A Work in Progress

July 16: Reading Notes

Yesterday the CWA announced the winners in several of its Dagger categories as well as announced the longlists in several others.  If you are a mystery/crime fan it's always well worth taking a look at the books and authors nominated for the awards (there are ten categories by the way).

As it turns out I have read one of the winners of the International Dagger and happen to have the other on my current my library pile.  This year's award is shared between two French authors, Pierre Lemaitre and Fred Vargas.  I was fairly floored by Lemaitre's Alex, which I thought was a rollercoaster ride of a book.  I have yet to read anything by Vargas, but I have heard a number of good things about her books (and she seems to consistently be nominated for or have won a variety of awards for her writing).  As The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Vargas is close at hand and I have yet to pick up a book for Paris in July (I am actually waiting for a book to come in the mail that will fit perfectly), I think I'll give it a whirl.

I had hoped to read all the short stories longlisted for the Short Story Dagger, but I have so far only managed half the list (am still waiting for the book containing two of the stories to arrive via ILL).  Of course the one story which won and I do have on hand that I hadn't yet gotten to happens to be Stella Duffy's "Come Away with Me", which is in The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, so you know what my short story will be this weekend.  

Andrew Taylor won the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger (for the third time) for The Scent of Death (due to be released here in the US on Thursday--good timing).  I've read some of his Lydmouth books set in post-WWII England, which I've enjoyed very much and think are excellent for capturing the atmosphere of England after the war (should really get back to those sometime soon), and will now give his other books a go.

I'm also keen to read Paul French's Midnight in Peking, which won the Non-fiction Dagger.  I had already been eyeing the book before (had it out once from the library but didn't get to it--you know how that goes), which is about an 80-year-old murder that took place in the expat community of Peking just before WWII.

Now I'll be studying the lists for the Gold Dagger (best crime novel of the year), the Steel Dagger (best adventure novel or thriller a la James Bond) and the John Creasy Dagger (new blood/debut fiction) lists for potential new reads.  And just when I thought my mystery reading would be wrapping up for the month.

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Not that I ever read the books on the list (good intentions gone awry and all that), the Booker Prize longlist will be announced a week from today.  I am always a little curious to see which books the judges choose.  Maybe this year will be the year I read a few.  Someday I would at least like to try and get around to reading some of the winners from years past.  Jackie from Farmlane Books has given her predictions for the list, and I see a number of books there I would like to read.

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I've got my reading cut out for me this week (but then I always seem to, don't I?).  A mixture of crime and mysteries, several review copies that require some attention and then a few surprises that caught my eye.  A few highlights? 

I'm not sure how I came across She Rises by Kate Worlsey.  I'm sure I saw it ages ago but it has only just now been published here in the US.  There are times I go looking specifically for seafaring tales and can't seem to find one that fits my mood, and then along come two purely by accident and I am thoroughly enjoying both.  Worlsey is a good storyteller and I do love a really good, ripping yarn.  She Rises is a story about two different characters whose paths will eventually cross.  The story is told in alternating chapters (so far)--in one a young man is press ganged into joining his Majesty's Royal Navy, and in the other a young dairymaid is asked to come work in a Naval captain's household.  Lots of wonderful details that vividly set the scene and very realistic and engaging dialogue.

The same really can be said about Silver:Return to Treasure Island.  Another good story to fall into and lose oneself.  This one is narrated by young Jim Hawkins (well, the son of the famous Jim from Treasure Island).  I do love a good adventure story and both are perfect summer reading--and now that we are in the dog days of summer when the heat is on and the humidity high I need a good dose of escapism--and in both cases good, literary escapism at that.

The last book I want to quickly mention is Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures by Emma Straub, which follows the rise and fame of a small town midwestern girl as she reinvents herself during the Golden Age of Hollywood.  It seems I've not read much historical fiction of late, but now I am getting a good dose of it.  If only I could sit on the porch with my books and a cold glass of lemonade.  Surely the weekend's not too far off?

What books are keeping you entertained this summer?  (Or winter if you happen to be in the Southern Hemisphere!)?

The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey

Another chubby police detective.  This time it's Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond who I've just met in The Last Detective.  While the Op is a cynical, street-smart investigator, DS Diamond of the Bath murder squad is somewhat curmudgeonly and prefers to do things the old-fashioned way, but he's not without sympathetic leanings.  My first encounter with him began in a mortuary.

