A Work in Progress

The Midwich Cuckoos, John Wyndham

There's something strange going on in the sleepy village of Midwich (sleepy villages are never quite what you expect them to be, don't you agree?).  For the narrator, Richard, and his wife Janet, he's only happy that his birthday happened to coincide with the curious event that took place on the 26th of September.  John Wyndham's brilliant 1957 classic The Midwich Cuckoos not only is a remarkable science fiction tale but asks all sorts of questions on what is means to be human--what makes us human, what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom, about our laws and culpability and responsibilities and how our morals shape us and guide us, and the collective as opposed to individuality.  It can be read on more than one level--simply as a story of dread verging on horror or if you are willing to dig just a little bit deeper it offers so very much more.  Lots and lots to ponder here.

A celebration in London takes Richard and Janet away from Midwich for the night and when they try and return they are turned away by the local police telling them that both roads in and out of the village are blocked.  As they're residents, however, they're told that literally no one can get into the village.  How odd.  The pair turn around intending to go back to the next nearest town but decide instead to park and set off across a field in order to sneak back into Midwich.  Midwich is a woefully undramatic place to live.  Nothing happens there at all.  But when they try and walk back into the village proper, Janet first in line, seems to just drop and pass out.  Richard stops and hesitates and no amount of urging will get her to stand back up.  He thinks at first someone has shot her.  And when he continues on, racing to help her . . . it all goes black.

Imagine an invisible dome placed over the village of Midwich.  You can't see it or smell it or feel it, but cross some unknown barrier and it fells you.  The police bring in the military and they try and demarcate just where this invisible line is by using parakeets.  Sort of like the old trick for smelling gas down in the mines.  Only when they pull the birds out, they spring back to life, no harm done.   Luckily for Richard and Janet, they, too, are quickly pulled back outside whatever line that encompasses the village.  And they, too, wake up as if nothing weird happened at all.  Shortly thereafter whatever mysterious field that set down over Midwich seems to evaporate and life goes on as normal.  With one small difference.  Inexplicably all the women of Midwich, no matter age or marital status, if they are of child-bearing age, they have become pregnant!

The 26th comes to be known as "The Dayout".  The day time stopped, something set down (at first popular thought is that it was a ploy by the Russians), something extraterrestrial, causing an artificial sleep and changed the face of Midwich.  How each woman responds and the men in their lives if there is one, varies greatly.  Some are embarrassed or despairing, others (initially at first) embrace the situation.  It is decided communally, to not let word seep out into the rest of England, save for what the local police and military are aware of.  The townspeople fear scientists arriving on their doorsteps to say nothing of the media and taking over their lives.  They think they can just carry on and deal with the problem themselves.  

"Problem" is something of an understatement.  Janet has been exempted from the condition not having been in Midwich when whatever set down, well, set down and did whatever it did.  The women all begin giving birth at about the same time.  The babies seem normal--boys and girls, all very random.  They share one feature, however, they seem to have golden eyes.  When the mothers are all safely delivered of their babies, they just get on with the business of regular daily life.  The women who were simply, and unfortunately, passing through Midwich or working there temporarily, try to return to wherever they came from.  But something seems to "make" them turn around and return to Midwich.  If not the mothers themselves, then some surrogate guardian--as long as the child is returned to the village. 

And then things begin to get really weird.  I want to tell you more, but I don't want to ruin it for you either.  I want you to go and get this book and read it yourself.  As storytelling goes, it is first rate.  And if you think you are not a science fiction reader, don't worry.  Just go get the book.  Wyndham seems a really interesting writer.  He dabbled in a number of different careers but eventually took to writing short stories, which seemed to be published exclusively in American publications, while also writing detective novels.  He served in the army during WWII, then went back to writing but he began writing a "modified form of science fiction that he called 'logical fantasy'."  It works.  It's not exactly science fiction  yet it is not really horror or mystery or just straightforward fiction.  Whatever he called it, it works and it works really really well.

A couple of years ago I read and was suitably impressed by his last published work, Chocky.  Now after reading one of his other 'lesser' known books, I think I need to read everything else and have been working on collecting the rest of his works.  Itchy fingers has me wanting to pick up one of his other books now.  I plan on reading everything I can get my hands on.  I think he is best known for The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids.  I will get to those eventually, but I feel like I am in good hands with any book by him I pick up, so there is no hurry.   

Just a few other things to tease and/or tempt you.  Chocky felt almost light hearted, but The Midwich Cuckoos is decidedly darker.  I thought it quite progressive of Wyndham in his treatment of women and motherhood, as he was spot on in their realization and dread and concern over not being true mothers but hosts.  He is never heavy handed but he poses all sorts of questions to his readers.  A cuckoo, by the way, is a bird which is a determined survivor.  They are known for their ruthless sense of survival--a natural instinct.  The novel was adapted to film in 1960 under the title The Village of the Damned.  This is a story that just flows, and you never really think about it as you are going, but on reflection when all is said and done I see how carefully this story has been crafted.  Wyndham was a master and he certainly found his niche.

