Monthly Archives: June 2018

“Constanze took to cutting his meat at table so he wouldn’t slice up his fingers.”

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Kate Stover

Mozart was famously fidgety – he constantly drummed his fingers and was unable to even wash his hands without pacing. Apparently, Mozart’s wife Constanze didn’t trust him with a knife because he was prone to injuring himself.  So, in addition … Continue reading →

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“He felt as if he was never again going to know the reason for anything he did.”

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Kate Stover

Why read novels?  Jonathan Franzen argues in a Harper’s essay that people are drawn to strong fiction because they like to engage in complex stories that  don’t have simple resolutions. In Anne Tyler’s first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, the … Continue reading →

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“I could feel nothing except the burden of my own life and the exhaustion, the apparent futility, of trying to sustain it.”

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Kate Stover

This week, the Centers for Disease Control released a report that said that suicide rates in the United States have risen nearly 30% since 1999. With the issue of mental health in the news so frequently lately, I am looking … Continue reading →

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“The failure was flooded with genius.”

Posted on June 1, 2018 by Kate Stover

This book focuses on one remarkable ten-month period when some of the most interesting people in the world – Sigmund Freud, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Gustav Klimt – lived in Vienna, which had one of the highest suicide rates in … Continue reading →

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