A Work in Progress

Looking for Some Christmas Spirit

I think I need some help getting into the holiday spirit.  I wish I could be this organized or this organized.  I did finally get around to making out a list of people I need to buy for with corresponding ideas for gifts (well, more or less...there are lots of gift cards listed...the lazy shoppers answer to gift buying).  I wanted to order an advent calendar, but once again this year that didn't happen.  I got out of decorating last weekend, but my niece has pinned me down to dragging out the tree and the various boxes of ornaments and other trinkety things (all stored in inconvenient places, thank you) this coming weekend.  I don't think I can face her disappointment again (and completely feel like Mrs. Grinch), so merrily decorating we will be this weekend.  Christmas is just a little over three weeks away, so I better snap out of it.  Buy some Christmas cards or something.  Perhaps Carl V.'s G.I.F.T. Challenge will help put me in a better mood. 

"I have decided to call this one the 2006 G.I.F.T. Challenge. Giving Inspiration, Fostering Tradition. I know, it is pretty lame but I had to call it something. What you agree to do, if you choose to participate, is to partake of and/or post on any 4 of the following":

Christmas movies
Christmas novels/short stories
Christmas songs
Christmas poems
Christmas traditions
Christmas memories

So for the next four Mondays in the run up to Christmas, I will see if I can muster up some Christmas spirit.  I really don't read Christmas-y sorts of books, but I do plan on reading A Christmas Carol by Dickens this year (it will be my very first Dickens).  I'm not even sure what other books are out there.  I tend to walk past those gift tables at the bookstore that display these sorts of books.  Any suggestions?  Next week I am going to Kansas City with my sister (three hours traveling there and three hours back...I am already trying to decide which book to take with me!).  Perhaps a day of festive shopping will help?  Please just tell me there is a bookstore somewhere in the area?!  A needlework store would be nice as well, but that might be asking for too much.  I guess it is time to dig out the holiday music and movies!

I have a few links to share as well.  I want a bookshelf filled with these, too!  Heaven.  Look at all those Viragos!  That photo and this book review were enough to make me place a wee little order (but it's free shipping...) for a couple UK books.  I want my own collection of Viragos...I just wish I could find them used over here.  I need to drop by Bookslut more often.  They always have all the best book news.  The Whitbread Prize shortlist (actually now called The Costa Prize) has been announced.  Here is the list of books with a one sentence blurb about each.  I haven't read a single one, but there are a few titles on my list (I am waiting for paperbacks or library copies).  Also the 100 Notable Books of 2006 as chosen by The New York Times is out.  I have read all of one of them (Eat, Pray, Love).  Another case of I want to read several but don't want to buy hardcovers!  I always wonder what it says about me that I have read so few books that appear on these lists?  I am reading lots of books, but I guess they are not terribly mainstream!  Hmm.

When Two Ships (Books) Cross in the Night

I was actually going to title this post something along the lines of "The Dwindling TBR Pile", but for fear of being labeled "Pooter-ish" (can someone please tell me what the literary reference is?  I should be embarrassed to ask as now I am showing how little I know, but curiosity overcomes me), I decided it required something with a more erudite flair to it.  When I first read about this little tempest in a teacup (as everyone is calling it), I was rather amused (surely I am so far off the radar that this doesn't even affect me), but now reading about it daily is giving me a bit of a headache.  It is sort of depressing me even.  There are many excellent litblogs out there, but I hate to admit I am sort of in a class...well off to one side, down the stairs, maybe even in the basement...of my own.  Hanging my head in shame...I am one of those horrible book bloggers (notice the distinction please) who quite often laments my ever growing TBR pile, and discusses the books on my night table (today's topic, thank you...er...sorry...), excitably shares my new book acquisitions (see yesterday's post...er...sorry again).  Apparently these sorts of topics are not "edifying" or even "very interesting".  I can only say that I hope that my enthusiasm for books and reading outweighs the banality of things I write about, as I truly love reading and love books, and I know there are many others out there like me.  So, I offer you the occasional opinion (not even "criticism"), very often wonderful book finds, and sometimes other (likely banal) chattiness.  Reading is really a sort of odyssey for me.  Sometimes it is simply a pleasurable foray into fluffiness--I want to be entertained, sometimes I want to learn something (perhaps even "edify" myself), or be challenged.  But reading for me really is like a voyage--I am never the same person after finishing a book as when I started it.  And blogging and interacting with other book/lit bloggers has really helped me widen my reading perspectives, so I hate the idea it is all for naught or that we shouldn't bother. 

