A Work in Progress

The Serpent and the Scorpion

Two years have passed since the events narrated in Clare Langley Hawthorne's Consequences of Sin.  Suffragette turned reluctant sleuth Ursula Marlowe has had her world turned upside down with the death of her father and her romantic liaison with family-adviser and King's Counsel, Lord Oliver Wrotham, put on the back burner.  Their attraction to each other is fierce and mutual but Ursula is loathe to give up her independence by marrying a man with conservative leanings.  There is still so much work to do if women are to get the vote, and now Ursula is determined to run her father's textile factories on her own.  And proper Edwardian women, certainly not the wives of barristers like Lord Wrotham, do not attend WSPU meetings or run cotton mills.

The Serpent and the Scorpion opens in the first days of 1912.  She has traveled to Egypt to secure cotton supplies for her mills.  A few months earlier Ursula had met a Russian Jewess at a New Year's Eve party she had been attending with her husband.  The two women cross paths once again in Cairo where an afternoon spent shopping in a bazaar ends tragically when Katya is murdered.  The pair had become separated, more likely diverted by a group of men and the general cacophony of a noisy overcrowded market.  When next she sees Katya, she is on the ground--not fainted as Ursula suspects--but with blood from a bullet wound seeping through her shirt. 

The local officials assure Ursula that the death is due to nothing more than local politics.  Egyptian nationalists want to disrupt English rule, and a foreigner like Katya was simply an easy target.  Ursula is, however, unconvinced.  Katya and her husband, both being Russian, and Katya's socialist leanings seem like odd choices for assassination targets by nationalists. 

Ursula has problems of her own.  There have been difficulties in her mills and she is having a hard time keeping things running smoothly and under control.  It would seem as though someone is sabotaging her businesses.  Her travels are cut short when she is notified of a death and subsequent fire in one of her mills.  The body of one of the female employees is found in the charred remains.  Was she the target or simply the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?  The death becomes even more mysterious when the woman's identity is revealed--she was Katya's sister.  In true progressive thinking style Ursula accepts a ride on a friend's monoplane in order to return to her mills quickly and begin sorting out what happened.

The mystery moves from Palestine to London to Cairo and to the North of England and soon Ursula finds herself in over her head as she tries to unravel the mystery of deaths of Katya and Arina.  Were the deaths related and were they were intentional crimes or down to simple bad luck.  She is helped once again by her good friend and fellow suffragette Winifred whose own life had been thrown into upheaval after being accused of the murder of her lover.  Death is not an unknown in either women's lives and worse, deaths occurring under horrible circumstances. 

The story becomes even more tantalizing when a man from Ursula's past, a Russian Bolshevik, enters her life once again.  If things had been cool between Ursula and Oliver before, a former beau complicates their tenuous relationship as much as it adds tension to their attraction.  Headstrong as she is Ursula will find who her friends really are and that sometimes you do need to accept help and maybe even love from those closest and most dangerous to your piece of mind. 

Clare Langley-Hawthorne knows just how to pull the reader along and into the story.  Then tension between characters is almost too unbearable--the will they or won't they get together aspect of the story almost too drawn out and Ursula is so independent-minded she sets herself up for possible unhappiness.  Then again, sometimes the anticipation of seeing how characters come together or are pulled apart is both entertaining and quite satisfying when done well.  Ursula is an intriguing character--paradoxical as well.  How does a suffragette with Socialist leanings reconcile also being a mill owner?  No wonder she has issues with being attracted to a "Lord" who also happens to work closely with the government and keeps to the straight and narrow--knowing just how to work the system yet stay comfortably inside it.  

I won't tell you whether they do or don't end up together, but I will say this second book ends with a cliffhanger ending.  For once Ursula is contented and at peace, but Lord Wrotham is . . .  oops, that would be telling.  I have in my hands the third book, Unlikely Traitors, which I would have cracked open already had I not been so dedicated to whittling down my reading pile to a reasonable size (and am not quite there yet, but I am getting close).  My 'Summer of Murder and Mayhem' is at a close (still have a few more to write about), though I will keep reading mysteries as normal.  I am in the midst of a rather chunky historical mystery translated from French, thoroughly enjoyable in a different way.  But Ursula sits and waits on the top of my bedside pile.  I hope to see how things turn out for Ursula and Oliver very soon.

