What Are You Reading in JUNE?

I just finished the puzzling Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir, which I didn't like as much as others did.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon recommended by someone on here a month or so back. Good solid Victorian mystery. I've been reading my husband's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" at the same time, which has called up rather vivid steampunk images as I work through the story.

I don't think Braddon has quite Wilkie Collins' eye for character and quirks, but I like the emerging duel of wits between quick little Lady Audley and her "lymphatic" nephew by marriage, Robert.

I read Lady Audley's Secret a few years ago at university and had a lot of fun with it. But it stood out as not as well written as the other books we read during the course.

My book club is finally reading Room, and I'm about 30 pages in. Not sure what I think yet. I was told that it was a quick read, but so far I find I have to stop and think about what the young narrator is saying and translate it into real life words. Being raised in a room with one person and TV limits your vocabulary? It wouldn't with my child.

I'm about to start Elizabeth Taylor's Sleeping Beauty for the Virago Group read, and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Just finished Elizabeth Taylor's Angel (5*****) from a bunch of the old green and black Viragos all in pretty nice condition that I snaqgged from a couple used bookstores (House of Our Own and The Title Page), so I may go on to another couple or so in between other reading.

Haven't been reading many girly books lately, although I am just now working on two collections of Sylvia Plath's poetry Winter Trees and The Colossus.

Just began for book club You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know by Heather Sellers, a woman with a neurological condition that makes her face blind. I'm only about 80 pages in, and right now it's reading more in the vein of The Glass Castle, with memories about her obviously unbalanced parents from her youth, memories that are brought out when she takes her future husband and his sons to meet them. Her face blindness plays a part, but it's unclear yet in the story if she's aware of her condition.

I am reading and enjoying Robert K. Massie's Catherine the Great.

I'm just a few chapters in to Gillespie and I by Jane Harris... Very good thus far!

Oh, such good books being read by everyone so far. You Don't Look Like Anyone I know was one of my favorite books last year. I think Gillespie and I should have been on the Orange Short List, but didn't make it past the long list, and I thought Lady Audley's Secret was every bit as good as anything by Wilkie Collins.
Right now I'm reading three very different books by women: Drift by Rachel Maddow which illuminates how the ability to declare war has drifted from congress to the president; Binocular Vision, superb short stories by Edith Pearlman which are so superb that I can't read more than one or two a day because I have to leave time to wonder over her constructs; and Deadlocked which I'm zipping through because I can't get enough Sookie Stackhouse.

After letting it languish far too long on Mount TBR I've finally got round to So Much for That by Lionel Shriver, a brave and unflinching novel about cancer, and I'm amazed to find myself enjoying it so much (if 'enjoying' is quite the right word). To my mind, Shriver is one of the great writers of this age although for a long time everything I picked up just paled into insignificance alongside We Need to Talk About Kevin: at last I'm able to value these books in the way they deserve without making odious comparisons.

And in the gaps between I'm also still dipping in and out of Harps and Harpists and The Portable Dorothy Parker so a thoroughly girly week all round.

I finished and enjoyed Wolf Hall, despite finding Mantel's way of always referring to Cromwell as "he" very irritating. Despite this annoyance and knowing the fates of the characters, I'm looking forward to finding the sequel at the library.

Now I've started The semi-attached couple and the semi-detached house, which have been recommended by several people as good follow-up reads to The little Ottleys.

Mmmmmm, Dorothy Parker!

I plan to save the Lionel Shrivers for winter time. I find summer depressing, and I need the buck-up astringency of a Michigan winter to get through what I think is coming from her.

Am finishing Lady Audley's Secret, then on to Pedra Canga and a new release, and Sister Noon and The Autograph Man coming in via Bookmooch. That should get me through June. But Sakerfalcon is making "The semi-attached couple etc." sound mighty interesting!

>13 nohrt4me2:: I've only just begun it, so haven't yet got much of a taste yet, but I'll let you know how it compares to the Ottleys.

Currently reading, back and forth between them, Six Plays by Lillian Hellman (so far, The Children's Hour and Days to Come, and I'll be getting to The Little Foxes next) and Hellman's Pentimento (so far, the first three chapters, up through "Julia," but I don't want to go on to the "Theater" chapter until I've finished the plays). I'd been meaning to get around to Hellman for some time now (I know The Children's Hour from years ago but need a re-read, and of course I've seen the Fonda-Redgrave Julia movie), but I was prompted to do so by the new biography, A Difficult Woman, that I'm holding off on until I've finished Six Plays and Pentimento.

nohrt4me2, I loved Sister Noon, in fact I love all of Karen Joy Fowler's historical fiction. The modern day stuff just doesn't grab me.