Companion reads:  I meant to add this to my post, but better late than never.  One of the short stories that came in my short story advent calendar would make a perfect companion read, Laura Trunkey's "Circumstances of Hatred".  Let's just say it is about Nazis who show up in modern Canada.  If you can get your hands on the story, it would be a perfect read to go with the Wyndham.  You might also like H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Teaser Tuesday: The Human Flies

Ah.  One of bookdom's eternal questions for mystery-lovers.  I've finished my current mystery, now do I pick up the next book in the series or do I start something entirely new?  It's such a dilemma.  I know it is early days yet, and the year is still fresh and new, but I have to say I am having a really good book year so far.  Or at least I am just really excited about the books I am reading and the pile of books I hope to start reading soon.  Everything I seem to pick up has been and is so enjoyable.

I've just finished the second Mirabelle Bevan/Vesta Churchill mystery, London Calling, and will be telling you all about it very soon.  Do I pick up the next in line, or maybe reach for another Mary Russell adventure or find out what Commissario Ricciardi is up to in Naples at the moment?  I am sure I would be happy with any and all of them, but I realized I have not yet read any books in translation (at least I hadn't until my NYRB book showed up in the mail).  Easy enough to fix that problem since I have a plethora of international crime novels and mysteries.  Name just about any language and I bet I can find a matching book somewhere in my piles. 

I am not quite sure how I ended up choosing The Human Flies by Hans Olav Lahlum (when it comes to books I swear my brain is like a computer running mental scans of the stacks of mysteries I have sitting about--click-click-click-click through them until I have a short list and then it is a matter of what sounds right for my mood).  This is kind of a quirky one, both the title and now that I am reading, maybe even the detective, but I don't want to put it down.  Just read enough to get a taste, see if it fits and then finish up something else . . . only I am now 'neglecting' that something else.  (Actually it's all good and as long as I am reading and enjoying that is really all that matters).

Actually I do know what tipped the scales in its favor.  The book, set in Oslo, Norway, and translated from the Norwegian (not sure when the last time I read something translated from Norwegian to be honest--Sigrid Undset perhaps) is compared in the cover blurb to Agatha Christie's mysteries to which this pays homage.  It is a locked room mystery that takes place in 1968, April 4 to be exact, which happens to be the day Martin Luther King was assassinated (I didn't plan on starting the book on MLK Day--that was just a coincidence).  "Of lesser interest to the history books, but of greater significance to DI Kolbjorn Kristiansen, is the murder of Harald Olesen a former cabinet member and hero of the Resistance.

I don't quite have a handle on K2, as he is known.  He seems quirky, in his blue uniform.  This is his very first murder investigation that he will get to lead and is very excited about.  He is a youngish man, I believe.  What makes me think he is on the unconventional side?  The day after the murder, he was the first on the scene by the way: "by half past six I was seated at the breakfast table engaged in a fascinating discussion with my reflection in the coffee pot.  We promptly agreed that this was a case I should not allow to be taken from me by one of the more senior detectives."  That made me chuckle.  The other draw, and I have not yet met her, is the young woman who will help him solve the crime, Patricia.  She happens to be in a wheelchair.  I like that.  There are by far not enough characters in literature who have some sort of physical challenge.  I flipped ahead a bit just to take a peek and I have about thirty pages or so until I meet her. 

If you note the cover illustration you see the outside of an apartment building and so far I am meeting all the residents, two apartments per floor (three including the ground floor), and they are a varied group.  K2 is interviewing them now so I am forming a picture in my mind of each and every one.  This is going to be a puzzle where K2 (and perhaps me as well) carefully fits all the clues together to discover who murdered Harald Olesen.  And why!  And it is going to be a real puzzler considering how impossible it seem anyone was even able to get into his apartment and do the deed, as you will see with my teaser: 

"The very fact that the gun was missing of course disproved any theories of suicide.  However, there was no evidence that another living person had been in the flat, or any indication of how the murderer might have left the scene of the crime.  Harald Olesen lived in an ordinary two-bedroom flat with a bathroom and kitchen, but no balcony.  The thirty-floor drop down to the pavement made windows an unlikely escape route.  Any ideas of fire ropes or mountaineering equipment being used to escape floundered on the fact that the windows were closed from the inside."

"In other words, the front door remained the only feasible option.  If the murderer had managed to get in, he or she could surely have got out the same way.  The door had a snib lock, and the safety chain was not on.  The most pressing question therefore was, how had the murderer managed to leave the flat in those few seconds between the shot being heard and the neighbours arriving at the scene?  And the second question was, how on earth had the murderer left the building?"

Good question and I am sure K2 is going to suss out the answer.  In my initial enthusiasm of meeting K2 and seeing how the mystery is going to shake out, I must admit, I have already ordered the second book in the series.  Because you know you have to have the next book on hand.  Just in case you can't resist picking up that next book right away!

