A Work in Progress

Looking Forward to Reading: Mystery Ed.

I'm going to binge on mysteries this summer, and while I have plenty to choose from on my own bookshelves, I can never resist the temptation of the new.  I've actually splurged on a couple of new books (new to me anyway), which I will share next time around.  The thing with so many mysteries is that authors like to revisit their characters over and over through a series of books.  This is both good and bad--good because if you like the characters you can look forward to a steady supply of stories, but bad as I like to read from the beginning of a series.  What happens if you discover a 'new' (new-to-me) series that is a long running storyline.  I feel like I will never catch up.

So here is a handful of new books I have added to my wishlist.  Some are debut novels, some new additions to an already established series and a few standalones--both mysteries and stories of suspense or thrillers.  It's such a wide genre, and there is so much to explore!

The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon -- "The latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Jennifer McMahon is an atmospheric, gripping, and suspenseful tale that probes the bond between sisters and the peril of keeping secrets."  If this as as good as The Winter People, which I read last year, I am in for a treat.

A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George -- The newest Inspector Lynley novel.  I have read almost all of them and hope to catch up this summer in preparation for this new one out in the fall.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn -- I love the Lady Julia Grey mysteries.  They are light and entertaining and all around great fun.  I have a few in reserve still and might have to pull one out soon as they always have more than a dash of romance in them.  It looks like she is branching out a bit more with yet a new character.  "In her thrilling new series, the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey mysteries, returns once more to Victorian England…and introduces intrepid adventuress Veronica Speedwell."

Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton -- I've read most of Bolton's standalones and several of her Lacey Flint novels.  I am happy to see another novel of suspense by her.  If you have not read her yet, she does creepy really, really well!  "In such a small community as the Falkland Islands, a missing child is unheard of. In such a dangerous landscape it can only be a terrible tragedy, surely..."

Camille: The Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy by Pierre LeMaitre -- "In his acclaimed, award-winning novels Alex and Irène, Pierre Lemaitre created an unforgettable character in Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven. Now, in Camille, the final volume in Lemaitre's internationally bestselling trilogy of "meta-meta detective" novels (The New York Times), Verhoeven faces his most harrowing case yet, and the ultimate reckoning for the diminutive yet tenacious protagonist."  Alex was a harrowing read and I have Irene on my pile. 

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart -- "Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared." 

Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves -- "Moving from Boston to remote Bearkill, Maine, isn’t homicide cop Lizzie Snow’s idea of a step up. But breaking away from tragedy and personal betrayal is at least a step in the right direction. Her dead sister’s fate still torments her, as does her long-missing niece’s disappearance. Lizzie hopes to find the mysteriously vanished child here, amid the coming ice and snow. But in the Great North Woods, something darker and more dangerous than punishing winter is also bound for Bearkill."

A June of Ordinary Murders by Conor Brady -- "A thrilling, beautifully written mystery debut that brings Victorian Dublin vividly, passionately to life, drawing readers on a gripping journey of murder and intrigue."

Betty Boo by Claudia Pineiro -- "When a renowned Buenos Aires industrialist is found dead at his home in an exclusive gated community called La Maravillosa, the novelist Nurit Iscar (once nicknamed Betty Boo owing to a resemblance to the cartoon character Betty Boop) is contracted by a former lover, the editor of a national newspaper, to cover the story. Nurit teams up with the paper's veteran, but now demoted, crime reporter. Soon they realize that they are falling in love, which complicates matters deliciously."  I loved her Thursday Night Widows.

Deadly Election: A Flavia Albia Mystery by Lindsey Davis -- "In the blazing July heat of imperial Rome, Flavia Albia inspects a decomposing corpse. It has been discovered in lots to be auctioned by her family business, so she's determined to identify the dead man and learn how he met his gruesome end. The investigation will give her a chance to work with the magistrate, Manlius Faustus, the friend she sadly knows to be the last chaste man in Rome. But he's got other concerns than her anonymous corpse. It's election time and with democracy for sale at Domitian's court, tension has come to a head."  I like historical mysteries but I have never read something set quite this far back in time.  I think I am going to look for the first book in the series (this is the third).

