Musings

The Sunday Salon: Final Salon of 2009

2009-12-27T11:01:06Z

Welcome to this final Sunday of 2009. I hope that all those who celebrated Christmas had a wonderful holiday. Thanks to last week's snowfall, we had a white Christmas for the first time in I don't know how long. And then on Christmas night it began to rain, washing all of the snow away overnight. Continued rain on Saturday made it a "nice day for ducks," and it's been very wet indeed. Great reading weather, but I actually spent the time doing odd jobs around the house. Believe it or not, I have felt in need of a slight reading break!

What's the reason for this insanity you ask? Regular readers will recall my decision to dedicate December to "comfort reads". This has been largely successful and I've been moving through these books at a pretty fast clip. Here's what I've read this month:

The last three books were read over four days, much faster than my normal pace and helped, at least in part, by being off work since December 18. When I finished Eats, Shoots & Leaves on December 23, I realized if I continued at the same pace I could read as many as 5 or 6 books before the year ended. But I also felt a bit "over-read," which was an odd feeling. So I pulled two books off my shelves and have resolved to slowly read each of them for the rest of the month. One of the two books is A People's History of the United States, a nonfiction book I began months and months ago and set aside for the better part of this year. It's such an interesting, alternative view of American history and I'm finding each chapter quite enlightening. The second book is a true comfort read: No Fond Return of Love, by Barbara Pym. I love Pym's writing and characterizations, and this one is true to form -- I was taken with it from the very first sentence. And it's nice to take this book at a slower pace. I do expect to finish it this month, and it will be a very pleasant way to conclude my year of reading.

Did anyone receive books as gifts this holiday season? My book gifts all came from a Secret Santa that I posted about last week. I was OK with that; I really have plenty to read on my shelves. But I was still a bit naughty on Boxing Day. I visited a new-to-me online source, Awesomebooks, and picked up a couple of Virago Modern Classics which can be a bit difficult to find in the US. And then I started thinking about my Booker Prize reading. I am a mere 10 books away from reading the entire list of winners, and expect to find most of those 10 at my local library. But there are three Booker Prize winners my library doesn't have: Holiday, by Stanley Middleton; The Elected Member, by Bernice Rubens; and Something to Answer For, by P.H. Newby. Two book-collecting friends have come to my aid, offering to lend me the Middleton and the Rubens. I've seen Newby's book on Amazon.com at ridiculously high prices, but found it yesterday at The Book Depository for a "mere" $25. That's way more than I normally spend on a single paperback book, but considering I won't have to buy the other two, I feel like I've come out ahead. Is that a giant rationalization, or what? I knew you'd understand ... :)

Normally I would do a "month in review" post right about now; today's post will have to suffice. I have a year-in-review planned for December 31 which will have lots of fun statistics, and even graphs! And next Sunday I'll be blogging about my 2010 reading goals from my new address. So for now I will sign off, and wish everyone the best of all things for the rest of 2009!

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Read more from The Sunday Salon here.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

2009-12-24T01:05:05Z

Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Lynne Truss
204 pages

I admit to being a bit fixated on grammar and punctuation. During boring meetings at work, one of my favorite activities is spotting grammatical errors on the speaker's charts. And I'm continually amazed by the ways in which the English language can be butchered. I don't claim to be perfect in this area, but I definitely make an effort to write correctly. So, this book resonated with me. In it, Lynne Truss outlines the basic rules governing usage of common punctuation like the apostrophe, comma, semicolon, colon, and quotation marks. She describes the changes in usage over time, and the differences between American and British conventions. And she does it all in a very accessible and humorous fashion. For example, consider The Law of Conservation of Apostrophes, described thus:

...this law states that a balance exists in nature: "For every apostrophe omitted from an it's, there is an extra one put into an its." Thus the number of apostrophes in circulation remains constant, even if this means we have double the reason to go and bang our heads against a wall. (p. 63)

Truss also considers how language will evolve as the written word shifts from a predominantly printed form to electronic media. She notes that our current punctuation system -- which was produced first for reading aloud, and later for print -- will undoubtedly undergo significant change, and that early signs of this can be seen in today's use of emoticons. She's actually quite positive about the inclusive nature of the internet, and encourages sticklers everywhere to embrace change and welcome new usage conventions that are sure to emerge. I'm OK with that -- as long as we don't start using apostrophes to indicate plurals. :-P ( )

