A Work in Progress

A Baker's Dozen of Victorian Novels

As promised I went through my shelves and made a list of books written in the Victorian period or set during it that I'd like to read from this winter.  I know I won't get to all the titles, but I hope to read some of them.  My list isn't quite as heavy duty as Victoria's, but they all sound appealing to me.  There are so many excellent books to choose from in this period it is hard to come up with a short list.

1. Miss Marjoribanks, Margaret Oliphant -- The Dovegreybooks group I belong to is going to read this as their next serial read.  They'll be starting in December.  Lucilla Marjoribanks is "a triumphant intermediary between Jane Austen's Emma and George Eliot's Dorothea"!
2. Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon -- I am greatly looking forward to reading this.  This was a shocking book at the time.  Whenever I read a contemporary novel set in Victorian times the heroine (if she is on the spunky side) always seems to be discretely reading this book.  "Lady Audley's Secret subtly undermined the Victorian myth that female self-assertion was a form of insanity".
3. Uncle Silas, Sheridan Le Fanu -- This is on my list to buy.  I've heard this is a great sine-tingling Gothic read. 
4. Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell -- This book has been on so many of my lists of books I am absolutely going to read, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  This is probably not Gaskell's most famous book, or maybe eve the best place to start with her work, but I've been wanting to read it for so long.  "It is one of the most powerfully moving of all Gaskell's novels, described by its author as 'the saddest story I ever wrote'."
5. Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte -- I thought of rereading Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, but I should really read one of the other Bronte's work as well.  This was another shock to society when it was published.  "Anne Bronte's heroine, Helen Huntingdon, having endured too many of the 'revolting scenes' deplored by contemporary reviewers, leaves her dissolute husband in order to earn her own living and rescue her son from his influence."
6. Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy -- I thought of reading Jude the Obscure, but I know it was his last work, and so poorly received that he stopped writing novels after it.  Maybe I should read one of his other works first?  This novel is "Hardy's passionate tale of beautiful, headstrong farmer Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors".
7. Law and the Lady, Wilkie Collins -- I'm supposed to be reading Armadale...after I finish Dickens.  So many of Wilkie Collins's books sound good to me. 
8. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll -- I don't recollect ever having read the Alice stories properly.  I am sure I read some sort of children's book that was abridged, but never the actual complete story. 
9. Linnet Bird, Linda Holeman -- This is a contemporary book set in Victorian London and India.
10. Sweetest Thing, Fiona Shaw -- Another contemporary author.  The blurb reads: "A brilliant contemporary novel about late-Victorian life it gives us a world of morality, espionage and cocoa, where one man believed he could make his fortune from a mouthful of sugar and a pin-up girl."
11. Affinity, Sarah Waters -- Can this possibly be better than Fingersmith?  "A spellbinding ghost story, a complex and intriguing historical mystery, and a poignant romance with an unexpected twist."
12. French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles -- I'm very curious about this novel.  I've heard it is a wonderful Victorian pastiche, but also has a contemporary feel as the narrator inserts himself into the story.  Should be interesting.  "In a feat of seductive storytelling, John Fowles immerses us in the emotionally charged world of a Victorian love triangle and, through a startling act of literary invention, reveals the image of modern man reflected in the past."
13. The Great Stink, Clare Clark -- I liked Clark's recent novel, The Nature of Monsters.  This one sounds at least as good if not better.  It is "a novel of corruption and murder beneath the streets of Victorian London!"

I probably won't start reading from my list until next month, as I am trying hard to whittle down my piles still.  I am already itching to pick out a book and start it however.  I think I will keep the books in this stack and keep it somewhere handy rather than returning them to their original homes on my bookshelves.

Miscellanea

A hodgepodge of things today.  Since I finished Udolpho, I decided it was time to get back to Charles Dickens's David Copperfield.  He is my new bus read.  I'm embarrassed to admit when I started this book, so I'll just say 'earlier this year'.  I'll definitely be reading it straight through this time.  I've less than 300 pages to go (the book is about 800 pages long).  Piece of cake, right.

