A Work in Progress

What I'm Reading Now

How do you choose a book to read following something as epic as War and Peace?  I decided that I needed something completely different in style, and subject matter.  W. Somerset Maugham's Up at the Villa is a slim novel set in Italy just before WWII.  His writing style seems to be very simple yet elegant--spare prose with just the right amount of dialog to convey a sophisticated story.  A young British woman has come to Italy to recuperate over the recent death of her husband.  An older, distinguished friend has asked her to marry him, and just as Mary Panton decides she will accept, she meets a handsome stranger.  Well, this is as far as I am in the story.  It could easily be read in an evening, but as I have lapsed into my bad reading habits (dragging  around more books than one at a time), I will be reading it over the next couple of days.  I think this will be a good introduction to Maugham, who I plan on reading more of. 

I have been reading very good things about Benjamin Black's Christine Falls, and I think the praise is well earned.  I'm sure I have mentioned this book and the fact that I have been enjoying what I have been reading, but have I said anything at all about the story?  This is John Banville's first mystery, and as would be expected it is well written (not quite as lofty as The Sea, which I consider a good thing).  Set in Dublin, it begins with a young nurse leaving with a small charge--a baby.  Quirke Griffin is a pathologist who has caught his brother-in-law, Malachy Griffin, who is an obstetrician, making changes to the file of a dead girl called Christine Falls.  Can you see a pattern forming here?  I have a feeling that I know where things are leading, but I don't want to give away too much of the story.  This is definitely not your usual police procedural, but it feels a bit more dark--more of a psychological drama.

The thing about reading more than one book at a time is that you can have several really good stories to choose from.  It's a bit of a vicious cycle--you just want to concentrate on one book at a time, but they are all so good you want to read them all (and then how do you choose), so you end up reading a bit of all of them.  Everything I have on the go (once again) is quite different than the other books.  Vanora Bennett's Portrait of an Unknown Woman is so far an excellent historical novel.  This one is set in Henry VIII's England and in the household of Sir Thomas More.  Told from the perspective of a young woman who was adopted by the family, she is intelligent, and learned.  She has taught herself the healing arts (have you noticed young women of these times are always knowledgeable in the healing arts?  But then I suppose that is one of the few areas open to them to excel).  In 1527 Hans Holbein comes to paint More's and the family's portrait.  He will do so twice over the course of five years, and though they will be similar, they will also be subtly different.  Much will happen in these five years.  England is on the brink of unrest.  Bennett very evocatively tells her story against the panorama of court life and its many intrigues.  Henry VIII is fishing for an excuse to get out of his marriage to Catherine, the Protestant Reformation is spreading across Europe, and heretics abound. All this in the first part of the book!

Finally I have more or less gotten back to reading my chapter a day of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.  So many things to say about this one, but I don't want to give away the details of David's life.  All I have to say is this kid has more bad luck than most characters I have read about in literature.  I'm really enjoying the story (despite poor David's difficulties).  For some reason I sort of expect this to happen in a Dickens novel, though I am not sure why.  I only hope things start to look up for him.   

A Fait Accompli

I wasn't sure if this moment would ever come (drumroll please--I feel there should be some fanfare), but I am finally finished with War and Peace!  I actually felt a tad bit bereft not having my book with me today.  It has been my constant companion all month.  I think I will wait a bit to write a proper post about it.  I still want to read the additional material included in my edition (it came at the end rather than the beginning, for which I am thankful, as I hate reading spoilers before I even start a book).  I also have a book of essays that I want to skim or read as the mood calls.   I'm not sure I have ever read a book this intensely for so long (Middlemarch would come the closest).  I do think this is a book that should be read more than once as there is simply so much going on that I know I didn't grasp everything.       

So.  Is this the greatest novel ever written?  Honestly?  I'm not sure.  It could be, but I don't feel as though I have read widely enough to make such a sweeping statement (ask me again after I read Don Quixote maybe--isn't this another novel that is said to be the greatest?).  It is definitely one of the best books I have ever read simply for the scope of what Tolstoy tried to do.  It is truly epic in its cast of characters and the events he portrayed.  I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about all of the characters.  Some I didn't like at all at the beginning, but at the end I did.  Others I expected more from.  My favorite is Pierre.  I really wasn't terribly impressed at the beginning and thought I have to read about this guy?  He wasn't very appealing at first.  He changes so drastically throughout the story, however, that I couldn't help appreciating what he went though and for me he became entirely likeable.  I couldn't really identify very well with the female characters--I need to think more about it all.  My criticism--I know that his explanation was probably necessary for the story, but the second part of the epilogue numbed my brain.  The last 20 pages are a bit of a blur and I should really go back and skim them again.  The novel is peppered with his comments and philosophy on religion and history and historians, which I at times found hard going.  This is why I think a second reading of the novel might be a good idea. 