"In the Bristol City mortuary a body lay on a steel trolley.  In profile the swell of the stomach suggested nothing less than a  mountainous landscape.  Or to an imaginative eye it might have been evocative of a dinosaur lurking in a primeval swamp except that a brown trilby hat of the sort seen in 1940s films rested on the hump.  The body was clothed in a double-breasted suit much creased at the points of stress, grey in colour, with a broad check design - well known in Avon and Somerset Police as the working attire of Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond.  His silver-fringed bald head was propped on a rubber sheet he had found folded on a shelf.  He was breathing evenly." 

Four year earlier he was involved in a murder investigation that resulted in the wrongful conviction of one of the suspects, a case that has besmirched Diamond's record, and he has an inkling that his new partner is a plant by his superiors to keep a close eye on him.  Now the naked body of a woman has been found in a local reservoir with foul play suspected in her death.  Initially no one comes forward to claim the woman until a likeness is presented to the public and then the common response is that she looks like an actress on TV.  Disbelief turns to shock when it's confirmed that Geraldine Snoo, famous for her former role in a popular soap opera is indeed the dead woman. 

Of course the obvious suspect in murder cases is the spouse, in this case Gerry was married to a university professor whose area of expertise is Jane Austen.  An unlikely pairing, a beautiful soap star and a scholarly professor, but the two seem to have had a rather open relationship.  Gerry was a child star whose fame came early and with the force of a speeding train.  She barely had time to grow up and certainly little time to have fun and lead a normal life.  Axed from her show several years prior after many years in the limelight she seems to have been making up for lost time and maybe, too, hard feelings for the end of her career with a large circle of partying friends. 

Because of the separate lives the two led, Greg Jackman, didn't raise the alarm on his missing wife as he didn't suspect she was actually missing.  It wasn't uncommon for his wife to go off on her own to London.  Despite the unusual nature of their marriage, he's not at a loss to answer Diamond's questions, however.  As a matter of fact the waters become muddied when he claims that his wife actually tried to murder him.  A fire was set the couple's summerhouse where Greg had been sleeping and he's convinced Gerry set it.  Why he believes she did so complicates matters.

Red herrings or something more?  There are a few disparate threads in the story that will eventually wrap around each other.  One is the discovery of two letters purported to have been written by Jane Austen that Dr. Jackman had planned on using in a exhibit of Jane Austen and Bath, which he had unhappily been in the middle of planning.  It's ironic, he notes, that the City of Bath wants a major exhibit of Jane when she was so unhappy to have been living there.  But the inclusion of the letters was something of a coup, until they went missing.  Although he doesn't exactly know why, he's sure Gerry had something to do with their theft.

The second wrench thrown in the proceedings, or rather the second occurrence in the professor's life, is a young student who Professor Jackman witnessed falling into the river and was swept up into the current.  Greg jumped in and dragged the boy to safety, but rather than receive a hero's recognition he fled the scene before anyone could question him.  Eventually the two do finally meet up, along with the boy's divorced mother, riling a streak of jealousy in Gerry.  

Just how the seemingly disparate threads meet and twine together, as they most certainly will, is part of the mystery and solution to the crime.  And how it's all pieced together is the meat of the story, and Diamond's nod to the effectiveness of good, traditional, detective work.  He calls himself the "last detective".  With the rise of technology (and note the book was published in 1991), Peter Diamond is loathe to give up his standard practices in police work.  At one point he tells his detectives, ". . . it looks like we're forced to fall back on the Diamond method of investigation - good, old-fashioned doorstepping."  Ultimately it's this hard work that unravels the mystery.

The story is not without humor, as obsessed he is about not depending on technology, he does give in and buy his wife a microwave, though she has by story's end yet to perfect cooking a meal in it that isn't crunchy on the outside and raw on the inside.  The Last Detective is a good, solid, traditional police procedural that definitely falls into the cozy camp rather than the hardboiled.  While on the curmudgeonly side, Peter Diamond is still entirely likable. 

The story is structured a little unusually in that the narrative shifts from Peter Diamond to two of the suspects and the reader gets to hear their perspectives along with that of the detective's.  The story ends in a courtroom drama with an explosive revelation.  As first books in a series go, I found the story quite entertaining, though it seems to have garnered some mixed reviews.  The narrative shifts do make it a little uneven, but it's only in retrospect that I feel that.  I'm sufficiently intrigued by DS Diamond to read the next book, Diamond Solitaire.  Not sure when I'll get to it, but it's already on my reading pile. 

