Cariola's 2015 Reading Log

This year, I decided to honor Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, a remarkable female patron, scholar, poet, translator, and editor of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, by placing her portrait at the head of my Club Read thread. The sister of Sir Philip Sidney, it was she who edited his sonnet cycle, "Astrophil and Stella," after his death. Her brother dedicated to her his most celebrated prose piece, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, and the two encouraged one another's poetic output. At the time of his death, Sidney had begun work on a new English version of the Psalms but only completed the first 43; Mary composed the remaining 107. She shared her brother's spirit of patronage, opening her home, Wilton House, to a circle of poets that included Edmund Spencer, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, and Sir John Davies. The countess also translated several European works, including Petrarch's "Triumph of Death" (Italian) and the French play Marc-Antoine. There has even been speculation that she may have been "the real Shakespeare."

Top Five Books of 2014:
History of the Rain by Niall Williams
Atonement by Ian McEwan (reread)
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (reread)
Restoration by Rose Tremain (reread)
Welding with Children by Tim Gautreaux

Currently Reading
There's Something I Want You to Do by Charles Baxter

2015 BOOKS READ:
January
1. Stoner by John Williams
2. Burning Bright by Ron Rash
3. Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration edited by Hannah Ellis
4. The American Lover by Rose Tremain
5. Outline by Rachel Cusk
6. Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen, the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold's Plot to Betray America by Stephen H. Case and Mark Jacob
7. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
8. Arden of Faversham by Anonymous (reread with my students)
9. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

February
10. The Shoemaker's Holiday by Thomas Dekker (reread with my students)
11. Richard III by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
12. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
13. Uppity Women of the Renaissance by Vicki Leon
14. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
15. The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster (reread with my students)
16. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

March
17. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
18. Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman
19. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
20. How to Be Both by Ali Smith
21. The Winchester Goose by Judith Arnopp

April
22. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside by Thomas Middleton (reread with my students)
23. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
24. Cold Mountain by Charles Fraser (reread with my students)
25. Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall
26. Bettyville by George Hodgman
27. A Bit on the Side by William Trevor
28. The Roaring Girl by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley (reread with my students)
29. Othello by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
30. Fever by Mary Beth Keane
31. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford (reread with my students)
32. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
33. The Old Maid by Edith Wharton
34. Q & A by Vikas Swarup (reread with my students)
35. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
36. The Changeling by Thomas Middleton (reread with my students)

May
37. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
38. Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri
39. Academy Street by Mary Costello
40. The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman
41. Moone Boy: The Blunder Years by Chris O'Dowd

June
42. The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace
43. The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
44. The Green Road by Ann Enright

July
45. A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor
46. We That Are Left by Clare Clark
47. The Americans by Chitra Viraraghavan
48. Cat Daddy by Jackson Galaxy
49. Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone

August
50. The Vizard Mask by Diana Norman
51. Galore by Michael Crummy

September
52. A Catch of Consequence by Diana Norman
53. Neverhome by Laird Hunt
54. The Point of Vanishing by Howard Axelrod
55. The Madness of Love by Katherine Davies
56. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

October
57. Blood Royal by Diana Norman
58. Thirteen Ways of Looking: Fiction by Colum McCann
59. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
60. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
61. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

November
62. A Pledge of Better Times by Margaret Porter
63. The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Safak

December
64. Did You Ever Have a Family? by Bill Clegg
65. Simon's Cat: Off to the Vet . . . and Other Cat-astrophes by Simon Tofield
66. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
67. The Pretender's Lady by Alan Gold
68. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
69. Artful by Ali Smith
70. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

Happy New Year, everyone! I just got back from a post-Christmas family visit. My final reviews of 2014 are on my old thread, and I hope to have this one together before the weekend is out.

First book review of 2015!



Stoner by John Williams

As someone who taught in the English Department at the University of Missouri-Columbia for several years, has been in academia for several decades, and is preparing for retirement, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this beautifully written, understated novel. William Stoner grew up on a hard scrabble farm outside of Boone, Missouri. As he approached his high school graduation, he was surprised when his father decided to send him to college to study Agriculture. In his sophomore year, William discovers a love for language and takes his professor's advice to focus on becoming a teacher. With hard work and the support of his mentor, he completes his PhD and is hired by Mizzou as an assistant professor.

There's nothing terribly unexpected in Stoner: he's one of the many who seem to get stuck on the academic path. (It's a story I know well.) William marries the first girl he falls for, a high-strung St. Louis socialite who seems to be perpetually disappointed with life, constantly reinventing herself, and family obligations become obstacles in his way. Stoner is hen-pecked by his wife and bullied by some of his colleagues; he is loved by some of his students and disdained by others. He has his days of brilliance in the classroom, but most of the time he feels unable to convey his love of and excitement about literature. He often recalls the words of his graduate school friends, Dave Masters, who believed that the university is "an asylum" for those who can't fit anywhere else. In many ways, Stoner is simply a tale of quiet endurance.

Burning Bright by Ron Rash

I'm always looking for new short story collections, and several LTers recommended Ron Rash. While I can't say that he has become an instant favorite, I did appreciate these stories and will likely look for more of Rash's work in the future.

The stories are set in Appalachia, most of them in contemporary times, but one dates back to the Civil War and another, "Hard Times," to the Depression era. All of the characters struggle with poverty and the fast-changing times. A man joins a coworker in raiding Confederate graves for buckles and other artifacts that they can sell to collectors; it's the only way that he can pay his mother's hospital bill. A farmer tries to catch whoever or whatever has been stealing his eggs. A pawnbroker attempts to rid his aunt and uncle of their meth-addict son and his girlfriend. A young boy steals valuables from the dead bodies in a downed private plane to support his parents' meth habit. Rash presents these stories in a straightforward, no-nonsense, non-judgmental manner: his characters are simply living and surviving the lives they have been dealt as best they can. My only caution: don't read this is you're in the mood for something uplifting. While I empathized with most of the characters, their stories were often quite depressing.

I've been meaning to read some John Williams. I've had Butcher's Crossing on the TBR for several years since Lisa (I think) recommended it and I recently bought the new NYRB edition of his Augustus even though I discovered I already owned another edition when I got it home and entered it into LT (hate when that happens!).

I stumbled upon Stoner about a year ago and have seen so many subsequent reviews on LT. I haven't read it yet, but have been happy with all the good reviews I've seen. Hopefully I'll get to it this year.

Happy New Year, Deborah -- I've got you starred.

Happy New Year, Deborah! I'm looking forward to more book bullets from you. :)

I also have a copy of Stoner waiting to be read, based on all of the consistently positive LT reviews. Sounds like a good way to start the new year, Deborah.

Nice reviews of Stoner and Burning Bright, Deborah.

>6 rebeccanyc: I haven't read anything else by Williams--but I will be looking for more after reading Stoner.

>7 japaul22: >10 Linda92007: It's a wonderful book--hope you get around to reading it soon.

>8 janeajones: >9 NanaCC: Hi, Jane and Colleen. Happy New Year!

>11 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. I think you'd enjoy Stoner, if you haven't read it yet.

Dylan Thomas: A Centenary Celebration edited by Hannah Ellis

Dylan Thomas has always been one of my favorite poets. As a teenager, I owned the whole Caedmon series of Thomas reading his own verse and that of others, and I played it over and over. Last year marked 100 years since his birth, and this collection of essays is in celebration.

Overall, I was disappointed in the book. Most of the essays covered familiar biographical territory, and none of them were what I would consider literary criticism that would shed light on any of Thomas's poems. I was mildly interested in one essay on plagiarism: when he was very young (12-18), Thomas apparently plagiarized a number of poems that have now been purged from his collected works. Most of them had been printed in children's magazines, and Thomas had made minor changes--the kind of thing my students do with their papers. A few reminiscences of Wales and Thomas's early life were a pleasure to walk through, like a familiar path. I can't, however, recommend the collection to anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of Thomas and his work, or to anyone coming newly to his poems.

>13 Cariola: I'm sorry that one was disappointing, Deborah.

By the way, I'm reading Coventry today, and loving it. What a great little book.

>14 NanaCC: So glad you're enjoying it, Colleen. It's my favorite by Helen Humphreys.

>14 NanaCC: & >15 Cariola: Coventry is one of my favourites too. I stayed up late to finish it and was surprised next day to find my world was still recognizable!

The American Lover by Rose Tremain

I was really surprised when I came in to write this review and saw a 5-star rating--but then I noticed that only one other person had rated the book. Different strokes, etc. I am a fan of Rose Tremain and was really looking forward to this new collection of short stories, but for me, overall, it disappointed. I give her credit for focusing on a wide variety of characters, time periods, and settings, and for her very fine dialogue. But I've come to the conclusion that Tremain is at her best writing historical fiction. In fact, two of the stories that delve into that genre are perhaps the best in the collection. "The Jester of Astapovo" begins as the story of an unhappily married stationmaster's desire to have an affair with an older woman and ends telling the story of Leo Tolstoy's last days, dying in the stationmaster's cottage. It's by far the best of these stories. "The Housekeeper" is narrated by the woman who served as the model for Mrs. Danvers; she has a haunting affair with novelist Daphne du Maurier.

"The American Lover"--a woman looks back on a doomed love affair.

"Extra Geography"--Two schoolgirls decide to fall in love with someone. anyone, the next person they see: their female geography teacher, a middle-aged New Zealander.

"A View of Lake Superior in the Fall"--A Nashville couple retires to the North.

"Man in the Water"--A young woman swears she saw a man in the water that no one else saw.

"Juliet Greco's Black Dress"--a young woman models herself after Juliet Greco.

"Smithy"--An old man tried to move a stained mattress that has been thrown on the road.

"BlackBerry Winter"--A daughter deals with her ailing, cranky mother over the holidays.

"Lucy and Gaston"--Conversation between a long-married couple in which Gaston recalls his father's wartime death in a typhoon.

"The Closing Door"--After Worrld War II, widow Marjorie struggles with sending her daughter Patience to boarding school at her in-laws' insistence.

"21st Century Juliet"--Aristocratic Juliet records events in her diary, including her relations with her parents and her passionate affair with an Eastern European construction worker.

These are the kind of stories in which not a lot happens outside of the characters, but quite a lot goes on inside them and within their dialogue. If you care about the main character, this works; if you don't, it doesn't.

Too bad about this collection by Tremain. I enjoyed her novel The Road Home some time back. Love you review of Stoner. And, since this is my first over here this year, thanks for brief yet fascinating lesson on Mary Sidney Herbert.

Dan, it was a mixed group of stories, a few of them really good, the others not bad but in several cases just didn't much interest me. I'm reading Rachel Cusk's newest now, and it's quite good.

Outline? I'm very curious on your take. It was published in parts in The Paris Review last year, and I read...parts.... And, actually, I'm currently listening to a Rachel Cusk novel! Her 1990's era novel The Country Life. Some good (the language is wonderfully percise) and some eh (very slow going)

Yes, that's the one. So far it's very intriguing to try to puzzle together the connections between the various conversations.

