A Work in Progress

A Few (More ) Good (Library) Books 2

I tried very hard after work to come away from the public library with so many good, new books that I wouldn't even be able to carry them all.  This is my solution to itchy fingers ready to go shopping and buy books!  I still have gift certificates, but it is still only January, and I really do need to try and pace myself!  I'm afraid I only came away with two.  That is always the way it happens--I want to find good books with nothing in particular in mind, and nothing calls out to me.  I go to pick up books that are on hold (and for a while there, there would be a stack of them each time I went), and I find even more books that I want.  Maybe it is the time of year.  The new bookshelves were just pathetically empty.  There was really nothing brand new--everyone has them on hold or checked out I guess!  So it was just the same old stuff that I have seen so many times before.

I did find two possibilities.  I have heard about or seen mentioned Marina Lewycka's book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian so many times, that I just thought it would not be for me--I don't know..maybe it was that tractor on the cover...who knows.  But I finally picked it up and read the opening paragraph:

"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamerous blond Ukrainian divorcee.  He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six.  She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

Okay.  I'm curious now!  Sometimes when a book gets so much press I tend to write it off without really ever giving it a chance.  So, I'm giving it a chance!  My other choice was a novel by Sarah Stonich, The Ice Chorus.  I have read her earlier novel, These Granite Islands, which I enjoyed.  The other selling point was it is set in Ireland, one of my favorite places!  I guess I will have to go back to requesting books online to get the newly arrived stuff!

Since I am on the topic of public libraries, our own Omaha Public Library Director, Rivkah Sass, was chosen as Librarian of the Year, and she is on the cover of the current issue of Library Journal. The public libraries here in Omaha have fallen on some very rough times these past few years--major budget cuts being one of the biggest problems.  But she is working hard to make them successful again!!  Kudos to Rivkah!

Who Will Be Watching?

Who will be watching this weekend's Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Bleak House by Charles Dickens?  I have to thank my stitching friend, Ashleigh for the heads up on this one, as I have not been watching much TV at all lately, and I didn't realize this was going to be shown soon.  I have not read any Dickens at all (yes, another big author I have managed to not read--but I find I really like Victorian writers, so I plan to remedy this).  I guess I won't get Bleak House read before Sunday (the first show airs on January 22--this Sunday night), but I still plan on watching all the episodes (there will be six).  I was looking at the MT website, and I must say this has quite an extensive cast of characters.  I think Patricia was reading this--I will have to search around on her blog and see what she thinks of it.  After reading Wilkie Collins I think I like these sort of sprawling Victorian dramas.  I may have to just go out and buy this one very soon!

I had mentioned yesterday that I had checked out Elliot Perlman's Seven Types of Ambiguity.  I know I shouldn't have as I already have too many books going at once, but I started reading this tonight.  I think it is going to be good.  At least I keep wanting to pick it back up, which is a good sign.  It looks as though there is an online discussion on this one going on at Classical Home, which I discovered through Susan.  I have only started the book, and I am sure I will be reading it for a while, but I will have to look in on the discussion and see what everyone thinks about it.  I have also started working on the book club selection (Reading Matters) in earnest.  We are reading Fall on Your Knees by Anne-Marie MacDonald.  There was a great book quote in there that I will have to share, but I have to say I find the two main characters (thus far) rather unlikeable.  That is okay, I plan on pressing on, as they are going to have four daughters, and I think the story is really going to be more about sisterhood.  I guess I will find out.  I have also gotten back to Georgie Amberson (another annoying character),  in The Magnificent Ambersons, as well as Emma in Madame Bovary.   As you can see it can be hard to decide sometimes which book to pick up and read! 

A Few Good (Library) Books

Some nice things about working in a library:  I get to see all the new books that come in--as I work in the order department, and my job is...well...ordering books.  I also get to see lots of catalogs (so I can add yet more books to my endless list of interesting titles I plan on reading someday).  I spotted a new Marge Piercy book earlier this week, Sex Wars: A Novel of the Turbulent Post-Civil War Period, which I had routed to me.  I have read a couple of things by Piercy, and this one sounded interesting (suffragettes and all that good stuff).  Quite often we also have books other bloggers (like Susan ) have mentioned that also sound interesting--(enter stage left), Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman, On Beauty by Zadie Smith, and 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley (and I am #2 on the waiting list for the--overdue copy--of Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion--much better than the public library where I am #46).  I can also ILL books that we don't have (keep in mind this is an academic library so we don't necessarily have lots of straight fiction--unless it is Literary Stuff), such as Jonatha Ceely's Bread and Dreams, which I whipped right through, and can now confidently return before its due date.  Okay, it might not have been "literary", but it was a nice little novel.  Sometimes it is kind of nice to read a book with a happy ending where the heroine doesn't "off" herself when all is said and done.  But alas, I am ready to get back to that ever so haughty George Amberson, and we'll see how Charles Bovary is getting on with Emma!  I am not sure how I will fit the new titles into the reading lineup, since I am notorious for having too many things going at once.  I think the Perlman book has the best chances of getting read, but you never know.  If only there were a few more hours in the day...