Short Story Sunday: Birds with No Feet

"Birds with No Feet" in Andrea Barrett's story collection, Ship Fever, is quite eye catching, don't you think?  Wherever would a story go with a title like that?  It's always intriguing seeing where an author takes a reader, and with short stories it is always a little bit disorienting at first trying to figure things out.  Her stories move around in time and switch from male to female narrators.  I like that women are often scientists and not all of them are contemporary narrators either. 

This story takes the reader back to 1853 and it ends in 1862 as America prepares for and begins a new war.  But it is not the war Barrett is concerned with.  She is really quite subtle with her storytelling, which is something I very much appreciate.  She tells a good story, but they are always stories that the reader is left to ruminate over when all is said and done.  Sometimes it is not so obvious at first what she intends the reader to take away with her, which I also like. 

In the case of Alec Carrière this story is one of discovery and self-discovery.

"Until he's sailed for the Amazon, he'd worked in a shop making leather valises, not far from the tavern his parents ran in Germantown.  But like the young English collector he'd met in Barra, near the flooded islands of the Rio Negro, he's been saved from a squalid and unremarkable life by a few kind men and a book.  With his uncle's ornithology text in his pocket he'd wandered the banks of the Wissahickon, teaching himself the names of birds and imagining wild places."

Like other naturalists he is largely self-taught save for the advice he receives from other members of the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Pressed by his father to give up his childish hobby and take on a proper job, a fellow scientist gives him a book that will set him on the scientific path for good, A Voyage Up the Amazon.  What is there to keep him in Philadelphia when the world beckons, a world waiting to be explored and studied and categorized and named.  He has an earnest desire to go off to the tropics as well and an auctioneer assures him that he can pay for his voyage by gathering "birds, small mammals, land-shells, and all the orders of insects."  Wealthy collectors back home will pay handsomely for his finds.  So, find he does.  His father angers at his decision and his mother weeps, but he sees only miracles.

He works hard, despite sickness and hardship, heat, bad food and everything else that accompanies such a journey in the 1850s.  But he sets off back home after a year of hard work with cache of specimens that will easily pay off his debts and all him to study properly.  This won't be the first time in his career that he will meet up with a reversal of fortunes.  It is something like a rags to riches to rags once again experience that will plague him on his journeys. 

Alec is tenacious however in his work and study.  It is remarkable what he finds.  Such a variety of life.  How does one species continue to change and develop into something similar yet new?  A question of the times.  "Where had all these creatures come from?"  Sometimes he gets a little too close to his subjects, but as a scientist it is his job to study--even if it means cutting and separating and opening and looking.  To do this is to serve science.  "Was this science?" he asks himself. 

The birds with no feet?  As a boy in Philadelphia he spent hours at the museum looking at a skin of a bird, which was stunning--yellow and red with a tail of glossy blue.  But he stared not only for the vibrancy of color, but because it had no wings or feet.  How could there be such a thing? 

"They were elusive, irresistible; and their skins were so rare as to be very valuable.  Money crossed his mind, as it always had.  Nearly penniless, and still without a wife or any possibility of supporting one, he seized on the prospect that the paradise birds might save him."

Always on the periphery of his thoughts is this thing--money.  Is this science?  Collecting, cutting, stuffing, bringing back whatever he finds.  The common but especially the elusive.  All in the service of science.  One of the native boys where he had been hunting tells him he knows so much--even about their birds and animals.  More they they do perhaps.  Alec has no fear, bu but the boy tells him, "we believe that all the animals you kill and keep will come back to life again."  Something Alec denies strenuously.  Truly they are dead.  And the boy replies--"they will rise".  "When the forest is empty and needs new animals."

And there is the twist. 

* * * * *

Next story is "The Marburg Sisters".  I will keep reading a story a week, but I have only one short story and a novella left.  So, as next weekend we will be well and into September and that means RIP season, the question is--do I start looking for and reading ghost stories now?  Should I look for new ones or revisit some old ones.  I have an urge to look for some by Daphne du Maurier, though I have read all her major stories and lots of the less known as well. 

* * * * *

Just a quick note about Alice McDermott's short story "These Short, Dark Days" which appeared in last week's (August 24) New Yorker--it is well worth a read if you've got a bit of time to spend with it.  Her Q&A was immensely helpful in shedding light on some of the details, by the way, as this is another story where there is more to think about that what you are first presented with.  In a nutshell and without any details an idealistic Catholic nun in turn-of-the-century New York must deal with a man who has committed suicide, leaving behind a pregnant wife--and her desire to have him buried properly.  She mentions the inspiration for the story comes partly from having been immersed in newspapers from that era, so I wonder if that means she is researching for a new book?  I've fallen just a little behind in my New Yorkers, to the next story up is by Jensen Beach whose work  I am not familiar with so I am looking forward to reading his story.