Outline by Rachel Cusk

Outline begins when a woman on a plane bound for Athens is prodded into conversation by the man sitting next to her who narrates the history of his failed marriages. We learn that the never-named woman, a writer, has been invited to teach a creative writing course; her Greek students will all write their short stories in English. Each of the nine subsequent chapters is also told as a conversation, and it's a bit of fun to look for the links between them ("tension" and failed marriages being just two of them). The connections between them indeed fall into the shape of an outline, the kind you made in elementary school, where each main idea cascades into a set of subtopics which, in turn, are broken into their parts. This is a novel where the connections between parts are more significant than the chain of events (which is, in fact, simply the narrator listening to other people's narratives). It's a risky experiment, but Cusk pulls it off quite well.

All of the narrators are a bit self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing, and some are more likable than others. I found most interesting the writing students' descriptions of their stories--all of them based on memories--written in response to an assignment to write a story with an animal in it. As we watch the visiting author listening to these almost one-sided conversations, we learn much about her as well.

Overall, Outline is a clever, inventive, and finely written novel.

Nice review of Outline. Deborah.

The touchstone link is going to Macbeth.

nice- one more for the book wishlist!

Outline's been getting a lot of positive reviews. I'll have to take a closer look.

>23 NanaCC: Thanks for letting me know--I corrected it higher up, but I guess I have to do it every darn time!

Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen, the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold's Plot to Betray America by Stephen H. Case and Mark Jacob

Overall, I found this biography to be disappointing. The authors' sole point was to conclude that Peggy Shippen, wife of Benedict Arnold, was a key figure in his treason plot. Once they made the point, there wasn't much for them to do aside from repeat it and repeat the same evidence from letters over and over. All we really learn about Peggy is that she was a Philadelphia belle, pretty and lively and admired by British spy John Andre, and that, as a wife, she proved to have a good head for figures and household management. When Arnold's treachery was uncovered, she either went temporarily mad or feigned madness in order to escape detection of her role in the plot. Eventually, she was given a choice: go back to your father's house in Philadelphia, or join Arnold in the British enclave in New York; she chose the latter. (Arnold came across as particularly despicable in this account, not only plotting to betray the patriots and possibly set up the capture of Washington, but constantly plaguing the British with demands for more cash in return for his efforts, even years after the war for independence ended.) The couple and their children moved to London, but Arnold, forever the speculator, moved them to Canada in hopes of cashing in on a land scheme. It didn't work, and they headed back to London, where Peggy lived until her death.

Only about 60% of the book is composed of actual biography; the rest is a long list of acknowledgements, an even longer bibliography, and a long index. The whole thing could easily have been covered in a monograph, if not a 30-40 page article.

>27 Cariola: bummer.

>22 Cariola: i'm just catching your review of Outline. In The Paris Review i read the first half and own the last quarter, which puts me in an odd position reading wise, missing a central quarter of the book. Enjoyed your review.

Hi Deborah! I'm going to follow your thread this year - and am already glad to see that you liked both the John Williams and Ron Rash books you reviewed above, as I have both TBR.

Shame about the Dylan Thomas essays - I enjoyed reading some of his stories just ahead of the centenary last year, and really loved listening and re-listening to the audio version of Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton, Sian Phillips, et al ensemble.

Outline sounds interesting as well.

>29 Polaris-: Welcome! Hope you find some interesting books here this year.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train, a new thriller that has been getting a lot of buzz, is narrated by three women. Rachel Watson, the main character, is a divorced, childless alcoholic still clinging to her ex-husband, Tom. Afraid to tell her landlady that she has been fired, Rachel rides the train into London every day, pretending to go to work. The train just happens to go past her former house, where Tom now lives with his new wife and daughter. Rachel becomes obsessed with an attractive couple who live a few doors down the street; she watches them from the train, fantasizing about the perfect life she believes they have. Obviously an unreliable narrator (she has frequent blackouts), Rachel is the most intriguing of the women in the story. The other narrators are Tom's new wife, Anna, who fears that Rachel will do something crazy, and Megan Hipwell, the young woman idealized by Rachel. The crime line takes off when Megan goes missing, and Rachel thinks she may know something important . . . if only she could remember what. She becomes as obsessed with the case as she has been with Tom and the Hipwells, and the reader is left to guess what is real and what is imagined.

I don't usually read thrillers, but this one got a lot of hype, so I thought I'd give it a try. Initially, I was caught up in the story, but by the end, it seemed to drag on, driven by far too many coincidences.

The Girl on the Train has been popping up everywhere. I think that unless I need something like that, I'll pass on it.

It seems that The Girl on the Train is getting mixed reviews. A love it or leave it type of book. I thought I wanted to read it. Now I'm not so sure.

>32 RidgewayGirl:, >33 NanaCC: I'm usually attracted to anything with an unreliable narrator or multiple narrators whose stories are interwoven, and this has both. The story itself, which becomes a whodunit, just really wasn't my cup of tea.

Me, too, Deborah. And I'm a credulous reader, which means that there'll be a point in the book where I go, "hey...." and have to rethink everything that narrator told me up until that point. I enjoyed the TV series The Affair for that very reason - the episodes give both characters story of how the events unfolded and it's fascinating for the details - the wallpaper is different in their memories, the order of events, etc....

I am impressed by how critical you are in your reviews, and I do mean that as a compliment. I'm looking forward to reading more of your reviews.

>35 RidgewayGirl: I haven't seen The Affair but will look for it--thanks for the rec! Have you seen The Missing? It was terrific--and it will be coming back next year, with the focus on a new story and set of characters.

>36 fuzzy_patters: Thanks you! I always try to: 1) not give away too much of the story; 2) be honest about whether a genre is something outside of my usual reading fare and acknowledge if others might enjoy a book while I didn't; and 3) give specific reasons for my criticism and praise.

>3 Cariola:: Apologies for coming to your thread late in the day, but great to see you enjoyed Stoner. I read that last summer and really enjoyed it. Enjoying your reviews - a few more new books for my wish list I fear, lol!!!!

I'm halfway through The Missing! I really enjoy that kind of complex story-telling.

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

I know I'm in a very small minority, but I found this book pretentious and dull. It's pretty much a nonstop monologue--a 72-year old woman rambling on about her life in Beirut, past and present. Divorced, childless, and estranged from her family, Aaliyah begins to translate a novel into Arabic every January 1--but no one has ever read any of the 37 novels she has translated and stores in her bathroom. She throws in a plethora of international literary references and her opinions of various writers along the way. Frankly, I just didn't find her or her life of much interest. I'm not surprised that one of the books mentioned as being similar is The Elegance of the Hedgehog--a book I really detested and ultimately couldn't finish.

Uppity Women of the Renaissance by Vicki Leon

I skimmed through this book just for the fun of it, so, unlike some other readers, I didn't get bent out of shape by questionable inclusions, urban legends, or inaccuracies. It's not exactly what I'd call a scholarly book, but I can find those when I need them. Leon recounts in short (two to three page) essays the 'achievements' of a wide variety of women, including queens, artisans, murderesses, witches, and crossdressers, amongst others. It's the kind of book you'll want to grab and skim when you're too tired to focus on anything longer or heavier. It was just the right type of reading for a cold, windy winter's evening--just fun, if you don't take it too seriously.

Uppity Women of the Renaissance sounds rather interesting. I just finished reading The Decameron, so this might serve as a nice nightcap. Thanks for mentioning it.

>31 Cariola:: I'm going to an author event at a local bookshop in a few weeks - Paula Hawkins is one of the authors speaking / signing. I guess I'll feel obliged to make a purchase of The Girl on the Train, although now I've read the mixed reviews on here I'm not so excited about reading it after all.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I have to admit that it took me a long, long time to engage with this novel. The first half is incredibly slow-moving, and, while I did end up liking the book, it could have had the same effect if it had been about 150 pages shorter. In addition, while I love stories with multiple narrators, the use of multiple narrators AND switching back and forth in time made it unnecessarily convoluted. On the basis of comments from LT friends who said the book got much better after the first half or so, I stuck it out to the end. While I can't say that All the Light We Cannot See will be one of my top reads of the year, on the whole, I was glad that I stayed with it.

The novel's two main characters are Werner, a German orphan with a talent for radio electronics, and Marie-Laure, the blind daughter of a French museum's lock master, both of whom are about 13 years old when the chronological story begins. When Werner's aptitude is uncovered, he ids taken from the orphanage and his sister, Jutta) and placed in a Hitler Youth school where his talent will be developed for use in the war. Initially thrilled to have an opportunity better than working in the mines, Werner ignores the twinges of his conscience and follows all orders--even those that ultimately destroy his best friend.

When the Germans invade Paris, Marie-Laure and her father flee to the seaside town of Saint-Malo, where her reclusive great-uncle Etienne lives. Her father may carry with him the museum's most valuable jewel, a large diamond known as the Sea of Flames--or he may be carrying one of four replicas of the diamond. For me, the Saint-Malo chapters were the most engaging in the book, mainly because of the well-developed characters and relationships.

Into the mix comes a cancer-ridden German officer charged with finding and bringing back to Berlin the treasures of the France--including the Sea of Flames.

That's all I will say about the plot, aside from the fact that, as one would expect, these characters inevitably come face-to-face with one another. I might have rated this book a bit higher if my expectations had been a little lower, and if the exposition chapters hadn't been quite so plodding. Still, All the Light We Cannot See is a worthwhile and at times very moving book.

>44 Cariola: This is one that I've been holding off on, Deborah. I still have it on my wishlist, and enjoyed your review.

>44 Cariola:: Enjoyed your review - this is one I also have on my wish list. I read About Grace by this author 10 years ago and quite enjoyed it, but haven't read anything by him since.

A few books I've read lately could have done with being 150 pages shorter - I'm sure there's some very good reason why publishing houses don't edit these as ruthlessly as they should. Maybe it's as simple as the bigger the book, the higher the RRP - I hope not!

>44 Cariola: I was glad I stayed with it, but I really wish it had been tightened up. A lot of reviews seem to have loved everything about it, so I guess that's what makes the world go 'round!

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Based on a true story, the novel focuses on Agnes Magnusdottir, a servant accused of murdering her master (and lover) in early nineteenth-century Iceland. The court, deciding there was no appropriate (or affordable) place to keep her until the day of execution, sent her to live with the family of a remote district magistrate. Through Agnes's conversations with her young pastor, Toti, and with Margret, the magistrate's wife, we learn the sad facts of her life and the truth behind the murder. The story, which is apparently legendary in Iceland, brings to life the disadvantages of being poor, abandoned, and female in the period with heartbreaking accuracy.

My sole criticism of the book, which indeed engaged me throughout, is that it was perhaps a bit overly dramatic.

Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

The concept for this short story collection is a terrific one: each story focuses on an 'almost famous' woman. Included are the sister of Edna St. Vincent Millay; James Joyce's mad daughter, Lucia; Oscar Wilde's lookalike niece, Dolly, a socialite and heroin addict; Lord Byron's three-year old daughter, Allegra; a black lesbian trumpet player risking violence by playing in a racially mixed jazz band in the 1950s American South; and many more. The narrators are most often peripheral characters--a childhood friend of Dolly Wilde, a nun who cared for Allegra in the convent; the bus driver of the all-girl band.