Goodbye Piccadilly, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles knows well how to tell a longstanding, epic family saga!  While I am still stuck in Restoration England with the Morlands, maybe I will do better at keeping up with the Hunter family since I am nearly still getting in on the ground floor, so to speak, of her new War at Home series.  Goodye Piccadilly: War at Home, 1914 is the first of a series of books (not sure how many there are projected to be) set during WWI.  While there are thirty-five Morland books, there are so far only three featuring the Hunter family.  It was the last book I read in 2016, but I hope it will only be the first of a number of CHE books I read this year.

Since Goodbye Piccadilly is the first, where you will meet the Hunters and the other families of the village of Northcote, let me introduce them to you, too.  Hopefully there will be more to come about the family and the War in the coming months.  Northcote is a sleepy village outside London not much known until the railway came through.  The Metropolitan Railway (I wrote about the Metropolitan Line just last year as a matter of fact) made it possible for people to work in London but live in the country.  The Hunters left their Kensington home and made for Northcote taking up residence in The Elms.  Not at all a shabby little place, though nothing to compare really with the other really Great House where the aristocratic Dene family has lived for generations.  It's the Hunters we'll be concerned with, but already a marriage between the two families is on the horizon.

Edward and Beatrice have six children, the four eldest being the main focus of the story this first book out, along with Edward's sister Laura and Beatrice's sister and brother-in-law Adelaide and John.  It all starts with Diana and Sadie.  Diana is the great beauty of the family, the one who is expected to marry well and is pretty enough to pull it off.  Sadie, by turn, a bit horse mad (more than a bit really), not especially (at sixteen-ish) all the interested so far in boys, can marry who she likes, as she reflects in those opening pages.  Although Diana has a coterie of suitors, it's all just fun and flirtation more or less.  She knows what is expected and what she can might 'accomplish' so when Charles Wroughton, Lord Dene, takes an interest in her, she's more than happy to nurture the relationship. 

Charles is shy and awkward.  He loves Dene Park and is loyal to family and tradition, but really he is something of a misfit.  He is stodgy and appears very much a bore.  He would rather talk of horses and hunting and country life.  It's his younger brother who is the savvy, attractive son who finds social situations easy, but he isn't the one who will inherit.  The Denes are terrible snobs and Rupert is entirely of that mold.  He's actually pretty nasty and thinks he knows what Diana is up to, she being nouveau riche and in his thinking, most likely just a gold digger.  And he's happy to let her know what he suspects.  Diana is actually an entirely likable young woman, and while her intentions are for the good, I think she's about to make a big mistake (likely to play itself out in later books).  The Denes and Hunters are further associated as Edward, a London banker, happens to be the the Dene family banker.  But you know how it goes--trade and all.  Blue bloods don't make it a habit to marry into banking families.  So very below them.

I can already tell Sadie is going to be my favorite character.  Did I already say she loves horses.  Yes, I suspect I did.  She spends as much time as she can with Mrs. Cuthbert who houses horses and is as crushed as her neighbor when the Army calls in all the horses for the war effort.  Eventually a surplus of horses will trail through the village of Northcote to be trained and prepared for the battlefield, and just barely her father allows Sadie to stay at home and help with the management of them rather than being shipped off to finishing school somewhere abroad, the idea of which Sadie loathes. 

If Sadie happens by, she is likely be be in the company of (well who is in whose company is questionable really) of the family dog, Nailer.  He is surely the naughtiest,  and hungriest dog in all of the village.  He has a knack for showing up in the story where he shouldn't.  A chance run in with a motor car almost ends his days.  The car is driven by a young veterinarian--not so very much older than Sadie and with whom I foresee (or hope anyway) the frequent crossing of paths.  John Courcy has not yet been called up to fight, but helps with the care of the animals while he waits.  Of course Sadie is still young, so even as he says she is easy to talk to, she thinks of him as an adult rather than an equal.

David, the elder Hunter son decides to join up as soon as war is declared dropping out of university with his best friend much to the chagrin of his mother who can barely contain her anger and the feeling of helplessness at the thought of possibly losing her favorite.  Bobby, not quite of proper age is ready to go as well but is talked out of joining, for his mother's sake.  For now.  But it is early days in the war when most people still believe it will all be over with by year's end, which is where the story ends.  

The war is always present in the story, yet it is not always at the fore of the storytelling.  It affects everyone's lives from the elder son to Diana's relationship with Charles down to the parlour-maid, Ethel's, many flirtations with the village lads.  Edwards sister, Laura, is another favorite of mine.  She is an unmarried working woman (as much as a middle class woman can be an independent working woman in 1914 England) who decides to learn to drive in order to do her part (to say nothing of asserting her independence).   So much drama between the Denes and Hunters, and then there is the village vicar's moralizing wife who has a finger in every pot.  