Legend in Green Velvet, Elizabeth Peters

If you are looking for some good escapist literature, something a little frothy and very fun, I can heartily recommend to you Elizabeth Peters.  It's a testament to her storytelling abilities, keeping in mind how much I have been struggling with finishing books in a reasonable manner this year, that I finished Legend In Green Velvet in well under a few weeks since choosing it from my TBR pile.  It has taken me a while to write about it, and on that front I have lots of catching up to do.  It was definitely a wise (though difficult if you look at the other contenders) choice and perfect summertime reading.  Perhaps, though, frothy is an unfair word as that makes it sound as though the story is without much substance, and that is not the case at all.

Elizabeth Peters is a pseudonym for Barbara Mertz who sadly passed away a few years ago.  She has left behind, however, quite a catalog of books she wrote under various names, including the very delightful (and I must get back to them) mysteries set in Victorian England and Egypt starring Amelia Peabody.  I say starring as Amelia is a wonderful character and she 'owns' those stories, if you know what I mean.  Her personality utterly shines through on each page.  Peters was not just a very prolific author, she also was an Egyptologist and was obviously well versed in the times and places in which she set her novels.

Legend in Green Velvet might be a fun and entertaining read, but Peters was no slouch when it came to doing research.  The novel is set in Scotland, ca. 1976 (the year the book was published) and the story's heroine, Susan, can rattle off to you (I can hear Peters sharing her knowledge here) just about anything you would like to know about Scottish history.  Susan is smart and independent but a romantic, too, and has something of a crush on Bonnie Prince Charlie.  As a matter of fact her devotion to all things Scottish will first get her into trouble and then aid her in getting out of it as well.

"Shadows of the historic dead had companioned Susan's childhood, not replacing normal friendships, but adding a rich and secret dimension to life.  It had to be secret; the other kids would have laughed at her if they had suspected the extent to her preoccupation with the past, and Susan couldn't risk that, for mockery would have destroyed the fragile ghosts.  She ran and swam and rode her bike as energetically as her friends, but her daydreams were peopled with shadowy warriors and princes."

Susan, an American college student, has come to Edinburgh on her way to an archaeological dig where she will spend the summer.  With a day or two to spend at her leisure before starting off on her journey north, she of course plans on soaking up as much Scottish history as she can. But in that day she is accosted by an elderly Scot who thrusts a piece of paper in her hand--a note with the most extraordinary verse in old-fashioned writing.  It seems nonsensical until she later finds the same man murdered in his home.  By then she has been hit upon by a tall, dark and handsome stranger, had her hotel room ransacked and been questioned by the local police (who think she must be crazy since she seems to be missing only that scrap of paper), been in a chase resulting in her slipping on the stone steps and grazing her knees and then 'befriended' (hmm, is that the right word . . . ) by a rather scruffy young Scotsman with overly long hair and wearing a kilt. 

There is a reason for the hair which the reader will understand later in the story, and the kilt is a costume for a party James is on his way to--when he literally runs into Susan.  It's all a whirlwind from then on.  He escorts her to his family party where his aunt cleans up her scrapes but their run in with the body of Auld Tammas (our man with the note) puts them in a precariously dangerous situation as they try and avoid not only the clutches of the police but also that of the ridiculously handsome man whose nastiness matches his good looks in equal measure. 

You can call this a story of romantic suspense quite similar to Mary Stewart or Susanna Kearsley, though the Peters will be a bit heavier on cultural and historical references.  It was written in the 70s and there are overtones of the times in the language she uses and the dialogue between characters, but somehow this all feels part of the fun and charm of the story.  It did elicit a chuckle to hear (though thankfully not by our hero) Susan referred to as a 'chick'.  How very 1970s.  There is lots of suspense, plenty of history and a nice dash of romance.  It's quite a fun romp actually and a reminder of how much I have enjoyed Elizabeth Peters' writing.  I look forward to revisiting Amelia Peabody but also will keep in mind more of her other standalone novels when in need of something smartly entertaining.