Now.  On to my regularly scheduled post.

I had planned on waiting until after the holidays to finish Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out  (remember my little plan of finishing all those books by the end of the year? and then changing my mind).  I am not sure why (possibly because I just read Virginia Woolf's most excellent essay on Robinson Crusoe, which was in my edition of the novel), but I decided to pick it back up again.  A few chapters later and I am losing myself in the story.  The Dalloways have made an appearance and we are chugging our way to South America (is that what cargo ships do? Chug?).  Rachel has just passionately kissed Mr. Dalloway, or perhaps it was the other way around, and now I am quite interested.  I have to keep reminding myself that technically Virginia Woolf didn't write this, Virginia Stephen did.  I have already tracked down some criticism (yes, there is still most definitely a place for it!) on the novel.  I am glad I decided to start at the beginning with Woolf's work.  Even if this is her "earliest" (and thus not best?), I am still in awe.  There is something about the way she uses words that amazes me. 

And two of my books are passing in the night.  At one point in The Voyage Out, Clarissa Dalloway pulls out Jane Austen's Persuasion to read aloud to her husband.  Clarissa goes off to leave Rachel to continue the story...anyway, I am probably not far enough along to know if there is going to be any significance that this particular novel is mentioned.  I just happened to start reading Persuasion myself yesterday as well.  It 's strange how that happens sometimes--completely out of the blue--one book crosses paths with another.  And only a few pages into the Austen I am reminded what a wonderful author she is as well.  Her writing is so crisp and elegant, you can just hear it aloud in your head (well, I can at least).  And yes, my reading pile is dwindling (did you think I was going to let you off the hook and you were'nt going to have to hear about it?).  Here's what I have finished:

1. Indiana
2. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
3. Robinson Crusoe
4. Monsters
5. Gaudy Night
6. Eat, Pray, Love
7. The Observations
8. Frankenstein

And here are the books that are left:

1. War and Peace
2. Mystery of the Sea
3. The Black Pearl
4. The Voyage Out
5. Sophie's Choice

Sorry.  I had to list them.  I even managed to finish one other book amongst that pile that wasn't part of the initial group.  A bit more whittling and and I will be done (maybe not this year, but pretty close)! Then no doubt I will get myself into trouble again later. 

New Acquisitions

New books.  And practically free for the asking.  Actually I literally did ask for most of them, and only paid for one book (a mere $1--how is that for a bargain?).   A friend was weeding out her books and passed along to me, Women Romantics 1785-1832: Writing in Prose by Jennifer Breen.  This looks like a wonderful book, and what perfect timing (after just reading about Mary Shelley).  It looks like this is an anthology of their writings with added biographical material.  It covers: Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Seward, Catherine Macaulay, Helen Maria Williams, Mary Hays, Anna Barbauld, Joanna Baillie, Hannah More, Mary Robinson, Fanny Burney, Jane Taylor, Dorothy Wordsworth, Mary Lamb (with an excerpt called "On Needlework"--right up my alley), Mary Russell Mitford, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont (Mary's step sister), and Frances Trollope.  While I am familiar with some of the authors, most I am not.  This will be an excellent introduction to female writers of the period.  What a great find...how could my friend bear to part with it?

I am still Bookmooching away.  I try and save my points, but whenever someone mooches from me I can't resist going out and spending my new point!  I also am always pleased when something becomes moochable from my wishlist (gotta snap those up!).  My latest acquisitions are Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (I am looking forward to this as I am planning on reading Homer next year), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (this is one of those books I am always looking at but never buying...mooching is the perfect solution, and it came recommended from another book blogger), and Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.  Am I the only person who has never read him?  I think I might have to read one essay a day to get in my daily laughs.  I don't read enough humorous books!  I don't even think I own many humorous books--this is a good place to start.

Finally, we have a "book sale" table at the library.  We occasionally get book gift donations from patrons or faculty or the general public.  If they are already in the collection and are saleable (and not all of them are...some are should we say...a little dated.  And who wants a 1971 textbook for economics?) they go up on the sale table--hardcovers $1 and paperbacks 50 cents.  How can you beat that?  Generally there is not much of interest, but I did spot Vera Brittain: A Life by Paul Berry and Mark Bostridge.  Although I have not yet read anything by her, what little I have read about her I have found quite intriguing.  How could I pass up a practically new hardcover (originally published in the UK)?  See, I can budget and still acquire books.  I feel as though I have a rather notorious reputation for buying books...

