A Work in Progress

The Curious Gardener: July

My how time flies.  Is it really the last day of July already?  I had planned on reading my Pavord much earlier in the month, but had to gulp it down quickly to get it in before the calendar gets flipped over to August.  Not that it is hard going.  The Curious Gardener is light and airy and easy summer reading.  It's perfect 'sitting in the garden reading' as a matter of fact.  If only I had one, of course.  The Pavord is my stand-in garden this summer.

I shouldn't draw your attention this way since I had (not terribly grand but for me, maybe a little grand) an inspiration (by way of a real gardener) to plant a few herbs this past spring.  I bought the seed packets and then they ended up under a pile of papers and were forgotten.  Maybe I should investigate fall plants?  Or maybe I'll just hold on to my seeds until next year.  But there were two subjects Pavord touched upon that I could nod my head to mentally.  Herbs and pests.  It's the latter that keeps me away from any sort of ambitious container gardening and it's the former that I really should have attempted this year.  Maybe it is never too soon to plan a new garden, though?

What she had to say about herb gardening gave me hope.  I am going to try it (later it would seem rather than sooner).  Maybe I can even try it indoors on a nice, sunny windowsill.  A little practice?

"The easiest herbs to grow are the permanent ones: rosemary, thyme, sage, tarragon.  You buy a plant, stick it in the ground and away it goes.  To these you could add winter savory (Satureja montana), which, like tarragon, is perennial."

Of course she is growing them for use in her cooking, but I (at this point anyway) just want to be able to grow something easy--to feel like I can actually nurture something and make it flourish, add a little beauty and color to my home and maybe have something lovely to smell as I come and go or sit on my porch.  Whenever I try this with flowers I am mostly just fighting a losing battle against insects.  They are much better at survival than I am at nurturing living things.  Unless, of course you count me nurturing them by providing them a good meal.  In which case I guess you could call me a success after all.

Pavord talks mostly about her experience growing lemon grass, which looks quite nice and sounds delicious, but one thing I am learning by reading this book is to plant the things that will flourish in your area--to know the soil and growing conditions.  But if all else fails . . .

"You don't need a garden to keep yourself in lemon grass.  Or winter savory.  A sunny windowsill can be the Mediterranean and the Tropics all in one."

I do like the sound of that! 

For Pavord her problem pests (a couple of them anyway) are slugs and snails.  She has no qualms about stamping on them--a quick death.  She said she used to chuck them in the water butts but being amphibious they would just crawl out and begin eating anew.  Tenacious little devils.  My problem was always these caterpillar-like insects that would start out small and green (hard to see on flower leaves) and then grow and turn purplish as they would eat my petunias (which has always been my flower of choice to plant).  I would pull them off and fling them out into the yard, and now I wonder if they just crawled back and finished their meal.  If creepy crawly things give you shivers, this brief section might be something you would want to pass on.  And the idea of picking them off your plants one by one is not especially attractive (but insecticides are obviously a bad idea on herbs you plan on cooking with).  I had a chuckle on the advice a friend gave her.

"'Oh,' said an organic friend airily, when I complained about pest attacks in the garden.  'It's easy.  You just double up on everything: one plant for the pest , one for you'.  But I don't seem to be the only gardener cursed with pests that can't count."

I know the feeling.  There seem to be an awful lot of them.

It's with the usual wit and charm that Pavord moves through her subjects.  Pigeons and beans.  The Parisian garden Bagatelle (I am envious of her travels).  The endless parade of 'must-have' tools for the garden (which it would seem are not really so necessary after all).  And one more item.  Waste products for the garden.  I might blush to go into it in any great detail, so I won't.  Pavord passes on the sort of gardening an organic gardener in Herefordshire practices.  I think I would pass, too.  Let's just say it involves recycling waste.  Erm.  The waste a family produces and I am not referring to cereal boxes that can broken down and recycled.  I'd say that's far more information than you likely needed, right? 

However is she going to improve on that one?  I hope to read August's instalment sooner than later.  Surely we must be getting kind of close to harvest time.  I am ready to think about fall gardening!

Teaser Tuesday: The Chevalier

In order to keep the momentum going, if I write about Cynthia Harrod-Eagles's The Chevalier, surely I will finish it soon.  That's what I am hoping anyway.  I've been mired in Restoration era England for several years now and have to pull myself out.  It's all Annunciata Morland's fault.  Normally I like and admire strong female characters, especially those who show lots of moxie.  Annunciata is most definitely an independent woman for the period, but she can also be cruel and completely self-absorbed and for at least two books now (she is apparently an enduring character) she has rubbed me the wrong way.  This poor book has been plagued by mis-starts and periods of being set aside--so much so that this last time I picked the book up I had to go back to the beginning and start again.

I've not spent time with the Morland family for three long years now and at the rate I am reading I might have to take these books with me to the retirement home someday.  But Annunciata has gone into exile with King James II and is far away in France with two of her sons.  She's no longer center stage.  The Morland heir, James Matthias--Matt, is just now sixteen.  It's 1700 (a new century and many changes coming) and he is getting married.  