Even though I have told myself no new reading challenges I have given in to a couple (couple more I should really say).  I'm going to read a book for the Seafaring Challenge.  I'm not sure I'll read more than that, but I do love seafaring books, so I gave in to the temptation.  Last night I started reading C.S. Forester's Hornblower and the Hotspur.  If you can have a crush on a fictional character, my crush would be on Horatio Hornblower.  Total gentleman.

I'm lusting after Victoria's piles of Victorian novels and nonfiction.  Isn't there a challenge for this coming up?  Even if there isn't I think I"ll follow Victoria's lead and get a little list going of good Victorian reads for the cold and snowy months that I have to look forward to.  There is something really appealing about snuggling up under a cozy blanket with a good long novel during wintertime.  List to follow shortly.

I've been reading one short story from Kate Sutherland's collection All in Together Girls during my break at work each day.  I'm really enjoying them and I find myself wanting to continue on and read more rather than just limiting myself to one.  I think I find the stories so appealing because many of them are set at about the same time as when I grew up and they feel sort of familiar to me.  This weekend I will also be reading stories by fellow Canadians Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. 

Yesterday I received a copy of Breath of Corruption in the mail.  Author Caro Fraser kindly sent me a copy of her latest Caper Court Series for review.  The novels focus on a group of London barristers--"an absorbing blend of romance and professional intrigue with fascinating insights into London's legal world".  I'm looking forward to a good, entertaining read with a contemporary setting.

I also received a check from the Brainiads folks.  I have their ads on my left sidebar.  Thank you to all who click on the ad.  When you do this it means I get the occasional check from them.  This is the second I've received, and I know I should take it directly to the bank and deposit it or apply it to my credit card bill, but I think I am going to use it to buy a few new books.  It isn't a large sum of money, but enough to buy about four or five paperbacks.  There are a few things I've been looking for and not finding used or able to mooch.  I have in mind Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, something by Frances Burney (not quite sure where to start with her work), maybe something else by Ann Radcliffe or a book by Sheridan Le Fanu.  I'll have to ponder this one carefully as it is not often I get a nice little cash windfall like this!

Completely off topic, do  you want to see a really cute sheep that I stitched?  Click here.  There is a whole series of them, which I am working on.  A Thanksgiving sheep is my next project.

The Mysteries Have Been Revealed

I am now privy to all the secrets that Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho have to offer.  And Castle Udolpho and the characters who populate it have secrets galore.  I chose this book to read for Carl's RIP II challenge (I can now say I completed a challenge) in part because I plan on reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey soon, which parodies the Radcliffe novel.  This book has a reputation for having suspense, spine tingling chills, descriptions of a sublime landscape, romance, a vile villain, and maybe even a ghost or two.  It does have these elements, but in varying degrees.  Many times I skip reading the introduction altogether, or I wait until I finish reading the book.  In this case I relished reading the introduction, which was filled with all sorts of wonderful information and criticism on the novel.  Any quotes that appear in this post are from the introduction, which is written by Bonamy Dobree.

Emily St. Aubert is a young woman, very proper, orphaned and alone in the world--or nearly so.  Set in Medieval Languedoc, France the story is filled with perils as Emily tries to navigate a life filled with obstacles to happiness and freedom.  After the death of her parents she goes to live with her aunt, a self absorbed woman caring only for money and titles.  Emily wants nothing more than to lead a simple life of respectability, and marry her beloved Valancourt, a young chevalier that her father approved of.  After Madame Cheron, Emily's aunt is lured into marrying the nasty Count Montoni, who we will discover must be one of literature's great villains, Emily's life will basically go into a free fall as she descends into the hell known only as Castle Udolpho.  A carriage will take her away from all she knows and loves, first to Venice and then to the Italian Apennines where the crumbling castle perches high and lonely in the mountains.