As you can see there is a lot going on and a full cast of characters with a wide variety of plotlines to keep it all interesting.  It reminds me of Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, but a WWI version of the same sort of family drama where the lives of the characters change, in come cases irrevocably, by war.  A perfect companion read, or reads, since there are five Cazalet books.  It was a thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable story and I can't wait to pick up the next book, Keep the Home Fires Burning, which takes place in 1915.  I don't plan to leave it too long as the story and characters are still all fresh in my mind.  And  maybe, too, this will give me a little nudge nudge to return to those Morlands and Restoration England. 

The Friday of a Long Weekend Mishmash

If there is one good thing about a long holiday weekend that is going to end with a snowy, sleety, wintry mix of weather, it is . . . I have a perfect excuse to stay indoors and read.  Actually, two good things, if I am trying to be optimistic about bad winter weather.  An excuse to stay indoors and the fact that I am lucky I don't have to drag myself out of bed early to deal with nasty winter weather and slick sidewalks on my Monday morning walk to the bus stop in order to get to work on time.  In anticipation I am already thinking about getting up just early enough to go make a hot, steaming cup of coffee grab a nice toasted English muffin and then get back in bed with a book.   From the sound of the forecast both Sunday and Monday are not going to be nice weather days.  Which means perfect reading days. 

Not even halfway into the month--and only the first month of the new year and I am beginning to waver on one of my good intentions.  The intention to not allow myself to pick up books pell mell without having finished a book first.  I have actually started a couple of new books, but then I have also finished a couple of books, too, so no cheating yet.  (And I am hoping over the long weekend to write 'reviews' of those two books as well the last book I finished in 2016).

The problem is that temptations abound!  Powells just announced their shortlist for this year's Tournament of Books.  I have one of the books already on my TBR pile and there are a few others that I have wanted to try, and then there are a few new-to-me books, too, that might be worth looking at.

And then there is a movie coming out next month that I want to read before seeing the film adaptation!  Best not to leave it too long so I am prepared before the movie opens.  I even found my copy last night and it is very conveniently sitting next to my bed.

Book Riot always has the best reading lists and I have been exploring titles from their 100 Recommended Books by Arab Women.  I have even checked one or two out from the library already (see just below . . . re: library book temptations).

January 20 looms heavy on the horizon and I am not looking forward to what comes next.  Uncertainty comes next, but I am curious about what these authors will have to say about the prospect.  My copy should be arriving this weekend.

And then there are just the normal garden variety everyday temptations, like library books.  I have a small but growing stack that I will be perusing this weekend.  And a few new books have graced my mailbox in the last few days as well. 

And I have been thinking it is time for me to pick a new Penguin Little Black Classic.  I have tentatively pulled John Ruskin's Traffic out, but I am not sure if it is exactly matching my mood at the moment.  I tried a page or two and he is perhaps a bit more erudite than I can manage at the moment.  But I also found a Jane Austen that would make a nice companion to Persuasion.  And there is an H.G. Wells that would be a great follow up to the John Wyndham I just read (and will be telling you about).

I need to choose a new mystery since I am finishing Sara Sheridan's wonderful Mirabelle Bevan/Vesta Churchill mystery.  I am leaning heavily towards two books translated from Norwegian (since I am slow out of the starting gate with translated fiction this year). 

If I can stay on track, however, I will be reading short stories (two New Yorker stories, the next one by John Burnside: "Peach Melba", the last Advent Calendar story and the stories Smithereens sent me) and whichever books on my sidebar that call out to me.   With so many really good books on the go at the moment I am not sure which couple to really concentrate on this weekend.

And if the bad weather decides to travel north or south of me, I won't mind a bit.  But I will still fill as much spare time with books this weekend.  I can read just as well in dry weather (yes, please!) as in cold and wet!

Book to Big Screen: A Reading Wishlist

Moviemakers rely on books a lot for inspiring material from which to make their movies, don't they?  When done well this is a good thing.  If lucky the movie will live up to a good book's reputation, sometimes the movie is even better than the book but sometimes the film adaptation can be a serious flop (for me, the biggest book to movie from was the 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo--so very painful for me, I'm afraid).  Much like audio books, I am pretty particular on which books I want to see on screen and more often than not I prefer to read the book first and watch the movie later.  That way the book is not spoiled by watching a poor adaptation. 

I was looking at the list of forthcoming book to film adaptations for the coming year and I find there are a number that look promising, but maybe I need to get my reading list together so I am ready for the releases.  Here is my own personal 'want to read and then see the movie' list.

February:

**Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach -- I really want to read this in any case as Moggach is one of my 'must read all her books' authors!  Now I have a little prompt to read it sooner rather than later.

Trailer

A United Kingdom -- Based on a true story, though I am not sure there is a book involved.

Trailer

March:

**The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman -- I like Diane Ackerman and it has been far too long since I have read any of her books--I do have this one on my shelf!

Trailer

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Trailer

April:

The Circle by Dave Eggers -- I have heard good things about this book.  One that is sort of on my radar but not sure I would have read it had not the movie beed made . . .

Trailer

May:

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier -- I have read this one twice already but I love Daphne du Maurier and will happily read it again.  Can't wait for the movie!

