MORE MISCELLANY

I read Calvin Trillin’s sweet, funny, sad little tribute to his late wife, About Alice, and a recently-rediscovered favorite childhood book, Betsy’s Up-and-Down Year by Anne Pellowski. (Does anyone else remember these books, about Polish-American girls growing up during various time periods on farms near Winona, Minnesota? Other titles include Willow Wind Farm: Betsy’s Story, and Stairstep Farm: Anna Rose’s Story.) I’m still working on Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert, and have been suckered into reading yet another shiny new library book, Simon Winder’s fizzy and fascinating The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey Into the Disturbing World of James Bond, which examines James Bond in his sociopolitical context; i.e., the fall of the British empire. I’m really enjoying it—I expected it to be entertaining, but am surprised to also find it so enlightening.