Asylum: A Mystery by Jeannette de Beauvoir -- "Martine LeDuc, the publicity director for the city of Montreal and a wonderfully likable narrator, partners with offbeat police detective Julian Fletcher in this absorbing mystery. De Beauvoir does a fine job of evoking the ambiance of Montreal, with its fascinating neighborhoods, bilingualism, and political tensions.--Publishers Weekly."

In Bitter Chill by Sara Ward -- "The deepest secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves in this richly atmospheric, compellingly written, and expertly constructed crime debut from an emerging talent."

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan -- "In her spellbinding debut, Ausma Zehanat Khan has written a complex and provocative story of loss, redemption, and the cost of justice that will linger with readers long after turning the final page."

You should see the pile of mysteries I am amassing as potential reads!  (And you shall . . .).  I have a very few new books but mostly they are books I have been accumulating over the years and have been wanting to read.  I have far more than I know I will get to this summer, but it's fun browsing and choosing and setting aside, and most of all fun planning.  More summer mystery reading plans this weekend.  (I'm actually still considering how I want to tackle this . . .).

Do you have a special mystery series you follow or a subgenre within mysteries in general that you like to read?

Middle of the Week Mishmash

Just a little randomness today. 

I had my last class today, and while I am still finishing a couple of books that we discussed, I feel a little freer now that I know I don't have a reading list to attend to.  I still have a reading list of sorts, but it is a mental one and with no deadlines.  I am going to miss going to class every Wednesday, but I have a stack of class-inspired books (mostly by Israeli authors, but not exclusively) to keep me going for a while that I will have to share here soon.

I have all sorts of summer reading ideas in mind and a few projects, which I will get sorted out in the next few days.  A couple of months ago I was planning on picking a new classic to read and had a stack of potential books I was all ready to choose from and begin reading, but in the end I decided I had too much going on and would wait until my reading life was a little more settled.  Hopefully the dust will be settling now and I can think of picking one up again.  At the moment I am leaning towards a shorter novel or novella and maybe a reread by a favorite author.  Kate Chopin?  Willa Cather?  Maybe E.M. Forster?  I am definitely ready for some classic literature again.

Although my reading is all over the place (and April has been an abysmal reading month with a mere three books finished . . . unless I can squeeze in one last finish today), I am going to focus on catching up and clearing out.  And reining in my crazy reading pattern a bit more.  Starting And finishing and not just starting.

Do you ever get those Great Courses catalogs?  It is unlikely I will be taking another literature class this year (as there are no lit classes that appeal to me greatly this coming fall), so I was thinking I might do a self-guided sort of class.  I could do a Masterpieces of Short Fiction and read along with the lectures--the story first and then the lecture.  How about Medieval Heroines in History and Legend?  I like the sound of The Secret Life of Words and there is even a new course on King Arthur.  I always look and consider but I have never made a commitment to try.  I'm a little hesitant to buy one as what if you end up not liking the presentation of the course lecturer?  Or their voice or their teaching style?  I would only pick a streaming audio file so I could listen while stitching or on my daily walks.  I might give one that is on sale a try.

I had a few Audible credits I had to use up--I have canceled my subscription for the time being as I was getting credits faster than I could use them.  I need to try and listen to my audio books more regularly now that the weather has been so cooperative.  (Has your weather been as nice as mine?).  One of the books  picked is Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk.  Wow--for once I chose wisely!  The author reads her own work and not only is it well written, but it is so interesting (could reading about hawks be very engrossing I wondered?--apparently so), and she is a perfect reader.  It is completely engaging to listen to and now I am thinking I might have to own the book--read it when I finish listening.  If you have any interest in it--nudge nudge--it is worth getting it in hardcover even!

Does anyone know when the CWA Daggers longlists will be announced?  I see that they are now sharing lists of the book entries.  The Edgar winners were announced tonight, so I will be seeing if there are any potential reads amongst the winners or nominees.  I do have at least one on my reading pile at the moment.  Stephen King won Best Novel for his book Mr. Mercedes.  I wouldn't mind trying to track down the short story nominees.  The Agatha Awards will be announced this weekend at the Malice Domestic convention.  They apparently must not share their nominees, so it will be a surprise to see who wins.

