A Work in Progress

Lo, A Rose Needlework Redux

I really miss my former creative endeavors.  Life has been sort of stressful and while reading is always a welcome escape, sometimes it can be hard to concentrate on a story, so my needlework is a natural next choice.  It is something to concentrate on while still being able to relax and be distracted.  I hate to admit how long ago I started my Lo, a Rose Sampler, but it was the handiest (and easiest) project close by.  The colors are nicely muted and subtle and the stitching is easy, so out it came and I have been spending a bit of time each day this week on it.  Maybe I can actually get back into the habit of stitching again.  I do miss the feel of a needle and thread in hand.  I hope I'll be sharing more of this (and maybe some other works, too).

Teaser Tuesday: The Rector's Daughter

Early last year I read F.M. Mayor's The Third Miss Symons, a novel about a rather hard to like woman yet curiously interesting, too.  The youngest daughter, one of a crowd of children of a proper Victorian family who has little to recommend herself.  The victim of circumstance perhaps but also maybe the victim of her own narrowmindedness and lack of desire to achieve more than what she has been given.  Maybe those are harsh words.  It's 1914 and a youngest daughter with few prospects compounded by a lack of suitable husband material due to the war has a few obstacles to start with.  Yet a single woman don't have to be miserable, and Henrietta is decidedly miserable. 

So now after a rather glowing recommendation by Susan Hill in her book of essays about Mayor's novel, The Rector's Daughter, I had to find a copy and read it for myself.  Once again there is a proper Victorian family but the young woman in stuck by circumstance rather than personality in a claustrophobic situation.  I am not sure it will necessarily be a happier story, but maybe a more likable heroine even if her dreams are not exactly fulfilled.  Susan Hill notes her copy is battered and much read but she won't buy a new copy as she is so fond of it.  " . .  .it has never failed me--never failed to make me forget myself and everything going on around me, never failed to move me beyond tears."  From what I have read this is Mayor's best novel, though she only published three as well as some short stories.

So Mary is the daughter of a Canon (more than a vicar?) in a small and pretty boring sounding little village.  It seems bland and quiet and Mary is one of two daughters and has two brothers, though as she matures she is stuck at home taking care of her father who is a widower.  I've only just started to read, but she seems to want something more excited but maybe not entirely disappointed by the quietness of her life.  Despite her lackluster appearance I think I already like Mary.

"His daughter (Canon Jocelyn) was a decline.  Her uninteresting hair, dragged severely back, displayed a forehead lined too early.  Her complexion was a dullish hue, not much lighter than her hair.  She had her father's beautiful eyes, and hid them with glasses.  She was dowdily dressed, but she had many companions in the neighborhood, from labourers' wives to the ladies of the big houses, to share her dowdiness.  It was not observed; she was as much a part of her village as its homely hawthorns."

I don't think of plainness in appearance is a character flaw or it makes a person any less interesting or attractive in other ways, so I am rooting for Mary nonetheless.  Besides she loves reading and her bookishness is completely understandable to me.

"Books streamed everywhere, all over the house, even up the attic stairs.  They were on every subject imaginable."

So, even if her home life leaves much to be desired (she seems to be foiled on every attempt at a social life by her father), she has her books.  I am hoping that she will, in the end, triumph. 

Weekend Reading Notes: June 22

Before the calendar flips over to July (July!  Can you believe it?), I am hoping to finish a few books this weekend and then maybe a couple more next week.  And then as soon as July comes I think it is time once again for a night-table-books-in-progress-reading-pile assessment.  I am hoping that these (last time I checked in) will be well and truly cleared!

For this weekend, however, I think I have my reading plans fairly well laid out.  I am nearing the end of the most delightful Miss Buncle's Book.  It seems like it would make a great movie--a madcap romcom that would be fun to watch.  I wonder if the sequel is as good?  I do have it on my TBR pile somewhere as well as another of her books, though I think I won't be able to get to either in the very near future. 