Too much happens in this book to detail here in my post.  Dobree writes "Udolpho has a way of escaping critical formulas: it is always bigger and baggier and more uncanny than one thought it was.  No trite summing-up can capture the novel's dreamy surreal flow of incident, the odd, mediumistic shifts through space, and time, the often bewildering vagaries in Radcliffe's handling of plot, character, and scene.  To say what Udolpho 'is' is inevitably to reduce it."  There will, however, be mysterious papers that need to be destroyed, miniature portraits of unknown women, banditti, sword fights, veils covering unknown and horrifying objects, secret passages, underground crypts, ghosts, strange noises, copious tears, and well, lots of fainting spells.  It is a long story filled with vivid descriptions and much excitement.  I alternately found myself thrilled by the story, and wishing Emily carried smelling salts with her.  Eighteenth century readers must have gotten quite a kick out of Radcliffe's work.

"Along with Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise (1761) and Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), Radcliffe's book was one of the most celebrated and influential European fictions of its epoch.  The novel brought its author 500 pounds (an unheard-of sum at the time) and went through countless editions well into the later nineteenth century.  Naysayers like Austen notwithstanding, the majority of contemporary readers found The Mysteries of Udolpho an absorbing, even mind-altering experience, and its author an 'enchantress' of the highest order."

I was interested in Radcliffe's place along other writers of the time.  Although I don't know who her inspirations were (Dobree mentions Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, whose abused heroine is quite similar to Radcliffe's poorly treated Emily), I have read that she made quite an impact on Walter Scott and John Keats.  "In the unsentimental handling of Emily's powerlessness within the 'family' unit in which she finds herself, Radcliffe shows a paradoxical affinity with more engaged female novelists of the later eighteenth century: Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, even the fiercely unromantic Mary Wollstonecraft."   

I admit that to someone with 21st century sensibilities, I did wish that just once Emily would bash someone over the head with a vase or actually look at the secret papers instead of burning them (as she promised to do--she's a good girl remember) rather than weep or faint, but I tried to keep in mind that this novel was written in the late 18th century and literary heroines simply behaved this way (thanks to Dorothy for her excellent posts on 18th C. literature that helped put me in the right mindset for this novel).  So, placing this story in the appropriate time and place, I have to say that this is truly a thumping good read.  I plan on reading more of Radcliffe's novels (which I believe are shorter...) as well as other eighteenth century novelists like Burney, Edgeworth and Wollstonecraft--all now high on my list of authors to read.  And I plan on reading more Gothic Literature as well (not sure all these titles are considered Gothic, but they seem to have that same feel to them): The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, The Monk by Matthew Lewis, Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu, and Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.  I may just have to come up with a Gothic reading list sometime.  I'm quite pleased to have tackled this book--it has long been on my list of titles that I 'really must get to'.  One down, too many more to mention.  Now I look forward to reading Jane Austen's satire of the novel.

Anne Fadiman's On Rereading

Last night I passed the computer by in favor of finishing Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho.  I was just too close to the end and had to find out the meaning of all those many secrets.  I'll be writing more about the book, which was great (albeit on the long side).  So I don't have a proper post to present to you today (that would be...something I didn't spend a lot of time on). 

When I was thinking about yesterday's post, I thought perhaps Anne Fadiman might have something to say on the subject.  I love her essays, so I pulled out her book Rereadings to skim though.  Although I couldn't find anything specific on reading and retention, she does have lots to say on rereading books (unsurprisingly, considering the title).  In her introduction she talks about reading one of the Narnia books to her son, which she had loved as a child as well.  Upon rereading it however, she says "I was thinking to myself that C.S. Lewis, not to put too fine a point on it, was a racist, and a sexist pig".  Ouch (I haven't read the Narnia books so I can't agree or disagree).  She goes on to say,

"And there lay the essential differences between reading and rereading, acts that Henry and I were performing simultaneously.  The former had more velocity; the latter had more depth.  The former shut out the world in order to focus on the story; the latter dragged in the world in order to assess the story.  The former was more fun; the latter was more cynical.  But what was remarkable about the latter was that it contained the former: even while, as with the upper half of a set of bifocals, I saw the book through the complicating lens of adulthood, I also saw it through memory of the first time I'd read it, when it had seemed as swift and pure as the Winding Arrow, the river that divides Calormen from Archenland."

