A Work in Progress

Unexpected Library Loot

 

I really thought last week that I wouldn't be seeing anymore books on the holds shelf for me at my public library.  My requests were either not due out for weeks yet, or my place in line was surely too far down the list for me to get a copy anytime soon, or so I thought.  It's amazing, though, how those books sneak onto that shelf.  Well, a couple might have come from the new books list that my library publishes online as they get in books and catalog them.  In any case, even though I thought I would be taking a breather for a while, I'm happy to have this pile as there are several I'm excited about reading.

I've heard many good things about Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, so will likely start here (well, as soon as I finish one of the library books I'm already reading that is).  The heroine of the story is an eleven-year-old girl called Flavia de Luce who's an aspiring chemist and has a passion for poison.  Oh, and she comes across dead bodies apparently.

A Flickering Light by Jane Kirkpatrick is set in 1907 Minnesota and is based on real people.  It's a coming of age tale about a young woman who becomes a photographer.

Ann Granger's A Mortal Curiosity is the second in a mystery series featuring Lizzie Martin.  This is set in Victorian England, and while I usually like to start at the beginning when it comes to mysteries, I might just jump in here.

I'm looking forward to reading Mary Beth Keane's The Walking People, which is set in Ireland and New York in the 1950s.  It sounds similar to Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, which I started reading and can't seem to put down.  Tara had good things to say about it, which makes me look forward to it even more.   

And lastly, Rebecca Cantrell's A Trace of Smoke is set in 1930s Berlin, and I've been itching to read something set in this place and period.  Once again it's a mystery with a female sleuth who's a crime reporter. 

It's probably just as well I did have some books at the library waiting for me this week as I know I'd be disappointed not to have even one to look forward to. 

The Age of Innocence

Every once and a while a book will come along that's pretty much perfection.  Everything about it is just right.  The story is absorbing, the writing is beautiful and elegant, the characters have depth and breadth and they mature and change over the course of the story.  Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is pretty much that sort of book for me.  I read it years ago and am so glad I finally picked it up to read again.  Although the broader story has always stayed with me, it's amazing how quickly details fade away.  At times I felt like it was all new to me, and I think I've understood and appreciated it more this time around than last. 

My post is not going to do this wonderful book justice.  I'm not going to go into great detail about the story, as there's so much in it to discuss--more than I can in this small space.  It's the sort of book to read and then let simmer and then write about, and I'm going to compress things a bit due to lack of time.  As I was reading I was starting to turn down pages to mark passages I might be able to share here now, but there were so many that I finally gave up.  In a way there's nothing extraneous about this story, and yet every passage is suffused with meaning.  It is filled with so many luxurious descriptions of a decadent 1870s New York, but they are so necessary to the story it never felt like it was over the top.  It's a weighty story, but not ponderous, and it's really very accessible.  I found it to be quite a page turner actually.  

Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, which she did in 1921 for this novel.  It might be helpful to know a little something about Edith Wharton.  She was born in 1862.  Her parents were both prominent members of New York Society.  I read that it was due to her father, George Frederick Jones, that we now have the expression "keeping up with the Joneses", if that gives you a hint to what family life must have been for Edith.  She was educated privately.  She was married and then later divorced.  Most importantly she was part of the milieu that she wrote so knowledgeably about.      

(In case you've not read this, there might be a few spoilers, so please take care). 

I was trying to decide how I would describe this book if I had to do it in only a couple of sentences.  To get down to the nitty gritty I suppose it's a (bittersweet) love story between Newland Archer and Countess Ellen Olenska that's doomed thanks to a society that's so uncompromising on its insistence on propriety.  Their passionate emotions are absolutely straining to burst free, but they are always kept in check by a society that disdains individuality.  Wharton maintains this very subtle balance between want and responsibility, and I'll let you guess which wins out.  Honestly, it's genius.  Perhaps I should build on this a bit?

The book opens at the Opera, and to follow that an opulent ball.  Newland Archer and May Welland plan to discreetly announce their betrothal a bit earlier than planned for the sole reason of giving the support of two families, rather than one, to May's cousin Ellen Olenska.  The Countess has returned from Europe after many years away but with scandal trailing her.  She's left her husband, and while details are slim, it's understood that he's a scoundrel and a brute.  New York Society being what it is, the Countess is not being welcomed with open arms, and it's only through the support of the two families that she's eventually accepted.  Newland in particular plays a vital role in helping ease her way, as Ellen is really more of a foreigner now with different ideas that aren't likely to conform with those of New York Society.

