Books and Chocolate

The Classics Challenge: February Prompt

2012-02-12T10:59:00.005-06:00

Mr. Pecksniff and Old Martin Chuzzlewit

This month's Classics Challenge Prompt is to write about characters. I'm currently attempting to read Martin Chuzzlewit, one of Charles Dickens' lesser known novels. It wasn't my first choice for Dickens but one of my online groups is reading it and it was on the TBR shelf, so I decided to give it a shot.

I've read about 150 pages so far and unfortunately not much is happening -- I don't even know enough about any particular character to really write about, so I'll give a bit about each one, as well as I can remember. Dickens tends to throw a lot of different characters and situations at the reader in the first parts of his books; eventually, everything will tie up together somehow and all will be revealed. Well, sort of.

Right now there are a lot of unpleasant characters, and a lot of them are named Chuzzlewit. There are in fact two Martin Chuzzlewits in the story, Martin the elder and Martin the younger. Martin the elder is a cantankerous old man with a lot of money, and an incomplete will. He's traveling with a young woman Mary who is some kind of ward, when he appears to fall ill. Suddenly the relatives appear out of the woodwork, to kiss up and try and ingratiate themselves. They all show up at the inn where Martin is staying and start arguing amongst themselves. It's kind of like a contest to see which one is the most revolting and annoying.

Meanwhile, another Chuzzlewit shows up in the vicinity, unbeknownst to the other relatives. He's Martin the younger, a grandson who has fallen out of favor with Martin the elder. By a complete and utter coincidence -- lots of these in Dickens novels -- young Martin has just arrived in the village to study architecture with his cousin, Mr. Pecksniff. Like his name implies, Pecksniff is an annoying character, very full of himself, scheming, and hypocritical. He has two unmarried daughters and is hoping to marry one of them off to Martin. It also appears that he's going to get Martin to do all his work, then take all the credit. I anticipate lots of horrible behavior from him based on his name alone -- Dickens is brilliant at giving vile characters such appropriate names!

The character I like best so far is Tom Pinch, who works for the Pecksniffs. I'm not exactly sure what he does. He seems to be an all-around helper, definitely some sort of servant, and the Pecksniffs are very condescending to him. However, he's kind to young Martin and seems generally good-hearted. Because he's nice, I predict that something terrible will happen to him before the book is out.

This post probably doesn't exactly fit the parameters of this month's prompt -- it's taken Dickens so long to introduce all these characters and set the scene, and as much as I love him, he is so very awfully wordy. His descriptions are great and sometimes very funny, but doggone it, I really wish something would happen already!

Bloggers, have any of you read Martin Chuzzlewit? Does it get better? It's not terrible so far but I'm just not excited about it yet.

Mrs. Craddock by W. Somerset Maugham

2012-02-07T08:14:00.000-06:00

I'm very pleased to have finally finished Mrs. Craddock. I'm a big fan of W. Somerset Maugham, and a couple of years ago I bought this one on the recommendation of Amanda from Ramblings. We're in the same real-life classics book group at the library and we both love Maugham. Our group read The Painted Veil back in 2009 and I loved it, and we're also discussing Of Human Bondage in June -- I read it years ago and it was one of the first classics I read for pleasure, so I'm really looking forward to re-reading it.

But back to Mrs. Craddock. This is one of Maugham's lesser-known works -- in fact, I'd never even heard of it until Amanda recommended it. My library didn't even own a copy, hence the purchase. I think that's a real shame because I thought it was excellent. And short -- it's only 268 pages, including footnotes. If you're looking for a good short classic, look no further.

Basically, Mrs. Craddock is the story of an unhappy marriage in the late Victorian period. Young Bertha Leys returns to England after the death of her father, with whom she lived abroad for many years. She's living with her Aunt Polly at the family estate, Leys Court, and falls in love with an attractive young man from her childhood -- it's one of the tenant farmers, Edward Craddock. Despite the class differences, she is determined to have him. There's a bit of grumbling from the family doctor and some snide comments from the neighbors, but Edward is a good, solid young man, and there aren't many other prospects for headstrong young Bertha, who is madly in love.

What follows is the breakdown of their marriage, at least from Bertha's point of view. I wouldn't say this book is defending the arguments about marrying outside one's class, but more about how hard it is to marry someone with whom one has essentially nothing in common. After the initial sexual attraction begins to wear off, these two people really have nothing in common. Edward is a good man, but he's not very educated, and not interested in books or music or travel or anything that Bertha likes. He wants to be the country squire, which he does successfully. Of course, now that they're married, everything belongs to him. She tries to make the best of things but is faced with one heartbreak after another.

This sounds really sad, and parts of it are, but the writing in this book is just wonderful, so I hope I haven't discouraged anyone from reading this book. And surprisingly, parts of this book are actually really funny -- Bertha's Aunt Polly has quite a sharp tongue and she is the queen of the one-liners. I'd love to see her go head-to-head with the Dowager Countess of Grantham on Downton Abbey (also known as Maggie Smith). In fact, Countess Violet would have been nearly the same age as Aunt Polly 30 years before, when the book begins, so there you are.

Here's a couple of great lines from Aunt Polly. Every time I read them, they sound just like Maggie Smith:

On marriage: "Most people when they get married fancy they're doing quite an original thing. It never occurs to them that quite a number of persons have committed matrimony since Adam and Eve."

On class differences: ". . . each set thinks itself quite as good as the set above it and has a profound contempt for the set below it. In fact the only members of society who hold themselves in proper estimation are the servants. I always think that the domestics of gentlemen's houses in South Kensington are several degrees less odious than their masters."

This book counts towards two challenges: The Classics Challenge 2012 and the TBR Pile Challenge 2012. I guess I could even count it towards the Victorian Challenge, since it was technically written in 1900 (though not published in 1902, so maybe that's dubious).

Recent Acquisitions

2012-02-05T09:17:00.000-06:00

It's already February and I never posted about my holiday acquisitions! Not only did I receive some nice books for Christmas, I also did a little shopping, both online and in a post-holiday trip to New York.

Here's what was under the Christmas tree:

Two audiobooks: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen AND A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin;

Two books I really really wanted: Life Below Stairs by Sian Evans (to feed my Downton Abbey addiction); and The Earth by Emile Zola. . . . and (drumroll, please. . . )

The Great Penguin Bookchase game!! I've been coveting this ever since I read about it on Thomas' blog My Porch. Thanks for telling me about it, Thomas! I haven't played it yet but I've had a lot of fun putting all the tiny little stickers on the books.

The week after Christmas I took my parents up to my favorite bookstore in the Lone Star State: Bookpeople in Austin! We had a lovely day and I bought two more books (for which I paid full price, supporting my local independent bookstore!):

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin and Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner

And a few days after Christmas I took my youngest on a her first-ever girl trip to New York City!! One of the highlights was visiting Tom, one of my dear friends from college whom I hadn't seen in ages! We were invited to a book exchange party -- everyone brought their favorite book from 2011 and we all talked about our books and swapped. My contribution was The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen. Here's what I brought home:

Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre. I haven't read much nonfiction lately but I am interested in WWII. Also, this book is actually related to one of the Persephones I read in 2011, Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper. I don't want to give anything else away but if you plan on reading all the Persephones, don't read this book until you do, because it would give away a major plot point. That's all I'll say.

But back to the New York trip! Aside from visiting friends, museums, and the fashion district, we did a little book shopping -- honestly, I can't think of a single trip I've taken in the past few years when I didn't come home with at least one new book! Naturally, we had to visit The Strand Bookstore in the Village. I managed to keep my purchases down to only two books from the sale table in the basement:

Two more NYRB Classics to add to my collection (mostly unread!): Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford and My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley. And to my delight, my daughter bought a new book for the airplane ride home -- one of my all-time favorites, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones!

On the way back to our hotel, we also stopped by Books of Wonder, the amazing children's bookstore, where I bought two more books:

The Story of The Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit and a Welsh-language copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! This brings my total of foreign language Harry Potters to twelve in all.

And by the end of the month I had broken down and made two more online purchases:

I had to buy The Last Chronicle of Barset because I finished the third book in the Barsetshire Chronicles, based on my reading of the wonderful Doctor Thorne (most of which I read while flying home from New York, because my flight was delayed). My library doesn't even own a copy! The fact that it's almost 900 pages long and there are two more books in between shall be ignored.

Finally, one of my online groups is reading one of the latest Persephones:

It's Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple. I've read two other books by her so far and loved them both. We shall disregard the fact that there are three more on the TBR shelf unread, right?

Good thing I didn't sign up for the challenge where you don't buy any more books for the first three months of the year. I would have utterly failed again!

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

2012-01-30T09:43:00.001-06:00

Sorry for not posting lately, I've worked the last seven days straight and even though I sit in front of a computer a large part of my day, I think the library administration would frown on writing my personal blog on the city's dime. By the time I get home I have no desire to write anything. But I have been reading! In the past two weeks I finished not one but TWO books off my challenges list. The first one was The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, which came highly recommended by someone in a book group years ago. I bought it at a bookstore in Orlando for the sheer purpose of getting my parking validated at a pricey shopping mall, which actually backfired -- they wouldn't validate and so I had yet another unread book on the shelf AND had to pay for parking anyway. Hmpf.

But I digress. I'd heard this was a great book but all I knew was that it was about South Africa and boxing. I find Africa fascinating but I am not a sports fan and I absolutely HATE boxing -- the idea of people beating each other up for FUN is repellent to me. It's no wonder this book sat on the shelf unread for so long. I finally sucked it up and picked up the book a couple of weeks ago, and to my surprise, I really, really liked it, boxing and all, though it's more than 500 pages long.

The setup: a little boy nicknamed, aged 5, is sent off to boarding school in South Africa in the 1930s. His mother has had some kind of a nervous breakdown and there's no father around, so they ship him off to school. Unfortunately, he's the only English boy at the school of Boers. (Did you know that the white South Africans hated each other as well as the black South Africans? I had no idea.) So, not only does this little boy have to suffer because he's a wee little thing who should be home with his family, he's horribly abused by all the nasty bigger kids for being different (and smarter). The thought of sending a child under twelve away to school horrifies me, but FIVE? What were they thinking???

Anyway, eventually his family move and he leaves the wretched school all alone on a very long train journey, where one of the porters keeps an eye on him for the trip. Turns out this porter is an amazing boxer and takes the boy, who is now nicknamed Peekay under his wing and also to a boxing match. This is a life-changing event for Peekay, who decides that someday he'll be the welterweight champion of the world, and no one will ever pick on him again.

The rest of this book is a coming-of-age story about Peekay and how he comes to terms with all the bullies of the world, in school and life, as he goes through school and trains to be a boxer, with the backdrop of WWII and the beginnings of apartheid I learned a lot of things about Africa in this book, which I liked, and also about boxing, which, shockingly, I also liked. Somehow Courtenay was able to describe the boxing training matches in a way that made it accessible and interesting even for a non-sporty person like me (I still haven't figured out the rules of American football). Apparently boxing is sort of scientific, not just people beating on each other. (It's sort of like in the new film versions of Sherlock Holmes when they slow the action down and explain Sherlock's thought processes, then show the speeded-up version, if that makes sense.)

Anyway. I rather liked the boxing bits, and the school bits, plus there's lots of great stuff about the African country and how beautiful it is, and Peekay has a wonderful relationship with a music professor who is his neighbor and becomes a father figure to him, and that's lovely. My one complaint about this book is that Peekay is just too perfect. He becomes an amazing boxer. He's brilliant. Everyone loves him, especially all the black Africans. He's not just good at everything, he's the best ever. (Except music, at which he is just pretty good). He becomes this angelic figure up on a pedestal, and he's so perfect he started to annoy me. Plus, the ending didn't work for me. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the book.

I am glad I read this book, it's definitely worth reading if you're interested in Africa or you like a good bildungsroman, or if you like sports (or even if you don't). I'm happy to say that this book counts toward two of my challenges: TBR Challenge 2012 and Chunkster Challenge 2012.

Challenge progress: TBR Challenge 1/12; Chunkster Challenge: 2/6

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

2012-01-22T08:55:00.000-06:00

Remarkable Creatures is Tracy Chevalier's latest historical fiction novel. I haven't read any of her novels since Girl with a Pearl Earring, which I loved, one of my favorite books, definitely one of my favorite historical novels. I've started a new book discussion group at my library and since I'm in charge, I got to choose the first two books! This was my first choice.

The setup: Remarkable Creatures is based on the lives of two real women, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, who lived in Lyme, England in the early 1800s and were fossil hunters. Mary is a working-class girl who lives near the beach, making extra money for her family by unearthing and cleaning up "curies" or curiosities. Elizabeth is about 15 years older, a spinster who moves to Lyme with her two unmarried sisters. Their prospects are not good and their married brother has basically shipped them off to live somewhere cheaper. Mary and Elizabeth forge an unlikely friendship over their mutual love of fossils. Mary in particular is somewhat famous for her amazing fossil finds. She was actually a bit of a local legend her entire life, since as a child, she was struck by lightning and survived. The story takes place over many years, and includes love, jealousy, and heartbreak.

This book brings up a lot of interesting issues, especially about religion, evolution, class differences, and the role of women during the time period. The study of fossil evidence of creatures that no longer exist makes Elizabeth question the whole idea of creation, and she doesn't get a lot of satisfying answers from so-called experts. And the way women were treated just makes me want to scream, and it's more than just whole thing about marriage prospects, no jobs, no respect -- at one point, Elizabeth is walking down a London street alone -- shocking!!! -- and people are staring at her because she obviously must be some kind of strumpet.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book. The story is told in alternating points of view, and Chevalier does a nice job of creating two very distinct voices. The alternating chapters aren't labeled or indicated in any other way that they're different characters, but it's quite obvious to the reader.
One my favorite things was the period -- it's set in the early 1800s, Regency through early Victorian, so there was some overlap with Jane Austen. It's also set in Lyme, where Jane Austen set an important part of Persuasion, which is my favorite of her novels. In fact, Jane Austen and her novels are mentioned, but only in passing, so it didn't feel at all like Chevalier was ripping Austen off, like so many modern authors. In fact, if you're a fan of Jane Austen, and you want to read more books set during this period, I'd recommend this book by far over some of the shameless Austen pastiches that seem to be everywhere these days.

Update: I just found out I can add individual replies to comments. Many thanks to Blogger for finally adding this feature, and to Simon at Stuck in Book for posting about it!

Classics Challenge January Prompt: Anthony Trollope

2012-01-18T10:02:00.003-06:00

As a participant in the Classics Challenge hosted by November's Autumn, I'm posting a monthly prompt. This month's assignment: The Author.

Featured author: Anthony Trollope. British, born 24 April 1815, died 6 December 1882.

Some background: Born in London, son of a failed barrister. However, his mother, Frances, became a successful writer. After his father's legal practice failed in 1834, Trollope Senior and fled to Bruges, Belgium to avoid being jailed for debt. The whole family moved with him to Belgium and were supported by Mrs. Trollope's income as a writer. Young Anthony accepted a clerkship in the British post office and returned in the fall of that year. He had a reputation as being unpunctual and insubordinate. One incident in particular is interesting -- a debt of 12 pounds to a tailor was turned over to a moneylender and eventually grew to 200 pounds. (This incident, along with many other from his life, would appear eventually in his fiction.)

At first Trollope hated working for the post office, but stuck with it, and eventually was promoted to postal inspector in Ireland. This involved a lot of train travel and he spent his time on trains writing. According to Wikipedia, he occasionally dipped into the Lost Letter Box for ideas for his novels. He also invented the British postal box:

I could write a very long post about Trollope's life, and I hope to read more about hin, including his autobiography which sounds fascinating. Trollope was extremely well-traveled, and visited Europe, the Middle East, the U.S., Australia, and South Africa, among other places. Everywhere he went, he wrote, eventually publishing 47 novels, plus numerous short stories and other writings. He's most famous for his two series: The Chronicles of Barset, the story of life in the provincial county of Barchestershire; and The Pallisers Novels, a series of political novels about Parliament. He also wrote many stand-alone novels, including The Way We Live Now, which many consider to be his finest work.

I've only read four of Trollope's works so far and I really enjoyed them. I was waffling between Trollope and Dickens for my next big fat Victorian read and I'm pretty sure Trollope is going to come out the winner.

Who else is a fan of Trollope? Which are your favorite novels so far?

The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith

2012-01-15T13:44:00.002-06:00

After Dr. Thorne, I was tempted to jump right back into another big fat Victorian doorstopper, but on a whim I grabbed Diary of a Nobody and put it in my bookbag on my way to work the other day, thinking it would be a fun, light read on my lunch hour, and as it's epistolary fiction, it would be easy to read in bits and pieces during breaks.

True, it was an easy, light read, but somewhat disappointing. It's supposed to be hilarious, but it was nowhere near as good as Three Men in a Boat or one of my favorite epistolary novels, The Diary of a Provincial Lady. Both of these had me laughing out loud and I recommend them over and over. Honestly, Diary of a Nobody is just meh.

Diary of a Nobody was published in 1892, serialized in Punch magazine. It's the story of Mr. Pooter, a middle-aged senior clerk at some financial institution in the City of London. He begins a new diary after he moves into a new house in a London suburb with his wife Carrie, and it's a year in his life. Pooter's life is pretty ordinary, but he thinks he's fascinating. It's just little vignettes about his life. It's mildly amusing and interesting to read about what Victorian life was like (if this can be interpreted as truly representative) but I didn't find it that funny. I barely cracked a smile most of the time I was reading it. It was okay, but I can't really see myself recommending it to anyone except the most die-hard fans of Victorian literature. It's especially disappointing because I bought this book since it wasn't available at my library, and I've moved twice since I bought it, which means I've packed and unpacked it twice! Hmpf.

The best things about it were that it's very short, just about 130 pages, and I finally read it and can take it off the TBR bookshelf. It also counts toward my both my Victorian Challenge, and my Classics Challenge, though foolishly I didn't put it on the list for my TBR Challenge -- I sort of thought it would be cheating to repeat too many books on my challenges. Oh well, I'll know better next year.

Now I have to decide if I should tackle Martin Chuzzlewit, which I'm supposed to be reading with an online group over a period of several months; or Framley Parsonage, which I checked out from the library. I honestly don't think I can handle both of them at the same time. Bloggers, what do you think? Dickens or Trollope? Or something completely different? And has anyone else read Diary of a Nobody? Did you love it or were you disappointed, like me?

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

2012-01-06T17:35:00.000-06:00

I'm posting a bit late, but Doctor Thorne is my first book of the year and it counts for three challenges: the Victorian Challenge 2012, the 2012 Classics Challenge; and the 2012 Chunkster Challenge! I'm especially pleased because even though I didn't include it my TBR challenge, it's been sitting on my shelves for more than a year, since I borrowed it from my mother.

Last year, I read Anthony Trollope's wonderful Barchester Towers for the Classics Circuit, and I just loved it. I can't believe I waited a whole year to read the next book in the series!

Here's the setup of the novel: set in Barchester mostly in the 1850s, Doctor Thorne is the really the story of love of two young people, Frank Gresham, the heir to Greshamsbury, a large landed estate; and Mary Thorne, the niece of the eponymous doctor.

Frank Gresham has just come of age, the only boy in a large family. Years ago, his father had a good income and married his mother, Lady Arabella, the daughter of a local noble. The combination of a large family and a wife with aristocratic taste has reduced the family income so that they're barely hanging on financially, and Frank Senior has heavily mortgaged the family estate and sold off part of the property to a crass nouveau riche baronet. The pressure is on Frank to marry a wealthy heiress and save the family fortune, but he's fallen for the lovely Mary is his childhood playmate. Unfortunately, her origins are much humbler. She has no fortune, no connections and no aristocratic blood -- in fact, it's a family secret that Mary is actually illegitimate. Shocking!

Frank's family -- particularly his snobby, hypocritical mother -- is pressuring him to throw Mary over in favor of an heiress to preserve the family estate. Meanwhile, Mary is pressured to give Frank up or be ostracized from country society forever. The book is almost 500 pages, and most of it is spent entirely on this one theme. Even though I'm sure the story could have used some editing, I enjoyed every minute of it. Trollope is really quite witty -- the omniscient narrator makes plenty of tart asides and wry observations about the landed gentry, the upstart nouveau riche and the hypocrisy of the nobility when it comes to blood versus money -- they're fine with overlooking the humble origins of a commoner, as long as they have a fat bank account. And God forbid if someone of their class is willing to work for a living!