I can see that I need to read this book.  It contains 17 essays by various writers writing about a book they read as a youth and then reread as an adult.  I like what Fadiman says about reading having velocity and shutting out the world.  I experience that every time I open a book, but I think I need to do more rereading--and get the depth and be able to relate the book to the world that she also talks about.  I knew she would have something good to say.

Too much information? Where does it all go?!

Yesterday I was talking to a coworker about Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses.  She picked up the book on my recommendation* (I raved about it to her), and was very close to finishing the book.  She is the type of person to read one book at a time and will read thoughtfully and carefully.  We were chatting about the story and she was asking me questions, and I found that I had already forgotten many of the the details she had been asking me about (was Lars's mother ever named by name?  Did Trond's father actually stay with Lars's mother after they went off together??).  I read the book maybe a month ago, so it should be fairly fresh in my mind.  Of course she had the benefit of actually being in the middle of reading the novel, whereas I have read several other books since finishing it.

This discussion we had made me think about how I read, and what I retain, and how long I retain it.  Sometimes I think one of the downsides to reading many books at once is that perhaps I lose the continuity of a story when I am juggling so many without realizing it (another reason to pare down my piles into a more reasonable number).  I recalled major plot points and events, but otherwise I found that certain aspects of the story stuck with me vividly and others less so.  I wonder if I am reading too fast (which certainly doesn't feel the case right now)?  Am I consuming stories rather than reading them thoughtfully?  Some books just ask to be read at breakneck speed, though I did take the Petterson book slowly. 

I can generally pick up and set down a book pretty easily and not lose the thread of the story (at least I think I can).  It's been easy for me to slip into and out of books (I've gotten lots of practice), but I wonder how this effects the longterm memory/retention of a book.  Perhaps it is the same with all readers?  Of course rereading is the way to really instill the story in one's mind.  It's amazing what you pick up the second or third time around.  I don't reread as many books as I'd like to, but I seem to get something new from the story each time around (check out Dorothy's post on this very topic!).

So, this all brings me to a few questions.  When you read, how much do you think you retain when you finish?  How long do you think you remember a story?  Do you do anything special in order to get as much out of a story so you can or remember it better?  I know I should use sticky papers to note good passages or write down quotes, but I usually don't.  Do you reread books often?  I guess in my case anyway, I sometimes think that there is only so much that will fit into my brain at once.  With every new story that gets added, something else has to be shoved to the back or forgotten.  Of course, the during part, when I am reading is hopefully always satisfying!

*By the way, my friend really enjoyed the story (so I am once again recommending it--really...go out and read it!).  I am always a little bit afraid I will rave about a novel and then someone will come back and tell me they hated it.  I've been pretty lucky though, either my suggestions have gone over okay or my friends are just good liars.

A Dwindling Pile

I'm feeling very uninspired at the moment.  Usually I have all sorts of ideas in mind of things I want to blog about, but I hate to say it--all that stretches before me at the moment is a vast desert.  And nothing is growing in it.  I think this is due in part to the fact that I am reading the same books (and not finishing anything).  Someday, I swear, the covers you see on the right are going to change (or at least slowly disappear one by one).  I feel like I am reading and reading and not actually getting anywhere, which is not entirely true (less than 150 pages stand between me and the end of The Mysteries of Udolpho), but I can't seem to cross any books off this list.