War of the Worlds

This is what happens when you don't remember to say no to the director's selection...you end up with a copy of H.G. Wells' s War of the Worlds remake starring Tom Cruise.  I am not really a fan of Cruise, but I have heard that this was good to see on the big screen.  I wonder how it translates to DVD.  I guess I can now find out!  Aaarrggh.  Has anyone seen this?  Any thoughts?  I still have it in the plastic, but I am not sure if I can return it at this point.  It could have been worse, I am sure.   I am pretty picky over which movies I buy.  At least this one was based on a book!

Miss Mina Pigot

I am on a bit of a marathon reading mission today.  Between washing curtains (why do they take three times as long to get back onto the rods as they took to slide off--and be careful not to put them back on backwards--ugh), working on a needlework project that I am taking as an online class (just downloaded part one this weekend), I thought it was about time I picked up an ILL book as it is due to be returned this Friday!  I have been thoroughly engrossed in Jonatha Ceely's novel, Bread and Dreams.  This is a continuation of a story that began with Mina.  I enjoyed the first book, but I have to say I am really enjoying the sequel.  It shouldn't be too painful to get it read by the end of the week.  It is set in the mid-1800s.  The story begins (in Mina) in potato famine Ireland where Mina and her brother Daniel, who have lost their parents and sister, decide they must travel to America.  Mina doesn't make it farther than England as their ship burns en route.  Daniel gets picked up by another ship and we don't hear from him again (at least not yet).  Mina must make her way alone.  She is young (maybe 15) and very naive.  She eventually ends up working in the kitchen of a great estate.  The catch is she has taken to dressing as a boy to escape the many problems that have beset her thus far traveling as a young woman alone.  Of course this has its own problems, which Mina must contend with in the first book.  She does have one friend, Mr. Serle, who is the cook.  In Bread and Dreams, which takes place slightly later, Mina and Mr. Serle have finally come to America, and the adventures continue.  In America, she is able to drop the boy-ish disguise.  I really love historical fiction, so it is interesting to read about New York City in the 1840s-50s.  My public library doesn't have this as part of their collection, but I may have to break down and at least buy this when it comes out in paper.  Mina is already available in paper--another title to add to my list.  Now I must get back to Mina's story!

Success is Counted Sweetest

Sucess is counted sweetest

By those who Ne'er Succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host

Who Took the flag to-day

Can tell the definition,

So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Break, agonized and clear.

--The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson

In the Queue

I am probably not the only person who does this--even though I am reading a book and thoroughly (or maybe not always thoroughly) enjoying it, I still have in the back of my mind what I might want to read next.  I finished the Hannah Wolfe mystery, by the way--a definite thumbs up on that one.  Now I am trying to decide between The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly or Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda.  I had planned on starting the Cleverly book next--it is the first in a series of mysteries set in 1920s India--the whole decline of the Raj sort of thing.  However, the last time I was at the bookstore I picked up an entirely new mystery--the Arruda book.  This is the first Jade Del Cameron novel.   Jade, an American, was an ambulance driver in WWI and becomes becomes involved in a murder while in Africa.  I seem to be attracted to mysteries set in the 20s lately.  I have a few other titles sitting there that I hope to start soon.  A friend gave me Sweetness & Light by Hattie Ellis for Christmas.  I usually try to have one nonfiction book on my bedside table.  At the momen I am reading C'est La Vie by Suzy Gershman.  It has this lovely cover and I pulled it off the shelf for that reason alone.  It is another "american/british/foreigner/whoever trying to make it in the city of lights" type of story.  This one is a bit if-y to be honest.  But it is less than 300 pages, and I haven't gotten that far--so I need to give it more of a chance.  I'll let you know how that one turns out.  I hope to get to the Ellis book soon.  I love social history sorts of books, and this one is about the honeybee.  What can I say, I am interested in all sorts of things!  I know I have several classics going at the moment--probably too many.  But once I finish a couple of them I think I might tackle the Sigrid Undset book, Kristin Lavransdattar.  This edition has all three books (with over 1000 pages).  I am really curious about this one--has anyone read it?  Undset won the Nobel for this in 1928.  Of course this means The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton will get bounced a bit down on the pile.  Sorry Edith, I promise to get to it soon.  I seem to be reading lots of classics about women lately, don't I?  The next Modern Library selection will be The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy, though.  The men will get to tell their side of it soon enough.  That one should be interesting...

