A Work in Progress

Favorite Reads of 2013 & Other Miscellanea

This last post of the year is always one I contemplate writing with a little trepidation.  I know I've read a lot of good, satisfying books, but have there been some really amazing ones where I think "now this is why I love reading"?  And this being an odd sort of reading year anyway where I couldn't seem to finish a good lot of the books I started, would I even have ten favorites to share?  As it turns out, I do.  I keep a spreadsheet of titles read and little bits of information that I find interesting to take note of, and I found that I had marked more than the obligatory ten, so have cheated a little and have a dozen good reads. 

So, once again I'll share my own 'fine print'--Some of my favorites might be surprising to other readers, but for me these books simply clicked.  Whether they are classics or not, literary or comfort reads they have all been memorable, made me sigh with satisfaction or floored me by the story or writing style.  The top two books have been really stand out reads for me this year, and the latter eight my own notable books of the year.  I've linked back to original posts, though a few of the books I didn't write about as I would have liked (and the Sarton book has a post forthcoming as I just finished reading it yesterday!).

Stand Outs:

Testing the Current by William McPherson -- I really loved this book.  This is how my post began when I wrote about it: "Some books elicit a contented sigh upon turning the last page.  Not only does William McPherson do that, but it gets a "wow" (imagine a thin low whistle) from me in response to it as well.  How did he do that?  Create such a perfectly evoked world, so wholly believable?  This is a story in which lots happens and not very much at the same time.  Much like life.  I want to go grab a copy and press it into your hands, so you can read it, too."

Journal of Solitude by May Sarton -- May Sarton was an amazing woman and this was, for me, an amazing book.  She articulates in this journal some of the very things in my life that I have been struggling with this year.  While she asks more questions than gives answers (and isn't that the way life is and should be, really), it's nice to know I'm not alone and that I don't  have to have all the answers, but to be looking for them is what matters most.

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And the Rest: (in the order that I read them)

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey -- Quite a quirky story filled with wry humor and whimsy even if it's perhaps a little sobering, too.  For me, a perfect little slice of life.  I liked the film adaptation, too.

The Last of Summer by Kate O'Brien -- Interestingly I read three Viragos and all three show up on my favorites list.  Obviously I need to read more VMCs next year (already in the works . . .).  It's a quietly elegant story set in Ireland in the days leading up to WWII.

At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott -- I called this a "beautifully lyrical" story, one that is finely crafted and observant of the inner lives of the characters--primarily women.  It's the story of an Irish-American family living in Brooklyn in the 1950s and 60s.  I have her newest on my list of reads for 2014!

Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox -- Sometimes you pick up a book and start reading and something just clicks.  You can tell from the very first page that you are holding in your hands a perfect read.  That's what I experienced with Borrowed Finery.

The Bread and Butter Stories by Mary Norton -- I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but that is what initially prompted me to buy this one.  Norton wrote short stories for publication in order to put food on the table and pay bills--hence these being 'bread and butter stories'.  Another wry observer of women's lives.  She wrote from experience and you can tell--the stories have a timeless quality to them.  I only wish she had written more--she is better known as the author of the children's book The Borrowers.  I'll be revisiting this one.

A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor -- How fitting that I discovered this book thanks to William McPherson.  He recommended it in the afterword of Testing the Current.  It's a readalike of sorts.  This is a rich story in which Taylor explores the vagaries of memory.

Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh -- Lindbergh is much like May Sarton in her quest for knowledge--and not just the sort you find in books.  She writes from experience, but she writes about the different phases of a woman's life, and this is a book that can speak to different readers on so many levels.  It's eloquent and beautifully written.  Another book where I penciled notes and dog eared pages.  Both this and Sarton's books may well be annual reads for me.

Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym -- Pym is a delight and this a wonderful comedy of manners.  I do like a heroine who not only knows herself and her sense of worth, gets her own happily ever after yet it's a happy ending that's not expected or typical.

Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo -- This is an excellent crime story--gritty and passionate, a little dark and very melancholy. It's the first of three books, which I expect may well get darker in the telling.  I'm looking forward to reading the others and they already sit on my pile for next year.

Fenny by Lettice Cooper -- This is a beautifully written novel filled with the warmth of the Italian sunshine and the satisfaction of a life well lived.  This is a story that is full and replete with characters who are solid and feel real.  They, especially Fenny, do not end up in the same place they began.

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And I have a few honorable mentions, too.

Best comfort read: In a Good Light by Clare Chambers (was there any doubt?)

Most atmospheric read: The Lewis Man by Peter May

Funniest read: Economy Must Be Our Watchword by Joyce Dennys and Saki's The Unrest Cure and Other Stories comes in a close second

Book I can't believe I waited so long to read: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (I can't tell you how many years the book sat unopened on my bookshelf).