So, rather than think about what I am not accomplishing, I will mention that I did do something I threatened to do last week.  I took a long hard look at my library books and returned those books I knew I would not get to anytime soon.  Not only that, I took most of my online requests for books and moved them to a wishlist, so I am only waiting now for one book, and it is a crafting book.  I'm hoping this will allow me to concentrate on what I already have started (so I can perhaps finish them...).  In January I am sure I'll join the library's Winter Reading Program (and I'll have lots to choose from as my wishlist is quite long), but until then here's what I have at home:

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver -- This is actually waiting for me at the library.  It has been on my list since last April!  After waiting that long I couldn't bring myself to get out of line. 

Not Yet Drown'd by Peg Kingman -- I am a third of the way into this novel and am looking forward to getting back to it.

All in Together Girls by Kate Sutherland -- I started reading this today.  I think I'll read a story every day or so.  They are fairly short, so they will be a nice break from Emily St. Aubert, who I've been spending lots of time with lately.

The Far Traveler by Nancy Marie Brown -- Another one I am looking forward to getting back to.

Mozart's Sister by Rita Charbonnier -- A historical novel, which "draws you into the lush palaces and salons of eighteenth-century Europe and into the fascinating life of a woman who ultimately found a way to express her own genius".   

The Gathering by Anne Enright -- Yes, I am curious about the Booker Prize winner.  It looks like a short novel, so I'd like to try and fit it in. 

I probably would have saved the last two books for later as well; however, they were already waiting for me when I dropped off my other books.  Six books is actually very reasonable for me considering I did have well over 20 at home a week ago.  There was one small glitch when I returned my stack of books last Friday.  One of the books apparently did not get checked back in, though I am certain I returned it.  I always check my account online so I can keep track of what I have and their due dates.  The book in question was still showing as something I had at home.  Although I've called and explained the situation the book still appears on my account and shows "claimed returned".  I can't tell you how annoying I find that.  I'm sure I brought it back--it was a heavy coffee table sort of book, which weighed a ton to walk with in my bookbag.  And now every time I look at my account I feel like they're thinking....yeah, suuurrre, we believe you......Tomorrow I'll go pick up the Shriver book, and I plan on checking the shelves carefully for that book--no doubt it is sitting on some shelf somewhere--still checked out in my name.  Ah, the trials and tribulations of using the public library.

Two Stories from the Twenties

My short story odyssey has begun with two American authors with stories set in the 1920s. Although I chose the authors for the period their stories were written, by chance both were Midwesterners and were born within a few years of each other.  F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota in 1896.  Kay Boyle was also born in St. Paul in 1902.  They lived vastly different lives however.

F. Scott Fitzgerald seems to be the epitome of what the "Jazz Age" meant.  He actually coined the term.  Although he appeared to live the life that he portrayed in his stories, he did not have the family fortune to sustain the lifestyle he craved.  There was added pressure to succeed as a writer because he was enamored with Southern debutante Zelda Sayre.  She wouldn't agree to marry him until his income would support her in the ritzy lifestyle she wanted to lead.  All the stories in my collection were written in Fitzgerald's first year as a professional writer in 1919 and 1920.  By 1920 he had published 15 stories, and sold his first novel, and Hollywood had purchased the movie rights to one of his short stories.  During hist first year as an author he earned the sum of $18,000, no doubt a small fortune in 1920.  F. Scott and Zelda lived tumultuous lives, however, and both died very young. 

"One of the major reasons for the instant popularity of Fitzgerald's fiction was that it reflected the far-reaching changes in values, behavior, and appearance of the generation coming of age after World War I.  Along with considerable disillusionment of young people after the war, came a sense of living in extravagant and daring times.  Fitzgerald perceptively dramatized the new ways in which males and females related to one another, the kinds of conversations taking place and the new attitudes behind them, as well as conveying vivid details of clothes, entertainments, cars, houses, and hotels." (From the introduction in my book).

Inevitably when I enjoy something I read, I want to read and know more.  Like every other American his school student I read The Great Gatsby years ago.  It is one of the few books I read more than once as a youth.  I'd like to read all his novels now.  I read the story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" this weekend, which I greatly enjoyed.  America in the 20s has always fascinated me, so I may be looking around for more novels with that setting.