How to read a poem? That is the question.

Recently I was tagged to answer Cam's Poetry Meme (sorry for my tardiness in posting this....I didn't get in much blog reading over the long weekend!), so here goes.  I have to admit that I am not much of a poetry reader.  It isn't because I don't like poetry, but that I am not entirely sure how to approach it.   I always feel like there is some dark hidden meaning that I am not going "to get".  Sometimes the words of poems seem so laden with meaning, that poems need to be digested and not just read, and you need so much other knowledge to understand what the poet is referring to.  When I was reading the Mary Shelley biography, there were lots of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron that the authors referred to in the text.  What was nice was the authors gave the background story to the poems, which gave them so much meaning for me.  It is going to be one of my reading goals next year to read more poetry.  By chance this book by Terry Eagleton came across my desk today at work (it's a sign).  As soon as it has been processed I will be checking it out.  It sounds like a "beginner's guide" to reading poetry--just up my alley!

The first poem I remember reading/hearing/reacting to was--Actually I am going to answer this with an anthology of poems.  I don't remember exactly which poems it included, but I have a vivid memory of reading from Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle.  Isn't this a great title?  I was in grade school when I read from it. 

I was forced to memorize (name of poem) in school and........I bet there was a poem I was meant to memorize, but it is lost to me now.  I wonder if kids are asked to learn poems these days?  I wish I had--I am always so impressed when people can quote literature from memory!

I read/don't read poetry because....I don't read poetry for the reasons I mentioned above.  I am so used to a regular narrative--beginning, middle and end, and some poems are so short, I am not sure what I am meant to get out of them. An image?  A story?  A feeling?  With a book of poems, do you read them straight through?  I suppose there are no hard and fast rules--you can just dip in when you feel like it?  How much time do you spend on a poem--I think when I do read them (for instance when they are in a novel), I rush through them without appreciating what I am reading.

A poem or poet I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite is ......I remember some lines from Tennyson, "the splendor falls from castle walls..." and Emily Dickinson, "because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me...", so I would say Tennyson or Dickinson, though I also have books by Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Edna St. Vincent Millay among others.  Since I couldn't quote anything, I better stick with the few poems I remember.

I write/don't write poetry, but..............I don't write poetry, but I know people who do (how's that for getting around the question!).  A coworker writes poetry and has had them published.  He reads lots of poetry and if I am ever curious who I should read, I know I can ask him and he won't steer me wrong!  I am sort of up on who's publishing a new novel, or what I should look out for in terms of fiction, but he is really up in terms of poetry.  Imagine poetry being the main source of your reading selections?!

My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature.....I am used to devouring a book, and I get the feeling that this is not the way to read poetry.  I think I need to re-learn (or start completely anew) how to read poetry. 

I find poetry.....Confusing?  Sort of anyway, but only because I am so out of pratice reading poetry.  I think it can be quite beautiful given time and thought when reading it (I am thinking about older poetry like Tennyson, which seems so lyrical--I haven't read much modern poetry). 

The last time I heard poetry....I can't even remember the last time I heard a poem read aloud except in school (and that has been a few years ago...).

I think poetry is like....This is going to sound silly, but it seems like it is a nut, and you have to crack it open and find out what is inside.  Am I making it harder than it is supposed to be?

Here is my paltry little poetry shelf.  It is rather in dire need of beefing up, isn't it?  Any favorites or recommendations?

If you haven't already answered these questions, consider yourself tagged!  Please let me know, so I can read your answers, too!

A mishmash of the usual weekend stuff...

I am no movie critic, so despite some of the less than glowing Amazon reviews (why do I read them anyway?), I rather enjoyed the first three episodes of The Buccaneers.  I read the book by Edith Wharton, which was left unfinished at her death (and later finished by Marion Mainwaring) years ago.  It has been so long as a matter of fact that I have forgotten most of the details, and I guess it is time for a reread.  The story concerns four nouveau riche American girls who are not accepted by the upper echelons of American high society, so they go to London for the Season in the hope that this will give them more cachet, and they end up marrying (in some cases poor--but what does that matter when you have a title) British aristocrats.  It appears (from what I have read) that the film adaptation has taken certain liberties with the original story (which I have forgotten anyway, so it is all lost on me), but I still managed to watch every last minute of.  Had I just read the book, I might have felt different--weird how that happens.  I plan on getting the second disc from Netflix next.  I also watched Gaudy Night, which I wasn't thrilled with for some reason.  Maybe I need to stop getting movies that are adapted from novels?   