The People in the Photo: A Novel

Hélène Gestern's novel, The People in the Photo (Eux sur la photo), is a shoe-in for my 'best of' reads list for the year.  I picked it up to read in honor of Women in Translation Month.  This is a first novel by French author Gestern and it is beautifully translated by Emily Boyce and Ros Schwartz, and I have to put in a little plug for the publisher Gallic Books as well.  Their tag line is "the best of French in English" and as I am reading another of their titles at the moment (and enjoying it immensely, too), I have to say I concur.  It has the added bonus of being written in an epistolary format, which I love, and is a mixture of contemporary drama with a dash of mystery to it and even some romance, but I use these descriptions lightly as it is a weighty story, too.  It is a meditation on memory really--a story of families and the lies they tell each other, or rather the truths that they keep hidden for the pain they have caused.  There is also a thread of sadness and melancholy that runs through the story as well. 

An ad appears in the newspaper Libération in February of 2007.  An anonymous Parisian has placed it looking for information on three people, two men and a woman, in a photograph taken in the 1960s in Switzerland.  The woman is likely the Parisian's mother, there is a name given for one man, but the other man is a mystery.  What is the connection between these people?

"The three figures in the photograph are frozen for ever, two men and a woman bathed in sunlight.  All three are dressed in white and holding tennis racquets.  The young woman is in the centre; the man on her right--who is quite tall--is leaning towards her as if poised to tell her something; the second man stands on her left at a slight remove, bending his knee and leaning on his racquet in a playful Charlie Chaplin pose.  They all look about thirty, but the taller man is possibly a little older.  The tree-covered Alpine slopes in the background are partly blotted out by a sports centre, and the snow-capped peaks on the horizon lend the scene an unreal picture-postcard feel."

Hélène Hivert had all but given up any hope of finding someone who might know the people in the photo when Stéphane Crüsten, a Swiss biologist, responds that the unknown man is his father, a friend of the playful 'Charlie Chaplin' leaning on his tennis racquet.  Thus begins a correspondence between the two as they piece together the mystery of their parents--how did they meet, what was their relationship and what was their shared secret?  Hélène's mother died when she was very young and she was raised by a father who would not speak of her and a stepmother who raised her as her own though complicit in the secret.  Now as a middle aged woman she wants to fill in the gap that all but blotted out her mother's life.  She has only vague recollections of her mother speaking Russian and hazy memories of what she might have been like.

Stéphane, however, has vivid memories of his own father and mother and is still in contact with his father's friend-the second man in the photo.  While he remembers his father well, he was still a solitary man, slightly taciturn and always preferred to spend time in his studio or outdoors as he was an ardent and talented photographer.  Beyond that he knows little about his father's past.  Hélène and Stéphane begin piecing together the story of their parents' shared past, though not everything they discover is happy or welcome knowledge.

Throughout the story photographs are introduced and described and then letters follow filling in the details of what Hélène and Stéphane know and what they uncover as they delve into the histories of Nathalie and Pierre.  Their growing correspondence brings them closer together at the same time as their parent's stories threaten to tear them apart.   At first the letters are formal and matter of fact, but over time the two become closer and a natural affection grows out of their joint interest in uncovering their parents' secrets.

Gestern has managed to convey so very much through a series of letters, postcards and emails.  Hélène and Stéphane emerge as fully formed characters and even though Nathalie and Pierre are present only in memories and photographs they come across vividly complete with all their shortcomings and failings.  Not every story in this novel is a happy one, but Gestern provides a most satisfying ending.  This is a literary page-turner and I was riveted to it throughout.  I hope Gestern writes more!

Bookish Vacation Mementos

What vacation would be complete without a few new books to remind me of the great time I had while away?  Most of these are from that wonderful little museum I visited in Estes Park.  They had a small but well stocked gift shop and I had a hard time deciding which books to bring back with me.  The two booklets about The Old Fall River Road and Trail Ridge Road I bought in the Park.  They are nice reminders of where I was and what I saw.  

I am both fascinated by and curious about the history of Estes Park now.  It has such an interesting and rich history.  I have very little recollection of it, but apparently when I was really little we had a family trip that included a short day spent in Estes.  I only remember visiting the (now defunct) Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.  Since Estes is a resort town, there has been an abundance of post cards and memorabilia and much of it is collected in Rocky Mountain Tour: Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, & Grand Lake by Suzanne Silverthorn.  It's a glossy book filled with photos--mostly then and now sorts with lots of postcards and old photos. 