India Neville.  I'm undecided.  If Annunciata was a challenging character to warm up to, I think India Neville hasn't a hope of being one of my favorites.  Nasty characters, though, often have a way of making for interesting reading.  And it's early days yet.  Maybe she has hidden potential I am as yet unaware of.  My first impression is that she is cold and scheming and is going to milk the Morland family for all its worth.  She is an heiress but her money has been in trust after the death of her father some six or seven years previously.  Upon her marriage she will come into her inheritance (she and her mama, that is).  The Morlands have wealth and power and Matt is a softy and will bend under India's will every time.  I can sense it already and the wedding is just taking place.  The bulk of the book is going to be her plotting and manipulations.  If Annunciata returns to Yorkshire it will be most interesting to see how the two women get on.  If they get on or if they clash spectacularly. 

So, yes, things are getting interesting and I am now hooked to keep going.  So, a few teasers about India since she is the character who is going to be creating a little drama.  (Perhaps a character you love to hate?).  My first impressions . . . based on a few descriptions:

"India Neville was fifteen, but looked older than Matt, a fine, big, well-grown girl, only too evidently physically mature.  She was handsome, straight-backed and free-moving, with high color in her cheeks and glossy black hair.  On first seeing her, Matt thought she looked like a well-fed, well-groomed black filly led out for the race."

* * *

"India had been taught to walk and dance gracefully by an exiled Huguenot who gave lessons in a room in Tanner Row; Mrs. Neville had taught her to sew, to speak a few words of French (which she practiced on the dancing master, to his distress, for her accent was impeccably Whitehall) and to play the virginals.  Otherwise, India's mind had all the unblemished bloom of ignorance of a butterfly wing."

* * *

"India smirked at her reflection in the mirror - a circle of polished silver, not a proper glass mirror as she would have expected.  She'd order plenty of those once she was mistress of this dusty old tomb of a house."

* * *

"No, there would be no excitement there.  She would do what she had to, and otherwise please herself.  He would give her no trouble.  He would be easier to handle even than dusty old Fragarde."

See what I mean?

There are now 35 books in the series, with the last one beginning in 1935.  I am not sure if there will be anymore books or how far into the 20th century Cynthia Harrod-Eagles will take the Morlands.  I have the whole run of books so there is nothing to slow me down (other than other books, of course).  I have optimistically pulled book 8, The Maiden, from my "Morland bin of books".  Every time I pick one of the books up it is with the intention of reading the next one as soon as I finish whatever is in hand at the moment.  But best laid plans and all that.  The impetus this time around is a new series by the author which I have just discovered has been released (I was expecting the book until September!) called Goodbye, Piccadilly: War at Home, 1914.  I am not sure how many books are planned, but I have my copy on order and maybe I can actually keep up with the books and read each before the next one is published.  

As for the Morlands?  I'll just keep at my stately progress.  I know there will come a time when I want to gulp the books down.  Anyway, the Restoration is nearly at an end.

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

With each new adventure that is the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I think I like the book just read the best.  Actually I love them all, but I did greatly enjoy On the Banks of Plum Creek and finished it with a contented sigh.  It's not a stretch to call these books charming, delightful, cozy reads (hence the enduring love of them by so many readers), but I think you can definitely read between the lines, too.  Living on the prairie, in the American Midwest in the late 1800s was hard work and it was at times dangerous too.  Fortunes could be made and lost literally with the change of the weather.  The books might seem like charming adventures, and they are, but reality surely lacked some of the rosy hue of the books. 

The Ingalls family began their journey in Wisconsin, in the Big Woods, then (after a digression to meet Alonzo Wilder in New York) it was off to Kansas, or Indian territory.  Before the US government could begin removing white settlers from Osage territory they decided to try their luck in Minnesota.  It is on the banks of Plum Creek that they make their new home.  Not only are they close to the river but they live a mere three miles from town.  So close!

"At last Ma drew a long breath.  'It is all so tame and peaceful,' she said.  'There will be no wolves or Indians howling tonight.  I haven't felt so safe and at rest since I don't know when'."

"Pa's slow voice answered, 'We're safe enough, all right.  Nothing can happen here'."

"The peaceful colors went all around the rim of the sky.  The willows breathed and the water talked to itself in the dusk.  The land was dark gray.  The sky was light gray and stars prickled through it."

Idyllic it sounds, doesn't it?  As for 'nothing can happen here'?  Famous last words.  But it is a happy new adventure for the family in many ways.  They trade their horses for the land and a sod house.  Now the Ingalls family will live in a dugout until Pa can build their home.  It all hinges on the crop of wheat he will grow and sell.  A good crop will bring more money than they have ever had and Pa promises not just a house but a buggy with new horses, new dresses and anything else Ma and his three girls could want.

