A Work in Progress

Boomark, everyone?

In a rare and what will perhaps be the only Oprah moment in my life, I couldn't bring myself to draw names out of a hat, so I'm sharing bookmarks with everyone who was kind enough to leave me a comment.  Life has been very challenging lately in a variety of ways, so books and by extension my blog has been a nice way to get away from things.  I really do appreciate the kindnesses that so many have shown me, so it seems only right to pass that along.  I'm listing names and your reading suggestions here (because I'm also always happy to share good books!).  If you could please send me your snail mail address ([email protected]), I'll be sending these out in batches over the next couple of weeks.  Thanks very much everyone. 

Iris (either?) - Great House by Nicole Krauss and High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
LindaY (Brown) - The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, Walking English by Davis Crystal, The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan, and The Vertigo Years
Cathy (Brown) - Bad Boy by Peter Robinson
Kay (Brown) - Every Last One by Anna Quindlen, The Red Thread by Ann Hood, Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
Rhonda (either?) - Wish You Were Here and Emily Alone by Stewart O' Nan
Penny (Brown) - The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck
Misha (Monet) - The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Iliana (Monet) - Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple and One Day by David Nicholls
LauraC (Monet) - Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell
Gina (either?) - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith, Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti series
Sara (Brown) - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Caroline (?)
Annie (either?)
Litlove (Monet) - A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Harriet (Brown) - The Rector's Daughter by F.M. Mayor
Cornflower (Monet) - The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Margaret (Brown) - The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller
LizF (Brown) - The Year of the Bear by Bella Pollan, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, and Murder in Clichy by Cara Black
Catharina (either) - My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart and Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen by Katharina Hagena
Darlene (Monet) - To the North by Elizabeth Bowen
Sherry (Brown) - Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple
Kathy (Monet) - Life is a Verb by Patti Digh and The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow
Chelsea (Monet) - Room by Emma Donoghue and Crash in to Me: A Survivor's Search for Justice by Liz Seccuro
Mona Garg (Monet) - Mail Order Cowboy by Laurie Kingery
Nadia (Brown) - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Michelle (Brown) - An Immaculate Mistake by Paul Bailey (...have this one sitting on my desk at work at the moment...)
Amanda R. (Brown) - Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Dorothy (are you sure? :) ) - Revolution by Deb OlinUnferth
Juliette (Brown) - Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Brown

I hope I didn't miss anyone?  And that I got your choices right?  Happy reading everyone (and soon you'll have a nice new bookmark to keep your place). 

Lost in the Stacks: Lucy Carmichael

You might have heard of Margaret Kennedy.  In 1924 she published a novel called The Constant Nymph, which was a bestseller that was later produced for the stage and made into a film (actually was adapted for film three separate times).  It's a story of a bohemian family living in Austria.  One of the daughters falls in love with a family friend but he ends up marrying her cousin.  It was published by Virago (and is still in print) and I happen to have it on my reading pile--one of those books I always mean to get to but haven't quite gotten around to yet. 

Kennedy is best known for The Constant Nymph, but she wrote quite a few books.  I didn't realize she was so prolific until I saw several of her novels had been reissued by Faber Books in their Faber Finds series, which I recently mentioned.  I've been going through their backlist discovering new authors and titles and adding them to my wishlist.  This was the inspiration for me to go looking at my library's catalog to see what we may have on hand by Margaret Kennedy.  Luckily we have a number of books including Lucy Carmichael, a story of a woman left standing at the altar on her wedding day!  It is a later work by Kennedy which was published in 1951. 

I think this is a case where the stars have aligned just right.  In most cases the books I've been mentioning here have been out of print titles that I am hoping won't get weeded from my library's collection.  Once they're gone, they're gone unless you can find another library that owns them and is willing to loan them out or find and buy a used copy.  But Lucy Carmichael has been given a second life by Faber Finds.  The story opens:

"On a fine evening in September Melissa Hallam sat in Kensington Gardens with a young man to whom she had been engaged for three days.  They had begun to think of the future and she was trying to explain her reasons for keeping the engagement a secret as long as possible." 

You can check out the Faber Finds blog, The Place for Lost Books, which has a nice ring to it, don't you think?  I do feel a little better knowing there are a few good sources for these books, which I'm afraid will disappear from my own library's shelves if they're not circulated.  Still, do a library book a favor and go check it out today.

A Thursday Mishmash of Things

The Edgar Awards were announced last week, and several winners caught my eye which meant a trip to the library.  Actually it meant looking titles up on their online catalog making a few requests, checking the virtual lists of newly arrived books and making a few more requests and then doing just a little more browsing when it was time to go pick them all up.  And here is what I came home with.  