Book that has sat too long on my nightstand (but I'm not giving up on it): Mad Puppetstown by Molly Keane (that's what happens when you decide you want to read an author's works in the order they were written--I swear I am going to begin reading it in earnest January 1)

Book I never thought I'd finish: Hah.  The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

Book I liked more than I expected to: The Devil by Leo Tolstoy

Best new find of the year: There were several but Mary Norton's Bread and Butter Stories really clicked with me

Most widely varied reads: Flush and Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf.  It's a testament to her genius that she can write two amazing books--one so very challenging (the former) and one so completely accessible (the latter) and yet both be so full of meaning and style

Authors I'm glad I discovered (and will read more of): Mary Hocking, Paula Fox, Peter Taylor, Jean-Claude Izzo, Sian Busby and Lauren Davis

I have lots of reading ideas (I hesitate calling them plans, because I never know quite where my reading will take me until I get there) to start out the new year.  I'm sure they'll change and expand over the course of the year, but I've had a number of books on my mind, genres I want to explore or read more of.  I'll share those tomorrow.  And now onwards to 2014!

Books by the Numbers: 2013 Edition

Seeing as I have been in a tidying sort of mood (I spent a chunk of yesterday afternoon, prime reading time I might add, cleaning . . . it had to be done unfortunately), it's time to take a little look back over the reading year.  I sort of feel as though I shouldn't do this (counting and tallying isn't always a good thing), but idle curiosity has prompted me.  I know my reading was off this year, but just by how much I wonder.  Let's see, shall we?  In any case, It helps me think about what I want to do next year.

• Books read: 85
• Audio books: More than 5--I didn't keep track very well and some were radio dramatizations
• 18th century: 2
• 19th century: 12
• 20th century: 48
• 21st century: 26 (there was some overlap between centuries since a few books were actually collections of stories)
• eBooks: One!  I'm really not all that fond of ebooks, can you tell?
• Fiction (not mysteries, short stories or fairy tales and I'm counting classics separately, too): 37
• Nonfiction: 9 (two were books of essays)
• Diaries: 1
• Nature: 1
• Classics: 16
• Fairy Tales/Mythology: None this year!
• Mysteries/Crime/Suspense: 15
• Science fiction: 0
• Espionage: 1
• YA novels: 1
• Books written by women: 46
• Books written by men: 37
• Books written by more than one author: 2
• American authors: 22
• British authors: 36
• Canadian authors: 4
• Australian/Irish authors: 1 (one lone Irish author)
• Subscription Books: 18 (Melville House and NYRB Classics)
• Books in translation: 19 (original languages include: Swedish, French, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, German and Italian)
• Short story collections: 4
• Novellas: 13
• Graphic Novels: 0
• Plays: 0
• Virago Modern Classics: 3 (same as last year)
• Persephone Books: 3 (better than last year but not by much)
• Books read that were checked out from the library: 13 (so small a number considering how many I actually borrow . . .)
• Books read from my own shelves: 67 (hah--so small a number considering how many I own and how many I bought.  I don't, by the way, keep track of those books)
• Rereads: 4 (Martha Grimes, Antonia Fraser, Clare Chambers and Agatha Christie)
• Book club books (Slaves of Golconda, Cornflower's Book Group, my Postal Reading Group and the Literature and War Readalong): 11 (I actually didn't do so well with these--I started quite a few that I didn't finish and read very few of the Slaves books this year . . . and postal books also suffered)
• Multiple books by the same author: 4 (Paula Fox, Vasily Grossman, Virginia Woolf and Wilkie Collins)
• Books by Nebraska authors: 1 (Willa Cather)
• Approximate number of pages read: More than 21,000 -- can that be right?)

Not that I'm counting or anything (no pressure there!), but in the years since I've been blogging (since 2005) and keeping track, only three of those years had fewer reads during the course of the year.  And quite a few of this year's books were actually novellas!  I wish I could say that I spent the time doing needlework (I think I actually finished even fewer projects this year than in the previous few) or some other crafty activity, but I didn't.  I'm not sure what I was doing.  I guess some years are just like that.  It was, unfortunately, a stressful year in many ways and my reading suffered.  I hope that next year is better.  Reading is usually a respite from stress, but I don't seem to have been reading more (comparatively speaking)--so, extra stress but no extra books--a pity.  I do, however, most definitely believe in quality over quantity, so we'll see tomorrow how quality fared when I share my favorites list.

Comparing this year's reading with last year's, though, not much has really changed in terms of what I've been reading--other than there being fewer books (and maybe more novellas).  I do see that male authors are catching up with female authors!  The gap is closing.  Reading along with others and reading subscription books has really helped vary my reading--lots more books in translation and more classics.

So, there you have it.  The year in review.  I seem to follow a pattern really--here are previous years.  A fresh start is going to be a good thing.

Catching Up on Books, part 2

A mixed bag of books today.  The first is a book I had never really planned on writing about as it is a reread.  But as I am wrapping things up I am happy to mention her now after all.  Clare Chambers is one of my most reliable go-to authors when it comes to comfort reads.  And she is an author whose books I can read over and over again and never tire of.  When I need a good distraction from life's problems I know I can pick up one of her books and be quite contented while reading it.  I have several books by her that are unread and which I look forward to.  I think I keep them in reserve in part because I like the idea of having a few of her books close at hand ready to pick up at a moment's notice.  They also sit there unread as I find a couple of her books so satisfying that I simply keep going back to them.