There is much to explore and learn and adventures to have.  Laura is now seven and as impish as ever.  She is fearless at times and finds herself in scrapes more often than not.  She listens to Ma and Pa, but she stretches the rules and finds herself dangling above a rushing Plum Creek or sliding down a hay stack or battling small animals she had never before encountered.  Usually Mary is the stalwart one who cannot be swayed--either following the rules too closely or simply afraid (and perhaps afraid when it is wise to be so), but on occasion even Mary is lured into doing something she really shouldn't.

Life seems to be going along happily and much as planned and expected.  Pa builds a house using materials he bought on credit against the crop that has been growing so steadily (practically unheard of and something that he loathes doing--never wanting to be beholden to others).  And it is not just any house.  Their new home has windows and a proper door, a roof with sturdy shingles and even a shiny-black new cookstove.  Living so close to town means Mary and Laura can finally begin school and the family is able to go to Sunday mass.  It is a life of normality even if they 'live in the country'.

For Laura and Mary there had never been a thought towards any sort of distinction in the way they live.  Of course they live in the country and they live simply and without many luxuries, but this is not a hardship.  It's just the way life is and to not have shoes or to share a tin cup is not a strange thing in the least.  Now it is just a hop skip and jump away from Walnut Grove with its school, stores and church.  On their first day of school Laura and Mary realize they have short skirts (compared to the town girls) and that to learn they will need a slate and chalk.  They are the only children who have to stay at school to eat their lunch as it is too far to walk home and back.  And then there are all the other children.  It is here that Laura first meets the girl who is to become her nemesis, Nellie Oleson!

"Nellie Oleson was very pretty.  Her yellow hair hung in long curls, with two big blue ribbons on top.  Her dress was thin white lawn, with little blue flowers scattered over it, and she wore shoes."

"She looked at Laura and she looked at Mary, and she wrinkled up her nose."

"'Hm!' she said.  'Country girls!'"

First impressions.  Nellie doesn't improve much upon closer association.  But she does get her comeuppance.

This new life for the Ingalls family is threatened by a new calamity--not Indians or wolves or even the influx of other settlers, but by grasshoppers.  Like a fast moving storm on the horizon that can be seen from afar, one summer day when the wind was down and the grasses were still, they literally come down with a thud and eat their way through Pa's entire wheat crop, which had promised to bring in enough money to see them well through the winter, as well as the grass for the animals to graze on and the Ingalls's garden.  It's, of course, devastating for the family.  Once again their fortunes reverse and the family must once again rethink how (and likely where) they will live.

A children's book and not even an especially long one and I feel like I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg and shared the excitement of the story with you.  It's all in the details, and Laura Ingalls Wilder manages to paint quite a picture of life on the Prairie.  It's filled with happiness and danger and lots of adventure.  It may be cozy on the surface but it's obvious, too, just how much of a struggle it is for the family to get by.  But they are a happy family and that is what makes these books so very special. 

On the next ultra hot day, I think I might just have to share an excerpt or two of the winter the family endured in this book.  And sometime I should share the literary meals which I find kind of fascinating.  Every book introduces something that I have never heard of before--like corn dodgers (corn bread that is fried, baked or boiled like a dumpling) or vanity cakes, which sound a little like donut holes (though vanity cakes aren't sweet).  But I think I'll save those for another day.  I mostly wanted to quickly write about On the Banks of Plum Creek so I can start reading the next book, By the Shores of Silver Lake!

Short Story Sunday: A New England Nun

I sometimes think I read too many novels of suspense and thrills.  They ruin me for other stories with their tricky plot twists.  When a story is quiet and thoughtful and not much really happens I tend to stop and think that I missed something.  Surely there must be more, right?  That's what I was thinking this weekend when I read Mary Wilkins Freeman's "A New England Nun".  (I decided to stick with Fifty Great American Short Stories after all and am so glad I did).

Freeman straddles two centuries--she was born in Massachusetts in the mid-1800s and died in 1930.  Maybe because her story comes just before one by Sarah Orne Jewett in the collection I think of Freeman (who I am not at all familiar with) as a regionalist.  Is it just me or are so many 19th century American women writers considered regionalists?  (Even Willa Cather!).  Not that there is anything wrong with that in my book, but it seems to sort of pigeon-hole them and send them to a lower echelon of the literary sphere.  But I am digressing here. 

"A New England Nun" is indeed a quiet, thoughtful story where not much happens, and it left me wondering initially, but the more I think about it the more I like it.  It is very spot on when it comes to showing what life is like, which is mostly quiet and thoughtful and in actuality that is a much better thing than the twists and turns crime novels take a reader on.  I think I much prefer normal regular routine (most of the time anyway) to pure, adrenalin-drenched drama.  At least in real life.  And maybe I like the story so much because my own life is not such a stretch from that which Louisa Ellis lives in the story.

Louisa Ellis's life is very routine, maybe even a little staid.  She has her home just as she likes it--each thing in its place and a place for everything. 

