A Work in Progress

Saturday Mishmash

Normally Saturday mornings mean sleeping in time.  I get up very early during the work week, so I eagerly look forward to being lazy on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  This weekend it will have to be just Sunday as I set the alarm to get up and do errands before a ten o'colock appointment.  One was mailing a load of Bookmooch books.  I have this very large and very sturdy bookbag that I got from a prior winter library reading program that comes in very handy.  Not only can I stash a respectable number of library sale books in it, but it also held all the packages I needed to mail this morning!  By mid-morning all my chores were finished and I was able to carry my empty bag (save for a book--because I rarely leave home without a book in hand) home.  I'm not sure how far I walked but it's been an absolutely gorgeous day--a little brisk in the morning, but it was so nice to hear birds chirping and see the sun gain strength.  On days like this I don't know why more people don't get outside for a nice walk in the fresh air.  I might have regretted not having a car on some of those nasty cold days we've had so far this year, but not today!

I don't really have much book news for you--a couple of items.  I've come across some forthcoming titles that I've added to my wishlist, however:

The Breaking Point: Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier - I have a very old and tattered copy of stories by du Muarier by this title (not sure both collections contain the same stories), but it would be nice to have a new copy to match my other Virago du Maurier books. 

The Angel of Grozny: Life Inside Chechnya by Asne Seierstad

Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons - A novel by the author of Cold Comfort Farm.  

All the Nice Girls, Joan Bakewell - This novel "captures the danger and excitement of wartime Britain with a sweeping story of heroic deeds and painful separations, illicit love and battles at sea, and above all, of the poignancy of longing and loss."

Crimson Rooms by Katharine McMahon

Confinement by Katharine McMahon

Way Through the Woods by Katharine McMahon 

The top four I came across when I was looking for something on the Virago Press website.  I think I want most of their Spring frontlist!  The last three are reprints by an author that I discovered last year (read Katharine McMahon's The Alchemist's Daughter, which was really good).  I'm especially looking forward to Crimson Rooms, which is set after WWI.

The other bookish activity I've decided to undertake has more to do with the mysteries I've been spending so much time reading.  I have this wonderful little resource that I've used over the years called Detecting Women by Willetta L. Heising.  Unfortunately it's about ten years old now and sadly out of date (and out of print).  It has lists of detective series by women and you can check off what you own and what you've read.  It's a way to keep track of your favorites in a nice, orderly way.  It was a really handly little guide, but I suppose with so much information now on the internet it may have outlived its usefulness as there is no newer edition available.  Still, I sometimes forget what I own and which books I've already read, so was thinking of what I might do to keep track of things.  I know other readers use Excel files for their TBR lists, so why not create a spreadsheet with alphabetical tabs of the mysteries I follow.  I don't think it will be too large an undertaking as I only follow a handful (perhaps a generous handful), and I can list the authors and their sleuths, the books and use it to keep track of things.  I've already started and can see it is going to be another of those mindless tasks that's entertaining and organizational that I seem to enjoy so much.   

More Library Loot

 

I feel like I am reading an inordinate amount of mysteries and crime fiction lately (will need to get back to my Persephone to lighten things back up) .  To make things worse, these are the books I came home with from the library last night.  I said I wasn't going to do it, but when I saw the line was short for a copy of Tana French's The Likeness, I put in a request and had to wait less than a week for a copy.  I'm excited to start it.  I also got Mari Jungstedt's Unspoken.  I seem to be reading her books in reverse order.  I was hoping this was her first novel, but it appears to be the second.  Oh well.  And I'm looking forward to Andrew Taylor's Bleeding Heart Square, too.  I won a copy from Library Thing's Early Reviewer Program, but sometimes it can take weeks before the book arrives, so I just stayed in line for a library copy.  Hopefully I can get a head start before the LT copy gets here.  I have several new review copies by the way.  I feel like I have so much reading to do (but in a good way), and I'm moving really, really slowly and wonder if I will ever catch up.  I know what I'll be doing this weekend.  And it's not going to involve a vacuum and furniture polish either (there was enough of that going on last Monday!).

However, first I have some serious packaging and label writing to do.  If you do ever decide to do some serious weeding and plan on adding the books to your Bookmooch inventory, don't add them all at once.  This is what happens.  I now have over 34 Bookmooch points, but I'm going to be lugging a load of books to the post office tomorrow morning!  Thankfully only one needs to be sent out of the US.  This comes at a convenient time as I am going to try to not buy any new books for a while. Between the library and Bookmooch, I really shouldn't be lacking in new reading material in any case.            