As I said, this was a great concept, but unfortunately, most of the stories fell flat.

I have Burial Rites on my wishlist, and you've pushed it further up the list.

I also bought History of the Rain today for my Kindle. It was on the Daily Deal for 1.99. Your review had put that one on my wishlist.

>50 NanaCC: I'm so glad you picked up History of the Rain, Colleen. I posted the special offer on facebook; Belva got it, too. I hope both of you will love it as much as I did. It was my top read of the past year and definitely should have won the Booker.

How to Be Both by Ali Smith

Ali Smith is perhaps the most successful experimental writer publishing today. Not one to rest on her laurels, she tries something new in each successive novel. Smith takes another creative leap in How to Be Both, this time in terms of form and in playing with ideas about simultanaeity and flexibility. She writes two stories here, one that of a minor Italian Renaissance painter named Franchesco, the other centered around George, a 16-year old girl dealing with the loss of her mother in the 21st century. Despite the difference in time periods, the two seem somehow to coexist: Franchesco looks out from his own painting, hanging in a London museum, to see George looking; and George develops a strange sense of recognition with the artist, whose work she had first seen while traveling in Italy with her mother. The linked stories create a complexity that is hard to describe or summarize. It's something that the reader lives and feels while immersed in the book rather than intellectualizing it. In a way, the symbiosis between George and Franchesco helps the former to transcend the boundaries of time and space, bringing her mother close again, while George gives Franchesco an understanding of the timelessness of art and another way of seeing.

This review probably doesn't seem to say much that is concrete; as I said, How to Be Both--both Franchesco and George, both then and now, both male and female, both alive and dead, both here and there--is a book to be experienced as well as read. Lovely writing for each distinct character's voice, a creative and philosophical stretch that offers not only pleasure but hope.

The Winchester Goose by Judith Arnopp

I needed something a bit fluffy to read while recuperating, and this fit the bill quite well. It's a fairly impossible story, so be prepared to suspend your disbelief. The story is told by several narrators, and we first meet Joanie Toogood, the conventional 'good-hearted whore,' one of the so-called "geese" under the protection of the Bishop of Winchester. Joanie was put to the trade at the age of 12 and has raised two younger sisters since their mother died. She develops a special affinity for one of her clients, Frances Wareham, a runaway heir whose brains are obviously not in his head. For awhile, he, too, is one of the story's narrators and eventually gets recruited as a spy at the court of Henry VIII. Two other main narrators are the Bourne sisters, Eve and Isabella, daughters of a slightly down-and-out gentleman who are delighted to be called to court to serve the new queen, Anne of Cleves (and later Katherine Howard). The headstrong Eve falls for Wareham, refusing to marry the man her father has chosen--and gets the man she wants instead. She might have made a better choice, for a few days after the wedding, she finds him in her maid's lap. Her anger drives Frances away, but soon Eve ventures into London on her own to find him. Paths cross, and this is where the more unbelievable (yet still enjoyable) elements of the story start to spin out.

The novel is fairly well written, but the characters, while generally interesting, are (as another reviewer said) rather one-dimensional. As I said, good for a lark, but it won't be at the top of my list.

Catching up here. Enjoyed learning about what i think are several newer novels. The Anthony Doerr, Hannah Kent, and Ali Smith. The Winchester Goose is probably too gimmicky for me.

>54 dchaikin: I think you would particularly enjoy the Smith and the Kent, Dan. Not sure about the Doerr, which has gotten raves but seemed to drag for me. Even as a historical fiction buff, I wouldn't have read The Winchester Goose if I hadn't been recuperating from bronchitis; I needed something I didn't have to think about too hard.

Thanks for the review of How To Be Both. I picked it off the TBR a couple of days ago, but was put off by the impenetrable epigrams and the experimental format of the first chapter - it just wasn't what I was in the mood for at the time. I will go back to it though.

>56 wandering_star: You can read the two parts of the book in either order. Some copies start with Franchesco's story, others with George's. You might want to reverse the order, which is written in a much more modern, straightforward manner. (The Kindle edition has both combinations.)

Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall

I got sucked into buying this book--not my usual fare--when it was on a Kindle special. My rating of 1.5 stars is somewhat generous, based on the simple fact that it initially drew me in (and it was also fairly short). It's the mid-19th century in France, and the young Adrienne lives in what seems to be an almost perfect world in her aristocratic grandpere's mansion. Her mother, the beautiful but unhappy Genevieve, is a distant mother who pretty much sits around waiting for her husband to either visit or call her to Paris (which doesn't happen often). But at least Adrienne is adored by her grandpere and her governess, Lucie. But when Adrienne begins to have visions, she rattles some family secrets. Apparently her grandmere also had the second sight, and the family locked here away so that people wouldn't talk about her. She apparently died shortly after Genevieve's birth.

Enter the evil older aunt, Marie, and her pampered son, Julian. Marie disapproves of everyone and everything. She has come home for two reasons: first, because Julian, a priest, needs to recuperate from being poisoned by the eucharist wine at his church in New Mexico; and second, to ransack the house for treasures to take back to America for the palace Julian intends to build in his next southwestern parish. Marie and Julian return to France periodically to cause more havoc throughout the novel, until eventually they take Adrienne with them to Colorado.

While the title suggests that this is a horror story, there is no ghost in Miramont until the epilogue.. But in the meantime, there is an abundance of cruelty, sexual abuse, child molestation, lies, betrayals, and unbelievably bad parenting. By the time I got towards the end, the "ick factor" was pretty high. (Can you think of one more revolting, abusive situation? Of course you can.) If the author's intent was to make me want to kill Marie with my bare hands, she succeeded. But that isn't enough, in my view, to make a novel good.. Like Adrienne, I felt somewhat betrayed by the author and the way she kept inserting more and more horrors into the story. I stayed up late last night to finish the book--not because it was so engrossing, but because I just wanted it to be over.

Bettyville by George Hodgman

George Hodgman's memoir is mainly that of a 40-something gay man who leaves Manhattan to return to his small town home of Paris, Missouri to care for his 90+ year old mother, Betty. Betty is becoming more and more feeble and seems to be in the beginning stages of dementia, constantly asking George questions like "What's the capital of Portugal?" and "What's the name of that drink we drink at Christmas?" It's a very moving story of a man who always longed for an understanding that his parents were just not able to give, yet who realizes that they loved him and did the best they could.

The episodes George relates, both from his past and from his years of caring for Betty, are told with both affection and humor. He regrets never sharing with his parents the truth about his own sexuality and his struggles with addiction--but that's just the way it was back then. As many times as George assures his mother that he will never leave her, that he will stay with her until the very end, Betty still fears being left to die on her own. But at one point, she finally breaks down her guard and thanks George for taking good care of her.

I found the memoir interesting, particularly because I lived in central Missouri for six years, and although I never visited Paris, I was familiar with many of the other communities mentioned (Booneville, Moberly, Mexico, and Columbia, where George frequents Lakota Coffee while his mom has her hair cut at the Waikiki Hair Salon). Bettyville is a poignant memoir of a fading mother and of her son's regrets and triumphs.

A Bit on the Side by William Trevor

This small collection of short stories was a bit of a disappointment. I have enjoyed several of Trevor's novels and story collections, but this one just didn't move me like other of his works. For the most part, the stories are about ordinary, mousey, even dull people living ordinary, dull lives. While this is true of other Trevor stories, his use of language has always been powerful, making me interested in and empathetic with the most ordinary of characters. That didn't happen for me in A Bit on the Side; for me, Trevor's usual poignancy was missing here.

Beware the Kindle Special!

>60 Cariola:: this was interesting, seeing that so many of us have had positive experiences of Trevor's novels. Maybe he's just one of those writers that doesn't work very well with short stories.

>59 Cariola::Bettyville sounds poignant - one for my wish list.

>62 AlisonY: Actually, Trevor is probably better known for his wonderful short stories than his novels. This collection just wasn't quite up to snuff. It's a more recent one and came out rapidly after a novel. It may be that he's trying to get out the stories that remain in him out too quickly--I think he's in his 80s now, so he may feel pressed for time.

Fever by Mary Beth Keane

A few years ago, I read Anthony Bourdain's biography of "Typhoid Mary," an Irish immigrant cook who unknowingly started an epidemic in early twentieth-century New York. Fever also focuses on Mary Mallon, but, being fiction, it gives her character more depth and creates empathy for the way she was hounded, isolated,villainized, and humiliated. Keane's story's antagonist is a Dr. Soper, the researcher who tracked down Mary as a healthy typhoid carrier and determined that the bacilli were passed on through her cooking. Never having been ill herself, Mary finds it hard to believe that she could be the source of the disease that had killed two of her employers' children and several others and had sickened a number of her coworkers. But in quieter moments, she ponders all the deaths she had attended in Ireland and on the ship crossing the Atlantic, and the death of an employer's toddler whom she had grown to love.

Keane covers Mary's forcible arrest and hospitalization, her exile to an island hospital for consumptives, her suit to be allowed to return to a relatively normal life--as long as she promises never again to work as a cook. She also provides a colorful yet sympathetic portrait of life for the working class in New York, ca. 1900-25. And then there is Mary's complicated relationship with Alfred, her German lover, with whom she has lived since the age of seventeen. I found this novel well written and engaging and recommend it to those interested in historical fiction of this period.

I've been reading (rereading) a lot of Shakespearean and Renaissance drama with my students; all are listed at the top of the page, although I'm not reviewing them. I just finished 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, which I appreciated a lot more this time around. Not sure why!

I'm most admiring of all the reading you are able to do during the semester -- mine seems to be mostly rereading the assignments I'm giving my students, BUT 17 days until retirement -- then I can indulge. I think I must pick up some of Ali Smith's books which have eluded me until now,

Hope you're feeling better!

>66 janeajones: Jane, as you can see from my list in the first post, many of these books are also rereads with my students. Otherwise, I listen to audiobooks in the car, and I always read for at least half an hour before going to sleep.

Ali Smith--the first book of hers that I read was The Accidental, but I think my favorite is There but for the. I didn't care for some of her short story collections.

Wow, you are counting the days? I am still on weeks (2.5 plus exam week) but will probably start on days next week. For various reasons, my official retirement date won't be until August 7, and I haven't officially announced it yet, but I'll be done with the work end of things around May 13. Went to my last department meeting on Tuesday. It was a doozy (curriculum changes, class enrollment caps going up by more than 30%, pressure to take on a fifth class for no more pay, etc.) and made me even more certain that I am indeed DONE!

Just caught up again. I'm still watching grandchildren this week, so haven't been around much in the past month. All of thir spring breaks are different weeks.

I see that you and Jane are looking forward to retirement. Such an awesome time. I'm happy that I took the plunge a couple of years ago. The last two years of a really enjoyable job turned sour and I couldn't wait to get out.