Like Barchester, this book has some of the same themes about country life and gentle satire as Jane Austen. There's one scene in particular that reminded me quite strongly of a famous scene in Pride and Prejudice, that of the big showdown between Elizabeth Bennet and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, which in my opinion is one of the best parts of the book. Honestly, if you've read all of Jane Austen, I'd strongly recommend taking up Trollope instead of reading one of the silly sequels that are all the rage. He did write 47 novels plus a lot of other stuff, so you won't run out of his works any time soon!

Doctor Thorne comes third in the series after Barchester Towers, but the two books really don't have any connection other than a brief mention of a couple of the characters, and the fact that it's peripherally located somewhere in Barsetshire. I'm definitely not waiting another year before I continue with the Barsetshire Chronicles -- I've already checked Framley Parsonage out from the library and it will probably be my next Victorian novel and the next for my Chunkster Challenge as well.

2012 Chunkster Challenge

2012-01-03T21:39:00.002-06:00

I found this challenge over at Allie's Literary Odyssey. I know it's terrible of me to sign up for another challenge, but I have so many Big Fat Books on my to-read shelves, it's really no problem for me to sign up for just one more. In 2011 I read eight books that were more than 500 pages so this should be easy-peasy. Every single one of these books is on the TBR shelf.

I'm signing up for the Do These Books Make My Butt Look Big? level: six books, of which two are 450 -550 pages; two books between 551-750 pages; and the final two books are at least 751 pages in length. And is it cheating if I repeat books from other challenges?

My tentative list, vaguely in order by page length:

They Knew Mr. Knight (496 pages) OR They Were Sisters (455 pages) by Dorothy Whipple. I've had this pair of Whipples unread on the Persephone shelf for a year, since I received both as Christmas gifts in 2010. I was on a roll completing the Persephones but I've slowed down a bit. This looks like a good excuse to read another, or maybe even both.

Doctor Thorne (496 pages) by Anthony Trollope -- I'm way behind on the Barsetshire series. I borrowed this copy from my mother a year ago and still haven't touched it!

South Riding by Winifred Holtby (512 pages). I won this last year in a Virago Reading Week giveaway courtesy of Thomas at My Porch. The miniseries is still in the DVR queue and I don't want to watch it until I've read the book.

The Earth by Emile Zola -- I couldn't forget Zola, and it's 512 pages, so that's perfect. And I just got it for Christmas! Or maybe L'Assommoir (480 pages) or La Debacle (592 pages) Amanda at Ramblings got me hooked on Zola, and we're hoping to do a Zola buddy read sometime soon.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (528 pages). This has been highly recommended over and over, and I hope that 2012 will finally be the year I get to this one.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. (601 pages) I love Steinbeck, but the size is intimidating.

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (615 pages). I'm already committed to reading this with my real-life classics book group, and I nominated it, so I have to read it! It'll be a re-read but it's been so long it'll be like a brand-new book to me.

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (864 pages) I'm reading it with an online group, plus 2012 is going to be all about Dickens. Might even get to Our Mutual Friend (880 pages) as well.

A Dance With Dragons (1016 pages) by George R. R. Martin. I must find out what happens in Westeros -- really looking forward to Season 2 of Game of Thrones on HBO.

End-of-Year Book Survey

2011-12-26T15:29:00.001-06:00

Time for my end of the year roundup! I've adapted this meme from Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner, via Amanda over at Ramblings.

1. Best book(s) I read in 2011: Are best books the same as my favorites? Some of my favorites didn't necessarily have the best writing or have other flaws, though I still loved them. So here are the ones that I suppose are the best on a critical level:

The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen (annotations by David M. Shaphard)
Germinal by Emile Zola
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple

My favorites: well, keep reading and I think it will be obvious!

2. Most disappointing book:

Villette by Charlotte Bronte. I adore Jane Eyre, so this was a huge letdown. I know many people love this book, but it just seemed like a huge slogfest, and the payoff sucked.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2011:

This one is a tie: The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I expected to hate Sophy because I'm not a fan of Jane Austen wannabees, but this was great -- I could feel the Austen influence, but the characters were fresh and the story was pretty funny. Not terribly challenging, but a fun read.

And I normally have no interest in epic fantasy but I fell in love with Martin's world of Westeros and its multiple intertwining storylines. I finished the first three books in the series and I'm dying to know what happens next.

4. Books I recommended most to people in 2011:

The three volumes of Jane Austen annotated by David M. Shaphard: Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility -- though I admit I've only read two so far. Persuasion and S&S are so wonderfully annotated, Pride and Prejudice must be great also. I'm also looking forward to the annotated Emma which is out next spring.

And I've been recommending Zola all over the place. Germinal is a masterpiece, but I loved La Bete Humaine and Pot-Bouille as well. I first read Zola back in 2010 but this is the year I really fell in love with his work.

5. Best series I discovered in 2011: Hands down, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. See #3.

6. Favorite new authors of 2011: Georgette Heyer and George R. R. Martin.

7. Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2011: Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It's called Victorian Sensation for a reason -- I can see why this book has never gone out of print. It's a fun Victorian roller-coaster of a novel. Not very deep, but really fun.

8. Book I most anticipated in 2011: Probably Germinal by Emile Zola. I'd heard raves about it from Amanda, and more than a year ago we put it on the reading list for our real-life classic book group. I know it's more than 100 years old but it was my most anticipated book of the year, and one of my favorites.

9. Favorite cover of a book I read in 2011: Again, it's a tie:

The Night Circus is just beautiful and stylish, and I love the woodcuts in the Wodehouse editions by Overlook Press. If I had more money and bookshelves, I'd buy the whole series.

10. Most memorable character in 2011: Two characters actually, both from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. First, Tyrion Lannister. He's a rude, lusty dwarf from a horrible family, but Martin makes him so interesting and sympathetic. Also, Arya Stark, the ten-year old girl who's trying to survive as war breaks out in Westeros. I can't wait to find out what happens to both of them.

11. Most beautifully written book in 2011: Probably The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I did have some problems with this book, but it was really beautifully written. Unfortunately I can't pull any quotes from the book because there was a huge waiting list at the library and I had to return it immediately after finishing it.

12. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for me: A Storm of Swords is my favorite so far in the Song of Ice and Fire series, but it was A Game of Thrones that dragged me kicking and screaming into the epic fantasy genre. Definitely NOT my comfort zone!

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2011: A tie between Zola's Germinal and La Bete Humaine. From Germinal I realized just how amazing Zola is; La Bete Humaine has moments that still shock me when I think about them.

14. Book you can't believe you waited until 2011 to FINALLY read: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. I've wanted to read it for about five years, since I read the wonderful Angle of Repose. I nominated it for my library book group and we had a great discussion.

15. Book you read in 2011 that would most likely to be reread in 2012: The Annotated Persuasion edited by David M. Shaphard. The annotations add so much to these books -- I get more out of them every time I read Jane Austen.

16. Book that had a scene in it that had me reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it? (A WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc., etc). No spoilers! : All three books in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin have moments that made me nearly drop the book and scream, "Oh. My. God! That did NOT just happen!!" And La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola had some shocking plot twists as well.

Just for fun, some stats about my 2011 reading:

Books completed: 105
Pages read: approximately 35,586

Books by male authors: 38
Books by female authors: 66
Books by both male and female authors: 1
New books: 93
Rereads: 12
Fiction: 86
Nonfiction: 19
Short story collection: 7
Plays: 1
Children's books: 3
YA books: 1
Big fat books (more than 500 pages): 8
Books in translation: 11 (6 French; 2 German; 1 Swedish; 1 Norwegian; 1 Japanese)

Repeat: authors: I repeated a LOT of authors this year! I read three books each by Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and George R. R. Martin; four by Emile Zola, and seven by P. G. Wodehouse.

Books from my TBR shelves: 26. An epic fail!! I read too many books from the library, and I'm sorry to say I bought way too many new books so I could read them immediately instead of taking something off the TBR shelf.

And let's not even discuss the books I bought in 2012 that are filling up the TBR shelf. I think it's time to adjust my reading goals and habits.

What about you, bloggers? Did you have a good reading year in 2011? What are your reading plans for 2012?

Victorian Challenge 2012

2011-12-24T10:54:00.007-06:00

Sorry for the double posting, but I accidentally clicked on publish instead of save as a draft. Oh well.

I didn't mean to sign up for more challenges, but I love the Victorians, how could I resist? This challenge, hosted by Laura at Laura's Reviews, is pretty easy by my standards: two to six Victorian novels (or adaptations) are to be read, watched, or listened to. I have stacks of Victorian novels on the TBR shelves, and quite a few in the DVD cabinet I still haven't watched. I could easily complete this challenge by watching BBC adaptations alone, but that would be cheating.

According to my Goodreads 2011 list, I read seven Victorian novels this past year (strictly counting anything that was published in Victorian England; I'm not counting authors from any other country, so that means Zola is out). Here's what I read:

Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

Plus I read half of Daniel Deronda by George Eliot before I got distracted. So I think I can easily watch, read, or listen to six Victorians next year. Here's my tentative list:

1. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens -- already signed up for a group read for this one.

2. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens -- there's going to be a lot of Dickens obsession next year as it's the 200th anniversary of his birth. Two Dickens doorstoppers in one year would be quite an achievement.

3. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy -- I'm hoping to get this on audiobook. I've heard the version narrated by Alan Rickman is brilliant.

4. Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope -- I loved Barchester Towers and it's been a whole year since I finished it, so it's time for more Trollope.

5. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith -- I've heard this is hilarious. Plus I'm intrigued to read something by a writer named Weedon. And it's really short, a nice change from most of those Victorian chunksters.

6. The Odd Women OR New Grub Street by George Gissing -- I've read a lot of good things about Gissing and got both of these last years from Paperback Swap. I'd like to expand beyond Dickens, Trollope, and Hardy.

Besides these six novels, I own BBC adaptations of The Barchester Chronicles (starring Alan Rickman!), Daniel Deronda, and He Knew He Was Right. Plus, I know with the Dickens bicentenary there are two new adaptations of Great Expectations coming to TV and theaters. Maybe I'll even make it to Galveston for Dickens on the Strand next December!

TBR Pile Challenge

2011-12-24T09:57:00.003-06:00

I'm a complete pushover for a good challenge, especially when it involves reading books I already own. The other day I found another one that fits the bill perfectly for next year. It's another TBR challenge, but with a twist: participants must read at least twelve books off their TBR shelves, but every book must have been on the shelf for at least one year. That is a real challenge! It's hosted by Roof Beam Reader, a blog that's new to me, but I'm very glad I found it. You can find the details of the challenge here.

Now, nearly all the books I purchased last year were more than a year old, but now I'll have to think carefully and choose books that I didn't acquire in 2012 -- tough, considering how many I got at book sales and the Borders liquidation (sniff, sniff). However, I think I can manage twelve books in twelve months, and some of them will also qualify for my Classics Challenge (or is that cheating?)

Here are some ideas from a quick scan of my shelves, in no particular order:

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields -- this is an easy one; I'm starting a book group at my library branch and I deliberately chose this one for our February read. Maybe I should take the entire years' reading list from my TBR shelves?

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey -- I'm embarrassed to admit how long I've owned this book. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner so I would feel guilty about giving it away unread.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck -- how is it that I still haven't read this book? I love Steinbeck and I hear it's one of his best. I promised to read it in 2011 for my Reading Swap with Amanda. Epic fail!

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather -- the Cather novel that has been owned-and-unread the longest.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay This came highly recommended by a book lover in one of my Florida book groups a few years ago. I was hoping to read it with a library group but there aren't enough copies in our system.

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen -- I bought this about five years ago when I started on my quest to read all the Modern Library 100 Best Novels (I'm still stuck at about 45/100). I keep forgetting about this book but Book Snob, (one of my favorite bloggers) included Bowen's To the North as her favorite read of 2011 so I'm intrigued.

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles -- I had to include at least one neo-Victorian! And it's also on the Modern Library Top 100 List.

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West -- I have a big stack of NYRB classics that I haven't read, and I've heard so many great things about this book. Nicola at Vintage Reads raved about it this summer and there were so many great comments about it. I haven't forgotten it but I really do want to get to it this year.

Mrs. Craddock by W. Somerset Maugham -- another book I bought based on one of Amanda's raves. We both love Maugham and we're going to read Of Human Bondage together this year for our real-life Classics book group, which should be great. Of Human Bondage was one of the very first classics I ever read for pleasure, so I'll probably be eager to read more of his works this year. Plus it's quite short so it should be a quick read after OHB which is kind of a doorstop.

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty -- another of my suggestions for my IRL book group. I try to choose books off my TBR list since it forces me to read them.

The Barnum Museum by Steven Milhauser -- I bought this back in 2006 after watching the movie excellent movie, The Illusionist, which is based on one of the short stories in this volume. I still haven't read any of the other stories in this collection, but my good friend Amanda over at Ramblings tells me that the first story, "A Game of Clue" is one of her all-time favorites, so she's inspired me to add it to the list.

Saplings by Noel Streatfeild -- I had to include at least one Persephone; it's the last of the Persephone classics (the ones available in the U.S.) that I haven't read yet. And I've never read anything by Streatfeild, even though she's the beloved author of Ballet Shoes.

Alternates:

The Provincial Lady in America by E. M. Delafield -- I loved Diary of a Provincial Lady, so this should be a quick, fun read.

Don't Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford -- I received several of these lovely Vintage editions for Christmas last year, but haven't opened any of them! Might be a good alternate to the weightier reads.

So what do you think, bloggers? Good list or bad?

Persephone Secret Santa Reveal!

2011-12-16T21:50:00.001-06:00

I was very lucky -- my Persephone Secret Santa gift arrived more than two weeks ago! This is what's been waiting patiently to be opened:

There's a note enclosed which says to be on the lookout for something else, but I couldn't help myself, I had to open it today! I don't know who it's from, but here's what I found:

It's Good Things in England by Florence White!!! Very exciting!! I've wanted this book since I saw it on the Persephone list -- I love cookbooks and British food. I remember this being mentioned in one of my favorite food books, Laurie Colwin's delightful Home Cooking. I love food history and historical cooking. I really enjoyed the first Persephone cookbook I purchased, Kitchen Essays, and I bought Plats du Jour this summer (though I confess I still haven't cooked any recipes from either).

This book includes twelve recipes for gingerbread, plus all kinds of other fun stuff -- Madras chicken curry, kedgeree, and manchet, plus pease pudding and even haggis. Okay, maybe I won't be making haggis, but it's pretty fun that it's included.

Many thanks to my secret Santa!! I still don't know who you are, but I love my gift! If you read this, please reveal yourself in the comments. I love my gift and I hope you get a wonderful gift from your Santa.

And here's a link to the post from my secret Santee, Care of Care's Online Book Club! Merry Christmas, Care, and to all the other Persephone Secret Santa participants. And thanks again to Verity and Claire for hosting!

Who else had a visit from Secret Santa recently, Persephone or otherwise? What did you get? Let me know in the comments.

La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola

2011-11-30T06:13:00.000-06:00

It's actually been several weeks since I finished this book. I had just been promoted to my new job, so I had a week of orientation, which I found exhausting, then I started my REAL new job, and had to go back to Spanish class. . . and I actually spend time with my family. Needless to say, this book review kind of got lost in the shuffle. Which is a shame, really, because it was a really engrossing book, and I feel like it deserves a review.

So, La Bete Humaine is my fourth read in Emile Zola's twenty novel Rougon Macquart cycle. Somehow, these novels all feature inter-related characters, but this isn't the sort of series which requires readers to begin at the beginning. (Zola purists, please refrain from howling). La Bete Humaine loosely translates to The Human Beast but is also sometimes translated as The Beast Within. Basically, it's the story of murderers and what does or does not drive them to kill. Are people born murders, or can good people be driven to it? Are we really just animals?

There are several intertwining stories in this novel, which is set against the backdrop of the Paris-Le Havre train route, and its employees. Monsieur Roubaud is a deputy station master, and he and his wife, Severine, live in company housing with several other railway employees. A chance remark about Severine's godfather, the wealthy and influential Monsieur Grandmorin, raises Rouboud's suspicions, and he begins to suspect he was more than her patron after her parents' deaths.

Meanwhile, a railway engineer, Jacques Lantier, is harboring murderous thoughts of his own. He is convinced that he can never have a healthy relationship with a woman, because all he can do is fantasize about killing them. Jacques is the son of Gervaise, the main character in Zola's novel, L'Assommoir (The Drinking Den), and the brother of Etienne from Germinal, and of Claude Lantier, the main character of The Masterpiece. (However, it isn't necessary to have read these novels, as they all essentially stand alone).

Then there are some other characters who may or may not have killer instincts. Jacques goes to visit his Aunt Phasie, who lives in a small house right next to the railway line near Le Havre. She's chronically ill and believes that she is being slowly poisoned to death by her second husband, who is forever searching for her hidden cache of money. Phasie has a daughter, Flore, who is in love with Jacques. They're still mourning the death of her youngest daughter, who died under mysterious circumstances which may involve characters previously mentioned.

All of these people leave fairly miserable lives on and around the railway, which is so masterfully described, that, like the mines of Germinal, it becomes an important character in the book. Jacques and his fellow railway men are constantly describing the engine by its name, "La Lison."

In the past, I've referred several times to literary characters as fascinating train wrecks. It may be a terrible pun, but it couldn't be more apt in this case. None of these characters are particularly likeable, but once again, Zola manages to intertwine their stories in such a fascinating manner that I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Their lives are pretty sordid, with affairs, theft, murder, and gossip, and Zola manages to get in some pretty nasty barbs about the corrupt judicial system. I wouldn't really want to meet any of these people, but I could hardly put the book down once I got into it. It must have been incredibly shocking when it was first published in 1890, and the ending is one of the most emotionally draining things I've read in a novel. It's not particularly explicit for the twenty-first century reader, but I was still aghast at the ending. I don't know if it's considered among the best of Zola's novels, but I don't think I can ever forget it.

Classics Challenge 2012

2011-11-27T10:33:00.002-06:00

I've been seeing a lot of challenges for 2012 on the blogosphere lately, and I can't resist joining at least one. I have sooo many classics on the TBR shelf, but this challenge hosted by November's Autumn is only seven books, and I'm pretty sure I can manage that number, if not more. This time around I'm going to go strictly by the books I have unread on my own shelves.

The list is pretty loose right now; I have multiple unread books by some of my favorite authors on the TBR shelves, so if I end up switching titles, I'm okay with that. Anything I read will be progress on the TBR shelf. Here's what I have so far:

1. Nana or L'Assommoir (The Drinking Den) by Emile Zola -- my latest favorite classic author. I've read three of his books so far this year and I loved them all. I still have about five of his books unread now, and there are a few more in good translations available at my library. I also have copies of The Ladies' Paradise, and The Masterpiece, plus more Zola on my Christmas wish list. If I receive any more, they'll be eligible also.

2. At least one book by Anthony Trollope. I have NINE unread works by Trollope on my TBR shelves, more than any other single author -- definitely more by page number, since he wrote some real doorstoppers. This includes a copy of Dr. Thorne which I borrowed from my mother a year ago! I'd love to continue with the Barchester Chronicles but Pallisers series is also intriguing. I'm on the library's waiting list for an audiobook of Can You Forgive Her?, so that's a strong possibility.

3. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. This must be the fourth year in a row I've sworn I would read this book. Somehow I just never get to it. I've loved most everything I've read by Steinbeck so why do I keep putting it off?

4. The Song of the Lark or any other book by Willa Cather. I bought about four more of her books during the Borders clearance, plus I have two other on the shelves, so I need to read at least one of those. I've owned Song of the Lark since about 2007, so I should really read it; naturally, it's the longest one unread.

6. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Wheedon Grossmith. I've heard this is hilarious, and I've owned it since 2006. Plus it's really short especially compared to most of the other classics I have unread.

5. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. This is the only reread I'm planning at the moment. It was one of the first classics I ever read for sheer pleasure and loved it. It was my pick for the 2012 reading list of my real-life classics reading group. It's been more than 20 years so I hope it stands up to how I remember it.

7. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. 2012 is the 200th anniversary of his birth, so I want to read at least one new Dickens. I've read ten of his novels so far, and Our Mutual Friend is supposed to be one of his best.

8. Kipps by H. G. Wells. Since I'm including one reread, I've also added an extra bonus book -- I've had this book on my shelves since 2005, shortly after I began my journey back to the classics. It came highly recommended by an author at a book fair, and after buying my own copy, I haven't touched it other than moving it to two different houses. If I actually finish this book I'll be very pleased with myself.

Thanks to Katrina at Pining for the West for posting about this challenge! I'm looking forward to it.