Newland is a bit of a dilettante and unusual compared to his contemporaries.  He has literary and artistic inclinations, yet he was raised with an understanding of society's tight code of ethics and ultimately will always know where his responsibilities lie.  Although he doesn't need to work, he spends time playing at being a lawyer.  In May he sees the ideal wife.  She's beautiful and virtuous and perhaps a little naive.  Ellen Olenska is a perfect foil to May.  Ellen leads a Bohemian and unconventional life and most importantly is an independent woman.  Newland's eyes are really opened through his encounters with this woman he knew as a child and danced with.  Ironically everything gets muddled through everyone's best intentions 'not to hurt anyone'.  After he spends time with Ellen all of a sudden his life with May sprawls out ahead of him, and he has visions of May becoming just like her mother.  He had this idea he would shape May's thinking after they were married, but after meeting Ellen again he sees that May will always be staid and unimaginative.  

There's so much more to say about this book, but I'm going to stop here save the best parts for you to discover on your own.  This is a gorgeous novel and one of my favorites.  Wharton wrote about old New York in Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth, apparently even more caustically and critically than in The Age of Innocence.  I've read neither, but I plan on changing that soon.  I'd like to revisit the other novels I have read by her including Ethan Frome and Summer along with some others.  Edith Wharton is one of those authors 'I've been meaning to get back to' for ages, so it's exciting to finally do so.  It's authors like Edith Wharton that remind me just why I love reading so much.  I highly recommend this one.         

Reading Notes: Another Case of Start-i-tis

I started this post last week, but with one thing or another I got distracted and my reading notes fell by the wayside.  I was going to tell you about starting Sarah Harrison's A Flower That's Free, which is a sequel to a book I read last year and really enjoyed.  This one is set before and during WWII.  It begins in Kenya but quickly moves to London.  I'm  not very far, and this is completely an impulse read, but it's one I'm finding easy to fall into.  I was in the mood for a nice sprawling family drama set against a historical backdrop and this just fit the bill.

Then I was going to mention Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend by Paul Schneider.  This is a review copy that I requested from the publisher and was so looking forward to reading.  I was going to tell you what an unconventional read it seems to be.  Although it's a biography, it literally reads like a novel, dropping the reader right in the middle of the action from page one.  And it's all been meticulously researched and based on lots of primary resources, which gives it a very immediate feeling. 

Now, it's not that I don't want to tell you all about these two books, but the thing is, I took a look at my calendar and realized that May is already half over.  How did that happen?  Both books are sitting on my nightstand waiting for me to continue on with them, but I'm afraid my reading queue has been thoroughly messed up.  The Slaves are going to be discussing Patrick Hamilton's The Slaves of Solitude in a mere two weeks and I hadn't even cracked the book open.  So I finally have.  I'm not sure what I think.  I have to get used to the author's 'voice', though I really like the premise of the story.  I'm not very far in, so it's early days yet.

Then I have not one but three books that are also review copies that I'm either participating in a blog tour or have been asked to have my review posted by a certain time of the month.  These are in June, but the clock is ticking away.  Two are Georgette Heyer novels that I just mentioned.  I've decided to start with the longer of the two, Cousin Kate.  Again, I'm not sure what I think of this one, as it seems to be a departure from the style of Heyer's other novels, but I'm really not far enough into the story yet to form an opinion.  And I agreed to be part of a blog tour for Jennifer Cody Epstein's The Painter from Shanghai, which I have started and am happy to say I've been drawn into the story right from the start.

Deadlines.  Yikes.  I feel a little bit like a student who has procrastinated until the end of the semester to write a term paper and is now flying by the seat of her pants (though am actually trying to plan ahead on these last three books) to get it done in time.  I may have to pull back a bit on these sorts of extracurricular blog activities (and remind myself this is meant to be a fun hobby, not a stressful situation with deadlines).  I'm not always good at pacing myself, which means things get stacked up and then I feel a little like I'm floundering.  It doesn't help that I'm not a fast reader to begin with, and then I (like most people) have limited reading time.  