Scandinavian Crime: A Thursday Thirteen

Scandinavian crime novels seem to be all the rage at the moment.  A couple of months back there was an article in the Guardianon the phenomenon (yes, I know I'm coming a little late to this topic--though I took note of it at the time, but it's only recently that I've been reading more of these types of novels).  I think a point they made about the small percentage of books being translated from other languages into English is true in the US as well.  Compared to Europeans I think we are not really widely exposed to writing from other cultures, which is a pity.  It's a trend I hope will change (I'm certainly trying to read more books in translation), and I know there are some fine smaller publishers working to bring good literature to us from other countries.  Anyway, lately I seem to consistently find new titles by Scandinavian authors to add to my wishlist or check out from the library, and there's good reason why.    

"But no one buys a thriller for the writing alone: the Scandinavians have consistently come up with great plotlines that are as cold and bleak as the locations in which they are set. It's this sense of the other that sets them apart. Crime writers can come up with any number of serial killers and paedophiles with ever sicker twists, but as long as they are situated in LA, New York, London and Edinburgh there will inevitably be a sense of familiarity. The Scandinavian locations dislocate British readers and help take them beyond plot and genre to the human condition."

I've mentioned that I'm reading Mari Jungstedt's The Inner Circle at the moment, which I should finish in the next day or so.  It's set on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden.  I've stumbled into the series several books in so I'm playing catch on the various relationships, which are already in full swing.  I haven't quite gotten a really good sense of the detective, Anders Knutas, yet, though I suspect I'll go back and fill in the missing novels.  Interestingly there is also a reporter that seems to play a significant role in the books, so there are a few different storylines along with the mystery.  In this case the mystery is a ritual killing of a young archaeological student.  I hope to write more about the book, but in the meantime I thought I would share my list of Scandinavian fiction that I've read (a few!) or have on my shelves (most titles listed!).  In some cases I've had these authors around far too long and need to get them out and read them.  (Note: normally I would number my list, but apparently Typepad can't get past #10 without completely messing up my formatting and switching to bullets instead of numbers.  Yet another bug to make life a little bit easier).

Jar City, Arnaldur Indridason - Should have read this a long time ago.

Faceless Killers, Henning Mankell

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson - Looking forward to this one--have heard much about it!

Missing, Karin Alvtegen

Princess of Burundi, Kjell Ericksson

Nemesis, Jo Nesbo

Sun Storm, Asa Larsson

Detective Inspector Huss, Helene Tursten

My Soul to Take, Yrsa Sigurdardottir - I read her first novel last month.

Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg - This is one I've read a couple of times.

Unspoken, Mari Jungstedt  - More Inspector Knutas.

The Mind's Eye, Hakan Nesser

The Priest of Evil, Matti Joensuu - This one is on my wishlist.  It's the first one I've come across that's set in Finland.

I think I've only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to good Scandinavian writers.  For a more extensive list of books check out Euro Crime, which is one of my best resources for crime fiction in general.  Any favorites you can recommend?  

Pins and Needles

 

It's been a while since I shared any needlework photos, hasn't it?  That's because it's been a while since I've actually done any needlework.  I was starting to wonder if I was going to finish a single project this year, so I moved things along a little.  I stitched this last year, but doing the actual sewing is not always my strong point, so it sat in my 'unfinished projects' bin for months and months.  I finally pulled it out and did the finishing over the weekend.  In this case I did it all by hand.  The back is also linen, and it has only the year on it (lazy work on the back--what can I say--I didn't even put my initials!).  It's filled with these tiny plastic pellets (that dollmakers use), so it has a little weight to it.  It's not very big--perhaps 2" x 3" (though maybe that's being generous).  So, three months into the year and one whole project finished (and only a tiny one).  I have about ten other projects sitting by my bed in various stages of completion that I pick up from time to time and work on for a while, but I can't seem to finish any of them!  Too busy reading, I suspect.  Maybe next weekend I'll dip into that little bin again.  Or maybe it's time to start another sheep?  I have an Easter sheep all ready to stitch.  What's one more project anyway.      

In the Woods

I finished reading Tana French's In the Woods last week.  For me it was one of those near perfect reading experiences, where the author gets just about everything right--an intricate suspenseful plot, finely developed characters and all nicely paced (and I should mention really good writing!).  You want to speed to the end to see what happens, yet you want to go slowly, too, as you don't want to miss anything along the way.  Tana French simply knows how to tell a really good story, and while it might not necessarily be an edge of your seat type thriller, it's so completely absorbing you don't want to set it down either.  I'm a little reluctant to write about it, though, as it's the sort of book where the less you know about it beforehand the better. 