My niece tried to talk me into putting up the Christmas tree today and decorating the house. But it is so much work.  It requires moving furniture and getting boxes from high shelves in closets and dark corners in the basement.  I am having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit (it isn't even December yet).  Yesterday I had to listen to Christmas music in the car and it grated on me to no end.  Why do they play those Chipmunky versions of carols?  Do people really like them?  Being in the bah humbug mood that I am in, they iritated me to no great end.  I will try and work on finding some Christmas spirit this week, so next weekend we can decorate.  Maybe, anyway.  I can't do anything until Rob Crusoe gets off that darned island anyway....

A Love Hate Relationship

Both love and hate are pretty strong emotions and perhaps not entirely reflective of how I am feeling about Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe at the moment.  I am alternately enjoying this and struggling with it.  I am determined to finish it this week, however, so I am doing what I should have done a long time ago and concentrating solely on Rob Crusoe for the duration (hopefully short) that it will take to complete the last 100 pages or so. 

According to the book blurb this is widely acknowledged as the first English novel, so I am quite pleased to be tackling it.  From what I have read this was a great commercial success upon publication in 1719.  A second edition was released within two weeks of the initial publication and pirated editions came out within hours of the book's release (interesting to see this phenomenon so far back).  Apparently one of the pirated editions, called the "O" edition is now extremely valuable--what do you think the chances are of coming across that at the Salvation Army, eh?

Although on the surface this can be read as an adventure story, there are many, many moral undertones that can't be ignored.  Robinson Crusoe leaves home, against his families wishes, to become a sailor.  He survives one sinking ship, but decides to continue on as a sailor.  He ends up a slave--seized by Moorish pirates.  Several years later he manages to escape and ends up in Brazil where he becomes the owner of a plantation.  Not content with his success, he sets off on an expedition to capture slaves in Africa and here he meets with a bad ending.  He is shipwrecked.   And here the real tale begins.  He spends years and years creating his own "civilization".  He sees this (being shipwrecked) as the price he has to pay for being a bad person and not listening to his parents.  Then again he managed to survive, while his shipmates all drowned--so we go back and forth...is he forsaken or not.  (Possible spoilers for the rest of this paragraph).  Things got a bit draggy with all the building of fortifications and domestication of goats and drowning of cats (sorry...I know this is a survival tale, but I had a hard time with this....and a few other things).   Finally...Rob discovers a footprint in the sand--not his own.  And nothing is going to be the same again.  There are savages who come to the island--cannibalistic savages.  Rob manages to save one of the unfortunates before he is killed, and this is where I am in the story.  It is interesting to see the parallels he makes between himself and the savages.  But in the end the man he saves appears to become his slave.  He calls the man Friday (the day he saved him), and teaches the man to call him Master.  I am having a problem with Rob here.  Not sure how I feel about this whole master thing after he himself was a slave.  But I am interested to see how things will work out.  Something definitely needed to happen in the story, and it happened not a moment too late!  I am also reading The Mists of Avalon--a totally different story, but one that is told by a narrator who is a Pagan--unhappy with the newly infringing Christian ideals--talk about seeing the other side of the coin.  There is so much to think about and respond to in Robinson Crusoe!  I have saved the introduction to the book to read later, which was written by Virginia Woolf and I have a few other essays set aside as well.  I am looking forward to reading what others have to say about this tale!

It has been a little hard getting used to the style of writing.  My edition is made up of a dense narrative with no page or chapter breaks.  There are many capitalizations (maybe all the nouns), which can be somewhat distracting.  I noticed that the version on Project Gutenberg does not have these.  It has been a challenge to stay with the story at times and I find if I am not concentrating that my mind tends to wander.  And this is definitely a story that is best read in nice big chunks rather than a page or two here and there.  And it has been slow going.  All this said, however, I am really glad that I am reading this.  I have a feeling that this is one of those pivotal books in literature, and I know later in my other readings a lightbulb will go off in my head when I am reading something else.   