To make matters worse there's Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, which has to be returned to the library soon (can't be renewed) that I really wanted to read.  And since I couldn't decide between Wilkie Collins or Emile Zola, I decided to start them both.  See how bad I am?  The difference being, of course, books I choose on my own can be read at  my own (slow) pace.  I may have to make a list and priorotize.  At least I'm good at multitasking....I'll still be happy when I'm caught up on all my 'extracurricular' reading.      

The Talisman Ring

The heroines in Georgette Heyer's The Talisman Ring don't quail in the face of danger, which is a good thing considering the tight squeezes they seem to find themselves in.  Heyer is up to her usual entertaining standards, though this is probably more of a romp than normal.  It's a cross between a story of an affaire du coeur (or the beginning of one anyway) and a murder mystery.  There is no swordplay involved, but smugglers abound as do excisemen, Bow Street Runners and rather large quantities of illegal liquor. 

As a matter of fact Heyer does a few things in this novel that are a bit out of the norm, including having two sets of potential lovers.  And the real heroine might just turn out to be someone you're not expecting.  The premise, though, is traditional Heyer--on his deathbed a rich uncle requests that a favored nephew marry a young woman who after his death will no longer have familial protection.  Sounds romantic enough, right?  Maybe.  Only the young woman is intensely romantic and extremely impetuous.  She also happens to be French, having made a narrow escape just before the Revolution and now lives the quiet life in the English countryside--unfortunately to her displeasure.  Her proposed suitor is more mature and serious and outright refuses to come to her aid (in the event she may need it) riding ventre a terre, which simply will not do.  Well, he'll come to her aid, as he's a most respectable fellow, just not in such a silly  manner.   This will have to simply be a marriage of necessity and convenance.

Young Frenchwoman Eustacie de Vauban has notions of romantic adventure, which do not include marrying her staid cousin Sir Tristram Shield.  She'd rather run off and become a governess, which is what she sets off to do one night.  After a series of mishaps, which include losing her bags, she has a run in with a band of smugglers.  By chance one of the smugglers happens to be her cousin Ludovic, heir to the Lavenham fortune.  Unfortunately he can't claim it as he was falsely accused of murder and was bundled off to the Continent to keep out of danger (that would be the hangman's noose).  Or so everyone thought, but here he is on the Sussex coast with barrels full of illegal spirits.  In the confusion and excitement Ludovic is shot and Eustacie must get him to a nearby inn, which has ties to the smugglers.  Finally, an adventure worthy of Eustacie's fantasies.

At the inn Eustacie encounters Miss Sarah Thane, eminently practical but with an adventurous side as well who gets involved in Eustacie's schemes but at the same time has a calming effect on the situation getting Eustacie (and Ludovic as well) out of more than one scrape.  Sarah is the spinster sister of Sir Hugh Thane, a justice of the peace, who is only too willing to turn a blind eye to any illegal activity as long as he's not inconvenienced and can partake of the fine smuggled port.

Eustacie and Sarah contrive to help Ludovic reclaim his title and rightful place as heir.  The proof they need is a valuable talisman ring that was stolen at the time of the murder.  Against his better judgement Sir Tristram gets involved as well after he traces his young French cousin to the inn.  Although Ludovic has a good idea who committed the murder, getting the ring back verges on the farcical.  To make matters worse, Ludovic must stay hidden, which causes no end to the craziness.

Published in 1936 The Talisman Ring is one of Heyer's earlier novels.  I suspect it would really have been just the thing to take someone's mind off bombing raids as she alluded to in her quote:    

"I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense, but it's unquestionably good escapist literature, and I think I should rather like it if I were sitting in an air-raid shelter, or recovering from flu.  It's period detail is good; my husband says it's witty--and without going to these lengths, I will say that it is very good fun."

And this one is indeed very good fun!  It's an entertaining read with a fast moving plot and interesting, well formulated characters.  The mystery aspect isn't really surprising, but it makes a nice contrast to the budding romances between the various characters.  I've got a couple more Heyer novels lined up, another romp of a book (The Corinthian) and a Gothic romance (Cousin Kate).  I'll be sharing more in the next month or so.  It's always good to have a nice escapist story (or two) to fall back on! 