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

2011-11-21T08:41:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I finished The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, and honestly, I'm having a hard time finding anything to say about it. (Which shocks me, because I'm rarely at a loss for words). I guess I can sum it up by saying I was underwhelmed.

If you haven't read it, here's the setup: the story begins with Michael Henchard and his wife walking down a country lane with their baby, in England circa 1830 (if I've gotten the dates wrong, I apologize). Anyhow, he's an itinerant farm worker, looking to find a job gathering hay. They wander into a town where an auction is going on, and stop for something to eat called furmity, which is some kind of porridge. The old hag serving up the furmity laces Michael's bowl with rum (which sounds disgusting -- who puts rum in a savory dinner dish? It should be reserved for tropical drinks served with an umbrella). The upshot is that Michael gets drunk and angry because he's young and poor, and starts complaining about being saddled with a wife and child. He threatens to sell them to the highest bidder, just like at the nearby auction. The other drunkards go along with this, thinking it's a big joke, but a sailor passing through takes him up on his offer. The wife, who's had enough of his bad behavior, decides she's better off without him and leaves with this complete stranger. Michael must have been a pretty poor husband.

Later, he sobers up and realizes what he's done, but it's too late, and he swears off drinking. Years later, the wife and grown daughter show up looking for him, and by now he's sober and respectable, and he's a wealthy upstanding citizen; in fact, he's the town Mayor. And this is where things start to get interesting, because he feels obligated to this wife and child, but he doesn't want anyone to know about the terrible thing he's done in the past. If you've read Hardy, you know this will all end badly.

I've read quite a few classics books that I like to think of as fascinating train wrecks -- if you've followed my blog, you'll know they include some of my favorite classics, like Madam Bovary, The House of Mirth, and pretty much the entire oeuvre of Emile Zola -- you know, people on downward spirals. They're not always very nice characters, yet I can't stop reading about them. The Mayor of Casterbridge had the potential to fall into this category, but sadly, I didn't find it so fascinating. It was an easy read, but somehow, I didn't find the characters all that compelling. I just really didn't care about any of them.

This the second novel I've read by Hardy. My first was Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which I read several years ago for an online book group. I remember distinctly that after it was nominated, one of the members posted a comment that said (and I paraphrase) that he'd rather poke himself in the eye with a sharp stick than discuss Tess again. I don't know if he was sick to death of it, or he hated it, or he was just being a jerk, but that's all I could think about when it came time to read Casterbridge. I didn't hate Tess, but boy, it took forever for anything to happen. Having seen the movie years ago, I was familiar with the plot, and it really seemed like endless description of farm life in England. Tess was forever digging up turnips or haying or milking cows, et cetera. (To be fair, I probably shouldn't have been reading it while on vacation in Costa Rica -- really, it was geographically inappropriate. Hard to get excited about rural England while enjoying a gorgeous vista of banana plants and coffee trees.)

I love Victorian novels, but I'm having a tough time with Hardy. How is it his books are both readable and slow at the same time? His books aren't densely written, like Dickens and Eliot can be, but sometimes it takes forever for stuff to happen. I'm getting a kinda frustrated with Hardy. Amanda from Ramblings has sworn to me that Jude the Obscure is much better, and I have promised to read Return of the Native, which she loved. If things don't improve, I'm going to delete his books from my to-read list.

Has anyone else read Hardy? What did you think? Should I give up or give him another try?

One Book, Two Book, Three Book Meme

2011-11-19T17:40:00.003-06:00

So, I'm loving my new job, but boy, working 40 hours a week does sort of interfere with your free time! And of course I'm sitting in front of a computer a large portion of the day, so when I'm home, I'm kind of avoiding it. I'm not giving up on blogging yet, but I was inspired by Anbolyn's recent post to write a short update:

1. The book I'm currently reading: The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. I only have 70 pages to go so I'm hoping to post a review in the next couple of days. It's only my second work by Hardy and I've never blogged about him before, so I'm curious to know how other bloggers respond to my post.

2. The last book I finished: The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer. A follow-up to my enjoyment of The Grand Sophy. I chose this one because there was an audiobook available at the library branch where I work, so there you are. I enjoyed it but since I just posted about Sophy, it seemed like it would be a little redundant.

3. The next book I want to read: A tossup between A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I'm dying to know what happens next in the fictional world of Westeros but the only copy I could get from the library is a mass-market paperback, ugh. I'm still #2 on the library's waitlist for a hardcover copy and it might be a while. And The Night Circus has more than 100 holds, plus everyone's raving about it, so I'd better get cracking or I'll never get it back, right?

4. The last book I bought: That's a tough one -- I've bought several out-of-print and used books online in the past few weeks, and I can't remember which one was last! The one that just arrived (though it may have been one of the earlier purchases) came from England via Abebooks: Harry Potter y La Piedra Filosofal, also known as the Spanish language edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (or Philosopher's Stone for you Brits. I know, the Yanks changed the name, because we're mostly not clever enough to know the difference. Sigh). Anyhow, I'm continuing my acquisition of Harry Potter volumes in various languages (and this is the only one I might actually be able to read, as I'm still trying to learn Spanish. Wish me luck!) So far I have them in eleven different languages, mostly the first volume of the series in hardcover. My favorites are the Japanese edition which I bought when I lived in Japan -- it opens back to front, naturally, and the illustrations are cool -- and the Italian version which has beautiful illustrations. My mother bought it for me a couple of years ago on a trip to Malta, which is also pretty neat. I think this might deserve its own blog post someday. . .

5. The last book I was given: Also tough, as I haven't really received that many books since my birthday -- and I still haven't read any of those! In fact, I don't think I've read a single one of the books I received last Christmas, and my husband just asked me for a wish list. . . . which is pretty much all books! I think the last book I got as a gift was the wonderful Naxos audio version of Sense and Sensibility which I bought with a gift card I won from Jenners during her BBAW giveaway in September. Does that count? Either way, it's wonderful (wonderful that I won, and also one of my favorite audiobooks ever).

And no, I haven't finished that one, either!

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

2011-11-09T08:24:00.000-06:00

When the Classics Circuit featured Georgette Heyer in the author spotlight back in 2010, I pooh-poohed the Regency romances and chose a mystery instead. It was good but not nearly on the level of Agatha Christie, so I kind of gave up on her -- I'm not much of a romance reader and I'd heard that the Regency stuff was Jane Austenish, and I am a total snob when it comes to Austen. I rarely read any of those sequels/prequels/readalikes, et cetera. They just never measure up to my beloved Jane, and I get annoyed when authors borrow characters that someone else has created. [Note: I'm not trying to belittle anyone who does like such books, it's just my little quirk].

Anyhow, my Jane Austen book group is meeting this weekend, and this time around we decided to try some of Heyer's Regency books. Honestly, we have to be really creative to keep it fresh -- Austen only wrote six complete novels, and we've been meeting every month for almost three years, so you do the math. I don't think we've repeated a book yet -- we stretch it out with movie viewings, related books, and, yes, the occasional sequel. The library didn't have enough copies of any single novel, so just for fun we decided to each just pick one and we can do a general discussion, kind of like a series of mini-booktalks. So I chose The Grand Sophy, which is supposed to be one of the best. And I am SO sorry I didn't read Heyer before, because it was a hoot!! I was delighted.

In a nutshell: Sophy Stanton-Lacy is the twenty-year-old daughter of Sir Horace, a widower and some sort of British diplomat. After years of dragging his only child around the continent, he's going off to Brazil and can't take her along or leave her unattended, so he foists her off on his sister, Lady Ombersley, who lives in London with her spendthrift husband and a gazillion children, some of whom are about Sophy's age. They're hoping they can get Sophy married off before he returns from Brazil, and Sir Horace has plenty of cash to foot the bill.

However, Sophy is no shrinking violet. Within weeks of her arrival, she has turned the household upside-down and is rearranging everyone's lives -- she's trying to prevent two of her cousins from making unsuitable matches -- her cousin Cecilia is in love with a poor but aristocratic Byronic-type poet wannabe, and her older cousin Charles from marrying a shrew named Eugenia. Charles is independently wealthy since his great-uncle made him the heir, so he's paid off all his father's debts and is calling all the shots. Naturally, he and headstrong Sophy clash from the beginning. Will this be a Darcy/Lizzie romance? Will Sophy find a suitable husband for Cecilia? All will be revealed, naturally!

Sophy reminds me a lot of Emma Woodhouse -- if Emma was in London and had moved in with, say, Mr. Darcy's family (with way more kids) -- and if he was engaged to Caroline Bingley! Naturally, the writing is not on par with Austen's satire, but it's pretty funny, and Heyer packs in a lot of Regency vocabulary which shows how much research she did on the period. Her attention to detail is very impressive.

The plot itself was fairly predictable, and I found the characters a little flat. And I have to admit the ending was a little silly -- it sort of reminded me of a Regency screwball comedy, a bit like an Oscar Wilde farce. However, I really enjoyed spending time with the characters in Sophy's world. It was a fun, light read, and a nice contrast to the rather depressing Zola novel which I finished the week before. It's definitely a potato chip book, but a very high-class one. So, I guess you could call it a quality potato chips book. Quality Regency potato chips? Anyway, I can see why her books were so popular, and why they've endured. Heyer wrote more than 30 other Regency romances, most of which are available at my library.

Northanger Abbey

2011-10-24T07:00:00.002-05:00

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” -- Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey.

It's Gothic Literature this month at The Classics Circuit!! And my author of choice is . . . Jane Austen!! You would think after spending five whole days discussing Jane Austen with a bunch of other Janeites would be enough, wouldn't you? Well, I did too (and I do admit I'm just the tiniest bit sick of Sense and Sensibility), but after picking up Northanger Abbey, I'm in love with Austen's works all over again.

For those who are not familiar, NA is the story of Catherine Morland, a young lady who is neither particularly accomplished or clever -- she grew up something of a tomboy and has really only become fairly pretty rather recently. She's from a large family and her father is a clergyman living in the country. Mrs. Allen, the childless wife of the local landowner, has befriended her, and invites her to spend several weeks in Bath, where Mr. Allen will be taking the waters for his health. There Catherine is introduced to some eligible young bachelors and makes some new friends, including Isabella Thorpe, who is coincidentally the sister of John Thorpe, friend and Oxford classmate of Catherine's older brother James. She also befriends Eleanor Tilney, a lovely young lady who happens to be the sister of the handsome Henry Tilney. Following all this so far?

JJ Feild and Felicity Jones as Henry and Catherine in Northanger Abbey

While in Bath, Catherine attends balls, strolls around the pump room, and discusses shocking and decadent Gothic novels with her friends. When she is invited to spend time with Eleanor and her family at their home, Northanger Abbey, she jumps at the chance, since it sounds exactly like the sort of thing she's been reading about in her beloved novels -- and the idea of spending more time with Henry is pretty enticing too. She envisions secret passages, winding staircases, and things that go bump in the night. Of course, her imagination begins to run away with her and hilarity ensues.

This is my second read of Northanger Abbey, and quite honestly, I liked it even more this time around. I read it for the first time several years ago and was unimpressed -- it's one of her earliest works and also one of her shortest, and it's obvious to anyone who's read Austen that her other novels are much more complex and well-developed. But this time I was really struck by how funny it is! I saw glimmers of her trademark wit, and it's far more satirical than her other novels. Pretty impressive for a first book (though it was published posthumously in 1818, it was the first novel she completed, in 1803). It's not even really that much of a Gothic novel -- our heroine Catherine doesn't even visit the eponymous abbey until the second half of the novel.

Northanger Abbey is not considered one of Jane Austen's best works, and it's not among her most popular. But having read it the second time, my only real complaint is that it's too short -- I wanted to spend more time with Catherine and her world.

JASNA AGM and Some More Good News

2011-10-21T18:20:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't posted for over a week -- it's been CRA-ZEE in Karenland. First of all, I spent most of last week in Ft. Worth at the Jane Austen Society's Annual General Meeting (AGM). Which was fabulous and I hope to post on it soon, as soon as I can figure out how to upload the photos from my camera, which is not cooperating.

The other big news is that just before I went out of town, I found out that I got a promotion at the library!!! Seriously!!! After working as a Library Aide (also known as a shelver) for several months, I got promoted to full-time Library Assistant!!! Woo hoo!! It's still not Librarian yet, but it is full-time so that means I'm one step closer, plus I have lots more responsibilities and I'll get programming experience as well!! Oh, and paid vacations and all the other great benefits that go along with being a city employee.

Of course this also means that I'll actually have to work full-time -- which will definitely cut in to my reading and blogging time, which is the only drawback. But as I like to tell my children, that's life in the big city. And I have to leave my wonderful branch which was full of lovely people, but so far my experience has been that there are many, many lovely people who work in libraries, so I look forward to working with the lovely people at my new branch. I'll spend next week training at the downtown Central Library then it's off to my new job on Halloween!

Packing for Ft. Worth

2011-10-09T11:26:00.002-05:00

I'm almost on my way to visit Ft. Worth, Texas! I'm a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and this week I'm going to their Annual General Meeting, also known as the AGM. I didn't get to go last year to the one in Portland, but I went two years ago to the 2009 AGM in Philadelphia and had a wonderful time.

Last time I went with my mother, who can't attend this year, but this time I have two other Texas friends coming with me from our local chapter, so I'll have two roommates. I'll be spending five days in downtown Ft. Worth meeting other Jane Austen fans, learning English country dancing, playing whist, and attending lectures and seminars about Jane Austen. I'm such a literature geek, I can hardly wait!

Last time, I naturally packed waaaay too many books in my carryon -- I don't know how I imagined I'd have time to do much reading! I did actually read two books last time, so I'm cutting back from six books packed last time, to only four. Hey, I need to have choices! Here's what I may be bringing with me:

The Annotated Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen -- I recently finished The Annotated Persuasion, which was wonderful. The theme for this years' AGM is Sense and Sensibility, in honor of the 200th anniversary of its publication. So of course I'll need my own copy close at hand.

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer -- considered by many to be the Queen of Regency Romances, Georgette Heyer wrote more than twenty books set during the Regency period. One of my book groups is a monthly Jane Austen group, and we have to alternate her works with other related books. In November we're each going to talk about a different novel by Heyer.

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin -- I know, it's the complete opposite of Jane Austen! But I've been dying to read the second volume after loving the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones. I've been saving this one, since I want to stretch the series out -- book five was just published, so who knows how long it will take before Martin finishes the next volume? This is a big fat book, perfect for reading on planes, shuttle buses, etc., because it's lots of very short chapters, which make it easy to pick up and read just a little at a time.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen -- one of my possible reads for the October Classics Circuit -- which will also fulfill my fourth book for the RIP challenge.

A Warning to the Curious by M. R. James OR The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime -- a couple more choices for the RIP Challenge. It's always nice to have a book of short stories on hand, for the airport or for a quick read at bedtime -- though ghost stories might not be ideal right before I go to sleep!

And I'm also packing a few extra books about Jane Austen -- there are quite a few authors attending and they'll hopefully be able to sign my books. But those don't count since I probably won't be reading them, just getting them signed.

I just recounted and I'm up to seven books which is more than I brought last time to Philadelphia! Am I the only one who packs books first for a vacation -- and packs way too many?? Which ones should I bring, and which ones will I have to save for later?

The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen (edited by David M. Shapard)

2011-10-06T16:16:00.004-05:00

Best. Book. EVER.

You know, I complain to myself all the time that the combination of blogging, book groups, and a library job have killed all my time for rereading, but I am so glad I made an exception and read this again. I've read Persuasion several times (and watched the movies more times than I can count), and I still can't get enough of this book. It's my favorite Jane Austen novel, EVER. My apologies to Lizzie and Darcy, but Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth are her most romantic couple.

Basically, here's the setup: Anne Elliot is 27 and unmarried; when she was 19, she fell in love with Frederick Wentworth, a poor but promising naval officer. Her family and friends persuaded her to break off the engagement, but she has never stopped loving Wentworth. Now, he's successful and back in the picture -- but does he still love her? And can he forgive her for her earlier rejection?

This is Austen's final novel, written just before she died, herself unmarried at the age of 41. It's a little melancholy, but to my mind also the most romantic of the novels. There is some great comic relief, some satire, and some deliciously nasty characters as well. Of all her novels, I think this is the one with the most social commentary, especially regarding class and rank.

If you are a Jane Austen fan (and I assume if you've read this far, you are) I cannot stop recommending David Shaphard's Annotated editions of these novels. These are amazing -- the novel itself is on the left-hand pages, and every right hand facing pages has corresponding explanatory notes -- vocabulary, history, drawings of items in Jane Austen's world (now I know exactly what kind of ships Wentworth sailed on!), etc., etc. The notes also delve deeper into some of the social conventions on the time, and they include commentary on why certain plot devices do or don't work, minor plot holes, etc.

HOWEVER -- I must point out that if you have NOT read all of Jane Austen's works, I would not read these editions -- the explanatory notes also include spoilers -- and not only for this book, but for her other books as well!! For example, a note might mention that "Such and such turns out to be _________, just like ________ in her other book, "____________." So, if you are not familiar with the major plot points Jane Austen's novels, I'd recommend waiting until you've read all the books first.

But if you're a Jane Austen fan who's read all the books like me, please, do yourself a favor, and get these! You will not be sorry. So far Shaphard has also annotated Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility (which I'm reading right now); Emma is scheduled for publication in the spring. Hopefully Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey won't be far behind.

British Television Series

2011-09-25T07:25:00.002-05:00

A slight book-blogging digression, as this is not a television blog, but it's vaguely book-related. So, last week I completed watching the original Upstairs, Downstairs series. It was so wonderful, I'm currently in mourning -- what could I possibly watch next which is just as wonderful before Downton Abbey starts in January? Frankly, I'm not that excited about network television at the moment, with the possible exception of Modern Family and The Amazing Race).

I'm lucky enough to work in a public library with an extensive DVD collection. Bloggers, I need some suggestions for my next series! Here are the possibilities:

The most recent version of Robin Hood:

This brilliant Masterpiece Theater follow-up to Upstairs, Downstairs (I actually watched it years ago, but it's been so long I've forgotten most of it):

Another classic BBC series set in the 1930s:

A classic series about a British schoolmaster:

A thrilling series set in WWII:

Or a racy series about King Henry XIIV (technically not British, as it was on Showtime, but it's all about the Brits):

The trouble is I want to watch ALL of them!! Bloggers, have you seen any of these? Or do you have any other suggestions? I've seen all of the Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell adaptations. I love all kinds of historical and period dramas. Some of my other favorites are Downton Abbey, Foyle's War, Bleak House, Wives and Daughters, The House of Elliott, and of course anything by Jane Austen.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

2011-09-23T19:15:00.002-05:00

With The Little Stranger, I've not only read another book for the RIP Challenge, I've also finally completed another owned-and-unread book from the TBR shelf. I bought The Little Stranger at a library sale not long after I finished (and loved) Fingersmith, so I've been looking forward to reading it. But like my last RIP book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Set just a couple of years after the end of World War II, The Little Stranger is an atmospheric story told in the first person by a British country doctor, John Faraday. He grew in the shadow of Hundreds, a grand country house owned by the local gentry family, the Ayreses. Though his mother was in service and his father a shopkeeper, Dr. Faraday was able to rise above his station through hard work and his parents' sacrifices. He's not the Ayreses' regular doctor, but one day he's called out there as a substitute, to check on a young maid who's ailing.

The maid seems to be shamming, but confesses to Dr. Faraday that she's unhappy in the big house, which gives her the creeps. He dismisses her fears -- the house is nearly empty nowadays, with only a full-time housekeeper; Mrs. Ayres, a widow; her daughter Caroline, who is in her twenties and unmarried; and her son and heir Roderick, who was a pilot in the war and was badly wounded and burned in a crash.

The Ayres family has fallen on hard times, and are barely able to keep the estate afloat. With the pretext of helping Roderick with an experimental medical treatment, Dr. Faraday begins visiting the Ayreses on a regular basis. He becomes a close family friend and confidant and is present when a terrible thing happens, the first of many odd occurences.

Three of Sarah Waters' novels are neo-Victorian, but this is her second foray into another historical era -- post-WWII Britain, which I thought she did extremely well. Of course I'm no expert, but the past year or so I've been reading a lot more fiction written and published in that era, and the mood was very similar. Waters does an excellent job evoking the period, but what I think was best about the book was her description of an aristocratic family fallen on hard times, and their struggle to keep their lifestyle afloat. They're desperately hanging on to another era -- they can't keep the farm going, can't maintain the property, and can barely find servants to help them around the house. It's a real contrast to the books I've been reading recently in which great houses have scores of servants and most women had few other job choices than to be a maid, cook, or governess.