You probably already know the premise.  Three twelve-year-olds go into the woods to play one day and don't come out.  This is the 80s, so really bad things don't often happen (or is that a nostalgic view?), and when the hue and cry is finally raised only one boy is found--his back up against a tree, nails dug in tightly, and the inside of his shoes sodden with blood.  Nothing else.  There is no sign of his friends and his memory is totally blank.  Flip forward twenty years and that boy is now a detective on the Dublin murder squad, living an entirely different life under a new name. 

By chance Detective Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox land their first big murder case involving another 12-year-old from the same housing estate where Ryan lived as a boy.  The murder is eerily reminiscent of those twenty years earlier.  This time the body of girl has been left on the site of an archaeological dig adjacent to the woods where the others went missing.  Despite his own connections with the earlier case and the possibility the two cases may be related, Ryan and Maddox become almost obsessively involved with finding the murderer.  It nearly takes over their lives as they delve into the sad history of the girl and her dysfunctional family.

There's so much more I could say, but I hate giving any more of the plot away.  When I get wrapped up in a really good story I tend to forget to look at how the author is constructing the story and all the other little details about the novel that can be so revealing.  It took me a while to realize that the story is written in first person, and the more I read the more I wondered how reliable the narrator was.  In any case it was very effectively done as it all brought home to the reader just how uncertain everything was, particularly events in the past and how or if they had anything to do with those in the present.  Along with being your standard police procedural and psychological thriller it was also a meditation on identity and memory.

I think what I especially liked about the story was how plausible it seemed.  Rob Ryan tells you what happened, and you believe him.  I did, anyway.  Had there been a copy of French's next novel, The Likeness on the library shelves when I went last week I would have grabbed it.  I'm not sure I want to wait in line for a copy or buy it in cloth, however, so I will likely wait until it comes out in paperback in May.  Can she possibly top In the Woods, I wonder?  I've also heard she's working on a third book as well.  Needless to say I was impressed this was a first novel and am looking forward to reading more.    

Lazy Monday

   

You know it's amazing how much time you can waste when you set  out to do one small task and it ends up taking hours.  I took today off from work as I'm accumulating all these vacation days, but I never go anywhere, so I might as well make use of them one way or another.  I didn't really plan to do any spring cleaning, but I've had these bins sitting by my computer since the Christmas holidays (the cats have found them useful as perches to relax on).  They usually reside in my little bookroom closet, but I wanted to weed the contents out and add the rest to Library Thing (I still haven't got all my books entered).  They stay in the closet as the books are mostly what I call supermarket fiction.  You know the sorts of books you find there--semi-trashy romance, suspenseful novels, the odd regular fiction.  Most of these are from high school and college and I wanted to brutally weed out things that I knew I would either never read now or never read again.  I went though a little chick lit phase after reading Bridget Jones's Diary, and while they served their purpose when I was a bit younger, I think their usefulness has passed.  I did keep a few that I have fond memories of and just couldn't quite bear to give away yet. 

Then the bins were returned to their closet, and I tidied up my little bookroom (as much as such a small space packed to the rafters can be tidied).  Everyone else in the house sees the room as a place for their castoffs so there are piles of toys (a very large one as a matter of fact), work shoes and overalls and other sundry items.  I'd be very happy telling everyone to clear off their junk only I'm probably the worst culprit in their eyes since the room mostly has piles of books (and they're non readers so they just don't understand).  So I'll keep quiet on the point.  It also serves as a reminder that  yes, I really do have enough books.  Not that I ever listen to myself.  So instead of the bins by my computer I now have a box full of books that are listed in Bookmooch.  What do I do with the box?  The idea was to clear things out.  So I'll leave you here and try and juggle things around and find a corner for the box (or maybe it can just go back to the bookroom like the other castoffs).

By the way, the weather is gorgeous today.  It's sunny and may get into the 70s!  So I'm scrambling this off so I can enjoy the rest of the day.  Sit on the porch perhaps and read (and forget about the jumble inside).  Spring cleaning can wait.  It's not even spring yet, right.       