Reading More Classics

 

I've sort of gotten away from having reading goals except in the vaguest sense of wanting to read a certain author for example or more books in translation or more classics.  And that's okay as I really do enjoy reading at whim or letting myself be guided by one subject that leads into another and then another.  One year not so far back nearly a third of the books I read could be termed (in my loose classification anyway) as a 'classic'.  I really do love reading classic literature and could probably be pretty happy reading classics almost exclusively.  If there is one thing I do try and do each year it's--read more classics.  I feel like I missed out so  much as I was growing up as I really wasn't guided in my reading (though I am happy with the books I stumbled upon on my own).  So many book bloggers studied Literature in college, which I didn't, so there went more reading opportunities. 

So I try and make up for it as an adult, but this year my reading of the classics has been paltry at best.  I've read not even a small handful of books that would fit in that category and some of them were rather slender reads.  Part of my problem is that I've stumbled a bit on reading Charles Dickens' Bleak House.  I'm a third of the way into a 900 page brick of a book.  And while I am enjoying the story, I feel like I need to devote myself to it exclusively, which I can't seem to do at the moment (too many other reading commitments).  So rather than just read a bit each day, it's been languishing.  For some strange reason I feel like I can only read one classic at a time, though am happy to pick up any number of other more contemporary novels at once.  So, you see I've made no progress.

I finally did decide to throw caution to the wind and have been rereading Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.  I went through a big Edith Wharton phase when I was just out of college gobbling up a bunch of her books, though I think I can appreciate them far more now as an adult than when I was younger (and less wise!).  If you've not read her, you really must!  Her treatment of American manners and conventions at the turn-of-the-century is so keen that every sentence is brimming with meaning.  And her prose is utterly gorgeous.  I'm nearing the end, and while I should turn my attention back to Mr. Dickens, I just am not in the mood for him at the moment.  What's more terrible is that I wouldn't at all mind something Victorian in nature, but my thoughts instead have turned to his contempoary (and my favorite) Wilkie Collins.  I was all set to finally read Emile Zola, but once I find myself in Wilkie Collins' magnetic pull, I just can't resist.  Maybe I should just be bad and start reading both authors.  I've got it narrowed down to:       

The Dead Secret, by Wilkie Collins - "The Dead Secret explored the relationship between a fallen woman, her illegitimate daughter and buried secrets."  This has the added bonus of being set in remote Cornwall.  I'm leaning heavily towards this one. 

Basil, by Wilkie Collins - This one is a little shorter.  "In Basil's secret and unconsummated marriage to Margaret Sherwin, the linen-draper's sexually precocious daughter, and through the consequent shocks and horrors of betrayal, insanity, and death, Collins reveals the bustling, commercial London of the first half of the nineteenth century wreaking its vengeance on a still-powerful aristocratic world."

Therese Raquin, by Emile Zola - "The novel is a grim tale of adultery, murder and revenge in a naghtmarish setting."  Am also leaning heavily towards this one as well.

The Drinking Den, by Emile Zola - This is the seventh novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, which made his reputation.  It was a sensation when it was published with its "gritty depiction of the poverty and squalor, slums and drinking houses of the Parisian underclass."

I had best not mention the other books I had been looking at longingly by Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ellen Wood, Kate Chopin (another reread) or Thomas Hardy!   

Book Gluttony: A Booking Through Thursday Question

 

Book Gluttony!  Are your eyes bigger than your book belly?  Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them?  Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself?  ? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read? 

 

Yes, I guess they are.  That would be my eyes being bigger than my 'book belly'.  I thought it would be easiest to answer the most recent Booking Through Thursday question with a couple of illustrations--photos taken of one corner of my bookroom.  The top photo was taken a few years ago when I bought a new bookcase.  Doesn't it look at nice and neat?  Now a few years later the piles have grown a tad.  Granted some of the books have simply been shifted about (the Viragos on the top of the case for example).  There was always a pile in between the two bookcases, but it seems to have multiplied.  I will say that my book room is really small, so there is simply not enough room to have another nice big bookcase, so the extras have nowhere to go, and it probably looks more overwhelming than it actually is. 

I was going to take photos overlapping all the way around my room, so you could have a 360° look, but then I thought better of it.  Not only would you likely think me verging on crazy, but it might be a little two claustrophobic.  Besides, it's just too  messy for visitors at the moment. 

At this point I'll never catch up, so should stop accumulating, but I doubt that will ever happen.  I always figure there are worse habits to have than the desire to read good books and gain a little knowledge along the way!