Estes Park: Beginnings by Kenneth Jessen is all old B&W photos of Estes Park with some text.  Both books are quite browse-able and fascinating to look at.

My best find is a book I discovered in the YA section, though it is tagged simply as History/Women.  It was published this year and likely in honor of the National Park's Centennial, Dining Room Girl: The Summer of 1926 at the Horseshoe Inn by Kay Turnbaugh and Lee Tillotson.  Another book chock full of old photographs, this one is based on a young woman's diary.  Eleanor Parker was a new college graduate from Iowa who spent the summer of 1926 working in the Horseshoe Inn.  It was the heyday of the resort and I can't wait to read it and really study the photos.  

I have a feeling this is going to set me off on another reading path! 

I admit the books in this stack are purely indulgences as I might have found them locally.  But vacations are meant to be treats.  A tee shirt and a few books seems reasonably restrained in my opinion.  Besides it is always nice to support the local economy and in this case a small, independent bookstore.  If you are ever in Estes, make sure you visit Macdonald Bookshop.  If I could own a bookstore I would want it to be just like this one!  I bought three books I had not come across before:

Solsbury Hill by Susan M. Wyler -- " . . . a contemporary take on a classic love story is utterly beguiling.  Solsbury Hill is a gorgeously well-written tale of a fraught affair that takes you from New York to the wild gothic setting of the Yorkshire Moors."  I hope it is as good as it looks.

I read another book by Peter Pagnamenta a number of years ago, and recall enjoying it quite a lot.  I liked the sound of Prairie Fever: British Aristocrats in the American West 1830-1890.  English Victorians in the American West--sounds like a fun read. 

And one more with a bit more Western (though transplanted to New York) flair, David Fuller's Sundance.  It is a reworking of the Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid story.  What if Harry Longbaugh lived and decided to go find his wife once he had been released from prison.  To be honest I am not usually one to read Western Literature, but every now and again I have an urge to pick something outside my comfort zone up!  Now I have lots of bookish reminders of my long weekend spent in the park.  I am already looking forward to going back.

A Change of Scenery, Part 2

The other highlight of my weekend was this wonderful little museum, Estes Park Museum.  If you ever find yourself in Estes Park, it is free and well worth a visit.  It is pure social and cultural history really since it is made up of artifacts of the town and displays showing what its founding was like and life there over the years.  I was quite impressed by it--all the displays were interesting and vibrant--not dusty old displays that you sometimes find in touristy areas.  I took a number of photos, which I will let speak for themselves.

I wish I could have found postcards of the artwork above as the paintings were really beautiful.

Estes Park has always been a resort town and I would love to read more about its history.

But that "rigorous" and changeable weather can also be devastating.

There was even an actual cabin built in 1909 out back.  Alas, the cabin I stayed in had much nicer amenities.

The museum, for its size, has an excellent gift shop/bookstore filled with lots of interesting books on local history and the couple, who staffed the museum were volunteers and quite pleasant and helpful.

We also went on a Stanley Hotel ghost tour.  I will only say, steer clear if you decide to visit.  Maybe the regular hotel tour would have been a better fit for us, but the ghost tour is to be avoided at all costs.  It was mostly just a lot of silliness I am sorry to say. 

It was cool to see inside the hotel, however.  In case you are wondering--Stephen King stayed at the hotel and it was the inspiration for his novel, The Shining.  It wasn't actually filmed there apparently.  

Tomorrow books, and then back to normal bookishness.

A Change of Scenery, Part 1

Weekends go by too quickly, but weekends away go by even faster.  Still, this was a much needed and very welcome change of scenery for me.  Just what I needed.  I was in Estes Park, Colorado and the weather was perfect and view incredible.  We stayed in a cabin that sat on the Fall River, so this is what I had to look at outside the window.  I wish I had recorded the sound of the rushing water so I could share it with you.  This view and the peacefulness is tucked securely away in my mind and will hopefully help get me through the more stressful moments of life.

I have loads of photos, but I will just share the highlights today and tomorrow and save the (ahem) books I bought for the day after, so I can stretch out my vacation just a little bit more.

The highlight of the trip (one of them anyway) was visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park, which is celebrating its Centennial right now.  There is so much to explore there you could easily spend a week and still not see everything.  This time around we drove the Trail Ridge Road to Fall River Pass.  This is Horseshoe Park, which was covered by a glacier at one time.  