Reading Notes

The first half of Laurie King's A Monstrous Regiment of Women was really good, but the second half was excellent.  The Beekeeper's Apprentice was very much a first novel, but I say that only with the idea of a novel introducing two characters whose lives will intertwine and who will find themselves getting involved in a number of mysterious and threatening circumstances.  Laurie King's writing has been superlative throughout both novels.  I'm not going to go into any more detail about the story as by now you might well be Mary Russell'd out, but I will say that the second half has an 'edge of your seat' quality to it and was very hard to put down.  What happens is somewhat menacing, and if Mary Russell was really no more than a youth in the first book, she has very much come into her own as a mature young woman this time around.  Mary and Holmes come together as equals and yes there is a dash (but literally only a dash) of romance at the end.  Sherlock Holmes is a very prickly type of character and Mary an intellectual as well, so that aspect of the story was handled tastefully and believably.  While the first book was almost a hodge podge of items that needed sorting--introduction of characters, setting up of relationship, education of Mary, and yes, some mystery as well, this second novel was much more a straightforward mystery--very well planned and executed with all the right details to fill in the rest of the story.          

I've already pulled out A Letter of Mary, which is the next book in the series, but I will probably not start it right away (though I'm very tempted to do so).  I have a stack of mysteries that I want to read (not least these and these, which were recent purchases) and I always have such a difficult time choosing--something new or is it time to revisit a series I started to read some time ago (like Mary Russell).  At the moment I'm in the thick of things with Christianna Brand's Green for Danger.  It's set during WWII in a military hospital outside of London.  With the Blitz in the background an ordinary citizen is brought in with minor wounds from a recent raid.  He's nervous about being operated on, and although the nurse reassures him he'll come out of it all just fine, something happens and he dies on the operating table.  Worst case scenario, eh?  I've always had a fear of anesthesia!  Anyway a detective is brought in to sort things out as the patient shouldn't have died, and the only people with access to the victim are the nurses and doctors.  Apparently this is Brand's masterpiece and so far its' held my attention nicely.

In keeping with my 'Shakespeare Sunday' reading I had planned on starting Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage, but as I'm not really catching up on my reading as I had hoped (I do say some foolish things sometimes, don't I), I thought it better to spend time with books I'm already reading this afternoon. I also have the Slaves next book, The Post Office Girl ready to start very soon.  And I recently received my next postal reading group book in the mail.  If you're curious what it is, click here.  It's supposed to be a cross between a social satire and a comedy of manners.  I'm really intrigued by this one.  I had never heard of it before and am looking forward to seeing if it's as good as the rest of the postal book choices have been!          

Library Loot

I'm back to my normal library routine--stopping by once a week or so.  Usually I have a book or two on hold, but often I will also browse the new book shelves.  I think I sort of had my fill of borrowing from these shelves during the library's winter reading program, as I haven't really found anything there to tempt me too much.  This is probably a good thing.  A book has to look really good for me to take it home, as lately I've been weighing what I see on those shelves with what I have on my own at home, and seeing which I would really prefer to read.

I have found a few books, however, that look like they have possibilities:

Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson.  The subtitle is "a Medieval Noir".  I'm not sure if I've ever come across a "noir" mystery set so far back in time--at least in the sense of how I think of the word, but it caught my attention.  This is set in 14th-century England.  The hero is a knight convicted of treason and therefore living on the fringes of society.  I came across this title via Iliana. 

Sashenka  by Simon Montefiore.  I used to work in an indepdendent bookstore, which closed about six years ago.  It was a family run business, the owners being very cool (and well read) people.  When I started going to the university's gym I discovered they also use it, so now when I see them we always trade reading suggestions.  They've both read this and recommended it, so I think I'll give it a whirl.  I believe it starts in 1916, jumps to the 1930s and then the present day and tells the story of Sashenka Zeitlin. 

Sister Beneath the Sheet by Gillian Linscott.  This is a mystery series that has (again) come recommeded.  It's set in Edwardian England featuring suffragette Nell Bray.  I've heard that Gillian Linscott is now writing under the name Caro Peacock, who I recently read and enjoyed, so it will be interesting to compare the two series.  There are a handful of Nell Bray mysteries and my library has most of them.  They were written in the early 90s, but I have to say the dust jacket gave me a chuckle--there's a woman lying 'beneath the sheet" of her bed (no doubt dead!) with only her hand protruding.  It's painfully obvious that she has fake nails on.  What do you think the chances were that proper Edwardian ladies (or even the improper ones) wore dime-store press on nails?  But never judge a book by it's cover, right!  

