What are you reading in AUGUST?

Quick read: Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart. Very pleasant, mild mystery amid cups of tea, kindly neighbors, a pet cat, and a good deal of horticultural activity.

Now on Diane Johnson's Lulu in Marrakech. Previously read four of her novels about modern American ex-pats and loved them, but this one is slow going.

Still reading Sisters of fortune, non-fiction about the Caton sisters of Maryland and their lives in London and elsewhere in the early - mid C19th. It's fascinating, and manages to be both scholarly and readable.

I am reading Life as we knew it, which I cannot put down.

Saraband for AV/AA.

>3 livrecache:: That book had the same effect on me too!

What is AV/AA? (Must be my age and illiteracy showing, but all's I could think of was audio-visual and Alcoholics Anonymous ...)

>6 nohrt4me2:: All Virago All August. Some of us in the Virago Modern Classics group are reading all or mostly books published by Virago this month. There is a dedicated thread on the group page if you're curious . . . and anyone is welcome to join :-)

6,7>> Oops, sorry nohrt4me2, and thanks for stepping in Sakerfalcon. I've been so used to using that AV/AA abbreviation lately....

Well, I've finished Life as we knew it, which I probably shouldn't have raised in this forum. It's not a 'girlyboook'; it's simply written by a female author from a female perspective. It's young adult fiction, which is a category of great interest to me, but the issues that would be raised are quite different for that market.
But, having brought it up on this thread, I'll continue. It is an unput-downable read. Despite all indications to the contrary it is not bleak (cf The Road). And I guess that, in part, is because of the market it is aimed at. I shan't say any more because of 'spoilers', but I do recommend it as a very interesting book (but it has to be read in context of its market).

I think I'll have a go at AV/AA as I have many books on my shelves that fit the category, as yet unread.

"it's simply written by a female author from a female perspective." Isn't that what we post over here? Heck, some people have even posted about books written by men.

Life as We Knew It sounds like an interesting read; do you detect in it any of the concerns Our Young People feel about the future?

I know we shouldn't generalize, but, as an aging baby boomer with a teenage son, ISTM that these kids are (except for the e-toys, of course) less materialistic, less driven to be "successes." They seem more globally oriented, and global warming troubles them deeply, similar to the way The Bomb scared the hell out of us.

I am, despite their music, coming to respect the Millennials; they have a highly tuned B.S.-o-meter, which I respect.

Not by a woman, but about a remarkable one: I just finished and reviewed Robert Massie's fascinating biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman.

Read The Small Room both despite and because of two LT friends' warnings. Curiosity got the better of me. Don't let it get you, too.

Now I'm dipping into The Portable Dorothy Parker as I take stock of the TBR pile.

#10 I'm sorry: I didn't mean to raise any hackles. I find 'Girlybooks' to be a misleading and demeaning title – somewhat akin to 'chick flicks'.

And yes, Life as We Knew It is a very good book on many levels. The author Susan Beth Pfeffer was born in 1948 so she's in the baby boomer category. I was hoping that she might have been a Millennial. However, I think she does capture well many of the fears of young people today. My kids are in their early twenties, but I shall suggest that they read it: your teenage son may well like it too. I found in it fears that are expressed by my son about the future – he constantly expresses his fears through his apocalyptic dreams. This book goes there.

Livrecache, didn't raise any hackles on me! People have talked about the "girlybooks" moniker from time to time, but it doesn't seem to prevent the group from have lots of members and being pretty active.

The book sounds interesting, but I, too, would like to see some dystopians by Millennial writers.

7sistersapphist, I find I either love or hate Sarton--hated Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, which struck me as self-conscious and artificial, but loved Miss Pickthorn and Mr. Hare and it's "curiously strong" ending!

So I have The Small Room on my wish list. Sounds interesting.

Recently finished The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton), which has gone on to my list of favourite books ever.