I'm Guilty Too (or a Friday Fourteen)

I had to smile when I saw this post by Ex Libris.  I wonder if all readers do this?  I tend to "collect" authors, too.  Actually with me it is usually a matter of reading a book by an author and enjoying it so much that I have to buy all their other books, too.  Although I have far more than fourteen authors that I collect (particularly mystery series), here is an assortment of authors of whose works I have more than five.

1. Franz Kafka--I have 16 books either by or about Kafka.  Aside from a short story or two, I have read practically nothing by him.  What I have read are his collected letters and various biographies.  He was such an intriguing person that I started buying all the books by him that I could find.  I also visited Prague and saw the house he lived in, and when I lived in Austria I would always think about him when I stopped in various train stations or places he had also been (I had read his letters before living in Austria, so when I got to go there it was a bonus to track down Kafka!).
2. A.S. Byatt--After I read Possession I decided I need to read her other books, too.  I am especially interested in reading the quartet of books about Frederica Potter!  I have about 7 of A.S. Byatt's books.
3. Mary Wesley--I love Mary Wesley.  I am not sure which was the first book I read by her, though The Camomile Lawn is one of my favorites.  I have 9 of her books and I think I have read nearly all of them.  I am missing a few books she wrote and as they have mostly gone out of print here in the US (she passed away a few years ago), so I will need to search out the others either used or in the UK.
4. Sebastien Japrisot--I was first introduced to Japrisot when I came across a reader's copy of A Very Long Engagement.  Luckily after that Penguin started publishing his other works.  I think I have read and own, 7 in total, just about all of his books that have been translated into english.
5. Marguerite Duras-- The Lover and North China Lover (a re-work of the earlier novel) are the two books that I have read by Duras, but I managed to find used copies of some of her other books--9 all told.
6. Edna O'Brien--I read The Country Girls Trilogy and then had to have more.  So far this is the only book by her that I have read, but I have 7 to work my way through.
7. Anita Brookner--Anita Brookner is another author that I am not sure what I read first.  I have about 13 of her books and have read most of them.  I counted 23 listed in Wikipedia, so I have a few more to track down!
8. C.S. Forester--I think I talk enough about Horatio Hornblower here that you know why I buy Forester's books!  I have the entire set of 11 Hornblower books and am currently reading #2.
9. Angela Carter--This is an author I have not yet read, though I have 5 of her books!  I am not sure what the impetus to buy her was--I must have read about her somewhere.  She has been sitting on my shelves for some time now, so I must get around to reading one of her books!
10. Diane Johnson--Le Divorce was what got me hooked on Diane Johnson.  Her novels are sort of quirky.  It has been a while since I have picked them up, but her two recent books are on my TBR pile. At last count I was up to 8 of her novels.
11. Louis de Bernieres--Corelli's Mandolin is one of my favorites novels.  His other books seem so different that I am almost afraid to read them.  Will they be as good?  I have 5 of them.
12. Edith Wharton--She is one of my very favorite authors.  I have 12 of her books--not all of them read yet.  My favorite is The Age of Innocence, which I want to reread.  I also want to tackle The House of Mirth next year, too.
13. Virginia Woolf--The Voyage Out is on my nightstand and partially read.  I hope to finish it before the end of the year.  I have 11 books of hers to read (and someday I may actually get through them all--no matter how slow I go!).
14. Dorothy Dunnett--I am going to read Dorothy Dunnett--I want to read Dorothy Dunnett.  I just don't know when.  Her books look like they deserve total commitment when they are going to be read.  I have 16 (!!) and two of those are companions  (to help sort out all of the many references in the novels).  I am a little in awe of her (and I sort of equate her with Umberto Eco), which is why I have not started yet.  I have the first Lymond book sitting by my bed!

And for extra credit--I must have a good 20 Arthuriana books.  I have sets and individual novels.  I must have the tale told from all the viewpoints as well as the original.  So far I have only read the series by Mary Stewart, but I have started The Mists of Avalon and am greatly enjoying it (though I have only made a tiny dent in the 800+ pages!).

