On leaving Atlanta

Aug. 8, 2017

I write on a kitchen counter cluttered with all the items that were removed from side tables that have also since been removed – the house is empty and I think we are, too. We are for all intents and purposes departed – most of the goodbyes have already been said, the personal effects carted away. But we are lingering in a skeleton of a home so we can clean. 

Strange to think I don’t like goodbyes since with all the moving about over the years, I say them much more often than the average person.

How do I feel? Well, I've dipped into Van Morrison (“St. Dominick’s Preview”) so I am courting the ache. Plus, all the reporting for Delta and the AJC Personal Journeys essay. I am stewing in nostalgia, by choice, as if to throw a bucket of cold water on my face: You’re leaving, you’re leaving, you’re really doing it, Jeanne. 

***
Lost diary entry

Here's what I read (2019)

I've set myself a goal of reading 50 books this year. Not sure I will make it! (I note, sadly). I started off with a set of particular books I planned to read but have had quite the year of exploring new books and of deliberately seeking out books in the genres I most interested in cultivating (books from the Fascist period in Italy, for example). That means that I often will put aside a book I am reading to make room for a new arrivel. Hence, the best laid plans of mice and men....But here's what I've been reading and here's what I plan to read:

Books I've already read:
L'Isola di Arturo -- Elsa Morante
La Lunga Vita di Marianna Ucria -- Dacia Maraini
Sagittario -- Natalia Ginzburg
Le voci della sera -- Natalia Ginzburg (re-read)
Happiness as Such -- Natalia Ginzburg
Suspended Sentences -- Patrick Modiano
Paris Nocturne -- Patrick Modiano
Villa Triste -- Patrick Modiano
Suspended Sentences -- Patrick Modiano
L'uomo che non ho sposato -- Rossano Campo
Country Girl (memoir) -- Edna O'Brien
Harry Potter, Book #4
Wide Sargasso Sea -- Jean Rhys
Best American Essays, 2018
Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewell -- Pico Iyer
Starting Out in the Evening -- Brian Morton
A Girl Returned -- Donatella Di Pietrantonio


Books I've begun to read
Menzogna e sortilegio -- Elsa Morante (insanely long -- may take a while!)

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous -- Ocean Vuong
Lost in the Spanish Quarter -- Heddi Goodrich
Le parole tra noi leggere -- Lalla Romano

Books I'd like to read but unsure if I will find

A Stranger's Pose -- Emanuel Iduma

A Small Place -- Jamaica Kincaid

Books I planned to read when I began this list:
Tutti i nostri ieri -- Natalia Ginzburg (AGAIN)
Cattiva -- Rossella Milone
Il Partigiano Johnny -- Beppe Fenoglio
County Girls (fiction) -- Edna O'Brien
“The Brutal Friendship” by Deakin

“War in Italy, 1943-1945” by R. Lamb

Annual re-reading
A Christmas Carol -- Charles Dickens (have read it now several years -- we'll see if I get to it)

Books I'm re-reading for my Literature of Travel class (not sure they count -- b/c skimming in part)
Tropic of Cancer -- H. Miller
Il Giorno della Civetta/Day of the Owl (first time reading it in English!) -- Sciascia
Out of Africa
Aran Islands -- Synge