The supernatural aspect of the book is not the best part, in my opinion, and I was a little disappointed in the ending, which didn't quite satisfy me. But the book is so well written, I read it pretty quickly over a couple of days. I didn't like it quite as much as Fingersmith, but it was well worth reading. One of my librarian friends is coordinating a historical fiction book group, and the December read is one of Waters' other books, Affinity, so I'm hoping to get to it in a couple of months. This one is set in a Victorian asylum and also has supernatural elements -- as my friend Jason commented, "Nothing says Christmas like Victorian madhouses!"

Blogoversary Giveaway Winner!

2011-09-19T08:52:00.047-05:00

Thanks to everyone who entered my Second Blogoversary Giveaway! And the winner is . . . .

The Book Whisperer!!!

She's won a copy of Germinal by Emil Zola, one of my very favorite reads this year. I know she'll love it as much as I did. Congratulations! And please visit her blog, she's a new blogger to me but I'm so happy to have found her in the blogosphere.

And guess what??? I was a winner this week too! I was the lucky winner BBAW Giveaway: a $20 gift card to Amazon.com, courtesy of one of my very favorite bloggers, Jenners at Life. . . With Books. If you haven't read her blog yet, please do yourself a favor and check her out because she is hilarious!! Thank you so much, Jenners! I'm trying to decide on what I'm going to get with my gift card.

Bloggers, help me out! I want to use the gift card to get something in honor of the upcoming Jane Austen Society meeting which I'll be attending in Ft. Worth, Texas. This year, the meeting's theme is Sense and Sensibility, in honor of its 200th anniversary of publication. So should I buy this:

Or what about this:

I can't decide but I need to get ready for the meeting, it's only three weeks away! It's five days of Jane Austen discussions, lectures, movies, English country dancing, whist, garden walks -- it's going to be great!!! I attended the 2009 AGM in Philadelphia and I loved it. I can't wait to go!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

2011-09-18T08:49:00.002-05:00

Another RIP read -- and a really good one. In fact, it might be my ideal RIP challenge read:

1. It's very creepy.
2. It's very short (only 146 pages in my edition).
3. It's a book from my TBR shelves that I've been meaning to read since it arrived in February in that Great Big Box of Penguins.

So, this book was a trifecta for a book challenge from the start. Oh, and what is it about, by the way? Well. Published in 1962, this story is told in the first person by Mary Catherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat. She's about eighteen when the story takes place. On the day the story begins, Mary is has to go into town, to the library and to pick up the groceries. Slowly, as she describes her walk, the reader learns about her very odd family.

Merricat lives with her sister and her Uncle Julian in a large mansion, but she's the only one that ever seems to leave. Actually, her older sister Constance hasn't left the property in years; Uncle Julian is in a wheelchair, and he might be suffering from mental problems. Pretty quickly, the reader realizes that almost everyone in the village seems to dislike the Blackwoods. There are whispers and stares, and people pointing at Merricat. At first I felt really sorry for her, and wondered what in the heck happened (though if you read the back cover it gives away more of the history. I really wish I hadn't, so I won't reveal it here). As I kept reading, I realized there was a lot more weirdness going on.

Once again, I don't want to give away too much so I don't spoil it for anyone else. All I will mention is that Shirley Jackson is just masterful at setting the scene and drawing the reader in, and the tension just escalates -- I couldn't put this book down. Jackson is wonderful at revealing just enough to give the reader clues without giving away too much too fast. I will admit that there was one big reveal I figured out pretty quickly -- I've read so many mysteries it's pretty easy for me to pick up on important clues. However, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story one bit.

Before this, I'd really only read one other work by Jackson, her famous short story, "The Lottery," which is also creepy, but in a different way. If you haven't read it, you can read it online here. Jackson is well known for showing the darker underside of small-town life, and this book is so worth reading. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is dark and creepy and Gothic, and I loved it. A perfect quick read for the RIP season.

Blogoversary Giveaway Extended

2011-09-15T23:05:00.001-05:00

Well, due to my blogging ineptitude, I made a posting error the other day, and it's possible some of my followers did not realize I was having a giveaway in honor of my second blogoversary. One lucky winner will receive one of my favorite reads from the past twelve months. I am extending the deadline until midnight Saturday, September 17.

For the complete rules and details about the giveaway, please scroll down to the previous post or click here. And I promise to be more careful when clicking on the "post now" button in the future!

My Second Blogoversary and a Giveaway!

2011-09-13T17:16:00.001-05:00

Exactly two years ago today I posted my very first blog entry. This blog was supposed to be about books and chocolate, but the chocolate and cooking entries seem to have fallen by the wayside. I haven't blogged nearly as much as I wanted to lately -- I recently started a wonderful part-time job at the public library, and I'm continuing with Spanish classes. That and my home life keep me pretty busy. But I did want to thank all the people who have read and commented on my blog the past two years, so again I've decided to celebrate by giving away one of my favorite reads since my previous blogoversary.

Here are the rules: ONE winner will receive a paperback copy of the following books, his or her choice, shipped via The Book Depository [if the winner resides in the U.S., I reserve the right to ship via Amazon or Barnes & Noble]. To see if The Book Depository will ship to you, click here. I'll choose a lovely edition for you.

To enter: please select one of the following books, some of my favorite reads from 2010-2011.

In the comment section below, please tell me why you'd like to read it, or why you liked the review. You MUST include a link or email address so I can contact you if you win!

One entry per person. UPDATED: The deadline for entry is now midnight Saturday, September 17, 2011, Central Standard Time.

At Home: A History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. A long book about the social history of Victorian houses and so much more! This was probably my favorite nonfiction read of 2011.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. Dear Trollope! Backstabbing and bitchery among the clergy in a small Victorian English town. It's a great introduction to Trollope.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. A great, subtle novel about a spinster in 1950s England and her eccentric neighbors. Pym has been compared to Jane Austen, and I love her wry observations.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Completely unlike most of my other reading, but so good! It will get you completely sucked into the world of Winterfell and the Seven Kingdoms.

Germinal OR Pot-Bouille by Emile Zola. Two very different books from Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle of novels. Both were wonderful, so the winner could choose either one.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. A GREAT Victorian sensation novel and my most recent posting. I had to include it!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. Another book for the person who's read all of Jane Austen.

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. A charming novella about books, booksellers, and finding love.

The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. My favorite so far of the NYRB Classics, about the residents of a small boarding house in WWII era London, trapped by life and circumstances. I loved it.

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple. I had to include at least one Persephone, and this is one of my favorites. Whipple is the best-selling author in the Persephone book catalog, and it's easy to see why.

Very Good, Jeeves! by P. G. Wodehouse. I didn't technically write a complete post on this book, I've read a lot of P. G. Wodehouse the past few months and I couldn't keep him off the list! I feel the need to spread the humor of Wodehouse, and this is a great starting place.

Good luck and happy reading!

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

2011-09-12T15:08:00.000-05:00

I love this cover --
the swooning is so over the top!

My very first RIP posting! I've signed up for Peril the First, which is four books, so I'm well on my way. This book wasn't originally on my list of potential reads, but after Amanda at Ramblings raved about it, well, I had to read it right away. And I am so glad I did, because I just loved it. This book kept me up late at night, and prevented me from reading not one but TWO books for IRL book groups last week! I also neglected Spanish homework, housework. . . it was that good!

Here's the setup: Lady Audley is a beautiful young woman with a mysterious past. She recently married Lord Audley, a rich widower much older than herself. Meanwhile, Lord Audley's semi-slacker nephew Robert has just run into an old school friend, George Talboys, who is returning from Australia. George left his young wife and infant son three years ago, desperate to make his fortune, and he's returned now as a rich man. Their fates will intertwine, and the story includes mystery, murder, mistaken identity, bigamy, and madness. Braddon published this, her first novel, in 1862, and it was so successful she was financially independent for the rest of her life. She went on to write more than 75 other novels, though this is still the most famous, and it's never been out of print.

I really enjoyed this novel -- it's not great literature by any means, but it's great escapist fun. The plot was fairly predictable, but writing was actually pretty good, and it's a fast read. It does make some points about women's fates and opportunities, and Victorian ideas about madness and psychology. The characters were good too -- sometimes I liked Lady Audely, sometimes I hated her, and sometimes I just felt sorry for her. I had a pretty good idea of what the big secret was, but I couldn't help wanting to read more. I imagine it would be on a college reading list simply as an example of its genre. According to the Penguin Classics website, "Lady Audley's Secret epitomized the scandalous and irresistible "sensation" fiction of the period," which I think sums it up nicely. In other words, it's popular escapist fiction, but popular fiction that has endured, so it's a classic in that sense. According to Wikipedia, it was pretty sensational for its time because it showed the darker side to the ideals of Victorian domestic bliss.

Anyhow, this was a great start to the RIP season, and I've already found another of Braddon's books at the college library. Hopefully I'll enjoy it just as much as this one.

RIP 2011

2011-09-02T15:17:00.003-05:00

Even though the temperatures are still in the triple-digits here in Texas, it's starting to feel like fall -- and it's time for the RIP Challenge! Last year I only managed to squeeze in a couple, but I'm really hoping to tackle some more this time around. I've signed up for Peril the First, which means I'll be reading four books. I have a nice stack of novels just begging to be read:

From top to bottom:

The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow by Margaret Oliphant

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
Drood by Dan Simmons
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

And I have this nice stack of short story volumes that would fit the challenge nicely:

Tales of Mystery and the Macabre by Elizabeth Gaskell
Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief by Maurice LeBlanc
The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark
The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories by R. A. Gilbert, editor
Murder on the Menu by Peter Haining

Plus I still have some library books I have on hold already, including The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morely; The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole; and Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon!! Any winners or losers in the bunch? If I get half of these finished, I'll be happy.

Bloggers, what are you reading for RIP?

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

2011-08-31T13:28:00.003-05:00

I know I'm catching the tail end, but I did want to write a quick post about the only novella I was able to manage this month for the August Art of the Novella Challenge. I think I ended up checking five different novellas out of the library, but I was only able to finish one. But it was delightful! If you're looking for a quick, fun read, this is one I'd highly recommend. It's a book about book lovers, and it's just 124 pages!

Published in 1917, Parnassus on Wheels is the prequel to Christopher Morley's The Haunted Bookshop. It's the story of Helen McGill, a 39-year-old spinster living with her brother on a farm in upstate New York. Her brother, Andrew McGill, is a well-regarded writer who purchased the farm after his business failed. Their departure to rural life inspired Andrew to write several popular books on the glories of country living and simpler times, etc, etc. However, now that Andrew is A Famous Novelist, he tends to wander off in search of new material, leaving her to carry on all the everyday work.

One day, a funny little man with a traveling caravan approaches the farm while Andrew is out. He is Roger Mifflin, the owner of a traveling bookshop, the eponymous Parnassus on Wheels, and he's ready to settle down. Roger thinks that Andrew is the perfect person to buy Parnassus lock, stock and barrel, but Helen has had enough. She knows that Andrew will buy the caravan and leave her again, carrying on all the responsibilities of the farm and the house while he's off gallivanting. She decides it's time she had her own adventures. Much to her brother's chagrin, she buys Parnassus for herself and takes off to make her fortune and spread the gospels of good literature to the masses.

This is a really fun book. Helen is a spunky heroine, Roger is quirky and charming, and hilarity ensues. Plus, there's lots of discussion and descriptions about great books. How could a bibliophile like myself not fall for a book with this quote:

"Lord!" he said, "when you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue -- you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night -- there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean!"

What is not to love? I finished the book in practically one sitting, and now I'm waiting for the sequel, The Haunted Bookshop, to arrive at my library branch.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

2011-08-29T20:53:00.005-05:00

High fantasy is normally not my thing. In general, I prefer children's fantasy, and low fantasy, to these intricately plotted other-worldly . . . worlds. Believe me, I have the highest respect for authors who can create these amazing places with characters and settings and creatures, oh my, replete with fantastic names for all of them. Normally, I just do not have the patience -- frankly, it's all the vocabulary. I honestly get tired of having to keep it all straight -- I want plot and characters to wrap my brain around. Children's fantasy has much less world-building for me to keep straight in my head. (Does this make me a lazy reader?)

So how in the heck did I find myself hooked on A Game of Thrones???? Frankly, I blame HBO. Yes, it is the antichrist, television, that got me completely obsessed with a a series that is currently numbering more than 4000 pages and threatens to take over my reading list for the next couple of months. Normally, I ignore all the adult fantasy in my library, except when I'm shelving or helping a patron, and it holds no fascination for me. But darn it if that pay cable station didn't get me hooked on an epic fantasy series. I didn't even start watching it until July! There was a lot of buzz about it, so I set the DVR and promptly forgot about it. Then one night last month, when everyone else was in bed, I decided to take a look and see if it was any good.

I. HAD. NO. IDEA. Let me just say, first of all, that the series premiere has one of the best cliffhangers I've EVER seen on television, and that, having finished the first book, HBO did an amazing adaptation -- they were able to translate a book of almost 700 pages into ten hours, with very few changes (other than making the characters slightly older). If you know nothing about this series, it's kind of like a Medieval version of The Sopranos, but with a little supernatural stuff thrown in. Or, to put it another way, Lord of the Rings, but with sex thrown in.

It's set in the mythological lands of Westeros, which is divided up into Seven Kingdoms. The lords of the kingdoms have all sworn fealty to the King Robert Baratheon at King's Landing. When the story starts, the King's Hand, similar to his Lord Chancellor, has died, and King Robert has come far north to Winterfell to ask his childhood best friend, Lord Eddard Stark, to step in as his new Hand. He comes with an enormous entourage, including his despicable wife Cersei of the House of Lannister, and her two brothers: her twin, valiant knight Lord Jaime, and her younger brother Tyrion, also known as the imp.

Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell

Well, things start to get very interesting -- plotting! intrigue!! backstabbing! Plus there are illegitimate children, swordfights, ousted rulers, a whole race of semi-savage horse-lords, a crazy prince who claims he has dragon's blood, giant wolves -- and at the Northern border there's an enormous Wall to keep out scary stuff that may or may not be mythological. And did I mention that in this land, seasons last for years at at time? It's been summer for about ten years now, and Winter Is Coming.

I eagerly watched all ten episodes in less than a week -- I could have stayed up all night watching if I didn't have other things to do, like supervise children and housework (I hadn't started working at the library yet). Then I had to decide if I was going to read the books, or wait nine months to see what happens next. . . . riiiight. I was on the library's wait list but it was too long, so the other day I broke down and bought it. And you know what? Even though I'd just watched the series (twice), the book was even better! George R. R. Martin has done an amazing job intertwining the book's multiple plots from the viewpoints of about seven different characters -- each chapter takes one character's perspective, and the chapters are quite short. Martin worked in television for years, so I can see how easily the book was translated into a series. (Martin was also an executive producer and wrote one the episode's scripts). I say easy, but it couldn't have been, with thousands of extras and costumes and swords and castles and so on.

Anyhow. I've probably been rambling, but if you have even the vaguest interest in fantasy, this series is really worth it, if the rest of them are anything like the first book. Seriously, I haven't been this excited about a new series since I read Harry Potter -- sacrilege! And after I finish the fifth book in the series it'll be a long wait until the next one -- just like the agony J. K. Rowling put me through.

This is so unlike most of the other books I read, but I had to blog about it. Bloggers, what about you? Are there any books or series you love that are totally different than your usual reads? Do you think of them as guilty pleasures?

A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck

2011-08-26T17:44:00.001-05:00

John Steinbeck was one of the authors that got me interested in reading classics a few years ago. I'd found a list of the Modern Library's Top 100 Novels and was shocked at how few I'd read. However, I was pretty intimidated by Steinbeck -- The Grapes of Wrath sounded so dire. Shortly after I made the commitment to classics, I joined an online reading group, and one of the first selections I read with the group was Travels With Charley, in which Steinbeck travels around the U.S. with his dog. How bad could that be?

Well, it wasn't bad, it was great. And after that I had the nerve to tackle The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and several of his other works. I laughed and cried with Steinbeck, and someday, I hope to read his entire oeuvre. I've read seven of his works so far, and I've liked or loved most of them.

A Russian Journal is a bit like Travels With Charley because it's a non-fiction travel memoir. At the beginning of the Cold War, Steinbeck and his friend, Robert Capa, a respected WWII photographer, traveled around Russia for several weeks, recording his impressions. As a famous writer, Steinbeck naturally went to receptions and speeches and events with Important People, but what he really wanted was to travel all over the country and met regular people and see what their lives were like, much like he would do in the 1960s in the United States with his dog Charley.

I found this book extremely interesting -- I've spent my whole life wanting to see other places, so I am a complete sucker for a travel memoir. Steinbeck is a great observer of life and characters, and most people don't realize how funny he could be. He didn't make fun of the Russian people -- he held them in the greatest respect. Steinbeck writes really well about the humor in situations, like the nightmares of bureaucracy and the difficulties of travel.

What really struck me about this book was Steinbeck's admiration of the Russian spirit. Steinbeck sees people who are literally living in holes in the ground, the remainder of their homes after they've been bombed out by the Germans. It will take years to rebuild, yet the people are undaunted. They're determined to survive. One of my favorite parts of the book was when he describes a visit a farming community in the Ukraine, which was particularly hard-hit by the war. Steinbeck and Capa spend an evening in a village, eating and drinking and dancing with the locals. There are very few young men, since so many died in the fighting, so the young women dance with each other. These young ladies work hard all day harvesting in the fields, using traditional methods since there isn't much machinery left since the war; then, they dance all night long, sleep a couple hours, and get up and go back to work in the fields.

Steinbeck found the Russian people as curious about Americans as he was about them. He also found them to be equally concerned about nuclear war. And more than anything, he found them warmhearted and generous. He and Capa are constantly entertained wherever they visit. One of the places he visited was Georgia, which sounds absolutely wonderful. After visiting a tea plantation, they stop at many houses to visit, and at each one Steinbeck and Capa are offered food, which they couldn't bring themselves to refuse. After they were completely stuffed, the manager of a farm asks them to stop by his home for a bite to eat, "only a token bite, as a courtesy."

We were beginning to believe that Russia's secret weapon, towards guests at least, was food. . . . It was the vision of the table that nearly killed us. It was fourteen feet long, and it was loaded with food, and there were about twenty guests. I think it was the only meal or dinner we ever attended where fried chicken was an hors d'oeuvre, and where each hors d'oeuvre was half a chicken. . . . [Steinbeck goes on to describe many fabulous-sounding dishes] . . . .The flavors were all new, and we wanted to taste all of them. Capa, who prides himself on a thirty-two inch waist, and who will not let out his belt, no matter what happens, was getting a puffed look under the chin, and his eyes were slightly popped and bloodshot. And I felt that if I could just go two or three days without eating anything, I might return to normal.

If you have any hesitation about reading Steinbeck, this is a great introduction. His writing has a wry humor and genuine insight into the human spirit.

My thanks again to Rebecca at The Classics Circuit! I've really enjoyed reading all the postings about Steinbeck, and look forward to more tours.

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

2011-08-11T15:38:00.001-05:00

I have owned My Cousin Rachel for almost five years now, and I cannot imagine why I took so long to read it. Rebecca, du Maurier's masterpiece, is one of my favorite books of all time, and it's the August selection for my classic book group that meets this weekend. I practically know it by heart, so I grabbed My Cousin Rachel off the shelf this weekend to help get myself in the gothic mood.

I was a little worried that it wouldn't measure up to Rebecca -- honestly, I don't think many books could! Also, I was really disappointed by Jamaica Inn, one of her more famous novels. However, I'm pleased to report that My Cousin Rachel was quite a page turner and I couldn't wait to find out how it all turned out.

Here's the setup, in a nutshell: young Philip Ashley is an orphan, raised by his bachelor cousin Ambrose, who is twenty years his senior. Philip is the heir apparent to Ambrose's considerable family fortune, and is as close to him as if Ambrose had been his father. When Philip is in his early twenties, Ambrose is forced by health issues to winter in Italy, where he meets a distant cousin, Rachel. Though Ambrose had never been much interested in women, he and Rachel hit it off over a mutual love of gardening. What follows changes the lives of both Ambrose and Philip forever.

Like Rebecca, this book is set on a large estate in Cornwall, and is a blend of mystery and romance. However, this is actually a historical novel, like Jamaica Inn, though it took me awhile to realize it was set sometime in the early 1800s -- at first I thought it was set in the 20th century, like Rebecca, until Philip mentions his father died in the Napoleonic wars. There's also no mention of train travel, and communication between Philip and Ambrose takes forever while he's in Italy.