Recently I finished 2 books I loved and a book I hated by women. Hated a book that everyone else seems to love, Rebecca. However, it has made me regret all the demeaning things I've said about Stephanie Meyers' female characters. Little miss no-name narrator from Rebecca would be right at home in a Meyers story.
I loved Ghost Warrior by Lucia St Clair Robson whom I'd never heard of before but apparently she's an award winning historical fiction writer, and I can see why. She describes both sides in the Apache Wars of the 1800's and shows how stupid decisions by small thinking men can lead to disastrous consequences. She gives good portraits of Lozen, Victorio, Cochise, Red Sleeves and Geronimo as well as the US military men who hunted them. Most of all, her description of the ways the Apaches lived in the sweltering or freezing dessert was fascinating. Talk about a strong people! I'll read more by her.

I also finished my first Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier and was very impressed with the way she was able to show what is important in life by using characters who just verge on being stereotypes then veer away. Really well done.

Right now, for AV/AA I'm reading
Paper: Union Street by Pat Barker which is grim but very well written
Nook: The Judge by Rebecca West
Audiobook: Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty

#15 I too love The Age of Innocence. And the film was good!

#16 The wimpish narrator of Rebecca always seemed a fairly nauseating character to me. And Max is pretty lame too. I thought Mrs Danby was described well. Maybe it's a book of its time. It's opening line has always haunted me, but it doesn't live up to it.

I really must come to the defense of Miss No-Name in Rebecca. She quite decidedly takes over at the end of book. I think the parallels between her and Jane Eyre are palpable.

Also, it's Mrs. Danvers, not Danby. (Are you girls SURE you've really read this book? :-))

You might like The Scapegoat better. I have never been able to forget Bela and her bright red overcoat.

Loved Age of Innocence and anything by Wharton, but draw the line at the film. Michelle Pfeiffer might be able to play Olenska now she's got some miles on her, but she was too young and bland. Judy Davis would have been a better pick at the time.

Am reading the Edward St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels. I guess I just need a lot more downers in my life ...

Loved Age of Innocence and anything by Wharton, but draw the line at the film. Michelle Pfeiffer might be able to play Olenska now she's got some miles on her, but she was too young and bland. Judy Davis would have been a better pick at the time.

I own the film, but haven't watched it yet. I'm not a fan of Michelle Pfeiffer, and definitely not a fan of Winona Ryder or whoever it is that they have play May Welland. I agree that Judy Davis would have been excellent. I bought the film because a friend from high school is one of the dancers in the party scenes (he is a professional actor and dancer).

I'm in the middle of Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve.

Next I'll dive into Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee for my bookclub.

I'm beginning to sound like a whiner. I started the 10 CD audiobook of Delta Wedding, and after 1 1/2 CD's it had almost put me into a coma. I guess the reader is supposed to be seduced by her detailed description of southern charms. By detailed I mean on and on and on. Maybe this is one of those atmospheric books that doesn't have a plot or maybe it just takes Eudora Welty a long time to get to it. Whatever the situation, it didn't work for me. So, I've started Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey instead and am liking it much better. However, I don't believe I'll be applying for a job as governess any time soon.

#18 Sorry, Danvers Rebecca. It is some time since I read the book, and I was going on my awful memory.

In retrospect, Judy Davis may have been a better pick as Olenska for The Age of Innocence (which is pleasing to me as she's an Australian), but when I first saw the film when it first came out, I was young and impressionable. Now I'm old and cranky.

I shall guided by the books that people talk about in this forum.

Oh, the blasphemy! Mrs. de Winter is too young to be anything but an observer of the events that began before she was born. I am biased, but Rebecca has been the only du Maurier I have liked, though every once in a while I do try My Cousin Rachel.

I am rereading Middlemarch. It has been about 15 years since I first read it and I find it as pleasing if not more than I did then. I may participate in the Group Read that is going on in another thread.

I'm in the midst of Middlemarch. I read it as an undergraduate, and I liked it then, and I like it far more now.

I tried Middlemarch as a teenager, and got nowhere. I did pick up another copy through BookCrossing the other day, in hopes of maybe trying again...

After a run of some fairly bleak bloke books (but very excellent ones too, a particular shout out to Elliot Perlman's The Street Sweeper), I'm giving my battered emotions a break by introducing myself to the Vorkosigan series, starting with Cordelia's Honor, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Two pages in, and my not-so-inner space opera fangirl is satisfied. Explosions! Yay!

I would like to try Middlemarch too. I have a copy, just need some courage.