Nice review of Fever, Deborah. I'm interested in the life of Typhoid Mary, after reading about her in several nonfiction medical books, so I'll add this to my wish list.

>67 Cariola: Good to see you are both soon joining the retired club

Deborah - remember our conversation a few years ago about how it's impossible to write a novel in second person (it's really first person imperative)? Can you read this short article from so-called experts and give me your thoughts? Thanks.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/%E2%80%9Cthe-night-circus%E2%...

Ah Deb -- I'm with you. My "offiicial retirement date" is July 31, but exams and graduation are over on May 8. Right now it's all about gradilng the last essays, throwing away files, giving away books, and carrying home those I can't quite part with -- and why can't I?

>71 Nickelini: I stand by my statement that it is impossible to have a second person narrator. When I write a sentence about you, it is me writing/speaking, not you (first person narrator).

"You stand in the dark, waiting for the subway."

I suppose you could say that this creates a second person reader in that I am lumping you, the reader into a second person pronoun. But the narrator--the speaker--is still I.

It might even be said that this is actually a first person narrator that is just using you as it would a proper name or a third person pronoun:

"Bill stands in the dark, waiting for the subway."
"He/she stands in the dark, waiting for the subway."
"You stand in the dark, waiting for the subway."

Bill is not the narrator, He/she is not the narrator, and You are not the narrator. And if this person named You was to start narrating, he or she would be using I or, from a third person perspective, talking about he, she, or they.

I certainly do understand the use of You as a subject to draw in readers. But the reader isn't standing in the dark, waiting for the subway; it's just the narrator (I) projecting that action onto the reader.

The point of view might, I suppose, be considered second person, albeit artificially; but the narrator can never be second person.

Thanks for the explanation, Deborah, and I still hate novels in which the author uses "you" as the subject, regardless of the grammar! But it's nice to know.

Thanks Deborah! That's pretty much what you told me the first time. Thanks! It just makes sense and drives me crazy when I see you=second person. That doesn't even make sense. I've followed that website for years, and they are usually solid in their advice. I'm disappointed in them.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This isn't the sort of book that I would normally read, but I was trying to unload paperbackswap credits before their new policies (pay-per-swap or purchase an annual membership) went into place. I'm just not that into magic and fantasies; never read a Harry Potter book and probably never will. So I have to say that I liked it more than I expected to--but it still isn't quite my cup of tea. I'll give the author points for creativity: the contest between two master magicians is something I've seen before in a number of movies, but the addition of having two talented apprentices play out the battle with neither knowing the opponent's identity was quite clever. And she created some dazzling illusions, described in similarly dazzling prose. But overall, I found the book a bit too long and convoluted. I enjoy complexity, but due to the general subject and the lack of particularly engaging main characters, I felt that I had to work harder to sort it all out than, in the end, was worth it.

>76 Cariola: This isn't the sort of book that I would normally read and I was surprised to see this title pop up on your thread!

Even without the fact that it was the example cited in the link we just discussed: >71 Nickelini:, and >73 Cariola: - 75.

I didn't know that about PBS. My account is on hold until I return to the US, but I'll have to decide then whether to continue with it.

>77 Nickelini: Yes, I thought it was quite the coincidence when I saw the book I was currently reading used as an example!

>78 RidgewayGirl: People have dropped out of PBS like flies. I had well over 100 credits for books I had given to others, averaging around $3/book for mailing. Then we get a two-week notice that we now have to pay another 50 cents per book that we request or a $20 annual membership fee. Plus there is also a "processing fee" on depositing cash into your account or joining for a year! It made me furious. The members do almost EVERYTHING, including answering other members' questions about PBS; all they really have to do is maintain the computer program and maybe pay 2-3 employees. That easily could have been done with the stuff they sell (credits, mugs, t-shirts, kickbacks from Amazon, etc.).

>73 Cariola: and neighbours - I once read that (not in literature, but in everyday speech) the use of "you" often indicates, "I did this but regret it". Which was then illustrated with this Wendy Cope poem:

You have to try. You see a shrink.
You learn a lot. You read. You think.
You struggle to improve your looks.
You meet some men. You write some books.
You eat good food. You give up junk.
You do not smoke. You don’t get drunk.
You take up yoga, walk and swim.
And nothing works. The outlook’s grim.
You don’t know what to do. You cry.
You’re running out of things to try.

You blow your nose. You see the shrink.
You walk. You give up food and drink.
You fall in love. You make a plan.
You struggle to improve your man.
And nothing works. The outlook's grim.
You go to yoga, cry and swim.
You eat and drink. You give up looks.
You struggle to improve your books.
You cannot see the point. You sigh.
You do not smoke. You have to try.

>74 rebeccanyc: I hope the poem doesn't drive you crazy!

>80 wandering_star: This is similar to how Lorrie Moore uses "you" in her book Self-Help: to distance the narrator from what happens. I do love her story "How to Talk to your Mother: Notes"--but it isn't a second person narrator!

>80 wandering_star: often indicates, "I did this but regret it"'

Thank you. Yes.

That's how I'd describe it was used in the Korean best seller Please Look After Mom--a novel that was so blatantly manipulative that it made me angry. I kept yelling at the book, "No, I did not do those shitty things to my mother and stop telling me I did!" Worst. Book. Ever.

>82 Nickelini: So glad I decided to skip that one.

>80 wandering_star: Ha ha!

The Old Maid by Edith Wharton

As her wedding day approaches, Charlotte Lowell reveals a long-hidden secret to her married cousin, Delia Ralston: the foundling that she has been visiting as a charity project is actually her own daughter, born as the result of a brief affair with one of Delia's former beaux. (Don't worry--no spoilers; this is something you learn in the first few chapters, and I promise to give nothing else away.) The reactions, decisions, and solutions that follow will deeply affect the lives of the two women, as well as that of the little girl, Tina.

As so often, Wharton sets her story in upper crust New York society at the end of the nineteenth century, a world propelled by money, property, lineage, and rigid rules of etiquette. But the most interesting aspect of The Old Maid is the shifting relationship between the cousins, Delia and "Chatty" (Charlotte). Wharton delves deep into their psychology, exploring their fears, resentments, and motivations over the course of twenty years, all of them revolving around the often conflicting values of maternal love and family loyalties. This is, as another reviewer noted, a sentimental story--but not in a maudlin, melodramatic way. I consider it a fine addition to my Wharton shelf.

>85 Cariola: I really would like to read one of Wharton's novels this year. I've loved the ones I've read previously. I guess I just need to decide which one, as I'm pretty sure I have them all on my kindle.

Also finished in the last week--all reread with my students:

Q & A by Vikas Swarup
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
The Changeling by Thomas Middleton

>85 Cariola: Colleen, this one is quite short!

This is a Wharton I'm entirely unfamiliar with -- must hunt it down. Thanks for the review.

>89 janeajones: This short novel is in a collection titled Old New York.

Thanks, Deb -- I hunted it down on Amazon. ;-)

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

Having just finished The Night Circus, which wasn't exactly my cup of tea, my first thought once I got into the first few chapters of The Book of Speculation was: "Oh, crap, another book about circus people with paranormal abilities!" Fortunately, it was a lot more and a lot better than that. The book's chapters alternate between the present day, in which the protagonist, research librarian Simon Watson, is about to be permanently laid off due to budget cuts and his house about to fall into the sea, and the late 1790s, when Peabody's Portable Magic and Miracles, a menagerie of contortionists, clairvoyants, a miniature horse, a counting pig, a wild boy, and a mermaid, travelled the eastern US states.

The story begins when Simon is sent a strange book full of odd names and sketches, by Martin Churchwarry, an antiquarian bookseller. Neither seems to know exactly what it is, but Churchwarry has noted the name "Verona Bonn" in it and tracked down Simon as one of her descendants. Indeed, this was the grandmother he never knew, a woman who at one time worked as a circus mermaid and who--oddly--drowned at a young age. Simon recalls how his mother, also an excellent swimmer, had taught he and his sister how to hold their breath underwater for up to ten minutes. But she, too, drowned young, assumedly a suicide--on the same date as her mother.

If there's an upside to getting laid off, it's that Simon has plenty of time to conduct research into his family's past and track down more information about Peabody's and the mysterious book, which seems to be a carnival record book of sorts. And if there's an upside to being an about-to-be-unemployed research librarian, it's that you have plenty of contacts and resources, as well as time. Even after his last official day of work, Simon still has that access through his longtime friend (and maybe sometime girlfriend) Alice McAvoy, who still works in the small Grainger Library.

On top of all this, Simon has two other major worries: the historic childhood home in which he still resides is crumbling, and his sister Enola, a highly strung drifter who works as a carnival tarot card reader, is coming for a visit. Not to mention that the ominous date on which his mother and grandmother both drowned is fast approaching.

So--I don't want to give any more than this--all of which you will learn in the first few chapters. There are a lot of mysteries to be sorted out, and along the way, you'll meet a number of wonderfully drawn, intriguing characters, including: Enola's boyfriend Doyle, The Electric Boy; Hermelius Peabody, carnival manager; Amos, the mute, who transforms from Wild Boy into several new incarnations; Madame Ryzkhova, the tarot reader; Benno, the contortionist; and the beautiful Evangeline, mysterious mermaid extraordinaire. Not to mention about a million horseshoe crabs.

Beautifully written and highly engaging.

>92 Cariola: this sounds fascinating, and you've written a lovely review.

Great review of The Book of Speculation -- I'm rather partial to books about circuses (I quite enjoyed The Night Circus), so I'll have to track this one down.

>92 Cariola:. Nice review, Deborah. I have The Night Circus on my Kindle, but somehow haven't been pulled to read it. Some day I will. Now adding The Book of Speculation to my groaning wishlist.

Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri

OK, lets say this up front: not much happens in this book, so if you're looking for action, better skip this one and go back to Game of Thrones. It's a short, simple, introspective novel about a young man and his uncle. It's the Thatcher era, and Ananda has been in London for two years, studying English literature and trying to become a poet. He lives with his bachelor uncle, Radhesh, in a basement bedsit. There's an attractive woman living downstairs and a party that apparently goes on 24/7 upstairs. The book focuses on a single day in their lives--sort of an homage to Stephen Daedalus, if you will, or even Clarissa Dalloway. (The Odyssey reference is a bit tongue-in-cheek.) But besides their quarrels over the relative value of Keats v. Tagore and the quality of Indian food in England, Ananda's narrative goes back in time, telling the story of Radhesh's past, of how his own parents met and married, of his sad poet-uncle who lived in Ceylon, and of his own disappointments. The relationship between the two is a kind of Push Me-Pull Me: on one hand, they represent the typical generation gap, intensified the conflicting desires to fit into English society and a longing for home; on the other, they are united by the ties of blood, of family, of familiarity, of India. A quiet little book with moments of insight and of humor, Odysseus Abroad will not shake your world, but it might make you think a bit. Overall, a fast and enjoyable read.

Sounds interesting -- one that I would pick up if I ran across it, but I'm not sure I'm going to hunt it down.