#13 You definitely need to save So Much for That for a time when you're feeling mentally strong - relentlessly heart-breaking yet with a surprising number of real laughs too.

11: While looking up something else entirely, I came across this little piece at NPR re Dorothy Parker's gravesite in Baltimore at the NAACP headquarters.

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/07/154148811/how-dorothy-parker-came-to-rest-in-balti...

>18 nohrt4me2: So Dorothy Parker continues to amaze us even after her end.

I finished Rachel Maddow's Drift. It does leave one in fear of all those old nukes sitting around rusting, molding, accidentally being dropped on various places and either exploding or being lost. Pretty scary stuff. Now I've started She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror. The introduction is by a man, but many of the stories are by women, one of them by Catherynne Valente. They're retelling biblical stories with one retelling of Gilgamesh which I might recognize after reading the novel a few months ago. Wither Thou Goest by Gerri Leen is a creepy retelling of the story of Naomi and Ruth in which love and devotion is certainly not the central emotion. After being so impressed by Artemisia Gentileschi's portrait of Judith and Holofernes, I can't wait to read the story by Romie Stott.

20>> I just downloaded She Nailed a Stake Through His Head to my Kindle. Thanks for mentioning it, because I really like those re-tellings of myth and the other classic stories. I don't know if I would have otherwise, but considering that in e-format it's a freebie.... Fairly interesting so far, and I'm just about to start on the Catherynne Valente story.

The Catherynne Valente story is kind of a poetic short version of Palimpsest in which sex and language help people form connections. It makes me wish I were more familiar with Gilgamesh and the stories from the bible. I think all the stories would be more powerful if I had their references in my head.

22> I just finished the whole book, and overall I gave it a two-and-a-half**. I thought "Whither Thou Goest" (Ruth and Naomi) was brilliant, "Babylon's Burning" (Daniel) quite clever, "As if Favorites of Their God" (Witch of Endor) rather literal but quite decent enough and maybe even better than just decent. The rest I really just found grotesque, though "Last Respects" (the eucharist) had at least an interesting grotesqueness to it, although I did see the twist wa-a-ay in advance.

My problem with Valente's take on Gilgamesh wasn't unfamiliarity with the original myth but just that the style didn't make a whole lot of sense, but maybe if I knew Palimpsest I might have appreciated it more.

#11 I read So Much for That a few weeks ago. I must admit I started it with much trepidation, as I'd been totally freaked out by We Need to Talk about Kevin. I couldn't even talk about that book. (I'm still procrastinating about watching the film.) However, getting back to So Much for That. It was an unflinching look at cancer, and at people's (unfulfilled) dreams, and their coping mechanisms in in the face of adversity. I do agree that Shrivner is a very interesting author, and I shall seek out more of her titles. Any recommendations?

Finished You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know and loved it--quite excited to discuss it with my book club. Started A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton.

Just finished Six Plays by Lillian Hellman and Pentimento and in the near future I'm going to get to the new biography, A Difficult Woman, but for the moment I think I'm going to get started on Harriet Martineau's Deerbrook.

CurrerBell, let us now how you liked "A Difficult Woman." I've been thinking about ordering that from the liberry.

I've finished The semi-attached couple and the semi-detached house, which were two wonderful little novels. I couldn't stop smiling as I read the last 2 or 3 chapters of House. I agree with those who say that these are books to read when you wish Jane Austen had written more novels. They share her sharply observant, rather satirical, view of society and are filled with characters you will love or loathe.

The semi-attached couple focuses on Helen and Teviot, newly married after just 2 months of courtship. Helen is very young and still strongly attached to her family, something Teviot cannot understand. Naturally, misunderstandings occur, and matters are not helped by crowds of "friends" and visitors, including the ghastly Lady Portmore. I thought the introduction in my edition took too harsh a view of Mrs Douglas, who despite being jealous and critical does have good in her.