I am reading Elizabeth and her English Garden -- my second von Arnim. I enjoyed Enchanted April so I thought I would give this a try. I love the way she calls her husband "The Man of Wrath".

k4k

Middlemarch does not need courage - it's a great big soap opera, really!

When I finally got round to Middlemarch it was after watching the BBC adaptation - mid 90s? - and it did make reading it easier for me, as I usually like to have a good idea of what is going to happen in a book. I love spoilers!

I finished, loved and reviewed Union Street. Is there anything Pat Barker can't write? I also loved Agnes Grey. They both did their bit to take the taste of Rebecca out of my mind. Now I'm listening to Loitering With Intent, another winner. Muriel Spark's acerbic wit is a delight. She does know how to take charismatic leaders down a peg, doesn't she?
And to step away from Viragos for a bit, I've started Rabid by a husband wife writing team - he's a journalist, she's a veterinarian with another degree in public health. There's lots to learn about this fascinating disease which is the basis for the phrase "hair of the dog that bit you" as well as for the invention of werewolves and vampires. Another interesting point, the rabies vaccine now consists of just 4 shots in your arm, hallelujah. Hadn't we all heard of those horrible 10 or 20 shots in the abdomen? And on a different note, apparently rabies doesn't usually cause humans to bite, but it can make men hypersexual. Who knew?

I'm also planning on tackling Middlemarch after not being able to stomach it in college, and hope I'll like it better--I think there are a lot of books (Jane Austen springs to mind) that just don't mean much to "kids" and are better read when we're older and more experienced.

"I think there are a lot of books (Jane Austen springs to mind) that just don't mean much to 'kids' and are better read when we're older and more experienced."

I think that's probably true; there are different ages when books mean more to us. I didn't like Little Women until I was about 35; as a Young Person, I felt the characters were too smarmy. Once I better understood the historical context, I liked it better.

I discovered Jane Austen when I was 24, and was dealing with a varmint boyfriend like Willoughby. It was my "wake up and die right" call.

OTOH, I went through Jane Eyre the summer I was 12 or 13, could not put it down, and was desolate when it ended.

My husband I and I read Middlemarch together earlier in our marriage when we went on an extended camping trip in a remote area of Michigan. It was way better and more interesting than those dopey marriage enounter weekends we went on through the local parish.

I'm reading Natives and Exotics, by Jane Alison. I think I'm going to like it.

Blue Skies & Jack and Jill (Helen Hodgman) for AV/AA.

I've just finished another novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place, and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Just finished and reviewed Zoe Ferraris's City of Veils, her second mystery set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia -- the first was Finding Nouf -- I was so fascinated by Finding Nouf that I immediately ordered City of Veils -- both were great mystery reads, but I think I preferred the Finding Nouf. If you're at all interested in life in Saudi Arabia, these are a great introduction.

Still wading through Edward St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels, but have Patricia Highsmith's Small g: A Summer Idyll and The Price of Salt waiting in the wings

I finished Alice Hoffman's lovely Seventh Heaven set in a 1950's Stepford community of apple pie baking stay at home moms and fathers who are the kings of their castles a divorcee with two young boys buys a falling down house and changes the community. The first thing she does when they move in is to bake a batch of cookies. Can you imagine that being your first step on moving in to a new house, before you unpack anything else? Nora's quite the renegade.
Now I'm back to Southern crazy with Sights Unseen. If you have to be bi-polar life is easier if you marry into the Barnes family and manage to captivate the patriarch. Of course, life isn't too easy for anyone else who has to relate to him. And to add on to the southern crazy schtick, I'm also dipping into Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor. I've started State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and am liking what I've read so far, and am about 2/3 of the way through The Judge by Rebecca West. What a genius she has for writing characters.

I've momentarily put aside the obscure Natives and Exotics (by Jane Alison) to read Roma Tearne's latest, the even more obscure Road to Urbino. I'm about a third of the way through and finding it very, very different from Roma's earlier novels. The story is interesting, but I'm having problems getting comfortable with the voice. Oh well, it's good to see an author stretch and try new things.

