March 2019 - Downtown

This month we're reading books set in the cities of the world. Fiction and nonfiction books are welcome and feel free to choose books taking place in the ancient past up to the almost, but not quite, present. Many, many books fall into this category, but here are a few ideas to get you started. Enjoy!

Fiction

Christie, Agatha. At Bertram's Hotel
Cisneros, Sandra. House on Mango Street
Hammett, Dashiell. Maltese Falcon
Henry, O. The Four Million (short stories)
Kaufman, Bel. Up the Down Staircase
Maupin, Armistead. Tales of the City (interlinked short stories)
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle
Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Stout, Rex. Fer-de-Lance
Wolfe, Tom. Bonfire of the Vanities
Wright, Richard. Native Son

Non-Fiction

Ackroyd, Peter. London: the Biography
Hanff, Helene. 84 Charing Cross Road
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City
Leadon, Fran. Broadway: A History of New York in 13 Miles
Macaulay, David. City:A Story of Roman Planning and Construction

Children's Books

Burton, Virginia Lee. The Little House
Keats, Ezra Jack. The Snowy Day
Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind Family

Great theme!

My chance to finally get to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I recently finished When Books Went to War, which mentioned that Betty Smith's book was one of the most requested titles. I determined to make sure to read it this year. So - thank you!

I've got a few I'm looking at:

Almost certainly, the two Library of America volumes of Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe, LA)

Probably Mary Ellen Chase (a major Maine author), A Journey to Boston
Probably Hariette Arnow, The Dollmaker (WW2 Detroit)

Maybe Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories and the City

I also want to do a through read/reread of James Joyce this year, but I don't know that it's going to fit conveniently into the month of March.

I am planning on reading about San Francisco with Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin.

Not sure about this one, but I know I have a book I've been meaning to read about the Chicago fire.

My reading for this topic will probably center on Philadelphia. I'm planning to reread one of my favorite children's books, Thee, Hannah by Margaret De Angeli about a young Quaker girl growing up in pre-Civil War Philadelphia. I might also read Still Philadelphia: a Photographic History, 1890-1940 {edited} by Fredric M. Miller, Morris J. Vogel, and Allen F. Davis. I also have a pictorial history of Charlottesville, VA, Holsinger's Charlottesville: a Collection of Photographs by Rufus W. Holsinger {edited by} Cecile Wendover Clover and F.T. Heblich, Jr., covering the late 1880s through early 1920s but Charlottesville might not really be considered a city, especially then.

I will be reading The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino. I hope to read more, just haven't decided yet.

Finished a bit ahead: So Big by Edna Ferber. Written in 1924 and set in turn of the century Chicagoland, the novel journeys from immigrant farmers, to the downtown markets, to the Stockyards, up Michigan Avenue and beyond into wealthy Lake Forest. Ferber had a great feel for this town, from South Side to North Side.

wow, that sounds really fascinating, esp since it was written in the 1920a (I have a thing for that time period). Found out that she suffered horrible abuse as a child due to anti semitism. This book won the pulizer prize that year. She is the author of Showboat, and Giant as well, and she was part of the Algonquin Round Table. In her memior spoke of the terrors of Hitler. Died in 1982 (and a bit of karma - her anti semetic home town named the elementary school for her in 1971) Thanks for the suggestion!

Great news: I spent 3 hours today re-arranging 2 bookshelves that were double stacked and they are no longer double stacked (although 6 books are at my bedside). Bad news: I can't find my Chicago -fire book for this month's read. I do have 3 others that will work: The Paris Wife, In the Garden of the Beasts (Berlin), and Alone in Berlin. They all sound good so a coin toss? On a side note, I was able to clear out 9 oversized books that I had also in ebook or audiobook form. Off to the friends of the library these chunksters go!

>10 cindydavid4: So Big was for my RL book club, and we had a fantastic discussion today! I especially enjoyed the novel because there were so many references to people and places that are familiar to me as a life-long Chicagoan. And my grandparents were born about the same time as the character "So Big", which made it very relevant for me.

>11 Tess_W: Do you have the name of the Chicago Fire book? I might want to check it out.