"Louisa was slow and still in her movements; it took her a long time to prepare her tea; but when ready it was set forth with as much grace as if she had been a veritable guest to her own self.  The little square table stood exactly in the center of the kitchen, and was covered with a starched linen cloth whose border pattern of flowers glistened.  Louisa had a damask napkin on her tea-tray, where were arranged a cut-glass tumbler full of teaspoons, a silver cream-pitcher, a china sugar-bowl, and one pink china cup and saucer.  She used china every day--something which none of her neighbors did."

Everything she does seems measured and thoughtful.  Some might even say a little boring verging a little on the eccentric.  She has an old dog that she keeps tied to her house and one day she hears a voice calling out to him.  It's a voice from someone who was near and dear to her and who she has not seen in many, many years.  Fifteen to be exact.  Joe Dagget arrives and the two share pleasantries about his mother and the things that have kept him busy on his farm.

He seems a nice enough man, though he fills the space of her cottage and fingers her things and shifts them about unconsciously in ways that bother her just a little.  She straightens the books he touches and remarks to herself on the dust he has tracked inside the house which she will now need to clean up.  It's been a long time since they have seen each other and the two seem a little restrained, so it is surprising to learn that the pair are engaged.  As it turns out Joe set off for Australia to earn his fortune just after the two were betrothed.  He hoped it would not be for long, but in order to marry and live a comfortable and respectable life, he needed to earn money and save it--however long it took.  Joe worked and Louisa waited.

And she waited. And she became comfortable in her life and the way she kept her home and prepared her meals and the china on which she ate.  Joe is an honest, hardworking man who when he sets out to complete a task does it well, no matter how long it takes and is serious about his responsibilities.  So when one night she is out walking Louisa overhears him talking to another woman from the village with whom has has obvious fallen in love with and that emotion is obviously reciprocated, it does not pain her to let him go.  As a matter of fact she is surely secretly happy that they have both been released from their earlier commitment.  It's a relief for them both.

On the surface it seems a little sad and melancholic, doesn't it?  But I find it very poignant and even pleasing.  Is it a narrow life she leads?  Maybe, but maybe not considering the times (the story was published in 1891), and the fact that Louisa was living an independent life.  But it is a happy one, and likely far happier knowing her limitations and desires and how it is meaningless to be with someone you don't love in order to just not be alone.  I think the story says a lot about happiness and contentment and that solitariness and being alone is sometimes better than being with someone else just because it is expected of you.

I liked the story a lot.  So much more to think about despite nothing much happening.  Next week is Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Courting of Sister Wisby" which sounds interesting and perhaps a good story to compare with the Freeman. 

* * * * *

I'm a bit behind in my New Yorker short story reading but I hope to catch up this week.  I did manage to read Allegra Goodman's "Apple Cake" this weekend from the July 7/14 issue earlier this month (so only two issues behind now).  Feel free to read along if you like.  I love the Q&A with Goodman for the light it sheds on the story, and the subtle bit of humor I got out of it.  I have long wanted to read Goodman (I seem to have collected several of her novels . . .), so this was a nice quick taste (and no pun intended considering the title of the story) of her writing. 

This is another really excellent story which perfectly describes the death of a youngest (at 74) sister who so obviously isn't ready to die yet has lung cancer and is spending her last days at home in hospice care.  Her family is gathered around her and they are like any normal family you might imagine--meaning despite all best intentions of all parties involved there is still conflict.  Death is so inconvenient--both for the dying and especially for those waiting for death (well, the reverse actually especially for the dying).  If you are lucky you get to say goodbye.  In the case of Jeanne, who is on her deathbed, she gets to say goodbye numerous times as she tenaciously hangs on while everyone else thinks 'this is it' she's ready to go, and then she lives another day and another.  It's a well done story, serious yet with a light touch.  Must read more of her soon.

Shadow Sister by Simone van der Vlugt

This week's 'Dutch reading' has taken me to the port city (and second largest in The Netherlands) of Rotterdam.  Shadow Sister by Simone van der Vlugt (Schaduwzuster in Dutch, translated by Michele Hutchison) is a wonderfully suspenseful tale of psychological intrigue that has you guessing until the very end.  I wasn't necessarily surprised by the resolution but I hadn't really expected it either.  I love stories of doppelgangers and while the two women telling this story are identical twin sisters, so not exactly the same thing, you'll get an idea by the title of the book that something is amiss between the two who share the same face.  Secrets and lies.  Those are always two good ingredients in a suspenseful story, along with lots of red herrings, to keep a reader turning the pages and this one has lots of all three.

Whenever an author chooses to let the main character, or in this case characters, tell the story in first person I am always immediately on guard.  Can they be believed or even trusted?  There is an intimacy established right from the start, but . . .  You are inside the mind of someone you want to like and be sympathetic towards (I always do, at least initially), but somewhere along the way you do wonder if what they are telling you is only in their imagination or an accurate portrayal of events.