Short Story Sunday: The Continental Op (Redux)

Last month I wrote a little bit about Dashiell Hammett's work in anticipation of reading the stories that comprise The Continental Op.  It's amazing how much depth there is to the work of Hammett.  Not that I should be surprised.  Mostly I'm impressed.  I entered the often seedy and morally ambiguous world of Hammett's Op, the private investigator of the Continental Detective Agency, and came out slightly disoriented but with a taste for Hammett's prose style.  Coming up for air, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to move on to another book, wasn't sure I would be able to easily, so totally immersed did I feel. 

Hammett's stories ooze atmosphere.  They are rich in language and description including colloquialisms from the Twenties giving them an air of verisimilitude.  They are filled with interesting and varied characters--gumshoes and yeggs alike.  You know that famous first line--"the past is another country, they do things differently there"?  That's certainly true of the Op's 1920s San Francisco.  There's a toughness and grittiness to the city.  I can perfectly picture in my mind the people that inhabit these stories, no matter how elegant and well-heeled some of them are, many of them are as dirty as the day is long.  And cynical as the Op is and willing to do things in a manner not entirely respectable, you still get the feeling he's the good guy. 

And the Op is at the heart of it all.  He's never called by name.  He's simply one of the operatives working in the San Francisco branch of the agency.  Mid-thirties, he did a stint in the service and fought in the war.  He's overweight and unimaginative (the latter his own word), but street smart and completely savvy to the ways of the people he's hired to catch and bring to justice.  What's significant about Hammett's work (and the hardboiled style in general) is that the Op is not above playing dirty himself.  Justice is an elastic term in his world and if you can't get the crooks one way, you probably can another and it might mean bending or breaking entirely a few rules along the way.  While details run thin when it comes to knowing about the Op's life--past or present--you get a sense of his moral code, though it is jaded at best.

These stories are not your usual detective stories.  There's a problem that needs fixing or a crime that needs to be investigated.  Typically by the story's end you will know who did the crime and often why.  You are reassured at the end and the world is set to rights, but not so much with Hammett.  You may well know who committed the crime--more or less--but the world is not necessarily set to rights.  You don't exactly get the feeling of satisfaction that things have worked out properly, wrongs have been righted and all's well that ends well.  The solutions to the crimes are often veiled in ambiguity.  The Op will give an account of what really happened, or his own version of it anyway, his "reality". 

It's interesting to think about when the stories were written and published, which was during the era of Prohibition.  Corruption at this time was rife and organized crime rampant.  This was the reality in America at the time.  These stories seem such a natural outgrowth of the reality Hammett, who had himself been a Pinkerton detective, was exposed to and lived.  There are all sorts of layers to the stories, but they can certainly simply be enjoyed as the the good stories they are.

Each story is certainly worthy of being written about in depth, but here's a little teaser of tone and subject matter as there are too many to tackle at once.

In "The Tenth Clew" the Op's client turns up dead (killed by a typewriter!) before he even has a chance to know why he's been hired.  It's a case of a widower falling for a much younger woman.  Did she kill him for his money?  There are nine seemingly solid clues, but the tenth is the one questioning all the rest that will shed truth on the matter.

"The Golden Horseshoe" is the name of a bar in a Mexican border town where a husband has absconded and whose wife wants him found.  When she turns up dead he has a solid alibi which the Op is determined to crack.

I think "The House in Turk Street" is one of my favorite stories of the group.  The Op is knocking on doors hunting for a witness to a crime when he stumbles on something much much bigger.  It's a story of double crosses and a frame-up, and by story's end you wonder just what it was again the Op was initially searching for.  Very cleverly plotted.

In "The Girl with Silver Eyes" the Op is hired to find the fiancée of a man who has disappeared after traveling east.  Another twisty story of double crosses which ends in a violent confrontation in a seedy roadhouse.  The characters may often be upper class but the locales tend to be the sorts of place you wouldn't want to find yourself.

"The Whosis Kid" begins his criminal days in Boston in 1917 where the Op had been working for the detective agency before being transferred out west.  A fellow operative had promised to "clamp him" someday, but was killed before he had the chance.  But the Whosis Kid resurfaces years later in San Francisco, stolen gems in hand, where he crosses paths with the Op.  There's a rather vixen-ish character in this story who clings to the Op, who refuses to bend to her charms.  Still, the man is human and has moments of uncertainty in other stories.

