Nickelini's 2012 Reading, part 2

August

51. A Writer's Diary, Virginia Woolf
50. The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
49. Border Songs, Jim Lynch
48. Natives and Exotics, Jane Alison
47. The Road to Urbino, Roma Tearne
46. The Aspern Papers, Henry James
45. Old Masters, New World, Cyntia Saltzman
44. When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, Justin Kaplan
43. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

July

42. Building Waves, Taeko Tomioka
41. Falling Man, Don DeLillo
40. The Invisible Circus, Jennifer Egan
39. Nora Ephron Collected, Nora Ephron
38. A Month in the Country, JL Carr

June

37. My Sister, My Love, Joyce Carol Oates
36. Is There a Nutmeg in the House?, Elizabeth David
35. the Sometimes Lake, Sandy Bonny
34. Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan
33. Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes
32. Room, by Emma Donoghue
31. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka

May

30. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
29. Last Orders, Graham Swift
28. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
27. Fatty Legs, Christy Jordan-Fenton
26. The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble
25. Look at Me, Jennifer Egan
24. Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists, Dan Barker
-- . Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton (abandoned on p 124)
23. Franca's Story: Survival in World War II Italy, Diane Kinman

April

22. The Third Man, Graham Greene
21. The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje
20. Foreign Bodies, Cynthia Ozick
19. Points of View, James Moffett, editor
18. Homesick, Roshi Fernando
17. The Water Children, Anne Berry

March

16. Writing with Intent: Essays, reviews, personal prose 1983-2005
15. The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
14. The Preservationist, David Maine
13. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

February

12. Sugar Bush & Other Stories, Jenn Farrell
11. Still Alice, Lisa Genova
10. The Book of Lies, Mary Horrlock
9. The Undrowned Child, Michelle Lovric
8. Hey Nostradamus!, Douglas Coupland

January

7. We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
6. Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
5. The Hiding Place, Trezza Azzopardi
4. Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (reread)
2. Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh
1. Olivia and the Little Way, Nancy Carabio Belanger

This year I've been doing a personal short story reading project. I haven't posted many short stories here because I've mainly been working through one anthology (Points of View). I'm just past halfway through, so I think I'll post about some of my favourite short stories now instead of when I finish, and when I'll have forgotten them. This is a sort of "best of the best" collection, so many of these stories appear in other anthologies too.

1. "A Bundle of Letters," by Henry James 1878

A collection of letters written by different people who know each other, but are writing to people outside of the story. Being Henry James, of course this is about American travelers in Europe. There are some rather funny bits, and several sharp points and shrewd observations. At the end, only the reader understands the whole picture.

2. "A Wilderness Station," by Alice Munro 1992

Terrifically clever story where the reader has to piece together a story from various sources.

3. "The Night Watchman's Occurrence Book," by VS Naipaul 1967 (?)

My first VS Naipaul, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I've read articles about him and don't like him as a person, but I try to keep that opinion out of my reading. Which is a good strategy, because this was a highly enjoyable story. Told in log book entries, it is a conversations between a security guard and his arrogant manager. It explores racism, classism, and bad management. This is one of those stories that is both sobering and funny at the same time.

4. "My Sister's Marriage," by Cynthia Marshall Rich 1955

Engrossing story about a relationship between a young woman, her older sister and her father. A powerful look at patriarchal forces and manipulation.

More of my favourites from Points of View, James Moffett, ed.

5. "A & P," by John Updike 1962

Young man working at a store is distracted by bikini-wearing customers and ruins his life. Or something like that.

6. "First Confession," by Frank O'Connor (either 1951 or 1939)

Hilarious story about a young boy and his first confession. I retold this to my family at dinner one night and they were entertained too. A simple story, but so well done. One of the things I really liked about it is that I think it would appeal equally to a devout Catholic and an atheist. Will definitely find me some more Frank O'Connor.

7. "The Passing," by Durango Mendoza (unknown date, author was born in 1945)

A deceivingly simple story about a young boy who gets to know an older boy "in passing." The title refers to at least three different things. Fabulous descriptions of forests (I've been doing some creative writing with forest settings lately, so I noticed right away).

Oh, now it appears that Points of View is an anthology I need to pick up. I love short stories (not A&P, though. I dislike that as I dislike all Updike).

Points of View is excellent on a number of levels. It catagorizes the books by POV, explains what the POV is, and why they picked the stories that they did. There are 44 stories, and you can tell they are carefully chosen--not just by meeting the POV criteria, but also they are 50% male/female authors, and the authors are from a wide range of backgrounds.

That looks like a great anthology.

I have a copy of Points of View that i got back in college; this must be a newer edition since it has a 1992 Alice Munro story. You make me want to go back to it.

Rebecca- yes, this is a revised edition. The original was printed in 1966.

I share your enthusiasm for short stories. I've been immersed in them especially this month with the short story challenge and my collection of Angela Carter's stories. You should join us in the challenge. It is not too late.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/135063

I didn't know about that, Suzanne, so thanks. I will join in.

Joyce - chiming in to help me keep up later. This collection, Points of View, looks like an excellent selection.

I also have an older Points of View from college (LT thinks it's from 95) which we used in a performance class. I remember enjoying several of the pieces but perhaps I should get back to it one day.

More of my favourites from Points of View. There's a spoiler in the first entry, but none of the others, if you care about that sort of thing.

"The Five-forty Eight," John Cheever, 1954
Told from the pov of a not very nice business man, he tries to allude a woman that he treated poorly. She wins. Sorry to spoil the ending, but his humiliation is so worth it, it just needs to be said.

"The Stone Boy," Gina Berriault, 1957
Who's the stone boy? Is it the dead brother, or the one who shows insufficient emotion?

"Doby's Gone," Ann Petry, 1971
Heartbreaking story of a small black girl being bullied in a waspy New England town.

"Sinking House," T Coraghesan Boyle, 1989
Told by two neighbours in an LA suburb. When the older woman's husband dies, she turns on all the water and starts a flood. Funny and serious at the same time.

"Strong Horse Tea," Alice Walker, 1968.
Heart wrenching story of an illiterate woman's attempts to save her dying baby.

"Fever Flower," Shirley Ann Grau, 1954
Unusual story as it was told from three points of view with flash forward paragraphs. The author does a fabulous job of describing the sticky heat of summer in the deep south (which I've never experienced, but feel like I have thanks to her writing).

"Inez," Merle Hodge, 1975
A terrifically clever story about a young mother's struggles with dire poverty, racism, spousal abuse, and sexism. Told from multiple povs, none of them being the mother's. When I looked at comments about this story on the internet I was disappointed to see how many readers found it too confusing to understand, and even more disappointing, how many people thought Inez was a bad mother. Must be nice to sit and judge others from a comfy position of middle-class privilege.

"The Lottery," Shirley Jackson, 1948
This is a 4th or 5th reading of this one for me--going back to grade 9 English class. A story everyone should read just because it's a modern classic, and it's short and available easily on the Internet.

I am almost finished the "Afterword" of the anthology, and then I will post my review on the book as a whole.

19. Points of View: Anthology of Short Stories, Revised and Updated Edition, edited by James Moffett and Kenneth McElheny, 1995


A boring cover, but what are you going to do with an anthology?

Comments: This is a valuable book because it works on two levels.

First: It's a solid collection of 44 short stories, sort of a "best of the best" type collection. They were obviously chosen with a great deal of thought. The stories were written between the mid-19th century and the early 1990s, half were written by men and half by women, and the authors come from diverse backgrounds. However, although there is deliberate diversity, the book is still entirely US-centric--only five of the authors are from elsewhere. Further, none of the stories is translated. Representing US diversity, there are Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans, Jewish-Americans, African-Americans, and so on.

An aside here -- I found it interesting how the majority of these stories were about people struggling in dire poverty. Urban poor, rural poor, western poor, Appalachian poor, southern poor . . . if an alien was to read this book, it would believe people living in the United States are a downtrodden bunch!

I've called this book a "best-of-the-best" sort of anthology because it has stories by Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, Alice Walker, T Coraghessan Boyle, James Baldwin, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Amy Tan, Frank O'Connor, Truman Capote, VS Naipaul, Henry James, Katherine Mansfield, etc and so on. However, there are a handful of obscure authors, and some of their stories were very strong indeed. In this category I have to list "My Sister's Marriage," by Cynthia Marshall Rich; "The Circuit," by Francisco Jimenez; "The Passing," by Durango Mendoza, "Doby's Gone," by Ann Petry, and perhaps my favourite, "Inez," by Merle Hodge.

I've commented on individual stories previously in this thread, so please see those for details. Also, I skipped five of the 44 stories because they just weren't holding any interest what-so-ever.

continued in part 2 . . .

19. Points of View, part 2

Comments, cont. :

The second level this book works on is as a text book or self-learning tool. The stories are arranged in a purposeful chronological order, and are designed to be read in order (back to front, or front to back, it doesn't matter). They are divided into categories, and there is a short lesson at the beginning of each category. These are:

Interior monologue
Dramatic monologue
Letter narration
Diary narration
Subjective narration
Detached autobiography
Memoir, or observer narration
Anonymous narration--single character point of view
Anonymous narration--dual character point of view
Anonymous narration--multiple character point of view
Anonymous narration--no character point of view

This helps the reader observe and study narrative techniques, and to see how authors use different techniques to best tell their story. After all, how a story is told is often as important as what is told.

Why I Read This Now: I've been working at this almost 600 page anthology since Christmas. One of my reading projects this year is short stories, so I thought this would be an excellent introduction to the form. Somehow, when I studied English lit in university, we didn't really touch on this side of literature, so I felt I had a gap in my education.

Rating: 5 stars

Recommended for: Anyone looking for a solid collection of short stories and doesn't mind the strong US-centric flavour. But this book is really great for the reader who wants to sharpen his or her skills and become a more sophisticated and perceptive reader.

Not recommended for: English teachers and people who already know this stuff! Also, readers who've read widely through the short story world will find a lot of repetition in this volume.

>15 Nickelini: I never discussed point of view in quite this detail, so this is really interesting. I doubt I'd read a 600 page anthology though to explore the topic (so, good on you for taking this on!). Still, I'm always fascinated with how a story is told...

Well, you could just read the introductions to each section (they're under two pages). I'm sure you've already read a lot of these stories anyway.

>17 Nickelini: Some of them, perhaps. Had to read a fair bit of Cheever and Updike in high school, and "The Lottery," of course. I'm afraid much of past short fiction reading has leaked from my brain over the decades.

I'm sure it didn't leak--more likely pushed out by all that other wonderful new knowledge you crammed in there! ;-)

As I mentioned earlier, I have an earlier edition of this book from my college years. I think I may go back and take a look at it again, thanks to your review.

Points of View sounds very interesting and useful, particularly for a novice like me who hasn't formally studied literature since high school. I'll be on the lookout for it.

Joyce, it is interesting that you have identified a theme to the stories; that of the downtrodden poor. I wonder if this was a conscious decision by the editors or whether it just happened to come about that way.

Barry - I wondered that too. Everything else is obviously purposeful, so maybe that is too. If I hadn't read a lot of US fiction in my life (and watched TV, and movies, and traveled there), I'd think that the United States was a place of extreme poverty!

Such an interesting collection to have read, enjoyed your comments.

The original edition, published in 1966, had stories by non-US authors too, such as Chekhov, Dylan Thomas, Gogol, Conrad, etc., so perhaps it wasn't quite as US-oriented as the revised edition.