One more note of temptation.  Did you see that the new Persephone Books titles were just released?  I'm especially interested in London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes, who is a favorite author.  I will definitely be adding it to my collection of Persephones.  

Is it just me or does it feel like it should be Friday?  Wishful thinking.  I am ready to spend quiet time with my books, can you tell?

A Little (more) Summer Murder & Mayhem

Obviously some habits are hard to break.  Not quite a year ago, this is what I was reading.  Doesn't this pile look familiar?  If not the same books, then the same genre!  Since this is what I like, why feel bad about it, right?  Better to embrace it and enjoy it and why not even make it an annual event (reading between the lines--unapologetically cannot control myself so rather than let it seem like a bad thing, turn it into something admirable).

This is just a teaser photo.  Plans and details and proper (mystery) book chat to follow in the next day or two.  Now off to finish my reading and preparation for my last class tomorrow.

By the way, I know it's not yet quite May, but the end of the semester and summer vacation is drawing steadily nearer and I've been thinking of where my reading will take me.  Mysteries will be one of my focuses as you can see, but I have a few other ideas in mind as well.  I'm in need of a little direction in my reading and bookish planning is always a happy thing.

Flavor of the Week: Books & Coffee

My daily walk to and from the bus stop became more interesting in the last week or so.  An old building that I pass every day has been in the process of being renovated for some time now.  While the upper stories are going to become condominiums and are still in the process of being refurbished, look what has opened in one of the bays below . . .   I knew the intention was to rent them out as commercial space but I had no idea that one had actually been filled.

Well Grounded Coffee opened a week ago and I think I have found a new favorite place to have a coffee and find a little peace and quiet to read and relax.

The coffee flavor of the week is Persephone Blend and it's yummy.  I can actually taste the floral tones (I've always thought my taste buds just weren't refined enough to pick up these things, but I think it is less me than the coffee I've been drinking or the way that it's brewed).  I just needed a few gingersnaps to bring out the taste.   How fitting that I am reading a book while drinking a coffee inspired by the myth of Persephone!  Even had it not sounded tempting I might have had to try it for the name alone.  A literary Sunday afternoon all the way round.

Book flavor of the week?  I shouldn't, but I did.  I picked up the first Kathy and Brock Mystery by Barry Maitland called The Marx Sisters.  I have one class left to go and I feel a massive mystery/crime binge coming on when I am done.  Although if my side bar is anything to go by I have already started binging and can just come out into the open now.  More about the other books tomorrow.

Aside from the fact that I have had the book on my shelves for years and years, the setting is a "quaint section of London inhabited by Eastern European immigrants" called Jerusalem Lane.  The book, the setting, the story has all sorts of appeal for me.  Doesn't this sound interesting?

"The area which we know as Jerusalem Lane is really the whole of this city block, which is divided into two irregular halves by the line of the Lane itself, apparently all that remains of the rural track which once ran from somewhere around what is now King's Cross down to Holborn.  Do you know that the peculiar kink in the middle of the lane is probably a corner where four fields met and the track had to change direction round them?  I think that's rather wonderful, isn't it, that we still have to walk along the boundaries of odd-shaped fields that disappeared hundreds of years ago."

Actually I think that's really pretty cool myself.

Well Grounded brews Intelligentsia Coffee, which is located in Chicago and is a direct trade coffee company.  And part of Well Grounded profits go to building wells around the world so people have access to clean drinking water.  So it's not only delicious (I've sampled a few things so far . . .), but I feel good supporting not only a neighborhood business, but one that is trying to make the world a better place.  How can I resist?

Look--a sunny space.  Doesn't it look really inviting?  I live in one of the older sections of Omaha and there are still lots of "quaint" old buildings (okay, so nothing like London, but) with lots of personality.  Finally a place I can enjoy just a few minutes walk from my house.  If you're ever in Omaha, let me know and I'll buy you a cup of coffee (or a cup of tea) and we'll chat about books.

Short Story Sunday: Distance

I've wanted to read Grace Paley for a while now and finally this weekend I had my chance, since her story "Distance" had its turn in Infinite Riches.  I find Paley fascinating, but I have to say I had a hard time with the story and thought it was a little perplexing.  I think that was more my fault than hers, but even a skimming of the story after the fact has left me a little bit adrift, and I'm not sure why really.

