick") and bille ("ball").  As the popularity of billiards grew, billiards tables became common sights in gambling parlors where horse racing wagers or other bets were being placed.  Because a collection of wagers is known as a pool, pocket billiards began to be associated with the term.  Some professional pool players still use the term billiards to describe what's more commonly known as pool.  Typically, billiards can refer to any kind of tabletop game played with a cue stick and cue ball, while pool largely means a game with pockets.  In the UK, however, billiards can refer to English Billiards, a variation in which only three balls are used, with the player striking his cue ball and a red striker ball to move his opponent's cue ball.  There are no pockets used in the game.  You may wonder where this leaves snooker, an even more obscure game.  Since it's played with a cue and a cue ball, it's technically billiards, but snooker has a specific rule set involving 22 balls that need to be sunk with consideration given to each color's point value.  At 10 to 12 feet in length, a snooker table is also larger than a conventional pool surface (from 7 to 9 feet) and its pockets are an inch smaller in diameter.  The bottom line?  If you're in a social setting and get challenged to a game of billiards, it's probably going to be pool.  If you're in the UK, it could mean the pocket-less version.  Jake Rossen  https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/582807/whats-difference-between-pool-and-billiards

June 2, 2020  The literary estates of 12 late authors have been acquired by the newly formed London- and New York-based company International Literary Properties, with the hope that the properties can be adapted for film and TV.  The eight-figure deal was made with one of the longest-established literary and talent agencies in the U.K. Peters, Fraser + Dunlo—and sees ILP acquire the rights formerly held by the agency for the literary estates of Georges Simenon, Eric Ambler, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, Dennis Wheatley, Robert Bolt, Richard Hull, George Bellairs, Nicolas Freeling, John Creasey, Michael Innes and Evelyn Waugh.  This deal is the first major slate of acquisitions announced by ILP, which will pro­actively manage the estates it buys or buys into, working with agents to support their exploitation across all media platforms.  Alex Ritman  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/newly-launched-literary-rights-group-acquires-estates-12-authors-1296789

We owe much to the fruitful meditation of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen.  Joseph Conrad  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1511043-we-owe-much-to-the-fruitful-meditation-of-our-sages

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.  William Shakespeare  https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/errors/page_52/

VIRUS VIEWS  “This is the time for awareness.  Time to quietly share love  Time to savor the gift of now  Time to forget to rush”  extract from Locked Down, a poem by Dosia Carlson  Thank you, Muse reader!

Twelve German postal workers received medical treatment and dozens more were evacuated due to a pungent suspect package--which turned out to be a shipment of the notoriously smelly durian fruit.  Police, firefighters and emergency services were called to a post office in the Bavarian town of Schweinfurt on June 20, 2020 after staff noticed the smell coming from a package.  Six ambulances, five first-responder cars and two emergency vehicles attended the incident.  Three different fire departments were also involved.  It turned out to contain four Thai durian fruits, which a 50-year-old resident of the town had sent home from a friend in Nuremberg.  The fruit was eventually delivered to its intended recipient.  It's not the first time durian has caused a panic.  Last year, staff at the University of Canberra library were forced to evacuate the building due to a suspected gas leak, but a search revealed the stench was in fact caused by the fruit.  And in November 2018, a cargo of durian caused an Indonesian plane to be temporarily grounded after passengers complained about the fruit's room-clearing stench in the cabin.  Rob Picheta and Frederik Pleitgen   https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/europe/durian-germany-evacuation-scli-intl-grm/index.html  Thank you, Muse reader!

Archaelogists on June 22, 2020 announced the discovery of a ring of shafts about 2 miles away from ancient stones at Stonehenge in Salisbury, England.  The latest revelation is the discovery of a ring of at least 20 prehistoric shafts about 2 miles from the famous Neolithic site of immense upright stones, according to an announcement from the University of Bradford.  Archaeologists say the "astonishing" shafts in Durrington Walls date back to 2,500 B.C.E., and form a circle more than 2 km (1.2 miles) in diameter.  Each one measures up to 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter and 5 meters (16 feet) deep.

Researchers say there may have been more than 30 of the shafts at one time.  Vanessa Romo  https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/881970286/immense-neolithic-ring-discovered-near-stonehenge

The White House is now considering raising levies on wine from the European Union to 100% from 25% citing a lack of progress in negotiations over an Airbus-Boeing dispute.  The Wall Street Journal  June 26, 2020

The first book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published on June 26 in the United Kingdom in 1997.  See also https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muggle#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2290  June 26, 2020