The Dinner by Herman Koch

June:

Wonder Woman -- I don't know that I will read Wonder Woman comics in anticipation, but now might be a good time for the Jill Lepore book.

The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

September:

Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant by Shrabani Basu

October:

**The Snowman by Jo Nesbo -- I started reading the Harry Hole books and must get back to them now.

November:

**Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie -- Another one I am happily anticipating and an Agatha Christie novel I have not yet read.

No release date:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes -- Another one on my shelves!

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

**The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells -- I read this one already, but it might be one to revisit this year.

Some of these are of more interest than others, and some I really really do want to read (particularly those asterisked), but I will be checking them out as they are released.

Have I missed anything good?  Something I really should see, or that you are looking forward to seeing (and that might be read first?).

January NYRB: Samskara

A good mail day and another new start for the new reading year.  I am once again subscribing to the NYRB Classics Book Club and my January book is here.  All in all I didn't do too badly with last year's books since I read just over half of them (and maybe I can cross off a few more this year as well), but one of my 'goals' is to read even more this year.  It would be a really spectacular year to read them all, but you never know what NYRB will throw at you.  Generally the books are on the shorter side, but not always.  Sometimes what shows up in your mailbox will be a reading challenge in some way or another.  Whatever book they choose, however, will be a worthy and often a really amazing read.

To kick 2017 off they have sent the just released (rather reissued) Indian classic Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man by U.R. Ananthamurthy, which was published in 1965 and translated the Indian poet and scholar A.K. Ramanujan.  To be honest I had never heard of this book or author before and were I not a subscriber this likely would not cross my radar and I would not have picked it up otherwise.  That is, however, the very reason I love NYRB and eagerly look forward to what each new month will bring.  Subscribers get one of each month's new releases which are generally reissues of forgotten classics and more often than not they are works in translation.  Since I am not part of a local book club, this is a good way to read outside my normal comfort zone and expand my mind and reading experience.  And I have found some favorites through the books I have received and read. 

Silly as it sounds seeing that parcel in my mailbox each month makes me all happy and tingly inside.  I try not to look ahead of time so I can be surprised by what they send, but lately I have not been especially successful.  The anticipation always gets the better of me.

So what is Samskara about?  Good question and I shall soon find out, but just perusing the book a bit . . . there is a translator's note which calls this a novella (just over 150 pages, so certainly entirely doable in the coming month before I start thinking about February's book).  He writes that it is "a religious novella about a decaying brahmin colony in a Karnataka village, an allegory rich in realistic detail."  It was popular with readers and critics when it was published and shortly after made into a "controversial" film.  The NYRB description assures me it is "a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and impure."  I wonder if it will in any way shed light on my other Indian read, A Suitable Boy?  I'll let you know!

Shall we start reading?

"He bathed Bhagirathi's body, a dried-up wasted pea-pod, and wrapped a fresh sari around it; then he offered food and flowers to the gods as he did every day, put the flowers in her hair, and gave her holy water.  She touched his feet, he blessed her.  Then he brought her a bowlful of cracked-what porridge from the kitchen."

When you subscribe you get a freebie/previously published classic, which in my case turns out to be The Jeffersonian Transformation: Passages from the "History" by Henry Adams.  That seems a pretty good choice considering my plan to read Colonial American Literature (fiction and nonfiction).  The actual History runs to nine volumes, so this will be a sampling.  Since this is a freebie I will probably take my time reading it.  Maybe a chapter a month or so?  It seems like it will be heavy-duty reading, but I might be pleasantly surprised.  

Hmm.  I seem to have a very respectable (and slightly formidable) reading pile going, but I am happy with each and every book!

Teaser Tuesday: Persuasion

Persuasion is my most favorite Jane Austen novel.  I mean, what's not to love about this story--a 'mature' heroine, past her youthful prime (though I would personally not feel past my prime at twenty-seven!), a dashing naval officer returned to Bath with his newly acquired fortune, a second chance at love for both of them . . .  This is contented-sigh-happy-ending kind of stuff.  Plus there is the witty repartee and a fair amount of humor and delight alongside a bit of heartache along the way.

And all packaged in Austen's brilliant prose.  The woman knew just the right turn of phrase, didn't she?  Reading anything by Jane Austen is like walking into a different time and place, a much smarter and more elegant time and place.  Is it weird to say (and to think) how cool it would be if we all talked like the characters in a Jane Austen novel?  The prose is not just witty but it is sparkling, like the fizz on a just-poured glass of champagne. 

I was reading and enjoying and thought I should really share some of the passages here.  Never mind that we all likely know the stories of her novels even if we have not read them (I have two as-yet-not-read Austen books on my shelves) since we all pretty much know the plots (and probably endings, too).  The Elliots of Kellynch Hall have had to give up their home thanks to poor management by Mr. Elliot.  He is surely one of the most smug and snobbish of fops in all of Bath, and a poor money manager. 