I believe Grace Paley only ever wrote short stories and poetry.  She grew up speaking not only English but also Yiddish and Russian.  She was a Pacifist and political activist and I think her experiences and beliefs inspired her writing.  In reading a little more about her, it seems she is known for fragmented and incomplete plots, shifting narrators and other stylistic devices used in Postmodern fiction.  Perhaps that explains my struggle with this story.

"Distance" appeared in a short story collection in 1975.  At one point the narrator, Dolly Raferty, muses:

"Now, some serious questions, so far unasked:"

"What the devil is it all about, the noisiness and the speediness, when it's no distance at all?"

Indeed.  I ask myself that as well.  I don't know how to interpret "distance"--life led so far?  But Dolly is questioning her life.  The setting surely must be New York City.  Dolly is married to Jack and they have a son named John.  Dolly seems pretty confident and outspoken and appears to know her own mind, or at least is willing to share her opinion.  And opinions she has on her wandering husband, and her son whose wife she doesn't seem to exactly approve of.  Maybe it is less his wife than the fact that John (like his father) has had an on again off again affair with a woman in her apartment building.

I might say Dolly is a careful observer of those in her neighborhood, but she is more an 'opinionated' observer and there is a grittiness in how she expresses herself--certainly with no subtlety or finesse.

"Anyhow there are different kinds coming into this neighborhood, and I do no mean the colored people alone.  I mean people like you and me, religious, clean, many  of these have gone rotten.  I go along with live and let live, but what of the children?"

Dolly is a curious woman, but I think it is Paley herself who is the careful observer of life around her.  I was reading her obituary (she died in 2007) in the New York Times and they said this about her work:

"Ms. Paley was among the earliest American writers to explore the lives of women — mostly Jewish, mostly New Yorkers — in all their dailiness. She focused especially on single mothers, whose days were an exquisite mix of sexual yearning and pulverizing fatigue. In a sense, her work was about what happened to the women that Roth and Bellow and Malamud’s men had loved and left behind."

I think for this alone I would be willing to read more of Paley's work even if it is a struggle.  You certainly get that sense of ordinariness and dailiness in this story.  I imagine these are lives that are not easy to live and are colorful and difficult.  I only hope there might have been some happiness in them, too.

new Week: Dorothy Richardson.  I thought I was just one story away from completing this collection, but there is one long story by Rebecca West after the Richardson.  Soon!  I already have a short mental list of potential places to find my next stories.

* * *

If I struggled with the Paley story, I found Luke Mogelson's story in the New Yorker (April 27 issue) mesmerizing.  I'm not familiar with Mogelson's work, but I believe he is a journalist.  He was in the National Guard and had hoped to be deployed to Afghanistan but that never happened.  He is now stationed in Iraq.  His story "Peacetime" is about a National Guardsman who also happens to be a paramedic in NY during peacetime.  Once again this is an interesting portrait of a man who is likely carrying with him the scars of being deployed to a war zone.  It comes out in little (well, big, really) ways in his life, like separating from his wife and sleeping on a cot in a medical-supply closet in the armory on Lexington Avenue.  Or the fact that he steals something small from the people he is supposed to be aiding.  I'm not sure what is was about "Peacetime"--it just grabs you from the first and then moves along at such a fast clip you can't help but be pulled along into the story.  You can read the Q&A with Mogelson here.

Teasers Revealed

Since Dulce was the illustration for my post on Tuesday, it is really Chispa's turn today, but I had a hard time finding a good one of her in my mess of photos.  I'll keep looking and share one later. 

My teasers were a little unfair since I didn't really give much in the way of hints.  So I shall reveal all here today.

Teaser one: O Jerusalem by Laurie King.  The book is set in early 1920s Palestine where she and Holmes, not yet married, have quietly entered the country, and have so far spent most of the book traveling on foot.  They arrive at the Dead Sea on their way to Jerusalem where Mary is able to swim (?) float in the water.  Did I mention she has been dressed as a young Arab boy?

