BOOKS READ IN 2021

In and out of a pandemic, reading remains one of the great joys of my life. I host a book program on WOSU/89-7NPR News the third Friday of ever month, at 11 .a.m. Join us! Streaming live on www.wosu.org

 These are the books I read in 2021.

*=Recommended

HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITES FROM 2021

MORE FAVORITES ARE PICTURED

A Promised Land   Barak Obama

Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise   Scott Eyman

*Bread and Wine Ignazio Silone

The Lying Life of Adults Elena Ferrante

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48616787-the-lying-life-of-adults

*Mozart Reign of Love Jan Swafford

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You Jason Reynolds Abram X, Kendo

Eleanor (Roosevelt) David Michalis

Memorial Bryan Washington

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48902303-memorial

Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life

    by Christie Tate

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50891570-group

V2: A novel of WW II Robert Harris

The Duke’s Children Anthony Trollope (Palliser VI)

MORE FAVORITES FROM  2021:

The Order Daniel Silva

*The Ancient Hours Michael Bible

   https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647236/the-ancient-hours-by-michael-bible/

Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour 1932-1976 by Neal Gabler

Trio by William Boyd

   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/24/trio-by-william-boyd-review-superbly-wry-and-wise

Black Narcissus   Rumer Godden

Sergeant Salinger Jerome Charyn

Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes Ira Rosen

*Foregone   Russell Banks

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/foregone-book-review/2021/03/08/5356c2ba-7fb7-11eb-81db-b02f0398f49a_story.html

 MORE FAVORITES:

Wonder Boys Michael Chabon

Fire Shut Up in my Bones Charles Blow

*Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klara_and_the_Sun

*Landslide by Susan Conley

   http://www.susanconley.com/landslide

*The Truth at the Heart of the Lie: How the Catholic Church Lost its Soul James Carroll

   https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635408/the-truth-at-the-heart-of-the-lie-by-james-carroll/

Elizabeth and Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor sisters by Andrew Morton

 

*The Fourth Child by Jessica Winter

   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/books/review/the-fourth-child-jessia-winter.html

Everything was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chapin

Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway Michael Riedel

 

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

    https://angiethomas.com/concrete-rose/

Beautiful Things by Hunter Biden

Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig

My Heart by Semezdin Mehemedinovic

      https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/books/review/semezdin-mehmedinovic-my-heart.html

April Morning by Howard Fast

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner 

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolly_Willowes

 

Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway by Michael Riedel

Philip Roth by Blake Bailey

I Married a Communist by Philip Roth

Mother Teresa Behind the Image by Anne Sebba

*As I Am by Cicely Tyson

Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens

*Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgery

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53362504-remote-sympathy

Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba

*Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning by Philip Kennicott

*Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48822627-morningside-heights

Silver Girl by Erin Hildebrand

 

*Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife by Ariel Sabar

Antony and Cleopatra Shakespeare

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

   https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jean-hanff-korelitz/the-plot-korelitz/

Monkey Boy Francisco Goldman

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55825854-monkey-boy

 

Prima Donna: The Psychology of Maria Callas by Paul Wink

Macbeth Shakespeare

 

*Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55573130-rainbow-milk

 

The Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

   https://chrisbohjalian.com/hour-of-the-witch/

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/books/review/while-justice-sleeps-stacey-abrams.html

 

Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War by Jeff Shesol

 

The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm by Mark Sebastian Jordan

 

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbi Weiben

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48678117-winter-counts

King Richard: Nixon and Watergate an American Tragedy by Michael Dobbs

Hamlet Shakespeare

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

*Home Stretch by Graham Norton

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55919304-home-stretch

Every Minute is a Day: A Doctor, an Emergency Room and a City Under Siege by Robert Meyer, MD and Dan Koeppel

The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid   by Laurence Wright

The Master by Colm Toibin (Henry James)

Sooley by John Grisham

   https://www.jgrisham.com/books/sooley/

 

The Vixen by Francine prose (Ethel Rosenberg)

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55507033-the-vixen

An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln by Michael Burlingame

***********A Book of Hours: Music, Literature and Life, A Memoir by Father M. Owen Lee

The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55502632-the-great-mistake

 

 

The End of October by Lawrence Wright

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52669505-the-end-of-october#:~:text=%22The%20End%20of%20October%22%20was%20written%20pre-CoViD-19.%20See,lazily%20written%20book%20but%20it%20is%20poorly%20written.