In a Good Light is one of those books.  I've already written about it, so I won't go into great detail now.  But I will mention that Clare Chambers' writing is smart and witty.  She tells a great story, and it's easy to get involved in the characters' lives.  They are very real in many ways and you can't help but care about them.  Maybe I can relate so well to her stories/characters as we seem to be from the same generation.  Even though an ocean separates us, I can all too easily relate to the period she writes about.  The characters' lives are not so very different than my own--certainly the problems and preoccupations are very similar.  The stories are never schmaltzy, but the ending will likely be happy and satisfying.

Who knows.  Maybe next year when I am in need of a book to escape with I'll reach for a Clare Chambers novel that I've not yet read.  Or maybe I'll just return to one of my favorites.  I always keep them close at hand rather than returning them to a place on my bookshelves.

*****

I had high hopes for Giacomo Casanova's The Duel, one of my Melville House novellas.  Maybe my expectations were too high.  Or maybe I was just expecting something different than what I got.  It could have been timing, or a bad mood.  But if I am completely honest I felt quite 'meh' about the story.  I've now read three of the five "Duel" books that make up the set Melville House publishes.  Anton Chekhov's The Duel is by far my favorite, though I read a different edition of it and plan on rereading my subscription copy.

Perhaps it is only my perception, but I have always thought Casanova had quite a colorful life.  His reputation is vast and somewhat iconic.  Even if little is known about his life, most people are aware of his romantic escapades.  The Duel is autobiographical and fairly tame in the telling of the story.  The narrator is Venetian by birth, and he "incurs the wrath" of the city's rulers and rather than taking his lumps he flees.  First he flees to Warsaw where he meets and falls for a charming and captivating ballerina.  He's not the only one to fall for her and with a title of "the duel" you can imagine what happens.  Unjust insults.  Offense.  A duel ensues.  It's not a good idea to duel with a king's favorite.  There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing across Europe.  Through it all the two remain gentlemen, which is something that always surprises me--how such a violent act (murderous really) can be the result of two men who are otherwise so entirely cordial to one another. 

I think I didn't do Casanova's story justice.  Maybe someday I'll reread it or perhaps read something else by him?  But I need to get back to my novellas.  I have a growing stack of them and have been letting them languish.  I will be choosing one very soon to kick off the new year with.

*****

Jane Gardam's Crusoe's Daughter.  Metafiction?  A book about a book, or rather a book where the heroine is guided by a book.  The book in question in this case is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (would have been a perfect reading pairing by the way, had I planned ahead).  

This is a story where not much happens yet it's the story of one woman's life--more than eighty years of it spanning much of the twentieth century.  Polly Flint is left by her father with her aunts, then he goes off and ends up dying.  It's a lonely existence for Polly as her aunts are (mostly) spinsters and one quite religious.  Yet isn't that, in a way, how so many women's lives are?  A life lived in quiet solitude--by choice or not.  It's no less a life than any other for all that it seems without adventure. 

Polly falls in love.  She's left behind.  She becomes a teacher and comes into her own.  Through it all her guiding light is Defoe's novel.  A careful reading of the story no doubt would have shown many parallels between Polly's life as a solitary outcast and that of Robinson's.  There are lots of religious undertones (her pious aunts, her own rejection of religion).  All set against a bleak, lonely landscape next to the sea.  A definite reread is in order for this one.  It might have been a perfect contender for favorite book of the year had I been paying better attention (even a rocky reading that I had, I am still impressed by Jane Gardam).  I want to read more of her work, it goes without saying.

*****

I've already written about a number of stories from Saki's The Un-Rest Cure and Other Stories.  But let me give the collection one more plug as I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Some stories are absolute genius.  Let me just mention a few more here (a few others I wrote about earlier).

"The Hounds of Fate" will convince you never to take on the identity of someone else.  Even if you are starving.  Saki is so very good at those twists in stories where you will be shocked and maybe surprised at the end. 

"The Open Window" is a classic.  In just a few pages he tells a pitch perfect story, one where fear is instilled in a visitor of a house who literally believes he is seeing ghosts. 

"Fur" is marvelous.  A young woman tries to dupe a fur coat out of an older distant cousin of her mother's.  With the aid of a good friend she drops just the right amount of hints.  And it works, but just not in the way she had hoped it would. 

"Quail Seed" is a marvelous story skewering not just the upper classes but consumers in general.  We all know that department stores manipulate buyers--see how the 'master' does it--Saki is hugely amusing and so spot on in his observations on society.

"The Seven Cream Jugs" is farce at its best.  What happens when you think a guest has stolen one of your stock of cream jugs (even though you already have too many of them.)?

Saki is wry, witty, amusing, surprising and knows far too much than is good for him.  And he translates all his knowledge into masterful short stories.  You can find his work online.  Any of these stories is worthy reading--what better way to spend a half hour or so of your time?  Do yourself a favor and go look him up now!

I do have a few more books to write about but will carry them over into the new year.  It's my hope to be much better at writing about what I'm reading in a more timely manner--especially the books that really impress me as a number of books from these last two posts did!  Now, I'm almost ready for the new reading year.  You, too?  Time to wrap things up and share my favorites!