In "The Main Death" the Op must track down a missing $20,000, stolen from a murdered man.  The solution will involve a monogrammed ladies handkerchief with a particular scent.  Red herring or real clue?  Sometimes justice is served but in a shady way.  Is it better to follow the letter or the law or the spirit of it--the Op must decide. 

"The Farewell Murder" takes place up along the California coast where the Op is hired to guard a man who's certain his enemies are out to kill him.  He still gets murdered, but the obvious suspects can prove they were nowhere near the victim at the time of his death.  Quite cleverly constructed, and de-constructed by the Op.

The Continental Op only ever shows up in short stories from what I understand, or in a couple of cases in longer linked stories/novellas.  Hammett sold most of the stories to the pulp magazine Black Mask, though I'm not sure how many there were in total.  Quite a few I'm guessing.  It would be fun to read through them all, and I think the Library of America has a fairly comprehensive collection of them which I will be watching for.  There are only a handful of novels and I hope to read as much as I can before going to San Francisco in the fall.  Fingers crossed I can do a walking tour, too, of Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco.  Next up is Hammett's novella, Woman in the Dark.  Eventually I will be moving on to Raymond Chandler (and then....well, the list of hardboiled detectives and their authors is a long one) and a few others after him.

I'm still trying to get my hands on the other short stories from the CWA list, but I am having a hard time acquiring Outsiders: Italian Stories, which contains two of the stories.  So, next week I may be back to my Persephone Collection!

Otherwise my crime and mystery reading continues apace.  This week I hope to finish reading Laurie King and Janet Neel.

A Peek at the Mystery Bins

Okay, so not much of a guided tour, per se, but how about a little peek at my  mystery bins.  If you're curious about why I gorge myself on books sometimes, this is a reason why.  So many books, so little space and in need of more time!  But I suspect you already know all about that.  These bins are where the bulk of my mysteries reside.  I have a tall stack of mysteries 'that I hope to get to soon' by my bedside, and another stack sitting next to my computer, however. 

I wish I had more shelf space but I long ago filled all my bookcases and the overflow had to go somewhere.  There are lots of stacks of books in a few places in my house, but so  many of my mysteries are mass market size, which fit pretty conveniently in these bins.  I've tried to organize them so at least books by the same author are together, but as I add new books or pull books out to read, they've ended up scattered about.  One of the books I was looking for last night was the next Antonia Fraser mystery, Wild Island.  Can you spot my copy?  It's now on a bedside pile waiting for me to start reading.  There is a constant flow of books in and out of my house as well as from room to room.  I need to take a few days off just to get organized, though it feels an overswhelming task.

I sort of pride myself in knowing approximately in which bin which author is found.  But occasionally I will know I own something but haven't a clue where it is.  It's a little bit dangerous when that happens, but not for the reason you might think.  I do worry about pulling a muscle or throwing my back out when I need to move the bins around, but the bigger danger is that I will start digging through the bins and come away with more than just the one book I was looking for.  Actually that happens almost every time I go in search of one book--I come back with three others. 

Sometimes I do like just 'browsing' through my books--looking for something good to read.  Now you see where the inspiration for my mystery-reading extravaganza of the last couple of months came from (and how easily I could continue with them).  I am up to seven plastic bins now, filled to the brim with mysteries and I could easily fill another.

So, yeah, you could say I like mysteries a little bit.  Oh, I did find the two I was looking for: Peter Lovesey's Diamond Solitaire and Antonia Fraser's The Wild Island.  I hope to start them soon.   

What do you do with the overflow of books from your bookshelves?  Stack them?  Find creative ways to store them?  Or are your bookpiles beginning to engulf your space, too?

Books to Read Now : Books to Read Later

I wish I weren't so fickle, but what can one do.  Books.  They beckon, and I succumb.  It's simply a law of nature that I cannot break.  No worries though, I'm not abandoning anything on my current reads pile, but as I finished two books over the weekend and another one tonight, I've got to think about which book(s) to read next, right?

A book for now.

Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding is a book Kathy at Catching Happiness mentioned she would be reading soon.  Soon became now, and as I loved Welty's The Optimist's Daughter I've been keen on picking up another book by her.  And here it is.