British author Robert Goddard won Best Paperback Original for Long Time Coming, which I've already started reading.  He had already been recommended to me, and I have a small stack of his books acquired through a recent library sale.  Long Time Coming has been compared with a number of writers--amongst them: Daphne du Maurier, John Le Carré, A.S. Byatt, and P.D. James.  I almost feel sorry for him--how do you live up to all that?  I think I'll try and just go in with an open mind.  This is set in 1970s Devon but a subplot reaches back to the beginning of WWII.

I'm working on getting my hands on Steve Hamilton's The Lock Artist which won Best Novel and Rogue Island by Bruce da Silva for Best First Novel.  I was happy to see Elly Griffiths win The Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Crossing Places, which I thoroughly enjoyed last year.  I have her second book and just need a chance to read it. 

Since I came home with only one title from the list of winners I had to compensate with a few others.  I received a review copy of Teresa Solana's new book, but as it is her second I thought it might be good to start at the beginning with A Not So Perfect Crime.  Solana is another Spanish author and her books are reputed to be humorous.  The setting is Barcelona with twins brothers as sleuths--Eduard and Borja.  It sounds pretty quirky, but if I get a glimpse at Barcelona I'll be happy.

Since I had been talking about Australian authors recently, when I came across Adrian Hyland's Moonlight Downs I thought I'd bring it home and give it a try.  This is an "Emily Tempest Investigation".  Emily is half aboriginal, college educated and looking into a death in the Australian Outback.  It won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel in Australia.

Liza Marklund was also recently recommended to me.  Red Wolf is her most recent novel.  She's published several previously, but as my library didn't have any of the others I'll have to start somewhere in the middle it seems.  Marklund is another Swedish author.

And for a couple of non-mystery/crime novels I have Howard Jacobson's The Mighty Walzer, which I think I might have passed up but it's called a hilarious, heartbreaking coming-of-age story.  Someone somewhere called it a "ripsnorter", and since I can't say I've ever read one of those I have to try it.  I need a little hilarity in my life.  And Andrew Krivak's The Sojourn is another WWI story but told from the perspective of a young Austrian soldier.

I joined Goodreads last week.  I'm still trying to sort out how it all works and will likely just use it to keep track of the progress in the books I'm reading, but it seems like a good place to chat as well.  So if you belong to Goodreads and I've not found you there, do let me know.

Last night I was looking for a book that I've read a few times before thinking I might be in just the mood to read it again only I couldn't find it.  I was sure I had set it somewhere I could easily pick it up again but was frustrated to discover that was not the case.  I finally gave up and will try again tonight.  It's at moments like this that I wish books had microchips in them and could beep so I could find it, but it remained annoyingly hidden.  Keep your fingers crossed that I find it tonight!  Of course with a pile of library books that I now have the last thing I should consider doing is pulling out a book I've read to reread yet again!

Bookmark, anyone?

I'm sort of a bookmark fiend.  I have a tin can full to brimming with them but that doesn't stop me from occasionally adding to my choices.  Pomegranate bookmarks are my favorite.  They are a nice medium weight cardstock and fit nicely into a trade or larger size book.  I have so many now that I can almost match the bookmark with the book (how is that for the ultimate in bookish geekdom?).  Pomegranate had a nice  sale recently, so I decided buy a few new ones, and since I was saving money I thought it would be fun to share.   So, there is no real reason for these freebies other than a Thank You for stopping by and chatting about books and sharing reading suggestions.  I have six to give away--three each of Monet's The Artist's Garden in Argenteuil and John George Brown's Reading on the Rocks, Grand Manan. 

If you're interested in adding your name to the 'virtual hat' just tell me which one--Monet or Brown--but there is a catch--you have to tell me what your favorite read so far this year is, too.  I'll draw randomly on Sunday and drop them in the mail next week.  I'm happy to send them anywhere in the world (they'll fit nicely into a regular business size envelope), so don't hesitate leaving a comment.  Now if Pomegranate would just add a few new designs of people reading!

Tuesday Teaser: South Riding

Since I'm not very far into Winifred Holtby's South Riding, I don't have much to share along with my teaser today, but so far I'm enjoying the story.  I had wanted to read it before it aired on Masterpiece Theatre, but it's always wise to start reading a 500+ page book a little earlier than a week before you plan on watching the movie.  Instead, I didn't watch the first (of three) episodes this past Sunday and will borrow or buy (is it worth buying?) it later.   

Aside from the length of the book I was a little uncertain about reading it as there are six (yes six!) full pages of characters.  That's quite a cast, but so far I've not been too confused by anything.  I think a fair few of you might already have either read the book or seen the BBC production, but in case you are unfamiliar with the story it is about a woman who returns to Yorkshire where she grew up to become headmistress of a local school.  It's set during the depression in the years after the First World War.  I expect this to be a "slice of life" sort of story about the people of the town and the social and political conditions.  Hopefully it won't take me too long to read it considering how poky I can be with long books.