Rebecca - that's really interesting. Moffett mentions that they changed half the stories for the second edition (1995) so the book speaks to the current audience--which I guess means typical US students, rather than Poles writing in English, and Russians. ;-)

20. Foreign Bodies, Cynthia Ozick, 2011


I like this cover because it's different--it drew me to the book.

Comments: Set in 1952, Bea is an almost-50 year old, divorced high school English teacher. She gets sucked up into the drama of her estranged brother's messed up family, and this takes her away from her boring life in New York to both Bohemian Paris and a Beverly Hills mental institution. The story was interesting, if you can suspend disbelief and accept that she would allow her brother to bully her relentlessly. And Ozick is a fabulously gifted writer. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but maybe it was my mood because the second half didn't do much for me. I think I was tired of the characters by then--none of them are particularly likeable.

The thing I really didn't like about the book was an undercurrent of nastyness. I'm not talking just "dark," because I like dark. There was something else unpleasant going on, and I wonder if Ozick is a bitter and angry woman. This is reflected in both the characters and her word choice.

Why I Read This Now: It's the only nominee for this year's Orange Prize that I own, so I thought I'd read it before the prize is awarded. I originally bought it because the cover description of it being a retelling of Henry James The Ambassador. I haven't tackled that James yet, but I'm a big James fan.

Recommeneded for: not sure. There's definitely an audience for this book, so if it sounds interesting, I say give it a go.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

Edited to say I'm changing my rating. I had it at 4 stars, but it doesn't compare to other 4 star books I've read lately. Or maybe I should raise them . . . anyway, 3.5 stars for now.

There was an undercurrent of nastiness in Foreign Bodies. That's the only book by Ozick that I've read, but I've picked up a copy of The Puttermesser Papers to give her another go.

There was an undercurrent of nastiness in Foreign Bodies.

Good to know it wasn't my imagination!

21. The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje, 2011, audiobook


cover comments: nice enough illustration, but not exciting

Comments: I finished this a few days ago, and I'm still not sure what I want to say about it. In summary, it's a bildungsroman about a per-pubescent boy's unsupervised ocean voyage from Ceylon to England in the 1950s. On the way he meets a wide cast of interesting characters, and the story veers off into many amusing vignettes (my favourite was about the wealthy man going to England for rabies treatment). This was a sophisticated, charming book and I recommend it highly.

I listened to this on audiobook, and while I enjoyed hearing the author read his own book, I would have liked to read some of the passages and ponder the ideas and language. Sometime in the future, I will pick up a paper copy and reread it. But it was a good audiobook all the same--many have questioned how much of this book is autobiographical (he insists not much--I think this is more the adventure he would liked to have had!)--however, the narrator of the book is an adult looking back on his adventure, and so hearing the author read it makes it seem that it must have been true.

Rating: 5 stars

Why I Read This Now: it's my book club's selection for May.

Recommended for: well, I don't recommend this for readers who want a linear, plot-driven book, or prefer things spelled out for them. I find that to enjoy an Ondaatje book, I have to be in the mood to spend time in reflection. And then they are wonderful experiences. If that makes any sense.

I completely agree with your assessment of The Cat's Table, Joyce! It definitely leads to reflection, which is a good sign in any book.

22. The Third Man, Graham Greene, 1950


This is a Penguin edition (with the orange spine), published in 1999 to coincide with the re-release of the film. The cover photo is a shot from the movie, and says to me "this is not the sort of book that will interest you."

Rating: 2 stars. I'd have given it one, but there are moments when Greene's gifted writing shines through.

Why I Read This Now: I hadn't read anything from my TBR this month, and this was a short one near the top of the pile. Also, it's on the 1001 books list (well, it was .... it was on the 2006 list, but since removed. I can see why--the movie might be spectacular, but this is not a must read book by any stretch of the imagination).

Comments: If you read the reviews on the book's page, most of the people who rave about this are really raving about the film. And even they are only giving it 3 stars. Greene himself says in the intro that this was never intended to be a novel, but instead it was his basis for writing the screenplay. So even people behind this book really aren't all that committed.

Anyway, I knew going in that this wasn't going to be my cup of tea. I just don't care about these hyper-masculine mid-twentieth century stories, unless there is all sorts of other things going on. I do try to stretch myself now and again and read something really out of my comfort zone though, so I gave it a try. Probably the thing I disliked the most was the narrator--a secondary character who spoke for the main character. Why did Greene do that? What I liked was the post-WWII Vienna setting, which was both interesting and educational.

Recommended for: fans of the film who have nothing else to read.

Joyce, I am sitting here chuckling at your comments on The Third Man. I have seen the movie a few times but have not read any Graham Greene at all. Between you and Barry, I'm almost convinced that it is time to correct that, if for no other reason than curiosity. I actually have a big one-volume compilation of several of his novels, which includes this one (I think -- to lazy to get up and check), so one of these days . . .

I listened to Brighton Rock on audiobook last year and liked it much more than I expected to (I'm just not that into the mid-20th century male mindset or interests). Greene is definitely a good writer, and I think he has often has something to say. But the Third Man was published after the success of the movie, and it reminded me of an upscale version of those books that are slapped together after a successful movie--Star Wars, Disney, etc. I recommend starting somewhere else.

I'm glad that you also loved The Cat's Table, Joyce. I liked it far better than anything else I've read by him.

I liked it far better than anything else I've read by him.

I think Anil's Ghost is still my favourite. I liked Running in the Family and The English Patient, but I'm not really interested in any of his other books. Don't know why....I guess the subject matter doesn't appeal.

I haven't read Anil's Ghost or Running in the Family, although I own both books. (Oh, wait. I borrowed Anil's Ghost from one of my colleagues; I'd better get to it soon.) The English Patient and Coming Through Slaughter were forgettable books, IMO. I also own In the Skin of a Lion, but I haven't read it yet.

Anil's Ghost is my favorite Ondaatje too, although I have not read The Cat's Table yet. Glad to see that you gave it the thumbs up Joyce.

I read quite a few Graham Greene novels last year, but did not get round to reading The Third Man. I am glad I didn't. The only Greene I am interested in reading now is Brighton Rock.

Oh, Joyce, In the Skin of a Lion is SO good! If you liked The English Patient, try ITSOAL. Some of the characters are the same (Hana, Caravaggio).

Glad you loved The Cat's Table! I loved it too.

I might be the only person who really enjoyed The Third Man. I listened to the audio book and the narrator did a very good job. I never watched the movie though, and until reading your review didn't know the movie came first. I was intrigued by the atmosphere of post-war Vienna in deep winter which (due to the great narration) became the book's real protagonist.
My favorite GG might have been Brighton Rock, but again it was the atmosphere of the place that got me more than the story itself.

I do love the movie of The Third Man and so, as the reverse of my usual concern, I'm loath to read the book because it might spoil the movie for me.

Deern - Greene does do great atmosphere!

23. Franca's Story: Survival in World War II Italy, by Diane Kinman, 2005


Considering that the subject of this biography is an artist, I think this cover is somewhat uninspired and unattractive. However, the family portrait is understandable and interesting.

Here is a representative picture that shows her painting style:



Comments: Franca Mercati was born into an immensely wealthy and well-connected Italian family in 1926, which means she was a teenager during the war. This is her story of that time, as told to her neighbour, Diane Kinman (she now lives on Mercer Island, WA).

I was interested in her story because she spent the war in Viareggio, Tuscany, which is close to where my husband's family lives in Italy, and is the beach community that we most often visit. She also spent time in the hills east of there, which is probably my favourite area of Italy. It was interesting to read about places I've been and the events that happened there 50 or 60 years before me. It was also interesting to compare her war stories with the stories that my in-laws tell. And finally, I learned interesting things about the war in Italy.

What I didn't like was that there was very little acknowledgement of the position of extreme privilege that she enjoyed. I don't begrudge her this privilege--one of great wealth and powerful connections--I just wished she'd told her story from an honest position. Yes, she was bombed many times and she saw people killed, and family members died, and she was hungry--I know she suffered. But her WWII still had the feeling of The Sound of Music, or some Disney-version of a princess's experience. Despite all she endured, there were so many times when her family advantage brought fortune that was inaccessible to the average Italian. The strongest example of this is when her soldier brother goes missing in action and she travels to Rome with her father, where they have a private audience with the Pope to ask for help in finding him. When her father has a later one-on-one with Il Papa, a monk takes Franca--who is an aspiring painter--on a private tour of the Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel.

Also, like her art work, the veracity of some of her details just doesn't ring true. The most egregious example is when she scolded the wicked Nazi SS officer, who was twice her size, into letting her father out of work detail. Yeah, ..... no.

I wish my mother-in-law could read English, because I'd love to discuss this book with her! (no, it's not translated).

Why I Read This Now: it's been patiently waiting in Mnt TBR for 3 years.

Recommended for: This is no work of literature by any means. Still, for anyone who is interested in Italian life during WWII, it's a quick and interesting read. Also, it's heavily illustrated with black and white copies of Franca's art, and they're quite charming.

Rating: 4 stars because of the personal connections.

Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton, 1948

Comments: I decided at page 124/chapter 14, that I had had enough of this one. The story was interesting enough--but I've heard it elsewhere. It was the writing that I just found overbearingly annoying.

First, I have to say that I've owned this book for nine years, and I've tried to read it at least once a year. Each time I just couldn't get past the first page--it's like the book exudes waves of boredom. This time I finally made some progress, and I can't say that the book was particularly boring once I got into it. If I had nothing else to read, I could make myself finish it and probably not hate it. But with my overwhelming TBR pile, there is just no reason to read books that annoy me.

What did I find annoying? Well, as many people have pointed out, Cry the Beloved Country is written as a parable. I'm not a fan of reading parables. They're just too emotionally distant for me to care about. Then last night, I was looking at some online commentary on Cry the Beloved Country, and I came across an essay that compared the literary style to the King James Version. Ah ha! That was it exactly. According to this critic, the author chose the style as an appropriate way to convey his message (I agree) and also because these characters would have learned English in a mission school (seems reasonable). So with this knowledge, I read another couple of chapters, and it made sense--both what the author was trying to do, and also, my dislike of it. I've never been a fan of the KJV! I know some people think it's the only Bible to read, but it's always left me cold. As does Cry the Beloved Country.

I was also annoyed by the hero of the story, Stephen Kumalo. I disliked how he treated his sister (it was all about his shame, not about her suffering), and I didn't like how he spoke of her son, calling him the impersonal "The child." Very distant, like the rest of the book.

Sorry, I know it's supposed to be the best book ever, but to me it was a fail.

Interesting comments, Joyce. I loved the books when I read it maybe 3 or 4 years ago, but that doesn't mean everyone should like it. I'll be reading for the KJV soon, perhaps i'll actually like it too. :)

Love that painting of Florence by Franca (Franca's Story). I am on a bit of an Italian Renaissance kick just now, but Franca sounds interesting despite her flaws.

Suzanne - yes, it was a worthwhile read and I plan to keep the book (even if just to pass on to my children as a piece of their own cultural history).

Joyce, a couple of great reviews. It is always fascinating to read stuff about places that you know well, especially if they are from another time period.

24. Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists, Dan Barker, 2008


I love this cover--first, it's just attractive, and then, of course it's not the meeting of Adam's hand with God's but just one hand dangling in space. Most fitting.

Why I Read This Now: I picked it up to see what it was like, and just kept reading.