An Interview with Sarah Waters

When I came across this interview with Sarah Waters I knew I had to share it.  I apologize that the edge of the video is cut off (I tried to resize it, but it didn't work), but I think you'll be able to see everything that's important.  The interview lasts about a half hour and it's very insightful to her work, especially The Little Stranger, which I really loved.  It's well worth watching.  Enjoy!  

...And if you aren't able to watch the video, you can also check out this very excellent article on Waters and her work!

Okay.  No  more Sarah Waters for a while...at least until I read another of her books! 

Library Loot

 

This week's library pile is much more restrained than the last few weeks.  Actually I may not have  much in the way to share when it comes to library finds for a while as most of the books I'm in line for at the moment are forthcoming releases--some not due out until summer.  I would have come home with just one book had I not decided to browse, which I have not done in quite a while.  Usually I come across the same old books when I browse, so I was happily surprised to find a few new ones that piqued my curiosity enough to take them home.  This week's haul:

Sorry by Gail Jones -- I read her novel Sixty Lights a few years back and really liked it.  It seems Sorry was short/ or longlisted for some prize or other (like her two previous books), but I had not come across a copy anywhere locally, so I snapped it up when I spotted it on the shelf.  It's set in the outback of Western Australia during WWII and is about a young girl and her friendship with a deaf mute boy and Aboriginal girl.   

A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker -- She is an entirely new to me author, but anything set in Venice is worth a look.  It seems to be a combination mystery, romance and history and sounds quite artsy actually.  Yum.

Real World by Natsuo Kirino -- I read Kirino's Out a few years ago and found it oddly entrancing despite its graphic nature.  I sometimes wonder about crime novels like that--if it's all about shock value or if the author is trying to push some sort of literary limit.  Ever since I've wanted to read more of her work and this one looks to be a short, interesting novel.   

Brooklyn  by Colm Toibin -- And this is the one I was really looking forward to (the reason I even stopped by the library to pick up my lone 'hold').  I've heard many good things about Toibin, and he's always been on the 'want to read' list.  Hopefully I can manage to get this one read before it has to go back.  It's set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s.  Matt wrote about it here to tempt me even more!    

I now have a pretty healthy couple of stacks of library books.  Perhaps no more looting and only reading for a while?

The Little Stranger

Once again Sarah Waters has written a ripping good tale that kept me glued to its pages late into the night until I could no longer keep my eyes open, and got me up early the following morning to finish.  It's clever and complex and relies as much on the reader's perceptions and beliefs as on the storyteller's ability to convincingly describe events that take place in this chilling tale.  And yes, for me there were chilling moments.  As strange as it sounds I love reading ghost stories though I can't really say I believe in ghosts, so it takes a talented writer to pull something like this off.  And I thought Sarah Waters pulled off The Little Stranger remarkably well.  

Choosing a grand estate in post-WWII England as the setting for this story was a bit of a coup.  Aside from having a suitably mouldering and dilapidated place for the ghost to appear (and what better place for ghosts to be knocking about), there are all sorts of historical and social angles that feed into the complexity of the story to give it just the right tinge of reality.  I should be cautious here when I say 'ghosts', because ghosts can really mean more than the obvious, and in this story not everything is obvious. 

The story is narrated by a local doctor, Dr Faraday, who first encountered Hundreds Hall and the Ayres family in 1919 when he was a boy.

"I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old.  It was the summer after the war, and the Ayreses still had most of their money then, were still big people in the district.  The event was an Empire Day fete: I stood with a line of other village children making a Boy Scout salute while Mrs Ayres and the Colonel went past us, handing out commemorative medals; afterwards we sat to tea with our parents at long tables on what I suppose was the south lawn.  Mrs Ayres would have been twenty-four or -five, her husband a few years older; their little girl, Susan, would have been about six.  They must have made a very handsome family, but my memory of them is vague.  I recall most vividly the house itself, which struck me as an absolute mansion.  I remember its lovely ageing details: the worn red brick, the cockled window glass, the weathered sandstone edgings.  They made it look blurred and slightly uncertain--like an ice, I thought, just beginning to melt in the sun." 