Teaser two: The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart, which is a NYRB Classics selection from a couple of years ago.  It is translated from French and set on the island of Gaudeloupe.  It's an eloquently told story of three generations of women with a dash of magical realism to it.  I have yet to pick up and read an NYRB that I didn't like!

Teaser three: The Siege by Arturo Perez-Reverte.  I went through a phase where I read a number of his books in close succession and loved the literary conundrums of the stories.  This is a writer who who is truly erudite and intellectual.  It won last year's CWA International Dagger.  He does not scrimp on either character development or plot.  Reading his work is like having an expensive multi-course dinner in a very fine restaurant! 

Teaser four: The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman.  I swear I read this book before years ago, but I recall pretty much nothing from that first reading.  How sad to think of all the stories I read and loved that have faded from mind.  Read before or  not, I am thoroughly enjoying it this time, too.  It is a sparkling romantic comedy.  Very light but not too fluffy.

Teaser five: Homesick by Eshkol Nevo.  This is one of my last class books, which I am trying to finish soon.  I have three class books on the go at the moment, but only one left to discuss as a group.  I have quite a list of potential reads for when I am finished and sad that I might not get another opportunity like this anytime soon.  I'll share my list soon, but in the meantime, Homesick is a totally engaging read.  I guess the book was hugely popular in Israel.  It is written from a variety of points of view--of the inhabitants of a small town.  I love how some of the same events are looked at from different characters and with entirely different perspectives.  I'll have lots more to say about this one when I finish. 

A little random sampling of books I am reading at the moment.  I hope to find some quiet corner this weekend to hole up in and read to my heart's content.  Life has been hectic but I need to find a way to carve out extra reading time.  I seem to be moving pretty glacially in my books right now . . .   What's on your reading pile right now?

Book Lust, or something to look forward to

It's good to have something to look forward to, don't you think?  Maybe I rely too much on books, but stories make me happy and I'm not sure what I would do without them.  I'm not even actively looking for new books to add to my wishlist, but they seem to seek me out and find me anyway.  (It's all them and not me, right . . .). 

Here are a few books recently added to my wishlist.  Have you noticed I rarely share new books (not that a few don't occasionally show up on my doorstep) these days.  I am trying hard to be a discerning book shopper these days (discerning being a relative term), but I have few qualms about looking and writing them down. 

Girl Singer by Mick Carlon -- "Harlem 1938: eighteen-year-old Avery, aspiring singer, is heard by Lester "Pres" Young, Count Basie's tenor saxophonist. Pres recommends her to Basie, and Avery is whisked into the jazz life. Years later, with several hit records to her credit, Avery settles in Greenwich Village. But her life takes a sharp turn when she meets Karl, a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany."

The Mersault Investigation by Kamel Daoud -- "A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus’s The Stranger, from the point of view of the mute Arab victims." —The New Yorker.  After reading Daoud's story in the New Yorker I have to read the book (to be read in tandem with or after The Stranger, of course).

Dietland by Sarai Walker -- "Dietland is a bold, original, and funny debut novel that takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight loss obsession—from the inside out, and with fists flying."

Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer and August Cole -- "Ghost Fleet is a page-turning speculative thriller in the spirit of The Hunt for Red October. The debut novel by two leading experts on the cutting edge of national security, it is unique in that every trend and technology featured in the novel — no matter how sci-fi it may seem — is real, or could be soon."  I like the sound of this--sort of like an alternate history, or rather alternate future?  But it sounds a little scary, too.

Maud's Line by Margaret Verble -- "Eastern Oklahoma, 1928. Eighteen-year-old Maud Nail lives with her rogue father and sensitive brother on one of the allotments parceled out by the U.S. Government to the Cherokees when their land was confiscated for Oklahoma’s statehood. Maud’s days are filled with hard work and simple pleasures, but often marked by violence and tragedy, a fact that she accepts with determined practicality. Her prospects for a better life are slim, but when a newcomer with good looks and books rides down her section line, she takes notice. Soon she finds herself facing a series of high-stakes decisions that will determine her future and those of her loved ones."  Good books?  Hmmm.  Must check this one out.