The other 'must-finish' is actually a romance novel, a genre I am not one to reach for very often.  I don't mind a nice bit of romance in my regular reading--mysteries or fiction, but I rarely pick up a book that would be shelved in a bookstore's romance section.  I have nothing against the genre, but I tend to like a story that is less about the romance and more about other things as the main focus.  That said, I was tempted by one of Book Riot's contributor's reading suggestion of Lucy Parker's novel Act Like It.  It's a common trope--two characters are thrown together who don't exactly like each other, but need to pretend to have a romance--in this case two actors in a theater production.  The man is fairly odious on the surface and his reputation needs a little softening, so one of the cast members who is a funny, lovable sort of woman agrees to play his love interest.  Well, you know what is going to happen, right?  They are going to fall for each other.  But I have to say it is all really nicely done and most enjoyable.  I love the smart repartee and it's not in any way too over the top.  As a matter of fact I am enjoying it so much I have ordered her second book and look forward to the third which is forthcoming in July!  Since I am fond of the theater, I love this series, The London Celebrities Series--so please, keep the stories coming. 

I've also got two forthcoming graphic novels loaded on my ipad that I was lucky enough to get egalley copies of.  One expires in the coming week so I have been dipping into it regularly.  Green Almonds: Letters from Palestine by Anaele Hermans and illustrated by Delphine Hermans chronicles the sisters correspondence.  Anaele travels to Palestine while her sister is left behind in Liege, Belgium.  I am really enjoying it and love this different perspective on a part of the world I am really interested in.  Also I love that the sisters worked together to create the story/illustrations.  It's definitely one to watch for if you enjoy graphic novels.

The other graphic novel I can finish at a more leisurely pace as it does not expire for a bit yet.  Nora Krug's Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home is coming out in the Fall.  She both wrote the text and did the illustrations.  Although she was born decades after the war she writes about the sense of guilt even now she feels and experiences about the legacy of the Holocaust.  It's well done and I have long wondered (but would be afraid to ask any of my German friends) about this very dark moment of history and how later generations deal with it.

I should also mention two new 'starts' as well.  I have picked up Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which is the next selection for the book club I recently joined.  I have barely started but it seems like it will be a fun read--certainly Eleanor seems very quirky and I am curious about her!  And since I finished Charlotte Bingham's memoir it was time to choose a new nonfiction read and William J. Mann's Edgar Award winning Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood fairly leapt out at me when I was perusing my stacks.  It seems to be a perfect choice as I was immediately drawn into the world of the Silent Film era and this unsolved murder mystery. 

Perfect weekend reading for me as I have nothing else planned (other than household chores . . .)!  What is on your reading agenda this weekend?

Coronet Among the Weeds, Charlotte Bingham

It wasn't until somewhere in the middle of my reading that I had that 'aha' moment and understood what the title of Charlotte Bingham's 1960's debut book, Coronet Among the Weeds, referred to exactly.  Written when she was a mere nineteen and published when she was twenty imagine a young woman, fresh out of school, a reluctant debutante telling her life story--very tongue in cheek--and you'll get an idea of the flavor of her memoir (memoir or novel based on her life experiences I wonder?).  Conceived as a comedy and encouraged by her parents who were professional writers, Charlotte's narrative is as quirky and of the moment as you can imagine. 

The coronet is, I imagine, the crown she must have worn when presented as a Deb, and the weeds?  I had never heard the word in this context, but think 1960s British slang, pair that with a young woman who begins her memoir saying she has yet to find her superman.  Weeds are the young men of her set.  I don't know--dudes, maybe?  But she uses the words 'weeds' consistently throughout the book (as well as a few other choice terms). There are a number of slangy references which gives the storytelling very much a feeling of verisimilitude.  I imagine Charlotte as being quite hip in her way, even as she writes with a note of self-deprecation and the sense she is maybe even a little square-ish.  But as a young woman of the times she knows what's what.

Coronet Among the Weeds is not exactly your typical coming of age memoir.  Much like any teenager she flits from topic to topic but she focuses mostly on her social life--the time she spent in Paris after finishing school, becoming a Beatnik and not exactly feeling quite a success and then trying her hand at being a Deb, which she swore she would never do, and not quit fitting into that milieu either.  Lots of socializing and looking for her superman.  And then trying to find work and her place in the world without really having the right skills for anything really.

