My niece, etc.

Ana shares this photo of David and little Ada.


What a sweetie!

Tomorrow, Karin & I will spend some time with my high school friend, Dan, and his wife and three young children. They recently moved from Vermont to southwestern Michigan.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My current reading:

(1) Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves (1957), revised by some other dude (2007).

(2) Michael Grant, The Twelve Caesars.

“Robert Graves’ Penguin version … is entertaining, but has to be used with caution.”

Yes, I expect that Graves sneaks in a few extra poisonings.

(3) Terri Jentz, Strange Piece of Paradise.

True crime.

Vacationing from Yale, the author camps out in the Oregon desert and is mutilated by a mysterious axeman. Decades later, she returns to the scene to seek out the axeman, his motive, and cosmic meaning.

The book is highly introspective: was the author’s trauma due to herself, or to the axeman? The author writes 100+ pages before even considering the latter possibility.

Still, it isn’t bad.

(4) Lois Duncan, Down a Dark Hall, original 1974 version.

This classic gothic school novel is by the author of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Stranger with My Face.

(The 2011 update incorporates new technology – email, cell phones, etc. – NO GOOD.)

To be continued. …