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler -- Oh, sure, a book about books and librarians--you know how many people like me are going to reach for this book just because . . . "The Book of Speculation is Erika Swyler's gorgeous and moving debut, a wondrous novel about the power of books, family, and magic."  The main character is a librarian.   The cover alone is enough to suck me in.

Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry -- ". . .  Church of Marvels takes readers back to turn-of-the-century New York—a city of hardship and dreams, love and loneliness, hope and danger. In magnetic, luminous prose, Leslie Parry offers a richly atmospheric vision of the past in a narrative of astonishing beauty, full of wondrous enchantments, a marvelous debut that will leave readers breathless."  Oh dear, another one I am going to have to try.

Mislaid by Nell Zink -- "A sharply observed, mordantly funny, and startlingly original debut from an exciting, unconventional new voice—the author of the acclaimed The Wallcreeper—about the making and unmaking of the American family that lays bare all of our assumptions about race and racism, sexuality and desire."

The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader -- "With the lyricism of Nicola Griffith's Hild and the vivid historical setting of Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, Robyn Cadwallader's powerful debut novel tells an absorbing story of faith, desire, shame, fear, and the very human need for connection and touch. Compelling, evocative, and haunting, The Anchoress is both quietly heartbreaking and thrillingly unpredictable."

The Photographer's Wife by Suzanne Joinson -- "In 1920s Jerusalem, civic advisor and architect Charles Ashton has an ambitious (and crazy) project to redesign the Holy City by importing English parks to the desert and knocking down Ottoman minarets. He employs William Harrington, a British pilot, to take aerial photographs of the city and surrounding desert. At this time, Palestine, under British administration, is a surprisingly peaceful mix of British colonials, exiled Armenians, and Greek, Arab, and Jewish officials rubbing elbows; but there are simmers of trouble ahead. Eleanora, the young English wife of a famous Jerusalem photographer, meets and falls for Harrington, threatening her marriage--particularly when William discovers that Eleanora's husband is part of an underground nationalist group intent on removing the British."  Sigh.  I want to read this one now--with a Jerusalem setting it fits in so perfectly with my current reading.  It isn't published until next February.  Heavy sigh.

Saint Mazie by Jamie Attenberg -- "Meet Mazie Phillips: big-hearted and bawdy, she's the truth-telling proprietress of The Venice, the famed New York City movie theater. It's the Jazz Age, with romance and booze aplenty--even when Prohibition kicks in--and Mazie never turns down a night on the town. But her high spirits mask a childhood rooted in poverty, and her diary, always close at hand, holds her dearest secrets."  This sounds like fun and right up my alley!

Innocence: Or, Murder on Steep Street by Heda Margolius Kovaly -- "Famed Holocaust memoirist Heda Margoulis Kovály (Under a Cruel Star) knits her own terrifying experiences in Soviet Prague into a powerful, Raymond Chandler-esque work of literary suspense."

I could go on (I always have more books on my list . . .), but I will stop here and save a few for next time. 

All this browsing has nudged my reading mood just a little.  Along with all the other reads that are keeping me entertained at the moment, I am thinking a story about life in the circus would be interesting at the moment.  I know I have one or two on my shelves--I think I am off in search of them now.  Is it a stretch to ask if you have any good books about circus life (fiction or non) to suggest?  I'll let you know what I come up with, too.

Teaser Tuesday: Surprise Me Edition!

Last week I wrote about not just one but three books (almost catching me up with my 'finished reads')--where did that burst of energy come from?  It seems to be gone at the moment, so something easy for today.  I like Teaser Tuesdays because it is an excuse to write about a book that I am reading at the moment.  I'm reading a stack of books right now however.  I'm back in 'grazing mode' and maybe I'll finish one or two of them soon. 

Since I'm not sure which one I feel like telling you about today, I thought I would give you a little sampling of book excerpts.  But I am not going to tell you which is which.  A little interactive post, if you will.  The mystery teasers below are all books on my night table and more importantly for you they are on my sidebar at right. 

Which books do you think each quote belongs to?

Teaser one:

"The water was as warm and dense as a living thing against my naked flesh, and I found that if I remained perfectly still, my limbs stretched out limply and my hair in a great cloud along my arms and back, it was difficult to perceive where [I] ended and the Salt Sea began.  The air along my exposed front was slightly cool, but the sea's temperature was mine, and the heartbeats that thudded slowly through my veins became the pulse of the sea."

