Carnivalesque LXIV, an early modern edition of the festival, is up at Dainty Ballerina's Fragments!

Jay Parini,"The Tolstoys' War," NYT, 18 July, reviews Alexandra Popoff's Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography.

"The Agony and the Ecstasy," The Economist, 8 July, reviews Norman Lebrecht's Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World.

Brian Ladd,"Made in Germany," NYT, 18 July, reviews Peter Watson's The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century.

William Boyd,"Man as an Island," NYT, 18 July, reviews John Carey's William Golding, The Man Who Wrote"Lord of the Flies": A Life.

Colin Thubron,"Believer's Bazaar," NYT, 18 July, reviews William Dalrymple's Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India.

Finally, twice today, I have been told

I will not slit my wrists! Tomorrow is another day. I will revise and revise.