Catching Up on Books: Mini Reviews

Time is slipping away now, and I'm not going to get caught up on telling you about the books I read earlier in the year but never got around to writing about.  Writing about them properly that is.  It's a little scary how quickly stories begin to fade from memory once that last page is turned and the book is returned to its place on the bookshelf.  And that's not even books finished a year or two previously, but in a few cases just a few months ago.  I can see I will need to get back to keeping a reading journal.  In the past, and it's been very helpful, I've jotted down notes or quotes as I read or have made little pencil notations in the text.  This year, however, has been an off reading year for me in a variety of ways, so maybe once I can get back into (good) old habits I'll feel less afloat in a sea of books.

So, here's the first of two posts where I try and catch up on a few books I (mostly) really liked but didn't get around to writing about. 

Elizabeth Wilson is a writer I plan on reading more of.  Her Girl in Berlin is a stylish and sophisticated thriller that begins as a story of intrigue and espionage but twists and turns nicely becoming something of a mystery with a surprise ending.  It's set in post-WWII London but moves to Berlin and back again. 

A London detective is hired by MI5 to follow a British expatriate who had been living in Berlin--a self-proclaimed Communist of questionable loyalties.  He has ties to a woman in Berlin who is only too eager to marry him and emigrate to England.  His are not the only loyalties to be questioned.  Two British spies have disappeared and then a murder takes place muddying the waters of the investigation.  Nothing is as it seems and those in power can't be trusted.  As spy stories go, this is a good one and just thinking about it makes me want to reach for another of Wilson's (or any spy story in general really) novels sooner rather than later.

*****

I love Barbara Pym.  I wish I had read more of her books during this year's centenary anniversary of her birth.  I only managed to read Crampton Hodnet, which was written in 1940 but not published until 1985 after her death.  What a delightful story it was and I could happily pick it up and start reading it all over again.  Does anyone write stories about women of "a certain age", often spinsters but entirely likable and interesting (and happy), like Barbara Pym?  This is truly a story that deserved a proper post, though I see that I at least shared excerpts from the story here.   Crampton Hodnet is a fictionalized--and that is fictionalized within the story by the way--village (Crampton is also part of Pym's name), that the story's vicar lies about having visited!  That sets the tone.

The story is filled with her typical vicars, spinsters, academics, a pair of young lovers and dewy-eyed students.  A 'not young though not old' curate has come to North Oxford sending titters through the little community as he is intelligent and handsome.  But he's also practical.  He is living with one of the local spinsters and her companion.  It's Miss Morrow, the companion, on whom he has set his sights.  He thinks he should marry, and certainly he could do much worse . . .  But Miss Morrow has other ideas.  I do like a heroine who not only knows herself and her sense of worth, gets her own happily ever after yet it's a happy ending that's not expected or typical.

Pym is such a shrewed writer.  She's funny and acerbic and spot on in her characterizations of people.  This is a comedy of manners of the best sort and will very likely show up on my favorites' list (which I am now working on).  And thinking about this book again now makes me want to pick up another of her books now, too.

*****

Okay, another really excellent read that deserved a proper post, too, Jean-Claude Izzo's Total Chaos, the first book in his Marseilles Trilogy.  As a matter of fact I've kept the book sitting right next to my computer from the time I finished reading it (at the end of the summer!) until now when I finally am getting around to at least mentioning it.  Izzo is credited with being the first to write what is now known as Mediterranean noir.  Marseilles is a city he knew (he passed away several years ago when he was only fifty-five) intimately and loved, and his passion for it shows in every page of the book.  

The story, however, is noir in every sense.  Marseilles, however lovingly written about, is a city full of crime and corruption.  And Total Chaos is gritty and dark and often bleak for the city's North African residents, and Detective Fabio Montale is tired and jaded.  He was one of three friends who grew up as close as brothers, but missteps and bad choices mean it's easier to be part of the city's dark underbelly.  One friend is gunned down, another returns from abroad to revenge his death, and Fabio must try and mete out a different kind of justice.  While his friends are drawn further into the criminal side of life, Fabio has pulled himself up and out and became a police officer.   It's a betrayal of sorts, but Fabio remains loyal to his friends in his own way and is determined to see justice done.

Along with the story of Fabio and his friends Ugo and Manu, he is also investigating the murder of a young woman who is the daughter of a close friend.  She also happens to have been part of the immigrant community, yet as a second generation French woman she and her siblings straddle that invisible line--not exactly wholly part of either culture.  The two investigations become inexplicably wrapped up together.  This is an excellent crime story--gritty and passionate, a little dark and very melancholy.  I've already got the second and third books in the series: Chourmo and Solea.  I hope to read them both next year.  Izzo also wrote a book of essays, which I read earlier in the year and wrote about here.

*****

Virginia Woolf!  I actually read two of her books this year.  Both are short--novellas and both excellent reads.  I wrote about Jacob's Room already.  For me Virginia Woolf is formidable in every way.  As a woman, a writer, a thinker.  She's amazing and challenging.  Whereas Jacob's Room was something of an undertaking (an "I'm glad I read this, but I am not sure I understood it" book), I thoroughly enjoyed and found Flush to be quite a delight.  Another book I wish I had written about right when I finished it, as I won't do it justice here and now.