Teaser two:

"For the first time in my life I realized that slavery was not some foreign country, some distant region from which a few very old people came, like the two or three who still survived in Fond-Zombi.  It had all happened here, in our hills and valleys, perhaps near this clump of bamboo, perhaps in the air I was breathing."

Teaser three:

"She is clearly one of us.  One of the twelve or fifteen families that matter.  A good head on what people say are rather pretty shoulders; though this is something no one can know for certain.  Still a spinster at the age of thirty-two, she has been left on the shelf."

Teaser four:

"Our mothers took us two younger girls to lunch in departments stores, pretending we were better friends than we were.  That's how it was on Irving Circle and how I was raised: You made the best out of what was within reach, which meant friendships engineered by parents and by the happenstance of housing.  I stayed with it because we both had queenly older sisters who rarely condescended to play with us, because Shelley was adopted and I was not, because Shelley had Clue and Life, and I did not."

Teaser five:

"When I woke up in the morning, his side was already empty but still warm, and the pillow had an indentation in the shape of his head.  In films, in scenes like this, after a fight, the man always leaves the woman and emotional letter saying he's sorry, or he buys her a bouquet of flowers, and even thought I know that M. isn't into writing letters or bringing flowers, I did expect something to be waiting for me on the kitchen table.  That's how it is with films--they have an effect on you even if you know they're stupid.  When there was nothing there but a half-empty cup of black coffee, I was disappointed."

Have I made this too hard?  Do you want a few hints?  One book is a romantic comedy.  One a mystery.  One an award winner.  And three are translated from other languages into English.  But which is which?  And maybe one or more of the books falls into more than on category. 

Anyone want to try their luck and play along? 

Answers tomorrow. 

**And if all else fails, gratuitous cute cat photo is sure to elicit an "aww" or two.  Dulce was the sweetest cat that ever was, and I miss her still.  Look at that earnest little face.  And she liked books, too.

A Peek at a Prairie Fairy

Quick.  Take a peek now.  You know those garden fairies--they don't like to have their picture taken and she's going to fly away any second now.  Well, that is what I am blaming the burred photo on anyway.  Watering can aloft she's the cause of all that rain we've been having, I think!

It's always interesting to see how much the colors differ between chart and actual floss, but the fabric I chose is different, too, so maybe the colors against a different background show the colors off in an unexpected way. 

So, what do you think?  I'm not the fastest stitcher, but this is the progress I have made in the last couple of weeks.  I think I might in the end stitch all four Prairie Fairies by Prairie Schooler that I shared a while back.  Now that she is coming along nicely I might add the Lizzie Kate bee/ladybug "Smell the Flowers" chart to the stitching line up, too.  I'm happy with my progress so far, but I might have to pick a darker color for her wing--it seems to get lost in the fabric color.

This fairy is from 1996.  She doesn't have a proper name but the little blurb on the card reads:

"The Garden Fairie appears on her snail at the first sign of daybreak, leaving behind the morning dew with her watering can and mischievously planting dandelions on her way."

She's cute, isn't she?  I can attest to her mischievousness--she must have had a huge watering can this weekend considering how much rain we got.  And while my lawn is nice and green now, I have a healthy crop of dandelions, too.  Apparently she had a busy weekend.

I need to read the blurbs on the other cards and see if there is a fairy for keeping everything nice and neat (it would be too much to hope for one that can create more reading time . . .).

Short Story Sunday: Time is Unredeemable

It's been a wet weekend and I got caught in rainshowers not once but twice (one of those times two books were caught as well and now are a bit crinkly).  But now I am warm and dry and nothing has dampened my reading spirit especially since it has been an excellent weekend of short story reading.  As a matter of fact about the only thing I have managed to read these past two days are short stories.  I'm nearly finished with Infinite Riches and this week's story is by an author I had not come across before, Attia Hosain.  And I am once again caught up with my New Yorker short story reading. 