 

*Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette

     https://www.harvard.com/book/agatha_of_little_neon/

*A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes by Rodrigo Garcia (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mercedes Baracha)

 

*The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108620.The_Beginning_of_Spring

A Keeper by Graham Norton

      https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40934989-a-keeper

 

*Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by Gail Crowder

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54304135-three-martini-afternoons-at-the-ritz#:~:text=Three-Martini%20Afternoons%20at%20the%20Ritz%20by%20Gail%20Crowther,drinking%20martinis%20at%20the%20Ritz-Carlton%20Hotel%20in%20Boston.

**Ramadan Ramsey by Louis Edwards

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55919294-ramadan-ramsey?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=bfn9fdgUzW&rank=1

 

***We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation by Eric Garcia

*Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

   https://molib2go.overdrive.com/media/5274546

 

Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George by James Lapine

Finding Freedom: Meghan and Harry and the Making of a Modern Royal Family

Festival Days (essays) JoAnn Beard

*The Fourth State of Matter (essay) JoAnn Beard

**The Magician Colm Toibin (Thomas Mann)

Stolen: A Memoir Elizabeth Gilpin

The Ninth Hour Alice McDermott

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33931059-the-ninth-hour

All the Frequent Troubles of our Days: The True Story of an American Woman at the Heart of German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner (Mildred Harnack)

Apples Never Fall by Lianne Moriarty

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56143578-apples-never-fall

 

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito

   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/books/review/mrs-march-virginia-feito.html

*Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

   https://jonathanfranzen.com/project/crossroads/

 

American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh

   https://www.sayrafiezadeh.com/american-estrangement

*Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36373425-lying-in-wait

 

*Matrix by Lauren Groff

   https://www.npr.org/2021/09/06/1031907772/matrix-lauren-groff-book-review

**When We Cease To understand the World Benjamin Labatut

   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/books/review/benjamin-labatut-cease-understand-world.html

Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor

   https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/4332/lean-fall-stand#:~:text=In%20Lean%20Fall%20Stand%2C%20the%20main%20character%20suffers,ability%20to%20understand%20or%20express%20speech%20is%20aphasia.

*The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish

   https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552619/the-war-for-gloria-by-atticus-lish/

Oh, William by Elizabeth Strout

   https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56294820-oh-william

*Mr. Beethoven by Paul Griffiths

   https://www.nyrb.com/products/mr-beethoven?variant=37889862893736

*Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

The Tobacconist

 The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34838346-the-tobacconist

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

 We are the Brennans by Tracey Lange

      https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55169040-we-are-the-brennans

Peril by Bob Woodward and Bob Costa

*Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/this-lawn-boy-asks-wheres-my-part-of-the-american-dream/2018/04/10/ed03e7de-3cf9-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html

The Boys by Ron Howard and Clint Howard

*The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

   https://www.amortowles.com/the-lincoln-highway-about-the-book/

FAVORITES:

**The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage

      https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128073.The_Power_of_the_Dog

Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut (E. M. Forster)

   https://books.google.com/books/about/Arctic_Summer.html?id=LRVE0nG9oNkC&source=kp_book_description

Going There by Katie Couric

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

    https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670375/hell-of-a-book-by-jason-mott/

 

*Bewilderment by Richard Powers

   https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039090479/richard-powers-bewilderment-review

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Handy

Never by Ken Follett (nuclear war thriller)

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57747930-never

*Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58662236-small-things-like-these

Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul

   https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48896281-jackie-and-maria

Both/And by Huma Abedin

*Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54626223-harlem-shuffle

Vanderbilt The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty  Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe

Garbo by Robert Gottlieb

The Final Case David Guterson

  

CONCERTS AT OHIO STATE 2022

 CONCERTS AT OHIO STATE 2022 ON CLASSICAL 101

 The intro to these programs is easy. “Performances by the students and faculty of the School of Music at The Ohio State University. “

 Like everyone else, our School of Music is emerging from the pandemic to a new season of concerts performed to live audiences on and off campus, and live-streamed. In short, “They’re back!”