Lydia and Elisa may share the same physical features but really they couldn't be more different.  Lydia is the elder by fifteen minutes and as an 'older' sister she is one to take charge and perhaps dominates (though she hastens to say she has always 'taken care' of her sister) Elisa.  She is tenderhearted, however, can't say no to anyone and wants nothing more than to help others.  Happily married with one daughter, her husband Raoul would like her to give up her job and help out in his software company.  Lydia is a dedicated teacher and she cares about her students, but they are a challenging group.  The college she teaches at has a large number of immigrant students with the sort of problems you would expect them to have living in (or perhaps better to say between) two cultures. 

"I'm often asked what it's like being a twin.  It's a curious question.  It's not that I'm unaware of how unusual it is to have an identical twin, but other people's reactions always remind me of how disarming our likeness is.  I do see the physical resemblance, of course, but we are so different in nearly everything else.  For example, Elisa is sportier than me.  I rarely wear trousers, and she rarely wears a skirt.  I'm extroverted, energetic and spontaneous; Elisa is relaxed and self-contained.  I like shopping and going out, she'd rather go for a long walk in the countryside, and I could go on . . . "

Elisa, on the other hand, is artistic and more of a romantic.  She has her own photography business and lives alone.  Her closest friends don't quite pass muster with Lydia, but as they have helped her through some darker times Elisa wouldn't think of giving them up.  Whatever their differences, though, Lydia and Elisa share a close bond as all twins likely have.  They share that sixth sense about each other even.

The story is narrated in alternating sections with each woman telling bits to create a complete picture of events.  There is a pivotal moment in the book early on, so the narration is both before and after the event (one sister in the 'now' of the story and the other in the 'after' giving both sides of what has happened).  It's something of a shocker to be honest but the story suffers not one jot for having such an early climactic moment--it only adds to the tension knowing what is coming but not knowing why exactly.  At the very beginning of the story, the very first paragraph, something happens which is the  impetus for the psychological drama that follows.

"All of a sudden he's got a knife.  The flash as he draws it is so unexpected fear paralyses me.  I try to speak, but the sound dies in my throat.  I can only stare at the blade glinting in the light streaming through the classroom."

It's a clash of cultures.  Lydia wears a skirt that any other Dutch woman would consider modest despite its shorter length but which one of her students finds offensive.  A young man who is Muslim and is used to his sisters and classmates in headscarves with covered arms and legs.  When he lashes out, Lydia knows her response is wrong which puts him on the defensive and now must worry about an angry youth ready to take his problems and frustrations out on her. 

Simone van der Vlugt is called "Holland's Queen of Crime'' according to a quote on the cover and she does indeed tell a good story.  She comes at it from two very different angles and very slowly reveals the truth while at the same time sharing each woman's perception of each other and their friends and family.  And like so many good contemporary crime novels these days manages to shed a little light on social issues of the culture. 

Several years ago I read van der Vlugt's The Reunion and really liked it, too.  Now I have her newest, Safe as Houses, which I am sorely tempted to begin reading.  I told myself I was going to finish The Apothecary's House first before picking up any other book, but I couldn't avoid the lure of a new book from my Dutch Lit pile, and I have wanted to get back to Grijpstra and de Gier ever since meeting them in a collection of short stories, so Outsider in Amsterdam it is.  Perhaps next week I will devote all (or nearly all)  my reading time to my Dutch books.  I have also wanted to begin reading Hella Haasse's The Tea Lords (have had it at the ready only have wanted to not begin reading until I knew I had a chunk of time to devote to it to get into the story properly).  I'm pleased with my reading project so far--I've read four books so far (all translated from Dutch) which includes a chunky classic (will be writing about Eline Vere next week).

By the way, the photo at the top of the post is from the Wikipedia and was taken from the Euromast, which featured in the story.  Lots more to share next week!

Looking Forward to Fall (& New Books)

Just when are the dog days of summer, anyway?  If they are the 'sultry' hot days then I'd say they have arrived, wouldn't you?  Actually I looked it up and they are roughly speaking from July 24-August 24 (depending on who you ask anyway), so I'm close.  Sultry is such a pleasing sounding word, I think.  It brings to mind passion and exoticism (though in reality it means feeling all sweaty and having your clothes stick to your body uncomfortably and feeling like you can't breathe thanks to the oppressive humidity).

Since it is so . . . sultry out, I'm thinking hopefully of fall.  And as I am trying not to think too hard, I think a new books list is in order.  Along with cooler weather (or at least cooler nights) there are new books to look forward to.  I think the fall season with the run up to the holidays is the busiest publishing time and I know I have actively been adding to my own wishlist.  So, here are ten books that I am looking forward to reading.

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters -- Okay, I won't count this one since everyone already knows Sarah has a new book coming out (September 16 here in the US to be exact).  I have already pre-ordered it so I can get it the same day as it is published and have opted for the US version as I like the cover design just a tad bit more than the UK edition (though it is tempting to get the book a little sooner than later--not that I won't have plenty to read in the interim).

