Peter's Updates en-US Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:03:30 -0700 60 Peter's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7491341930 Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:03:30 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter added 'The Best We Could']]> /review/show/7491341930 The Best We Could by Emily Feldman Peter gave 4 stars to The Best We Could (a family tragedy) by Emily Feldman
Entering rehearsals for a production opening in June.

This play is quite good, a reimagining of Miller's "Death of a Salesman." It's funny. and also even harrowing. ]]> Review7491337430 Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:01:40 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter added 'Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor']]> /review/show/7491337430 Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi Peter gave 3 stars to Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor (Kindle Edition) by Yossi Klein Halevi
]]> Review7209164855 Sun, 12 Jan 2025 20:35:19 -0800 <![CDATA[Peter added 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles']]> /review/show/7209164855 The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie Peter gave 4 stars to The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1) by Agatha Christie
This is not Christie's best - it's pretty much a model of the kind of puzzle that readers call unfair - but it's her first novel, and it's also our first introduction to Hercule Poirot. What I find most intriguing is that mysterious character (already about 60 years old when we meet him), his justifications for his own secrecy, and his method of "little ideas." Poirot doesn't just penetrate the surface to discover the crime; he lives beneath the surface and sees human beings in a different way than most of us can. ]]> Review7012523738 Sun, 17 Nov 2024 10:41:55 -0800 <![CDATA[Peter added 'Every Brilliant Thing']]> /review/show/7012523738 Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan Peter gave 4 stars to Every Brilliant Thing (Paperback) by Duncan Macmillan
Entering rehearsals for this gem. It's an interactive one-person show about facing personal demons. The first time I read it, I wept. Very well-structured; very much a communal theatre event. ]]> Review6761879124 Thu, 15 Aug 2024 13:26:54 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter added 'Eurydice']]> /review/show/6761879124 Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl Peter gave 4 stars to Eurydice (Paperback) by Sarah Ruhl
]]> Review6761878466 Thu, 15 Aug 2024 13:26:38 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter added 'The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics']]> /review/show/6761878466 The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown Peter gave 5 stars to The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Hardcover) by Daniel James Brown
]]> ReadStatus8289597854 Thu, 15 Aug 2024 13:26:07 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter has read 'The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics']]> /review/show/6761878466 The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown Peter has read The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
]]> Rating760302913 Thu, 15 Aug 2024 13:25:00 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter Josephson liked a readstatus]]> /
Peter liked Jimmy’s status update
Jimmy Stewart Jimmy Stewart wants to read Columbo
]]> Review6760764603 Thu, 15 Aug 2024 05:38:29 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter added 'Uncle Vanya']]> /review/show/6760764603 Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov Peter gave 4 stars to Uncle Vanya (TCG Classic Russian Drama Series) by Anton Chekhov
A reworking of The Wood Demon, but written after The Seagull. Actually, it's kind of the model for a "Chekhov" play. Written at Melikhovo, 40 miles south of Moscow, where Chekhov lived and worked (as the town doctor, and a kind of amateur forester; he also oversaw the building of three schools).

In the 1899 production, Stanislavsky played Astrov.

It really is a great play, but quite strange. What is the resolution of the family dynamic? So much seems unresolved, and yet the unresolved resolution is pretty much life, isn't it?

Nelson, Pevear, and Volokhonsky produce a quite accurate translation, and that's it's great virtue. Pevear notes in the introduction that "Sonya is the only one who can call Vanya 'uncle.' Chekhov suggests by the title that their relationship is at the heart of the play," and in the end they are alone on stage, working and dreaming of rest.
]]> Rating760165526 Thu, 15 Aug 2024 05:36:43 -0700 <![CDATA[Peter Josephson liked a review]]> /
Peter liked Meg Cronin's review of James:
James by Percival Everett
]]>