I read the Persephone edition which has an excellent introduction with lots of explication (thank you!  always helpful with Woolf . . . ).  Ostensibly this is a fictionalized biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's little Spaniel, Flush, which was stolen not once but multiple times.  A beloved pet, EBB paid ransom each time (the "reward" money was more than the salary of her maid by the way).  As any true biographer does, Woolf chronicles the life of Flush from his forefathers through to his death.  And the 'story' is told from his perspective.  It's certainly one of the more inventive novels I've read this year and an interesting way to view the relationship between Elizabeth and Robert.

Of course this is Virginia Woolf we're talking about, so there is more going on in the story than what appears on the surface.  This is more than just a fictionalized biography of a beloved pet.  Woolf is writing about women and society and class.  Flush is really more than just a dog, he acts as a mirror to his owner.  Charming as the story may be, I think it's meant in a more satirical manner.  Per the introduction:

"It is this tension, between protection [EBB and her father and later Robert] and confinement, between dependence and freedom that underpins Flush."

It goes without saying that anything by Virginia Woolf should be read and reread.  I wonder which book by her I will read next year?  I see that Flush at least warrented a passing mention, and that I had intended to read Leonard Woolf's The Wise Virgins as a companion book.  Maybe next year?

A few more books tomorrow to wrap up the year!

The Lewis Man by Peter May

If a setting can be a character, the Isle of Lewis--an island off the north-west coast of Scotland, would be dark and broody and be given to moments of taciturnity.  He would give glowering looks and have tempestuous relationships with others.  Much like last year's reading of The Blackhouse, Peter May's The Lewis Man is an exceptionally well-done crime novel.  It's the second in a trilogy of books set in this unforgiving landscape and continuing the story of ex-detective Fin Macleod who has returned to his childhood home after the death of his son and a failed marriage in Edinburgh.  There is a saying that you can't go home again.  Maybe you can, but it might be ghosts of your former life that greet you. 

The Blackhouse tells Fin's story--his youth and upbringing, the death of his parents and subsequent life with an emotionally distant aunt.  Mostly it tells of his coming of age--a true trial by fire that resulted in the death of someone close.  And wrapped up in it is a murder investigation  that Fin becomes embroiled in.  The Lewis Man picks up where the first book left off, bringing back many of the same characters, scarred and unhappy after the events in the first book.  Fin has decided to return to his former home on the island, now little more than a ruin that he sets out to repair, and again gets caught up in a murder investigation.  Once more it involves someone close to him, but now he must pursue the truth outside the boundaries of the law.

When a body is discovered in a peat bog the assumption is it dates back centuries.  A tattoo of Elvis on the arm of the corpse, however, places him firmly in a more recent past.  His identity is unknown but there is evidence he is in some way related to the father of Fin's former lover, Marsaili.  The family asks Fin to look into the matter before detectives from the mainland arrive as they will surely turn first to Tormod Macdonald for answers being the primary suspect.  Tormod, however, is elderly and in a fragile state.  The Lewis Man tells his story. 

It's not too much of a stretch, I think, to consider this a sort of 'locked room' mystery.  Tormod Macdonald has dementia.  He is wrapped up in his own memories, which are fragmentary at best.  Whatever happened in his youth may well now long be forgotten.  Although the reader lives inside his mind, things do not easily connect up, and it's only glimpses of his past that are seen.  It's through these glimpses that the story of his youth are pieced together and the mystery is slowly unlocked.  The story builds to a feverish pace, and while the solution isn't necessarily a surprise, the telling of the story is skillfully done and quite adept.

There is once again more than one story being told here, but the threads are tightly woven together and almost seamless since Fin and Marsaili's relationship comes to the forefront of the story.  Their lives, like those of the other islanders, are so intermingled that they become a compact whole.  Whatever their relationship now, they have ties to one another that can't be undone or easily broken.

The body found in the bog was murdered, his throat slit, with all the signs of revenge.  Just as the island itself is unforgiving, situated as it is facing the cold north seas and being battered by the elements, so too are the lives of the islanders often grim and unforgiving, too.  There is a religious aspect to the story as well, and while faith and religion should be a safe harbor for its followers, here it takes on dark overtones.  Tormod's youth was not a happy one, and all the truths that Marsaili thought she knew, turn out to be mostly fabrications.

Just like last year's The Blackhouse, I'd barely turned the last page of The Lewis Man before ordering the final instalment in Peter May's trilogy, The Chessmen.  I'm not even sure what the story is about, but I know I like May's writing and so will happily read it and prefer not to know to much about the story beforehand.  The stories are wonderfully atmospheric.  The isolation and harshness of island life is both a little scary and very fascinating to me.  I love solitude, but I wonder if life in such a forbidding place would be too much.  I'm quite curious about the folklore of the place.  One of the clues to the mystery is the imprint from a blanket on the body.  Every family would have had a particular design used in sweaters that the women would have knitted that I would like to learn more about.  Perhaps I will learn more when my copy (and end of the year splurge) of Hebrides arrives.  It is a "photographic journey through the Hebridean islands" as narrated by Peter May.  It will be nice to have visuals to go along with the stories.