Another one to read now.

The folks at Random House kindly offered me a review copy of Andrew Motion's Silver: Return to Treasure Island, and how could I possibly pass it up.  I love a good adventure story--and this one has 'perfect summer reading' written all over it.  I read and loved Treasure Island a number of years ago.  Silver is a sequel set forty years after the events in the original story.  One of the cover blurbs promises that " . . . Every chapter crackles with energy and action.  Lies, betrayals, romance, humor--expect them all."  Works for me.  And another good fit for my beach reading.  Just started this one.

To read now . . . a book by a French author or a book set in Paris.  Can't decide still.

So I was all set to read Colette, and had decided on a Claudine book, Claudine Married, but my edition is the hefty omnibus edition and looking at it and contemplating carrying it about with me has set me wavering.  I do need to make a choice--the month is going to fly by while I dither.  So, then I remembered this book I've long had in my TBR pile, The Last Rendezvous by Anne Plantagenet.  It's partially set in Paris and is about Romantic poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore.  Does anyone know her work or anything about her life?  She was an early 19th century French actress and poet.

It's not as though I don't have plenty of books to choose from, but deciding is such a difficult process sometimes.  I just need to choose one and stick with it until I (hopefully) lose myself in the story.

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To be read soon.

I'm reading the last story in The Continental Op now, but I am not ready to leave the world Dashiell Hammett has created.  Next up is Woman in the Dark, a novella.

I'm going to read all of Hammett's work, I've decided.  Maybe, too, something about him, and maybe some correspondence.  We'll see where my reading takes me.

Did anyone see Endeavor on PBS last weekend?  I only caught snippets.  But now must read the first Inspector Morse book, Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter (actually it's a reread, but it's been so long I can't remember anything of the story, so it might as well be the first time).  Will try and finish another mystery first, though, before picking up this one.

A book for later.

Another book for later.

I was going to be strong. I was not going to cave in, but there was so much discussion about this book, The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey, in one of my online reading groups, that I ended up buying it after all.  It supposedly reads like the "best kind of mystery story".  Gosh, maybe I shouldn't wait but start reading now?

Serious incentives (in these books lined up to read) for buckling down and finishing a few (more) books that sit on my night stand.  Always nice to have really tempting books to look forward to reading don't you think?

Quiet as a Nun by Antonia Fraser

Since I read a variety of types of mysteries, for me, some are all about the mystery and action and others more about the characters and setting.  Of course the best have a good balance of the two, but depending on mood I like both sorts.  I must have read Dame Antonia Fraser's first Jemima Shore mystery, Quiet as a Nun, back when W.W. Norton first reissued several of the books in the series (only two of them are in print now?)--the copyright/reissue date in my book is 1997, so it's been quite a while and rereading it now was pretty much like reading it afresh for the very first time.  Antonia Fraser only wrote eight mysteries, the last was published in 1994, so perhaps she'll  never get around to writing any more?  She's probably best known for her historical biographies, but I quite enjoyed this mystery.

I like Jemima.  Thinking of her as a woman in 1977 (when the book was first released), she's independent-minded, clever and spirited, just what I like in my female protagonists.  A career woman, she's a journalist who hosts a popular TV show called 'Jemima Shore, Investigater'.  She's single but is in the midst of an affair with a married man who is a liberal MP, and has no qualms about it.  As a matter of fact she looks forward to a vacation away with him as a change from their brief trysts--rarely a whole night spent together.  But Tom and his liberal causes remain mostly in the background of the story.  As a matter of fact its the cancellation of their planned romantic holiday that sets Jemima on her own real investigative course.

As a girl during the war Jemima was sent to convent school, and so many years later she is pulled back to the cloistered world upon the death of an old friend.

"But for a short while, long ago, I had known Rosabelle Powerstock very well indeed.  For a few moments the cold, elegant surroundings of affluent London in the seventies dissolved.  It was wartime.  A little Protestant day-girl sent by the vagaries of her father's career to a smart Catholic boarding convent conveniently next door.  Bewildered and rather excited by the mysterious world in which she found herself.  The resolute kindness of the nuns--was there any kindness like it for the undaunted firmness of its warmth whatever the reaction of its recipient?"