So now the house is to be let to one Admiral Croft and has wife (she, the sister of Captain Wentworth, Anne Elliot's former love interest . . . she took bad advice and turned his proposal down).  While Mr. Elliot and Anne's sister Elizabeth are off to Bath to look for a suitable residence, Anne will remain in the neighborhood and stay with her other (married) sister, Mary.  If you've read Persuasion you'll know how irksome Mary can be, but as characters go, she does come in handy as the subject of some wonderful rapier sharp observations.

Mary is married to Charles Musgrove and there is a really amusing scene where Anne, ever the perfect listener, must endure Mary's criticisms of the Musgroves and vice versa.

"How was Anne to set all these matters to rights? She could do little more than listen patiently, soften every grievance, and excuse each to the other; give them all hints of the forbearance necessary between such near neighbours, and make those hints broadest which were meant for her sister's benefit."

A little teaser or two of her diplomacy--a good listener to each and a critic of none.

"'I wish you could persuade Mary not to be always fancying herself ill,' was Charles's language; and, in an unhappy mood, thus spoke Mary: 'I do believe if Charles were to see me dying, he would not think there was anything the matter with me. I am sure, Anne, if you would, you might persuade him that I really am very ill--a great deal worse than I ever own'."

***

"Mary's declaration was, "I hate sending the children to the Great House, though their grandmamma is always wanting to see them, for she humours and indulges them to such a degree, and gives them so much trash and sweet things, that they are sure to come back sick and cross for the rest of the day." And Mrs Musgrove took the first opportunity of being alone with Anne, to say,'Oh! Miss Anne, I cannot help wishing Mrs Charles had a little of your method with those children. They are quite different creatures with you! But to be sure, in general they are so spoilt! It is a pity you cannot put your sister in the way of managing them. They are as fine healthy children as ever were seen, poor little dears! without partiality; but Mrs Charles knows no more how they should be treated--! Bless me! how troublesome they are sometimes. I assure you, Miss Anne, it prevents my wishing to see them at our house so often as I otherwise should. I believe Mrs Charles is not quite pleased with my not inviting them oftener; but you know it is very bad to have children with one that one is obligated to be checking every moment; 'don't do this, and 'don't do that;' or that one can only keep in tolerable order by more cake than is good for them'."

***

Can't you just picture poor Anne sitting on the sofa next to each person getting an earful from each and not wanting to agree with any?!  I'm just getting to the start of the really good part.  Captain Wentworth is soon to be in the neighborhood and both his and Anne's paths are about to cross.  

I might have to read more Jane Austen this year.  In any case, I hope I will read many more classics.  I am already contemplating what I might pick up next.  At the moment I can see in my mind a book with Virginia Woolf's name on the spine . . .  But first things first.  Must get Anne and Frederick sorted out.

The Third Miss Symons, F.M. Mayor

Nature vs. nurture was my first thought on finishing F.M. Mayor's The Third Miss Symons, which was first published in 1913 and reissued as a Virago Modern Classic in 1980.  Is Henrietta Symons, third daughter and fifth child of a proper Victorian family the way she is because of the oppressive environment in which she was raised or it is simply the nature of her personality and indeed she is as curmudgeonly and taciturn as she appears and therefore unlovable.  While reading I was by turns sympathetic towards her plight and wanting to give her a good shake and tell her: 'please, for your own sake . . . snap out of it!'.

It is comforting to know I am not alone in my response as I read Susan Hill's introduction, as she feels much the same (though she notes it is hard to be sympathetic towards her at all).  "The fault lies in Henrietta's personality as much as in her circumstances.  She knows it, at least in her heart of hearts, and loathes herself, and can do nothing to escape from the prison of herself," Hill writes.   Isn't that the worst--seeing those faults in yourself yet not having the desire or compunction to try and make a change.

So, it is both nature and nurture.  Her poor upbringing which does nothing to instill a sense of self-worth sets her up for an unhappy, unadventurous adulthood almost entirely devoid of meaningful interactions with others and no ability to simply either be content with her situation or find the skills in order to make it more fulfilling.  In a way this feels a little like a cautionary tale, though mostly it is a look at the circumstances some women found themselves in in that period just before WWI--just at the end of the Victorian era where women either married and took care of husbands and children or were maiden aunts, 'extras' who might be useful to elderly parents or siblings.  At least by the post-WWI modern era women finally began making strides and finding new roles as independent women--thank goodness!

Poor Henrietta was stuck somewhere in the middle of the family lineup.  Neither the eldest nor the youngest--each having some special role--happy novelties to be a first or last, and not a boy.  Not particularly pretty, though she does have her short moment.  She is more or less neglected and compared to her siblings not really all that useful to her parents.  Rather than finding her own happy place in the world she simply turns bitter and remains that way. 

Henrietta's eldest sister sabotages her one chance at marital happiness (whether it would have been a happy marriage is open to argument, but she would at least have filled a certain accepted role).  What is sad is that none of the daughters end up especially happy or successful all things considered.  But by then Henrietta's personality has been formed and is rigid and unwavering.  She becomes the sort of cranky, cantankerous old woman who would likely yell out her window--'hey you naughty kids get off my lawn' . . . grouch . . . grouch . . .  grouch.