#37 - and am about 2/3 of the way through The Judge by Rebecca West. What a genius she has for writing characters. I'm not sure I've even heard of that one! Her Return of the Soldier is one of my all-time favourites, but I haven't read anything else she's written. Good to know that she has more than one good book in her!

I finished Sights Unseen. Kaye Gibbons does a great job describing bi-polar illness and its affects on the family and also the South's sort of feudal view of life in the 1950's and 60's.

Just flew through Road to Urbino, by Roma Tearne, which is loved. I've read all five of her books, and think she's terrific. Possibly my favourite living writer (aside from the Greats, like Margaret Atwood).

Reading The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani and finding myself pretty disappointed so far. I really love her Valentine books, and was hoping for something more along those lines. To me this book is lacking much of the humor and charm of Trigiani's typical books. I think the epic plotline, which spans such a long period and covers two characters who for much of the book aren't together, meant other aspects of the book are suffered. I keep plodding onward and will finish it, but I think it will end up among my least favorite Trigiani novels.

I'm reading Emma by Jane Austen.

I've just read The stone angel, which I thought was excellent. Hagar is a basically unlikeable, yet fascinating character, and her battle to retain her independence in the face of aging and declining health is compelling. A great book.

I finished State of Wonder for my RL book club today. There are so many ways the story couldn't really happen, but it was a great read anyway. The idea that people have discovered a substance that allows women to remain fertile throughout their entire life span lead to a great discussion. On the one hand doing away with that ticking biological clock would be great, on the other hand - having a baby at the age of 70 would not be a fate to be desired.
Now I start on what I hear is quite a controversial book, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I don't even know what it's about, so I'm interested to see what I think of this controversy.

I finished The Judge and found it fascinating. One needs to wade through way too much environmental description but the reward is a fascinating psychological and sociological study. Worth the effort.
I'm about half way through Gone Girl and so far can't find what makes it so controversial. The writing is witty and the charactyers believable. Nick, the main male character is a self centered jerk who doesn't seem to have a very high opinion of women - well, we all know that's a realistic character. Amy, the main female character, is judgemental, intelligent, and insecure and also doesn't have a very high opinion of women. Again, not all that unusual. Margo the sister is Nick's best dude, also without much praise for women. All of these characters seem realistic to me, as do the circumstances. Maybe the controversial part comes later. It does keep me reading.

I've finished my third Dorothy B. Hughes, The Blackbirder, a wartime thriller that was not in the same class as the other books by her I've read but that was an enjoyable and exciting read.

I am reading Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf. Not sure what to think of it so far. I am only 20% though the book, so it may be early. So far it it seems like the life of a confused individual, resulting in an equally confused reader. I started reading it after someone highly recommended the movie, which I have not yet seen. Let's see how the book goes.

k4k

#47 - I loved, loved, loved both the book and film versions of Orlando. The book did take me about five attempts before I got into it though.

Good to know! I will keep at it.

Thanks.

47>> I was just as confused as you seem to be, both by the book and the movie (which I watched for Tilda Swinton). It's been an awfully long time for both, though, so I ought to give at least the book another go.

I read Orlando in my mid-20s after A Room of One's Own, which I loved. I'm pulling out a memory that's nearly 40 years old, but I expected a less subtle, more forthright examination of gender. I was deeply disappointed that it wasn't more in line with 1970s feminism, but maybe I'd like it now.

I love A Room of One's Own too. I'll see how this goes.

I finished and reviewed Gone Girl in 2 days because I couldn't put it down. Someone whose opinion I respect hated it because he found it anti-man, I think a much stronger case could be made that it's anti-woman, but it's so well written I was able to put that aside. I'm a little embarrassed by that fact but I flat out just enjoyed letting Gillian Flynn manipulate me.
Now I'm on to Minding Frankie in honor of Maeve Binchy's recent death. I haven't read anything by her for years, but it seems time.

I've finished and reviewed the playful and perceptive Moving Parts by Magdalena Tulli.

Finished Miss Peabody's Inheritance while waiting (and waiting and waiting) to do jury duty.

>55 7sistersapphist:: I read that earlier this year and really enjoyed it. What did you think of it?