Combing the pages of the Evening Standard one day she finds a short notice about the death of nun of Blessed Eleanor's Convent School, Jemima's former school.  The war caused strange schooling for many and often even quicker changes in living arrangements.  Jemima was a student at Blessed Eleanor's for only a short time before her parents took her away north, but while there she was a fast and faithful friend of Rosabelle's, later to become Sister Miriam. 

It's not so much the unusual death of the nun, whose body was found in a locked tower on the edge of the convent's property, rather Sister Miriam's will, that causes Reverend Mother Ancilla to contact Jemima for help.  It's believed Sister Miriam simply fell ill and was unable to call for help.  What is more worrisome is the change of heart she had about the land on which the convent sits and which was bought by Rosabelle's father.  It was meant to remain as property of the Order in perpetuity, but shortly before her death Sister Miriam decided to will the land to a property developer for use by the poor.  If the land is developed there will be nothing left for the convent, and everything they have worked so hard for will be lost.  Something Mother Ancilla is not ready to allow happen. 

Jemima is asked to help discover just what has happened within the Convent walls, for now the community is 'troubled' by the events surrounding the death.  There are whispers of a new will left hidden by Sister Miriam, one best left undisturbed, or one that might settle all the Order's problems once and for all?  What's interesting about Jemima is her attitude towards the nuns.  At once she is in awe but also shows the tiniest bit of distaste at the idea of a cloistered nun's life.  For Jemima these women live in an artificial, maybe even unnatural environment, but when faced with the very formidable Mother Ancilla she is all but reduced to the bewildered young girl she once was. 

"'Quiet as a nun,' I repeated.  To me they sounded ironic words.  Where was the quiet in this seething community of neurotic women, many of them frustrated in one way or the other, quite out of touch with all that was good in the modern world?  Many of them would do better to return to the world and find their own peace, than reside in this false quiet."

This is more a mystery of character and setting, though there is a fair bit of action as well.  Not a detective story per se, or really even a cozy a la Miss Marple, it is somewhat unique with Jemima in the role of 'sleuth'.  As stories go, Jemima actually does progress and change over the course of the telling, thanks to her experiences.  Her prejudices are questioned and brought to light, and I enjoyed how her thinking progresses over the course of the story.  I admit to a certain fascination and bewilderment myself when it comes to religious orders.  And while I didn't go to a convent school I went to Catholic schools through almost my entire educational career, so I was very curious about the angle of the story.

As for the mystery aspect, this was entirely satisfying, too.  There was lots of atmosphere.  How can you not enjoy a story that contains a Black Nun (observed over the ages and carried down as myth but in the flesh in this story . . . ), locked towers, secret underground passages, crypts and an order of nuns where you're not entirely sure where their allegiance lies?

I was all set to reach for the second Jemima Shore mystery, The Wild Island, but then thought better of it when I looked again at the mysteries I've already got underway.  Must finish a few before starting a new one.  Still, I think I will at least dig it out of my mystery bins.

And I think I promised a peek at my little (messy) mystery collection.  So perhaps in a day or so I'll oblige you.  Unfortunately my books don't reside on bookshelves (there are too many of them and too little shelf space), but in big plastic bins. It will be a small peek, but you can get an idea of just how obsessive I really am (as if you don't already know . . . ).  Oh, and I'm now working on Laurie King's A Grave Talent.  I've had a really good run of mysteries over the course of the last month or so.  To be continued.

July 8: Weekend Reading Notes

Okay, so this is what I had in mind for my long weekend reading.  A little experiment.  In theory it sounded good, as if I could finish several books at once with little pain or planning and even have time left over for other things--other books, needlework, maybe even a movie or two.  I really do like to think big (even though this time around I really thought I had a good plan), but sometimes you have to downsize along the way.

Rather than just read completely at random, I decided to try and make a concerted effort at finishing several books (three already in progress and one very short one that was as yet not started).  I made my list on Wednesday, counted it as a potential reading day--making it five days, which is where my plan first went awry.  Well, that, and the fact that I am a slow reader.  And I have also discovered that as much as I love the idea of long uninterrupted chunks of reading time--the mind is willing but the body is weak (or, to put it another way, I can no longer spend half the night reading like I once could--now I fall asleep almost as soon as the nightly news is finished).

So, I made my list, counted how many pages per book I would need to read over five days to finish it.  It averaged out to about 50 pages per book.  Surely I could manage that over a short vacation--a little less than 180 pages per day. 