Academy Street by Mary Costello

Academy Street is a short, introspective novel about an Irish woman's mostly sad life. Tess Lohan's mother dies when she is only eight, and the loss, coupled with her father's distance and simmering resentment at being left to raise four daughters and two sons on his own, has left its mark on Tess. As she grows up, she finds it difficult to connect with almost anyone except her sister Claire, feeling somehow detached or different from others. And she has a hard time standing up for herself, even saying what she wants. So when it is decided that she train to become a nurse, she does. And when it is decided that she will follow Claire to New York and live with her aunt, she does. And life becomes even more stressful--or boring?--when Claire and her family move to the other side of the country. Tess's life seems to become a series of losses and estrangements.

There are moments of joy in Tess's life: one great (if brief) passion; her son Theo's early years, when mother and child seem to be almost one; her unexpected friendship with a neighbor; the pleasures of reading and learning. Small joys, indeed, but enough to carry her through. Along the way, Costello takes us inside Tess's heart and mind, allowing us to eavesdrop on her quest to understand herself, her life, and those around her. The novel takes us into Tess's 60s, ending with (yes) another tragedy and more losses. But at least she seems to begin to make sense of it all.

If this sound like a bit of a downer--well, it is. On the plus side, I felt that I understood where Tess was coming from, how she thought, why she backed away from life. And the novel is beautifully written. Academy Street may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy deep character studies, you may enjoy it, as I did.

>98 Cariola: enjoyed your review. I'd not heard of Academy Street before, but I do enjoy these introspective type of novels. Might just have to go on the wish list...

Academy Street sounds interesting. I'll look for it.

Catching up and Academy Street seems to be your latest in a series of thoughful and quite lovely reviews. I don't know that i'll read it, or Odysseus Abroad, or The Book of Speculation, but you have left me with good impressions.

The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman

The Fair Fight is an excellent and highly original historical novel, beautifully written. It's set in late 18th-century England, and revolves around the daughter of a madam who becomes a female boxer (she fights only men, however). There's a lot more to the story than that, however. The novel is divided into sections told by different characters. The first is Ruth, the boxer, who describes her life in "the convent," her jealousy of her beautiful sister, her entry into the ring, and her "marriage." The second narrator is George Bowden, a handsome young man with limited prospects who is in love with more than one person. He lives off Perry Sinclair, a wealthy heir and old school chum; they are friends with Granville Dryer, a gambler who is Ruth's sponsor and her sister's "fancy man." Then there is a third narrator, Charlotte Sinclair, Perry's sad, repressed sister, a former beauty who survived the pox that killed her parents, sister, and another brother, but was left horribly scarred. I love the distinctive voices of the well-drawn characters and the way their lives keep crossing. It's a hard one to put down!

What a curious situation -- a female boxer in the 18th century. Was this some sort of odd entertainment or spectacle?

103> Yep, entertainment, usually the lead-in to the big men's boxing championship matches. But people still bet on them. The topic didn't sound particularly interesting to me, but I read a sample from Amazon and was hooked. The descriptions of Ruth's fights against men twice her size are both gripping and horrific. But, as I said above,m there's a LOT more to this novel than just the boxing. It's one of the best historical novels I've read in a long time. (Interesting, too, that the young author waitressed in The Hatchet, the pub where Ruth's fights took place, and did most of her drafting there.)

The second positive review on CR of The Fair Fight. The plot wouldn't draw me in, but your review about the writng does. Interesting about the author writing in that pub.

Yes, The Fair Fight looks interesting. Do you know whether there is any historical truth behind the character? I am reading a non-fiction book about a family in C17 England, and am surprised by some of the things which actually happened - for example, a beautiful young widow, whose family is negotiating between two Protestant noblemen to see who will get her hand, ups and runs off with a Catholic. Her family ask her if she can keep the wedding quiet until the autumn so they can let the two official suitors down gently. She replies that she will be having a baby at Christmas, so probably not! I wouldn't have believed a character like that if one had appeared in historical fiction. (Sorry, bit of a diversion).

>106 wandering_star: The main characters and events are fictionalized, but Freeman did a lot of research on boxing in the late 18th century. At one point Charlotte finds newspaper clippings of various matches in her husband's study; these are based on actual artifacts, and one of the boxers, Mr. Mendoza, is briefly a minor character in the novel. She also found material on a famous husband and wife boxing team and used accounts of the wife's matches as inspiration for Ruth's fights. And she writes that there were accounts of "ladies' boxing schools" where upper class women could engage in a little sparring.

The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace

The Painted Bridge is set in Victorian London. Anna, recently married to a much older vicar whom she barely knows, finds herself confined to a mental asylum for the supposedly crazy act of leaving home to go to the aid of shipwreck victims. No matter how hard she tries, she can't convince anyone that she is not mad. There is the usual sadistic matron, the arrogant doctors, a collection of pathetic patients, some of whom are no less mad than Anna but confined for various indiscretions. A secondary character, the asylum owner's teenage daughter Catherine, befriends Anna. It's clear that Catherine, whose "heroine" is The Fasting Girl seen at a local fair, has bona fide mental problems, including anorexia; her mother is concerned, but her father--the supposed expert on madness--is in denial. Anna's only hope for escape is a young doctor who photographs the patients, believing that these fixed portraits can reveal the true states of their minds.

Wallace creates a horrific picture of the treatment of the mentally disturbed. Along the way she examines the discrepancies in acceptable "moral" behavior for men and women at the time. Overall, this was a fairly interesting but not earthshaking read.

Several intriguing reviews, Deborah. The Fair Fight is going onto the wishlist, along with Odysseus Abroad.

The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

Well, this is one rare instance in which I think that the movie was far better than the book. The story focuses on Hassan, a young Muslim from India with a natural talent for cooking: his taste buds are "the equivalent for a chef to what perfect pitch is for a musician." After being struck by a tragedy in Mumbai, the family moves first to to London, then to Lumiere, France to open a restaurant featuring Hassan's mother's prized recipes. Unfortunately, their new place is across the street from a three-star Michelin French restaurant run by the haughty Mme. Mallory. The entire movie and a significant part of the book focus on the relationship between Hassan and Mme. Mallory, who at first tries to drive the family out of town but eventually mentors the young Indian. Even though the characters are somewhat stereotypes, I found them rather charming on film--but less so in print. And the last third of the book, when Hassan is trying to establish himself in Paris, tends to drag, and then leaps to an ending. The film's director was wise to bring back Mme. Mallory near the end and even to suggest a budding romance between her and Hassan's father. By the end of the book, however, we just find out that she is long dead. Bummer.

The Green Road by Anne Enright

In the past, I've generally found Anne Enright's novels to be rather depressing. This one, too, has its dark moments, but it also has moments of love, hope, and humor. Rosaleen, an Irish woman in her 70s, has called her four children home for Christmas, telling them that she plans to sell the family home. The chapters move amongst Rosaleen and her four children, going from past events to the present. Each has tried but found it impossible to break ties with their needy (perhaps even selfish) but distanced mother. Dan, the eldest, first declared that he wanted to join the priesthood, then moved to North America; Emmett gravitated towards humanitarian work in South Africa. And while the two daughters stayed in Ireland, Hannah moved to Dublin, married, and took up a love affair with alcohol,, and Constance, who appears to be doing the best--married to a successful man, lovely children, large house--seems to be suffering most of all from her mother's constant demands and martyr-playing.

The Green Road IS an Irish family saga, but one for modern times. It's also a deep exploration of the parent-child relationship and its lifelong consequences. Beautifully written and engaging, it has put Anne Enright back on the literary map for me.

>110 Cariola: I didn't realize there was a book behind the movie. That would explain some oddities to the plot - i mean that it seemed like a lot of plot of forced in. I'll skip the book.

>111 Cariola: i've wanted to read Enright, even if depressing. The Green Road sounds good.

I have a copy of The Gathering, but have been reluctant to start, having heard it isn't cheerful. I really liked The Forgotten Waltz, though. I'll have to read The Green Road soon.

>112 dchaikin: Dan, I think you must have this mixed up with something else. The Green Road just came out last month, so I doubt there is a movie yet. Maybe you're thinking of 'The Green Mile'?

>113 RidgewayGirl: This one was much more enjoyable than The Gathering, which IS a downer.

>114 Cariola: I was thinking about The Hundred Foot Journey, just didn't mention the title in the comment. Sorry for the confusion.

>115 dchaikin: Ack, I should have looked at the message number! The movie was way better than the book.

A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor

(No spoilers here: everything in the first paragraph you will learn in the first two or three short chapters.)

This is yet another of those novels in which women in two time frames intersect, but at least the time frames here are close enough together that some characters in each can actually meet. The stories revolve around two parallel pair of sister, one in each time period. In 1912, young Tilly Harper leaves her unhappy home in the north to take a position as housemother in a London home for disabled flower girls--poor girls who, like Eliza Doolittle, made a living selling nosegays and bouquets on London's streets. In her room, she finds a mysterious wooden box that contains, among other things, a shamrock-embroidered handkerchief, a rag doll, a collection of pressed flowers, and a journal written by former resident Flora Flynn. Reading the notebook, Tilly learns that Florrie, a crippled orphan, had never gotten over a traumatic event that happened decades earlier: while selling flowers one day, someone pulled the crutch from under her, and before Florrie could get back on her feet, her little sister Rosie, who was only four and nearly blind, had been stolen away. Florrie's sad notebook details her lifelong search for Rosie and the hole left in her heart by her sister's disappearance. Coincidentally, Tilly also has a disabled sister, but she and Esther are far from devoted to one another. As the story develops, we learn what happened to Esther and how Tilly's family was affected by this tragedy and by her the earlier death of her father, who was serving the queen in South Africa.

Gaynor does an excellent job of weaving together the stories of these sisters, contrasting them while reconciling their differences. She also creates a realistic view of the London streets and, through extensive research, the charitable institution set up to provide orphaned and disabled flower girls with a safe haven and meaningful work. The writing sometimes falls into the prosaic, and there may be one or two coincidences too many in the plotline, but the story and characters are interesting enough that these minor flaws may be overlooked. Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about late Victorian London life.

We That Are Left by Clare Clark

I had a very hard time getting into this book, mainly because I just didn't care about any of the hothouse characters. They were more than odd, they were all spoiled, self-centered, obsessive, and mean, whether children or adults. I know the author meant to portray an upper crust family, but I really don't want to read about people that I dislike so much. It also bothered me that they seemed to be drawn not from Downton Abbey, as one reader suggested, but from Ian McEwan's Atonement (even though the latter's setting began just prior to World War II). And there was way too much detailed description of THINGS! I kept waiting for something to happen or for the characters to get more interesting. For me, neither ever happened. Very dry. If I want to get the flavor of World War I and its effect on England, I'll go back to Pat Barker's Regeneration series, or even Mrs. Dalloway. This was just plain boring, in my opinion.