A note on the edition I read--it was translated by a British translator.  It has lots of British-isms--my favorite being "every man jack" (I remember this phrase from Horatio Hornblower as well!).  It didn't bother me, but you might be aware of this if you are considering which translation to choose.  He also translated all the French phrases into English as well.  I think this has been frowned upon by some, but I'm not sure how much I would have understood had parts of the text been left in French.  Perhaps there were nuances that were lost by doing this, but again for a general reader like myself (rather than a student or scholar) I don't think I necessarily missed anything (well, I am sure I missed a lot--but you know what I mean).  I am glad I set my other reads aside to finish it.  It worked much better for me to concentrate on it alone.  I may have to keep this in mind when I start Don Quixote later in the spring!

Now back to my bad habits--I dragged two books to work with me and will be starting yet another later today, but more about those tomorrow.

A Happy Alternative...

That would be--a happy alternative to my books!  In order to avoid this happening again, I finally got around to looking for something that would appeal to Chispa for her to scratch on.  Although I have not had any more scratching incidents concerning my books (mainly due to me keeping any piles out of her reach), I have wanted to find something for her to use that is made specifically for cats.  I can't remember who suggested these cardboard things (thank you!), but she seems to like it so far.  Perhaps if I pretend I don't want her to scratch on it, she will go out of her way to scratch on it.  That seems to work for everything else she has taken an interest in scratching on in my house...a little bit of kitty reverse psychology maybe?

Thanks also to Eve's Alexandria for the heads up on the 2007 Orange Prize longlist nominations.  I should really try and read some of the past winners.  I know these contests can be controversial, but I love seeing who's listed and who ends up winning.  I am not familiar with all of the titles/authors, and so far I have only read one of them.

1. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2. Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan
3. Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk
4. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
5. Peripheral Vision by Patricia Ferguson
6. Over by Margaret Forster
7. The Dissident by Nell Freudenberger
8. When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers
9. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
10. The Observations by Jane Harris - I read this last year and thorougly enjoyed it.
11. Carry Me Down by MJ Hyland
12. The Girls by Lori Lansens
13. Alligator by Lisa Moore
14. What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
15. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
16. Careless by Deborah Robertson
17. Afterwards by Rachel Seiffert
18. Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley
19. Digging to America by Anne Tyler
20. The Housekeeper by Melanie Wallace

There are several titles that look very promising, so I will have to see which are available over here.  A little rundown of the authors:  nine are British, four are American, two are Australian and two are Canadian. The other three are from China, India and Nigeria.  What's nice about these prizes/awards is discovering new and talented authors.

Waiting in the Wings

I don't expect to get through all these books in the next couple of weeks, but once I finish W&P, it will be time to get to work on those reader's editions that were kindly offered to me, as well as the next Slaves book selection.  I have already started (and was enjoying) Benjamin Black's (John Banville's) first mystery, Christine Falls before I immersed myself once again in Tolstoy.  I'm looking forward to getting back into the story.  I had intended to read more mysteries this year, but I have yet to finish a single one so far.  I am really looking forward to reading Vanora Bennett's Portrait of an Unknown Woman (this is the book from the First Look Program from Harper Collins that I mentioned).  I think a little historical fiction will be perfect after such an epic read as W&P.  L. Brittney's Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times has been waiting patiently for me.  As I am in a Shakespeare mood, this should be good for a little taste.  I also still have a small pile of books by Transita authors, which I have not forgotten.  The Slaves are reading and discussing (March 31!) Jane Austen's Lady Susan, so I pulled my copy out, and it is ready to go.  Lady Susan is a fairly short novella (novel?), so I hope to be able to squeeze it in later this month.  I would also like to read the other stories included in the book as well, but those may have to come later.  Lastly, since I have spent such intense weeks working on a really long book, I thought it would be nice to find a good, really short novel as well.  W. Somerset Maugham's rather spartan looking (though I can't vouch for how spartan his prose is as this will be the first time I read Maugham), Up at the Villa looks as though it can fit the bill suitably.  And of course I like the sound of the story!

I have lots to look forward to, now I just have to finish W&P!