Well, wasn't I surprised to discover that I apparently can't manage that in a day.  In reality it all comes down to the book.  Some books just read slower than others.  Some have big print and are all about plot meaning you race through the stories.  Others are stories you really need to spend time reading slowly and absorbing.  It wasn't good to start on Wednesday since it was a work day and I couldn't squeeze in that sort of reading in an evening--rather than having a whole long day to pace myself.  That's okay--once I was free of work and other commitments I could catch up.  I never did catch up.  My first free day I read three of the four as planned, but then each subsequent day I managed one less book.  Until yesterday I was just happy to finish one of them. 

I finished one of my NYRB subscription books, Transit by Anna Seghers.  It's an excellent read, but not a fast one.  The print is tiny.  This is a story where not much really happens but needs a thoughtful reader anyway.  It is a story that provoked lots of underlining, dog earing, note taking and just general concentration on my part.  It was the only book where I stayed on track and read dedicatedly.  It was also the book I always reached for first so took up the bulk of my reading time.  Well worth it, of course, but short shrift was then given to the rest.  I'll be writing about this one, though it may not happen until the weekend.

Peter Lovesey's The Last Detective, which I have since (just) finished, is an easy and enjoyable read, and relatively fast.  I just ran out of time.  I like Peter Diamond.  Part of the mystery concerned a couple of letters written by Jane Austen, which was fun to read about.  It has a quasi-academic setting, and yes, I plan on writing about this one, too.  And I plan on continuing on with the Peter Diamond mysteries.

And then there is Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op.  I have three stories left to read and this will hopefully be my 'Short Story Sunday' book but later this week (or maybe just on Sunday if time runs out).  The stories are great.  The settings wonderful.  The writing and dialogue excellent.  I even pulled out the other Hammett books I own before I even got halfway through the book and ordered two more that will be coming in the mail later this week, I hope.  The Continental Op is sort of an enigma, a bit jaded.  This is the man who was the "prototype" of countless "tough-guy" detectives.  I feel like I've placed a piece into a puzzle with him, though I am still trying to figure him out.

And then there is Colette's Gigi and The Cat, which I was so looking forward to, and I will get to her, but I think I might be doing a little book shuffling now.  I have pulled out my Claudine omnibus and will be perusing it next.  Oh the dilemmas of reading choices, eh?

I am going to try this little experiment again this week.  I've chosen four books, which I hope to spend all my reading time with (again, have counted pages and am hoping to ration them over the course of the week) in order to whittle down the pile a little more.  But first I need to finish the stories in The Continental Op.  Not sure I'll keep on with reading this way--the other books on my ongoing reads pile are beckoning to me.  Can I continue to resist them?

The Persephone Reading Lineup

After so many persuasive comments, how could I not choose to begin reading Virginia Woolf's Flush sooner rather than later?  I'm quite excited about reading another Virginia Woolf book so soon, plus one that sounds quite charming in its own way!  I was going to write something about the introduction and perhaps even beginning of the book, but my reading weekend has turned all wonky the last couple of days thanks to a heat-related headache.

Actually as I have both books on hand, I thought it might be fun to pair husband and wife together.  First up Flush, to be followed by (or maybe will read in tandem), The Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf.  I believe the latter is semi-autobiographical. 

". . . a Forsterian social comedy, funny, perceptive, highly intelligent, full of clever dialogue and at times bitterly satirical; while the dramatic and emotional dénouement still retains a great deal of its power to shock."

Doesn't it sound interesting?

Is it too soon to think about what to read after the first two?  Probably considering how quickly my mood changes, but The Blank Wall and On the Other Side were close contenders in terms of where to start with the pile.  And both are just about or less than 200 pages each--just about what I can manage on hot summer days!

After being spoiled by such nice weather we've had the last couple of weeks, and after the start of a really promising-serious-reading-weekend, it all sort of went bust.  It's the change in temperature I'm sure that is causing my headache--I don't do well in high heat and humidity.  But I did finish one book this weekend and came close to finishing another--I'll save my "determined weekend" reading stories for tomorrow I think.

Now to find a cold drink and a cool place to sit and finish out the rest of the holiday weekend with just one more book. 

What's New at Your Library?

This is what's new at mine . . .   I've just discovered that my library now owns the entire run of titles published by Persephone Books!  Aren't they pretty?  It's pure and utter greed that made me request so many at once.  All those books that I've lusted over, circled in the Persephone catalogs in hopes of one day being able to order and add to my own small collection.  Now, I can at least borrow them, even if I can't afford to buy them at whim. 