 Very soon WOSU and the School of Music will be neighbors. You may have noticed the construction going on behind the Wexner Center, facing College Road. The Timashev Family Music Building will be the school’s new home. WOSU is across the street in a wonderful new building at 1800 N. Pearl. State of the art technology and groovy new digs will enable more and better collaboration between all University departments and WOSU.

 Sundays at 1 pm in January and February, join classical 101 for the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band, Wind Ensembles, Jazz Ensembles, Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs and University Chorale.

 

Timashev Family building

Highlights:

 

The Fire Remains: In Memorial Daniel McDaniel by Linda Kernohan. Linda is a new member of the Classical 101 family. You may have already heard her on air. This beautiful new work has poignant back story.

 

I’m excited to offer more performances by Miriam Burns and her students. Miriam is Director of Orchestras at Ohio State, and an alumna.

We have a world premiere to share! Zigzag by Julia Wolfe, with the OSU Wind Symphony conducted by Russel Mikkelson.

 

Russel Mikkelson

I’ve fallen in love with a short choral work I hadn’t heard before, Hebe by Ernest Chausson, sung by the Women’s Glee Club.

 

Beloved faculty members Katherine Borst Jones and Russel Mikkelson lead their student ensembles. Shawn Wallace and the OSU Jazz Lab burn the place down and then some!

 

And there wouldn’t be a series like this without Ohio State Fight Songs and hits from TBDBITL!

 

I’ve asked the wonderful Tamara Morris, Communication and PR guru at the School of Music to offer some annotation. She and her colleague Jayne Allison has also provided links to all the performers.

 

JAN 2

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Abduction from the Seraglio Overture

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra / Samantha Burgess, graduate associate conductor

[9/22]

§  C

Ernesto Lecuona, arr. Sammy Nestico: Malagueña                                            

Collegiate Winds / David Hedgecoth, conductor

[9/28 Latin concert]

 Giovanni Santos: Lamento

Collegiate Winds / Jay Wardeska, graduate associate conductor                          

[9/28]

 Tony Osborne: Free Spirit: Andante con calma, in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales

Katherine L. Rohrer, mezzo-soprano; Barry Green, double bass; Dianne Frazier, piano

[9/13 Faculty Collage]

 Stephen Sondheim, arr. Marisa Youngs: Send in the Clowns                            

Timothy Leasure, flugelhorn; Sterling Tanner, trombone; Ed Bak, piano

[9/13]

 Lori Laitman: I Never Saw Another Butterfly, V. Man Proposes, God Disposes; VI. The Old House

Lara Semetko Brooks, soprano; Robert Brooks, saxophone

[9/13]

§  f

 John "Dizzy" Gillespie, arr. John Wasson: Groovin’ High                                   

Dizzy Gillespie, arr. Mike Tomaro: Woody'n You                 

Jazz Lab Big Band / Mike Smith, director

[11/16]

 Ohio State Fight Songs                                                                                     

Men’s Glee Club / Robert J. Ward, conductor

 JANUARY 9

 Florence Price: Night

Juliet White-Smith, viola; Ed Bak, piano

[9/13]

 César Alejandro Carillo: Ave Maria                                                                             

Flute Troupe / Katherine Borst Jones, director

[9/28]

 Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra /  Miriam Burns

 Ernest Chausson/arr. Mari Esabel Valverde: Hébé                                

Women’s Glee Club / Jordan Saul, conductor; Casey L. Cook, pianist

[9/28]

 John Clayton: Groove Shop

Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, arr. John Clayton: Hold on my Heart             

Jazz Ensemble / Shawn Wallace, director

[11/12]

 JAN 16

 Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla Ohio State Symphony Orchestra/Miriam Burns

 George Walker: Lyric for Strings                                                           

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra / Miriam Burns

[4/21]

 Alan Hovhaness: Meditation on Andalus, Op. 156, for solo flute       

Katherine Borst Jones, flute

[9/13]