Seventeen Days of War and Peace

Remember where I started?  Well, here I am now.  I have about 200 pages left to read.  I am hoping to spend as much time this weekend as I can on W&P, though I am not sure I will be able to finish it before Monday.  I am getting close, however.  Although there are moments I wish Tolstoy hadn't  spent so many pages discussing the historical interpretations/implications of the war, I thought this passage was interesting:

"We may find it strange when history describes the process by which some king or emperor falls out with another king or emperor, raises an army, fights and wins a battle against the enemy, killing three, five or ten thousand men, and thus subjugates a state and a whole nation running to millions; we may find it hard to understand how the defeat of an army, a mere hundredth part of a nation's strength, somehow forces the whole people into submission, yet all the facts of history (as far as we can know history) justify the general belief that the success or failure of one nation's army is the cause, or at least a major indication, of the waxing or waning of a nation's power.  An army wins a battle, and the winners' rights are immediately increased at the expense of the losers'.  An army suffers a defeat, and the people are immediately deprived of their rights according to the magnitude of defeat, and if defeat is total, they fall into total submission.  It has been like this (history would have us believe)from ancient times right up to the present day.  All of Napoleon's earlier wars serve to confirm this principle." 

Yes, we are still at war.  I am hoping the book ends on a peaceful note!

Recent Acquisitions

These stacks are a from a few different visits to the bookstore and one online purchase (for an out of print title) in the past few weeks.  I wasn't going to share, as I think I already have a bad enough reputation these days (and guilt is gnawing away at me a little bit), but for lack of anything else to share tonight new books it is.   I have put my gift cards to good use (the out of print book is the only one I have actually purchased with my own money), so at least I don't feel guilty about spending too much.  I do think I will be rationing out what is left of my gift cards.  I always like to see how far into the year I can make them stretch (I received a few for my birthday last month, hence the influx of new books).

• The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham.  I have a couple of his books, which I have meant to read for a while now.  I hope to remedy that situation soon.
• Candide, Voltaire.  Jenclair's recent post piqued my curiosity about this book, and made me want to pick it up.  The Barnes and Noble edition is also quite nice (and inexpensive).
• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.  Recently I started David Copperfield (which I plan to get back to very soon) and am enjoying it so much I want to seek out more of his other works.
• Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens.  See above.
• Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence.  I really want to read him!
• Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini.  This falls into the rollicking good romp category.  At least I hope so.
• The Age of Shakespeare, Frank Kermode.  I want to read Shakespeare this year, and I'd like to read more about him and his times.
• Dance with Me, Victoria Clayton.  This author has come recommended by several other readers.  Unfortunately her work only seems to be available in the UK, and some of her books appear to be out of print.  I ordered a cheap, used copy from Alibris, which actually turned out to be in pretty good condition.
• The Last Witchfinder, James Morrow.  It seems I read a few good reviews by book bloggers about this one last year and now it is out in paper.  The author has been compared variously with Neal Stephenson, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, T.C. Boyle and even Jonathan Swift.  That should be an interesting read.
• Black Swan Green, David Mitchell.  I know this has gotten very mixed reviews, but I am willing to give it a fair try. 
• Silent in the Grave, Deanna Raybourn.  A Victorian mystery--this sounds right up my alley.  I seem to get lots of good book recommendations from Jenclair!
• The Terror, Dan Simmons.  Aside from the fact that the story takes place (primarily) on a ship, it has come highly recommeded by Susan.  That's enough of a sell for me. 

I have to share these great notecards, which I found at B&N.  A coworker's birthday is next week and I have been looking for some little gift to give her as she is also a reader.  If they had had more than one box of these left, I would have gotten them for myself as well.  They are notecards of Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen and James Joyce and there are sticker quotes included.  They are made by a company called The Unemployed Philosopher's Guild.  I think I will have to request one of their catalogs.  I like these quirky kinds of gifts.

Have you seen these?

Have you noticed these Playaway digital audio books in the bookstore lately?  Yesterday I ordered twelve of them for my library (the titles were selected by the library's subject specialists).  I have seen them at Borders, but the cost (about $30.00 and up) was a bit steep for me, so I have refrained from trying them out.  They are essentially compact books on tape, but the book and the machine are all inclusive--a sort of disposible audio book.  You simply put in batteries to listen. 