And now, looking down, here we are at over 10,000 feet at Rainbow Curve.  Don't worry, I wasn't at the edge--there are guardrails or rather a rocky wall to keep viewers safe.  The weather was really perfect, though the higher we climbed the cooler it got.  The haze you see is due to the wildfires burning on the west coast.

My sister was the daring one to drive and she seemed pretty cool and collected (especially here where the trees formed a sort of gorge hiding the sheer drops), but I think it was actually pretty nerve-wracking.

Almost at the top.  This is where the Alpine Visitor Center is located (imagine working there and having to go up every day!), but you can still hike to the very top.  I was the only one to take the challenge. 

It looks sunny and calm but it was quite cold and windy. 

The top of the world!  At least that's what it feels like.

The Alpine tundra!  My little guide book says "here on the roof of the Rockies, the climate is rigorous." It truly takes your breath away (literally and figuratively!).

My other favorite place (and new find) in the park is Sprague Lake.  It was named for a "local pioneer", Abner E. Sprague who owned a resort there in the 1910s-20s.  It was a lakeside retreat providing trout fishing for its guests.  It is fascinating to think what it must have been like--what did the lodge look like and what were the guests like?  I tried to find more information on it, but so far have not had much luck.  I can easily imagine a book set there, maybe even a murder mystery.  Maybe someday a writer will visit and be inspired to tell a story.  It is a place I could happily spend an afternoon--picnic lunch and book in hand just listening to the water lap.

I didn't see any wildlife per se, but this little fellow quite boldly scampered up onto the bench where I was sitting eating an apple and was ready to climb into my bag looking for a treat of his own!  I was a little shocked by how close he got, but I'm afraid I didn't share (heeding the signs in the park not to feed the wildlife).  I think he is a ground squirrel, and my guide did mention they might come begging . . .

A Room with a Perfect View

Isn't this a most gorgeous view?  I am off to go find it once again.  I'm off to Estes Park for a few days, so I won't be online. 

In keeping with current reading (and attempts to whittle down the night stand pile--am making excellent inroads actually), I will be taking in progress books.  Is it excessive to take the four books you see here in front?  I would say no only they are rather chunky.  I would like to finish reading the Sansom and just dip into and get as far as I can on the others.  A very slender travel book about the Rocky Mountains might also find its way into my backpack.  It all depends on how much I want to carry, though we are driving and I have about eight hours to fill each way. 

Strangely (for me) I have done very little planning for this (mostly as it is going to be a quick trip and very laid back) so I feel a little unprepared.  I will be taking my camera and will share photos when I get back.  I have loads of books to tell you about and I might end up bringing back a book or two. 

Mostly I hope to rejuvenate and relax and just enjoy nature's beauty.  With a view like the one above (which is from last year's trip) it shouldn't be hard at all.  Have a great rest of the week everyone and I'll tell you all about my adventures next week!

Teaser Tuesday: The People in the Photo

Only a visual teaser today, as I am so near to finishing this book and I plan on writing about it properly soon, so don't want to give anything away.  It has been a wholly engaging story told in epistolary format, which I love. 

Some hints--I decided it was only right to use a postcard as my bookmark in honor of the story, and the picture on the card fits in nicely with the theme--though careful, as it might not be exactly what you think, either.  I picked the book up in honor of Women in Translation Month as the author is French.  I'm still hoping to read one of these Dutch authors, but won't make a final choice until I finish this (and likely not until some time next week when I am back from my mini-vacation). 

What a novel idea--finishing a book before starting a new one.  I'm trying hard to whittle down my current reads stack and curb some of my enthusiasm for starting new books (and then letting them languish and never finishing anything at all).  I think my 'must write about these books now that I have read them' stack is almost as large as and maybe at the rate I have been going almost bigger than my current reads pile.  Maybe I am turning over a new leaf?  Showing a little bookish restraint in any case. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I am off to finish reading my book.