I liked this novel -- the characters were well realized and I thought the pacing and tension were good. My only quibble was I found Philip to be incredibly naive. He's in his early twenties, and has led a rather sheltered life for a wealthy young man -- he knows absolutely nothing about women, and doesn't seem to have had any experience with them at all, which I find rather absurd -- he'd been to prep school and spent time at Oxford. Even if this was almost 200 years ago, I can't imagine that there weren't any women around! It's not as if he'd been raised on a desert island or locked in a tower, his schoolmates must have had sisters, or cousins -- not to mention all the village women. When they come into contact with Rachel, both of these two men are so stupidly infatuated with Rachel that I wanted to smack them both.

Nevertheless, the mystery and gothic elements of the book are classic du Maurier. I don't want to give away too much for fear of spoilers, but even though it's not as good as the brilliant Rebecca -- and honestly, what novel could be? -- but it's well worth reading if you are a du Maurier fan. I still have The Scapegoat on the TBR shelves -- any other du Mauriers I should read? Besides Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, I've also read Don't Look Now and many of her other short stories.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

2011-08-08T18:50:00.002-05:00

I belong to three face-to-face book groups, and I have to admit that I'm terrible about getting the books read on time -- I usually leave them to the last minute, and it's a rare month in which I finish all three books. It does not help that two of them meet back-to-back on the same day (in the same library branch) and frequently, the other group meets the same week. It's crazy, but I love all my groups and I'd hate to give up any of them.

Anyhow, I was really pleased with myself for finishing one of the selections so early -- North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'd been looking forward to this one all year, and copies were limited, so I was resolved to read it quickly and return it for the next book club member. However, I couldn't have imagined I'd read it so quickly! It's more than 500 pages but I zipped through it, could hardly put it down. Needless to say I really enjoyed this book. I loved Cranford and Wives and Daughters is one of my all-time favorites, so I had great hopes for it. I was not disappointed.

Essentially, it's another story of a young woman and man who fall in love after first disliking each other, with verbal sparring and witty repartee. However, it's much more than that. This one is set during the Industrial Revolution, with a background of factory strikes, a dirty, gritty Northern town, and the working poor. Young Margaret Hale was raised in a privileged background, as the companion to her wealthy cousin. After her cousin marries, she returns to live with her parents in a small, idyllic town in the South of England, where her father is a curate. Her mother married beneath her to the parson of a small living, where she is miserable. Mr. Hale has a crisis of faith and leaves his position, taking a job as a tutor to wealthy industrialists in the Northern town of Milton (based on Manchester). Here Margaret meets John Thornton, a self-made industrialist who owns a cotton mill. Margaret is at first unimpressed by this man in trade (gasp!) who is one of his father's pupils (he was too busy pulling himself up by his bootstraps for a classical education). They clash but of course they care for each other.

This has been described over and over as a Victorian re-working of Pride and Prejudice. Normally, retellings and sequels and prequels of classic lit make me run the other way, but I gave it a chance. I suppose it's a bit like P&P, but it's pretty loose. Of course, you have the young unmarried woman and the gruff man who start out hating each other and fall in love -- it's such a trope that it hardly seems like a reworking, but maybe Jane Austen was the first one to use it. This story has much more social commentary; apparently Dickens lifted this idea for Hard Times, causing a rift between himself and Mrs. Gaskell. Trust me, this is by far the better novel, as Hard Times is the Dickens novel I like least.

I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago, and over the weekend I watched the BBC miniseries adaptation starring the dreamy Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton. It was so good both my daughters watched it with me, and one night we stayed up until almost midnight! Am I a good mother for exposing them to quality literature or a bad mother for letting them stay up that late?

Borders Loot and My Guilty Conscience

2011-08-03T11:27:00.001-05:00

I'm feeling very guilty but I could not help myself the other day, I took advantage of the 20% off clearance prices (plus additional 10% off with my Borders Plus membership). This is what I brought home:

From top to bottom, in case you can't read the titles:

Aunts Aren't Gentleman by P. G. Wodehouse
Galahad at Blandings by P. G. Wodehouse
The Girl on the Boat by P. G. Wodehouse
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Authors on Why We Read Jane Austen by Susannah Carson
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David

I'm sure I could have bought these books for less online at Amazon, but there is something so wonderful about browsing. It was really bittersweet, though, since I couldn't help feeling if I'd had more shopping sprees like this at Borders, they'd somehow have stayed in business. My closest Borders is only about five minutes' drive away, and I frequently hung around reading without buying anything, not even in the cafe, or bought one item with my coupon so they barely made any profits. I did shop on their website occasionally but found their online delivery slow so I hardly ever used it. And the past few months, they've been sending me coupons that worked out to about 46% nearly every week! How can a business expect to survive like that? I knew it wouldn't last but I still took advantage.

I do have a Barnes & Noble membership and frequently bought from them online -- I prefer shopping at B&N.com over Amazon even though I have to pay tax, since I can return items at the store without paying return shipping -- plus, they have an actual telephone number answered by real people. (When was the last time you spoke to someone from Amazon?? It's virtually impossible.) And besides, Barnes & Noble has Starbucks, and the good squashy chairs! Where can I get those chairs?

I've heard from several people who worked at Borders that it was a whole range of problems that contributed to its demise, so I know I shouldn't hold myself responsible because I didn't shop there enough. I'm still sad to see a major book retailer go out of business. I spent many happy hours browsing and reading -- I do think their fiction selection was much better than Barnes & Noble. And I'm sure I'll go to the other two stores within driving distance to hunt up some more bargains. Nearly every one of the books I bought was dusty, especially the Wodehouses, so I feel I have given these books a happy home.

I'm sure when the store is closed for good I'll probably cry.

Pot-Luck by Emile Zola

2011-07-27T09:42:00.002-05:00

I know I just posted about Germinal a few weeks ago, but seriously, it was so great, I got on the Zola bandwagon and I'm totally obsessed with his work at the moment. Pot Luck (also known as Pot-Bouille) is the satirical story of the bourgeios residents of a Paris apartment building, and a scathing attack on the hypocrisy of bourgeois attitudes of the time. The story begins as Octave Mouret (from the Rougon family), who has just arrived in Paris from the provinces, comes to the apartment building on the Rue de Choiseul, where he'll be renting a room. A friend of his family, Monsieur Campardon, lives in the building and has also lined up a job for Octave at The Ladies' Paradise, the eponymous department store of the next book in the series. Octave meets his new neighbors through their parties and salons, and the reader is introduced to several families and their domestic staff.

Basically, this story is about the apartment's residents and how awful they are. The Josserand family has two daughters, and Madame Josserand is constantly scheming to get them married off, and to get her rich brother to give her money for dowries. Madame Compardon is some kind of invalid -- she never gets dressed and just lays around reading Dickens, while her husband is carrying on affairs right under her nose. Most of the men in the building are either hitting on the servants or off with their mistresses. The wives are always screaming at the servants, the servants scream at each other and gossip about their employers, and the main character, Octave, is trying to seduce various women in the building. Meanwhile, everyone pretends to be very respectable. It's sort of like a sordid French version of Upstairs, Downstairs.

I did have a hard time with this book at first. Seriously, these characters are all pretty awful people, with minor exceptions. At one point I was thinking about giving it up completely, but at about 100 pages, it got really interesting -- even though I didn't like any of the characters, I was fascinated. They were so dreadful I had to find out what happened. Unlike many 19th century writers, Zola's books are pretty fast reads, so I was easily able to finish the book in a couple of days once I really got into it.

I've read a lot of books about characters who are real train wrecks, like Madame Bovary. None of the people in Pot Luck are quite as self-destructive as that, but this does turn out to be an interesting and sometimes hilarious story. My one complaint about Zola is that he tends to throw a lot of characters at the reader in the beginning, which is pretty confusing. I had put the book down for several days and when I picked it up again I was having trouble keeping them straight. I did consider re-reading the beginning so I could make a chart or a plan of all the people that lived in the building and how they were all connected.

Overall, this is a very entertaining story and I ended up loving it. I couldn't help wondering if Zola based these characters on real people. There was one passage near the end that cracked me up. I'm pretty sure that this resident of the building, who's barely mentioned in the story, is based on Zola himself:

Monsieur Gourd [the concierge] told how they had had a visit from the police -- yes, the police! The second-floor tenant had written such a filthy novel they were going to imprison him.

"Horrible stuff!" he went on in a tone of disgust. "It's full of filth about the most respectable people. They even say our landlord's described in it -- yes, Monsieur Duveyrier himself! What a nerve, eh? It's good for them that they keep themselves to themselves; we know now what they get up to, in spite of their stand-offishness. You see, they can afford to keep their carriage, because their filth is worth its weight in gold!"

So, now I'm all into Zola, and I've decided to read the entire Rougon-Macquart series, or as many as I can find in decent translations. Next up: The Ladies' Paradise. Is anyone else a big Zola fan? Which of his books are not to be missed?

New job!!!

2011-07-25T18:37:00.001-05:00

Sorry for taking so long to post, but I've had a busy week. Today was my very first day . . . .

AT MY NEW JOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's official, I am gainfully employed in a library for the first time in almost exactly three years. I had the bad timing to complete my library degree at the height of a recession, after moving to a city with a hiring freeze. :-(

Not my library. But isn't it beautiful?

But finally, after almost three years of volunteering, I've been hired at the library -- though sadly, not as a librarian. But I'm on the city payroll, which is the important thing, and I can keep applying for promotions. I have my foot in the door and I'll just keep trying.

I started at my new branch today and everyone seems lovely, I'm sure I'll be very happy there.

I can't tell you how nice it is to be a Real Library Employee!!!!!!!!

Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner

2011-07-16T15:13:00.002-05:00

Two challenges fulfilled by one 240 page book! For Paris in July, I had really intended to try and finish some of the books on my burgeoning TBR shelves; however, I've heard so many great things about Anita Brookner I couldn't pass up participating in International Anita Brookner Day, sponsored by Thomas of My Porch. My discovery of this novel, set in both France and England, seemed serendipitous.

The book begins with a prologue. After her death, a young woman finds some intriguing items that belonged to her, including a notebook and a beautiful silk kimono. The book that follows is how she imagines her mother's life.

Maud Gonthier is the only child of bourgeois parents in Dijon, France. Her father dies when she is a small child in the 1950s, and her mother struggles to keep them financially afloat without appearing poor. She hopes to get the attractive Maud married off early. Maud's aunt married very well, and her mother hopes to unite her with her cousin Xavier, or one of Xavier's friends. On a summer visit at her aunt's country house, young Maud falls head over heels in love with Tyler, a dashing and wealthy young Englishman who has the world at his feet. Sadly, things don't turn out exactly as Maud hopes -- instead the hunky Tyler, she winds up with the solid but unexciting Edward Harrison, another young Englishman dragged to the country by Tyler.

Initially, this seems like one of those novels in which Not Much Happens. At first I really didn't much like the story or the characters, who seemed really cold and calculated, especially Maud's mother. I was resolved to stick with it, and the payoff was worth it. This book is a really great character study, and it's really made me think about marriages and relationships and True Love. And disappointment -- a lot of characters in this book are disappointed with their lot in life.

I'm beginning to understand why Thomas raves about Anita Brookner, another author to add to my burgeoning Must Read List.

A Few Vacation Photos

2011-07-12T12:30:00.002-05:00

Other than books, my other big obsession is food. I did go to cooking school years ago, and worked for several years as a professional pastry cook. When I'm on vacation, if I'm not reading, I'm usually looking for something wonderful to eat. If you have not been to Disney World, there are many, many wonderful places to eat. And our hotel was pretty cool too.

First, the view from my balcony at the Animal Kingdom Lodge:

Could this be a zebra book discussion group? Or are they planning a hostile takeover?

Of course the animals weren't there all day every day, but still, it's pretty awesome to sit there and have a giraffe walk by! And much cheaper than flying to Africa with a family of four.

We lived in Tampa for three years, so I've actually spent a lot of time at Disney and don't take that many photos any more. This time I was mostly inspired to record some of the amazing meals we ate:

Roast duck from the Yak & Yeti restaurant at Animal Kingdom

And here's some seared tuna which we ate before riding Kali River Rapids three times in a row at Animal Kingdom -- it was right before closing and they didn't even make us get off the ride in between, we just kept on going. And getting wetter. I did not think to bring a change of clothes, so it was a pretty uncomfortable bus ride back to the hotel. Oh, well, it was worth it.

Our last day at Disney we went to Hollywood Studios (aka MGM) and had lunch at The Brown Derby:

By far, the best crab cake I have ever eaten in my life. And those three wineglass stems are from a Champagne flight. Delicious!

My dessert, a delicious layered confection of toffee, caramelized bananas, and banana mousse. Afterwards it was time for a nap.

More on vacation and my vacation reads later!

Germinal by Emile Zola

2011-07-07T08:34:00.001-05:00

I am finally back from Florida and well rested -- time to start posting! After a whirlwind tour of Disney I had several restful days visiting family and friends in Florida. It seemed sort of incongruous for the setting, but despite the sunny weather I decided to tackle Germinal, this month's selection for my real-life classics group. Of all the books our group chose for 2011, I think this was the book I've wanted to read most. Amanda from The Zen Leaf just raved about it, and after reading The Belly of Paris and Therese Raquin last year, I was eager to read more Zola.

The setup: Etienne Lantier arrives in a small mining village, homeless, starving, and looking for work. He's a trained mechanic but is happy to take a job as a miner, despite the horrible working conditions. Through his eyes, we get to see the life of these people, who are scraping a living out of the bowels of the earth. The work is back breaking and dangerous, there's hardly enough food to go around, and not much else to do except drink, gossip, and procreate. When the mining company decides to change the payment structure, resulting in less pay for more work, Etienne leads his comrades in a devastating strike during a long, bitter winter.

If this sounds bleak and depressing, it is, but at the same time it's absolutely riveting. Imagine The Grapes of Wrath, only set in 1880s France -- and underground, where the work in not only exhausting, but you could die at any time from a cave-in, a gas leak, or an explosion. Plus the eventual death of black lung. (Not to downplay the plight of the California migrant workers, but picking vegetables isn't quite the same. Though I guess they might get carpal tunnel or skin cancer. Excuse the digression).

Anyhow. Zola is just a master at setting these scenes and drawing the reader in -- a large chunk of the book is just Etienne's first day in the mines, so through his eyes the reader learns exactly what life is like for these people. Zola actually spent six months researching this book, spending time with coal miners and going down into the mines himself. He's also brilliant at writing crowd scenes. I tend to zone out and skim over extended action scenes in books, but not here -- there are some scenes of mob violence that are horrifying, yet I couldn't stop reading.

Zola also tells the story bourgeois managers and their families. The book is blatantly pro-worker, yet he's able to interject some sympathy for some of the managers who are really doing the best they can. Of course, some of the wives and daughters are unbelievably naive and sheltered about the whole situation, and Zola's satire would be hilarious if it probably weren't true -- they come off rather like Marie Antoinette wondering why they just don't eat some cake since there's no bread.

This was probably a poor choice to read in sunny Florida but I'm so glad I read it and can't wait to read more Zola. I have both Nana and The Drinking Den (L'Assomoir) on my TBR shelf and I'm also dying to read The Ladies' Paradise. I don't know if Germinal counts towards the Paris in July readalong, since none of it actually takes place in Paris, so I guess I'll just have to read another Zola! Any suggestions?

On Vacation

2011-06-24T11:05:00.002-05:00

We're leaving Friday for vacation in Florida! It's sure to be hot and steamy and the forecast looks like rain for the entire trip. Oh well, I'll get plenty of reading done -- and hopefully it won't interfere with our visit to The Happiest Place on Earth.

I'm not bringing my laptop so I'll be off the grid for about a week. Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends in the blogosphere!! I'll report back when I return.

Paris in July

2011-06-23T12:15:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited about the Paris in July read hosted by Karen at Bookbath and Tamara at Thyme for Tea! I'm packing for my vacation, and I've resolved once again to work my overstuffed TBR bookshelf. If nothing else it has narrowed down my choices somewhat. First, some French classics:

It's a little hard to read, but from top to bottom:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant
Nana by Emile Zola
Germinal by Emile Zola
The Drinking Den by Emile Zola

(And by the way, I bought that copy of Hunchback at the actual Notre Dame gift shop a few years ago. Which is in Notre Dame. Halfway up the 300 bazillion steps!! I feel sorry for the woman who works there, the only bathroom is on the main floor, so if she has to go up and down about 15 flights every time. She must have amazing legs!)

I also have some slightly more contemporary fiction by English and American authors, but all set in France:

France in Mind edited by Alice Leccese Powers
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

I'll definitely be reading at least one book about food:

My Life in France by Julia Child
The Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater
Cooking For Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme by Ian Kelly

I also have some other nonfiction about France:

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser
La Belle France: A Short History by Alistair Thorne

I'm hoping to get through at least one from each stack but I'm definitely going to read Germinal, which is the July choice for my real-life classics book group -- we thought it would be so appropriate for July. Right now I'm also leaning towards The Scapegoat, My Life in France, and Cooking for Kings.

So what do you think? Good choices? Which ones have you read and loved? Should any of them be skipped and donated to the library sale?

Victorian Overload?

2011-06-21T19:02:00.001-05:00

I don't know if anyone actually notices my little "Currently Reading" box on my blog sidebar, but if you do you may realize I have been reading Daniel Deronda for more than a month now. This book just seems like it's taking forever. It started out really well, but now I'm stuck at about page 370. I've been trying desperately to hit the 400 page mark, and I just keep falling asleep or getting distracted. I'm not sure if it's me or if it's the writing. I'm not sure if I can blame it on George Eliot -- I loved Middlemarch once I got past the first 100 pages, and I thought Silas Marner was good even thought it was slow for such a short book (I actually listened to it on audio and I read it when I was walking the dog).

I've read three other Big Fat Victorian books so far this year, and I've had the same problem -- I usually seem to get stuck about halfway through, and it's hard for me to get motivated to finish them. Is it just me, or is this a persistent problem with 19th century novelists? Does anyone else notice that they tend to drag in the middle? I wonder if it's an issue with serialization, or if it's just those particular authors, or just these specific books. I haven't read any Trollope lately but I don't remember that problem with either Barchester Towers or The Way We Live Now.

It was probably a mistake to even start this book -- seriously, I just finished Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens; and earlier this year I completed Charlotte Bronte's Villette and The Three Musketeers by Dumas for online readalongs. So those combined with Dombey totaled about 2000 pages, not including endnotes.

And it gets worse -- I'm scheduled to start Germinal by Emile Zola for my Classics Book Group and one of my other book groups is discussing North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell in August! That's another 1000 pages or so! What the heck was I thinking?

I suspect my problem is that I just belong to too many book groups, and I'm tempted by too many readalongs (Both Villette and Three Musketeers had been sitting around the TBR shelf for several years, and I really wanted to finish them.) Daniel Deronda was for my Jane Austen group -- of course I hadn't finished it in time for the discussion which was two weeks ago. (In my defense, only one person in the group actually finished it. One person watched the BBC adaptation, and nobody else read it.)

Bloggers, I need your advice -- should I stick with Daniel Deronda or move on to something else? Does anyone else get discouraged halfway through a Big Fat Book? Or am I just trying to read too many 19th century novels too close together?

Top Ten Literary Dads

2011-06-19T08:27:00.002-05:00

In honor of Father's Day, I decided to compile a list of great literary dads. It's shocking how many bad fathers there are in literature, but there are great dads worth noting. I'm not limiting it biological fathers, since there are many great adoptive fathers and foster fathers in books. Here are my favorites, in no particular order:

1. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the most famous and beloved literary dads, he was the first one I thought of. He's a great dad AND he stands up for his principles, defending a black man unjustly accused of a crime in small Alabama town, long before the Civil Rights era. Plus he's a great checkers player AND a crack shot!

2. Mr. Harding from Barchester Towers and The Warden by Anthony Trollope. Even though his daughter Eleanor is in love with a man who could potentially ruin his career, Reverend Harding supports her and her decisions. How many fathers would do that? He staunchly stands by Eleanor, no matter what it means to his own lifestyle.

3. Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series. He's not the best breadwinner and he's a little goofy at times, but he makes up for it in his devotion to his seven children AND Harry Potter, whom the Weasleys essentially adopt since his aunt and uncle are so wretched. There is not a better father in the wizarding world.

4. Danny's father in Danny, the Champion of the World. Roald Dahl's books are rife with horrible adults, but Danny's father is a real winner. He's a single dad devoted to his son (though he's slightly morally suspect). This book is one of the few Dahl novels without magical or supernatural elements, and it's always been my favorite.