Let me introduce you to Sarah Burton, the heroine of the story.  She's nearing forty and not what you'd expect from a headmistress.

"Miss Sarah Burton, M.A., B. Litt., entered the unwelcoming ugly room."

"She was much too small.  Though her close-fitting hat was blamelessly discreet, her hair was red--not mildly ginger, but vivid, springing, wiry glowing, almost crimson, read.  Astonishing hair.  Nothing could have been more sober and businesslike than her dark brown clothes; but from her sensible walking shoes rose ankles which were superfluously pretty.  Head mistresses, ran the unformed thought in the mind of more than one governor, should not possess angles as slender as a gazelle's and flexible insteps."

I like her already!  Apparently Sarah Waters must have too as she's quoted on the dustjacket: "...a novel that works on all sorts of levels, capturing the life or a whole community even as it offers us the passions, frustrations and tragedies of individual lives...I can't say enough good things about this book".  As I've just finished a library book that required my attention for the last few days, I'm looking forward to reading this now in earnest.  I do hope it lives up to expectations.  This will be my first real taste of Holtby's writing.  I think I am in just the right mood for it.  And I must add I love the cover illustration, which is a Yorkshire Dales British Railways poster from 1953.

Death on a Galician Shore by Domingo Villar

Domingo Villar's Death on a Galician Shore is one of the better mysteries I've read in a while.  Spanish author Villar has (sadly) yet to be published in the US and it was only by chance that I came across it whilst perusing the list of possible titles to be considered for the CWA International Dagger Award on the Euro Crime blog, which by the way I should mention as it is one of the best resources for crime fiction I've come across.  I usually prefer to read mysteries in order, but I was able to get it from Amazon as a Kindle ebook through my library, so this was an interesting reading experience for me all around. 

Galicia is in the upper northwest corner of Spain just above Portugal, and if you do a search on Google for images (go ahead and do it, I'll wait, you'll appreciate the visuals), you might, much like myself, wish you could immediately board a plane and travel there.  When I searched for the title to find a description of the story I was taken with the cover illustration--slightly broody which brought windswept images to my mind.  A lone figure standing by a beached boat with dark clouds looming overhead made me think I was in for a nice atmospheric read, and I found that to be very much the case. 

Leo Caldas is a detective inspector in the city of Vigo on the Atlantic coast.  He's a curious man, and had I read the first book, I might have a better handle on him, but it was interesting trying to sort out his personality as the story progressed.  I picture him as perhaps middle age, in his 40s.  He lives alone, as his former lover, Alba, has left him.  I'm unsure of the circumstances, however he seems a little lonely.  His father is retired and runs a winery, but I get the impression Leo spends less time with him than his father would like.  Leo smokes too much, has a fondness for fine food and gets queasy in boats and cars, but when it comes to investigating murders he's observant and quite practical in his mode of working.

It's not unusual for bodies to wash ashore, and even a body with hands tied together isn't necessarily cause for alarm.  More often than not it's a suicide, so when a body is found washed ashore in the small fishing village of Panxón, it's first assumed foul play isn't involved.  When the pathologist notes that the plastic tie holding the hands together is turned in such a way that the man couldn't have tied it himself, Inspector Caldas and his partner Rafa Estevez set off for Panxón to investigate.  

The victim is a local fisherman who spent his free time tinkering in his shed or visiting his mother and sister.  Mostly he was a loner who kept to himself with no friends and more importantly no known enemies.  He was last seen setting off in his boat on a Sunday morning, normally a day for rest when no fishing is allowed.  Several days later he was found with a blow to the back of the head, bruised and with a packet of salt in his pocket and his boat nowhere to be found.

There are few leads and the case has little momentum.  Leo learns that a small rowing boat of the fisherman had recently been grafittied with the word "murderers" and a date, but as is so often the case in a small town no one is forthcoming as to what it all means.  Ten years previously the murdered man had been in an accident during a storm.  The captain drowned, but the three crew members donned life jackets and were able to safely swim to shore.  Now there's talk in the village that the captain has been sighted once more.  Is it a ghost, or did the captain not die?

The mystery is twisty and turny, and it's through questioning and piecing together bits of information that Leo is able to sort through what's fact and what's fiction.  This is the sort of mystery where all the evidence is set before the reader with a fair few red herrings thrown in, but I still found myself surprised more than once.  Inspector Caldas is an interesting character and Rafa his sidekick, not a native Galician by the way, somewhat quirky.  Rafa has little patience for the laid back way of doing things in Galicia and less for the vagueness that plagues conversation there.  He's more a man of action, even if that means smacking a witness or breaking down a door much to Leo's chagrin.  Needless to say Leo does his best to rein him in, but the two make for an appealing pair.