Although my mystery reading will soon take a "vintage" turn, I would like to return to this sort of a setting, if not the Hebrides in particular, then a locale oozing with atmosphere (maybe it's time to get back to Elly Grffith's books or Yrsa Sigurdardottir's).  I recently discovered A.D. Scott and North Sea Requiem found a place in my last library haul, but I think I would prefer to begin with her first book, A Small Death in the Great Glen.  As my reading stacks are slowly being cleared, it's definitely time to settle on a new mystery (or two) to kick off the new year with.

Fenny by Lettice Cooper

The transformative power of Italy.  Maybe it's the Italian sunshine, or the wide expanses of green and burnt sienna of the Tuscan countryside.  Whatever it is, on more than one occasion a literary heroine's life has been transformed by her experiences there.  Lucy Honeychurch comes to mind right away.  I imagine there is a Henry James' heroine or two who has lived and loved and been transformed by Italy.  And a few of Edith Wharton's as well.  Now Lettice Cooper's Fenny can be added to the list.

Ellen Fenwick's life takes on a richer hue when she travels to Italy to be governess for a year.  After overcoming adversities in life and love she will come into her own.  This is a story where happiness is achieved through a certain amount of struggle, but it's a life that is as full of satisfactions as it is of heartache.  And isn't that the way of real life, too.  Life may not turn out exactly as planned or hoped for, but it can be happy and satisfying nonetheless--a contentment that we all strive for.

Ellen, already in her twenties, at the beginning of the story is still so young in many ways.  A schoolteacher at home in England, she looks forward to this opportunity to travel and live abroad before she must return home and settle into an average life.  But Ellen, who becomes Fenny in Florence--so called by her young charge discovers a new and wondrous world, but it is sometimes harsh one as well. 

This is Florence just before the war at the story's outset.  It's an unspoiled Florence where the expatriate community is tightly knit.  Everyone is aware of everyone else's business and there are hints and innuendos of illicit romantic entanglements.  Some will be closer to home than others.  Fenny's employers, a British couple with a young daughter, live in the countryside just outside of Florence and mix with the other families.  One in particular, An American man married to an Italian woman--both with children from prior marriages, have a British tutor for their son, for whom Fenny will fall for.  It's a first love and she falls hard.

There is an ambivalence both to Fenny and her place in British expatriate society and her relationship with others--British and Italian alike.  It's the time and place no doubt.  She is neither a servant nor a guest, though she is treated as both in some cases.  Governess first and foremost, she is Fenny, not Miss Fenwick.  She's both teacher to the family's daughter and friend to her employer, yet not entirely so.  And it's this ambivalence and perhaps her youth and naivety that will cost her her first love.

Fenny recoils from the inappropriate behavior of her employer, too good to fight for what she really wants.  But the draw of Italy is too strong and she stays even after her disappointments in love.  She agrees to work for another family but is dismissed for overstepping bounds.  But it's these decisions who make her what she is and shows a moral strength.  It's this fortitude that will take her though the war years.  Her experiences as a younger woman circle back and help inform her decisions and the advice she gives after the war.  Hers is not a life lived easily but it's one that is satisfying and happy on her own terms.

Fenny is a beautifully written novel filled with the warmth of the Italian sunshine and the satisfaction of a life well lived.  This is a story that is full and replete with characters who are solid and feel real.  They, especially Fenny, do not end up in the same place they began.  I had no idea that Lettice Cooper was such a good author--why have I let her books languish on my shelves?  She began life as a governess too, but went on to Oxford where she studied the Classics.  She had quite a literary life and traveled, too, to Italy.  Her career as a writer spanned more than sixty years.  She wrote twenty novels, children's books and two biographies.  I'll be looking for more of her work in 2014!  And I think Italy will be a literary destination for me as well in the New Year.

Happy Holiday Wishes to You!

Happy Holidays to all!  However you celebrate the season I wish you much happiness, peace and good health now and in the new year!  Thank you for the comments, reading suggestions and kind words that have been shared over the course of the year.  For me they are daily presents for which I am always very appreciative. 

Going to my local Botanical Gardens seems to have become a new tradition, one which I greatly enjoy.  They put on an amazing poinsettia display. 

I think they must have every variety of poinsettia.  The centerpiece is a twenty-foot tall poinsettia tree.

The tree is made up of roughly 720 potted poinsettia plants which are replaced halfway through the season so the plants remain fresh and vibrant.

The decorations this year followed a Victorian theme--from ornaments on the trees down to an actual Victorian-era sleigh.

I especially love the ornamental pond complete with fish.  Aren't they considered good luck?  Or is that just my imagination?

Even a few of the trees in the garden outside were decorated--mostly with edible ornaments.

The treats come in very handy for the garden residents!  (This photo is for you Stefanie!  He told me he'd be happy to come visit your garden next summer! . . . But don't worry, I didn't give him your address).

He apparently wanted to eat in peace and didn't like me gawping at him.  I guess this is what's meant when you say 'high-tailin' it out of there'.  By the way--the first of these last three photos was taken outside (brr--it was COLD), but the latter two were taken from the warmth of indoors.