Bernice is a nice, quiet, Midwestern girl visiting her cousin Marjorie, a knowledgeable, worldly-wise flapper.  When Marjorie and Bernice go to parties and dances no one wants to dance with Bernice.  She's a poor dancer and a worse conversationalist.  Of course Marjorie knows how to work the floor.  Marjorie is the sort of girl that prefers men as friends and thinks other girls are bores, and it's obvious to Bernice that Marjorie would prefer she wasn't around.  Bernice decides to let Marjorie transform her into a new sort of woman.  She gives her advice on how to change her appearance, dance, and chat with the men.  She becomes an instant success, going so far as to steal away Marjorie's young man.  I won't give away how things end, but this is an interesting (and entertaining) look at the changing mores of the time, and how artificiality and manipulation (at least in this case) are favored over the waning virtues of femininity.  Very well worth a read!

Kay Boyle lived a long and distinguished life.  She wrote more than 40 books, short stories, poetry, essays and children's books.  She was active artistically and politically and during the McCarthy era was blacklisted.  She was jailed twice for her opposition to the Vietnam War.  Louise Erdrich wrote the introduction to Fifty Stories.  I thought it was interesting that she says, "...like Albert Camus, she has always celebrated not the voices of those who make history, but the people who endure its workings: the silenced, the oppressed" (which you get a sense of in the story I read).  Boyle's formal education consisted of one single 'grieving' day in Kindergarten.  Instead she stayed home with her mother, to the happiness of both of them. 

"At eleven, Kay was pondering the theory of Cubism and writing fiction that described such imaginary incidents as the daily ride of Kaiser Wilhelm II through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, a story that her mother read to guests along with Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons."

According to Boyle, "In Mother's eyes Stein and I were of equal importance as writers of the modern school".  How cool is that.  Boyle is definitely another author I will be reading more of.  I don't know how much of her work is still in print--no doubt nothing close to what she actually published. I read "White as Snow", which appears to be available online via Google Books (which I find sort of amazing as it is a fairly contemporary book).  It is from her early group of stories written between 1927-1934. 

I had no idea what the story was about and just chose at random.  I will be giving away a few plot spoilers in case you'd like to read the story. 

The story is essentially about the introduction of two young girls to racial prejudice.  Carrie has come to the seaside as a nurse to two young girls on holiday with their family.  Carrie was "colored sweet and even like sarsaparilla".  It's obvious she is trying to pass herself off as white, however.  Being at the seaside, she believes is beneficial for her--her hair seems to be getting straighter, "It seems the air on the beach, it's known it takes the curl out".  She powders her face with white powder and talks as though "colored people" are a group apart from herself.  She meets a young man (white) on the beach and makes a date to meet him at the movies.  Carrie and the two girls set out at the appointed time--they must not walk with the young man.  He walks apart from them as though he doesn't know them.  He stops to buy taffy and passes it to Carrie surreptitiously.  When they get to the theater the young man tells Carrie that he can't get four seats together, but he can get her a ticket to sit upstairs in the balcony.  In the end he makes a fast exit saying he forgot he needed to be somewhere else.  Of course being colored, Carrie wouldn't be able to sit in the main theater.  It was a heart wrenching story to read.  At one point Carrie told the young girls,

"You got no reason to care," she said.  "Anything gets harmed for you, folks get you a new one.  Anything that happens to me, it just stays that way.  But I got a heart as red as yours, my blood runs the same color, if I was to cut my finger and you cut your finger, nobody's be able to tell the two of us apart."

Another exceptional story.  Highly recommended.   