Okay.  There are other books I am looking forward to, too.  Here are ten more:

The Secret Place by Tana French -- Tana is one of the (was going to say few, but the list is probably a little longer than a 'few') authors I will buy her books unseen and as soon as they come out.  And yay, she has a new one due out September 2 (I can squeeze it in just before Sarah's book arrives . . .). 

Apples of Uncommon Character: Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little-Known Wonders by Rowan Jacobsen -- Apples are my favorite fruit.  I look forward to fall and apple season all year long.  My top favorite are Macintosh apples but Pink Ladies come in a close second.  The tarter the better, I say.  I used to love Honeycrisp, but ever since they became available year round they lost their delicious flavor (no doubt thanks to the desire to sell them all the time and make money off them, they have been genetically tampered with and have lost their uniqueness--am only guessing, but I do wonder . . .).

Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis -- I have had a secret desire to read books set in the 70s (Sadie Jones's Fallout fitting the bill nicely), and then I came across Rainey . . . "Greenwich Village, 1970s. Fourteen-year-old Rainey Royal lives with her father, a jazz musician with a cultish personality, in a once-elegant, now decaying brownstone. Her mother has abandoned the family, and Rainey fends off advances from her father's best friend while trying desperately to nurture her own creative drives and build a substitute family. She's a rebel, even a criminal, but she's also deeply vulnerable, fighting to figure out how to put back in place the boundaries her life has knocked down, and more than that, struggling to learn how to be an artist and a person in a broken world."

The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher -- I have been collecting novels using alternative histories as their focus and now I have a new one to add to the list.  "A crackling, highly imaginative thriller debut in the vein of W.E.B. Griffin and Philip Kerr, set in German-occupied London at the close of World War II, in which a hardened British detective jeopardizes his own life to save an innocent soul and achieve the impossible—redemption."

The Witch and Other Tales Re-Told by Jean Thompson -- I think this would be a perfect RIP (which is just around the corner!) read.  "Great fairy tales are not necessarily stories designed for children. The lurking wolf in “Red Riding Hood,” the gingerbread house that lures Hansel and Gretel, the beauty asleep in her castle—these fables represent some of our deepest, most primeval fears, and satisfy our longing for good to win out over evil (preferably in the most gruesome way possible). In this captivating new collection, critically acclaimed author Jean Thompson takes the classic fairy tale and brings it into the modern age with stories that capture the magic and horror in everyday life."

Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates -- Another one to explore for RIP.  "From the legendary literary master, winner of the National Book Award and New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, a collection of ten mesmerizing stories that maps the eerie darkness within us all."  JCO does "unsettling" so well (maybe just a little too well . . .).

Goodbye Piccadilly: War at Home, 1914 by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles -- "Set against the real events of 1914, the first book in an exciting new series from Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is extraordinary in scope and imagination."  The last thing I need is a new series to follow (though this time I would be getting in on the ground floor, so to speak), but I will certainly be looking for this in September.

Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland -- "From Susan Vreeland, bestselling author of such acclaimed novels as Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Luncheon of the Boating Party, and Clara and Mr. Tiffany, comes a richly imagined story of a woman’s awakening in the south of Vichy France—to the power of art, to the beauty of provincial life, and to love in the midst of war."  I used to read all of Susan Vreeland's books when they first came out, but I have fallen behind (lack of time rather than interest).  I plan on looking for this one when it comes out next month.

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett -- "harlie Lovett first delighted readers with his New York Times bestselling debut, The Bookman’s Tale. Now, Lovett weaves another brilliantly imagined mystery, this time featuring one of English literature’s most popular and beloved authors: Jane Austen."

Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut -- "Damon Galgut's third novel, a fictionalized biography of English author E.M. Forster, focuses on Forster's many years in India and the process of writing his masterpiece, A Passage to India."

Plenty of books to keep busy with!

Cool Books for a Hot Summer Day

Books have a wonderful way of taking a person's mind off troubles and annoyances.  The weather is my current annoyance and as my computer room is pretty stuffy tonight, you can help me write this post.  I think it is time to 'think cool'.  A snowy, wintry setting is definitely in order about now.  On the coldest days of the year something steamy hot is order, so on the hottest days the equation is flipped--hot day=cold setting. 

I'll start.  In the current mess that is my room and the ongoing book shuffle that is occurring, I came across Gil Adamson's The Outlander.  Isn't that cover illustration refreshing to look at?  All that cold, wet snow.  Think boots and mittens and just think how the woman would appreciate those hand warmers that you open, shake and then slip into your gloves when the mercury drops? 

"In 1903 Mary Boulton flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, she has just become a widow–and her husband's killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother's death. Responding to little more than the primitive instinct for survival at any cost, she retreats ever deeper into the wilderness–and into the wilds of her own mind."

Not only is the setting frigid but the pacing of the story sounds heart stopping.  The chase is on and I imagine once you've dropped squarely into the story and get involved in the action you can't stop.  Hot weather be d***ed.  Maybe I'll start reading tonight.  It will take my mind off the heat.

Now it's your turn.  What is your favorite 'cold' book?  The colder the better. 