He goes on to relate how his mother was once a nurserymaid for the family before she herself married.  She still had friends among the servants and he was allowed inside the house for a closer peek.  The house works its charm on him so much so that he removes a small acorn detail from a decorative plaster border, not out of orneriness but a desire to possess a part of something that he's enamored of.

The story properly begins some thirty years later when both the Ayres family and the Hall have fallen on hard times.  Mrs Ayres lives at the Hall with her two grown children, her first daughter having succumbed to an illness in childhood and her husband having since passed away.  Really it's only by chance that Dr Faraday ends up back at the Hall.  Working with another doctor, Faraday has built up a small country practice; his parents had slaved away so he would have a chance at a better life, one slightly above the station he was born into.  Faraday is called to Hundreds to treat a parlourmaid while his partner is away and is appalled to see the state the Hall has fallen into.

Mrs Ayres is still a handsome woman, elegant but old fashioned.  She seems to belong to an earlier era.  Roderick and Caroline are close siblings who constantly play off each other's personalities.  Still youthful, Roderick returned from the war with a painful limp and a scarred face having been an RAF pilot, and now he is burdened with the impossible task of trying to set the estate to rights with ever diminishing funds.  Slightly older than her brother, Caroline is what's known in the village as a 'natural spinster' or a 'clever girl', which really means she's plain--over tall with thickish legs and ankles.  While the family's finances and standing has declined, they stubbornly cling to a fading way of life, even keeping a uniformed maid to wait on them full time.  Faraday feels alternately fascinated by the family and the once beautiful Hall and repulsed by their seemingly backwards attitudes and flippancy towards the lower social classes when a more progressive social climate has emerging since the end of the war.  

Faraday manages to insinuate himself with the family, spending more and more time at the Hall as he tries to if not cure Rod's limp, then at least make it less difficult for him to walk.  It's often painfully obvious just how different Faraday is from the Ayrses and their friends, but he becomes a regular fixture there.  The story takes an odd turn when totally out of character, Caroline's sweet-tempered dog, Gyp, bites a young girl attending a party at the Hall.  And now strange things begin happening.  Okay, I'm not going to take you beyond this point.  No worries, I've not told you anything you wouldn't glean from the first chapter or so, and naturally I've left out all the really good bits!     

I read that it took Sarah Waters two and a half years to write this novel, and it shows in the precision of the writing and the psychological depth of the characters.  Once again it's all pitch perfect.  She knows just when to ratchet up the tension and when to pull back and feed the reader more information.  I think what made this story so successful for me, was how she balanced out the rational with the irrational (or perhaps supernatural).  I had a few moments of disbelief and then she would throw something into the mix that would make me question my own uncertainty.  But I never really felt I needed to suspend belief entirely in order to make the story work, it was plausible but also very, very subtle.  I have two unread novels by Waters sitting on my shelves and I suspect I'll have them both read by the end of the year.  I really liked this one!   

The Literary Notes Meme

I found this meme at Tales from the Reading Room a while back and have been saving it for a rainy day.  Or maybe a sunny day when I have nothing else very interesting to share with you.  Like today.

What author do you own the most books by? I 'collect' books by a number of authors.  Without actually counting I know I have quite a few by Elizabeth Taylor, Mary Wesley, Diane Johnson and Sebastien Japrisot and a handful of others as well.  However I have got a nice solid stack of books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles who writes the Morland Dynasty Series.  I've got over 25 of her books--I bought about 20 or so in one fell swoop from The Common Reader catalog (now defunct sadly) years ago.  They had a special deal for the whole lot, so I took them up on it.  I'm only at about book #6, so I have a long way to go yet.  I tend to go in phases reading the books, but at the rate I'm going it's going to take me until I retire to get through the lot of them.  She's up to maybe 30 books published now, and I keep buying them, because I'm an optimistic reader!

What book do you own the most copies of?  I have about three copies of The Enchanted April--a book I absolutely love.  I have a mass market movie tie-in copy and two different Viragos.  I'm bad--I bought the second Virago because the cover is so gorgeous.  I'll share them with you sometime.

Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?  No.  I'm really bad with things like dangling prepositions and overuse of commas.  Please forgive me on these little grammar errors!