Newest Acquisitions

Last night as I sat down at the computer to catch up on responding to comments and reading blogs, my internet went down.  This, of course, happened after I typed out a lengthy reply to someone, only to lose it.  When this happens (and it happens quite often lately) I have to restart my computer and unplug the DSL box and it all takes patience, and last night I decided I didn't really have any.  So I left the computer to reset itself and watched Maxed Out, which is a documentary about America's debt crisis.  It was highly depressing (no doubt there is a certain amount of truth to much of what they say).  It only reinforced my resolve to become debt free.  One of the main reasons I have not been ordering new books (or ordering anything else for that matter) is my desire to once and for all pay off (my lone--thankfully I only have one) credit card.

So why then are you looking at a photo of new books, you ask?  Someday I am going to read only what I own or what I can borrow from the library.  There is certainly enough variety in both my own library and the public library to keep me busy for a very long time.  But as any serious reader knows it can be very hard to avoid wanting a new (or in most of these cases a used) book occasionally.  Some of these books are mooches, a couple are freebies, two are new (bought with a coupon and what was left of my last gift card--this is the longest I have ever stretched out a gift card before), and the rest are cheap used books.  And not a single credit card was used in the purchase of these books (it feels so good to be able to say that). 

Most of my mooches are Viragos.  E. Arnot Robertson's Ordinary Families, Lettice Cooper's The New House, Winifred Holtby's Poor Caroline, and Enid Bagnold's The Squire.    

Jeffrey Yamaguchi of 52 Projects Fame sent me a copy of his new book, Working for the Man: Inspiring and Subversive Projects for Residents of Cubicle Land.  Subversive, hmm?  Check out his Working for the Man quiz.  I'm afraid to know what my score would be...

The very kind people from Hesperus Press sent along a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter.  It is "part fairy tale story, part Gothic horror story."  And someone just recently recommended it to me.

My two new book purchases are Wilkie Collins's The Frozen Deep, which I have been eyeing on the bookstore shelf for a long time now.  I came across Swedish author Helene Tursten in my searches for Scandinavian lit.  She writes police procedurals featuring Detective Inspentor Huss.  My library only has the second in the series, but I like to start from the beginning when I can, so I bought Detective Inspector Huss, which is her first mystery.

My used book finds are Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy (very happy to find this since I hace the sequel The Levant Trilogy and I'd really like to read Manning's work), Katherine Mansfield's The Aloe (a Virago), Ivy Compton-Burnett's The Present and the Past and Manservant and Maidservant (a NYRB edition), E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, Hannah W. Foster's The Coquette (Early American Writers series), and Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall (the last two American women writing in the 18th and 19th centuries).

This should keep me busy until the next library sale in December I think!

Now where to start...

Although I have not been a great reader of short stories in the past, that never stopped me from buying collections of them anyway.  I think what has held me back from reading more short stories, is that faced with choosing a book to read, I nearly always choose a straightforward novel.  I've always felt that if I pick up a collection of short stories, I was meant to read the stories straight through from cover to cover--like a novel.  I'm not so sure that is the best way to approach them, however.  I think I'd like to pick and choose stories at random, as I've been selecting ghost stories for the last couple of months.  Some collections are smaller, or the stories interwoven, so they seem to lend themselves to reading the book as a whole, in (more or less) one go.  But large collections of stories by one author or anthologies by multiple authors--I think I'd rather take them in smaller doses here and there (I seem to be much more apt to read them in this situation--just one or two rather than faced with an entire book).  Besides, is there a correct way to read short stories anyway?  I do have Kate Sutherland's All in Together Girls, which I would like to read in its entirety.  Dorothy read it earlier this year and enjoyed it and a quick glance through makes me think I will, too. 