 Stephen Sondheim, arr. Marisa Youngs: Send in the Clowns                            

Timothy Leasure, flugelhorn; Sterling Tanner, trombone; Ed Bak, piano

[9/13]

 Heitor Villa-Lobos: Estrela é lua nova                        

Chorale / Robert Bode, conductor; Lee Thompson, pianist; Liz Arteta, soloist

[9/28/21]

 Mark Duggan: Three Americas: I. Choro

Susan Powell, vibraphone; Amelia Duplain, marimba

[9/13]

 

Dvorak: Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90 Dumky:

George Walker: Lyric for Strings Ohio State Symphony Orchestra/Miriam Burns

 

JAN 23

 Edward Kilenyi: El Trobador

Ariel Alvarado, voice; Sean Ferguson, guitar                              

[9/28]

Robert Kurka: The Good Soldier Schweik Suite                          

Wind Symphony / Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor

[3/29/21]

 Handel: Harmonious Blacksmith

Debussy: Clair de lune

Caroline Hong, piano.

 Sergei Prokofiev, arr. Ândreas Zubaran: March from The Love for Three Oranges   

Traditional, arr. Ândreas Zubaran: Volga Boatmen

Ohio State Buckeye Basses

Barry Green, professor of double bass; Miriam Burns, conductor

[9/29]

 John "Dizzy" Gillespie: Salt Peanuts

Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Fuller and Luciano Puzo Gonzales (Chano Pozo), arr. John Berry: Manteca

Jazz Lab Big Band / Mike Smith, director

 JAN 30

 Franz Schubert: Impromptus, Op. 90: I in C Minor; II in E flat Major

Steven Glaser, piano

[4/1/2019]

 Antonín Dvořák: Symphony 7 in D minor, Op. 70                                             

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra / Miriam Burns, conductor

[10/21]

 

FEB 6

Linda Kernohan (DMA student): The Fire Remains: in Memoriam Daniel McMichael

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra / Jae Park, graduate associate conductor

[10/21]

§  

 Roland L. Moehlmann: Prelude and Fugue in B-flat                                         

University Band / Dustin Ferguson, graduate associate conductor

[10/12]

 Traditional: Taoya shik no la

James Akins, Native American flute; Dianne Frazier, synthesizer

[9/13]

 Bradley Ellingboe, arranger: How Can I Keep from Singing?                  

Nancy Hill Cobb: Terminus

Brant Adams: Música

Dan Davison: Shout for Joy!

Men’s Glee Club / Robert J. Ward, director; conducted by Colin Knoth, graduate associate

[10/10 Choral Collage]

 FEB 13

 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture−Fantasy                      

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra

Miriam Burns, director; conducted by Jae Park, graduate associate

[11/21]

 Jacob Naverud: Let the Music Fill Your Soul

Andrea Ramsey: That Which Remains

Heitor Villa-Lobos: Estrela é lua nova                                           

William Averitt: Fire!

Ohio State Chorale / Robert Bode, conductor; Lee Thompson, piano; Xin Su, piano

[10/10]

 Jennifer Higdon: Mysterium

Wind Symphony / Russel C. Mikkelson, director; conducted by Daniel Farr, graduate associate

[11/17/21]

 Julia Wolfe: Zigzag                                                                                            

World premiere performance

Wind Symphony / Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor

[11/17]

 
 FEB 20

 Leonard Bernstein: Elegy for Mippy

Sterling Tanner, trombone

[9/13]

 Alyssa Morris: Where do children come from? I. The Circus

Abby Yeakle Held, oboe; Casey L. Cook, piano                                                      

[9/13]

 Mika (Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.): Grace Kelly

Traditional: Sesere Eeye

Women’s Glee Club /  Jordan Saul, conductor; Casey L. Cook, pianist

[10/10]

 W. A. Mozart: Symphony 29 in A, K. 201

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra / Miriam Burns, director; Jae Park, graduate associate, conducts Mvt. II

FEB 27

 Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto 3 in D Minor, Op. 30

Sungwhan Kim, piano                                                                             

Ohio State Symphony Orchestra / Miriam Burns, conductor.

 Campus Favorites!

The Ohio State University Marching Band / Christopher Hoch