Here's to happy celebrations filled with laughter and good cheer, something warm to drink (or cold if it's your summertime!) and a book-shaped present under your tree!  (Oh, and many hours filled with reading, too).

I'll be back later this week in the hopes I can catch up with a few book posts and then it'll be time to wrap things up for 2013.  My how the year has flown by!

Last 'New' Books of the Year

It's become something of a tradition that I start my winter break from work with a visit to my favorite used bookstore (they have a really amazing selection of books--the sort you don't find in chain stores if that gives you an idea), so why should this year be any different?  There was a time in my life when I wouldn't consider buying a used book, but now I favor them over new books if I can help it.  It's dangerous to stop by there as I inevitably come away with a (usually large) stack of books.  I managed to keep things mostly under control . . . are buying five books keeping things under control?  I suppose for some of us it is.

I'm just finishing Peter May's (most excellent) The Lewis Man, which is set in the Hebrides.  I'm not ready yet to leave that part of the world.  Although it's traveling from Scotland to Ireland with Kate Horsley's Confessions of a Pagan Nun, the books both share a rugged, perhaps bleak, view onto the world.  Maybe it's the time of year with these short days and darkness, but there's something about that part of the world that is especially appealing to me at the moment.  Ursula Le Guin is quoted on the back cover: "As a slant of sunlight illuminates jewels long buried, Kate Horsley's novel brings words to an ancient silence and a living, vivid presence to people who lived in that time of great changes and estrangements we call the Dark Ages."  To be more specific the story is told by a sixth-century Irish nun "secretly recording memories of her Pagan youth."

I didn't know anything about Jonathan Raban's Soft City, but it looked most intriguing so I added it to my pile and am now happy I did so.  The blurb grabbed me: "Part reportage, part intimate autobiography, this vivid, often funny portrait of metropolitan life has become a classic in the literature of the city."  The city in question is London.  The book was written in 1974.  I can't wait to start reading it.

I'm telling myself now, and I am hoping I really do follow up on it, that I am going to read William Boyd next year.  More than just one of his books.  Several of his books maybe.  One of the books notes that Boyd is a versatile writer and it is true that his books/stories all seem so very different.  There was a number of books on the store shelves, but I decided on (to add to my own small collection) The New Confessions and The Destiny of Nathalie X and Other Stories.  The first book is a fictionalized autobiography and the latter (as you can tell by the title) a collection of short stories that are "startling, exotic, and deliciously inventive."  I'm still trying to decide what to do about my short story reading next year!

And the book on the bottom of the pile is actually one I own in hardcover, A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book.  Had to have it.  You know how that goes?  Bought it with much anticipation and then it has sat waiting for me for ages.  I really want to read it (despite knowing it has received very mixed reviews), but I know I don't want to lug around a big hardcover.  Now I have a nice, (inexpensive) used copy to lug around.

I said before I wouldn't make a list of 'must reads' for 2014, but now with so many books I know I want to read, dare I make that list?  Or by making it do I doom myself to failure?  Maybe I will keep a mental list and secretly jot it down in my reading notebook.  Then if I don't read a single title from it, no one is any the wiser!

But I am excited about my last pile of books for the year. 

December 22: Weekend Reading Notes

My first weekend reading post way back in April had a view outside from a cozy window seat, and so, this last one of the year has a new one.  I've been in the mood for a new view, a change of scenery.  As I am now officially on my break from work it was especially nice to have a destination for my Saturday morning walk and a hot drink to look forward to.  A little reading material and writing material close at hand--a nice way to begin a vacation.

This is the actual view--I like being able to sit by windows so I can look out and watch the world even though this was a quiet, rather gloomy morning (fitting I suppose for the shortest day of the year).  It could always be worse--it could have been snowing!

By the way, if you look out the window on the left and see the building on the opposite side of the street?  That used to be a bookstore (now is a restaurant/bakery).  I used to work there!  As a matter of fact I worked there for more than ten years and would likely have continued to work there part time had they still been in business (pity they closed!).  I loved working in this part of town, though I still come down here quite often. 

I plan on reading as much as possible over my break and writing at least one letter or a few postcards every day!  I did some serious weeding of my library books (a hefty stack went back yesterday), removed a few more books from this end of the year pile (now there are only five books!) and cleared off a few books that had been languishing for far, far too long. As much as I dislike putting back books that I've started reading, it feels really good to have smaller stacks at hand.  In some cases I just lost the thread of what I was reading, my mood has changed, or I am just ready for a new start.  

Remember I was going to choose a new book to begin reading over break?  For something a little different I have started reading Judith Merkle Riley's The Master of Desires, which is a reissue by Sourcebooks of a 1999 novel.  Quite a few years ago I read a number of Merkle Riley's books and very much enjoyed them.  When I was dropping off library books and picking up my one lone hold, it caught my eye.  I had all but settled on Alice McDermott's Someone as my book, so it sits on my night stand, but I will start with this one.  This is a cross of genres--historical fiction, fantasy, romance.  It is called a "delicious romp" and "fiendishly funny", which sounds perfect at the moment.  I need something light and distracting!  It also has a feisty heroine, which I always like.  The setting is 16th century France.  Here is a little taste:

"The proprietress, in slatternly apron and cap, was crossing before me bearing several cups of her odious home-brewed beverage.  'Good woman,' I said (thus does politeness make liars of us all), 'tell me, do you know the name of that elderly fellow with the long beard and doctor's gown?'"