The semi-detached house follows a few months in the lives of Blanche and her sister Aileen, and their next-door neighbours the Hopkinsons. The Hopkinsons are not of the same social class as most of the other characters, but their warm-heartedness and sincerity is shown to be more important than money and titles. Several courtships take place, some villainous types get their come-uppance, and all ends happily.

I was recommended these as companion reads to The little Ottleys, and I agree that the two go very well together : despite being written ~150 years apart, some things never change!

OK, I just got a deal on a used copy of "semi-attached/detached." After the Ottleys, I will now read anything you tell me to. :-)

Anyone read Gillespie and I by Jane Harris? A friend recommended it, and it was another deal, so I got that, too.

Recently re-read Slaughterhouse-Five after The Nation published a nice look-back story about Vonnegut. I found it much more touching 40-odd years after reading it the first time. It was just another anti-war book back then. Now it seems to be about aging and suffering and loss.

Between books am slogging through The Satanic Verses. I really am not sure what this book is about, but it's so charmingly written and changes directions so often, that I feel I can pick it up any time and be entertained by it anyway. Unlike anything by Nabokov.

>29 nohrt4me2:: I think I'm the only person on LT who didn't like Gillespie and I. Everyone else around here seems to LOVE that book, so the good news is you're likely to enjoy it and think I'm nuts for failing to fall in love with it.

I'm nearing the end of The Snow Child. Unless the end ruins it for me, I'm with the vast majority on this one. What a wonderful novel! I'm already looking forward to recommending it to friends and family and random acquaintances.

(edited to fix touchstone)

Count me as one of the Gillespie and I lovers. It's a great book best read knowing nothing about it.
I finished Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff for my RL book club today. It was quite a revelation. All I knew about Cleopatra was that she was the beautiful, seductive mistress of powerful men - which is pretty much the line since Cicero. Schiff shows she wasn't all that beautiful but her "seduction" of Caesar and Mark Anthony was probably due to her intelligence, education, extreme political nature and vast power and wealth. In her time she was one of the most powerful people in the world, at a time when women outside of Egypt were still property of their husbands. It is a book well worth reading.
Now, having loved Fun Home by Alison Bechdel I've started her new book about her mother Are You My Mother?. I've heard differing views, but so far I'm liking it very much.

#29 I'm another one who loved Gillespie and I. I wasn't crazy about Harris's (The Observations and just picked up Gillespie on impulse but I'm very glad I did; one of my favourite books of the year so far - only nudged very slightly down the list by my current read The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue.

Oh dear! I seem to be the only one on the planet who is not enjoying The Chaperone. I'm not sure I am even going to continue reading. Are there others out there like me?

The Sealed Letter was an absolute joy and it's whetted my appetite for novels based on true stories so I've moved on to another pf these - The Finest Type of English Womanhood by Rachel Heath.

Booksloth, have you read Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. That's based on a true story about a woman convicted of murder; did she or didn't she? One of my favorites.

"Letter" sounds interesting!

Now on Autograph Man by Zadie Smith. Like it so far. "Satanic Verses" lies dormant. Again.

#35 Yes, I read it many years ago - it's the kind of book I love and one of my favourite Atwoods. Incidentally, if you enjoyed that one, my absolute favourite of the genre, though I haven't reread it for a long time (and maybe it's time I did), is The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer.

I'm also very much enjoying The Finest Type of English Womanhood, set against a backdrop of racial unrest in 1940s South Africa: it's another one that concentrates heavily on the friendship between two women as it details the events leading up to a true murder of the time.

>29 nohrt4me2:: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I will feel responsible if you don't!

Add me to the list of Gillespie and I fans! It is definitely worth a read in my book!! :)

I just finished and reviewed The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death by Jill Lepore, a witty and thought provoking series of interconnected essays by one of my favorite writers.

And now I've just finished and reviewed the mystifying but gorgeously written Dreams and Stones by Magdalena Tulli.

Finished The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith. I think this came between "White Teeth" and "On Beauty."

Disappointing, but even when she's bad she's interesting. Kept thinking it would make a better movie with some of the kabbalistic nonsense pared out of it. Given her penchant for multi-cultural characters, would be a good vehicle for new Brit talent.

Review posted.

Now on to the much vaunted Gillespie and I.