As for picking and choosing, just a cursory look at my shelves and I came up with these collections (I actually have others, but these were the handiest to grab):

• Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Other Stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald -- I've always been intrigued by the sound of this story
• Collected Stories, Elizabeth Bowen -- 79 stories-love stories, ghost stories, stories of childhood, of English middle-class life in the twenties and thirties, of London during the Blitz
• Fifty Stories, Kay Boyle -- Set in Paris in the 20s, in Austria before and after the Anschluss, in New York, in occupied Germany, in California
• Across the Bridge, Mavis Gallant -- Paris stories
• The Collected Stories, Eudora Welty
• First Love and Other Stories, Ivan Turgenev
• The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett -- This was a gift from a friend in Germany who studied American Lit and works as a translator
• Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood
• The Springs of Affection: Stories of Dublin, Maeve Brennan
• Selected Stories, Alice Munro
• A Vocation and a Voice, Kate Chopin -- I've read some of her stories and enjoyed them very much
• A New England Nun and Other Stories, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman -- Like Chopin, this author is known as a regionalist

Now it is a matter of which story to choose first.  I think I'd like to read pairs of stories that are similar in some way in order to compare and contrast.  Mostly, though, I just want to enjoy a good story.  How to write about them after the fact is something I am still working out.  I feel like I am just giving plot summaries.  It's amazing how much meaning an author can infuse into just a few pages, but I'm not sure I catch everything each time.  No doubt how I read, what I read, and what I get out of the story will likely change as I go along. 

One more thing--the new Persephone Books Biannually and catalog have arrived!  Nobody does elegant quite like Persephone Books does it.  They also sent along a crisp, new catalog along with the newsletter and a bookmark.  I will be reading the Biannually this weekend lusting after the new books and making note of all the books in the catalog that I want to order (they are redesigning some of them with artsy covers--very lovely).  I'll have to be satisfied with looking at the moment, but I have plenty of unread Persephones to keep me busy for a while in any case.

A Thursday Mismash

How about a Booking Through Thursday on a Thursday?

What with yesterday being Halloween, and all . . . do you read horror? Stories of things that go bump in the night and keep you from sleeping?

Actually yes.  That's thanks to Carl's challenge (see yesterday's post).  I never had any desire to read ghost stories, but I found that I actually quite enjoy them.  Most of them weren't overly frightening, but some were "nicely" creepy and unsettling.  They were all very good in their own way and I plan on searching out some good anthologies to keep on hand.  In the past if I had seen these in the bookstore, I would just have passed them by.  I will be continuing on with my short story reading in the future as well.  One reading stumbling block out of the way (poetry?  Still must work on that one).  By the way, all these ghost stories have given me the urge to pick up a really scary book.  When I was younger I read some Stephen King novels, and I think that is as close as anything that would fit in the horror category.  I was even looking at his books last time I was at the bookstore.  Can anyone recommend a book that is particularly spine tingling?

My page a day cat calendar had an interesting tidbit that I thought I'd pass along.  Today's page says, "When stand-up comic Gary Roma discovered there was a Library Cat Society, he was inspired to make a documentary on cats who live in libraries.  His Puss in Books: Adventures of the Library Cat premiered in 1998."  Check out the website here.  I want to see that documentary.  I wonder how I can get my hands on a copy.  Sadly only one library in Nebraska has a resident cat.  And it isn't my library.

Since I am on the topic of libraries, I've decided I need to be brutal and take back every library book that I have at home that is not currently being read.  I am feeling overwhelmed by reading plans and library books always throw me off whack.  Susan plans on being (more or less) library book free through January due to a new reading challenge.  While I have been very good about not ordering books or buying many new books, I can't seem to keep away from the library.  I'm not going to completely cut myself off.  I do have a few books I am still in the queue for (including Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World, which I have been in line for since April of this year!).  And short story anthologies are okay as long as I am reading the occasional story from them.  I always want to read all the books I bring home from the library, but I am being far too unrealistic.  Unfortunately there is a limit to what I can read--at least at one time.  If I am absolutely going to read a book I can take it home, otherwise it just goes on the list.  This is part of my whittling down and getting the book piles under control project.  How do other reader's handle their library stacks?  Do you only read library books?  Do you never read library books?  And how do you manage to juggle those as well as your own books?  Don't worry, I won't ask how many library books go back unread!