Comments: Dan Barker was a literalist pentecostal minister for 19 years before gradually realizing that none of it made sense; he is now actively involved in the "freethinking movement." The book is divided into several sections--his personal story, a strictly philosophical look at Christianity and arguments for the existence of God, an indepth examination of the contradictions of the bible and of the historical record outside of the bible, and his experiences and work since leaving religion. I was really only interested in the first part--his life as a Christian fundamentalist, and how he came to denounce that world. The other parts I'd met before in books by Sam Harris, Bart D Ehrman, John Shelby Spong and other places. I skimmed some of those sections but parts were rather interesting.

Rating: because this was more than I was looking for, I'm giving it a 3.5 stars.

Recommenced for:someone who is beginning a personal journey away from Christianity, or someone who has questions outside of what is discussed at weekly bible study.

The latest issue of www.Belletrista.com is up and in it are reviews for:

17: The Water Children, by Anne Berry, HERE, and

18. Homesick, Roshi Fernando, HERE

I really enjoyed both of these books and think they deserve a wide audience, so if either interests you in the least, I encourage you to find a copy.

Great reviews, Joyce -- I'll have to keep an eye out for these.

25. Look at Me, Jennifer Egan, 2001

Audiobook read by Rachel Warren (who sounds like Susan Sarandon, so of course I pictured the first person narrated character to look like SS).


Somewhat boring cover but it does express the themes of the novel, so not bad.

Why I Read This Now: the selection of audiobook downloads from my library is pretty limited, but this one was available and I'd really liked the author's book The Keep. This one, Look at Me, was on my wishlist, but I really knew nothing about it other than someone had recommended it along the way.

rating: 4.5 stars . . . this was fun, intelligent, and interesting to listen to, and very funny in parts.

Comments: this novel is often described as "sprawling" and "ambitious," and it is . . . there are a slew of characters and storylines. The first section of the book follows the first-person narration of Charlotte, and aging model who has recently survived a car accident and reconstructive surgery to her face. As you would guess from this, some of the major themes of the book are image, perception and identity. But it's not just a novel about a has-been model, oh no. Using third person narration, we also follow another Charlotte, a Midwestern teenage girl; her younger brother, who is recovering from leukemia; her uncle Moose, an ex-jock turned crazy professor; a private detective; a terrorist, and others. The novel jumps between glamorous Manhattan and suburban middle America.

What's really amazing about this novel, which Egan wrote in the late 1990s, is what is often described as "prescient." First, she makes a pretty accurate prediction of our celebrity culture/social media/reality TV world. Not every detail is right, but she was pretty close. Even more interesting was her storyline about the terrorist, and how close it came to later events (this book was published September 18, 2001).

Recommended for: well, although I recommend this book highly, it isn't for everyone. I don't recommend it for people who dislike rambling novels with unresolved bits at the end, and those who don't like show-offy sentences (don't get me wrong--I think her writing is great . . . but when I heard some of her long flowery sentences I wasn't sure if she was joking or being serious).

Also, people who need their characters to act in an edifying manner at all times will hate this book. The main characters all do some pretty horrific things and can sometimes be quite unlikeable. Not recommended for Sunday school teachers. However, despite their bad behavior, I liked the characters. A lot.

Off to add Jennifer Egan to my favourite authors list.

I'm going to look for that, Joyce, because I was very impressed by A Visit from the Goon Squad, and moderately by The Keep.

I'm definitely going to track down a copy of A Visit from the Goon Squad. I had been on the fence about it, but now I know I want it.

Joyce, your review of Look at me by Jennifer Egan makes it sound better than A visit from the goon squad

26. The Red Queen: a Transcultural Tragicomedy, Margaret Drabble, 2004


Cover comments: Very pleasing cover that suits the novel.

Rating: 4 stars

Why I Read This Now: I picked this up for fifty cents at a library sale a few years ago because it was on the 1001 Books list. But it was removed from later versions of the list, and has received many negative comments here on LT. The professional reviews printed around its publication weren't all that enthusiastic either. Further, I had very little interest in the book's description. You can understand then that I expected to read a few pages and release the book to the charity donation box. Ah, not so fast . . . .

Comments: Surprise, surprise: I really liked this novel! The first half is narrated by a two-hundred year old ghost of a Korean Crown Princess, Lady Hyegyong, who watches her young husband's decline into madness. Not just anti-modern, talking-to-plants Prince Charles crazy, but let's-cut-up-all-my-clothes and kill-my-friends-and-servants crazy. Although the tone of this section was quite chilly, and the lack of chapters or visual breaks was tedious, overall it was fascinating.

The second half of the book is the ghost channeling a British academic, who reads the Crown Princess's memoirs on a flight from London to Seoul. During her stay in Korea, she becomes obsessed with the life of Lady Hyegyong. There are many parallels between the two women, and Drabble weaves a scarlet thread through the book that connects them.

I really enjoyed the postmodern elements to the story and found it very readable. Although the characters were not always likeable, I still found them interesting. I know others see it as silly, indulgent and culturally lazy, but maybe because of my low expectations, I happily forgave it its faults. I almost gave the book 4.5 stars, but I did think it dragged a little near the very improbable ending.

Definitely will be reading some more Margaret Drabble in the future--if this is one of her "meh" books, then I expect to find some prize novels.

Recommended for: Well, since many intelligent people have dissed this book, all I can say is that if it sounds at all interesting to you, give it a try.

I've been meaning to read The Red Queen for quite a while -- now I'll have to pick up a copy. Thanks for the review.

27. Fatty Legs, Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrations by Liz Amini-Holmes, 2010


Cover comment: this book had fabulous illustrations.

Comments: This biography is a children's book about a young Inuit girl who goes to a residential school in the 1940s. Olemaun Pokiak was born and raised on Banks Island, which is one of those many islands floating in the Arctic Ocean over the top of Canada. This is an amazingly remote part of our planet--I'm pretty sure it's unimaginatively far away from where ever you are right now. Anyway, she desperately wants to learn to read and enter the worlds that literature has to offer, so she begs her parents to let her attend the residential school on the mainland--a five day journey, mostly by schooner.

Once at the school, the nuns cut off her thick braids, change Olemaun to Margaret, and put her to work. One especially evil nun, nicknamed The Raven, seems to particularly have it in for her, and the book is a list of bullying incidents. Finally, Olemaun cleverly outsmarts the nasty nun.

This book is aimed at quite a young age, so the residential school horrors fell only under the bullying category. What makes this book really wonderful is the illustrations and photographs that work with the story. Either would have been very nice indeed, but to have both the great artwork (with the especially wicked looking nun) and actual photos of Inuit life in the first half of the 20th century, really makes the book.

"



Why I Read This Now: it's been sitting on my table since last year and I knew it would be a quick read.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommended for: well, this is a children's book, so it would be good to use in introducing Inuit or even aboriginal culture. But I bought --and enjoyed it-- for the art work. The photo record was a bonus.

So glad you liked The Red Queen. I have it, and the memoirs that it's based on, and almost every month I think, I must get to this soon. Now I'm more encouraged to do so.

Interesting review of The Red Queen. I read a lot of Margaret Drabble back in the 70s and 80s and haven't really read anything by her since.

28. 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff, 1970


Cover comments: I love this cover—it captures that Mary Quant, 1960s London look. And even better, it’s a picture of the actual bookshop of the title.

Comments: Okay, I know I’m one of the last booklovers to read this book about booklovers, but in case you’re not familiar with it, the story is told in letters between a writer in New York City, and a group of people connected to a bookshop in London. The first letter in this very short book is dated 1949, and the last is 1969.

Although I’d heard a lot about this book, two things took me by surprise. First, I was almost finished it when I realized that these were real letters and this wasn’t a novel (although it reads like one). And second, for some reason I thought there was a love story in it (and indeed, some reviewers refer to it as a romance). Maybe they meant a love of books, or friendship-type love. Anyway, I kept expecting Frank’s wife to die so the romance could start, but no, Helene was friends with her too, right to the end.

This is a slight book, but it’s full of charm, humour and pathos.

Rating 4 stars

Why I Read This Now: it was time.

Recommended for: Booklovers, Anglophiles, and people who like books full of charm, humour and pathos.

Joyce, good review of The Red Queen. I like Margaret Drabble although I have not read any for ages. I will add this one to my wish list.

There was a movie of 84 Charring Cross Road http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090570/ which did hint of a Romance.

I was living in London in the 1960's and so would have seen the bookshop, I probably went into it, but there were many bookshops in the Charring Cross Road at the time and so I do not remember this particular one. They all looked fairly similiar. I must read the book.

Here's another one who's had The Red Queen hanging around waiting to be read for years. Your review makes me think I might enjoy it - thanks!

29. Last Orders, Graham Swift, 1996


You can't really see the picture in the middle of this cover, but it's a lit up bar with four beer glasses on it. . . . not only is this cover boring, but it put me off reading this book since I got it 9 years ago! That said, it does fit the story (especially clever that the amount of beer in the glasses represents the characters in the novel.)

Comments: Several old codgers from South London agree to take the ashes of their friend to the seaside, while the widow chooses to visit her severely disabled daughter instead.

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE BOOK: It's very well written, and very literary. Divided into many short chapters, it was easy to pick up and read and make progress. Lots of different points of view and time periods make for a full picture of the story.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: This book was heavy on the colloquialisms of WWII British veterans, and their interests. Which aren't really mine. Pubs, urinals, horse racing, checking out women, fighting, . . . . not really my cup of tea.

Rating: 3.5 stars, most of that based on the craft of the writing.

Why I Read This Now: this book came to me for free back in 2003 and I kept it only because of the "Booker Prize 1996" sticker on the front. I could never make myself interested in it, so it was now, or to the charity bin. Even though it wasn't style, I'm glad I read it, and I will definitely read more Graham Swift in the future. I just hope his other books aren't so extremely androcentric.

Note: This book beat Alias Grace (and A Fine Balance) for the Booker Prize. I disagree with the judges.

Drinking beer and checking out women... sounds like paradise to me. I'll have to read this one, especially if it was good enough to beat out A Fine Balance, which is among my all-time favorites.

#65 - I would love to hear a guy's impression of Last Orders, so I look forward to your future review!

>64 Nickelini:: I disagree with the judges as well ... like you, I thought this book was OK but not a prize winner.

I hated Last Orders pointless well written drivel.

It was clearly a very special copy if you got it in '93 and it already had a sticker for the '96 Booker on the cover! No wonder you hung on to it ;-)

Wandering_Star --that is amazing indeed! Too bad I can't get any money out of it, because I meant 2003, and now I'll go back and correct that (thank you). I have TOTAL number dyslexia.

(And although the number dyslexia thing is true, I also wish that 1993--which seems like almost yesterday--wasn't so long ago. Sigh.)

Yes. My other half is coming up to his 40th birthday, and (in his usual cheerful way) was musing on how it would only be ten years until 50. In an inept attempt to cheer him up, I said, "but ten years is a long time - it feels like much more than ten years ago that we were 20". Oops.

>69 wandering_star:: HA!

Yes. My other half is coming up to his 40th birthday, and (in his usual cheerful way) was musing on how it would only be ten years until 50. In an inept attempt to cheer him up, I said, "but ten years is a long time - it feels like much more than ten years ago that we were 20". Oops.

Ha ha. but he has a point--those years fly by so fast. I know--let's talk about something else.

30. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields, 1993


This incredibley boring cover stopped me from reading this book for years.