Fall Books for Fall Wishes

I'm really looking forward to fall.  As hot and sticky as it has been, I know it has not been as awful as it could be, but I seem to have a really low tolerance for the heat and humidity these days.  So I won't complain about it, but I am hopeful that cooler weather is coming soon.  I'm ready for a change of seasons and seeing new and forthcoming books always puts me in a good mood.  Fall is perhaps the biggest season for new releases and I've been adding lots of titles to my wishlist.  As silly as it is, I am always inordinately cheered by looking at forthcoming books lists.  I shouldn't look, I have more than enough books on my bedside pile alone to keep me busy for months and months, but I just don't have the determination to 'look the other way'.  So, here is a list of ten books that will be released in the next few months that I hope to get a closer look at:

Journey to Munich: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear -- This is actually what prompted me to share a list of forthcoming books.  I wasn't even looking in this case, but I came across the title (due next March!) by chance.  Alas, no cover art and so far no description of the story, but what a telling title, eh?

Not all Bastards are from Vienna by Andrea Molesini -- Anything about Vienna inevitably catches my eye.  It is not a setting as often as I would like.  "Andrea Molesini’s exquisite debut novel—winner of the prestigious Campiello Prize—portrays the depths of heroism and horror within a Northern Italian village toward the end of the Great War. While a family’s villa is requisitioned by enemy troops, they are forced to intimately confront war’s injustice as their involvement with its sinister underpinnings grows more and more complex."  This one sounds quite promising.  Due next February.

Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories by Audrey Niffenegger -- I have been trying to wrap up my summer of murder and mayhem reading.  I always have a mystery or two on the go all the time, but I am hoping to reduce my in progress pile considerably this month.  You know, of course, RIP is just around the corner and I want to have space on my night table for a book or two to read along with the season and I am a great fan of ghost stories in general.  This conveniently comes out October 6.  "From Edgar Allen Poe to Kelly Link, M.R. James to Neil Gaiman, H. H. Munro to Audrey Niffenegger herself, Ghostly reveals the evolution of the ghost story genre with tales going back to the eighteenth century and into the modern era, ranging across styles from Gothic Horror to Victorian, with a particular bent toward stories about haunting—haunted children, animals, houses."  I am not sure what form my RIP reading will take yet--one good Victorian classic?  A little sensationalism a la Wilkie Collins or Mary Elizabeth Braddon?  Maybe something by Susan Hill?  I'll be scouting around, but I am sure my reading will include some shorter ghost stories.

The Past: A Novel by Tessa Hadley -- I have loved the stories by Hadley that I have read and am determined to read some longer fiction by her.  "With subtle precision and deep compassion, Tessa Hadley brilliantly evokes a brewing storm of lust and envy, the indelible connections of memory and affection, the fierce, nostalgic beauty of the natural world, and the shifting currents of history running beneath the surface of these seemingly steady lives. The result is a novel of breathtaking skill and scope that showcases this major writer’s extraordinary talents."  Due early January.

River Road: A Novel by Carol Goodman -- How long has it been since I have read any of Goodman's fiction.  I had read all of it at one time, but there were several releases I never did get to, and then there has been a little hiatus.  This new novel comes out in January.  Something to look forward to after the holidays?  " . . . a chilling new psychological thriller about a professor accused of killing her favorite student in a hit-and-run accident."

Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James -- I think I have read all of St. James's books, or nearly all of them.  She has a new one coming out next April.  "England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins…and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths’ past is just the beginning…"

After You: A Novel by Jojo Moyes -- I read Me Before You (and I just discovered it has been made into a movie!) and now I need to find out what happened next . . .  "Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started."  This is out next month.

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz -- Due out in less than a month this YA novel looks intriguing not least since it is in epistolary format.  "Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her delicious wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a moving yet comedic tour de force."

Death Sits Down to Dinner: A Mystery by Tessa Arlen -- "Filled with deceptions both real and imagined, Death Sits Down to Dinner is a delightful Edwardian mystery set in London."  Hmm. This sounds good--must investigate her books more as I am back on a WWI--era reading kick.  There might be other books in the series to loo for while I am waiting for this as it is not to be published until the end of next March.

Swimming in the Shadows by Diane Janes -- And one for the winter holidays since this is due out late December.  "Susan McCarthy is a health centre manager in the Yorkshire Dales, engaged to be married to geography teacher Rob Dugdale. Her life couldn’t be happier. Except Susan McCarthy isn’t Susan McCarthy at all, but Jennifer Reynolds, a young woman who has succeeded in escaping a deeply unhappy past."

Sometimes I go looking for new books by favorite authors, and sometimes (like these) I just happen across them in my bookish meanderings.  Maybe I need to read a "Autumn" oriented book to make me feel less sticky (and irritable), though I am not quite sure what that would be?  Something with an academic setting?  Wishful thinking as I return to my 'in progress' pile.