Although the mystery is fairly simply told, it's everything else that makes this such an enjoyable read.  Apparently Vigo's climate is comparable to that of the Pacific Northwest, so mild and rainy.  I couldn't help but think what a perfect crime setting this was as I was reading.  Throw together interesting characters with room to develop and a small village with suspicious locals who spit every time a dead sea captain is mentioned, and for me anyway, I thought it had all the right ingredients for a very successful story.  A note on the translation--it's translated from the Spanish by Sonia Soto, who did an excellent job.  Often with books translated from another language, it's very obvious the book has been translated.  The prose feels clunky and dialogue stilted, but Soto's translation felt seamless.  The only thing that felt foreign was the setting, which was as it should be--not the language.  Happily Villar's first book, Water-Blue Eyes, is available (in book format!) from Amazon (published by the small independent UK publisher Arcadia Books), and it is even now winging its way to me.

The Winter of the World by Carol Ann Lee

It's been interesting reading a variety of books set against the backdrop of WWI.  Each has been written from a slightly different perspective describing some aspect of the war and its effects on either the soldiers or their families as well as society in general.  The Winter of the World by Carol Ann Lee, an exploration of love during wartime, is the most contemporary of the group of books and was published in 2007.  Curiously this is the first book that concerns itself with passionate love, in this case a love triangle.  What would a love story be without betrayal and grief, though this is also ultimately a story about the search for redemption as well.

Do you believe in love at first sight?  When Alex Dyer first sees Clare, his best friend's fiancé, he loses his heart to her ethereal beauty.  He likens it to a combination of fear and exhilaration multiplied to infinity.  Alex and Ted Eden couldn't be more different yet became the closest of friends at school, an ordeal to be endured.  As adults they are separated by work but maintain a close relationship, which makes Alex's feelings toward Clare all the more painful and confusing.  But nothing stops the two from embarking on an affair even after Ted and Clare marry.  Ted jokes that between the three they have the makings of a Greek tragedy--Alex's father is dying, Ted is an orphan and Clare doesn't get on with her mother and stepfather.  In retrospect the story is filled with foreshadowing, and a Greek tragedy is a description not far off from reality.

England is on the verge of war and each of the three will be touched by it and changed through their very different yet harrowing experiences.  Always dreaming of becoming a writer, Alex becomes a noted war correspondent.  Ted is an officer in the army and Clare a respected nurse.  Although their encounters are brief and intense, Alex and Clare spend much of the war apart.  And though each loves Ted and realizes the damage they are doing, they can't stop.  Alex and Clare don't exactly thrive during the war but they manage to keep afloat, but Ted has always been honorable and filled with idealism and so feels the burdens of what he sees very heavily.  The closer he comes to breaking, the more Clare wishes to protect him and calls off the affair.  Misguidedly Alex believes he and Clare should confess their sins.  So wrapped up is he in his own guilt he doesn't understand just how fragile his friend is.  And of course his actions will have repercussions on all three leaving Alex to try and think of some way to make amends.

The story is bookended by the return to England in 1920 of the body of an unknown soldier who is meant to stand for all the men killed in the war and buried so far from home.  The public still mourns for those lost, and the government's decision to bring home one soldier is hoped to help bring closure for so many who still grieve.  The opening chapter describing the return of this one man and all the people who wait in the train stations along the way to show their respect is actually quite moving.  It's obvious Lee very thoroughly researched this story, and its strengths lie in the historical aspects and descriptions of the war, as well as the way in which she tells her story.  She doesn't tell it in an exact linear fashion, yet it still felt tightly controlled despite moving around in time.  

I asked whether you believe in love at first sight, and for me the story hinges on this question.  I can't decide whether I am simply a cynic or if the situation wasn't entirely convincing.  At the best of times people act badly but in times of war when the world feels like it is ending an affair such as that between Alex and Clare is probably not so unlikely, particularly for those so close to the insanity of a war zone.  I didn't really feel their passion, though I'm told they felt it.  If their behavior seemed at times contradictory, who am I to judge (it seems like human nature to be so--contradictory that is, and well, maybe even judgemental, too).  Alex and Clare are obviously flawed but they aren't always especially likable either, which is where my problems with the story seem to arise.  They both have voices in this story whereas Ted does not.  He is seen only through his friend and wife's eyes, which left me wonder just how he felt about it all. 

So this read was a mixed bag for me, and I'm not sure how much is what I'm bringing to the story and how much is a failing of the story itself.  Although there were aspects of the novel that didn't quite work for me, I did like how she brought the story full circle though getting there was sometimes something of a stretch (but it's a story so I'm willing to stretch just a little bit).  Without giving anything away and spoiling the plot for you, Lee had an outcome in mind and built the fictional love story around it.  The war story was well done and the love story a little less so, but it was an interesting read.  Do check out Caroline's post and the discussion that follows in the comments area.  May's book is Shusaku Endo's The Sea and Poison, so onwards to WWII.