This story collection is in no way dated but in the more than dozen years that have passed since its US publication more than a few authors who were alive at the time have since passed away and it is always a little sad to read the biographical material which talks about the women in present tense only to look them up further and discover they died several years ago (or more).  Attia Hosain was born in India but moved to Britain in 1947.  She was a writer and broadcaster and worked for the BBC.  It looks as though at least two of her novels were published by Virago and will it surprise you to hear that I plan on looking for both of them?  I loved her story, "Time is Unredeemable", which was pitch perfect.

Another melancholy story which tells of a woman waiting for her 'beloved' to return home only to discover that the wait has been for nothing.  Upon reading the last couple of pages again, I think the meaning of the conversation between husband and wife can be read more than one way, but in both cases, the meaning is almost devastating. 

Time heals all?  Tine apart makes the heart grow fonder?  Or maybe time really is unredeemable.  Nine long years is what Bano waits for her husband to return home to India from Britain. 

"When the second cable arrived, confirming the date he was to sail, Bano allowed herself to believe her husband was really coming back."

It wasn't meant to be such a long separation but the war years intervened and then travel was difficult with so much displacement after the war.

"Bano was sixteen when she was married to a reluctant Arshad a month before he sailed for England.  In that brief, bust month she accepted the young stranger, barely two years older than herself, as the very focus of her being.  To her mother and his the hurriedly arranged marriage was a moral insurance."

How much hanky panky with foreigners can go on with a wife at home?  Although we don't know what Arshad filled his time with abroad, Bano lives a quiet closed life at home.  "She was isolated from the outside world not only by physical seclusion but my mental oblivion."  Letters crossed the ocean but at best they were formal and without passion.  Luckily for Bano her father-in-law, liberal in his ideas, allows Bano to learn English from the English wife of an old family friend.  Granted she drops her aitches and teaches her own version of ungrammatical colloquialisms, but Bano hopes to show her husband she is not like the other girls in the family, "ignorant and old-fashioned."

Finally the day comes with news of his return.  It's not enough to show that she can speak some English, she decides she wants to dress more liberally and with a Western-style inspiration and again requests help from the old family friend.  On the day he is to return she cannot eat or relax and sits in seclusion waiting for him to come to her.  Of course she is last on the list of people he must first catch up with.  It is almost painful watching Bano wait with anticipation and anxiety for her husband to come into her room.  Nine years is such a long time to wait.  They look at each other and she can see his discomfort in his eyes. 

Life is messy and difficult and how often does it really turn out as we would like it to?  Hosain captures all this so very well.  I leave that last scene for you to imagine (and maybe prompt you to go look for this story). 

Two stories left in the collection!  Next week I finally get to try something by Grace Paley who has long been on my list of authors to read.

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How often do I say how short stories are often perfect introductions to writers you are eager to read (but can't quite seem to get around to?).  The April 13 issue of the New Yorker has a wonderful story by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (whose books I seem to be collecting but not yet reading) called "Apollo".  The story is a look back at a childhood event where the actions of the narrator cause the dismissal of his parent's houseboy.  I don't think I have given anything away as the beauty, as always, is in the telling of the story and the complexities of memory.  In the Q&A with Adichie she responds to one of the questions about how the story's ending "snaps the beginning of the story into place"--

"I am drawn as a reader to stories of childhood told in an adult voice, stories full of the melancholy beauty of retrospect. I am interested in the regrets we carry from our childhoods, in the idea of 'what if' and 'if only.' A novel I love, The Go-Between, by L. P. Hartley, does this very well."

I like this as well and Hartley's novel is one of my very favorites.  This first taste of her writing makes me eager for more!  You can read the story here.

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This week's story (April 20 issue) is by Ann Beattie who is known for her short stories of which I have read a small handful.  "Major Maybe" is a nostalgic slice of life sort of story about two roommates living in New York City in the 80s.  Major Maybe is a dog who has a run in with a street person and is the impetus for the telling but it's really just a jumping off place since it is more about a moment in life that has passed but is looked back upon fondly.  I'm always impressed when an author can do in so few pages what other writers need a whole book to achieve.  You can read the author's Q&A here and the story here.

So, have you read any good short stories lately?  I need to start thinking about a new collection to tackle.  Or maybe it is time to graze--a story here and a story there, or maybe just an anthology of random classics?