London of the Swinging Sixties is the era and I can place her almost firmly there.  Picture one of those semi-faded technicolor films with a hip (or almost since she was painfully pear shaped when she would have preferred to be a model) young woman and the youthful language to match.  If it was a film the heroine would be narrating her story while the scenes played out in front of our eyes with just the right music.  It would all be very chatty and airy and informal as if she was telling you her story, or rather stories.  I was only surprised at times when I'd get a peek at her more conservative side.  She may be of the era but she was also from a 'good' (read that as private schools, successful inquisitive and supportive parents with an illustrious family history) family.  Maybe conservative is not exactly the right word, maybe traditional? 

If there is meant to be any resolution at the end, it does not come.  No superman, at least not yet, but a plucky and optimistic young woman with the world at her feet and a massively successful and enviable first book under her belt complete with positive press reviews.  Not too shabby for someone barely out of her teens.  Charlotte Bingham goes on to write a further two memoirs (the last only recently published) as well as quite a few novels.  If you don't know her books, you might well know her as one of the screenwriters for some of the early episodes of hugely successful Upstairs, Downstairs TV series. 

Eventually I will pick up her other memoirs (it is the recently published MI5 and Me: A Coronet Among the Spooks that first pointed me in the direction of her earlier books), but I think these are books (at least the first two) are best spread out rather than back to back.  I think Coronet Among the Weeds came around at just the right time and reflected the sensibilities of the moment.  It caught the right wave and she literally sailed it to high success as it prompted media tours and even a TV series, which I am most curious about now.  But the world is a different place now.  I think I need a little palate cleanser, a change of pace, before dipping back into the world of Debs, weeds, and beatniks. 

Teaser Tuesday: IQ84

So I am pretty fascinated by Haruki Murakami's novel IQ84, which I picked up for my (long!, big!) summer read as part of my Other Worlds & Alternate Realities project.  I have no doubt it is going to take me all summer to get through this door stop of a book, but so far I am quite absorbed in my reading.  There are two seemingly disparate storylines taking place.  I am not sure when the story is set or even if they are occurring concurrently.  I am guessing the time is now and maybe the characters are inhabiting the same space even if they have no idea the other exists.  (Don't tell me--if you have read it--I want to figuring it out along the way).

So the first story involves a young woman, Aomame, who is trying to get to an appointment and finds herself stuck in traffic.  The cab driver suggests (though he isn't necessarily advising her to do it) getting out of the car, which is on an elevated expressay, and climbing down the emergency ladder and then taking the subway the rest of the way.  She does just that and gets to her appointment.  Should I tell you what that appointment is for?  It is early on in the story, so I don't think I will spoil anything, but . . . no better not say.  It surprised me however, and sucked me in as it was a twist I was not expecting.

The second story is about a writer, Tengo, who is talented, and has entered his writing into a competition for which he is involved (and knows one of the judges).  He also teaches at a local cram school.  His friend tells him he is talented but the story lacks something and likely will not win the award.  They discuss another submission, however, by a high school student.  She can tell a cracking story, but her writing style leaves a lot to be desired.  So his friend suggests Tengo rewrite the story with his good prose yet keep the feeling of the story and the plot.  They then plan on submitting the story which surely will be a winner.  Now Tengo is going to meet up with the young woman and share this idea and hope she will agree.

Curious, yes?  What does either of these have to do with the other?  The novel is supposed to be Murakami's homage to George Orwell's 1984 and has been described as "a love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia".  I have a feeling this is going to be quite a journey.

Before I share a little teaser I have to mention that I love the way the book is designed.  There are some cool graphics, and I am sure the illustrations will make sense as I read.  This is a story that has some sort of alternate reality or parallel universe where things are not quite what they seem.  Check out the page numbers and how the right side mirrors the left.  All kinds of interesting things going on here. 

So, this is what the cab driver tells Aomame as she is getting out of the car:

"The driver nodded and took the money.  'Would you like a receipt?'"

"'No need.  And keep the change.'"

"'And also,' the driver said, facing the mirror, 'please remember: things are not what they seem.'"

"Things are not what they seem, Aomame repeated mentally.  'What do you mean by that?' she asked with knitted brows."

"The driver chose his words carefully: 'It's just that you're about to do something out of the ordinary.  Am I right?  People do not ordinarily climb down the emergency stairs of the Metropolitan Expressway in the middle of the day--especially women."

"'I suppose you're right.'"

"'right.  And after you do something like that, the everyday look of things might seem to change a little.  Things may looks different to you than they did before.  I've had the experience myself. But don't let appearances fool you.  There's always only one reality.'"