5. Dr. Gibson in Wives & Daughters. Another single dad, he has a great and loving relationship to his daughter Molly, and marries a widowed governess to give her a mother figure. Even though this doesn't work out as well as planned, he still loves her and tries to do his best, unlike many of the fathers in Victorian literature (note that I do not include a single father from the works of Charles Dickens -- there are some great uncles and father figures, but the biological fathers are either dead or terrible.)

6. Mr. Emerson in A Room with a View. He stands up for his son George in matters of the heart, and convinces Lucy Honeychurch that his son is the man for her, despite their class differences. Brilliantly portrayed by Denholm Elliot in the 1985 film version, far superior to the 2007 BBC adaptation, which has a horrible, unnecessary epilogue. (If you do watch this version, skip this. Trust me.)

7. Hans Hubermann in The Book Thief. He's technically not a father, but he's Liesel's foster father, and he's a great father figure. He does the best he can to take care of an orphan girl in Germany during the end of WWII. And he does some heroic stuff too.

8. Silas Marner. Not my favorite book by George Eliot, but curmudgeonly Silas is a memorably great dad. He finds a little orphan child in the snow, and she changes his life.

9. Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables. He was supposed to adopt a boy, but brought Anne home instead, to the chagrin of his sister. Worked out very well for everyone though, especially the readers who get to enjoy the entire series.

10. Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni from The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. An adoptive father, the finest mechanic in Botswana, and all-around great guy. He is never too busy to help out fixing things at the local orphanage and does not bat an eyelash when his fiancee Madame Ramotswe adopts two orphans, a brother and sister, one of whom is disabled.

Happy Father's Day to my dad and to my dear husband! They'd definitely make the list of great dads.

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

2011-06-18T10:25:00.004-05:00

After reading The Professor's House, I was really looking forward to Death Comes For the Archbishop which was the selection of my real-life classics book group. In fact, I've been looking forward to this one since we selected it and put it on the schedule last fall.

If you are not familiar, here's the setup: Beginning about 1850, Father LaTour is a young French missionary prince, working in Ohio. Some church elders decide he is the perfect person to administer the enormous vicarate of New Mexico, as the new archbishop. The story is basically a series of vignettes in the life of Father LaTour and his boyhood friend, Father Valliente, another missionary who accompanies him on his journey to save the souls in the Southwest.

I feel almost guilty writing this, but I just did not get why this book is so beloved. It's considered one Cather's best works, if not THE best, but I found it disappointing, and really slow. Of course, the writing was wonderful, but I just hard a hard time connecting with the story, which isn't really a narrative -- it's just little slices of the lives of Father LaTour and Father Valliente. It's almost like a series of short stories. It's possible I didn't appreciate it as much because I took a break in the middle of reading it, a couple of weeks, and I had a hard time getting motivated to pick it up again. However, I honestly didn't care much about the characters. Father LaTour didn't really seem to be very developed to me.

I'm not a religious person, and I was actually raised Catholic though I don't agree with it. I'm not going to use this post to get into a big religious discussion (and if I get any hateful comments I WILL delete them); in general, it just didn't really interest me. I actually got rather offended at times when Cather wrote about some of the abuses of power shown by the priests. There's a scene in which a Mexican woman, who's been enslaved by a horrible white family, comes to Father LaTour -- does he help her and give her refuge? No, he hears her confession and sends her back to her captors! Now, as far as I know, this book is set before the Civil War, but to my recollection slavery was never legal in New Mexico, and definitely not the slavery of Mexicans by whites!! I was appalled.

I also disliked how condescending the white characters were to both Mexicans and Indians. I wasn't shocked when it was characters who were obviously unsympathetic jerks, but even Father LaTour was kind of racist. Cather repeatedly refers to his parishoners as "yellow" and "red." I should have expected it, because it is a historical novel, but I did find it kind of offensive. I never got the impression that Cather was racist, since she portrays the Mexicans as loving and generous, and the Indians with great dignity and respect. It was just the white characters that really bugged me.

Of course, Cather's writing was great, and I do think the best thing I liked about it was the sense of place. At our book group discussion, Amanda pointed out that New Mexico itself is almost a character in the book, because it plays such a big part. Cather writes repeatedly about the canyons, the rocks, the pinon and mesquite trees, the enormous sky and the clouds, in such a way that made me feel as if I was right there with Father LaTour:

The weather alternated between blinding sand-storms and brilliant sunlight. The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still -- and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world. The plain was there, under one's feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was far away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!

Now, if that doesn't make you want to buy a ticket to New Mexico, I don't know what will. And I'm still going to keep reading Cather -- I still have The Song of the Lark and Shadows on the Rock on the TBR shelf, and both look wonderful.

Jeeves and Wooster and P. G. Wodehouse

2011-06-15T08:27:00.005-05:00

My latest obsession is Jeeves and Wooster by P.G. Wodehouse. I was looking for DVDs that were family-friendly but didn't bore me to death and I thought the kids might enjoy these, especially since they got a hoot out of the audiobook version of Three Men in a Boat that we listened to in the car.

My youngest daughter especially has gotten a real kick out of the videos. We liked them so much we bought the entire series in a box set, which we found for a great price at Costco. It worked out to about $1 per episode, which is pretty good since I know we'll watch them over and over. It's so fun to see Hugh Laurie in his pre-House days, and Stephen Fry is just brilliant as Jeeves. We particularly enjoy it when Jeeves disapproves of fashion choices:

[There's actually a better and even funnier montage of Jeeves' disapproval on Youtube, but somehow I couldn't imbed the video. If you're interested, click here.]

Anyhow, I've found watching the series absolutely delightful and it inspired me to pick up more Wodehouse at the library recently. I have far too many books checked out and on the TBR shelves, but I needed a break from all the big fat Victorians I've been reading lately. I could not resist this cover:

Of course it would look so much better without the library sticker covering up the swan on the front. Oh well. If you haven't fallen in love with these already, they're the Overlook Press reprints of the works of P. G. Wodehouse. He published more than 90 books and I think they've reprinted about 75 so far. Which could be dangerous!! I had a birthday recently and I strongly hinted to my family that any of these would be greatly welcomed. Well, I suppose "hint" would be an understatement; I handed my husband a Borders coupon with the words "P. G. Wodehouse Overlook Press" written on it in large printing, so he wouldn't miss it. I admit that I am not terribly subtle. The result was this nice little stack:

I've started reading The Man With Two Left Feet, which is a collection of Wodehouse's early stories, including the very first appearance of Bertie and Jeeves. Jeeves is merely mentioned and Bertie's apparently has no last name, but it's still pretty funny. The dreaded Aunt Agatha ships Bertie off to America to prevent his cousin from making a ghastly marriage to a chorus girl. Bertie does not enlist Jeeves' brainpower and it all goes terribly wrong, of course, though hilarity still ensues. Perfect summer reading!

A Small Stack of NYRB Classics

2011-06-11T11:46:00.003-05:00

Since reading and loving The Slaves of Solitude this past week, I was motivated to take a look at all the other NYRB Classics I have hanging around my shelves. A few months ago I wanted to participate in an NYRB Reading Week, but sadly I just didn't have time. However, Thomas from My Porch posted a striking photo from his collection that inspired me to take this:

The photo is a little fuzzy, so here's the list from top to bottom:

The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Westcott

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson

The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay

Stoner by John Williams

The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West

The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier

My stack isn't nearly as impressive as Thomas', but there's still plenty to choose from -- so far, I've only finished one from the stack, Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier. I have a vacation coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm already thinking about which books to pack in my carry-on. Right now I'm leaning towards The Summer Book and The Dud Avocado. Any suggestions? Which of these would be best for a vacation read?

Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton

2011-06-08T13:47:00.002-05:00

It seems like it's been forever since I posted a book review -- okay, only ten days. I have just felt really uninspired lately. I suppose reading two massive Victorian books back to back was a bad idea -- what was I thinking, tackling Dombey and Son right before I was supposed to read Daniel Deronda for a book group discussion?? Crazy! (And no surprise -- Daniel Deronda is still unfinished).

Something shorter was just the thing. My choice was The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton, which came highly recommended by Simon at Stuck in a Book. And what a great choice! This is one of those books that make me glad to be a blogger -- it's one of those books of which I would like to buy multiple copies, so I can hand them out to friends (or random strangers) and say "Read this -- right now!!"

Here's the setup: It's set in England in 1944, in Thames Lockdon, a London suburb, and the action is centered around the residents of a boarding house called the Rosamund Tea Rooms. The main character is Miss Roach, a 39-year-old spinster, formerly a schoolmistress, who is still working at a publishing company in London since she was bombed out of her home. Due to the housing crisis, she's forced to live in this rundown boardinghouse with some depressing people.

The most notorious of her fellow residents is Mr. Thwaites, a nasty, bullying retiree of about sixty. Miss Roach is assigned a seat in the dining room at the same table as Mr. Thwaites, who manages to take the most innocent conversation and turn it into something unpleasant. Unfortunately, Miss Roach is his favorite target, and either due to politeness or reticence, nobody ever seems to stand up to Mr. Thwaites and put him in his place.

Miss Roach hopes that things will turn around after she suggests the Rosamund Tea Rooms to her acquaintance Vicki Kugelmann, a German emigre with a lot of spunk. She hopes that Miss Kugelmann's presence will change the dynamic of the boarding house. And it does, but unfortunately not for the better, of course. Everything goes absolutely wrong, and it began to get even more interesting.

This book reminds me a bit of Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, though it has a more melancholy undertone. It's full of wry observations like Pym, but also a little like Jane Austen. I'm also finding it almost satirical in parts. Here's a passage describing the detestable Mr. Thwaites, who simply lives to bully the other residents at the boarding house:

". . . Mr. Thwaites had on fine mornings no one to boom at in the Rosamond Tea Rooms, and spent much of the time writing embittered letters in the Lounge. These, after he had put on his overcoat and cap, he took round to the Post Office and posted in the most acid way. He passed pillar-boxes on the way, but did not trust them, as not going to the root of the matter.

After this he would return to the Rosamund Tea Rooms, where he would prowl restlessly, and whence he would, perhaps, make one or two rapid, tigerish excursions into the town, to make an enquiry, to buy something, or to change a book -- invariably tying the assistants into knots, and, in the ironical pose of a stupid man, saying he was so sorry, no doubt it was his fault, entirely."

Mr. Thwaites is one of the most memorable characters I've read about this year. For literary villains, he's right up there with Harold Skimpole from Bleak House or Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice -- not evil, but someone you'd just love to throttle. From the moment this character was introduced, I could not wait for him to get his comeuppance. He was rather a Dickensian character now that I think about it.

This is another of those great books in which technically, not much happens. However, it's a great character study, and I loved the dynamics of the people involved. These people are trapped in their circumstances by the war -- they can't find new homes, they can hardly go out at night because of the blackout, and supplies are short, except for what seems an endless supply of alcohol. Unhappy people and drinking seems like a recipe for trouble. I could not put the book down because I was so intrigued at how everything would play out -- which it did, in a highly satisfying manner.

Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper

2011-05-27T15:03:00.001-05:00

Lately, it seems like I've half my books are about World War II. Not the war itself -- battles and military strategy are not my thing, and I tend to get bored with extended action scenes -- but the homefront during wartime, what you might call the domestic side of the war. Three of the last Persephones I've read have been about the war at home, and the fourth (The Hopkins Manuscript) was sort of a war allegory, if I'm not mistaken.

Anyhow, I digress. This is the story of Willie Marynton, a career soldier that never gets go to war and spends his entire life disappointed. He's just finished his military training and is about to ship out when WWI is declared over, and by the start of WWII, he's too old and spends his career training other soldiers. He spends his entire life waiting to go off to war.

Well, I can't say that I can relate to poor Willie's to go off and fight -- there are some sections in which he is so depressed that he missed out on WWI, which sounds so ghastly from other books -- but I can definitely relate to his sense of disappointment. I had the bad timing to finish library school just as the economy began to crumble, and I don't think there's a book blogger around who doesn't realize the tenuous state most libraries are in. I also had the bad fortune to leave an existing library job and move to a city which began a two-year hiring freeze just before I finished my degree. I could not have chosen a worse time, and it's heartbreaking to me because I've found the ideal job for me. So I really felt Willie's pain about his career.

Endpapers from the Persephone edition of Operation Heartbreak

This is a short book, and there's not a lot of flowery description -- the sentences are straight to the point, but they really get to the heart of what's happening in the story. This passage in particular really captured the essence of this book. Willie's regiment is shipping off to war, though he's been left behind once again:

The demands of security insisted that to the public eye, the regiment should be there one day, carrying on their normal functions and giving no sign of departure, and on the morrow they should have disappeared, leaving no trace behind. Willie travelled with them to the port of embarkation and actually went on board the ship in which they were sailing. When he had shaken hands with some of his friends and come over the side for the last time he had a curious and most uncomfortable feeling in his chest, and he found himself foolishly wondering whether people's hearts really do break, whether it might not be more than a mere figure of speech.

Just heartbreaking. And I won't give anything away, but the ending was so moving I was glad that no one else was in the room when I finished it because I couldn't help crying. What a great book.

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

2011-05-21T06:54:00.002-05:00

Austen vs. Dickens: two of my favorite British authors. It was a tough choice, but I've finished all of Austen, so I chose Dickens this time around -- nothing against my beloved Jane, but I'm trying to work my way through the Dickens canon. For this edition of the Classics Circuit, I'm reading my tenth Dickens novel: Dombey and Son.

(Crickets chirping).

Yes, Dombey and Son : one of Charles Dickens' classic novels. . . . the one that nobody's ever heard of! Because, honestly, nobody ever reads it anymore! Compared to Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and even my beloved Bleak House, Dombey and Son is one of Charles Dickens' least read works. Even Hard Times is more popular. I suspect people read Hard Times because it's Dickens' shortest novel, though I personally think it is the least good of his novels. My library system -- which includes more than 1 million items -- does not own a single copy of this book. Not one! Along with Martin Chuzzlewit (the one where the main character goes to America) and Barnaby Rudge (the one about "the Riots of 'Eighty"), Dombey and Son belongs to the trio of works which are probably only read by the hard-core Dickens fans.

Anyhow, for those of you who are not familiar with the story, here is the setup, without spoilers. The novel begins with Mr. Dombey (the father), holding his new baby (the eponymous son); sadly, his wife is dying in childbirth. (Mr. Dombey's sister explains it's all the wife's fault, "because she wouldn't rally" -- i.e., she didn't have the character not to die. Riiiight.) Dombey has another child, a daughter, named Florence, about whom he could not care less; his hopes and dreams are all pinned on his son Paul, who will grow up and take over the family business. Mr. Dombey is some sort of business magnate, so little Paul has some big shoes to fill.

Needless to say, things do not work out as planned regarding his big plans for his beloved son. I don't want to give anything major away, but basically, this novel is about Mr. Dombey's relationship (or the lack thereof) with poor Florence, who essentially fills the role of the orphan in this novel. As you may remember, there's an orphan in every Dickens novel, or someone who is had a terrible childhood without loving parents, if you haven't noticed this already.

Apparently, this is Dickens' attempt at a feminist novel, though I wouldn't say he's really promoting the rights of women as far as work or property are concerned. Poor little Florence is rejected by her father at every opportunity, and it seems like he goes out of his way to get rid of anyone who might show her affection, because he's aware of what a jerk he is and he doesn't want anyone else to show him up. Dickens does make a point about the sad lot of marriageable women. [Mild spoiler alert!]

For example: Mr. Dombey is looking for a second wife and he's courting a beautiful widow, Edith, whose mother is one seriously manipulative gold-digger. The fact that Edith and Mr. Dombey don't really love each other is irrelevent. Edith has spent her life looking for husbands and not for love, and she blames her mother:

"What childhood did you ever leave to me? I was a woman -- artful, designing, mercenary, laying snares for men -- before I knew myself, or you, or even understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt. . . . There is no slave in a market: there is no horse in a fair: so shown and offered and examined and paraded, Mother, as I have been, for ten shameful years," cried Edith, with a burning brown, and the same bitter emphasis on the word.

As usual, Dickens fills this book with minor subplots and eccentric side characters, which sometimes disappear for hundreds of pages at a time. I really wanted to like this book (which I admit I haven't finished; I have about 250 pages to go), but I don't think this is going to rank near the top with my favorites. I'm finding it terribly uneven -- some parts are just great, and I could easily read eighty or a hundred pages in a day, and some parts dragged glacially. I found the parts about the wretched Mr. Dombey to be just depressing and rather boring. Dickens seems to go out of his way to show that Dombey is a cold, heartless, bastard, but after a while it got tiresome. Things really perked up when the fun supporting characters were in the picture, but I've always found them to be Dickens' best writing. I haven't given up on the book yet -- I'll stick with it to the end and see if it gets better. Florence may be one of Dickens' typical ingenues, but I do find myself caring about whether or not her story is going to have a happy ending.

UPDATE: I did finish the novel, and the ending was extremely satisfying, so I'm really happy that I read it. I wouldn't rate this novel in the same tier as Bleak House or Oliver Twist, but it's still a good read and worth sticking with if you're a Dickens fan -- if you're new to Dickens you might try another one first. But it's still a good book overall.

One Book, Two Book, Three Book Meme

2011-05-17T11:10:00.004-05:00

This has been all over the blogsophere lately and I don't know why it took me so long to join in! I first saw this on Simon's blog, Stuck in a Book:

1. The book I'm currently reading:

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens. Well, I should say it's the book I'm currently trying hardest to finish. I'm actually reading three books at the same time, but I need to get this one done since I'm blogging about it on Saturday for The Classics Circuit.

2. The last book I finished:

Kindred by Octavia Butler. It's the second I've completed for my reading swap with Amanda of The Zen Leaf)

3. The next book I want to read:

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious. I know someone blogged about it recently and I was intrigued, but I can't remember who it was. Sorry!

4. The last book I bought:

Mr. Skeffington by Elizabeth von Arnim. I got this a couple of weeks ago at a tiny antiquarian bookstore in Fredericksburg, TX -- a first edition!

5. The last book I was given:

I should have zoomed in a little closer. It's The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart. This was a Mother's Day gift, one of several Persephones, actually.

So much book loot!

A Pair of Persephones: Doreen and On the Other Side: Letters to My Children From Germany, 1940-1946

2011-05-15T14:03:00.000-05:00

The endpapers from the Persephone edition of Doreen,
taken from a 1940s printed silk scarf.

My ILL overload is finished; I've finally returned the last of them, and I'm happy to report I finished eight of the ten books! However, I now have a slew of books to review. I'm combining two book reviews in this post because I read two books back to back which seemed to go together -- two books set in opposite sides of WWII, and dealing with parents and children.

The first is Doreen by Barbara Noble. It was my thirty-third Persephone, and it's one of the best ones so far. This book deals with a heartwrenching topic. During the London Blitz, parents were encouraged to send their children to foster families in the countries, sometimes for years. Families were faced with a terrible decision: stay together and face dangerous bombs, or send the children away to safety and suffer an extended separation.

The book begins with Mrs. Rawlings and her ten-year-old daughter Doreen, who have spent the night in a London bomb shelter. A single mother, Mrs. Rawlings decided to keep her only child close after all the other children in Doreen's school were evacuated. She is beginning to regret her decision and is overwhelmed with worry, and has a breakdown in the ladies' room of the office building where she works as a cleaner. Another employee, Miss Osborne, offers to contact her brother and sister-in-law, a childless couple living in the country, to see if they would be willing to take Doreen.

What follows is a great story, with fascinating conflict. Geoffrey is a country solicitor, ineligible to serve due to health reasons, and he and his wife Francie were unable to have a child, so they jump at the chance to take Francie, whom they treat as their own child. Doreen is shy, but sweet and very bright, and she begins to blossom under their care. Except for missing her mother, Francie is very happy living with them.

However, things become more complicated when Mrs. Rawlings spends Christmas with Doreen and the Osbornes, and begins to feel that her daughter is becoming closer to her foster parents. She begins to worry about will this change their relationship, about the class differences between Doreen and the Osbornes, and how this will affect Doreen in the long run.

What I loved best about this book is how well it showed both sides. Ultimately, all the adults in the situation want what's best for this child, yet I couldn't help feeling very strongly both ways. When the author showed the mother's perspective, I was completely on her side, but when it switched to the Osbornes, I wanted Doreen to stay with them. The book raised so many questions about class-consciousness and what it means to be a parent.