Comments: Considering that this won the 1993 Governor General's Award, was nominated for the Booker Prize that same year, and won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize, and furthermore has been in all three editions of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, I'm going to guess that a lot of people have already read this book. So I'll save you the book report and summary.

What I really liked the most about this was how Shields called it a "diary" in the title, but it really wasn't at all. In fact, the only section written in a strong first-person voice was the opening bit about her birth and details about her mother that the narrator wouldn't know. Most of what you put together about Daisy Goodwill's life is what other people say (or don't say) about her. And her name constantly changes (in one section she is referred to as Mrs Flett). Terrifically clever. Great writing.

Recommended for: lovers of good writing. Some people call this a "woman's novel," but I think that sells the novel, and intelligent men, short.

Why I Read This Now: It's been in my TBR for a very long time. I read most of Shield's novels about 10 years ago, but missed this one.

Rating: 4 stars

I really, really liked The Stone Diaries too. It got me started reading Carol Shields.

I have The Stone Diaries in my book TBR pile- glad that you liked it- I will have to get to it soon.

31. A Short History of Tractors Ukrainian, marina Lewycka, 2005

Comments: I was drawn to the quirky title of this book when it was first published, but didn't commit to reading it until it was nominated for both the Booker and the Orange prizes.

In short, the narrator, who is the English daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, is alarmed when her elderly widowed father announces he's marrying a 36 year old bombshell, newly arrived from Ukrainia. She, of course, turns out to be a nightmare who is in search of a British passport and as much material wealth as she can grab. Or is she just trying to pull herself out of a culture run by criminals, and trying to make a better life for herself and her teenage son?

Many people, including the critics that wrote the blurbs used on the book's cover and marketing materials, rave about how hilarious it is. I really didn't find it very funny, in fact, a lot of it made me quite uncomfortable. There were some horrible things going on, and they weren't funny. There is one point around three-quarters of the way through where the narrator says she can't take all the aggression, and that's exactly how I felt about the whole book. Too much bickering, too much unpleasantness. The only character I actually liked was Mike, the narrator's husband, and his role was minor.

Okay, there was one thing I found funny. A newborn baby is named after Margaret Thatcher. That was funny.

Rating: 3 generous stars. Although this isn't a terrible book, and I can see some of its merits, I just didn't like it.

Recommended for: Readers who follow the Orange and Booker prize nominees, people interested in the issues of immigration in the UK.

Oh, here's the cover:


Sort of a charming, but simple, cover. I've seen worse.

Interesting take on A short History of Tractors Ukranian. I am convinced now that I wouldn't like it. People behaving badly does not amuse me over much either.

I hope that newborn baby was female.

I felt the same way about A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Joyce. I expected much more.

32. Room, Emma Donoghue, 2010


This cover suits the book perfectly.

Why I Read This Now: it's my book club's selection for June. I was dubious, but since it was nominated for the Booker and the Orange prizes, I thought it might not be terrible.

Comments: This is another one of those highly popular books that I didn't expect to like. I thought it would be compelling, but ultimately vacuous. Something along the lines of The Help, or The Lovely Bones. But instead, it pleasantly surprised me, much in the way that I was surprised by We Need to Talk About Kevin earlier this year.

Room is written in two parts--when Jack and Ma are held captive in Room, and after their escape. Predictably, many readers prefer one section over the other. I liked the second half better. Seeing Jack finally experience the world, and seeing Ma trying to readjust, was fascinating.

I had a few problems with the first section. One was Jack's voice. His speech habits just didn't work--they didn't feel right. I know the author put a lot of thought and observation of kids into his voice, but it still felt inaccurate to me. My second complaint was that this section was too claustrophobic. I kept flipping pages to see how much more I had to read about their world before we could move on (and out of it!).

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the novel. It had a subtle sophistication that was unexpected. I will definitely read more Donoghue in the future, and I trust this book is very different from her others.

Rating: I'm going to give it 4 stars. I understand why some readers didn't like this book, but it was a good read for me.

Recommended for: pretty much everyone--it's a straight-forward narrative, interesting topic, and has garnered a lot of deserved attention from critics and award committees.

Room is certainly a popular choice for book clubs.

Joyce just out of interest what is the breakdown of your club by sex. I have the impression that most book clubs have many more female members than men.

Donoghue can write, can't she? I really liked Slammerkin and picked up a copy of Room on the strength of that book. Still haven't read it, though.

Barry - my book club is pretty traditional, I think. It's all women, and I can't imagine any men joining. Half are teachers, and we're all moms. Ages 35 - 55. And we all ski. For some reason we spend a lot of time talking about our ski holidays. Sometimes I'll be tempted to quit, especially when we pick a lame book like The Help or Water for Elephants, but then we have a great meeting where we really pull a book apart, and it's all good. And I've read a lot of books I wouldn't have read otherwise--many of them very good.

#82 - I thought her intelligence definitely came through--this wouldn't have been as good with a lesser writer. But I'm hoping her other books are different (and I'm pretty sure that they are).

33. Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes, 1984, audiobook


Lovely cover -- that's a close up of green parrot feathers, if you can't see from this image. Not that I saw it much since I listened to this on my iPhone.

Comments: Oh, what a strange book, indeed! But great fun. It's a charming work of postmodern fiction, historical fiction, biography, philosophy, academic novel, metafiction and humour. Not really a novel, but then, what is it exactly? I have no idea, but Madame Bouvary has moved up my TBR pile.

Why I Read This Now: needed an audiobook, this one was nominated for the Booker Prize and is also on all versions of the 1001 books list.

Recommended for: people who like odd books with a scholarly twist.

Rating: 4.5 stars

I've seen A Short History of Ukrainian Tractors for sale at the bookstore and always wondered whether I should buy it. After reading your review, I'll avoid it.

34. Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan, 1994


At first glance, this cover might seem ho-hum, but it's not. Actually, it's one of my favourite covers of the books I've read this year. The parts of this book that are on the Franklin River in Tasmania have an intense mood, and this picture captures that sense. At the top and bottom are a frame that has an Aboriginal-Australian feel to it, which also fits well with the story. I'll be really disappointed if I find out this isn't actually a picture of the Franklin River.

Comments: The narrative frame of this a Tasmanian river guide who is trapped underwater, without hope of rescue, and has flashbacks of his life and visions of his ancestors' lives (which exposes the truth behind some family myths). This is Richard Flanagan's first novel, and he went on to win many illustrious awards and nominations.

The strength of this book is in the stories of what happens on that trip down the Franklin River. When I lived in Australia in 1982-83, the demonstrations against damming the river were a hot news story, so I had a slight personal connection to this story; a story that brought my attention to the wilderness of Tasmania. Flanagan does a fabulous job of bringing the reader into the damp verdant black and green temperate rainforest.

The other area he covers really effectively is the history of Tasmania; specifically, the convict culture and bit of Aboriginal culture. Not pretty. I definitely want to learn more about this area of the world and its history.

What didn't work for me were a lot of the tangents, general wordiness, and going on about the character's philosophy. Whatever, let's move along. Also, I'm not sure about the narrative frame of the guy being held underwater telling these stories. Hmmm.

This novel takes concentration and definitely could have been sharpened down with the help of a good editor. However, it was unusual, and showed me a very different corner of the world, and I really like that.

Rating: haven't decided if the good parts make it a 4 or if the over-wordiness makes it a 3.5.

Recommended for: anyone interested in Tasmania and anyone interested in exploring contemporary Australian literature.

I wish this book was more widely known by people who read literary works and like to talk about them, because I'd like to talk about it. However, it would be a fail with my book club because it's not the type of book they'd want to read--half of them would say "I couldn't get into it".

Sorry Joyce I can't talk about Death of a River Guide either. Your review did highlight how little I know about Tasmania. I just about know where it is and realised that it was populated by convicts.

I enjoyed your review.

I found the film of Last Orders to be much more enjoyable than the dreary book. Michael Caine and David Hemmings are both excellent. Fred Schepisi (Australian) directed it.

I own Death of a River Guide, Joyce, and your review is encouraging me to get to it soon, despite its apparent weaknesses. Have you read any others by Flanagan?

Linda - I haven't read Flanagan before, but I own Wanting, so at some point I'll read him again.

Great title, interesting premise and a history of Tasmania, sounds intriguing. Making a note.

35. The Sometimes Lake, Sandy Bonny, 2012


I like this cover because it is very unusual, although I don't know what it means. There is an egg, and plant roots, and it seems to be in a black puddle.

Comments This is a small collection of short stories by a writer from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who is also a talented painter, carves huge ice & snow sculptures, and who has a PhD in Earth & Atmospheric Science. This is her first literary book, but she has previously published papers with such titles as "Experimental precipiation of barite (BaSO4) among streamers of sulphur oxidizing bacteria," which you can find in an issue of Journal of Sedimentary Geology. I'm happy to say that there were cool science bits in all of the short stories.

And that's all I'll say, as I read this for a review in the next issue of www.Belletrista.com.

That is a cool cover. Your review caught my attention with the mention of the Journal of Sedimentary Geology.

Sounds intriguing!

Life in the tarsands? Oops, we're not supposed to call them that anymore.

Sounds like a fascinating woman. I'll look for your review.

36. Is There a Nutmeg in the House?, Elizabeth David, 2000


I love this cover--I have a weakness for indigo blue book covers, and I also love the painting of the fruit. My daughter and I were discussing last night whether they were apples or pears, but I see now that the painting is titled "Two Quinces," and it's by Eliot Hodgkin. Of course--the quince. Not sure I've ever seen a quince.

Why I Read This Now: a friend in my bookclub pulled this off her shelf and gushed "this is a great book--you have to read it!."

Comments: Silly me, I assumed it was a novel. I didn't know that Elizabeth David was the "original domestic goddess" who is responsible for bringing fresh herbs and exotic vegetables to England. This is an anthology of writing about cooking and food, and lots and lots of recipes. Although some parts of it were quite interesting, I'm still scratching my head at this being a "must read."

However, I did find the essay on the history of the Oxo cube interesting, and she discusses at great length the foolproof way of making poached eggs, which is something that has frustrated me for years. I skimmed through much of it (don't need to know how to roast a pheasant), but it did have a certain charm.

Recommended for : Foodies who like to read about food (whereas I'm a foodie who prefers just to eat food).

Rating: 3 stars

Julia Child said to use a special bent spoon to lower the eggs into simmering water to poach them intact. I saw such spoons in an antique store once and failed to buy them; I've never seen any since. Professionals swirl the water and break the egg into the vortex; I don't know that I'm up to that. How does Elizabeth David poach eggs?

Robert

#98 - Robert - I actually copied some of it for future reference. The bent spoon thingy sounds intriguing--I'll keep my eyes open for such a contraption.

Here's the bit I copied: Poached Eggs

…To produce neat, plump, well shaped and comely poached eggs it is essential to start off with fresh eggs. Not too fresh though. A really new-laid egg Is not a good subject for poaching. The white separates too easily from the yolk. Three-day-old eggs are the ideal, . . . .(if you have fresh eggs) I find that the best way to ensure a few days supply of nicely poached eggs is to cook them immediately and keep them in a bowl of acidulated water in the (fridge). This is the most successful system. With the help of Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, butter and fresh parsley or tarragon, …. Delicate and appetising little poached egg dishes can be produced for lunch in a few minutes.