June 15: Weekend Reading Notes

I've been wondering when Sarah Waters is going to publish a new book?  I've been looking but I don't see even a mention of what she might be working on at the moment?  Does anyone have any insight?  I do still have two unread books by  her on my reading pile, but it is nice to know that another is underway.  I did, however, see that the trailer is up for the adaption of her novel The Little Stranger.  It looks like it could be pretty spooky.

I don't watch much TV and have really really basic cable at home, but I am almost tempted to branch out in order to see Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects.  Maybe I should start by reading the book?

I am happy to see that the Paris Review (online) has started a new column "dedicated to underread female authors".  They have started with Olivia Manning (whose books I own several by the way).  And there is this list of the Top Ten Lost Women's Classics.  Not lost by me as I have read four of the books on the list, own a further two and only two books were new to me.  Still, always nice to see some light shed on women authors who should be read more.

I think I already mentioned that the next big read for the B&N Book Clube is Anne Tyler's Clock Dance.  The discussion is not until August, but the group that has met at my local branch of the store decided to choose other books for the months n between.  Earlier this week we met to talk about Kristin Harmel's The Room on Rue Amélie.  We decided we could squeeze in another book between now and the Anne Tyler selection so I've pulled out my copy of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which was one of the longlisted titles for the Women's Prize for Fiction.  I think I'll be starting it this weekend as we'll meet in about a month's time to discuss it.  It was one of the books on the longlist that really appealed to me (so always happy to have an excuse to start a new book)!

Last night I picked up a whopping seven books that were being held for me at the public library!  The librarian was kind enough to mark the three of the list which have people waiting for them after me.  So this weekend I'll be spending a little time perusing them and deciding which I most want to read.  I was surprised that three of those holds also happen to be on this list of 46 Great Books to Read this Summer.  There are actually several more books on that list that I am in line for at the library and plenty more to explore.

I also brought home Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient, which I have heard good things about.  I like that this is a romance with a heroine who has autism.  I came across an interview with her and she mentions she already has another book in the works to be published next year and a third scheduled after that.  I'm looking forward to dipping into that this weekend as well.

It's going to be a real scorcher of a weekend here--back to back 'feels like' over 100F days until early next week, so I will be spending much of it inside.  With my books.  And as you see I have plenty of them to keep me busy.  (There might be a quick foray out to the bookstore and maybe a movie will be popped into my computer or streamed-but otherwise I am going to find the coolest spot in the house and escape into a good story or two).  Stay cool everyone!

A Baker's Dozen of New Books!

Last night I met with the B&N Book Club, which I will mention more about another day, but I took a quick look at their new books shelves and they were chock full of new releases and newly published in paperback titles that I wanted to linger over, but there was not enough time.  I am hoping for a bookstore visit this weekend.  Until then I have been jotting down loads of new and forthcoming titles (already gearing up for the big fall season I suspect).  It's been a while since I did a round up of new titles, so before my list gets even more unwieldy here are a baker's dozen of books I plan on checking out.

Our House by Louise Candlish (August 7) -- There has already been lots of press on this one and it does indeed look quite tempting.  "There's nothing unusual about a new family moving in at 91 Trinity Avenue. Except it's her house. And she didn't sell it."

Putney by Sofka Zinovieff (August 21) -- "A provocative and absorbing novel about a teenage girl’s intoxicating romance with a powerful older man and her discovery, decades later, that her happy memories are hiding a painful truth."

This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga (August 7) -- "In This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, to examine how the hope and potential of a young girl and a fledgling nation can sour over time and become a bitter and floundering struggle for survival. As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents’ impoverished homestead. It is this homecoming, in Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel, that culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be."  I read Nervous Conditions way back in 2009 so I am looking forward to this.

Love is Blind by William Boyd (October 9) -- "Brodie Moncur is a brilliant piano tuner, as brilliant in his own way as John Kilbarron--'The Irish Liszt'--the pianist Brodie accompanies on all of his tours from Paris to Saint Petersburg, as essential to Kilbarron as the pianist's own hands. It is a luxurious life, and a level of success Brodie could hardly have dreamed of growing up in a remote Scottish village, in a household ruled by a tyrannical father. But Brodie would gladly give it all up for the love of the Russian soprano Lika Blum: beautiful, worldly, seductive--and consort to Kilbarron. And though seemingly doomed from the start, Brodie's passion for her only grows as their lives become increasingly more intertwined, more secretive, and, finally, more dangerous--what Brodie doesn't know about Lika, and about her connection to Kilbarron and his sinister brother, Malachi, eventually testing not only his love for her but his ability, and will, to survive.