What fictional character are you secretly in love with?  I had to think about this one.  At first no one in particular came to mind, so figured I'd have to say Mr Darcy, which is sort of predictable.  But the more I contemplated it....I have a little thing for Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole character.  Okay, so he's totally angst-filled, and drinks too much and looks older than he is, but there's just something about him.  My other secret love interest is Horatio Hornblower.  His name's quite a mouthful, but I'm not sure I've ever met such a complete and total gentleman (in real life or fiction).  And Ioan Gruffudd, who plays him in the movie isn't too hard on the eyes either. 

What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children)?  Maybe Chocolat--it's a complete comfort read, and I love it a little more each time.

What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?  Anything by Judy Blume.  Probably Are You There God, It's Me Margaret.

What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?  There have been one or two books I might mention here, but I won't.  My 'worst book' is probably someone else's favorite and I don't want to offend anyone.  Besides, I would hate it if anyone dogged a book I love.

What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?  I can only pick one?  Maybe The Post Office Girl, or maybe The Little Stranger (which I'll be writing about soon).

If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?  This is a dangerous question.  I could name lots of books I would want others to read, but I've done this in the past (giving my favorite titles as presents), and once again--my favorite book might easily be someone else's 'this is just not my thing'.  If I know someone well and we share common reading interests I'm happy to give suggestions, otherwise I try not to force a book on anyone (unless they're a willing victim).

Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?  Maybe Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood?  I don't know really, but I've heard these authors mentioned and have to agree.

What book would you most like to see made into a movie?  The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets would make a fun movie.  I loved the book.

What book would you least like to see made into a movie?  The Count of Monte Cristo.  Oh wait, they already DID make it into a movie.  I can only say they shouldn't have.  Please make them take it back.  I'm referring to the most recent version by the way.

Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.  I have weird dreams sometimes, but I have to say I've yet to have one about a book, writer or literary character.  Maybe I'm missing out. 

What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?  I'm not sure she really counts as "lowbrow", but I went through a huge Marian Keyes phase a few years ago.  She's actually great fun, and I even have a favorite title that I've read more than once.  Fiona Walker's books also come to mind as a nice, fluffy reads.   

What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?  If you love this book, please don't be offended.  Les Misérables.  It's not that it was hard, but it was so very, very, very long.  I'm glad I read it, but had there been some judicious editing, I wouldn't have minded at all.

What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?  I saw one ages ago at one of those outside theatre situations and remember being absolutely lost.  I'm pretty sure it was The Taming of the Shrew, but I could be wrong.  Maybe I'm mixing up obscure with 'really hard to understand'?

Criminy, but this is a long meme...

 Do you prefer the French or the Russians?  Maybe the French, but only because I've read more of them.

 Roth or Updike?  I've read one Updike years ago, so don't feel qualified to answer this question.

David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?  Haven't read either, sorry.

Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?  Have read all three (in high school mostly).  Will choose Shakespeare since I'm trying to read more of and about him now.

Austen or Eliot?  I do like George Eliot, but I'm going to have to go with Jane Austen.

What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?  Oh, too many.  My gaps pretty much come in reading the classics in general, Classic literature, and modern American Lit.  Better not think about it.

What is your favorite novel?  Only one?  This is an unfair question--like choosing a favorite child when you have a whole brood of them!  Maybe The Woman in White, but so many others as well.

Play?  The Twelfth Night.  I don't read many plays to be honest.

Poem?  I read even fewer poems.  I do like Robert Frost, though--any of his!

Essay?  I like essays, but I just don't get around to reading them as aften as I should.  Maybe Virginia Woolf's "How One Should Read a Book?".

Short story?  I read some really good ones last year.  Definitely Elizabeth Taylor's "A Red Letter Day" or Truman Capote's "Miriam".

Work of nonfiction?  I love reading nonfiction, and wish I could fit in more NF titles.  Elizabeth Jane Howard's Slipstream was a wonderful recent read.

Who is your favourite writer?  Wilkie Collins or maybe Sarah Waters.  It depends on the day and my mood and again, how do you limit it to just one?

Who is the most overrated writer alive today?  I don't think I read enough contemporary literature to be able to choose fairly.

What is your desert island book?  The Count of Monte Cristo.  Unabridged version it goes without saying.

And… what are you reading right now?  Right, right now?  You can see my sidebar for the extended list, but I'm spending most of my time with Bleeding Heart Square, A Reliable Wife and Winter in Madrid.

Whew.  That was one serious meme.  Feel free to play along, though I think I might be the last person to answer these questions!