Here is the method. …..for poaching, choose small ones whenever possible,-- a certain knack is needed. It is one which is easily acquired, but until the simple technique has been mastered it is advisable not to attempt to poach more than two or three eggs in one go.
Utensils required are an ordinary saucepan (1.5 – 1.75 lt with a cover) and a long-handled perforated metal spoon, a bowl and a couple of small cups or saucers. (and a timer)
1. Three-quarters fill the saucepan with water, bring this to simmering point, add a tablespoon of wine vinegar.
2. Break the eggs into the cups or saucers, slide them into the gently simmering water. Count thirty. Turn off the heat.
3. Quickly, with the edge of the metal spoon, roll each egg over once or twice. This sounds dangerous but—always provide that the eggs are in the right condition—I assure you that it works. If any of the white of the eggs has separated and floated to the surface, skim it off.
4. Now cover the saucepan and leave the eggs for three minutes.
5. Have ready a bowl of cold water to which you have added a few drops of tarragon or wine vinegar. With your perforated spoon lift out the poached eggs and drop them gently into the cold water. This immediately arrest the cooking, so that when you come to reheat the eggs they will still remain tender and soft. Trim he whites if required.
Cove the bowl and store the eggs on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. If not used within two or three days, renew the slightly vinegared water and return the bow to the fridge.
Note: I find that it is not very practical to make more than one batch of poached eggs without boiling fresh water and vinegar. The water becomes cloudy, and requires much skimming, and often the second or third batch of eggs looks messy. So the sooner one can acquire the knack of poaching several eggs at a time in a large pan, the quicker it will be to poach say half a dozen eggs……
No matter how fresh eggs may be, some are just better than others – plumper, with white which coagulate more perfectly, so sometimes it is not necessary to turn the eggs over in the water. One sees that the whites have of themselves formed a beautiful, shapely covering for the yolks.

I also found this website handy: http://www.enotes.com/poaching-reference/poaching

A lot of typing and helpful. Thank you.

Robert

A lot of typing

Well, I type 80 words a minute, and I really like poached eggs, so it wasn't a big deal. ;-) and now it came in extra useful, because I could share it. Time typing was well spent.

Quinces, the bane of our lives in the autumn. Our neighbour always give us basket loads and I am convinced this is because they do not know what to do with them. Solved the problem last year by making quince jelly, which is excellent with cheese, especially the local sheep cheeses from around here.

quince jelly, which is excellent with cheese YUM!

>102 baswood: But do you have a runcible spoon?

I've "favorited" the poached egg instructions. I have a pair of silicon bowls that sit in the boiling water, but I'd like to try to poach an egg without cheating.

#105 - Alison - I'm such a derp, I can't even get the silicone bowl method to work for me! But I tried this, and it did work. My husband thinks the key part of this method is the simmering water, and then turning the heat off.

37. My Sister, My Love, Joyce Carol Oates, 2007


This cover is a fail-- Not that it's bad or artistically unpleasant, but it's too dark to see. Also, the little girl's clothing and the butterflies have nothing to do with the story. The person who designed this didn't read the book and forgot to ask what it was about (or were told, "it's a dark book, and there is a little girl in it.") .

RAting: 3/5. This book is 562 pages long, and had it been half that length, I may have given it 5 stars. But verbosity is not a virtue. Late in the story, she writes, "In fact, most of what Skyler experienced, and continues to experience, ....has been left out of this document." I get that that the narrator is unreliable, but there were so many stories and incidents and sentences that were repeated that I found exasperating. I think she could have left out a good deal more!

Comments: This is the second book by JCO that I've read, and I now get that she deeply hates the all-American right-wing Republican middle class middle American, as this satirical book clearly demonstrates. I didn't really get that when I read We Were the Mulvaneys.

Nineteen-year old Sklyer Rampike narrates this look back at his sister's murder ten years previous (when she was 6 yrs old). She had been an ice skating prodigy, and JCO barely disguises the sad story of JonBennet Ramsey here. It's an interesting novel, and a compelling read, and for its length, a fairly quick one ( some of the pages have on a sentence or two). JCO does a fabulous job at making Skyler's parents horrible self-centered social climbers. Near the end, the mother is praised as "one of the most courageous Christian women of our time, triumphing over Evil and secular progressivism, confirming the values of American family and freedom" although of course she did none of those things. Her family values included abandoning her 9 yr old son to ten years of institutional care after his sister's murder. These are truly despicable people.

One thing I found amusing is JCO's lists of diseases, syndromes and conditions, and the medications used to treat them--many that are genuine, but surely some that she invented herself. She also did this with consumer items, such as the "Rogue Warrior" SUV that the power-driven dad drives.

It's just too bad it was so long and repetitive.

Recommended for:: great satire of that segment of people in the US, so if it sounds at all interesting you should try it.

Why I Read This Now: I'm getting a sizable stack of JCO novels so it was time to read one, and it sounded interesting.

Good review of My sister My Love. Has this put you off reading more JCO.

Nice review of My Sister, My Love, Joyce. That's definitely not for me, though; the last group of people I wish to read about are "all-American right wing Republican middle class middle Americans".

Has this put you off reading more JCO.

It hasn't, because I know her works are varied. I think I read two that are more similar than any other randomly selected two. And I really liked about half of it!

That's definitely not for me, though; the last group of people I wish to read about are "all-American right wing Republican middle class middle Americans".

Well, it is satire, and I admit that I enjoyed watching their awfulness. But yeah, I hear you. I'm looking to travel far away from that crowd for my next bunch of books.

Just catching up... great reviews, Joyce! and now I'm going to try to poach an egg for dinner.

38. A Month in the Country, JL Carr, 1980


This cover is a detail from the painting Dining Room in the country by Pierre Bonnard. Although I rather like this cover, it doesn't really suit the novel. It has a very hot, interior feel, and the book has a fresh outdoor feel.

Comments: The narrator is a WWI veteran, looking back on the summer of 1920, when he traveled to the north of England to uncover a Medieval painting on a church wall. The writing is lovely and the author's strength is capturing the summer atmosphere of an English village 90 years ago.

This is what I call "a quiet novel." I read most of the book, and then unfortunately had to put it aside for a few days. When I picked it up again, I had broken the spell of its charm. Therefore, I recommend reading this one all in one go, if possible.

Why I Read This Now: it seemed to fit my mood. Also, it is a Booker Prize nominee.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Recommended for: a reader in the mood for a quiet, atmospheric short novel.

JCO has written so many books that are more enticing, so I doubt I'll look for My Sister, My Love. I have A Month in the Country, and I'll take your advice when reading it.

I love your comments on the covers. They're fun to read even when the book is not something that would interest me.

>112 Nickelini:: I agree about reading it all in one go. There's also a film version starring Firth & Branagh, available on DVD but so far I've only been able to locate it on YouTube, in 10-minute installments which I think might somehow lose the magic.

#114 - I thought there was a Colin Firth version, but I couldn't find it on Amazon. Now I need to find it .....

#112 making a note of the "all in one go" bit. It's on my TBR shelf - I was absolutely going to read it in 2009...

I love A Month in the Country and the movie is excellent. I'm quite sure I rented it from Netflix, but this must have been five or six years ago and they don't seem to know it exists now.

39. Nora Ephron Collected, 1991


My copy is a tatty old paperback with rips and sticker marks, and this Art Deco revival look isn't currently in fashion, so I've always found this cover unattractive. However, on closer inspection, I actually like it.

Comments As the title suggests, this is a collection of Nora Ephron pieces, and as can be expected from Ephron, she covers a wide range of cultural topics.

I'll say up front that I'm a huge fan of Nora Ephron. When Harry Met Sally might just be my favourite movie ever. She's intelligent and funny, and I think if we'd only known each other, we'd have been great friends. (Alas, Ephron died just last week, so I'm out of luck).

Most of the essays in this book were written in the 70s, and some of them are very dated. I really don't care about the in-fighting from the National Women's Political Caucus at the Democratic Convention in 1972. But lots of the other essays were still interesting--some as a snapshot of the culture of the 70s, and some because they were timeless and just plain interesting. And as a treat for this big When Harry Met Sally fan, there is an essay on the evolution of that script right near the end of the collection.

Why I Read This Now I've actually been working my way through this since April, reading an essay here and there. It's one of the older books in my closet, and also I'm trying to focus on short stories and essays this year.

Recommended for: anyone interested in essay writing on cultural topics, and also Nora Ephron fans

Rating 3.5 stars


RIP, Nora.

hmmm...I don't recognize her name, but I know her movies (and I don't watch movies, although I did at one point). Sad news, and interesting comments.

I have just watched a Charlie Rose on line (from the June 29th program) about the various interviews he did with Nora Ephron over time mostly concerning her role as a movie director. I have loved her books I Remember Nothing and I feel Bad About My Neck. The interviews were terrific. What a warm, smart, articulate and creative person.

MDoris - I'm going to look for that! Thanks for pointing it out.

Hope you like it too!
Mary

40. The Invisible Circus, Jennifer Egan, 1995, audiobook


No opinion on the cover; didn't really see it as this was an audiobook.

Comments: It's the late 1970s, and eighteen-year old Phoebe is stuck in an obsession with her older hippie sister Faith who died eight years earlier in Italy. She also has a bit of an obsession with her father, who had died a couple of years before the sister. Her older brother has moved on to making millions in Silicon Valley, and her mother is starting to move on too, so Phoebe suddenly decides to leave San Francisco to follow Faith's path through Europe.

The premise intrigued me. However, I didn't enjoy this book remotely as much as I enjoyed to later Egan novels (Look at Me, and The Keep). I'm not sure if this is the fault of the book itself, or if it was the woman who read it. The reader did a different voice for each character, and I found all these voices annoying (she didn't annoy me so much when she was reading the narrator's part). I feel kind of mean saying that because she tackles a whole slew of accents, and hey, I can't do accents at all. But still, it was really annoying. The older brother who was supposed to be a high-tech mover and shaker sounded like he had damaged nasal passages. Then there was the boyfriend, Wolf, who sounded like he was always smoking dope, and then Phoebe herself who just sounded like a big dope. Urghh.

Furthermore, there's a section set in Italy where Phoebe has a torrid romance, and it was just way too much information and went on for way too long. I wondered if I was reading Fifty Shades of Grey. More urghh.

Rating: 3/5 stars. A bad Jennifer Egan book is better than a lot of other stuff I could be reading, and I have to say I was never bored. This was her first novel, and she's improved with later books. So that's all good.

Why I Read This Now: needed an audiobook to listen to while I did some outside work on my house, and I had recently listened to Egan's Look at Me, which I'd loved.

Recommended for : hmmm, not sure. She does a good job of capturing the atmosphere of San Francisco and northwestern Italy (two places I'm familiar with), and good cultural snapshots of the 60s and 70s.

Interesting review of the Egan. I've only read her two most recent books, The Keep, which I liked, and A Visit from the Goon Squad, which I loved, but I've been meaning to read her earlier works. I always like to see a writer get better and better.

Good review of The invisible circus I will steer well clear of this because I was not that impressed with her best novel A Visit from the Goon Squad

A nice and very amusing review of The Invisible Circus, Joyce. It's almost worth borrowing the audiobook to listen to those voices you mentioned!

The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler, 2004


Sort of a nothing cover. Not bad, but not exciting.

Comments: I abandoned this book at page 39 (at the end of the first of six sections). I skipped ahead and read a few bits, and I know I made the right decision.