One woman's life summed up in a mere 144 pages.  It is not a very happy life or a useful life.  In the original preface to the book, it's remarked that this is a woman whose life is not wasted, simply it is not used.  And there is something heartbreaking about that.  All through the story she wonders why she is here if she is not loved.  Over and over again she thinks that her only desire has been to love something and for something/somebody to love her.  And isn't that ultimately what we all want?  So I guess in the end this is a character study and a comment on the human condition.  Maybe it I shouldn't be sad that it takes only 144 pages to sum up one woman's life as to admire F.M. Mayor's ability lay bare Henrietta's shortcomings and situation so very precisely in so compact a manner.  And to appreciate that this utter boredom of Henrietta's, this lack of any useful  application of time and skills to contribute something meaningful to one's life and to Society is a choice these days rather than impossible situation. 

And just so you don't think Henrietta never found any happiness and fulfillment:

"On the whole during those latter years she improved, and in the general reformation of her character she raised the standard of her reading.  She confined herself in the mornings and afternoon to mildly scandalous memoirs of Frenchwomen and biographies of Church dignitaries, keeping her costume novels for the evening."

She had never been a very good reader, or learner in general (or traveler or helper . . .), but I had a good chuckle on the books that helped her find some useful distractions!  A somewhat maddening story (or a maddening woman), but in the end, as per Viragos in general, this is a story with more to it than meets the eye.  As for a companion read Persephone book #65 Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson offers another view on the spinster or superfluous woman.

I've not yet started reading, but I think my next Virago will be A Touch of Mistletoe by Barbara Comyns.

January 6: Weekend Reading Notes

A new year and a new header.  I am looking for some other new suitable bookish/reading women/men (not so many of the latter it seems) pictures to use.  Don't you feel like you are peeking over her shoulder to see what she is reading?  So, it is fitting that I am using it for my own 'reading notes' posts since is like a virtual peek over the shoulder at my own reading pile!

Did you already see the Millions' Most Anticipated 2017 Book Preview yesterday?  I still need to go over the list a little more carefully and add to my growing wishlist of books.  I was gratified to see a number of overlap titles on my own (very brief) list of wannareads.

Perhaps when you read this it will be at the same moment as I am enjoying a hot cup of coffee and (maybe) something sweet at a coffee shop as I have the afternoon off.  You can't ask for a better Friday than one with a free afternoon to read.  It's been Artic-cold here, so I am happy to find a warm place inside with my books.  On my own reading agenda for the weekend . . .

After a much-too-long hiatus from reading Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, I am slowly getting back into the thick of the story.  I was happy to discover that I had not lost the thread of action and that I was able to fall comfortably back into the story.  Sometimes a little break is deadly to an in progress book.  Hopefully a catch-up post on what's happening in the story will be forthcoming next week.  I am almost 450 pages into the story, so no turning back now (there are still about 1,000 pages to go--whew--but better to think of it as three more novels, which makes it not so overwhelming after all).

Also forthcoming will be posts on my last finish of 2016, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles's Goodbye, Piccadilly from her War at Home series.  It is the first book (there are three out now I believe) set in 1914.  The books seem to go according to year, so I am not sure ultimately how many there will be.  Five?  Through 1918?  Or maybe beyond?  I have the next two sitting on my reading pile and look forward to reading the next one soon, as I very much enjoyed the first installment and am now caught up in the lives of the characters.

I've also finished my first Virago, F.M. Mayor's The Third Miss Symons, and have a few more things to share about it.  There are a few things I am going to try hard this year to do, the first is keeping up with writing about what I am reading/finishing (in a more timely manner that is) and the other is to try and keep my reading pile under control (yes, much easier said than done) by not letting myself start a new book until I finish something on my reading pile.  And the moment I write this, in my mailbox arrives my copy of Daisy Goodwin's Victoria, which I have been really looking forward to reading (I wonder if I could possibly read it in the next ten days or so in anticipation of the Masterpiece presentation of the film adaptation?).

I bet you won't be surprised to hear that I have a slightly curious mode of reading and choosing my reads--I have a number of 'mental categories' of books I like to have on the go at once--in theory anyway (a classic, a mystery, a novel, my NYRB subscription book . . . you get the idea).  So, one book per category until I finish whatever is in progress.  Now that I have finished a Virago, I get to choose a new one. I already have the choices narrowed down to four!  Maybe my new Virago will be my next teaser.

I'm making happy progress in my current mystery and have already started thinking of where my next crime will take place, or by which author--today's thinking (because you know it may change tomorrow) is that maybe something cold would be fitting, or it is time to catch up on my Elizabeth George/Inspector Lynley series, or maybe I will stay in Austerity/Post WWII England.  Or maybe I should insert a nice spy story about here.  The choices are limitless considering the backlog of mysteries I have on my shelves.