Sometimes I do feel like I am just a "collector".  Books are my "thing" to buy.  But it is really more than that--when I find something good I want to drag the experience out as much as I possibly can (which is part of the reason I buy multiple novels by one author).  What else is there that you could possibly collect (well, for me anyway), that is as good as books?  For the small entrance fee of as little as a few dollars you get to escape this world and this life for one that might be entirely and completely different.  And you get to stay there for as long as it takes you to read the book.  And then you can go back (for free) as many times as you like! Money well spent if you ask me.

A Thursday Thirteen

I never really think of myself as much of a rereader, but when I saw Heather's recent list I thought there might be more books that I would reread than I had thought.  Indeed there are quite a few that I have read more than once, and there are even more that I would love to read once again!  Here is my abbreviated list, though with more thought I could easily add to it! 

1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen--I have read this once twice and seen the various film adaptations about a hundred times (no kidding).  I would like to read it again and all of Austen's other books in 2007!
2. Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood--Nothing like a good dystopian tale.  I have read this one several times--yet another sort of story I find myself wanting to read.  This is very creepy, but I am drawn to it again and again!
3. Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood--I have read this at least twice and had I had time I would have read it again for the Reading Matters recent book club read.  Margaret Atwood is one of the few authors where I have not only read a lot of her work, but I have also reread it and would like to read and reread more!
4. Chocolat, Joanne Harris--I cannot get enough of this book.  This is another one I could happily read once a year!
5. Learning to Swim, Clare Chambers--I love Clare Chambers.  I have only read this one once, but I have every intention of reading it again.  I think she has a new book coming out next year, too...
6. The Awakening, Kate Chopin--I read this earlier this year for the first time and want to read it again!  It was lovely and sad, and so well done!
7. Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons--I have read this book several times (a war/love story!), and will likely read it and the sequel again.
8. Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Marian Keyes--Totally chicklit, but entertaining chicklit.  I think this is my favorite Marian Keyes novel.  I read a bunch of her books a few years ago, but I really haven't read anything recently. I would happily reread this again--a nice, fluffy romance-y book.
9. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins--I love-love-love Wilkie Collins and have to read this again--though I have a couple of his other books lined up to read next year as well.
10. 84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff--I thoroghly enjoyed Helene Hanff's books years ago, and I have been thinking lately that I need to reread this and the others soon--especially Q's Legacy!
11. Possession, A.S. Byatt--I have been in the mood to read this again for a long time--it is just a matter of fitting it in!
12. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton--I loved this the first time around.  I have been in the mood for a Wharton binge all year!
13. Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres--For a long time this was my very favorite book--I still love it!  I have read it several times.

I could have easily went on...I was looking though the little book where I write down what I have read and found so many (and didn't even look through all the pages) books I would love to read again.  Really I think you could have a staple library with say 100 books, and if you chose really well they would be books you loved and could read and reread again and again.  Not that that will ever happen with me as I need a little infusion of new blood every now and again.  I definitely need to fit in a few of these next year as well as all the new stuff...

Later today we are off to my sister's house for the traditional turkey dinner.  I will get to see her sweet new little kitten and just hang with my family in general.  To those readers who celebrate the day:

Happy Thanksgiving!!  ....and hope you get in a little reading as well...

A Pleasant Read...Mystery: Lite

What is it about the English aristocracy?  They are always so entertaining to read about and work quite nicely as sleuths in mysteries.  I suppose because we don't have anything quite like them here in the US, and it is always nice to immerse yourself into a life you (I) will never lead that they are so appealing.  I just finished Tasha Alexander's And Only to Deceive.  It is the first in what I expect will be a series of mystery novels set during the Victorian era.  Emily, our heroine, is a young widow who initially marries (a wealthy viscount no less) to get out from under the thumb of her overbearing mother.  When her husband dies on safari, she isn't terribly disappointed as she hardly knew him.  It is after his death when she begins reading his journals that she starts to fall for him.  Although I found this book in the mystery section, it is not really a typical murder mystery.  It is when Emily gets involved in some missing antiquities, and the possibility that her husband was involved in theft and forgeries that we get involved in some mysterious, murky business. 