The Hiding Place

2009-12-23T01:39:37Z

The Hiding Place
Corrie ten Boom
219 pages

Corrie ten Boom and her family operated an underground movement in Holland during World War II, providing safe passage to Jews during the German occupation. Corrie's father owned a watch repair business; Corrie and her older sister Betsie remained unmarried and assisted their father in the shop. They were well-known for their kindness and hospitality, so it was natural for neighbors to turn to them for help. As they developed connections with others involved in the movement, their operation increased in scope and required both more sophisticated methods and more caution. A secret room was built in the house to hide the occupants in case of a raid. A buzzer system was installed to alert occupants to a raid or other emergency, and drills were held to ensure people could hide without leaving evidence. Signals were arranged to communicate when it was safe to enter the house.

The ten Boom family performed an important ministry during the war, but eventually the authorities became aware of their work and the family was arrested and taken to a political prisoner camp. Corrie and Betsie ten Boom spent nearly a year in a series of prison camps, under appalling conditions. Their deep Christian faith was key to survival. After the war, Corrie set up rehabilitation centers in the Netherlands, lectured about her experience, and taught others based on the Christian Gospels and themes of forgiveness. Corrie ten Boom's faith and ability to forgive are an inspiration; it takes an extraordinary person to survive such a harrowing experience and be able to forgive your persecutors.

The Hiding Place was an interesting memoir from a dark time in the history of humankind. ( )

A Room with a View

2009-12-21T14:38:28Z

A Room with a View
E. M. Forster
246 pages

Well, let me begin by saying I love the 1985 Merchant Ivory film adaptation of this book, and have seen it more times than I can count. And because of that, it was next to impossible to read this book without humming Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, and imagining the characters exactly as portrayed by the excellent cast.

Lucy Honeychurch is a young Victorian woman who travels to Florence, Italy with her cousin Charlotte as chaperon. There they meet a host of English people also on holiday, including the Reverend Beebe who has just taken up a position in Lucy's home village, a flamboyant woman novelist named Eleanor Lavish, and the Emersons, a father and son. On arrival at their pension, Lucy and Charlotte find their rooms are not what had been promised. Most importantly, there is no view. The Emersons offer to exchange rooms, creating a comedy of manners as Charlotte abhors feeling obligated to anyone, not the least people like George and his father, whom she judges to be "common." However, there is an attraction between Lucy and George, which Lucy tries to deny. On returning home she is courted by the arrogant and class-conscious Cecil Vyse, and agrees to marry him as a way of putting her attraction for George out of her mind. But of course that's not the end of the story, and when George and his father appear on the scene in England, Lucy has to come to terms with her own feelings and the importance of making choices guided by one's own sense of right and wrong.

I tried to consider this book on its own merits: does Forster's novel stand on its own? I simply couldn't do it. The film is so true to the book; much of the dialogue went directly into the script. I can't quite say why, but I am fairly certain that if I hadn't seen the film I would not have enjoyed this book as much as I did. So I am left giving this book a respectable rating, while urging anyone who has not seen the film to do so ... you will not be disappointed. ( )

The Sunday Salon: "Blizzard of 2009" Edition

2009-12-20T14:04:10Z

The view from my rear windows, early Saturday morning

I haven't seen this much snow in years. When I woke up early Saturday morning, there was only about an inch on the ground (measured by the tried and true "dog paw print depth method"). But the snow came fast & furious all day. I shoveled the walk and the deck about 10:00am, and again around 1:30, clearing about 4-6" of snow each time. By 3:30, there was no evidence of shoveling, and it was still snowing. My Labrador retrievers were romping in snow up to their bellies (and loving it). A flock of grackles had taken up permanent residence at the bird feeders; apparently their normal food supply had been buried in snow. Things slowed down overnight, and there's at least a foot of snow on the ground today. It's all quite beautiful, really, especially since I don't have to travel in this weather. And it's a perfect time to curl up with a good book. I didn't do as much reading yesterday as expected, instead spending my time on chores, cookie-baking, letting the dogs in & out & in ..., and drying the kids' wet clothes.