I have long wanted an iPod, and I think they are not terribly expensive, but I have never gotten around to buying one.  I always think it would be a great way to listen to books on tape while I am out walking (I don't like dragging around a portable CD player--too bulky--but I like the compactness of an iPod).  Although I don't think I would ever buy one of these (better to have an iPod), I think they are a great idea for libraries.  I'm not sure about reusing the earphones (maybe they can easily be cleaned off?), but otherwise I plan on giving them a try.  Although I think these are really marketed for the general public (so not terribly academic titles) and probably would suit a public library more than an academic one, we are getting titles that are more reference related--books on pronunciation, several on learning languages, a few children's books, and one lone classic.  I plan on borrowing the classic, My Antonia by Willa Cather and also one of the children's titles (well more YA really), Eragon by Christopher Paolini.  I have always had mixed feelings about audio books (a good narrator in my experience is really important), but I am looking forward to giving these a try.

1000 Pages.

I have passed the 1000 page mark in War and Peace.  Although I am of course thrilled, as that now means less than 350 pages left to read, I feel like the only book I have ever read and the only book I will ever again read is War and Peace.  I am so completely lost in the story (lost in the sense that it is the only thing on my mind, not that the story is confusing), it really feels like I will never finish it.  Have you ever read a book like that?  No matter how hard you work at it, it seems to last forever?  Moscow has fallen to the French despite their success in the battle of Borodino (finally some sort of tactical success for the poor Russians).  Babies have been born, characters have died.  People have fallen in and out of love.  This is truly an epic story, if ever there was an epic story.  All my ideas of reading some other short stories or essays are well intended, but when I think of reading six pages in another book I think I could be reading six more pages of W&P and do that instead.  Actually I should say three pages in W&P as the print is tiny and it takes me much longer to get through.  So I continue to look longingly at the other books on my nightstand, but I have felt so compelled to read Tolstoy my hand automatically reaches for it.  My only complaint is that Tolstoy tends to go off on these little tangents.  He has gone on in great detail about how historians have got the war with Napoleon wrong.  They are not looking at it in the right way.  He has been giving his observations and ideas about the war, and I fear there is plenty more of that to come.  He also spent an entire chapter (though thankfully the chapters in this book are fairly short) on how very like a beehive (actually a dead hive) Moscow was after the exodus of its inhabitants and the entry of the conquering French.  I feel as though there are many lofty ideas--some of which are swimming around in my head--and I hope I can pull them all together when I finish the book.  Surely some day I am going to finish?

Sorry about going on so about W&P.  I planned to keep it short, but every few hundred pages I have to let out a bit of steam.  I did want to share a couple of other things.  I have two advanced reader's editions in my hot little hands that I am extremely excited about! It has been ages since I have lucked out and "won" a book from the Harper Collins First Look Program.  It figures that the month I decide to read the longest book in my pile that my name would get drawn to review a book!  I do recommend that you take a look at the HC website.  You can put your name in for ARE's for their new releases.  They randomly choose names and send out the books and ask that you write up a brief review and post it on their site.  You don't need to be a blogger to do this either!  I liked the looks of Vanora Bennett's Portrait of an Unknown Woman.  It is a historical novel set in the time of Henry VIII.  It is a combination of history and art and it is right up my alley.  I was also kindly offered an advance copy of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union.  This one was on my wishlist and I am looking forward to reading it.  It is a "what-if" tale.  What if the Jews settled in Alaska and not Israel?  The blurb says "it interweaves homage to the stylish manace of the 1940s noir with a bittersweet fable of identity, home, and faith".  Just a little bit longer and I can start dipping back into the books on my nightstand!  Bliss.  Having a good book to turn to every day and having good books waiting for me when I finish.

To Weed or Not to Weed?

To weed.

Or not to weed?

That is always the question!

Shelly's March Booked by 3 questions seem particularly pertinent lately with my recent windfalls of books. 

1. Do you weed regularly? If so, how often? If not, why not?  I don't weed regularly and I know I should.  I have a really hard time parting with books, though I will occasionally begin to feel so claustrophobic that I feel the need to go through and pull out books I am not likely to reread or ever read and send them off to the Goodwill (or these days put them up to be mooched).  I hate it when I feel like reading a book, go and look for it, and then remember that I got rid of it.  You never know when you might be interested in reading something again. 
2. Do you have guidelines you stick with?  I know I need to be brutal when I am weeding, and in my mind I probably think I am being brutal, but in reality I doubt that is the case.  I try and choose books that I was not "wowed" by when I read them.  Those are the most likely candidates for recycling.  Considering there is only so much time to devote to reading in a lifetime, I try and keep this in mind when weeding (should also consider it when buying, too!).  Which books do I really want to spend time reading?  My library has a zero growth policy--weed, weed, weed to make room for new materials.  I should adopt that policy, but I know I couldn't do it. 
3. Are there books you would never weed?  I do have lots of favorites that I will always hold on to.  At this point I would not get rid of my Viragos or my Persephones.  I always keep my classics (unless I end up with duplicates--and that does happen).  These days most of the books on my shelves (or in my piles) are books that I want to keep.  The last time I weeded books (which was last summer) I packed up probably five boxes or shopping bags full of books.  Most of these were things I read when I was younger and was unlikely to want to read again.  I would probably keep most of my books if I could, but it always comes down to a matter of space!  How do you decide what goes?  It's like parting with good friends. 