The endpapers from On the Other Side:
Letters to My Children From Germany, 1940-1946

The second book also deals with a mother during wartime; however, this is a true story, a memoir of WWII written in letters, and the children in question are already grown and are never sent. When she wrote On the Other Side: Letters to My Children From Germany, 1940-1946, Matilde Wolff-Monckeberg was in her sixties, living in Hamburg when the war began, and four of her five grown children were living abroad during the war, in America, Wales, South America, and Sweden. Her oldest daughter stayed in Germany, where she worked as a doctor. Matilde's letters of life in Hamburg could never be sent due to censorship, and in fact could have had both her and her husband arrested (possibly even killed) had they been discovered. Her youngest daughter found them after her death and had them published in book form, and they are both terrifying and fascinating.

Matilde grew up in Hamburg, the daughter of the Lord Mayor, and met and married her first husband, while studying singing in Italy. Her second husband became Rector of the University of Hamburg. Her letters are slices of life during wartime, in which she describes the escalation of the war, including the lack of food, the terror of the bombings, her despair over Hitler and the Nazi party, and the loss of friends and family during the violence.

Tillie and her family were luckier than most, since they had money, access to good health care, and various places to live. Her apartment survived the bombings relatively unscathed and she also spent time in the country with extended family during the worst parts. However, food was in shorter and shorter supply, and for years at a time she had no contact with four of her children. The final year of the book is actually one of the longest portions (it was easier to write without the constant threat of bombs or arrest), and it's almost the most heartbreaking. Finally, the horrible war was over, and the Germans who survived still didn't have enough food and were facing the misery of both reconstruction and the guilt of causing the war. Tillie doesn't really discuss the rise of Hitler and fascism too much but it appeared that she opposed the war. I can only imagine that she was unable to leave due to her husband's position.

I was particularly interested in this book because years ago I did a summer exchange with a German family and I stayed in Kiel which is not that far from Hamburg. I didn't really see anything in Hamburg but I did get to travel a bit in Germany and Denmark. I do remember seeing the remains of some of the bunkers on the beaches in Denmark but we never really discussed the war, though I do know my host mother was in some kind of refugee camp as a child.

Anyway, I thought both of these books were fascinating looks at what life was like on the homefront from both sides of the war. I still have an unread copy of Few Eggs and No Oranges, a Persephone nonfiction book which is another diary of life during wartime on the English side. I'm eager to read that one soon.

Too Many ILLs

2011-05-09T10:16:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to read my way through the entire Persephone book list, and as much as I would like to own every single one of these beautiful dove-grey editions, I realized that it would cost almost as much as a plane ticket to England. So I have been utilizing my library's interlibrary loan option as much as possible. Not only are they free, but it's really fun to get books from Arkansas or Boston or from whatever college library is willing to send them -- and some of the editions are beautiful, and even really old.

But I did go a little crazy back in March when I realized that I was not limited to only five ILL requests -- I could request up to ten! Without thinking it through I requested nine Persephones (and one future Persephone, to be reprinted next year), assuming that first of all, I might not get all of them, and secondly, that it would take forever. Ha! Within a month all ten had arrived and I had another month to finish every one, not to mention various books for book group, plus I had to start reading an 800 page volume of Dickens for the Classics Circuit. What the heck was I thinking?

Foolishly, I did not take a photo to record my ambitious stack of checkouts for posterity, but here's a list of what I ordered and received:

Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Every Eye by Isobel English
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
The Village by Marghanita Laski
Doreen by Barbara Noble
The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff
The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff
Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple (technically not a Persphone, but I think they're reissuing it in 2012)
On the Other Side: Letters to My Children From Germany, 1940-1946 by Matilde Wolff-Monckeberg

Of course the trouble with ILLs is that they don't belong to my library, and they don't usually let you renew them. The arrivals were staggered somewhat, and so far I've been able to get through six of the ten, and I should finish the seventh sometime today. I managed to read the first six pretty close to their due dates; sadly, I was forced to return two of them (Every Eye and The Shuttle) unread. I did get a one-week extension for the last two, The Hopkins Manuscript and On the Other Side.

I do regret not blogging about these reads more faithfully -- I've only written reviews of two of them so far. However, in the next couple of days I hope to write reviews or at least mini-reviews of the rest of them in a sort of round-up posting.

Does anyone else overdo it with ILLs? Do you rearrange your reading schedule to fit them in or return them unread? I know I'm not the only one who checks out way too many library books, but ILLs are a special category. I'd love to know if I'm not the only one with this problem!

Giveaway Winner!

2011-05-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

And the winner of my 100 Followers Giveaway is . . .

Nadia

of A Bookish Way of Life!

Congratulations!

She's won a copy of The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins. Nadia, when you have time please send me an email with your mailing info. Happy reading!

100 Followers Giveaway!

2011-05-02T20:15:00.001-05:00

I just checked my blog to update a post and realized I'd achieved 100 followers! How exciting!!

I'm so verklempt, I've decided a giveaway is in order!! One lucky winner will receive the book of their choice -- you can choose any book that I've reviewed on this blog since I started in September of 2009. The caveats: the book must be in print; must be paperback; and must be available from The Book Depository; also, the winner must live in a place to which TBD mails.

To enter, please post a comment telling me which book from my reviews interests you the most and why. According to my count, I've reviewed 102 books. I was going to retype the list, but that would take too long. You can click on the tabs on top to see links to books I've reviewed since I began the blog (for 2009 books, make sure and scroll down to the bottom. I didn't start blogging so there's nine months' worth of books on the list that I hadn't reviewed.) Contest entrants are not limited to books I liked -- even if I didn't like a book, that doesn't mean you won't love it, right?

Also, please make sure I have some way to contact you to let you know that you've won!! If I can't automatically link back to your blog, please leave an email along with your comment. I'll leave the giveaway open until Friday, May 6 at 5 p.m. Central U.S. Standard Time.

Ten Books I Really Want to Re-Read

2011-04-28T08:24:00.002-05:00

Inspired by Kristin's list on We Be Reading, I started thinking about rereads. I think the only downside to reading book blogs is that I learn about so many wonderful books that my TBR list is getting enormous. I spend so much time reading and think about these new books, I never seem to make time to re-read my old favorites, unless it's for a book group.

I'm actually about to start re-reading Love in the Time of Cholera for a book discussion group next week -- sometimes I don't reread books for discussions, but it's been so long since I read it I've forgotten most of it. It's been almost 20 years since I read this book, so does it really count as a reread? (I'm also leading the discussion, so I definitely want it to be fresh in my mind before the meeting).

Here are the top ten books I want to re-read, when I have time. (Ha!)

1. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have to get this one done by May 4th!

2. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. I fell in love with Maugham's work all over again when I read The Painted Veil for my classics book group. Of Human Bondage was one of the first classics I ever read for pleasure -- it was foisted on me by a guy who lived down the hall in my dorm freshman year. He insisted I take it home and read it over the Christmas break, and since I had an enormous crush on him, I obeyed. I ended up loving the book, though things never did work out with the guy.

3. Watership Down by Richard Adams. I loved this when I was a teenager, but I haven't read it since. I'd love to know if it has stood the test of time.

4. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Another favorite from middle school and high school, I first read it in sixth grade. I used to read it over and over but it's been years since the last read.

5. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I've seen the movies multiple times but I've only actually read the book once. I need to reread it before I go to the JASNA annual meeting in October.

6. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. I've been taking Spanish classes for the past year so I want to read more Latino literature, and it would be fun to reread this (definitely in English, my Spanish still isn't that good!). I remember loving it and the movie adaptation was excellent.

7. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. I thought this was hilarious, so I recommended it to Amanda at The Zen Leaf for our reading swap. I want to reread it and see if it's as funny as I remember.

8. West with the Night by Beryl Markham. Another book I chose for my book swap with Amanda. I remember loving it so much I read it really slowly because I didn't want it to end. She didn't like it as much as I did so I want to reread it and see if it's just as good the second time around.

9. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I recently reread Jane Eyre for the first time in years, now I want to reread this one too. It's one of the only prequels/sequels to classic lit I really like.

10. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After my initial reading of Love in the Time, I was inspired to read more Garcia Marquez. It's one the three novellas in his Collected Novellas which has been sitting on the TBR shelf since my husband gave it to me before we were married, so I've probably had this unread more than twenty years! I really should just sit down and finish the whole thing, shouldn't I?

So do you find you push your rereads aside in favor of new books because of blogging? Or do you just hear about so many new books that you don't have time for the old favorites? What would you reread if you had the chance?

Perfume From Provence by Lady Winifred Fortescue

2011-04-23T11:34:00.002-05:00

I am both proud and and embarrassed to have finally finished this book, which is actually quite ridiculous, since it is a both charming and delightful book, a lovely memoir written in the 1930s by an Englishwoman who moved to Provence. It's not a long book, nor a difficult one. I am proud because it is one of the books that has sat unread on my TBR shelves for the longest, and I am embarrassed because I purchased this book more than twelve years ago! To the best of my recollection, I purchased it in 1998 during my first visit to Epcot in Disneyworld, at the French pavilion. (Yes, they sell books at Disneyworld that are unrelated to cartoon characters -- I have bought quite a few. Most of them are still unread also, le sigh.)

Before I digress any further with my rant about owned-and-unread books, I should probably actually write something about this book. There isn't that much to say, really, except that it is a lovely memoir by Lady Winifred Fortescue. Having lost lots of money in the late 1920s (who didn't?) she and her husband (known only as Monsieur in the book) have moved to Provence where they purchased a small cottage and renovated it. It isn't really mentioned in the book, but her husband is Sir John Fortescue, who was the King's Librarian and Archivist (King George V), and historian for the British Army.

The book is short, only about 250 pages with illustrations, and contains nine themed chapters about different aspects of life in the country, i.e., building, gardening, harvesting, driving, etc., in which she tells little stories about how charming it is. Sometimes she's a little condescending about peasants and working-class people, but she was an upper-class British lady in the 1930s, so I guess it's to be expected.

However, Lady Winifred really does seem to love all the people in Provence, and admire them. It seems like most of the French people were extremely friendly and hardworking, and there are many incidents in the book where complete strangers would go out of their way to help her -- in one extreme case, three truck drivers stopped to help her get her car back on a winding mountain road in the middle of a downpour -- basically, these men built a wall of boulders under her car to prop it up so it wouldn't fall down the side of a mountain!! And they didn't want to take money for it! (Of course she does insist on paying them and later contacts their employer and says how wonderful they were, etc.)

It does sound like a very different way of life, just in the way people do business, the pace of life, and so on, but it sounds wonderful. According to the introduction by Patricia Wells (written in 1993), things still hadn't changed much by the end of the century. It makes me want to visit Provence more than ever. Apparently Lady Winifred lived in Provence until WWII, and returned after the end of the war. She published several more books which appear to be out of print, though it seems there are plenty of used copies available.

It's just so silly that I took so long to read this book, and that I have probably packed it up and moved it FIVE times. Does this happen to everyone? Bloggers, what is the longest you have kept a book unread on your shelves? And was it worth it? I have other books I've kept for years that were disappointing when I finally read them -- at least I enjoyed this when I finally got around to it. In this case, I'm a little angry that I waited so long to read it because I did like it. I've had other books that just made me annoyed that I'd been schlepping them around for so long, allowing them to take up valuable space when they weren't even that good!

And I seriously think I've bought more books in the past few weeks than I would have bought if I hadn't signed up for the TBR Dare, during which I tried not to buy books for three whole months. Maybe I should take a hint from Simon at Stuck in a Book, who challenged himself last year to buy no more than 24 books the entire year. Does that count for birthdays and Christmas and Paperback Swap?? That's dangerous too, since I either get rid of books I know I'll never read (or books I've finished and didn't love enough to keep) and replace them with even more books I want to read! It's a vicious cycle, isn't it?

The Four Things Meme

2011-04-22T09:13:00.003-05:00

I have been uninspired to write about books lately, but I do love a good meme. I borrowed this idea from Amanda at The Zen Leaf and Care at Care's Online Book Club.

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life:

1. Library Technical Assistant
2. Restaurant Critic
3. Pastry Cook
4. Foreclosure Processor (a temp job, but interesting nonetheless)

Four Books I Would Read Over and Over Again:

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Four Places I Have Lived:

1. Mt. Clemens, Michigan
2. Fussa-Shi, Japan (a suburb of Tokyo)
3. Omaha, Nebraska
4. Evanston, Illinois

Four Books I Would Recommend:

1. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
3. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
4. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Four Places I Have Been:

1. Cairns, Australia
2. Chaing Rai, Thailand
3. Lokken, Denmark
4. Alajuela, Costa Rica

Four of My Favorite Foods

1. Cuban Sandwiches
2. Goat Cheese
3. California Roll Sushi
4. Cobb Salad

Four of My Favorite Drinks:

1. Earl Grey Tea (hot or iced)
2. Mojitos
3. Champagne
4. Mango Lassi

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:

1. Paris, France
2. Bali, Indonesia
3. Seattle, Washington
4. New Zealand

Four ~~Things~~ People That Are Very Special in My Life:

1. My husband of almost 18 years
2. My brilliant older daughter
3. My brilliant younger daughter
4. My mom, who's always been there for me

Four Bloggers I Hope Will Do This Meme:

Oh, anyone who's interested -- I'd love to see everyone's top fours!

Upcoming Classics Circuit: Austen vs. Dickens!

2011-04-17T09:49:00.000-05:00

In honor of the upcoming Classics Circuit duel, I'm posing the question to all my friends in the blogsophere: Who is your favorite 19th century author, Jane Austen or Charles Dickens? On the one hand, we have the beloved Ms. Austen, whose works include spunky heroine in domestic situations, looking for love (sometimes in the wrong places). Her works have inspired countless sequels, prequels, alternate versions, and lots of movie and TV adaptations. Dickens' works are some of the most popular in publishing history. Which would you choose?

Honestly, I don't know if I can decide. As a lifetime member of JASNA (the Jane Austen Society of North America) I should automatically go with Jane. Lizzie! Darcy! Anne Elliot! Regency costumes! I've already made my hotel reservation for the 2011 JASNA meeting this October, which is hosted right here in Texas!

But on the other hand, Dickens created some of the most memorable characters in literary history. Seriously, who doesn't know the most famous line in Oliver Twist: "Please, sir, I want some more." And A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of time." And Bleak House, one of my favorite novels (and favorite TV miniseries) of all time. It has everything -- romance, satire, mystery, social commentary. And Inspector Bucket, possibly the first police detective in English literature. And I am determined to go to the annual Dickens on the Strand in Galveston in December.

As much as I love Jane Austen (except for modern sequels), I think I'm going to go with Dickens for my Classics Circuit choice. I've been wanting to read Dombey and Son for several years, so this is my first choice. Of course I have about six other unread Dickens works on the TBR shelves. Even though some of them are shorter, I decided it was better to go with a longer book that I want to read, rather than a shorter book, just because I feel I ought to read it.

If you want to participate in the Dueling Authors Classics Circuit tour, sign up here through Tuesday, April 19. The link has lots of information about the authors and many of their works. I look forward to reading all the posts!

Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple

2011-04-14T14:41:00.000-05:00

I have now read three books by Dorothy Whipple, who has quickly become one of my new favorite authors. I've read two of her books published by Persephone, and based on these great reviews by Book Snob and The Literary Stew, I sought out Because of the Lockwoods. Currently it's out of print but I was able to get it very easily via ILL (and I've heard a rumor that it's going to be reprinted by Persephone in 2010!).

Anyhow, this book is basically about two families, the Hunters and the Lockwoods, who live in a fictional industrial town in Northern England. The Lockwoods are doing very well and are regarded as local gentry, though they are not titled, and the Hunters have fallen on hard times. Mr. Hunter was an architect who lost money during WWI (since no one was building), and then he had the bad luck to die, leaving very little for his wife and three children. Mrs. Lockwood pressed her husband into serving as a sort of financial advisor to Mrs. Hunter, who is pretty spineless and helpless. Mr. Lockwood has not done a very good job of helping with the finances. Not only that, Mrs. Lockwood and her eldest children seem to take great pleasure in constantly showing off their good fortune to the Hunters. They were so obnoxious that I wanted to jump into the book and give these people a good smack.

The youngest Hunter child, Thea, has both brains and spunk, and she decides she's tired of genteel poverty and she's going to make something of her life. The three Lockwood sisters are going to France for a year of school, and she decides that she wants to go too. Of course, being poor, she'll work as a teacher, but so what? She's dying to go to France and see the world, so off she goes.

Of course, things do not go as planned. I won't go into detail and spoil the plot, but young Thea's desire to better herself sets off a chain of events that affects both families, in good ways and bad. Like The Village by Marghanita Laski, this book is ostensibly domestic fiction, but it has a lot of undercurrents about the British class system and attitudes about wealth and upbringing. Some of the characters are just infuriating with their snobbery and entitled attitudes, and I really wanted to throttle them.

Once again, Whipple's characters are brilliantly drawn. I loved Thea and hated the Lockwoods, and I was rooting for one particular character who was working really hard to make a better life for himself and his family. Again, like The Village, some of the characters were so passively accepting of their situation, and some had the gumption to make something of themselves. I guess it is just my innate American-ness that can relate to this -- it's that pioneer spirit, in which anyone can come here and make something of himself if he works hard enough.

[By the way, he cover in the image is sort of deceiving -- by the hairstyle, it looks vaguely 1950s to me but in fact it's set between the wars. That edition happens to be published in 1949, so there you are.]

Now that I have a new favorite author, I have a dilemma -- do I read all of her books at once, or spread them out and make them last longer? It's a conundrum, especially since she's dead and won't be publishing any more books. Bloggers, what do you do? Do you become obsessed with an author and read all the works right after the other, or do you ration them out? Should I read the rest of the Whipples or save them for later?

Top Ten Books I'd Love to See Made into Movies

2011-04-13T15:42:00.001-05:00

Okay, I'm a little behind with book reviews, and I've just started another Big Fat Book -- Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens. But I feel that I have been neglecting my blog lately. Hence, the list. This was a bit of a challenge -- since I love classics, a lot of my favorites have been made into movies already. But here's what I'd love to see.

1. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Lenny Henry brilliantly narrated the audio, so I always picture him as Fat Charlie. I don't know if anyone could play the role as well, though I admit it's written for someone younger.

2. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I hesitate to even include this book, since I think a movie would never capture all the craziness in this book. It's fun to imagine it though.

3. The Village by Margahita Laski. One of many Persephones that would make great films. Another Persephone is currently in film development right now, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, so there's hope for all the Persephone fans.

4. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. A novel about a German girl in WWII, narrated by Death. Sounds perfect for a movie, right??

5. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl. The story of an idle, spoiled rich man who becomes a modern-day Robin Hood. It would be perfect for a movie adaptation.

6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. To be released this summer, featuring some amazing actors, including Allison Janney and Viola Davis. I hope it does the book justice.

7. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. This starts out slow but has some great plot twists. The casting would have to be spot-on.

8. The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs. A creepy juvenile novel about an orphaned boy who goes to live with his uncle in a mysterious house. I loved it as a kid and I think it deserves a revival among the Harry Potter set. An animated version inspired by the Edward Gorey illustrations would be amazing.

9. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. A brilliant Newbery winning book. Again, I don't know if a movie could do it justice but I can only hope.

10. Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason. I hope the demand for Scandanavian thrillers spills over and this book gets the attention it deserves. Another series about a brooding, unhappy detective in a cold country, it would be perfect for a film or TV adaptation.

I borrowed this Top Ten Tuesday meme from The Broke and The Bookish. Thanks for the great idea!

A Slow Start for Readathon (and a Few Book Bargains)

2011-04-09T18:20:00.001-05:00

Well, I thought I had this all planned out perfectly. Amanda and I had booked a hotel room, packed our suitcases, and selected piles of books. We had the perfect readathon planned. So how come I didn't even start reading until 4 p.m.???

We had a good start last night: checked in to our lovely hotel room, had an excellent dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, and made it to the 8:15 showing of Jane Eyre (which we both found underwhelming). But I just could not get started reading today.

Part of the problem was that Readathon always falls on the second Saturday, which is also the day of our monthly book discussion groups. Our classics group (at 10. a.m.) was discussing I Capture the Castle, of which I am terribly fond, and I could not miss that. Immediately following was the Jane Austen Book Group (at 11 a.m., discussion of Jane Austen's biography by Claire Tomalin, which I hadn't actually read), which I missed last month, and I felt too guilty to skip it again. Then it was lunchtime -- see how this is going? Already lunch and I hadn't read anything yet!