One of the high points of my weekend has been a Secret Santa with the Virago Modern Classics group on LibraryThing. We had 34 participants from all over the world: US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, etc. We've been chatting about it on our talk threads since mid-November, and December 19 was designated as the start of the gift opening period. We set up a thread just to record all of the "oohs and aahs" from delighted group members. The first to open her gift lives in the Philippines, so she posted when it was still Friday evening in my part of the world. I waited until Saturday breakfast: after the first cup of coffee, but before shoveling snow! My Secret Santa lives in Texas and is someone who has come to know me fairly well over the past couple of years. She also has impeccable taste in books, and chose very well for me. Every single book is right on target, many fit with 2010 challenges or reading goals, and I can't wait to dive into these:

From left to right: The Republic of Dreams, by Nelida Pinon; The Man who Loved Children, by Christina Stead; The Ant Heap, by Margit Kaffka; The Post Office Girl, by Stephan Zweig; Morte d'Urban, by J.F. Powers; Two Days in Aragon, by Molly Keane (VMC); At the Still Point, by Mary Benson (VMC)

This lovely collection includes two Virago Modern Classics, two books in translation, one from the "1001" list, and one National Book Award winner. Oh, and the Santa pictured is by Eldreth Pottery, a local artisan I've recently discovered.

While I didn't do a lot of reading during the blizzard I still managed to finish my second book of the week: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This book gets rave reviews from the YA crowd, including my younger daughter who has been pushing it on me for a while. I'd also read several positive reviews from book bloggers, and was intrigued. It did not disappoint. As a work of dystopian fiction, Collins does a nice job developing the post-apocalyptic North America where the story takes place. Yet the characters are very familiar, and much like people readers would know today. They deal with typical teen concerns like appearance and relationships, but are also fighting for survival. The book is a real page-turner and, since my daughter now has a copy of the sequel (Catching Fire), I suspect I'll read it one of these days. Click here for more of my thoughts on The Hunger Games.

Also this week I read a wonderful Virago Modern Classic, Crossriggs. This was a delightful story of two sisters: one a helpless widow, the other a strong, independent single woman, each making their way in Victorian Scotland. I liked the strong character best (no surprise, and I believe that's what the authors intended). I read this book for the Women Unbound challenge, because it explores some issues we still face to some degree today. As I wrote in my review:

What is more important: money, or loving relationships? Why do women feel they have to marry in order to be safe and secure? Can a woman have a career? Why is it so difficult for a woman to live independently in society? And even though women have made incredible strides since the publication of Crossriggs in 1908, we still don't have good answers to those questions.

Today I hope to spend more time with a book than I did yesterday. And I've decided to lose myself in sunny Italy through E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. Forster is the December focus of LibraryThing's Monthly Author Reads group. Initially I didn't think I'd have time to participate, but I've been moving quickly through my December reads that I decided to squeeze it in. I've seen the 1985 Merchant Ivory film about a million times; it was superbly cast and received an Oscar nomination for cinematography. So it's impossible to read without imagining Helena Bonham-Carter as Lucy, or Maggie Smith as Charlotte. And it's easy to visualize scenic Florence and the English countryside. So I intend to really key in on the language and look for nuances that may not have been apparent to me on film.

I've just started A Room with a View, but after that I'll be reading The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom. I'm on vacation from work for the rest of the year, so I may need one more book to take me through the rest of 2009. Looking over my stacks yesterday, I zeroed in on Barbara Pym as an author who would suit my winter reading mood, and the "comfort reads" theme I declared for December. I've really enjoyed three of her books (Excellent Women, Quartet in Autumn, and Jane & Prudence). Her portraits of English village life & manners are brilliant, sometimes comic and sometimes poignant. I have three of Pym's books on my shelves that I haven't read yet: An Unsuitable Attachment, No Fond Return of Love, and Less than Angels. Have you read any of these? Which one would you recommend? Leave a comment and help me choose!

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Read more from The Sunday Salon here.

The Hunger Games

2009-12-19T23:31:53Z

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
374 pages

Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12 of Panem, a post-apocalyptic North America divided into 12 districts. District 12 is a poor district with coal mining as its primary industry. Since her father's death in the mines, Katniss has served as head of her family, which includes her mother and younger sister, Prim. Katniss hunts in the woods with her friend Gale, and trades some of the meat in the market in order to meet most of the family's needs. Katniss is a tough cookie, having had to grow up far too soon. She resents her mother, who fell into deep depression when her husband died. But she adores Prim and would do anything for her.

In this dystopian world there is an annual tournament, known as The Hunger Games, in which two youths from each district compete. There's just one thing: the winner of the competition is the one who survives. The children are chosen by lottery -- one boy and one girl from each district -- and are then whisked away to the Capitol to prepare for the games. When Prim's name is drawn, Katniss instantly steps in to take her place. She is accompanied by Peeta, a boy she barely knows, but who has apparently had eyes for Katniss for a very long time. Katniss' feelings are conflicted: on the one hand, she feels quite vulnerable and needs a friend; on the other, she knows they will soon be fighting against each other for their lives. When they arrive at the Capitol they go through training programs, make public appearances, and develop their strategy with help from District 12 mentors.