Have I mentioned that I am reading about George and Martha Washington--about their marriage and I find it all fascinating?  It is generally the book I read on the treadmill at the gym, so I hope to get in a little time with it this weekend.

I've been book grazing this week, reading a little bit here and a little bit there and suspect there will be more of the same this weekend.  But I am leaning towards starting a new graphic novel (am allowing myself a library book, too) that I have had sitting by my bedside.  Actually I think it would be considered a graphic nonfiction book, which I find I quite like!   

What will you be reading this weekend?

A New Year, a New List of Coming Books!

Last year's books have been read (save a very few) and written about and now tidied away.  The calendar has flipped to a new year and one book (however slender) has already been enjoyed and shared, so I think it is safe now to turn my attention to forthcoming books that I am looking forward to.  Of course I am always ready to turn my attention to new books, but with a clean slate at hand, I feel like I can happily anticipate exploring this handful of books due out in the coming months.  In no particular order here are a few books that have caught my eye and are on my wishlist and i can't wait to get my hands on. 

In this Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear -- I am sure I have mentioned the new Maisie Dobbs mystery that will be published in March, but it is one of my most anticipated new reads, so I will mention it again.  Now it i just around the corner!  " Sunday September 3rd 1939.  At the moment Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to the nation Britain’s declaration of war with Germany, a senior Secret Service agent breaks into Maisie Dobbs' flat to await her return. Dr. Francesca Thomas has an urgent assignment for Maisie: to find the killer of a man who escaped occupied Belgium as a boy, some twenty-three years earlier during the Great War."  I am hoping that this mystery will see Maisie more healed after the trials she has gone through in previous books.  And I think some old favorite characters will be back in the picture, too.

The Forbidden Garden by Ellen Herrick -- "Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Sarah Jio, comes a lush imaginative novel that takes readers into the heart of a mysterious English country garden, waiting to spring to life."

Days without End by Sebastian Berry -- "Thomas McNulty, aged barely seventeen and having fled the Great Famine in Ireland, signs up for the U.S. Army in the 1850s. With his brother in arms, John Cole, Thomas goes on to fight in the Indian Wars—against the Sioux and the Yurok—and, ultimately, the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, the men find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in."

Running by Cara Hoffman -- "From the critically acclaimed author of Be Safe I Love You comes a dark and breathtaking novel of love, friendship, and survival set in the red light district of Athens in the 1980s that Garth Greenwall calls 'a ferocious, brilliant book'."

The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria by Alia Malek -- "The Home That Was Our Country is a deeply researched, personal journey that shines a delicate but piercing light on Syrian history, society, and politics. Teeming with insights, the narrative weaves acute political analysis with a century of intimate family history, ultimately delivering an unforgettable portrait of the Syria that is being erased."

More Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers by Jonathan Lethem -- "A readerly wake-up call from one of America’s finest and most acclaimed working writers. Picking up where his NBCC Award finalist collection The Ecstasy of Influence left off, More Alive and Less Lonely collects more than a decade of Lethem’s finest writing on writing, with new and previously unpublished material, including: impassioned appeals for forgotten writers and overlooked books, razor-sharp essays, and personal accounts of his most extraordinary literary encounters and discoveries." 

Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach -- "In this, her startling debut novel, Dolan-Leach nimbly entwines the clever mystery of Agatha Christie, the wit of Dorothy Parker, and the inebriated Gothic of Eugene O’Neill. A sharp, wrenching tale of the true love only twins know."—Kirkus Reviews

Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami -- "Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all."

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn -- "In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption."

4 3 2 1: A Novel by Paul Auster -- "As inventive and dexterously constructed as anything Paul Auster has ever written, yet with a passion for realism and a great tenderness and fierce attachment to history and to life itself that readers have never seen from Auster before. 4 3 2 1 is a marvelous and unforgettably affecting tour de force."

House of Names by Colm Toibin -- "From the thrilling imagination of bestselling, award-winning Colm Tóibín comes a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra—spectacularly audacious, violent, vengeful, lustful, and instantly compelling—and her children."

The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller -- I keep seeing this one everywhere, so I better check it out!  "1991. Near Checkpoint Zulu, one hundred miles from the Kuwaiti border, Thomas Benton meets Arwood Hobbes. Benton is a British journalist who reports from war zones in part to avoid his lackluster marriage and a daughter he loves but cannot connect with; Arwood is a midwestern American private who might be an insufferable ignoramus, or might be a genuine lunatic with a death wish--it's hard to tell. Desert Storm is over, peace has been declared, but as they argue about whether it makes sense to cross the nearest border in search of an ice cream, they become embroiled in a horrific attack in which a young local girl in a green dress is killed as they are trying to protect her. The two men walk away into their respective lives. But something has cracked for them both."

Just like end of year favorites lists abounded, so now the best books of 2017 lists are daily discoveries it seems.  I have merely touched the tip of the iceberg.  Do you have a particular book (or books!) you are waiting for this year?