The premise is good--six people form a book club to read Jane Austen's novels. Each section covers one character and one of those novels. So far, so good. But I didn't like the writing. The dialogue didn't sound like real people, and it wasn't intersting. Too many characters, and not enough Austen-- the first book was Emma, and they hardly talked about it at all. It was mostly back story about people who I didn't care about, and the attempted rape scene just made me say "yuck." I've skipped ahead and read some of the bits where they actually discuss Austen novels, and it's all very bland.

Not for me.

Rating 1 star

Recommended: not recommended. I know this was a best seller and there was a movie, so other people disagree with me.

Why I Read This Now: it was on my oldest books from my TBR pile.

>127 Nickelini:: That one is rattling around my car, on the floor in the back seat. One of the kids left it there. I'm in no hurry to pick it up!

Joyce, this might be one of those cases where the film is better than the book. The film certainly concentrated on the lives and loves of the characters in the book club, but at least when they met and talked about Jane Austen it was reasonably stimulating and made the viewer curious about the books.

Not a bad film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0866437/

41. Falling Man, Don DeLillo, 2007


Front cover & front and back cover spread

I love this cover. I'm drawn to blue covers in general, I think because of they invoke a sense of movement. This one is no different. When I picked this off the shelf at the bookstore, I didn't know what it was about, but I did remember that it got a lot of attention when it was published. So I stood there with the book in my hand, wondering if it was something I'd like, and then I flipped it over to look at the back cover and it struck me that this book was about 9/11. I find the Twin Towers sticking out of the clouds almost chilling, and it's so much more subtle than had they been on the front. And when I look at the whole picture, I get a sense that I am in a plane on one of those flights. So pretty, yet so scary. Shudder. (Yes, we all know it wasn't cloudy that day, and also we'd see bits of other buildings peaking out too, but that's not the point).

Comments: Okay, now about the book. This is ONE 9/11 story; it's not THE 9/11 story. The focus is on Keith, who emerges from Tower One, covered in blood and ash and broken glass. He makes his way to his estranged wife's home in Midtown. The story follows Keith, Lianne, and their seven-year old son Justin who spends his time looking out the window for more planes. There is also a small secondary story that follows one of the hijackers. It is a disjointed story told in fragments. It is sometimes a little confusing to know who is talking, and people speak somewhat cryptically. This is a big complaint from some readers, but I found it somehow fitting. Keith and Lianne aren't particularly wonderful people, and this experience doesn't make them change into wonderful people either. But why should it. This is not a warm and fuzzy story, but is instead a collection of shards that fit together to make a novel.

I'm rather intrigued by the title. There is a falling man in the book--he's a performance street artist that Lianne sees around the city. His name of course alludes to the famous picture of the man falling straight down from one of the towers. I find it interesting though that there is no definitive article--it's not The Falling Man. Of course, Keith too is a falling man, as are many of the other people who's lives were shattered by this event. At first it reminded me of Burning Man ( http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/), but really, I don't know enough about Burning Man to know if that's just silly, or not. Or maybe it's a contrast to the Rise of Man(kind), as in the fragmenting and breaking down of civilization. That works. (The one that I can't make work is the Fall of Man as in Adam & Eve--can't see any connections there). So if I ever meet the author, I'd like to ask him about the title (and I hope he won't be some jerk who says "What do YOU think it means," because then I'd just have to roll my eyes at him and never pick up another one of his books).

Rating: 4 stars. I really liked this. I know others found it too discombobulated, and others found it pretentious, but I liked it anyway.

Recommended for: people who like literary fiction.

Why I Read This Now: it's New York theme month at the Nickelini Reading Ranch, and this one was at the top of the pile. It was a quick read (I read it in two sittings).

You echoed by first thought at the title, that it looks like the view from one of the planes...

I've heard so many negative things about this book, it was nice to read a positive response, makes me more willing to try it out sometime.

It was New Year's Eve when I finished this book and the idea of the decline of civilized "Man" in the title seemed to fit then with the death of the old year. I think it works with the family of Keith, Lianne and Justin falling apart, each falling in their own way as the people from the towers did, and works for the larger family of man.

I liked this book too, but then I am a big DeLillo fan. Oddly, I remembered the cover as having grey skies; it must be that midwinter thing again, because I just checked and it was the same cover you have.

Good review Joyce

You've intrigued me with this one, Joyce -- I've not read any DeLillo -- maybe this is the one to start with.

Sorry, I got so caught up in your review and my response to it, that I forgot to add that obviously I liked it!

131, 132, 133, 134 & 135 - There are a lot of negative comments out there about this book. Some of it is that it's so fragmented (which I see as fitting a purpose) and cryptic, and I think a lot of it is people who were blown away by DeLillo's earlier works and then not blown away by this one. I haven't read him before, but will sometime again in the future (White Noise is in my TBR).

>112 Nickelini: - Thanks for the advice on A Month in the Country - I have that on the shelf and will be sure to read it when I have a chunk of time.

>130 Nickelini: - Interesting comments on the cover and contents of Falling Man - I had heard mostly negative things about that one too. White Noise will be the next DeLillo I read as it's somewhere in the pile but I'll rethink the no on Falling Man.

42. Building Waves, Taeko Tomioka, 1983, translated 2012 (Louise Heal Kawai)


I like this cover a lot--blue, stylized wood-block waves that compliment the book's title . . . it's all good.

Comments: I'm reviewing this for the next issue of Belletrista so I won't say much. Actually, I'm going to have to think about this one for a bit anyway. But here is the blurb from the back cover:

"It is the early eighties, and the housing industry is booming. Previously unpopulated mountainous areas of the Japanese countryside are being leveled to accommodate new waves of people. Similarly, a new wave of feminism, particularly a change in attitudes toward marriage and child-rearing, is growing among the women of Japan. Both the physical an social landscapes are in flux....."

Definitely interesting, rather odd.

I love your review of Falling Man, Joyce. I read it when it first came out and you have captured it wonderfully.

I ffollowed Building Waves over to Amazon, and just wanted to let people know that it's available on Kindle for just over $5. Of course, I bought it.

43. the Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton, 1920


Oh no! Yet another cover of a faceless woman. But I actually like this cover a lot. It's subtle, classy, and I like the play of her soft brown dress and ivory skin against the darker colours.

Rating: 5 big flashing stars. Will definitely be one of my top reads for 2012.

Comments: I loved this book. It had the atmosphere of a Henry James novel mixed with the social critique of Jane Austen. It makes me want to run out and read Wharton's oeuvre (and I have a goodly number in my TBR, so that won't be a problem).

Life of New York's idle rich in the 1870s, written by one of their own after WWI, when she has put that society in perspective. Young Newland Archer is engaged to marry the perfectly perfect--but boring--May Welland, when her cousin Ellen returns in semi-disgrace from Europe. Newland finds himself smitten, and oh, what to do? None of the characters are particularly likeable--but they sure live in an interesting world. Old New York is a foreign world to me, and I loved this peek behind it's heavy mahogany doors and layers of velvet drapery.

Why I Read This Now: It was New York Theme month at the Nickelini reading ranch, and this one from my TBR pile is also a 1001 book. I've read a little Wharton in the past, and was eager to get back to her. It won't be long until I visit her world again.

Recommended for: The language and psychology isn't as tortuous as Henry James, and it's not quite as sharp as Jane Austen (and also not British), but if you like those authors, you'll like this too. It also reminded me a little of Anna Karenina, except much shorter. Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer in 1921, so I'm not the only one to love it.

edited to add: I was reading this in mid-July, and half-way through I traveled to a 5-day lacrosse tournament and completely left this world. I finally had a chance to pick it up again when we went to New York last week. I finished it last Wednesday when I woke up--which happened to be my birthday. Then I wandered through Central Park with my 12 year old daughter and we went to the Frick Collection, which fits right into the world that Wharton creates here. It was a wonderful multidimensional reading experience!

44. When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, Justin Kaplan, 2006


Fabulous cover, from font to photo. This shot is of John Jacob Astor IV and his second wife, who was 19 when they married. Scandalous! Also, they sailed on the Titanic, and she got the lifeboat and he stayed for a card game.

Why I Read This Now: As I mentioned in my post #141, I visited the Frick Collection this past Wednesday ( http://www.frick.org/) (highly recommended if you're on New York's Upper East Side and have an hour or two to spare). I had just that morning finished Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence, and she left me completely fascinated with the 1% of 1870s New York. I found this book in the Frick's Museum store (one of the better museum stores around, BTW--small, but select). Couldn't resist starting it right away. (Also, this author won the Pulitzer prize for Mr Clemens and Mark Twain, so following in Wharton's P-prize, I figured I was on the right track).

Comments: I've heard the name Astor, of course, but really, other than hoighty-toighty New York, I knew nothing about them. What an interesting--though not very admirable--bunch. This is a biography of the family's founder, one of his sons, two of that son's three sons, and two sons from the next generation. I word it in that convoluted way because there are a whole bunch of Astors who are ignored here (all the women, plus a bunch of men). This book, written in a journalistic style, is about the power players from the Astor family.

Since you probably won't read this book, I'm going to tell you about the Astors. First, the subtitle "blue bloods" is tongue in cheek--the family patriarch, John Jacob Astor (b. 1763) was a poor young immigrant from Waldorf, Germany. Obviously a smart fellow, he went from penniless to major property owner of Manhattan. By the time he died well into his 80s, his family had joined the idle rich of New York City. Most of his wealth came from collecting rents from the slums and other properties of NYC. As is common with generational family money, the subsequent generations lived in a world completely out of touch with the real world. One of his great-grandsons had a family lineage researched/created that erased their humble German beginnings and instead had them fighting crusades in Medieval Jerusalem. He also deserted the United States because of its lack of culture and after decades of shameless self-promotion, was made an English peer. Unlike other wealthy families in New York who in some way gave back to the people of the city (for example, Carnegie), the Astors used their money only to make more money for themselves.

The two branches of the family tree did not get along, yet somehow they coordinated to become the creators of the American luxury hotel, and collaborated on the Waldorf-Astoria (the current hotel in NYC with that name, btw, has no connection to the family). Over the years, they built many high-end hotels in New York City, but today all of them are gone except the St. Regis.

Recommended for: anyone who finds this topic interesting. It's a quick read.

Rating: 4 stars. Some reviewers here at LT commented that they were looking for more, or expected it to tie together better, and I see what they mean; however, it's a biography, not fiction. Sometimes the facts will only work themselves together along certain paths, and there isn't much an author can do about it. My complaint about the book is all the left out people--including the current generation of Astors.

Joyce -- I'm about 10 pages shy of finishing Falling Man -- I've found it brilliant. Wharton is great -- I'd recommend any of her books!

Jane - glad you're liking Falling Man, and that not everyone dislikes it. ;-)

Can anyone recommend a good biography of Edith Wharton? Reading her Chronology at the beginning of my edition of the Age of Innocence makes me want to learn more about her. I didn't realize that she came from the Jones's of "keeping up with the Jones's" fame.

Great reviews of New York in the 1870's, especially as you tied them in with your visit to the city.

Great reviews. One of the interesting things about the Astors is that John Jacob Astor made his money in the fur trade (possibly elsewhere too). That's why the decorative mosaics in the Astor Place subway station are of beavers.

I hope you had a great trip! I don't know of any good bios of Wharton, but I did see an exhibition of her photographs from the period which were quite interesting, might be something else to look into.

Here is a selection of Edith Wharton biographies from the website of The Mount, the musuem that has been made of her home in Lenox, Mass.