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton (October 9) -- I know I am not the only reader looking forward to this one!  "Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker's Daughter is a story of murder, mystery, and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river, is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker's daughter."

The Collector's Apprentice by B.A. Shapiro (October 16) -- "It’s the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris—broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything, she creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father’s art collection, prove her innocence—and exact revenge on George."

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (August 14) -- "For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life--until the unthinkable happens."

So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernieres (August 7) -- "They were an inseparable tribe of childhood friends. Some were lost to the battles of the First World War, and those who survived have had their lives unimaginably upended. Now, at the dawn of the 1920s, they’ve scattered: to Ceylon and India, France and Germany, and, inevitably, back to Britain, each of them trying to answer the question that fuels this sweeping novel: If you have been embroiled in a war in which you confidently expected to die, what are you supposed to do with so much life unexpectedly left over? The narrative unfolds in brief, dramatic chapters, and we follow these old friends over the decades as their paths re-cross or their ties fray, as they test loyalties and love, face survivor’s grief and guilt, and adjust in profound and quotidian ways to this newest modern world."

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer (February 5) -- "A sweeping debut set in Paris in the 1930's about the love story between Vogue model turned photographer Lee Miller and the artist Man Ray."

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye (January 8) -- "The new and exciting historical thriller by Lyndsay Faye, author of Edgar-nominated Jane Steele and Gods of Gotham, which follows Alice "Nobody" from Prohibition-era Harlem to Portland's the Paragon Hotel."

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (September 4) -- "The funny and fascinating memoir of Bythell's experiences at the helm of The Bookshop, Scotland's largest second hand bookstore--and the delightfully unusual staff members, eccentric customers, odd townsfolk and surreal buying trips that make up his life there."

The Witch Elm by Tana French (October 9) -- I have some catching up to do as I have her two last books still to read.  This, however, is a standalone.  "Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life - he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed."

And this one just recently out:

Happy Little Bluebirds by Louise Levene -- "For fans of Muriel Spark, a dazzling novel about a young woman thrust into in the opulent world of 1940s Hollywood, where dirty dealings, undercover agents and off-camera romances abound It is September 1940 and Evelyn Murdoch, a translator from the Postal Censorship department, is uprooted from her home in wartime Woking and transferred to Hollywood. She is to assist a mysterious British agent in his attempts to outwit the Los Angeles German delegation and boost the British propaganda war effort. The unhappy young widow is supplied with a new Californian wardrobe, a Bel Air bungalow and her own desk in the writers' block of Miracle Studios. At first bewildered by the glamorous excesses of this strange new world, she is gradually seduced by the sunlight, orange groves and clever, fast-talking men. But, just as she begins to blossom, her new technicolor ending threatens to slip from her grasp."  Very much like the sound of this and I might have to have a little splurge and order it . . .

So, are you looking forward to anything special coming out in the next few months?

The Room on Rue Amélie, Kristin Harmel

When I was younger I went through a long phase of reading books about and set during WWII.  Maybe it is easier to read books that can be filled with so much tragedy and heartache when you are young and inexperienced and with your feet just at the threshold to life and the larger world.  I have since become somewhat reluctant to pick up historical fiction that I know is set in Europe during WWII, particularly if it will involve the characters having to go into hiding or being sent to Concentration camps.  I think I have experienced too many hard things in life as an adult.  I find myself always waiting for the shoe to drop tense with worry.  I guess I become too involved with the characters in books.  Sometimes I will flip to the back of the book looking for some reference to a loved character hoping to see their name at the end.  Of course that can be tricky since I won't know their situation unless I am reading those pages. 

I am always reassured, however, to discover that a story has been inspired by actual people or events.  And that is the case with Kristin Harmel's The Room on Rue Amélie.  The novel is set in Occupied France and concerns an American woman who marries a Frenchman on the cusp of WWII and finds herself helping Allied pilots who have been shot down over France escape back home.  Perfect setting for the 'shoe to drop' and I won't say that it does not on occasion, but I still found it to be an enjoyable, if occasionally tense, read but still story filled with hope.

