2016 Top Ten Lists - #7

Quite a bit of our snow melted last night. It was above zero, windy and even a bit rainy. At least the sidewalks are a bit improved, so I decided to go for a morning run instead of waiting to go to the gym. Anyway, on to my 2016 continuing list of songs and books. On tap today are my #7s.

Number 7

Song Selection

C Duncan - Wanted to Want it Too

My #7 song is from Scottish musician, C Duncan. He has a nice orchestral, dramatic sound. Wanted to Want it Too is from his 2016 album, The Midnight Sun. (You can hear the song by clicking on the song title under his photo.)

Book Selection

Robertson Davies' The Lyre of Orpheus is the third book in his Cornish trilogy. I read it in April as part of my 12 + 4 challenge, where I focused on Canadian authors. Like most trilogies, I enjoyed the first book and this final book the most. The second was well-written but just didn't grab me like this one did. My review of the book is below.

"This is the 3rd book in the Cornish trilogy. I enjoyed the first, The Rebel Angels, very much. It had been most enjoyable to get back into Robertson Davies. The second book, What's Bred in the Bone, while interesting, didn't hold the same level of enjoyment that the first did. So The Lyre of Orpheus has sat on my shelf for a couple of years now. I'm so glad that I dusted it off and got back into this trilogy.
It was excellent. I loved everything about this; the writing, the characters, the story. The basic story is that the Cornish foundation, run by Arthur Cornish and his lovely wife, Maria, and assisted by a loose collection of directors, agrees to use Cornish foundation money, to fund the doctoral work of a young music student, Hulda Schnakenburg. She is trying to complete an unfinished opera by Hoffman, the Story of Arthur of Britain. A concurrent story has Simon Darcourt, old friend of Francis Cornish and of Arthur and Maria, seeking to complete a biography of Francis Cornish.
The investigation into this biography, to find out the missing middle of Francis' life and the development of the opera, are fascinating stories. The characters, from the main ones, as well as Schnak and the others brought in to help with the creation of the opera, were lovingly written and so interesting. I won't say I'm an opera fan, but watching the creation and development and the ultimate presentation of this opera, was a joy to read.
Throw in asides by the spirit of Hoffman, throughout the story, as he watches from Limbo and waits to see what the ultimate result will be, and you've got a wonderfully rich story. Sex, cuckoldry and just downright entertainment. It's a fantastic, wonderful story. A perfect ending to this trilogy."

I'll continue with this theme tomorrow with my #6's and maybe also do a post updating the work on our extra bedroom.