The Americans by Chitra Viraraghavan

This was an ambitious project--in fact, maybe a bit TOO ambitious. I usually enjoy novels about Asian immigrants, and I usually enjoy novels with multiple narrators whose stories are woven together. The main issue I had with this book is that there are too many narrators, and the very brief chapters devoted to each were not enough to develop strong characters and keep my interest. If I put the book down for a day or two, I had difficulty remembering who was who. Was it Kamala or Kavita who was the doctor? Which one's father was visiting, and what was his name? Why is this character's name CLN and what does it mean again? Is it Rangi or Ranjan who is married to Kavita? Shoshanna--wait, that's not an Indian name. Oh, she must be part of Ariel's story, the sole immigrant who isn't from India. And don't even ask me about all those men connected to the gangster who enslaves women like Pink Girl. You get the point. There are links between some of the stories: Tara is Kamala's sister, and she meets CLN on the plane; CLN is Kavita's father; Ariel works as a house cleaner for Kamala. But sometimes these links feel forced for the sake of an overly complicated plot outline. I also felt like some of the characters were stale old stereotypes--for example, the teenage daughter who rolls her eyes at everyone and everything Indian because she wants to be 100% American; the wise, kindly grandpa who knows all and forgives all; the self-involved career woman; etc. With so many stories going at once, how does one come up with a satisfactory ending? That's something I don't feel the author has quite figured out. Some seemed forced, others just petered out. While I can't say I hated this book, I sure didn't love it. Much of the time I found myself irritated with the stereotypes, stilted dialogue, and confusion. Comparisons to the work of Jhumpa Lahiri are way off the mark.

Catching up on your reviews. It looks like some interesting reading.

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone.

In the 13th century, four sisters from Provence made advantageous marriages, and each ended up a queen. The eldest, Marguerite, married the heir to the French throne, Louis IX, when she was only 13. It wasn't until the death of her domineering mother-in-law that she was able to exert her influence over her weak-willed husband. Eleanor became the wife of the English king, Henry III and helped to mastermind a series of wars and peace treaties. After several engagements were broken off for better prospects, Sanchia, reportedly the most beautiful, married Richard of Cornwall, a much older widower who was Henry's brother and reportedly the wealthiest man in England. When he literally bought the position of King of the Romans (Germany), she, too, became a queen. Beatrice, the last sister, wed Charles of Anjou, the ambitious brother of Louis XI, who managed to secure an Italian crown.

Historian Nancy Goldstone details the personal and political lives of these influential women, the courts in which they thrived, and the wars (including the Crusades) and manipulations in which they became involved. While we often tend to think of medieval royal women as little more than baby machines or inspiration for minstrels, each of these sisters played an active role in the workings of her husband's kingdom. It's a fascinating story--even if it does sometimes get a bit bogged down in battle details and confused by multiple occurences of the same or similar names. A few readers on Amazon complain that there are historical inaccuracies; I really wouldn't know, but often "inaccuracies" end up being a different interpretation of players and events. I enjoyed the books and think anyone with an interest in medieval women and/or politics would probably like it as well.

>121 Cariola: I'm adding Four Queens. Interesting times.

>121 Cariola: This sounds interesting! Great review.

The Vizard Mask by Diana Norman

Although this was an VERY long historical novel and (it took me over a month to finish it), I loved every minute of it. Diana Norman takes a spin off Restoration actress Margaret Hughes and creates a fascinating portrait of London under Charles II, James II, and William and Mary. The novel is peppered with characters drawn from life: poet and playwright Aphra Behn, who becomes a close friend of the main character; Prince Rupert, to whom she becomes mistress; the Earl of Rochester, one of her patrons; the actor Thomas Betterton; General John Churchill, poet John Dryden, and many more.

The novel begins when Penitence Hurd, a 17-year old Puritan born in the colonies, arrives in London. Circumstances have caused her to flee her home and go in search of her aunt, the black sheep of the family. Penitence is dismayed to learn that her aunt runs the Cock and Bull, a flourishing brothel, but, having no place else to go, she agrees to stay and work as a seamstress. The story takes off as the Great Plague of 1666 begins to decimate the neighborhood. As it follows the twists and turns of Penitence's life, it takes us to the stage and the court; to the Somerset countryside and Newgate prison; through the decadent reign of Charles II, the Bloody Assizes that followed Monmouth's rebellion, and the Glorious Revolution. It's a huge landscape, but Norman's wonderful eye for detail and her indomitable main character make the journey through it so worth the effort.

Norman is a new author to me. Unfortunately, she has passed away, but she left a treasury of novels over the years, both under her own name and her pen name, Ariana Franklin. (The 'Mistress of the Art of Death' series was published under that name; I'm less interested in this mystery series.) Although Norman's novels are often referred to as Historical Romances--and there is a slight romance woven into the storyline here that gets put on hold for 20 years but wraps up in the end--, it's the thrilling, solid history that shines through The Vizard Mask. I can't wait to read more of Diana Norman's work!

That's interesting - I have enjoyed the Mistress of the Art of Death books and was sorry that there are only four of them. I will have to look for the historical novels. This one sounds like a good place to start - Prince Rupert, the Earl of Rochester and Aphra Behn, what a great cast of characters!

The Vizard Mask sounds good!

126> I may give the series a try later on, but I find that mysteries usually tend to focus more on plot than on depth of character.

Norman fictionalized an early life for the actress Peg (Margaret) Hughes, but a lot of the later episodes were based on fact. She was Rupert's mistress and did have his daughter, for one thing. And he did buy her a house in Hammersmith (then out in the country) and left her most of his fortune in his will.

Since I love long historical novels, I'll have to give Diana Norman a try.

Galore by Michael Crummey

I'm glad that I didn't read any reviews of this book before I started it; if I had, I probably would never have picked it up. I'm not a fan of so-called "magical realism" and likely would never use that term to describe Michael Crummey's Galore. Yes, it has its mystical components, but they are well woven into the traditions, history, and lore of Paradise Deep, the remote Newfoundland fishing village in which the novel is set. This is a huge multi-generational saga focused on the conflicts and convergences of two extended families, the Devines and the Sellerses. A word of advice: I listened to the book on audio, and while John Lee is one of my favorite narrators and did a wonderful job with this material, I might have enjoyed the book more had I read it in print. I found myself floundering at times to remember exactly who the characters were and how they were related, wishing that I had some kind of family tree or cast of characters to help me out. (I understand that there is such a family tree in the print version.)

If you've read other reviews, you know that the novel opens with the residents of Paradise Deep gathered on shore to harvest a whale, and when they cut into its belly, a pale young man emerges, half-dead. Taken in and brought back to health by the the matriarch of the Devine family, he is named Judah, and he becomes legendary for the whiteness of his skin and hair and for the smell of decaying fish about him that can't be washed away. Judah never complains--in fact, never speaks--whether he is being accused of a crime that he did not commit, married off to the Widow Devine's granddaughter, sent out to sea with the fishing crews, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, or committed to a lunatic's cell.

But Judah is only one of the fascinating characters whose stories spin out in Galore and its series of feuds between Anglican and Catholic, rich and poor, union members and company bosses, accusers and accused, ghosts and the living, husbands and wives, and more. Crummy's eye for description and detail and his unique yet realistic characters draw the reader into the world of Paradise Deep and the dilemmas faced by its inhabitants. It is a world that I hope he will allow us to visit once again in another novel.

The character I found most intriguing was Newman, a young Connecticut doctor who signs and perennially renews a contract to serve the people of Paradise Deep. On his first day, he falls madly in love with Bride, a pregnant young woman about to be married who has come to request that all her teeth be pulled. Newman hides his passion for years, seeing Bride through a difficult childbirth and waiting well beyond her widowing to speak of his feelings. He is both an outsider and a fixture of the town as the years proceed, and his insights as both allow the reader a fuller assessment of the inhabitants.

If you are a fan of multi-generational sagas, as I am, you will enjoy meeting the Sellerses, the Devines, and their neighbors and watching the progress of their lives and families. I'm looking forward to reading more of Crummey's work!

>130 Cariola: thank you for the warning on the audio version, Debirah. I also like John Lee's narration, and have been contemplating the audio version of Galore. I'll look for the print version instead.

>131 NanaCC: You're welcome, Colleen. I think you'll enjoy the book--and maybe a second 'reading' on audio once you've read it in print.

>130 Cariola: Definitely one of my all time favourite books, one which I would like to see have a broader readership. I read the print version, but it might be interesting to listen to the audio too, however the reader would have to have the right accent. I should check the library for an audio version.

Had never heard of Crummey before Sassy's post on Hard Light. Now here he is again. Intrigued. (>133 SassyLassy: one of my all time favourite books - very intrigued)

>133 SassyLassy: John Lee is an excellent reader; his parents are Irish but he was raised in England--great accent, not too broad, and, I think, fairly appropriate for the mostly Irish-born, Irish-descended Newfoundlanders in the novel. My only problem with the audiobook was keeping the huge cast of characters straight. I will have to look into Hard Light.

I'll look for Galore. Good review!

>136 RidgewayGirl: Thanks! I think you'd enjoy this one.

Great review of Galore, Deborah! I'll add it to my wish list.

ETA: The Kindle e-book is on sale at Amazon US for $3.99, so I just purchased it.

Thanks, Darryl. I now own a copy.

>138 kidzdoc: Thanks--I passed that sale price on to a few bookish friends!

>135 Cariola: John Lee sounds like someone who could read it well. Thanks for posting that.

>141 SassyLassy: John Lee and Samuel West are my all-time favorite readers!

A Catch of Consequence by Diana Norman

I really enjoyed The Vizard Mask by Diana Norman, so I was eager to try more of her work. This one is the first in a trilogy that revolves around Makepeace Burke, a tavern owner in colonial Boston. On the night after riots in opposition to the Stamp Act, Makepeace launches out from her dock to pick up traps and finds instead a drowning man. As a good Christian, she feels compelled to pull him from the water and bring him home to nurse back to health, but his dress identifies him as an English aristocrat--a dangerous man to have in her house in dangerous times, especially since Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty use her tavern as a meeting place. Romance, of course, ensues. Events force Makepeace to sail for England, along with her brother Aaron, an aspiring actor, her mute Indian servant, her black housekeeper Betty, and Betty's son, Josh.

Things get better for Makepeace. Then things get worse--much worse. And soon the romance becomes a tale of survival for the sake of revenge. Makepeace is a survivor, and she survives solely on her wits and the strength of her hatred. While what happens to Makepeace, both in America and even more so in England, is truly horrific, her monomaniacal lust for revenge blinds her to any kindness and starts to make her a bit unlikable. Near the end, Norman goes into a blatant and annoying feminist rant about how women who have business smarts should not be held back because of their gender. I'm all for that sentiment, but it could have been handled more subtly.

As you can probably tell, I didn't enjoy this novel as much as the previous one, and I'm less eager to get to the next two in the Makepeace series. I may go back to another Norman novel, Blood Royal first.