We did try to read during lunch, without much luck. I did read a couple of short stories from The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami, but then they became so odd I had to put the book down. In desperation, I chose Mrs. 'Arris Goes To Paris, which I have been saving specially for Readathon. I have a cute little edition published in 1958 which I purchased in a charming antique bookstore during my Christmas vacation in Baltimore. It's 157 pages and a tiny little book, only about five by six inches, so it was a quick read. At last, I've completed something!

I did read a few pages of the Jane Austen biography this morning, and a bit of a nonfiction book called Jane Austen and Crime, which is intriguing. Right now I'm finally reading one of the books I've owned the longest, a book of essays called My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum. I purchased this book about ten years ago when I was living in Nebraska. It had a local connection since Ms. Daum was a resident of Nebraska at the time. I have been moving it from house to house ever since, quietly unread. I've read four of the ten essays so far and they're quite good, so at least I'm not angry that I didn't donate it to the library book sale.

And other than reading, eating, and book discussions, Amanda and I also entered an online mini-challenge and ahem, went to the Half-Price Books -- I had been longing for a copy of The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh which I saw months ago. It was still on the shelf, so obviously, I was fated to buy it. And also Stoner, a NYRB Classic that Thomas at My Porch raved about in this review. It was half-price and in very good condition, and besides, my library doesn't own a copy. I had to buy it, didn't I?

And I'm not even going to discuss my outing yesterday to a fundraising book fair for one of the local school districts. There were thousands of books, paperbacks all 50 cents and hardcovers for one dollar. Here's what I added to the TBR shelf:

From top to bottom:

Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope (I now own five of the six Pallisers novels, still haven't finished a single one yet)
The House at Sugar Beach by Helen Coope
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford (an NYRB Classic and it looked interesting)
Return to Thrush Green by Miss Read
The Three Daughters of Madame Liang by Pearl S. Buck
Drood by Dan Simmons
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Total cost: $5.50 (I also bought a book for each of my daughters, so my total output was $7.) Such bargains!

Anyhow -- I hope to make some progress and actually finish some of the other SEVENTEEN books I brought with me. I'm crazy, I know. But I need choices. You should see my carry-on luggage when I travel. I really do need to break down and buy an e-reader someday.

How's everyone else doing with Readathon? I hope to post with more progress before the end of the night.

Readathon Retreat

2011-04-06T09:28:00.001-05:00

Eat. Sleep. Read. Repeat. Sounds like a Readathon mantra to me!

I had a great time during the October Readathon, in which I read several novellas and a graphic novel. However, I kept thinking about how great it would be if real life didn't get in the way -- cooking dinner, letting the dog out, et cetera. I have always had fantasies about being locked in a library or a bookstore, as long as there were plenty of snacks and squashy couches.

But it also occurred to met that a hotel room would be much more comfortable, though it would have less books. But it would have a pool! And room service! And didn't I already own, oh, about two hundred unread books on my own bookshelves, just waiting to be finished??

So I jokingly remarked to my good friend Amanda from The Zen Leaf about how fun it would be to get a hotel room for Readathon. And she immediately thought it was a great idea, so we've booked a hotel room for the weekend and are having a Readathon Retreat! We'll check in on Friday, have dinner, and then we're planning on going to see the new Jane Eyre movie (adapted from one of my all-time favorite books, so that's book-related, right?). Saturday, we have our classics book group, then the rest of the day is basically, read with no distractions other than eating, blogging, and the occasional break in the pool or the exercise room if we're feeling too sedentary. It's going to be about 95 degrees here in San Antonio this weekend, so indoor exercise might be a good thing. And we might take a side trip to the Half-Price Books nearby. . . if we run out of things to read!

I've already set aside a stack of books as possible reads -- I know I can't possibly finish all of them, but I hope to complete a couple of novellas, some short stories and essays, and one Persephone book which is an Interlibrary Loan and needs to be returned next week. Here's a photo of my tentative stack:

From top to bottom:

Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Doreen by Barbara Noble
The Complete Stories by Saki
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Jane Austen and Crime by Susannah Fullerton
One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
My Misspent Youth: Essays by Meghan Dowd

Of course, I may ending adding or subtracting books at the last minute, but I think I have a good mix of genres and styles. I have novellas, short stories, essays, and nonfiction, so there should be something to keep me amused the entire time. Plus, all but one of these are books from my unread shelves, so I'll make some progress on that Owned-and-Unread Challenge. If you want to see what Amanda's bringing, you can read her post here.

What are you doing for Readathon?

The Village by Marghanita Laski

2011-04-04T09:19:00.000-05:00

So, now I'm up to my 28th Persephone book, and this one is a real winner. This publisher's catalog keeps getting better and better. Almost every time I read one of their titles, I think to myself how glad I am I've discovered them. (And how happy I am that I have more than 60 left to read!).

Like many Persephone titles, this is domestic fiction, and deals with the rapidly changing society in British. Originally published in 1952, The Village book begins in 1945, on the very last night of the war. Two middle-aged ladies, Mrs. Trevor and Mrs. Wilson, are spending their last night together on overnight duty at the Red Cross station in their village, a suburb not far from London. The war has made them co-workers and equals, but before the war, Mrs. Wilson, a working-class woman, had worked as a domestic for Mrs. Trevor, one of the gentry. The next day, things will return as they were, with Mrs. Trevor will be the social superior of Mrs. Wilson.

Or will she? Times are changing in postwar Britain, and quickly. Mrs. Trevor is barely getting by in genteel poverty, as her husband, a wounded veteran of WWI, can barely make a go of his business. Her oldest daughter Margaret, aged 17, is described as sweet but a bit dull and not particularly pretty, and she doesn't have much future in sight. The younger daughter Sheila is terribly bright, and it's the family's hope that she'll someday become a school headmistress or mathematics teacher or something equally suitable. The family is barely scraping by on a few pounds a week, and Mrs. Trevor is miserable.

The endpapers from the Persephone edition of The Village

Mrs. Wilson's family, on the other hand, is doing very well. Like many working-class families, everyone in the family is hard at work and making money -- much to the chagrin of the gentry. Her son Roy has recently returned from the war and is doing very well as a printer. It seems terribly unfair to the upper-class people that these laborers are doing better than they are, and that more and more often, class and breeding seem to be less important than hard work, and they can't get over their snobbery. Relationships in the village become very complicated due to friendships, jobs, and love affairs that begin to cross class boundaries. Some people seem very willing to accept change and some are fighting it tooth and nail.

This book seems at first to be classic domestic fiction, but it's really about class differences in Britain and how everything changed in the last century. Having grown up in an extremely middle-class neighborhood in suburban Detroit, I was much more aware of ethnic and religious differences than class. Nobody I knew was old money -- all those people lived in different neighborhoods miles away. Now, I'm living in a Texas neighborhood where million-dollar houses are just a few streets away from tiny bungalows, and my daughters' school mates could be the children of professors or oil executives or domestics.

Marghanita Laski
(who reminds me a bit of Anne Hathaway)

One of the characters in the book is an American woman married to an English upperclass man, and she can't understand why the class differences in England are so important and why it's so impossible for people to overcome them like Americans do. It's pretty obvious she feels superior about it until her husband points out the racism in America and how unlikely it would be for someone in her family to befriend a Negro (so weird to write that, but I am quoting the book which was written in 1952). He points out that Americans are just as class conscious, but it's just repositioned as racism. It made me think about my family and friends and the way I was raised in a very segregated suburb.

This is the third book I've read by Marghanita Laski, who is one of Persephone's most beloved authors. Another thing that struck me was how very different all three of the books have been -- the first, The Victorian Chaise-Longue, was a bit like a ghost story; the second, Little Boy Lost, was an intensely emotional book about a man's search for his missing son in postwar France. I liked them all but I think was my favorite of her books so far because it resonated the most.

The Three Musketeers, Part 2

2011-03-31T07:01:00.001-05:00

Well, I have finally finished The Three Musketeers. This is particularly satisfying because it's one of the longest unread books on my TBR shelf, and one that I've owned for about four years, so that's a good thing. I did enjoy it, but I have to be honest, it's not the greatest work of literature in the world. It's a fun book, and I'm glad I read it, but it's not particularly deep or literary.

The second half of the book dragged in parts -- first, there was the battle of La Rochelle, which has something to do with Catholics vs. Protestants. Frankly, action scenes tend to bore me. I guess I have a hard time imagining them in my head. Also, there was a section of five or six consecutive chapters about Milady that just went on and on. I kept trying to slog through them but I'd read a chapter and put the book down, but it was hard to get started again. I only had a hundred pages to go and I just wanted things to get wrapped up.

The parts of this book that I loved best basically included one or more of the Musketeers, and D'Artaganan -- for me, it started to get boring if it focused on the other characters. I don't know if these sections weren't as well written, or the story just dragged, but things definitely perked up if one of them was in the scene. Of course the best scenes of all are the ones when they're all together, usually with some witty banter. I did get bored with Milady's scheming and Cardinal Richelieu's plotting, though the ending was pretty satisfying.

So -- a good book, overall, though I can't say that I'd ever want to read it again. I do want to get to The Count of Monte Cristo someday, though is length is a little intimidating. I'll have to wait until I get through some of the other Big Fat Books on my TBR shelf before I attempt it.

And for those of you who have not seen the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of The Three Musketeers:

Looks fairly ridiculous -- I don't remember any flamethrowers in the book, nor any scenes with Milady dodging bullets Matrix-style! Script by Andrew Davies (who brilliantly adapted so many classics for the screen including Pride and Prejudice and Bleak House, two of my favorites) yet directed by Paul Anderson best known for Resident Evil. Riiight.

Thanks again to Allie of A Literary Odyssey for organizing this readalong. I look forward to reading all the other postings.

The New House by Lettice Cooper

2011-03-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

Author Lettice Cooper

Still working my way through the Persephone list. I've discovered several early editions at the local college libraries, including The New House by Lettice Cooper.

At first glance, this is a book in which not much happens: after spending 30 years in a large home in Northern England, a widow and her thirtysomething daughter are downsizing and moving into a smaller home. Sounds boring, right? Well, this book is so much more than just about moving to a new house. Set in 1936, this book touches on a lot of topics that are still timely today -- the relationships between parents and children, women's careers, marriage, class differences, socialism. This book was published nearly 80 years ago, but the themes in it are still so relevant, I was amazed.

Mrs. Natalie Powell is the widow of a businessman who basically gave her everything she wanted for thirty years; after his death, money's tight and the big house has been sold and will most likely be knocked down by a developer and turned into a housing estate. Over the course of one long day, she and her family -- three grown children, plus a daughter-in-law, future son-in-law, and her older sister -- are affected by the move.

As a military spouse, I have personally changed houses nine times in the last sixteen years, so this book intrigued me. I can't say I've gotten used to it, but the move in this book is not so much about the physical change of one house to another; it's a reflection of how these people's lives are changing, whether they like it or not. Mrs. Powell is a horribly selfish, self-centered woman, and all she can do all day is whine about how unfair this all is -- after spending years in a big house with five servants, she spent the last year since her husband's death with only two, and now they're down to one. Boo hoo! Her eldest daughter Rhoda, who never married, has basically spent her entire youth running to her mother's beck and call, and she's ready to get out.

Her son Maurice is struggling with a selfish wife (who's an awful lot like his mother), and though he was raised in a privileged household, he's beginning to wonder about the unfairness of his wealthy and upbringing, and whether another sort of life would be better for his own child. The youngest daughter, Delia, is a real go-getter -- a career woman! Shocking! She takes after her father, who was a self-made man, and is urging her sister to break away from home before it's too late. The book also includes Mrs. Powell's sister, Ellen, who spent her life taking care of her mother -- will this pattern repeat?

The endpapers from the Persephone edition of The New House.

The entire book takes place between the time the family wakes up early in the morning and goes to bed very late that night. This book is about 300 pages long, but there's a lot packed into it. Like a lot of Persephones, this is fiction about domestic life, but there are so many other themes going on that it gave me a lot to think about. Again, this would be such a great book for a discussion group, especially since there are so many relevant topics about downsizing and family dynamics. I may need to buy my own copy so I can foist it on someone else so we can discuss it. If you're planning on participating in the Persephone Secret Santa next year, you may find this in your stocking.

Big Fat Books from My TBR Shelf

2011-03-24T10:31:00.001-05:00

By the end of the month I will have completed two very fat books from my TBR shelf: Charlotte Bronte's Villette and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (by far the largest book on the shelf because it's a hardcover). But I am still left with a whole bunch of chunksters -- more than 20 books that are 500 pages or more. I know these are probably all amazing, but after reading two BFBs (Big Fat Books) simultaneously, it might be time to take a little break before tackling another.

Here are some of the BFBs that await me (page numbers indicate those in my particular editions):

The classics. These comprise most of the unread pages, not surprisingly. Of course they're actually shorter than they appear since many of them have endnotes. Still big and fat and a little scary, though.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. One of the books selected by Amanda for our reading swap. I have been meaning to read this since I zipped through The Grapes of Wrath a few years ago. Despite the length, it shouldn't be a terribly long read.

The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hacek. This was the selection for one of my online groups which sounded really interesting -- a satire about WWI, written from a European perspective. It sounds like a Czech version of Catch-22. Includes lots of funny little cartoons. The book group seemed to like it but of course I didn't read a single page. (784 pp.)

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. Technically, it's an omnibus of three books in one, but this is a big, fat edition. Bought after reading all about the beloved series, which I still haven't seen -- it's never aired here on PBS and I thought I should read the book first. (537 pp.)

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. One of the freebies I won in the Penguin contest. People either love it or hate it. I hope to give it a try later this year in an online readalong. (652 pp.)

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker: Another gift from the nice people at Penguin Classics, and one of those I was most excited about receiving. I've never read her but I've heard she's hilariously witty. "This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it." This collection includes stories, essays, and letters, so it's probably a good thing to read a little at a time. But there's still 640 pages of it.

Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope. And Phineas Finn, Can You Forgive Her, He Knew He Was Right, The Eustace Diamonds. . . . Okay, don't even get me started on Trollope. I bought a whole bunch of his works after I read The Way We Live Now, and more after one of my online groups decided to read the entire Pallisers series. (There are six, all more than 500 pages. Some are closer to 800! I have yet to finish a single one). Plus I've started the Barchester Chronicles (only four volumes left) and I have several of the stand-alone books as well. There's probably close to 5000 pages of unread Trollope on my TBR bookshelf this minute. Trollope wrote 47 novels, and I'd like to read as many as possible, so I'd better get started.

Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant. Bought during my obsession with Victorian literature. She is described as something of a transition between Jane Austen and George Eliot, which intrigues me. (512 pp.)

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. (880 pp.) One of about five more works by Dickens that are sitting on the shelf unread -- I also own The Old Curiosity Shop, Sketches by Boz, and Pictures from Italy. And did I mention I just bought Martin Chuzzlewit last week? Eight hundred pages of teeny tiny print, what was I thinking?

South Riding by Winifred Holtby. This will probably be my next Big Fat Book -- I won this in a giveaway during Virago Reading Week and I am really looking forward to the BBC adaptation which airs in the U.S. in May. I'll need no convincing to read this book. (502 pp.)

Contemporary books. Mercifully, these tend to be faster reading than the Victorians and other classic chunksters. They're still taking up a lot of space, though.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. A coming of age story set in South Africa just after WWII. I know it has something to do with boxing, of which I have no interest whatsoever, but I've heard this is just fantastic. (528 pp.)

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. I found this hardcover for $2 at the library book sale. I liked Possession, so I couldn't resist at that price. And the cover is really pretty. (675 pp.)

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber. A neo-Victorian, also bought at the library sale. This one's a paperback so it was only $1.

Nonfiction. These are actually less pages of text because of references, indexes, etc. They're still darn long.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. Another library sale find. I've heard it's great but it sounds kind of depressing. It has pictures though. (544).

John Adams by David McCullough. Everyone says this is just great, but it's 751 pages of early American history and politics. Was this a bad purchase? I paid $1 at the library sale.

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary Lovell. Purchased after I read and loved The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. I have since bought more books by the Mitfords. I haven't read those either. (640 pp.)

Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson. Naturally, there is at least one Persephone on the list. This diary of life in wartime England sounds fascinating, but I am put off by the length, I admit it. (640 pp.)

Does anyone else tend to put off the big fat books in favor of the shorter ones? Which of these have you read and loved, and which should be sent directly to the library as donations? Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'll probably take a break and read some novellas soon -- Readathon is coming up in just a couple of weeks and I have a whole stack of those too.

Villette Readalong -- Finished

2011-03-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have finished Villette. I know, it's a readalong, but I had some real momentum while reading it last week, and bloggers, I just couldn't help myself -- I finished the rest of the book. The story really picked up for me and I had to keep going. However, when it came time to actually put some thoughts down, I am kind of at a loss.

Without giving too much away, finally, the entire Lucy/Graham/Polly love triangle was resolved, pretty calmly. Polly turned out to be a pretty good egg after all; Ginevra was as obnoxious as ever -- one of my commenters last week wrote that she wanted to push her off a cliff, which is about right. Originally I just wanted to smack her, but then she got worse.

And some other characters who seemed pretty interesting and fairly benign earlier in the book got more complicated, and in some cases, more treacherous. I won't say which ones in case anyone is still reading it, but some of them really infuriated me. I know this sounds really vague but a lot happens in the last quarter or so of the book, and I got hooked on it and finished it all up in a couple of days. I don't know if it's because the story got much better or if I was just unable to drag it out any longer.

After spending so much time on this book I'm at a loss, and I just can't come up with clever and insightful comments about this book. After some slow spots, I did end up liking it (though I wasn't thrilled with the ending). While it's not nearly as exciting as Jane Eyre, it has some great character development. I'm not sure why some people consider it Charlotte Bronte's finest book. I suppose as her final work, it's her most mature. My copy (Modern Library) has an introduction by A.S. Byatt and some Frenchwoman that probably has all kinds of insights and background which I was saving for the end, but it's 50 pages long, and I am too tired of looking at this book to open it again. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, but I'm in no hurry to pick up her other books Shirley (654 pages!) and The Professor (a mere 300).

Thanks again for Wallace at Unputdownables for organizing this. I did enjoy participating in the Readathon, since it motivated me to keep going. I apologize for cutting my participation short, but maybe two months was just too long for my short attention span.

The Three Musketeers, Part 1

2011-03-15T09:13:00.002-05:00

Sword fighting! Romance! Mystery! Intrigue! What is not to like about The Three Musketeers?

Well, it is long, and it's not exactly what you'd call great literature. But it is a beloved adventure novel that has stood the test of time, so therefore it is considered a classic.

And isn't that an awesome cover? This is so shallow of me, but it was really the cover that finally attracted me to this book. I remember watching an old 1970s film version starring Michael York and Richard Chamberlain, years and years ago, but I'd never had much desire to read it. However, this recent edition translated by Richard Pevear intrigued me. I realized I'd read hardly any classic French literature, so I put it on my birthday list. And the book sat on my shelves and was moved from house to house unread, until the combination of the TBR Dare and Allie's Readalong inspired me to finally start it.

If you are not familiar with the story, basically, young D'Artaganan (I don't even know if he HAS a first name), from Gascony, travels to Paris with a letter of introduction from his late father to the head of the Musketeers, who are the king's guards. Unfortunately, the letter is stolen, so by his wits and skills alone he must attempt to join this elite group. Along the way, he accidentally insults three different musketeers, who each challenge him to a separate duel. He has no idea that these are the three famous friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and when they arrive for the challenge (Porthos and Aramis are the seconds so they show up for the first duel early), they are insulted by the cardinal's guardsmen, and end up combining forces against their common enemy. D'Artagnan impresses the Musketeers with his fighting skills and bravery and becomes their protege.

D'Artagnan soon becomes caught up in political intrigue between the Queen and the evil, power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu; meets a the love of his life (who is married to his nasty landlord); and has to save the day with the help of his brave comrades.

Honestly, this is a really fun book. Yes, there is sword-fighting and action, but what I like best about this book is the friendship between and the four friends, and the relationship between D'Artagnan and his lackey Planchet. And it's really quite funny. For such a long classic, it's an easy read, and I had no trouble reading eighty or so pages at a single stretch.

The only problem I have with this book so far is the lack of morals some of the characters are displaying. These guys think nothing of gambling away a friend's horse, stealing wine, and challenging someone to a fatal duel over a mere insult. And for such amoral people, they think nothing of meting out some pretty harsh justice for others -- there's a pretty shocking scene toward the middle of the book that I won't give away. Maybe that's the way things were in the 17th century France, or maybe it's just a fantasy that amused people at the time when it was published in 1840; maybe the musketeers are just doing what all the readers were fantasizing about. Either way I'm not taking it seriously enough to let it detract from my enjoyment of the book. I look forward to completing the second half soon.