DIY . . . In Progress

Last week I mentioned that I was going to do a little low-key renovations in my bedroom?  Well, they are underway even as I type.  It's too bad I didn't decide to do this a week sooner when the weather was so moderate and comfortable and not on the (so far) hottest day of the year (close to 100F and with humidity--feels like over 110F--though I'd say it feels like 425F, which is the temperature I roast my vegetables at--it is so oppressive here it feels like I am roasting in an oven, too).

So I offer you a couple of teasers today and will share the 'after' photos at the end of the week.  It's not fun shifting furniture and books around on a good day, but on a sticky one it has completely worn me out. 

One of the improvements I am making is to try and organize my books a little better.  To this end I have bought a new bookcase and the plan is to fill it with my collection of Viragos and anything else that might fill the space nicely.  My, how did I accumulate so many? 

Hello, books.  I've missed you--they've been sitting in piles on top of a bookcase in my tiny 'book room'--two piles deep.  It is always hard to get to them and I only shift them about when I am looking for something specific, so I have forgotten just what treasures I have. 

This is what will be keeping me busy for the next few days while I clean, declutter, shift and reorganize.  There will be some new furniture and eventually some refurbishing of a few pieces of old furniture.  Check back in a couple of days and I will (hopefully) be sharing the improvements.

While I'm away there are a couple of links for you to check out that I came across that look interesting:

A nonfiction tour of the United States--I'm not surprised by the Nebraska choice.

Is it too soon for a 'best books' list?  I guess the qualifier is the 'so far': Best New Books from Around the World.

I've finished a couple of books that I am looking forward to sharing with you and I am in the middle of my Sunday short story (still).  With the heat, I guess it is a good idea to take things easy.

I'll be back later in the week.  Until then, stay cool and happy reading.

A Silent Room Inside by CathvdL

I have more than one friend who has read and admired Etty Hillesum.  She is someone they have read and found their own lives, perhaps almost imperceptibly, altered by the life she lived which was cut far too short.  I know from our conversations Cath has spent a lot of time reading and reflecting on Etty's words.  She has chosen Etty Hillesum as the topic of her post today.

* * * * *

Sunday, 9th March [1941]

Here goes, then. This is a painful and well-nigh insuperable step for me: yielding up so much that has been suppressed to a blank sheet of lined paper. The thoughts in my head are sometimes so clear and so sharp and my feelings so deep, but writing about them comes hard.

From: Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life The Diaries 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork

When in 1941 Julius Spier (1887-1942), a Jewish psycho-analytic chirologist from Germany who studied with C.G. Jung, starts reading hands in Etty Hillesum’s circle of friends in Amsterdam she calls him her midwife. It is Spier who tells Etty keeping a diary and meditation are essential tools in the process of ‘becoming who you are’.

Reluctant at first, Etty soon finds the writing quiets her restless mind and meditation helps her to find a ‘silent room’ inside herself where she can retreat to whenever the turmoil of the world is too much. While German oppression of Jewish people in The Netherlands makes her outer world smaller her inner world unfolds to beauty and freedom.

She has been given very little time to become the writer she longs to be. Born in 1914 she is 27 when starting her diary. In 1942, on September 15^th, Julius Spier the man who has meant so much to her, passes away, the following day he would have been taken by the Gestapo. Etty is grateful he died of an illness instead of being deported and knows she will continue her inner journey on her own. But when her parents and brother Mischa on the 7^th of September 1943 are summoned to pack up and leave Westerbork - a transit camp in the east of the country near the German border - Etty decides to go with them. She throws a last card from the train. ‘Will you wait for me?’, she asks. Etty Hillesum is 29 years old when on November 30^th 1943 she is killed in Auschwitz.  

Life calls us to find our answers to oftentimes hard questions in our own particular way. Etty reveals her inner development to us through writing and I am lost for words when I witness the depth she reaches in such a short time. Writing about the futility of hate, or how changing the world comes by working at changing oneself, about solidarity with her people and how to live that solidarity. Over the years and being introspective myself she has become a guide. Someone I meet on a regular basis. We meet and sometimes clash. As we undoubtedly will when from the 9^th of August onward I will combine rereading her letters with reflective writing. Not one letter after another but one by one in a little over two years and according to her writing dates; from the first one to that final message found in a field near a train track.

By CathvdL, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, July 18, 2014

* * * * *

Many thanks to Cath for once again introducing me (and perhaps a few of you, too) to a Dutch writer/diarist whose work is both tragic and inspirational.  She is someone I have long wanted to read but have a feeling I must have a little courage to pick up her diaries.

The illustration is by Quint Buchholz called 'Die Bücherwaage' (the 'Book Scale').