And then the games begin, and my plot summary ends. The story is filled with suspense, and even though I had a suspicion that things would turn out OK, at no time was I certain. The premise is frightening and yet, in my bleaker moments, I can almost envision a world that puts their children at risk in this way. The contestants are faced with a myriad of moral dilemmas that could be thought-provoking for the reader -- especially the young adults for whom this book is written. There's now a sequel to The Hunger Games, and I liked this first book well enough to be interested in a second helping. ( )

Crossriggs

2009-12-18T01:43:41Z

Crossriggs
Jane and Mary Findlater
380 pages

Alexandra Hope is a 30-ish unmarried woman living with her father in the village of Crossriggs, near Edinburgh. When her older sister Matilda is widowed, she and her 5 children return to Crossriggs to live at home. The two sisters are close, but couldn't be more different. Matilda is a bit of a doormat, and rarely expresses her own thoughts. In fact, Matilda generally agreed with everyone about everything, even if she happened to hold another opinion... (p. 35). Alex is strong and independent, and has rejected proposals rather than using marriage to achieve financial security. Recognizing that the new arrivals will stretch the family's ability to make ends meet, she finds employment in daily "read aloud" sessions with a Admiral Cassilis, an elderly, wealthy blind man.

Supporting the two sisters are a strong cast of village locals, many of whom are quite amusing. For example, Alex and Matilda's father is a vegetarian, which from the tone of the novel, must have been quite unusual in Victorian England. And Mr. Hope (known to many as "Old Hopeless") takes it a step further by declaring himself a "fruitarian" and living off garden apples past their prime. He engages in humorous attempts to educate house guests by subjecting them to his favorite foods. And then there is Miss Bessie Reid, a spinster of a certain age:

Miss Bessie Reid -- good woman! -- was skilled in all the little arts that make home hideous. There was a specimen of her handiwork at every turn -- a painted tambourine here, a stark water-colour there, whilst miniature animals in crockery seemed to crawl on every ledge. ... Taste, I suppose, is only a constant delicate expression of opinion, and Miss Bessie's opinions -- poor dear! -- must have been singularly confused. (p. 141)

On her first visit to the Admiral, Alex meets his grandson Van, who is new to Crossriggs. Van is several years younger than Alex, but he is immediately attracted to her. She is oblivious to his attentions, first because of the age difference, and second because Alex herself has strong affections for Robert Maitland. Maitland is a long-standing family friend and the attraction is mutual. He is, however, married. Both Maitland and Alex take great pains to conceal their affections, even from each other. And yet Alex is both sufficiently devoted and independent to rebuff Van's advances. As the family's fortunes ebb and flow, Alex finds additional opportunities to earn income through public readings, and teaching in town. Being the breadwinner for such a large family begins to take its toll. And even as Alex shows clear signs of stress and fatigue, the annoyingly helpless Matilda just "tut tuts" and lectures Alex, while doing absolutely nothing to help provide for the family.

On the surface, this novel appears to be focused on Alex's love interests: will she and Maitland find a way to get together? Will she choose Van? But by the end of this book, it's clear the Findlater sisters were exploring much more important points. What is more important: money, or loving relationships? Why do women feel they have to marry in order to be safe and secure? Can a woman have a career? Why is it so difficult for a woman to live independently in society? And even though women have made incredible strides since the publication of Crossriggs in 1908, we still don't have good answers to those questions. ( )

The Sunday Salon: a Brief Update

2009-12-13T11:10:16Z

Oh, look at the time! It's Sunday again! It's such a busy time of year that the days just seem to fly by. Fortunately I have only 4 working days left in 2009, which will give me about a week for final Christmas preparations, unencumbered by job responsibilities. And of course, I'll have loads more reading time. Yay!

But despite nasty intrusions like work & real life, I've still found time for reading this week. I finished two books:

In the Bleak Midwinter, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (read my review)
I really enjoyed this mystery set in New York's Adirondacks. Because it took place during December, I felt like it was taking place in real time. And the characters were also realistic. I was worried about characters getting caught in snowstorms, and wished the main character, a transplant from the southern US, had a warmer coat. It was a perfect comfort read to follow a string of mediocre books. I zipped right through it.