Edited: I know that there are readers out there with libraries far larger than mine, I don't suppose you would be willing to share a photo (and make me feel less excessive...).  Maybe it is time for another round of weeding...Of course if this is the worst problem I have to deal with, I am pretty lucky really.

In search of a few good short stories...

I tend to be a very fickle reader (picking up a variety of books during the week), but I have to say I have been a very faithful reader this month.  As much as I am enjoying War and Peace it is starting to take its toll on me, however.  I read W&P on both my daily bus rides, during my break and at lunch at work, walking on my treadmill every day, and pretty much any other time I can squeeze in a page or two.  I feel like I am going into withdrawal...I.want.to.start.a.new.book...I'm sort of going to resist.  I still have a little less than 500 pages left to read (I didn't get to read as much this weekend as I had hoped), and you would think that this wouldn't take too terribly long, but at the pace I am going (keep in mind that small print), it is going to take me close to two more weeks before I can finish it.

My compromise--I am going to choose a book of short stories to work on.  I fizzled on the Alice Munro .  I just haven't given it enough chance, as I am sure it is very good.  It is a victim of neglect on my part.  It has simply sat there so long untouched that my mood has changed and now I want to read something else. I do plan on getting back to the Munro eventually.  Considering my recent windfall of new books (including several short story collections), I think I am going to let myself be tempted by one of them.  Amongst the possibilities (and a little taste of each):

The Marquise of O--and Other Stories by Heinrich von Kleist.  Litlove's recent post on Heinrich von Kleist should be temptation enough to pick up this collection of short stories.  I originally discovered this author from A Guy's Moleskine Notebook, and I have had him on my list ever since.

"In Santiago, the capital of the kingdom of Chile, at the moment of the great earthquake of 1647 in which many thousands lost their lives, a young Spaniard called Jeronimo Rugera was standing beside one of the pillars in the prison to which he had been committed on a criminal charge, and was about to hang himself."

Last Tales by Isak Dinesen.  I have always been curious about Dinesen after seeing the movie Out of Africa.  She has always been an author I have meant to read, but I never seem to get around to it. 

"Who are you?" the lady in black asked Cardinal Salviati.  The Cardinal looked up, met the gaze of her wide open eyes and smiled very gently."

Across the Bridge by Mavis Gallant.  This author is completely new to me, but the photo of the Eiffel Tower on the cover made me pick this book up. 

"About a year after the death of M. Carette, his three survivors--Berthe and her little sister, Marie, and their mother--had to leave the comfortable flat over the furniture store in Rue Saint-Dennis and move to a smaller place."

A New England Nun and Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.  This is another author who is new to me.  She is a "regionalist" writer like Kate Chopin, but she is a New Englander.  Her stories "center on questions on women's integrity, courage, and, often privation; explore cultural constructions of masculinity; and dramatize the interconnection of rural New England with modern culture and commerce."

"At five o'clock, Eunice Fairweather went up-stairs to dress herself for the sociable and Christmas-tree to be given at the parsonage that night in honor of Christmas Eve."

A Vocation and a Voice by Kate Chopin.  I love Kate Chopin's work.  Personally I think she was ahead of her time.  For me, she really evokes a time and a place.

"Is this Adams avenue?" asked a boy whose apparel and general appearance marked him as belonging to the lower ranks of society.  He had just descended from a street car which had left the city an hour before, and was now depositing its remnant of passengers at the entrance of a beautiful and imposing suburban park."

Bang Crunch by Neil Smith.  A contemporary collection of short stories!  This is the debut collection by a Canadian author.  This book was passed along to me from Isabella from Magnificent Octopus.  She called them "hollow punched-gut poignant."

"Blue tube, green tube, clear tube, fat tube.  A Dr. Seuss rhyme.  The tubes run from robotic Magi gathered around the incubator, snake through portholes in the clear plastic box, then burrow into the baby's pinkish grey skin."

Now to choose one.  The trick is to not let it languish in the pile like the Munro did.  Maybe I should flip a coin?  They all sound good right now.