I enjoyed this book, but I do have to say I have a few tiny, little reservations about it.  It is a first novel, and a first book in what is likely to be a series.  Quite often these first attempts are a little shaky.  I think all the right elements were there and the characters are for the most part likeable (and the ones who weren't were not really meant to be), but something was missing.  Perhaps the story needed some editing or a bit more tightening up--I am not sure I can put my finger on it.  It is certainly not badly done, but I guess it was somewhat predictable in places.  There were a few twists and turns (what you would expect), but nothing overly surprising.  The author obviously did her homework and it shows--I now am interested in reading Homer again (I haven't since high school) and have added both the Iliad and the Odyssey to my wish list.  I guess with a mystery, I like to be surprised or have to work a bit harder to figure things out.  It was a nice, easy, sort of fluffy read--and sometimes this is just the sort of book I feel like reading, but a little challenge is nice, too, with a mystery.  I will probably watch for the author's next book, A Poisoned Season which is due out next spring (but will likely get it from the library or wait for the paperback).  Sometimes authors just need some time to develop their characters and plotlines, and I think this series does have potential--it reminds me a lot of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels (which also got better each time around).  You can check out Tasha Alexander's website and she also contributes to a fun looking blog, The Good Girls Kill for Money Club.

Next up for my mystery read is C.S. Harris's What Angels Fear set in 1811 and featuring another Viscount.  I hope it will be good as this is yet another entirely new author for me.  Perhaps after this I will have to try something completely different or maybe read some hardboiled crime books for a change of pace!

I'm sorry Amazon.co.uk....

...but, you've been replaced.  I'm sorry it had to end this way, but I just can't afford you anymore.  You kindly shipped out my books fairly quickly, and only once (well, maybe twice) did the mailer come open somewhere along the way and some of my books fall out never again to be seen (you did replace them of course).  However, I have been introduced to The Book Depository (thanks Victoria--I owe you one).  While they don't offer as deep discounts as you sometimes do, they do offer free shipping.  I'll still come and visit you sometimes, though....

I received my first shipment from The Book Depository in the UK yesterday.  I have to say I am pleased.  I am not sure how they can afford to offer free shipping to the US, but I am certainly not going to complain.  I ordered three books and the first one, The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly came yesterday.  It was slightly discounted 5.98 (pounds)--the cover price is 6.99 (pounds), which comes to roughly $11.34, and there was no shipping charge or taxes added.  That compares nicely to how much I would pay in a local bookstore (and this is a fairly hefty trade size book--well a bit larger than a mass market size and a bit smaller than our trade size).  I would expect it to cost at least $13.00 here.  Jennifer Donnelly is the author of both The Tea Rose (The Winter Rose is a sequel), and A Northern Light (I have read and enjoyed both).  I didn't realize she wrote both books as A Northern Light is a YA book.  She is also American, but it appears that The Winter Rose is only available in the UK at present.  All three are historical fiction with a bit of romance thrown in.  I had no idea she had written a sequel until I read it in a comment somewhere.  This may have to be one of my winter vacation reads--I love epic sorts of stories!  Anyway, they sent this in a mailer and I expect they had to fit the other two in a separate mailer, so they should be arriving soon (I hope).  The bad thing is, that if they make it too easy and economical, I will end up buying more books from the UK (wait...did I say that was a bad thing?  I suppose for my budget and already full bookshelves it is...).  In any case, it is nice to have a reasonably inexpensive place to find British books that have not yet been published or are unavailable here in the US.

The Donnelly book is now waiting patiently for me next to my bed (the towering stack has been resorted and rethought, so it is a nice, tidy, small pile currently)--hopefully I can get to some of the books soon.  I finished reading The Monsters by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read.  I won't quote anymore (I already returned it to the library), but there was plenty of interesting material there to share!  I will add one little story--in the end, Clare Clairmont, Mary's half-sister, was the remaining family member (the rest of the group were deceased).  She was living in Italy and said to be in posession of Shelley's/Byron's letters.  A man hoping to buy them moved in to the pension where she was living, but she would only let him have them if he married her!  Apparently that was too steep a price to pay so he gave up.  Henry James must have been living in italy at the time and was made aware of this.  He wrote The Aspern Papers based on this event!  There you go--a bit of trivia for you today! I had no idea--now I need to read The Aspern Papers!  I hope to read more about Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley and their circle eventually.  I am ready for a little change of pace right now, though.  I am nearly finished with And Only to Be Deceived  (should finish it tonight) and plan on working once again on poor Robinson Crusoe (yes, I will finish reading you yet!) and Mystery of the Sea.  However, I am looking forward to finally getting into The Mists of Avalon--I have only read the first chapter, but I am ready to really get into the story.  For some reason the Dark Ages sound about right for a long holiday weekend!