147: One of the interesting things about the Astors is that John Jacob Astor made his money in the fur trade (possibly elsewhere too). That's why the decorative mosaics in the Astor Place subway station are of beavers.

We didn't go through that station, but I did notice beavers high on the Manhattan Municipal Building, and it puzzled me. As a Canadian, I've been trained to think of beavers as "our" animal and I certainly have never connected them with New York! But NYC was a major fur-trading centre, I learned in the Astor biography, so now it all fits!

Thanks for the list of Wharton biographies. Where to start, where to start . . . .

We have beavers in New York too -- not in the city as far as I know, although there's an impressive amount of wildlife in the city, but not too far away as you go upstate. They probably were pretty much extirpated in the fur trading days, but they've come back.

It's interesting how animals adapt like that, isn't it? Vancouver has doubled in population since I was a child, yet back then the only wildlife we had in our backyard was robins. Now I share my yard with a raccoon family. and we see coyotes on our street once in a while. I had never even seen a raccoon until I was about twenty.

One day you'll be walking along the Hudson and a beaver will swim by.

We live across from Riverside Park, and last year there was a family of raccoons living in a dying tree across the street that had lots of holes in it. Just when it was starting to get dark, the mother raccoon would come out and the babies (at least two) would poke their heads out. We only had about 15 minutes or so to watch them before it got too dark to see (and we had to use binoculars anyway), but it was thrilling. One night, one baby kept trying to figure out how to get out: first he'd try head first, then he'd go back in the hole and try to back out, then he'd go back to trying head first, etc. Unfortunately for us, the Parks Department came and cut the tree down because it was a hazard; I just hope the raccoons found another good home. There's a large raccoon population in Central Park.

There also have been several coyotes who in Manhattan either swam across from the Bronx or came across the Henry Hudson Bridge; Here's one example.

Not sure about beavers in the Hudson, though; I think they prefer streams that are more dammable.

Glad you enjoyed your trip to NYC, even if you missed the wildlife, or at least the four-legged kind.

I used to have a family of raccoons living in my back yard. They were very bold but clean and gentle. The babies would climb into my lap to fish potato chips out of my shirt pocket. The got along great with my cats too.

Just stopping by to say hello. I discovered your thread because I spotted your review of The Age of Innocence on the home page. I loved that book when I discovered it thanks to other LT reviews a few months back. I have enjoyed both that review and the others on your Club Read thread, about half of which I have read and the other half (mostly!) now inspired to read. I lurk more than I post but have got you starred!

Nice to meet you, Helensq!

We see racoons fairly frequently in the city. And there's some wild turkeys who have taken up residence in Battery Park. Our apartment faces inside the courtyard so we get mostly birds and squirrels hanging out in the big tree next to us. A robin must have nested there this year though because it spent about a month chasing away anything else that landed in it. We've also got a family of kestrels nesting on a nearby water tower this year.

I have the Hermione Lee bio, Edith Wharton, which is quite a doorstop. I bought it in an enthusiastic moment, having read a few of her novels, visited The Mount, and then come across a very favorable review of the bio. Alas, it's still gathering dust on my shelves. But it's supposed to be a good one!

How cool to finish Age of Innocence while in New York, where you could stroll around some of her haunts.

Seconding the Hermione Lee bio of Edith Wharton. It is fantastic, but absolutely a chunkster and so you'll need to plan on lots of time for it. I really liked it because you learn a lot about her that I, for one, did not expect. It also excerpts some of her less-published works, and lets just say you will be surprised.

>159 jfetting:: well that's good to know ...

45. Old Masters, New World: America's Raid on Europe's Great Pictures, by Cynthia Saltzman, 2008


This cover is nice and fits the book.

Comments In the late 1800s and early 1900s, wealthy Americans such as J Pierpont Morgan, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, and the Havemeyer family bought a lot of really wonderful old art from Europe. Changes in British tax laws and economic woes caused paintings that had been hanging in aristocratic houses for hundreds of years to go on the market in a large number. The wealthy Americans were looking to build up their personal collections and donate to museums (like the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Today the majority of the art is hanging in museums to be enjoyed by everyone.

Why this is called "a raid," I'm not sure. The paintings were all bought--not stolen--and the owners were paid well. Museums all over the world are full of art from other countries. Saltzman talks about this a few times as a simple fact, but doesn't explain why it's a problem.

This is a topic that I find interesting, but the book itself is disappointing. Meticulously researched, the author includes every detail imaginable about each stage of the negotiations. In doing so, she completely sacrifices the narrative. There are interesting bits throughout, but it reads in a very choppy way and is difficult to follow. It's a lot of minutia that doesn't add up to much.

Recommended for: not recommended unless you need to read it.

Why I Read This Now: this is the other book I bought in the museum shop at the Frick Collection when I was in New York last week.

Catching up -- glad you had a good trip to NYC!

46. The Aspern Papers, Henry James, 1888


My Penguin Classics edition also includes The Turn of the Screw, and the cover art is a detail from "Portrait of Edouard & Marie-Louise Pailleron" by John Singer Sargent--so obviously its intent is to illustrate the other novella. It's a great picture though, and fitting because John Singer Sargent and Henry James traveled in the same circles.

Comments: In The Aspern Papers, the unnamed narrator is a historian and scholar who is obsessed with obtaining some letters and papers written by a dead poet that are in the possession of the poet's former lover and muse. He goes to Venice and tricks his way into the house of the aged lover and her spinster niece. Is his deception found out? Does he get the papers? I'm not telling.

Rating: readers seem to love or hate this one. I liked it a lot and am giving it 4 solid stars. Worth reading if just for his depiction of Venice alone.

Why I Read This Now: I try to read one Henry James book a year, and I usually am in the mood in summer.

Recommended for people who like late-19th century fiction and classics.

Interesting cover and review. I did not know of this novella and it sounds like one for the list. Sounds like it might have influenced A S Byatt too.

Ah, yes--Possession! I learned about The Aspern Papers about a year ago, but as I read it I couldn't remember where I'd learned about it. Maybe it was in reading background info on Possession. Thanks for reminding me. The James is much, much shorter though, and spares us the poetry.

I think you just answered the question I was asking myself. I'd wondered why your summary of The Aspern Papers sounded familiar even though I hadn't read it.

Since you're obviously a Henry James fan, what is your favorite novel? I think mine is The Ambassadors, but What Maisie Knew is memorable as well.

I didn't realise that The Aspern Papers was set in Venice, for that reason alone I will get to read it

Since you're obviously a Henry James fan, what is your favorite novel?

Oooh, The Ambassadors. I'm not brave enough to read that yet. The later James writing that I've tried has been impenetrable, and scares me. So I'm working through his earlier stuff first. I think Portrait of a Lady is probably my favourite, but I like everything I've managed to get through, including What Maisie Knew, so it's hard to pick a favourite. One day I'll get to his later masterpieces.

And Barry, the Venetian atmosphere in the book is lovely!

I will have to reread The Aspern papers and The Turn of the Screw because I cannot recall what they were about.

i'm reading The Portrait of a Lady now, although it's been put temporarily aside in favor of Middlemarch. What is it about those Victorian novels that make them such good summer reading?

#170 -- it's true, isn't it! I also read Anna Karenina in summer, and it was perfect. So did you pick up Middlemarch because you prefer it? Personally, that book was okay, but I loved Portrait of a Lady.

Great review of When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, I have been wanting to read that ever since I finished The Age of Innocence.

The Portrait of a Lady gets my vote as the best James!

#172 - thanks!

47. The Road to Urbino, Roma Tearne, 2012


I don't think this cover suits the book very well. To me it looks like a war novel, and although the aftermath of war is one of the themes, there are so many strong images from the novel that would have worked better. I'll bet you $1000 the designer didn't read the book.

Rating 4.5 stars

Comments This novel is very different in story and style than Roma Tearne's earlier four novels, and it's exciting to see growth and change in a writer. What she did keep is her wonderful flair for painting word images, her concern for the victims of war, the use of art in healing pain, her explorations of memory, and the settings of Sri Lanka, England, and Italy.

The story follows two protagonists. The first is Ras, a middle aged immigrant from Sri Lanka, as he awaits trial in London for stealing The Flagellation, by Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca.



Through his first person narration, we hear about his early childhood in Sri Lanka, where his father disappeared one night and his mother died in a bomb blast. He and his brother spent most of the next years in a Tamil detention centre, until they had a chance to escape to England at the age of 19 and start a new life. Ras marries and has a child, Lola, and then divorces. He ends up working as gallery attendant at the National Gallery, where he is befriended by the charming and kind art curator, Charles.

The second protagonist is Alex, a friend of Charles. Through Alex, we get a fuller picture of the life of Charles and his wife Delia. They, and their circle of friends, spend a lot of fabulous summers in Italy, enjoying la dolce vita--art, food, company, etc. Being a Roma Tearne novel, some sad tragic events occur that change everything.

Everyone in this novel is consumed by an obsession, wherein we find the source of most of the conflict. But all the characters are also scared by war--even though the wars were thousands of miles away, or decades in the past.

It took me about 30 or 40 pages to warm up to it, but then I loved this novel. I actually wasn't ready for it to end, or to leave these characters lives (I especially liked Charles and Delia), which is really unusual for me with any book.

Now, there are two things I didn't like about the book, and that stop me from giving it a 5 star rating. The first is the choice of narrative point of view. When the characters tell their stories, it is in straight forward first person, which is fine. But the transitions are where I found most of the problems. Here the two characters speak to Elizabeth, Ras's legal council. It's done in a way that is similar to the first person imperative that made me so despise Please Look After Mom last year. I've run across it a few times since, and it irks me to no end. Good to see Tearne experimenting with her writing, but don't do this one again, please. And on a similar topic, there is one section told by Alex that describes a lengthy episode in Charles's life. Yes, Alex said this is what Charles told him, but really, Charles didn't tell you his story in that detail. This technique never works. Either make Charles a narrator, or use third-person.

The second thing is sort of minor. Lola. Really? Is it any shock to you that Lola is a strumpet? Of course not--her future was assured when daddy named her. Come on, isn't that a little obvious?

Recommended for:I find that most readers aren't as annoyed by the first person imperative narrator as I am, so it probably won't bug you. And it is only in bits here and there. Otherwise, fabulous book and it deserves an audience. I'm one of two people on LT who own it, so get out there and buy it, everyone! Especially people who like to read about hanging out in Italy.

I'm not sure if it's available in North America, but I ordered my copy from the Book Depository, so you can find it there.

Why I Read This Now: I don't usually read fresh fiction, but I'm writing about Roma Tearne (including an interview) for www.Belletrista.com, so I thought I should read her latest too. So glad I did, because it's changing my article.

The Road to Urbino is not listed among her books at BN.COM.

Robert

I don't know what that is, but the book was released in June, so maybe that's why?

Excellent review and I like to read about hanging out in Italy. I have also seen The Flagellation by Piero della Francesca at the National Gallery as its one of my favourite pictures from the renaissance. I am therefore already halfway along the road to buying the book.

I agree, an excellent review, Joyce. The book is listed at Amazon.com, but only through secondary sellers and not directly. Perhaps it has not been published in the US yet?

Great review of The Road to Urbino, Joyce! And thanks for mentioning it; I'll definitely buy it next month.

Darryl - yea!

Barry - I hope you like it! I studied the Flagellation at university, but admit I don't remember much about it. It's more fun when you can actually see the pictures.