Neverhome by Laird Hunt

There is much to admire about Neverhome: the lyrical prose, the sensitivity to women's issues, the message of war's dehumanizing influence, etc. The basic premise is that the young Thompsons feel an obligation to fight for the Union, but since Bartholomew is "too soft" and would likely end up killed, Constance dresses as a man, takes the name of Ash, and signs up. It's a situation not unheard of, though most women disguised as male to accompany their husbands into battle. "Gallant Ash" is an expert rifleman and soon learns to kill with no remorse. There's a horrific scene in which she "disguises" as a woman and enters a cabin to bash in one man's head with a jug and shoot his companions in the head--and this is the first of many such incidents. In letters home to Bartholomew, we learn how they fell in love; and we suspect that her inability to give birth to a child caused an estrangement--a sense of personal failure--that hastened her march to war. In time, Ash's true gender is discovered, and she is confined to a mental asylum. By then, this reader had begun to wonder if there was more than the "craziness" of a woman going to war that put here there: Ash has come across as a disturbed person through a series of surrealistic dreams and conversations with her dead mother, not to mention some questionable decisions and actions. As others have mentioned, the novel's conclusion isn't the happy, expected one, but its disturbing nature is a fitting end to the bitter cruelty that Constance/Ash has suffered and caused.

What I found somewhat annoying was that I never got a clear sense of exactly WHY Constance felt the need to go to war, and it didn't make a lot of sense when I started asking myself questions, like how did Bartholomew get out of being conscripted, and how he managed the farm on his own if he was such a weakling, and why his neighbors didn't question where his wife had gone. So for me, this book ended up as an interesting psychological study of one character and a devastating look at the effects of war.

Neverhome sounds pretty good. Great review.

The Point of Vanishing by Howard Axelrod

I don't often read memoirs, but this one sounded interesting. I was particularly drawn to the idea of someone isolating with nature--and in the beautiful woods of Vermont, no less--to gain insight and wisdom. Howie Axelrod seemed to have everything: loving parents, good friends, a scholarship to travel in Italy, a talent for writing, and he was about to enter his senior year at Harvard. But a freak accident during a pick-up game of basketball left him blind in one eye, and his world changed. As a lot of people (including, I think, myself) would do, Howie puts on a stoic, "I'm fine" face in public. But his descriptions of adjusting to the blindness tell another story. For one thing, he has lost all sense of depth perception--which, in turn, leads him to start feeling awkward around other people, even family. He retreats to a house far out in the Vermont woods for two years in an effort to find himself, feel comfortable with his body, search for meaning.

I was captivated by the first third of the book, but then I started to get bored. This is not Henry David Thoreau. For one thing, Howie doesn't REALLY isolate: he has phone access and speaks with family and friends fairly often; he has Nat, who comes to remove the snow; he goes into town to shop and have lunch at a diner, where he meets and befriends the British owner and her teenaged daughter; he goes home for Thanksgiving. (One of the things he learns is that he really needs other people.) And the "into nature" plot is fairly skimpy. He meditates on snails, then feels triumphant when he crushes an especially large one with his bicycle. He watches chickadees, but not so much for their beauty and habits as for the way he perceives their shadows.

And I really found the idealized descriptions of his Italian girlfriend annoying. These parts of the book really highlighted the adolescent self-absorption that other readers have noted.

The book might appeal more to regular readers of memoirs or to those with more interest in coming-of-age stories. And that's not me.

Intriguing reviews. Galore sounds quite wonderful.

The Madness of Love by Katherine Davies

I wasn't sure quite what to expect of this short novel made up of short chapters headed by rotating character's names: Fitch, Melody, Leo, Boares, Valentina, Jonathan. It started out with a good deal of sadness: Melody's brother has committed suicide, Leo loves but is spurned by Melody, Valentina's brother has broken a promise, Fitch hopelessly crushes on his teacher, etc. It took me awhile before I remembered that I had bought the book because it was promoted as a modern-day riff on Twelfth Night--and then I got it! Suddenly it became less tragic and more comic, a romp in which everyone was in love with the wrong person for the wrong reasons. Leo, the rich amateur musician who lives in a castle-like mansion, loves Melody because he has always loved Melody and can't imagine being matched with anyone else (he's the Orsino figure). Like Shakespeare's Olivia, Melody mourns a brother who has drowned and falls in love with another woman (Valentina)--only here there is no confusion of gender. Valentina, whose brother has sailed off to their childhood home in Sri Lanka despite a promise that they would go together, is hired by Leo to landscape his garden--and falls hopelessly in love with him. Melody's students, led by Fitch, play the roles of Feste and his crew; they torment the stuffy Mr. Boares (aka Malvolio). Davies doesn't hesitate to deviate from the original plot, enough to make her novel intriguing rather than solely derivative while retaining those "aha!" moments of recognition.

Overall, a light, fun read for the end of summer.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

I really enjoyed Tove Jansson's novel The True Deceiver and really wanted to like this one as well, but it just didn't click with me, and I'm not entirely sure why. Well, for one thing, books that focus on children don't often interest me, unless the main character is a child I can relate to. This is a quiet, uneventful little book about a girl visiting her grandmother, who lives on a Scandinavian island, for the summers after her mother's death. That's pretty much it. Yes, the grandmother sometimes says wise things. And yes, the girl learns about nature and life. And yes, they form a relationship. But that's it. Maybe I was in the mood for something else, maybe I was looking too hard for some kind of philosophical truth beneath the surface. Whatever the reason, it just didn't grab me

For those who are interested, it's semi-autobiographical, and this edition includes family photographs of the author's niece Sophie and her grandmother on the island..

Sorry The Summer Book didn't click with you. I loved it -- but then all my grandmothers and great-grandmothers were Swedes.

>150 janeajones: Not a Swede, not a grandmother. :(

Blood Royal by Diana Norman

This is the third novel I've read by Diana Norman over the past few months. It's set in England in the early 18th century, when George I, a German cousin of the late Queen Anne, was the first Hanoverian king and Jacobite plotting was still in full swing. Lady Cecily Fitzhenry is dragged into a plot to free her uncle, an ailing and imprisoned Jacobite. When her role is discovered, Prime Minister Robert Walpole works to bring about her ruin by marrying her off to an elderly sycophant and confiscating all of her property. From that point on, Cecily's sole purpose in life is to bring down Walpole. Of course, she is bolstered by dreams of the young man she fell in love with at first sight, her uncle's cellmate, who had promised to return to her from exile in Barbados.

As is typical of Norman's novels, this one rambles all over the place--but not without design. Cecily runs from debtor's prison to running a country tavern, from partnering with a highwayman to plotting with Jacobites for the return of James Stuart, all the while intent on destroying Walpole. Circumstances--primarily Walpole's outrageous legal acts--and life outside of London cause her to begin to empathize with the common man's (and woman's) plight. And of course, she finds love along the way (but not iwhere she initially expected).

The novel is well-written and well researched, although Norman takes a few liberties with chronology for the sake of telling a good tale. She has created some fine, engaging characters, including not only Cecily but also her sister-in-law Dolly, the part-time highwayman Tyler, the lawyer Cameron, and others. This isn't the best of Norman's novels that I've read so far (that would be The Vizard Mask, by a mile), but it was still an enjoyable read.

Thirteen Ways of Looking: Fiction by Colum McCann

I have had mixed feelings about McCann's work: some I have absolutely loved (Transatlantic), some not so much (Dancer). Those feelings culminated in his new collection. Initially, I wasn't too impressed with it, but, as another reviewer wrote, I found myself thinking about the stories long after finishing them and having phrases and images pop back to mind unexpectedly. That's the sign of powerful writing. It was also a little hard to put aside the title's allusion and to avoid looking for links to the components of fiction as a craft and art. The first story, a novella of the same title told in thirteen segments (each headed by a short verse including blackbirds), quite obviously focused on perspective: the perspectives of the various cameras recording the last day of Judge Mendelssohn's life and those of the detectives who review them; the judge's own perspectives on the past and the present and the people around him; the objective narrator's perspective of the police questioning process; etc. I have to admit that this piece did not engage me as much as others, mainly because it seemed too much like an intentional and rather heavy-handed experiment in fiction. The second story, "What Time Is It Now, Where Are You?," seemed to continue this pattern. It is not so much the story of Sandi, a woman serving in Afghanistan, and her night on voluntary guard duty, as the story of the writer creating her story, who keeps asking himself questions as he develops character background and plot. I had read the third story, "Sh'khol," before, as an Amazon Exclusive, and was as moved by it the second time as the first. A divorced woman who translates Hebrew literature is spending Christmas in her new Galway cottage with her son, a child adopted from the Balkans who is afflicted with fetal alcohol syndrome, when a potential tragedy occurs. McCann plumbs the depths of her strengths and her failures, her sadness and her joy in a way that few others writers can do. At this point, my attention moved away from the mechanics of fiction, getting thoroughly involved in the story. The final piece, "Treaty," seems to return ever so slightly to that structure, focusing on the themes of forgiveness and acceptance when Beverly, a 76-year old nun who years ago was captured and abused by a Central American rebel, believes that she sees the man in a broadcast report on peace treaty negotiations and flies to London to confront him. It's a difficult task to write of such horrific things and to find the right tone for describing the process of becoming--and always being--a victim, but McCann is up to it, perhaps due, in part, to his own recent experience of being attacked on the street when he tried to help a woman who was being beaten.

So, in the process of reading, feeling, thinking about this book, my rating changed from an initial 3 stars to 4.5. It's not unflawed, but it is indeed beautifully written, and it did, indeed, get me to consider the situations described from varying perspectives while admiring the force of a powerful writer.

Enjoyed you review of Thirteen ways of Looking: Fiction. A great title for a collection of short stories.

I loved Let the Great World Spin but curiously haven't felt interested in reading more by McCann. Your review might make me change my mind.

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

Atkinson's Life after Life was one of my top five novels a few years back. It's series of "What ifs" in the life of Ursula Todd, born in the 1910s: what if Ursula had been stillborn or lived into old age, married or never married, stayed in England or spent years in pre-war Germany, etc. To me, it seemed as much an exercise in writing--what an author decides to do with his or character and plot--as the kind of spiritual quest others have suggested. A God in Ruins tells the story of Ursula's youngest brother, Teddy, who we know from the earlier book was a heroic RAF fighter pilot during World War II. (If, like me, you read the first book several years ago, you'll begin by questioning your memory about what happened to Teddy there . . . ) Here, Atkinson gives us another "What if"--but only one, and that comprises the bulk of the novel. The novel moves back and forth through time, from Teddy's wartime experiences to the early years of marriage and fatherhood, on into old age and, finally, death in 2012. He's a likable character, a decent man who cares deeply about the men in his crew and his family, continually trying to put things right without offending anyone. Most touching is his relationship with his two grandchildren, neglected by a mother who blames every flaw in her character and misadventure in her life on the fact that her own mother died when she was nine. Some chapters are devoted not to Teddy but to Viola, his only child, and her treks through commune life, drugs, several marriages, novel writing, and failed motherhood, and a few focus on Teddy's grandchildren, Bertie and Sunny. As other reviewers have mentioned, Atkinson also gives us through Teddy a detailed inside look at the experiences of war, particularly those of a bomber crew captain.