I listened to an audiobook of Sing You Home and was impressed with the way Jodi Picoult was able to show both "sides" of the issue of homosexuality, gay marriage and gay adoption (as if there could be a "side" other than human rights). I'm not sure why she had to make Zoe, the main character so unbelievably naive. I guess it was just a mechanism to allow plot progression. It's well worth reading, naivete aside. Now I've started on a Teaching Course Old Testament CDs by Amy-Jill Levine. What a pity in this day and age, as evidenced by the religious right's continuing attempt to limit human rights, that the fascinating stories of this old document can be perverted right out of any ability to entertain and enlighten.

Oh, I forgot to add that I also read Alison Bechdel's book about her mother, Are You My Mother?. I think some people don't like it as much as her other books because there a complete lack of humor. She uses her cartoons to explore her relationship with her mother, psychoanalysis, child psychology, Virginia Woolfe, the demise of her comic strip due to decreasing newspaper circulation, and her continuing struggle to support herself through her art. It's a very serious, interesting book but it kind of makes me worry about her state of mind right now.

Oops. posted in the wrong thread.

I just finished on Kindle Florence Fenwick Miller's biography of Harriet Martineau. Reasonably decent, give it 3***, though definitely dated and written in a rather florid late-Victorian style. Still, a good prep before I get on to Deborah Anna Logan's The Hour and the Woman.

I'm reading quite a silly and trashy novel called Bindis and Brides which is just what I needed over a brutal weekend of work. About to start The Secret Olympian which is being promoted up the TBR to get it read before the Olympics but not getting in the way of our Month Of Rereading In July.

#37 Interesting that you put Alias Grace and The Madness of a Seduced Woman is the same post. Both books fall neatly together in my mind, although they are quite different. Atwood is among my favorite authors, but I've never read anything else by the other.

Am nearing the end of Arcadia by Lauren Groff. It's good, but I'm not enamoured of the prose, probably because as a rule I don't like present-tense narrative. (Margaret Atwood is one of the few authors who uses it well, IMO.) In Arcadia, I can't see the point of telling the story in present tense; it adds nothing. But I do like the story and the commune setting, and the characters are interesting if a bit cliched.

So far enjoying Gillespie and I, about 200 pages in.

I was reading a guy book about a woman Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow but put it aside for a bit. I'm certainly not a religious person, but the snarky attitude was getting to me. It's kind of like reading The Onion. I like the satire but not the mixture of adolescent boy that goes with it. So I've started Half Blood Blues which was short listed for this year's Orange Prize, and I'll get back to the other when I'm done. Half Blood is a book by a woman but about men, jazz musicians in WWII.

I am reading Through These Veins. OK, not yet great, but I can see the important themes taking shape: rape of the planet, enriching lives in the west while leaving those who do the real work to starve etc. I am hoping to like it.

#52 - Joyce I hope you love Half Blood Blues as much as I did!

I just finished reading my first book by Maeve Binchy, Evening Class. I really enjoyed how she told the story from each character's viewpoint independently. Quite a good one! I will have to read more of her work in the future!

Finished Gillespie and I.

It's almost impossible to talk about this book without spoilers, but I found it odd and a little unsettling that the the main character, Harriet, makes the point that "spinsters" in the 1880s were unfairly viewed as frustrated and unstable ... and the book goes on to be of the "twisted spinster" variety.

Or maybe not; I suppose there are alternate ways of interpreting what really happens in the book. I enjoyed the way Harris weaves that ambiguity.

I thought Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal would make an interesting companion read. Or, really, anything about Lizzie Borden.

Now on to Sister Noon.

#54 Maeve Binchy I love her writing when I need a cosy, gossipy read, that's well plotted and has good characterisation. And I love the Irish-ness of it all.

#56 - I haven't read Maeve Binchy for years, but I agree completely with what you wrote!

#56 and #57 - which Binchy should I read next after the Evening Class hit so well for me??

I just had a look at her site and I found that I've actually read very few of them. The Glass Lake is the first I read and really liked. The Scarlet Feather and Quentins are quite good too. They have overlapping characters, which is a nice device, getting different perspectives of the same people who just hover on the outskirts of the protagonists' lives.
I've also read The Copper Beech, but a long time ago, and I don't remember much about it.
I read them with longs gaps in between. I expect that if you read them one after the other, they'd take on a sameness. I do think Evening Class is probably one of her best. I'll be interested to hear what you think if you go on to reading others.

New month, new thread for JULY.