>13 kac522: the one I was trying to locate was The Great Fire by Jim Murphy. But I've also read The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America which is about the Chicago World's Fair and a serial killer--all in one! Very good!

I have added So Big to my list for this month. I’d forgotten all about Edna Ferber. Thank you.

I just downloaded from Gutenberg Press her book of short stories, Buttered Side Down.

Need to figure this one out a bit...

Oh! One I'm reading, anyway, might fit:
1888: London Murders in the Year of the Ripper / Peter Stubley

Oooh, it occurred to me that Edward Rutherfurd has some books that would fit perfectly! The history of whatever city one chooses (London, New York, Paris...). I've just put the audio book for New York on hold.

>14 Tess_W: I've read Erik Larson's Dead Wake (about the Lusitania) and I have The Devil in White City on the TBR. Heard him speak once, too--interesting guy.

>15 marell: Actually, I only came upon her by chance in a Pulitzer Prize list (So Big won that prize in 1925). I'd only heard of her in crossword puzzles :/

I have some other "city" books around here, so I'm loving this category. I'm in the middle of The Cloister by James Carroll, which has storylines that go into two cities--Paris and New York.

>17 kac522: Edna Ferber also wrote Show Boat upon which the musical Show Boat was based. I have never read the book but have seen the movie of the musical several times and also seen the show presented as a dinner theater. I also would like to read So Big, but don't think I will have time to do so next month. There are so many things to read.

I'm sure I have a few books on the shelves that fit this theme. Now to find them.

When I think of Downtown I think of NYC and think of Dawn Powells books. A Time to be Born, Wicked Pavillion and The Locusts Have No King are probably my favs

Edna Ferber seems to have faded in popularity over the years. She was a very popular in my younger years and I remember getting all her books out of the library. As well as So Big and Show Boat, she also wrote Giant, the movie of which starred Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Cimarron, Saratoga Trunk and Ice Palace are also all by this author and were made into films.

James Joyce, Dubliners (Norton Critical Edition). A reread of Dubliners, which I haven't read in nearly half a century. First read of the Norton Critical with its excellent supplementary materials.

>21 DeltaQueen50: Liking So Big but keep hoping that the main character either get some luck, or stops making horrible decisions sometime soon....

I finished Das Halsband der Königin, a non-fiction book about the Necklace Affair, set among the aristocracy of Paris and the French court. It contains nothing new, but I was interested to see Gustav III of Sweden turning up in Paris looking for a rich bride for one of his ambassadorial staff, a certain Baron de Staël.

I also finished 1793, set in Stockholm. Very good for a debut novel.

Der goldene Handschuh is set in the red-light district of Hamburg in the early 1970s and rather depressing.

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner is a novel about the evacuation of children during the London Blitz. 90% of the story takes place in London and seen mostly through the eyes of two sisters who lose their mother and their father (s). I'm not sure why the title of the book; as I didn't see that either sister lived a charmed life, except they weren't killed in the blitz. I'm back and forth about this book--it was a great read; I learned information about the blitz that I had never heard before. At times the book was a bit slow and predictable, but all in all a great read (listen!). I am still reading Alone in Berlin and hope to finish it this month.

1888: London Murders in the Year of the Ripper / Peter Stubley
3.5 stars

1888 in London had more murders than the women Jack the Ripper killed. This book looks at many more of them, though some are manslaughter, and some of the possible/potential murderers are acquitted. . They include bar fights, domestic abuse, infants and newborns, prostitutes, hit and runs (horse and carriage), and more. Of course, the chapter that includes prostitutes does also talk a bit about the Ripper murders.

It was good and interesting as I read it, but fitting so many murders into one book, the descriptions of them have to be fairly short, so it felt a bit like short stories to me. And to me, that means I probably won’t remember much of it in the not-too-distant future. Enjoyable at the time, but maybe not memorable later on. There was some history of London, especially near the start of the book, to help describe the conditions, so that was interesting, too.

I have read Tales From the City by Armistead Maupin. I loved the stories and feel that mid 1970s San Francisco was captured beautifully.