While I liked this book well enough, it can't compare to its predecessor. I can't really explain why without giving away too much of Atkinson's "surprise" ending, but for me, the "what if" just didn't work and was totally unnecessary. This could as easily--and perhaps better--have been a stand-alone novel about someone NOT a member of the Todd family. And I found some of the spiritual speculation in the last pages a bit heavy-handed and forced (not to mention irritating). Still, putting that aside, the book is well written, the characters well drawn, and the main story fairly engaging.

>156 Cariola: Really great comments. I loved Life After Life but I have little interest in this one. Part of it might be that I didn't find Teddy all that interesting (although he was likeable), and probably more so because I'm just done with WWII.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

It has been many years since I've read a novel by Anne Tyler. I read Breathing Lessons shortly after it first came out and read almost all of the books she wrote in the next few years. But by the time I got to Ladder of Years, it started to seem like I was reading the same book over and over--the same character types, same focus on family dynamics, often even the same setting--, so I stopped. Returning to Tyler's work after an almost 20 year absence, I find that her latest, A Spool of Blue Thread, is pretty much more of the same. The story is told in four sections, one very long one that takes up about 3/4 of the book, and three short ones. The focus is the Whitshank family, led by Red and Abby, who are in their 70s, and their four grown children. Red's father Junior worked hard, moving from his roots in poverty to ownership of a successful construction company. As a struggling contractor, Junior had built the house of his dreams--for another family, however, and they had many specifications that Junior considered mistakes. The house came up for sale after Junior's business began to succeed, and he bought the house and made changes to suit his ideal home. When Junior and his wife Linnie were killed in an accident, Red Whitshank took over both the business. His adopted son Stem and daughter Jeannie now work for him, second daughter Amanda has married well, and son Denny, well, he's pretty much a drifter. The house on Bouton Street is the novel's main locale and a kind of character itself as the various Whitshanks, their memories, their secrets, and their conflicts keep returning to it.

I enjoyed the initial long section, even if much of it was exposition explaining the history of the house, of Linnie and Junior, of Red and Abby's courtship and marriage, of Stem's adoption, Denny's emotional issues, etc. I think what Tyler was trying to do was to clarify all these various "family stories" and the characters' different perspectives under one roof. But the three shorter sections seemed tagged on, maybe even unnecessary. The first simply retells in detail Abby's story (mentioned so frequently in the beginning section that it has become a family joke) of the day she first fell in love with Red. The next explains why, perhaps, the family knew so little about its idealized patriarch and matriarch, Junior and Linnie, and the last focuses on Denny, who in the end is both changed and unchanged but at peace with himself and his family.

On the basis of the first section alone, I would have given this book 4 stars, but in the end, those weaker sections and their stereotypical characters, dropped my rating to a three.

Oh, good comments. I came to Anne Tyler very late. I read Digging to America when it first came out and liked it a lot. Then I read Ladder of Years, which I was fascinated by and disappointed with all together (liked the subject, didn't like what she did with it). Then I read -- about a million years after it finally dropped off the best seller lists -- The Accidental Tourist, and it seemed both dated and repetitive. When this latest came out and hit the prize lists I wondered if I had to go revisit her. Glad to know I don't, but then again, if I'm snowed in to a cabin with nothing to do, this book will entertain me well enough.

>159 Nickelini: That's a pretty good way to sum up my recommendation to read this one!

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas

I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year in hopes of pushing myself to set aside the research on my own novel and to start writing the story instead. I watched a NaNoWriMo webinar in which one of the authors recommended this book and the workbook of the same title. Both were already on my shelf, so I decided that reading it might be a good way to get going. Maas is both a writer and an agent, and he provides guidelines for what he feels is essential to any novel written for today's market (meaning both readers and publishers). While I can't say that I learned anything earthshaking or terribly new here ,the book is well organized and full of well-chosen examples to explain the points the author is making. I had been floundering with several structural and narrative issues, and Maas's text helped me begin working through them. I found myself thinking of my novel as more of a a whole piece--a unified work rather than scattered thought. I still have a lot of questions, but perhaps the workbook, which I plan to start tomorrow, will help with answering those as well.

>158 Cariola: Like you, it's been many years (in fact, decades) since I read any Anne Tyler. Not sure I'm up for reading her now . . .

A Pledge of Better Times by Margaret Porter

This novel is based on the life of Lady Diana De Vere. At the age of twelve, she was caught stealing flowers in the king's garden--by Charles II himself. Fortunately, he is charmed by the girl and introduces her to his two sons, born from his long affair with actress Nell Gwyn. The author takes us through the last years of Charles's reign and through the Glorious Revolution that deposed his brother James II and put William and Mary on the throne, on through the reign of Queen Anne, and finally into the beginning years of the first King George. Unfortunately, what could have been an intriguing political story soon becomes a run-of-the-mill romance. Without her knowledge, Diana's father arranges her marriage to Charles and Nell's son (the Duke of St. Alban's), but he sets one condition: Charles must first win Diana's love. He does this pretty easily, and most of the rest of the book tells about her little crises of doubt in his love and the usual romantic glop.

The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Safak

I don't usually review books that I haven't finished, but I'm making an exception for this one. Let me start by saying that: 1) I was listening to the audio version; 2) I hate magical realism or anything that smacks of it; 3) I don't usually like books told by child or teenage narrators. When every time I listen to (or read) a book and keep hoping it's going to get better or that it will end soon--well, life is just too short for that. So it's a matter of taste, in the long run: I'm just giving my opinion, but don't take my word for it. The book has gotten some good reviews, so if you think you'd like it, be my guest. But when I checked today to see how far along I was in the book and saw that I had listened to it for more than six hours but had more than ten to go, I returned it to audible (something I rarely do). If I learned anything, it's that I can only take so much elephant training. And I find it particularly irritating when writers of books set in any country with sultans and palaces adopt this weird, naive voice, as if every story with this setting has to sound like 'Arabian Nights.' This was especially disappointing as I really liked Honor by the same author.

(I don't think I've ever counted a book I haven't finished towards my goal of 75, but this was such a long and painful read for me, one that took me away from a lot of other books that yes, I'm counting it!)

Did You Ever Have a Family? by Bill Clegg

This is a very moving and insightful novel about the ways that people deal with grief and the bonds between them. On the night before her daughter's wedding, June Reid's Connecticutt house bursts into flames, killing her daughter Lolly, Lolly's fiancé Will, her ex-husband, and her current boyfriend: only June, who had fallen asleep in the wedding tent, survives. After the funerals, June gets into Will's car and heads for small town in Washington state where he grew up and where he and Lolly had spent a particularly happy vacation. The story shifts among a number of characters and their perspectives: June herself; Lydia, the mother of June's boyfriend, Luke; Silas, a teenager who worked for Luke; Will's parents; Kelly and Rebecca, owners of the hotel June lands in; Will's parents; George, the father Luke never knew; and Cissy, who knew Will as a boy, works for Kelly and Rebecca, and later befriends June. While this is a sad story of grief, loss, and regrets, it isn't totally bleak. There are plenty of good memories, and the connections, caring, and forgiveness between these interconnected people lift the novel high above the gloom. It's beautifully written, and Clegg gradually releases clues to what really happened as the characters gain insight into themselves. The book has been on several prize lists, and deservedly so. Highly recommended.

Simon's Cat: Off to the Vet . . . and Other Cat-astrophes by Simon Tofield

I've been a big fan of Simon Tofield's animated series for years--he really knows cats and cat behavior, and these shorts get me laughing every time. This is the latest book based on his cat's adventures. About 1/5 of it deals with going to the vet; the other cartoons explore Simon's cat's relationships with a kitten, a grumpy neighbor, various dogs, windows, boxes, toys, food, and, of course, Simon. A delight for cat-lovers, it would make an excellent gift! If you've never seen the animated shorts, you can find them on YouTube. Enjoy!

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

Well, I'm going to have to step outside of the majority on this one, at least in part. Let me begin by saying that there is much to admire about Berlin's style: tight, compact stories; a way with metaphors that become a kind of shorthand; a knack for tossing off a startling sentence in unexpected places; some very intriguing characters; and a way of ending a story that leaves an impact, without wrapping it up with a bow on top or letting it wander off into nothingness. I really enjoyed the first third of the collection, but then I got bored, and the reason was the repetitious content. I just got tired of reading about alcoholics, drug addicts, lousy husbands/boyfriends, negligent mothers, and sisters dying of cancer. Don't get me wrong: I'm no Pollyanna, and I don't expect stories to always end happily ever after (that would bore me, too). I'm not saying that this isn't real life for some people, nor that these stories didn't develop complex relationships. I'm simply saying that I got bored and had a VERY hard time finishing the collection. I would give it a 4.5 on style and a 2.5 on content, hence the 3.5 star rating.

The Pretender's Lady by Alan Gold

This historical novel focuses on Flora McDonald, the young Scottish woman known for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to the rugged Isle of Skye months after his defeat at Culloden, the prince disguised as a seamstress. Much of the story is familiar, but Gold has spun a brief romance between Flora and Charlie during the escape--one that resulted in a son whose true identity was hidden. At least until Flora decides to use his paternity to halt the rising American Revolution. The story is far-fetched (her grandson even meets Napoleon . . . ) and a bit too romancey for my taste. But I'll give him some points for creating a lively character in Flora and for his depictions of the rugged Scottish countryside.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles.

This book's title, News of the World, comes from the occupation of it's main character, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who travels from town to town in North Texas, charging a small admission for people to hear him read the news. At one stop, he is asked by an Indian agent to take on the task of returning a 10-year old girl, Johanna Leonburger, to her nearest relations; she had been captured by Kiowa four years earlier when raiders killed the rest of her family. She wants nothing more than to escape and return to the Kiowa; she remembers nothing of white society and speaks neither English nor German. On their journey, they run into people both good and evil. What kept me involved was the growing trust and affection between the Captain and Johanna and the way they worked as a team to defeat their enemies and overcome obstacles.

This short book (only about 200 pages) was a great choice for reading during holiday travel.

Artful by Ali Smith

I wasn't sure quite what to expect from this book, and now that I've finished it, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. As other readers have suggested, it's the kind of book that you probably need to read more than once to fully appreciate. The book is based on four lectures given by Smith on art and literature that are woven into a loose plot: a grieving woman tries to connect with her deceased lover through her books and writings. There are plenty of keen insights into how art in its various forms (including written art) works, and Smith makes some fascinating connections between well-known and lesser known poems, novels, essays, and short stories. But at the end, I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the structure and the sheer numbers of literary references and quoted passages.

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

Much as I love cats, this book did nothing for me. The narrator, a thirty-something writer, and his wife rent a guest house on a large Japanese estate. They are visited by a neighbor's cat, whom they call Chibi. The wife gets attached to the cat and gets upset when it goes to other homes. About 2/3 through the book, it gets hit by a car and dies. The wife is depressed. Lots of esoteric discussions about ownership, attachments, art, light, angles, landscaping, etc. Blah, blah, blah. Whatever the author was trying to achieve, it didn't work for me.