Linda - I can never figure these things out. The mysterious ways of publishers and book sellers.

Glad to read your review of The Road to Urbino. I was really impressed by the first book by Roma Tearne that I read - Mosquito. But I became disillusioned with her writing when I read The Swimmer and Brixton Beach because there was so much similarity in the plots and themes, if to the setting. I would love to read something completely different by her, though it sounds as though I may have to wait a bit longer.

Just getting ready for our camping trip next week--you know, campfires, stargazing, s'mores, sleeping in a tent, floating down a river for hours, riding bikes along an abandoned rail line, bathing in a cold river, that sort of British Columbian experience. First thing I packed? My book bag, of course (I always get lots of reading done):

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
The Planet in a Pebble: A Journey into Earth's Deep History, Jan Zalasiewicz
The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
Border Songs, Jim Lynch
Away, Jane Urquhart
Finding Words: writers on inspiration, desire, war, celebrity, exile, and breaking the rules, edited by Jared Bland
Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner

No, I won't get to most of them, but this is what I have to select from . . . .

Well start with Tove Jansson's The Summer Book -- perfect choice for a camping trip!

Jane - I thought that might be a good idea too!

Enjoyed your review of Roma Tearne's latest - and very much looking forward to your Belletrista piece!

150, 158, 159> Sadly, I found the Wharton bio by Hermione Lee to be quite a slog. Lots of great photos, however.

Favorite Henry James novels: The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl. I also have a soft spot for The Bostonians. In grad school, I took a course in which we paired The Portrait of a Lady with Wharton's The Age of Innocence--very interesting!

In grad school, I took a course in which we paired The Portrait of a Lady with Wharton's The Age of Innocence--very interesting!

That would be great--when I recently read The Age of Innocence it reminded me a lot of Portrait of a Lady.

Favorite Henry James novels: The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl.

Ooooh, two thirds of the Henry James Triple Crown of Daunting Novels (the third being The Ambassadors). One day I'll be brave enough. I will start with Wings, since I've seen the movies a couple of times.

I put aside The Portrait of a Lady for Middlemarch because I'd kinda said I would read it with some other people in August. There was quite a bit of attrition--I think we're a group of three now. But it's excellent and I'll jump back to James soon enough.

I think the pace of the Victorian novel is perfect for summer.

Enjoy camping. Bring bug spray.

Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl are my favorite Henry James novels, too. The Ambassadors was hard work.

I loved A Portrait of a Lady but have yet to tackle anything else by James.
>188 RidgewayGirl:: RidgewayGirl, I'm reading Middlemarch now too, at a fairly slow pace. I'm about to start Book VII. I love it!

48. Natives and Exotics, Jane Alison, 2005


I like this cover a lot. It's artistically pleasing, it's different, and it fits the book.

Comments: This novel follows three related characters, along with guest appearances from Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin.

The first is Alice, who used to be Australian until her mother divorced her father and married an American diplomat. It is the early 1970s and Alice is taken to Ecuador. Between the strange carrying ons of the diplomatic community and the unusual world of South America, Alice feels herself to be a little like Alice in Wonderland.

The second story follows Alice's grandmother, Violet, who in 1929 feels herself to be living in one of the strange lands from Peter Pan. In fact, she's clearing tree roots in South Australia. We meet up with Violet later in the novel as she goes on a three month tour of Europe, the US and the Caribbean. But before that, we spend some time with the third character, Violet's great-great grandfather George, who is cleared out of Scotland and begins a new life on the Azores. This was my favourite section of the book, and makes me want to travel to the Azores as soon as possible.

The author does an excellent job of weaving in her theme of "our passionate, uneasy affair with nature, in which we restlessly search for home." Lots of great details about botany and natural history. However, as a whole, there was something lacking, and I feel sort of neutral in the end.

The book included some very interesting 19th century illustrations, including these two:




This is "Humboldt's distribution of plants in equinoctial America according to elevation about the level of the sea"

Why I Read This Now: one of my oldest books in my TBR pile.

Recommended for: readers who like to visit exotic places in their reading, and readers who like scientific trivia and tidbits (pertaining to nature and botany).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I like the illustration of the whale

49. Border Songs, Jim Lynch, 2009


I love this cover. It's different, and it suits the book perfectly. The whole story is about crossing the road, and there are lots of cows in the story. Never mind that the cows were mostly Holsteins, and that the road doesn't look exactly like this. Still fabulous.

Comments: I loved this book. Go read it.

Rating: 4.5 stars. I have another Lynch book in my TBR and will be reading it soon (I don't usually do that, so that's saying something).

Why I Read This Now:A week or so ago, my daughters and I were driving along Zero Avenue, which is a country road that runs parallel to the US border. In parts, there is a road on the Washington side that runs alongside it, and there is only a small ditch in between:



They had about a jillion questions about the border and laws, and we had a lengthy discussion about what it would be like to live right there. I remembered I had a novel in my TBR pile, Border Songs, written by some journalist from Washington, about a border patrol agent. It was obviously time to read it.

My Actual Comments: Brandon Vanderkool grew up on a dairy farm that skirts the Canadian border. All his life, he has regarded the people across the road--in another country--as his neighbours. Socially awkward, due in part to being 6'8" and extremely dyslexic, Brandon excels at art, is an avid birdwatcher, and notices things that other people don't. Somehow he has fallen into a job as a border patrol agent, and surprises everyone by excelling at this too. With seemingly little effort, Brandon becomes a star employee by sweeping up human traffickers, possible terrorists, and a lot of drug smugglers.

Brandon is an endearing quirky character in a novel full of quirky endearing characters. There is his kind dad Norm, who is struggling to keep the family farm from collapsing; his wise mom who is showing signs of early-onset Alzheimers; his boyhood crush, Madeline, over on Zero Avenue, and her grumpy retired professor father, who likes to stand on his deck smoking pot and taunting his US neighbours. These are some of the characters that are seeing their lives change in a post-911 world where the US government jumps at every shadow that darkens the border.

This book is interesting, funny, smart--the whole package. Lynch obviously did his research well in exploring the subculture of life on the border. This is an area that I know fairly well (my dad's family dairy farm--which, like many of the dairy farms in the book, is now a raspberry farm--sits atop the Canadian side of the border), and the author gets the little details right. That always scores extra points from me. He also does an admirable job of weaving in facts and philosophy surrounding the multi-billion dollar marijuana industry (his journalism background shows here).

Recommended for: readers who like intelligent, interesting books with quirky characters.

Excellent review of Border Songs. it is good that Lynch got the details right, it must have added to your enjoyment of his novel.

Great review of Border Songs - interesting to me because of the Washington State connection. I hadn't heard of Zero Avenue before. Have you ever been to Point Roberts (the unconnected to the mainland part of Wa)? I always thought that place could give rise to some quirky musings.

Loved the review of Border Songs -- it's on my wishlist and my list of books to send to my mother.

#195 - Have you ever been to Point Roberts (the unconnected to the mainland part of Wa)? I always thought that place could give rise to some quirky musings.

Yes I have. Point Bob is a weird little place, and you're right, it would definitely be an interesting setting. I don't quite get why anyone would live there. I'm also interested on how it is supplied, how the mail arrives, etc. Does it all get trucked 30 minutes from the border through Canada and back into the States? Seems wrong. Shipped in, maybe? but there isn't much of a port there. And I wonder how much it costs the US to keep this place going? What is the point? (sorry, the 49th parallel isn't a good enough reason, since that rule doesn't give the Gulf Islands and the bottom of Vancouver Island to the US.) The whole thing is very strange indeed!

edited to add map showing what we're talking about. Point Roberts is the red circle. The grey line is the Canada-US border.

Oh that's very interesting! Now you have me wondering about all those logistical questions too!

I visited Point Roberts with my family once when we took a trip to Vancouver and I think someone there told us that the kids had to cross two borders every day for school on the U.S. mainland. Now I'm wondering about the mail and costs as well.

50. The Summer Book, Tove Jansson, 1972, translated from Swedish by Thomas Teal


Pleasing cover of an island that looks like the descriptions in the book. Not artistically exciting, and I've never seen a sky quite that shade of blue before, but still very attractive.

Comments: This is what I call a quiet book. No plot to speak of, just a collection of short vignettes about the lives of Sophia and her grandmother during summers spent on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. Charming, with beautiful descriptions and humorous dialogue. My cover has a blurb by Philip Pullman: "This is a marvellous, beautiful, wise novel, which is also very funny."

Why I Read This Now: I loved Jansson's Moomin series as a child, so when I heard she also wrote adult books, I knew I had to read one. The Summer Book is on the 1001 books list, so it was an obvious first choice, although one day I will read A Winter Book too.

Rating: 3.5 stars--it was a bit too meandering for me to truly love it, but I expect to reread it at some point in the future and may up my rating.

Recommended for: people who like gentle, quiet books and don't need a plot.

One more comment: last night I looked up the islands of the Gulf of Finland on a map and was surprised that the Gulf of Finland wasn't where I thought it was--it's the water that separates Finland from Estonia, which I thought was just called the Baltic Sea. I thought the Gulf of Finland separated Finland from Sweden, which in turn is in fact the Baltic Sea. That's why I love reading--I learn something new all the time.

Have you read Sarah Orne Jewett? I was wondering how The Summer Book compared to The Country of the Pointed Firs.

Robert

#201 - I'm not familiar with that author or book, so I'll be on the lookout for them.

I'll be on the lookout for The Summer Book.

Robert

Tove Jansson's adult books are wonderful -- she's so in tune with the possibilities of aging and intergenerational relationships -- you really should check out The True Deceiver and Sun City -- they're the most novelistic of her books.

Fantastic description of Border Songs. You have me itching to read it right away.

Loved The True Deceiver; Fair Play, not so much.

Border Songs sounds just like the book I would like to read right now. Thanks for reminding me. Right now, when I'm particularly needing a particular type of book, it reminds me of how much we readers bring to a book.

I remember getting The Summer Book from an acquaintance; she thought it was one of the best books she had ever read while I thought more along the lines that you did. It's been fun catching up with your comments. My son, a resident of NYC, will like reading When the Astors Owned New York, so I'll have to buy it for him, but I'll read it first.

Hi, Bonnie - long time, no see! Welcome back! I think you'll really like Border Songs. The author is from Olympia, so it has that close-to-home niceness.

51. A Writer's Diary, Virginia Woolf 1918-1941


A quintessential Virginia Woolf cover.

Comments: I've read seven of Woolf's novels, most of her short stories, and many of her essays, and she is perhaps my very favourite author. I was surprise, then, when I did not enjoy this collection of her diary entries. I'm going to blame Leonard.

Seriously. Leonard Woolf (her husband) put this together by picking her diary selections that somehow related to her writing. I think he left out all the good juicy bits. A lot of the entries were along the lines of "wrote 23 pages today," or "such-and-such book was just published and sold 2300 copies this week." Also, when she did talk about other stuff, it was so out of context that I didn't know what it was really all about. The most interesting part was during WWII where she is watching the bombs fall on England.

Why I Read This Now: Woolf's diaries come highly recommended. It's taken me at least six months to get through it.

Recommended for: I guess Woolf fans, although I am one and didn't like it.

Rating: 2.5 stars. I was going to give it 2, but added half a star for the bombs near the end.

It's that time again . . . I'm moving to a shiny new thread. I hope you can join me ..... http://www.librarything.com/topic/141913