I'm a little way into Froi of the Exiles, the second in a YA series. I really enjoyed the first (a great parallel for the current crisis of refugees), but am finding this one less successful. Still, unless it goes completely off the rails, I'll probably continue on with the third.

>56 Sakerfalcon:: I enjoyed it, too. Loopy fun.

I finished a refreshing Maeve Binchy, Minding Frankie. Her stuff is always pleasant. Now, as Monty Python says, for something completely different, I'm on to another Pat Barker, Blow Your House Down about prostitutes and a serial killer. That's about as far from Binchy as you can get, isn't it? I've also started a Booker prize nominee, Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. I don't know anything about it, so I'm waiting to be amazed.

I'm reading Anna Karenina by a man, but about girl/woman. I read it a million years ago as an undergraduate, and I'm surprised how much has stayed with me. But this time I am making connections that I didn't then.

#60 I had a completely different view of Anna Karenina, the book and the woman, when I read it in my late 40s as compared to when I read it as a teenager.

I'm reading the Summer Book by Tove Jansson because, well, it's summer.

Blow Your House Down was an excellent examination of prostitution, what it is, why women engage in it, why all women may be thought to be one. Pat Barker has my nomination for the Nobel Prize.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a perfect little book about aging, memory, alienation and connection. Well done, Rachel Joyce.
I tried Diary of a Provincial Lady and had to abandon it. The woman was just too irritating. Now I'm reading my first Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel, and am loving her style.

Secret River by Kate Grenville. Entertaining page-turner, but I guess I will never truly appreciate historical fiction. Every hxfx I've ever read, from Dunant to Gregory to Penman to Chevalier seems just slightly contrived or self-conscious. For instance, there's always some intrusive little observation historical fiction writers seem compelled to make reminding the reader about the lack of dentistry, hygiene, birth control, or how much faster women got old looking. Even as the writers are trying to recreate the past for us, they're putting up barriers between Then and Now.

Maybe that's the point and it's just my personal problem.

Anyhow, seems kind of mundane after having read Idea of Perfection many years ago, an utterly brilliant novel about some unattractive middle-aged people, a bridge, a dog, and a quilt.

>63 Citizenjoyce:: I just read and loved The stone angel. One of the clearest depictions of aging that I've come across.

Having just finished The vet's daughter (excellent), I'm now reading Pirates at play.

Just started reading A Winter's Tale by Tricia Ashley, my wife recommended this to me as she thought i would like it, i tend to read most of the books my wife reads whereas she reads very little of the books i read first so consequently my reading pile just grows and grows, nothing to do with all the books i purchase,lol.

64 - I just read Sarah Thornhill by Grenville which, apparently, is the sequel to Secret River. I read and liked Idea of Perfection (although I will admit that I wasn't hooked when I first started) so I figured I would try another. I wasn't as enamoured with this one.

The characters in "Perfection" have to grow on you, but I think it's an almost perfect novel structurally and symbolically. Everything connects with everything else and underscores the celebration of the kind of serviceable, rough, plainness that underpins human existence.

I can see echoes of that in "River." It's a good novel, and if I were an Australian, I might forgive it for not being the great novel "Perfection" was.

They really do don't they? At first I thought, man these people are ordinary. And then it slowly dawned on me that that was the point. They are meant to be ordinary. That was rather the point of the novel. Once I came to that realisation (it takes me awhile sometimes!), everything clicked and I enjoyed it more.

Oh, Idea of Perfection was a marvellous book. I also adored The Secret River, but that's because it was an eye-opener about Australian history. Far less impressed with Sarah Thornhill.

I finished Froi of the Exiles. It was a rather messy book, which was a great shame, because the first in the series (Finnikin of the Rock) was a excellent book, IMO. This one was all over the shop, characters kept on doing unexpected things, stuff was never really explained well, and then it ended on a cliffhanger or five. Not happy.

But still, the story was compelling (if I was rather bewildered all the way through) and I'm hoping it was just me being in a bad headspace this week, and the next book will be better.

Have picked up Beryl Bainbridge's An Awfully Big Adventure, a nice slim volume, that hopefully will be a more satisfying read. My first Bainbridge!