The elderly fellow is Nostradamus, and the heroine a spinster at age 22!

You see my reading material in the top photo?  It's time for Wilkie in Winter, so I pulled out my copies of The Frozen Deep (a novella) and The Woman in White (a reread of a most favorite book of mine).  I've just barely started the novella.  I might be tempted to dip into The Woman in White early.  

"The Date is between twenty and thirty years ago.  The place is an English seaport.  The time is night.  And the business of the moment is--dancing."

Another story I am looking forward to getting into.  This grand celebration is in honor of an expedition to the Arctic.  

And then there is May Sarton's Journal of Solitude, which every time I open it and read find it so amazing.  This is one of the passages I read yesterday, which seemed especially fitting.

"I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become even for those, like me, without children.  Everyone must feel revolt as I do about the middle of December when I buried under the necessity of finding presents, the immense effort of wrapping and sending, and the never-ended guilt about unsent cards, about letters.  But there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress."

She goes on to talk about a major snowfall, seeing a man with a Christmas tree on his shoulders passing through silent woods covered in white, and spending time with her cats in "perfect peace" in front of a roaring fire with snow whirling about outside--as if "we were in the center of a 'snowing' glass paperweight. 

I think I will leave you with that lovely image.  I am still reading (and enjoying Saki).  I am rationing the stories to just one or two a day from here on out and will finish them by next weekend.  Now I will be just reading and tidying things up here for the rest of this year.  (And hopefully finishing a book or two still).

And Then There Were Eight!

This is what the pile looked like right before Thanksgiving (above photo).  And this is what the pile looked like at the beginning of this month.

Slow reader though I may be (if you look closely you can see that some of those bookmarks are making their way towards the back of their books, however), I am making steady progress and am pleased with it, though I am going to have to be realistic now (with only eleven days left in the year) and decide which books I have a real chance of finishing, which will carry over into next year, and which might just have to go back to their places on my bookshelves until a later date (serious weeding from this pile may occur as well).

I've already decided that the Wouk will carry over into next year (thanks to Litlove for being so patient with me--we are meant to be reading it together, but I am being very pokey about it--will hopefully catch up with her very shortly now).  I'm steadily reading Peter May's The Lewis Man (quite enjoying it though it is another bleak mystery) and hope to finish it by the end of this weekend, am making good progress in Ruth & Gisela by Elizabeth Wix (charming story though tinged with just a little sadness, it's set roughly during WWII in England) and determined to finish Elizabeth Goudge's The Middle Window (it's my current postal book and I've not done so well with the previous two . . .).  And with a little under 100 pages to go in the Keilson it would be a pity not to finish (just need a long afternoon or maybe two and I'll be done).

So that leaves three books (not too shabby considering when I started!).  Do I try and make a push to finish them, let them just carry over, or (though I am loathe to do this) return them to their shelves.  Keeping in mind that I am still dipping into Saki and May Sarton--will finish both either sooner or later).

But I am now officially on break, and have a lovely twelve days off from work.  The time is (mostly) mine to do with as I like.  My plans include lots and lots of reading, spending some time with my family, maybe organizing/weeding my bookshelves (dare I undertake such a task--it will take much longer than I think it will), writing some letters and postcards and generally puttering about.  I will be going to the gym (which is actually just more reading time, so don't think me too dedicated), hopefully spending a little time in coffee shops (more reading time), and maybe eating here (I get their daily emails which give the menu of the day and they have the most delicious-sounding entrees and soups).  So, basically no 'real' plans.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll stick to my daily posting routine, or whether (since I am sure it is going to be very quiet in this corner of the reading blogosphere) I'll take a little time off.  But I have a small stack of books that I finished reading that I want to write about still (including several from the end-of-the-year pile).  And then there will be a few end of the year wrap up posts (though those will literally happen on the very last days of the year) and one looking ahead (better think about next year's reading).  With the busy-ness of work behind me for a short while, I can relax and finally catch up on blog reading, too.  I'm a little afraid to open Feedly up--I can just imagine how many posts are waiting for me to read.  I do hate falling behind, as I feel so disconnected, but I've just not been able to help it lately. 

My attention, then, will be mostly focused on the remaining books in this pile, with a little attention also given to books that are 'in progress' that I knew I wouldn't finish by the end of the year.  I am going to cave in just a little, however, to whim and have decided to let myself choose one new book to finish out the year/bring in the new year.  Such a dilemma, but I don't want to over-think it!  I'm sort of in the mood to read an Irish author, or a story with an Irish setting and have it narrowed down to Roddy Doyle, Alice McDermott, Anne Enright (her work might be a little too dispiriting this time of year . . . ), or Ward Just (well, there isn't an Irish connection with every book).  I'm off now to dip into each book, read a page, see which grabs me and then go with it!

Happy weekend reading everyone!