The Judge, by Rebecca West (read my review)
I had abandoned this Virago Modern Classic in July but found myself thinking about it again & again, so I decided to finish it after all. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it was still a well-done piece of feminist literature.

I'm now reading another VMC, Crossriggs, by Jane and Mary Findlater. This is a fine story about two sisters: one helpless, widowed, with 5 children; the other a single, strong-willed intellectual. Set in a Scottish village, the book is also full of ancillary characters, some quite comical. The Findlater sisters wrote at the turn of the 20th century, and their style strikes me as "Jane Austen meets Barbara Pym." Fun reading so far.

I'm also working on moving my blog to Wordpress. The new Musings will go live on January 1, and I've been teeing up my first posts, and have engaged my creative team (aka my husband!) to help me create a header image to replace the default. I'm also planning a fun give-away. I'll be sure to post an announcement here when I've officially moved, so those who follow via RSS can update their readers.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and not getting too stressed over holiday preparations. Be sure to make time for your books!! Speaking of which, what are you reading this weekend?

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Join The Sunday Salon here.

The Judge

2009-12-12T00:20:03Z

I read half of this book in July, and wrote it off as my first "did not finish" of the year. But I kept thinking about it, and when the Women Unbound challenge came along it seemed a good time to finish it.

The Judge
Rebecca West
430 pages

This novel is primarily the story of two strong women. Ellen Melville is 17 years old, working as a typist in an Edinburgh legal office by day and participating in suffragist meetings and demonstrations nights and weekends. She is outspoken and confident, and naive enough to be surprised by hostile crowds during demonstrations. She is also completely unaware of her effect on the opposite sex. The men in the office treat her as an object, except for Richard Yaverland, a client of the firm. Richard is much older than Ellen, and more worldly, but also more liberal in his political views. When Ellen and Richard decide to marry, they journey to the south of England to meet Richard's mother, Marion.

The first half of this book is Ellen's story; the second half belongs to Marion. Richard and his mother are extremely close -- in fact, their relationship borders on the unhealthy. Marion has strong, mixed emotions about Richard and Ellen's relationship. She professes to love Ellen almost at first sight, and yet inwardly wrestles with the impact that marriage will have on Marion's relationship with her son. Just as I was asking myself, "What is this woman's problem?", Marion's "back story" was revealed in the form of one long, sleepless night filled with memories going back to Marion's youth. She had been in love with Harry, a young squire, who left for military service. Then Marion learned she was pregnant. She was subject to public shame, including an incident in which she was stoned by townspeople. For her own safety she entered into marriage with a man who offered her security and didn't even require that they live together. Marion doted on the illegitimate Richard, and found herself completely unable to love a second child borne of her marriage. As the two children came of age they were treated quite differently, and this had serious consequences when they reached adulthood. As Marion herself said, "Every mother is a judge who sentences the children for the sins of the father." (p.346)

Rebecca West was a pioneer in feminist literature who knew from personal experience what it meant to be an outspoken, strong woman. Published in 1922, The Judge portrays two such women and shows how society failed each of them. However, while the book is well-written, the prose is dense and requires concentration. The ending is abrupt and felt somewhat contrived. I would not consider this West's best work, but for those who would like to read more early 20th century novels written by women,it's worth a try. ( )

In the Bleak Midwinter

2009-12-07T02:32:17Z

In the Bleak Midwinter
Julia Spencer-Fleming
358 pages

Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest in her mid-30s, has recently arrived in Millers Kill, NY to serve the congregation at St. Alban's. When a newborn baby is left on the church doorstep, she meets police chief Russ Van Alstyne, and thus begins their crime-solving partnership. In trying to find the baby's parents, they uncover a murder, which naturally leads to further investigation There are many potential suspects, and plenty of interesting developments that keep the story moving.

Clare and Russ, on the surface, appear to be an improbable partnership. However, prior to joining the clergy Clare served in the Army, and was trained in survival skills. Russ is a Vietnam veteran and has lived in Millers Kill for years. He feels a strong sense of ownership over the town and its inhabitants. As a minister, Clare has unique access to members of her congregation, which is both a blessing and a curse. Oh, and there's a little frisson of attraction between Clare and Russ, which adds an element of "will they or won't they" to the novel. They make a good pair.