Ruby Henderson meets a dashing Frenchman in America and falls for him.  They marry and move to Paris, which for Ruby is a dream come true.  Unfortunately those first throes of love and passion are dampened when the Nazis arrive and the Occupation begins.  Marcel becomes preoccupied and dismissive of Ruby's American sentiments.  Nothing she does or says seems to be right and she feels increasingly isolated and useless as the war intensifies.  She watches as her neighbors, a Jewish couple with a teenage daughter struggle with the many restrictions the Germans put in place.  Purely by accident she becomes involved with the French Resistance smuggling Allied pilots out of France.  And finally Ruby feels her chance to help the war effort has arrived, but it will not be without danger.

The story is set entirely during the fiercest years of the war, though those years are bookended by chapters set in 2002.  At the start you aren't sure who is talking though there are hints if you've read the book jacket blurb.  It's a perfect summer/vacation read, though maybe a little more serious and tension filled as you would expect from a war story.  Apparently when Harmel was researching a previous book she came across the story of an American woman who found herself in just such a situation.  The woman lived out her life in Florida and had published a diary of her wartime experiences.  Along with other books she drew on the Journal of Hélène Berr (which I know I have a copy of somewhere on my shelves).  I almost hate to find myself being drawn into books about WWII that will surely be difficult and sad reading, but you know how one book so often leads to another. 

I'm not sure I would have picked up The Room on Rue Amélie had it not been the book chosen for the B&N book club that recently formed, but I am happy I had the chance to read it.  She's a good storyteller and I was glad she did not rely on too predictable tropes to tell the story.  The next 'big' B&N read is going to be Anne Tyler's forthcoming Clock Dance which will be discussed August 8.

June NYRB: Sand

The June NYRB subscription book, Sand by Wolfgang Herrndorf (translated from the German by Tim Mohr) has the distinction of being the 500th book published in the Classics series.  I am equally intimidated by it and excited to be reading it.  The last few NYRBs have been somewhat challenging, though they are always worthwhile.  Actually I don't think any of this year's selections have been particularly easy breezy reads, but as many of my current in progress books are far more summer-y (some verging on beach) reads, I guess I need a little challenge. 

I've just jumped right in and am trying to orient myself.  Already I can tell this is a story that is going to require longer bursts of reading and not one that will be easy to just dip into.  Here's the teaser NYRB sent via email recently:

"North Africa, 1972.  A strange series of events has begun to unravel in the Sahara: a man wakes in the desert having lost his memory; four people are murdered in a hippie commune; a briefcase of money goes missing; and this is only the beginning."

"Vivid and cinematic, Sand has the dark frenzy of a Coen brothers film and was the last book written by the celebrated author Wolfgang Herrndorf before his untimely death in 2013."

As yet no bodies have appeared but I am becoming acquainted with two men, one in particular, who are going to be (I believe) the main protagonists in the story.  Canisades and Polidorio work at the Central Commissariat in Targat and I think it will be up to them to investigate the forthcoming crime.  I'm intrigued by Polidorio and as it seems (at the moment anyway) to be more his story, let me describe him.

"It had been two months since Polidorio started his job there.  And for two months he's wanted nothing else but to return to Europe.  Already on the day of his arrival he had realized that his knowledge of human nature didn't function among the foreign faces--a realization for which he had paid with his camera.  His grandfather had been an Arab himself, but he had emigrated to Marseilles when he was young.  Polidorio had a French passport and after his parents' divorce had grown up in Switzerland.  He'd gone to school in Biel, then later studied in Paris.  He spent his free time in cafes, in cinemas and on tennis courts.  People liked him, but when there were arguments they called him pied-noir.  If his serve had been better, he might have been able to become a tennis pro.  As it was, he became a policeman." 

I had to look up 'pied-noir'--it translates as black feet, which is what he white French colonists in Algeria were called.  So that helps create a picture.  Polidorio has come with his wife, who was his second girlfriend (not his first choice, but . . .).  I find myself rereading passages not only to make sure I am getting the details straight, but because I am finding the story really very interesting.  It's one of the chunkier NYRBs that I have received in a while--over 450 pages, but I am looking forward to the challenge.  Can something be intimidating in a good way?  This is it for me.