Hannah Wolfe, Detective

I am sure I have mentioned Hannah Wolfe here before.  I am hoping to finish Fatlands this weekend.  This is the second of three crime novels by Sarah Dunant.  Sarah--please write more Hannah Wolfe novels!!!  After this one, I will only have one more to look forward to.  I like Hannah.  She is smart and sassy. Per the British Arts Council (which I linked to on Sarah's name),  "Sarah Dunant is a witty and ‘knowing’ crime thriller writer, especially in her highly entertaining trio of novels featuring Hannah (the first is Birth Marks), which continues with Fatlands (1993) and Under My Skin (1995). Though the manner when addressing readers is often cynically humorous, the action is serious, underpinned by discussions of moral and current affairs issues. The subjects of the three novels are respectively surrogate motherhood, animal rights and experimentation, and cosmetic surgery."  In Fatlands Hannah is hired to chaperone a young girl.  A car bomb goes off, and Hannah's investigation leads her to The Animal Liberation Front.  Who planted the car bomb, and what did they really want? Fatlands won the Silver Dagger Award, and it is easy to see why.  I'm off to see what trouble Hannah can find herself in now.

What's a Little Embellishment Between Friends

So, who has been following the controversy over James Fry's book, A Million Little Pieces?  Apparently Oprah has defended him.  To be honest I have not read this book, and it probably wouldn't be something I would necessarily pick up and buy--nothing personal, but I just don't tend to read this sort of book.  I have seen it in bookstores, but I just haven't been tempted to really look at it.  When I read Sara Nelson's So Many Books, So Little Time, this was one of the books she chose to read and she gave it rave reviews, too.  I guess I am not sure if I really care, but it is amusing to watch.  Personally if I am reading nonfiction, I like it to be factual, but every author has their own agenda, and what really is truth anyway?  Even history books have their own slant to the story, and you would think they should be factual.  There was a funny op-ed piece in the New York Times that was quite amusing, if nothing else!!

In Serious Need of Redecoration

I know I have shared photos of my book room before, but lately I have been giving serious consideration to rearranging this area into a more pleasing and manageable room.  During Christmas it was the room for castoff furniture that had to be moved to make room for our tree.  Now that it is all cleared out again and you can walk in it, I really want to do something to make it look nicer.  The big round chair is an old one I bought ages and ages ago in an antiques mall.  It has been dubbed the "oreo cookie chair" due to its circular shape.  It is larger than it looks, and if I were to get rid of it, it would open up more space and I might be able to add another bookshelf.  I have always wanted a nice rocking chair, but I am not too sure it wouldn't just take up as much room.  Of course some sort of seat is needed there.

Speaking of shelves, beware of this one.  It is so packed full of books (on the top and two rows deep on each individual shelf), that it is leaning dramatically forward.  You might not be able to tell from the photo, but trust me, I am afraid someday the whole thing will topple over.  I think part of the problem is the carpeting in the room as well.  If I rearranged things I could move this and perhaps stop the tilting in some way.

Here is the other big set of shelves.  Okay, so not too much to look at, but at least it is not leaning precariously forward.  I know it certainly does not have that light and airy look to it with all those big concrete blocks.  What can I say, I am not an engineer!  This would be the poor man's solution to building your own bookshelves (unfortunately I am not a carpenter either!).  Since I am considering a little reorganization, now is the time to get going on adding more books to my catalog in Library Thing.  The 400 that I already have listed are almost entirely from books in my bedroom alone.  If I were rich, I would have a gorgeous personal library.  Well, you can see why I am not rich (and where my money seems to be going), so I just have to make due with what I have.  So any ideas on creating pleasing arrangements in small spaces (and what to do with so many piles of books) would be very appreciated.