So here is my stack to leaf through, browse, dip into, read a bit or maybe cover to cover if I can't make myself put the book down.  And even if I can't read them all right now, the beauty of public libraries...they'll let me borrow them again later! 

In case you're curious, from top to bottom I have:

Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf -- Quite curious about this...a book by Virginia Woolf about a dog.

The Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf -- I'm leaning heavily towards starting this one first.  I'd never thought of reading Leonard Woolf until just now.

The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding -- This would fit in perfectly with my mystery/crime reading at the moment.

On the Other Side: Letters to My Children from Germany 1940-1946 by Mathilde Wolfe-Monckeberg -- Letters!  I still have high hopes of reading a few more collections for Melwyk's Postal Reading Challenge.  I've stil got half a year to squeeze one or two more in.

Round About a pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves -- Interesting social history I suspect.

A Woman's Place: 1910-1975 by Ruth Adam -- More interesting social history, but all about women.

Gardener's Nightcap by Muriel Stuart -- I'm a terrible gardener, but that doesn't mean I can't read about gardening (maybe I can call myself an armchair gardener?).

The Casino by Margaret Bonham -- Yay for short stories.  The next story I'll be reading when I get back to the Persephone Collection is one by Margaret Bonham as a matter of fact.

What do you think?  Where should I start?  If you want more bookish (Persephone style) eye candy, you can also check out Omaha Public Library's Pinterest Board dedicated to the lovely books.

. . . And on the Needlework Front

It's been quite a while since I've shared a needlework update.  Far too long actually, as I have been stitching behind the scenes (so to speak) at least on occasion.  I've only finished one small project and have been working on a few others.  And now I'm getting ready to start one more.  First, these two small pillows are finishes from a few years ago.  It seemed only fitting to resurrect the photo for today's holiday!

Here is my little spring finish.  The designer is one of my favorites, Prairie Schooler, and the motifs are taken from a chart called "Signs of Spring".  It's fairly small but for some reason it took me ages to complete.  I think it was all the white filling in of the rabbits as I am not fond of working with white floss. 

And the flip side of the pin cushion.  The finishing is actually called a mattress pin cushion for the shape and flatness of the sides. 

All four sides have a carrot on the edge. 

And one more close up--I stitched and finished it all by hand.  The only 'problem', or I should say really challenge was stitching together those corners.  The seam allowance needs to be tucked inside and the points where the corners match up tend to be very bulky and hard to work with.  But I am pleased with how it turned out.  This is one of my favorite ways to finish smaller projects.

So I realize that February is long gone, but I only very recently started working on this pincushion (yes, another one--I am fond of pincushions).  And at the rate I work, there is every chance I might not even be able to finish it before then (though I will try and be optimistic).  It is called "Endless Hearts" by the designer Threadwork Primitives.

I like that this is a simple design that uses only two colors.  There is a lot of repetition, which might be tedious, but for some reason really isn't.  It's a relaxing design to work on and the linen is just as I like it--fairly stiff and easy to work on in hand.  The linen thread count is also not so very tiny making it hard to see to count the threads (I'm afraid I am going to need proper glasses soon).  I've been working on it a little every day.

Remember these two?  I'm almost finished with them!  And the girl even has hair and a face (though I see I need to stitch in her eyes).  Another relaxing project that I should finish fairly soon.  Like my books, there is limited stitching time and several projects on the go at once.

And one more!  I will be starting this Just Nan design, "8 Point Star Garden" as soon as my supplies come in the mail.  I have a few of the flosses and one of the linen colors, but need to kit up the rest.  I bought this with my State Fair in mind, but I have a feeling I am being overly optimistic in thinking I could possibly finish in time (the Fair is in August). 

But I still love the design and will start stitching as soon as I can anyway.  According to the chart this pincushion is inspired by a style popular in the 1800s.

"Eight stitched squares are folded into triangles, sewn along the edges, stuffed, and then connected in a circle to form the uniquely-shaped cushion.  When viewed from the top or bottom, you can see the 8 point star."

Pretty cool, don't you think?  Maybe I'll have lots of bursts of energy working on this one.  Maybe I can schedule some afternoons off from work?  Maybe I'll start stitching this weekend!