I reread one of my favorite children's books, Thee, Hannah by Marguerite de Angeli for this challenge since it features a young Quaker girl in pre-Civil War Philadelphia. This time I read the paperback edition published in 2000 instead of my original hardback published in 1940 so that my allergies would not "act up." This later publication includes a "new" introduction by Harry de Angeli which introduces "Aunt" Hannah Stevens whose stories about her childhood became the basis for Thee, Hannah -- new information which I found very interesting. Upon this reading, I really noticed how the underground railroad was mentioned throughout the book. I remembered that Hannah finally understands the meaning of her Quaker bonnet when an escaping slave says that is why she asked Hannah for help, but I had not remembered it as such a theme of the whole book.

Well, I didn’t read either book I planned on for this theme. Instead, I read A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin, his story of growing up in the Brownsville area of East Brooklyn, in the 1920s and 30s. The family was poor like everyone else in Brownsville. They were a loving family but Alfred had a love/hate relationship with the place itself. There were parts of the story that were somewhat tiresome to me, all the introspective angst and reading about the Communists and Socialists and their bickering.

But I certainly felt I was walking those streets with him, especially in the summer. My favorite parts took place inside his tenement home: the Friday evening Sabbath; reading on the fire escape; watching the older boys on the roof of the next building releasing their pigeons in the evening after work; just so many things like this that I could read over and over again.

I haven’t finished it, but I’m also reading Edna Ferber’s short story collection, Buttered Side Down. So far they are stories of ordinary working class people in big cities and towns. I am enjoying it very much, although the language is so odd sounding today, people calling each other “girlie” and “dearie” and there are references to people and things I have no clue about but were obviously known when the book was written. Ms. Ferber often addresses the reader as the story is being told.

New York / Edward Rutherfurd
3.5 stars

This is a novel that follows multiple characters through 400+ years in New York City. Primarily, we follow the same family(ies) through the generations. Starting in the 17th century with a Dutch family (and we also follow African Americans, Irish, Italians…), we follow from grandparent to grandchild (for the most part) and we see the characters through colonization, slavery, the Civil War, Tammany Hall, The Triangle Factory fire, the Depression, up to and including 9/11.

I listened to the audio, and for me, audios narrated by a male voice aren’t always exciting for me; add to that, the length of this one (I also tend to have trouble with very long audios), and I was pleasantly surprised. I waffled between rating this 3 stars (ok) and 3.5 (good), as there were parts where I lost interest. I think I rated “Sarum” 3 stars, and though it was a number of years ago, I do think I preferred “New York”. In some ways, with the different characters (though all family), it felt a bit like short stories – some situations and characters I found more interesting than others. It did end on a strong (but very difficult) note with 9/11.

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada was a spellbinding and compelling novel about WWII Berlin. This story is rich in details of the Party, the resistance, the culture, and society. A very unassuming couple take on the Nazis by writing postcards with anti-Nazi information contained upon them. They then place them all around Berlin where they will be found. They eluded the authorities for three years before they were caught and finally executed. Even the afterword about the author's life and the real-life case this book was based upon was excellent. Counting the afterword and all the original documents (from the Nazi files) the book is at 600 pages. 5 stars

Joseph Balsamo takes place mostly in Paris and Versailles, so I'm also posting it here. Got to make all of those 2048 pages count!

>34 MissWatson: Whoa! Over 2000 pages!?

I read Fifth Column which is part of the Blitz Detective mystery series. It might be stretching the downtown theme a bit, but East Ham is definitely city as it has been swallowed up by Greater London and suffered through the blitz of WWII just like other areas of the city. That was where the mystery came in. Finding bodies was not that uncommon during the bombing but this one didn't look like it was part of the usual aftermath so DI Jago was called in to investigate. It was a good mystery with great historical detail.

>35 LibraryCin: Yes, four paperback volumes at 512 pages each. He wrote this as a serial for a newspaper and it ran for more than two years.

>37 MissWatson: Wow, that's impressive!

I loved this book too. I recently saw the movie, Alone in Berlin, with Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson. I thought it was a very good adaptation of the book.