For book club reading This Must be the Place by Kate Racculia, so far a charming novel that begins with the sudden death of Arthur Rook's wife Amy. In his grief, Arthur ransacks their apartment, finding a shoebox that was always out in the open but which he's never looked in, where he finds an old postcard that Amy never sent. Chasing the message on the card leads him to Amy's hometown, her childhood friend Mona, and Mona's daughter Oneida.

Wookie, there's a movie version of "Big Adventure." I need to read the novella.

Yes, I have vague memories of a movie adaptation of An Awfully Big Adventure. It's probably why the title jumped out at me as a book, not just as a great Peter Pan quote. If you understand. :)

Enjoying the book muchly, very British, nice amount of snark. I may have to pick up some more of her books at some stage...

I don't have just vague memories of the movie. It was a favorite of one of my dear departed girlfriends b/c it had both Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman in it. Grant is so good at playing a shit.

I finished and reviewed The Heart of the Matter which ended up being disappointing. I'm about half way through The Stone Angel and, while I love the style and the discussion of aging, I'm having trouble with Hagar's being a fat 90 year old with a great appetite for food. I've never met such a person, and I worked in a nursing home for several years. If she wanted to keep the appetite she should have made her 70 or 75, though I can see that making her 90 works for her mental state and physical frailty. I understand making her fat added to the inconvenience of her daughter in law, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

Finished up This Must Be the Place, which I'd classify as up-market women's fiction--I enjoyed it a lot, but imagine it would be too quirky or precious for some. Moved onto Deborah Rodriguez's memoir Kabul Beauty School, which I'm finding interesting though I'm taking the particulars with a grain of salt--even in the book the author's own decision-making skills and personality seem a bit "off" and online searches drudge up some doubts about the details.

Moved onto Deborah Rodriguez's memoir Kabul Beauty School, which I'm finding interesting though I'm taking the particulars with a grain of salt--even in the book the author's own decision-making skills and personality seem a bit "off" and online searches drudge up some doubts about the details.

Indeed! I had huge problems with the author's credibility. Either she was not telling the truth, or she was rather stupid, or perhaps both. And definitely culturally insensitive. To the point of endangering others, again and again. I so disliked her!

#77 I'm guessing it's one of those books that's compromised by the author's 1) memory 2) ego 3) lack of strong cultural sensitivity and, perhaps, lack of a stunning intellect (both things you mentioned) and 4) self-interest. I'm reading onward, though, in the hope that there is valuable information in between the lines. I do think it's an intriguing concept that beauty schools and beauty parlors would serve as havens for women, places where they can collect, and places that allow them relative economic prosperity and even independence in a place and time where those things are especially hard to come by.

I'm reading onward, though, in the hope that there is valuable information in between the lines.

Yes, I agree that there is something between the lines in the Kabul Beauty School. I looked up the comments I wrote when I read it in 2010. Although my memories of the book are negative, at the time I wrote a much more favourable review:

"My friend that put this book in my hands is a passionate reader of all things about Afghanistan, and even she gave this book a so-so recommendation. I really had no interest in reading it. Beauty school? Who cares?

Well, it turns out that beauty under the burqa is a very important thing in Afghanistan. The narrator travels to Kabul as an aid worker and soon finds herself teaching young women to apply makeup and style hair. With these skills they can then find some of the only jobs available to women in their culture, and in making their own money, empower themselves. Thus, it isn't only aid from doctors, nurses, and engineers that this country needs.

There were many interesting vignettes about daily life for women in Afghanistan in this book. Unfortunately, I didn't like the narrator. I think she's supposed to come off as plucky and gutsy, but I found her annoying, foolish and a bit of a twit. "

The discussion about volunteers in foreign lands reminds me of the very good Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding (not coming up as a touchstone). Fiction but draws on Fielding's experience in the world of P.R. Much grittier than her Bridgette Jones diaries.

#80 - I'll look out for that one. Thanks!

I finished and reviewed my last girlybook for August, The Stone Angel. That Hagar, what a piece of work. I've seen a few people die, and some of the very worst had the very best deaths. Hagar was pretty much not a friend to anyone, even herself, but Margaret Laurence showed her aging in a very believable fashion. They say we're going to understand it all once we're dead. Well, I don't think that's true, but Hagar figured out some pretty important things along the way.