Other Worlds & Alternate Realities

Guess where I am (via my reading that is) going this summer?  I have been picking some theme or a destination for my summer reading the last few years.  Last year it was Australia and I did a pretty good job of reading Australian Lit (and acquiring new books for future reading).  I had a hard time deciding this year as there are several places I would like to spend my reading time, but in the end I opted for a 'destination' that would include books that I don't tend to reach for. 

So, this summer I am going to spend time in "Other World and Alternate Realities".  It is going to be a hodge podge of genres and stories.  I thought a mix of science fiction, fantasy, alternate realities and time slip stories would be fun and varied.  I could include some books already in my reading plans this year as well as a few that hopefully will branch out from the norm.

This is my 'pull from' pile.  I won't read all of them (wishful thinking as I would love to but know my limitations) and likely I will add a few others as I go, but you get the idea here what I have in mind.

The Left hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin -- This won the Hugo and Nebula Awards.  "Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction."

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling -- Last fall I watched the whole run of Harry Potter films on the big screen in the space of about a month and decided it was time to reread the books.  I read the first one shortly after and it is definitely time for the second.  Maybe I can get through the third book as well this summer.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle -- I have never read this and feel like it is a gaping hole in my reading life.  "It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger."

Logan's Run by William F. Nolan -- I have seen the film adaptation many times and I keep reaching for this book, so maybe I can finally read it this summer.  "In 2116, it is against the law to live beyond the age of twenty-one years. When the crystal flower in the palm of your hand turns from red to black, you have reached your Lastday and you must report to a Sleepshop for processing. But the human will to survive is strong—stronger than any mere law.  Logan 3 is a Sandman, an enforcer who hunts down those Runners who refuse to accept Deep Sleep. The day before Logan’s palmflower shifts to black, a Runner accidentally reveals that he was racing toward a goal: Sanctuary. With this information driving him forward, Logan 3 assumes the role of the hunted and becomes a Runner."

The Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley -- Few people can do a time slip story as well or as convincingly as Susanna Kearsley in my opinion.  I love her books and it has been too long since I read one.  "As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm. Legend has it that during a thirteenth-century siege of the castle that looms over the city, Queen Isabelle, child bride of King John, hid a 'treasure of great price.' And in the last days of the German occupation during World War II, another Isabelle living in Chinon, a girl whose love for an enemy soldier went tragically awry."

Blackout by Connie Willis -- This is the first of two books and sounds like great fun.  "Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place, with scores of time-traveling historians being sent into the past. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser into letting her go to VE-Day. Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz. But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, and dive-bombing Stukas—to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past."

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer -- "From Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author Andrew Sean Greer comes The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, a rapturously romantic story of a woman who finds herself transported to the “other lives” she might have lived."

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson -- I tried to read this before, but maybe the timing was just off.  The repetitive nature just didn't quite click with me, but I really would like to read it--maybe I just didn't get far enough into the story?  "On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Ursula's world is in turmoil, facing the unspeakable evil of the two greatest wars in history. What power and force can one woman exert over the fate of civilization -- if only she has the chance?"

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch -- This sounds kind of crazy but maybe a lot of fun, too.  "Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic."

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter -- "ophi Fevvers—the toast of Europe's capitals, courted by the Prince of Wales, painted by Toulouse-Lautrec—is an aerialiste extraordinaire, star of Colonel Kearney's circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover Fevvers's true identity: Is she part swan or all fake? Dazzled by his love for Fevvers, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser joins the circus on its tour. The journey takes him—and the reader—on an intoxicating trip through turn-of-the-century London, St. Petersburg, and Siberia—a tour so magical that only Angela Carter could have created it."

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood -- " . . .at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining."

Not shown but my 'big' read of the summer is going to be IQ84 by Haruki Murakami -- "A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers."  I'm just waiting for my copy to come in the mail.

I have quite the smorgasbord of books here, don't I?  I am starting with Harry Potter for ease and quickness (and a small paperback I can easily tuck into my bookbag), but I shall very soon be expanding my reading selections.  Not that I need any more books, but I can't resist asking--do you have any favorites that would fit in with my summer reading theme?