Women Travel: The Netherlands, Part 1

If I consider myself an 'armchair gardener' I am even more so an 'armchair traveler'.  Novels in general are a great way to see the world, meet people, visit places (and even time periods) I never would otherwise.  I love travel narratives, however, for a more traditional type of imaginary travel.  I have about two bookshelves full of books that are either collections of travel narratives or travelogues written by an individual traveler.  I have mentioned a series called "Women Travel" before, and I turned to them when I was looking for some travel narratives about The Netherlands.  There are four books in the series, and while not all of them (which I find somewhat perplexing considering the number of countries they include in each book) have chapters on The Netherlands a few of them do.  Let me start with the first book.

Half the Earth: Women's Experiences of Travel Worldwide edited by Miranda Davies, Laura Longrigg, Lucinda Montefiore with Natania Jansz came out in 1986.  It is a Lonely Planet Rough Guide and if you are familiar with Lonely Planet you'll know the guides tend to be honest, down to earth, budget-oriented and eco-friendly books offering straightforward and practical advice.  This first 'Women Travel' book is very feminist-oriented.  It offers lots of practical advice for (often solo) women travelers as well as extensive resources for each country including feminist bookstores, women's bars and specific problems women must deal with in each locale.  Over time they have morphed into something more, something slightly different--perhaps less pure advice and more creative narratives and interesting and unusual experiences by ordinary women.  I love these books.  I own the whole run of them (which means four) and wish they would come out with a new edition.

Although they, certainly this first one, are meant to be actual guides, I like them simply for reading about various countries and learning about not only the places but the women sharing their experiences.  The latter books feel more like collections of narratives/essays than guide books, but either way they are excellent reads and resources.

Interestingly, and keep in mind the 1984 copyright, The Netherlands is grouped in the chapter on Northern Europe but it's listed as Holland.  From my reading I know that Holland is actually one of the regions of the country but (formerly more so?) is also used in referring to the country as a whole. 

"There are really two Hollands: Amsterdam and the rest.  As the centre of West European counter-culture, Amsterdam attracts thousands of visitors each year; it has also become a major stopping-off point for independent travellers.  The numerous clubs and bars, and the relaxed attitudes to just about everything, have made the city a breeding ground of alternative music and theatre."

The chapter introduction goes on to say that the provinces, however, are far more conservative.  Dutch women often travel alone.  There is a high standard of living there, the downside being that things tends to the expensive side. 

Each country chapter includes a few anecdotal writings--average women traveling within each country sharing their experiences.  There are two in the Holland section.  The first is written by a woman who lived and worked in Holland for a decade and continues to travel there often going it alone.  By the way, I think the editors and majority of the writers included are British, so there is perhaps a more European slant to things.  The writer notes that it is common for women to travel alone in the country and even go into bars alone, though she still found that the assumption was that her date 'hadn't turned up'.

"That could, however, have been more on account of my age (early thirties) than my sex in a country where unattached women over 25 seem to be considered somewhat freakish.  (Whether an attachment was in the form of marriage or living together, with a woman or a man, seemed to be of less importance than the fact that an attachment of some kind did exist.)  Solo visits to the cinema or to a concert also provoked plenty of stares and the odd unwelcome overture--again perhaps because such places tend to be so youth-oriented.  Daylight lounging in pavement cafes, however, seemed to be acceptable virtually anywhere."

In her experience (keeping in mind she would have been living there in the early 1980s) she found Dutch society, at least outside the capital extremely family-oriented.

The second narrative was written after two weeks spent traveling around Holland visiting a friend, mostly by bicycle.

"Cycling in Holland is not as easy as you would think.  The terrain is completely flat and the whole country has a network of cycle paths, but the crosswinds are very strong which can make pedalling hard work.  (It's also the reason there are so many windmills in Holland.)"

* * *

"One of the nicest towns I visited was Leiden, an old university town full of tiny cobbled streets, canals, houseboats, bikes, students, bookshops, cafes and a wonderful market."

* * *

"I found the Dutch extremely friendly, and everyone I came across could speak at least some English.  I wasn't given a chance to practise any of the Dutch I had picked up."

* * *

"There are lots of clubs, cafes and restaurants, and I often went to pubs, which are not at all like English ones.  They serve coffee and tea as well as alcoholic drinks and are open till about 2 am.  People generally go to sit and talk, play cards and other games, and it is quite usual to see small groups of women.  The beer is different too--the first time I saw a barman pour out  several beers which were almost half froth I was surprised not to hear any complaints, until  my Dutch friends explained that there would have been trouble if it hadn't been like that."

I love these little cultural details (though you probably figured that out already from my Dutch Lit posts!).

One of the nicest features of these books is the information included for each country including a short bibliography (again very feminist oriented).  Two books to add to my list (though they seem much more academic than pleasure reads):

A Creative Tension: Exploration in Socialist Feminism edited by Anja Meulenbelt

The Shame is Over by Anja Meulenbelt ("Introspective account of becoming a feminist").

I'm going to be pulling out the other 'Women Travel' books and seeing if they have more essays/narratives on traveling in The Netherlands.  Of course I'll be sharing what I find here.

Make sure you stop by tomorrow/this weekend as Cath has kindly agreed to come back and write another post for us.  I've had a peek and you won't want to miss it!