A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter.  I think I may have to buy this one (I have a 15% off coupon conveniently).  Aside from the fact it is well over 500 pages and I'm not likely to get it read in the next three weeks, it looks like it is full of interesting information not only about those famous women authors who are part of the literary canon but also about many "once successful and acclaimed yet now little known" authors.  I'm curious to see who made the list--she talks about more than 250 female American writers covering the years from 1650 to 2000.     

The Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn Macdonald.  This is from my library (where I have three more books sitting on my desk that I'm contemplating checking out and trying to read).  This is my starting place for my nonfiction reading about WWI.  I've been writing down other suggestions and will be requesting a couple more from interlibrary loan.  I should have a very good list and it'll be hard to decide what to pick next.

At the moment, however, I'm reading Swedish author, Mari Jungstedt's The Inner Circle.  I'm not very far into it, but I've already discovered I'm jumping into the series somewhere a few books in.  I don't think it matters, though there seem to be several ongoing relationships between characters that I don't know the back story to.  I'm sure things will sort themselve out, though.  The story is set on the Baltic island of Gotland and the murder is on the macabre side--a ritual killing.  I picked this author up by chance (rather she was on the new books list that I scan each week online and then make my requests as the books are released), but figure most Scandinavian crime fiction is all the rave lately and generally highly regarded as being solid, quality reads.  I've not read a lot of Scandinavian crime authors, so I can't really compare, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy Birthday Persephone!

   

Persephone Books that is.  I discovered via Simon that Persephone Books published their first three titles ten years ago this month.  I thought I would join Simon, Cornflower, Elaine and Darlene  (have I missed anyone?) in expressing my appreciation for such a fine press, which reprints really exemplary titles.  If you've ever had an opportunity to handle the books you'll know they are truly mouthwatering--sturdy covers, dove grey in color with only their logo and the book's title, inside endpapers are gorgeous reprints of textiles that match the theme of the book, heavy paper for the inside pages and they all come with a bookmark of the same design as the endpapers.  The books are a pleasure to read both literally and figuratively--they fit so nicely in the hand.  Persephones are so gorgeously designed, very dignified and tasteful and eventually I would love to own them all (last count--81 titles).  And the top two books on the right pile are the new Persephone Classics, this time with classy illustrated jackets but otherwise the same distinctive Persephone style.

I first came across a link to the Persephone Books website at Bookgirl's Nightstand.  I was intrigued but didn't really know anything about this publisher, so I put off giving them a try until later.  I'm not entirely sure what prompted me to finally order one (or three--as I usually opt for the special deal), but once I did was well and truly hooked.  I don't have as many Persephones as other readers, but I'm slowly acquiring their backlist.  The pile on the left are those books that I've already read, and the books on the right are the ones I'm looking forward to reading.  If you're curious which titles I own, click here.  I'll be adding to the stacks in April when Persephone releases three new titles (including Nicola Beauman's biography of Elizabeth Taylor).  At the moment I'm reading Denis Mackail's Greenery Street, which is an utterly charming novel.  As for my favorite?  That's a little hard to say as I tend to fall for each new book I read, but Richmal Crompton's Family Roundabout seems to have stood out from the rest in my mind.  Be sure and check out Simon's week of festivities. 

WWI and Nonfiction

I had something else in mind to post today, but as I'm on a roll with Mary Russell and the WWI era, I thought I might as well round things off.  It's always interesting to hear what inspires an author to write what she does and how she goes about preparing for her work.  Wouldn't you love to see the reading list Laurie King used to immerse herself in the history of the interwar period (the good books and maybe even the bad)?  I love reading historical fiction and can learn so much about a period from novels, but often that is only a jumping off point.  It's nice to fill in the gaps by reading nonfiction--biographies and history books.  I generally have no problem finding good examples of novels but a look on my shelves quickly revealed I've not read or even own much in the way of nonfiction. 

I came up with exactly three nonfiction books on World War I.  Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, The Last Days of Innocence: America at War, 1917-1918 by Meirion Harries, and The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm.  What's worse is that I've not yet read any of them.  I took a look at my library's catalog and found too many books to choose from, but in the end I brought home The Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn Macdonald.  This is one of five books she's written on WWI.  This one in particular is about the volunteer nurses (and looks really interesting).  I've also requested Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory, which looks at WWI through literature and social history.             

So once again I'm looking for reading suggestions.  This time nonfiction--biographies, memoirs, history, anything factual about WWI and the years leading up to and right after. I'm a really slow nonfiction reader, so anything really absorbing is especially appreciated.  Ideas anyone?