And Spencer-Fleming kept me guessing all the way to the end. The last 100 pages or so were filled with suspense, as all the pieces began to fall into place. This was a very well-written, character-driven mystery and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series. ( )

The Sunday Salon: December is "Comfort Read" Month

2009-12-06T11:43:25Z

Yesterday we had our first snowfall -- fat, wet flakes that covered the grass but fortunately left the roads quite passable. It was a perfect day to spend indoors with a fire, which I was happy to do once I'd stocked up on groceries for the week ahead. The weather has also made it a nice weekend for reading, especially since I'm currently immersed in a "comfort read." I desperately needed this after a string of mediocre books. Last week I was well into David Storey's Saville, which, as a coming-of-age story set in a Yorkshire mining village, had potential. But I was continually reminded me of the Monty Python "Vocational Guidance Counselor" sketch. Saville was much like chartered accountancy:

Exciting? No it's not. It's dull. Dull. Dull. My God it's dull, it's so desperately dull and tedious and stuffy and boring and des-per-ate-ly DULL.

I'm not even sure how I finished it. I kept waiting for a surprising twist, or some tension, but it just wasn't to be. I reached the end of my tether after 400 pages and realized the book was making me grumpy, so I decided to very lightly skim the remaining 100 pages. For more about Saville, read my review.

Fortunately, it looks like the entire month of December will be filled with fun comfort reads. Let's look at what lies ahead:

In the Bleak Midwinter, by Julia Spencer-Fleming: this is the first in a series of mysteries, which has been highly recommended by some dear friends. This is a genre I don't read often, but I have to say I'm enjoying this book a great deal. The protagonists are a police chief and a female Episcopal priest, who make for one of those odd-couple pairings that I've enjoyed in television mystery dramatizations like The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. These books take place in the New York mountains, and this particular novel is set in December, so it sort of feels like I'm there. Just the thing for a snowy weekend. I've even requested the next one from Paperbackswap.

I'm also planning to read two Virago Modern Classics: The Judge, by Rebecca West and Crossriggs, by Jane & Mary Findlater. I started The Judge earlier this year and set it aside, because it didn't suit my mood at the time. I thought I might return to it later and since it's well suited to the Women Unbound Challenge, now seems like the right time. I'm also reading Crossriggs for that challenge.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins: this is a very popular YA novel. I gave it to my younger daughter for Christmas last year; she loved it and is clamoring for the sequel, Catching Fire. She's convinced me I really need to read this book.

The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom: Calling holocaust literature a "comfort read" is a real stretch. I'm not sure if this will make my list in December; however, it's been on my shelves forever and I've heard such good things about this true story of faith. Maybe the Christmas season is a good time to read it. If you've read this book I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

Finally, time permitting, I might read a bit of E.M. Forster as part of a LibraryThing monthly author read. I have a copy of A Room with a View lying around here somewhere and, as much as I loved the film with Helen Bonham-Carter, I'm sure I'd love this book.

So that's what December holds in store. Having finished all of my 2009 timed challenges and pegged a lot of my other reading goals, I'm looking forward to a relaxing month of reading.

What reading do you have in store for December?

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Join The Sunday Salon here.

Saville

2009-12-03T01:33:29Z

Saville
David Storey
506 pages

This book reads like a student's report of "What I did on my Summer Vacation": a chronology of events told in a factual style with absolutely no drama whatsoever. The student essay has a distinct advantage: it's short. Saville, on the other hand, is a 500-page tome that plods through the life of Colin Saville. The story opens with his parents moving into a squalid home in a Yorkshire mining village. They soon have a child -- Colin's older brother, Andrew, who died before Colin was born. And then Colin comes into the world, grows up, and is awarded a scholarship to go to a decent grammar school. He has various friends, some from his village and others from his school. He works summer jobs. He decides to attend a 2-year college instead of university. He meets various young ladies. He tries hard to overcome his humble origins.

And I'm sorry, but it's all dreadfully dull. There's not a single moment of suspense, tension, or emotion. There were several occasions where I thought a subplot might actually be going somewhere: perhaps a character would turn out to be evil, or some tragedy would befall the Saville family. But no -- even Andrew's death was treated matter-of-factly, and was not mentioned again until Colin was about 20 years old. When he told his girlfriend that his brother's death had a profound impact on his life, all I could say was, "huh?" I'm not sure how I finished it, and I confess to skimming the last 100 pages.

This book suffered significantly from an overdone theme ("dreary English mining village"), coupled with a semi-autobiographical story that was definitely of more interest to the author than it would be to anyone else. ( )

The Sunday Salon: November Wrap-up

2009-11-29T11:06:14Z

This has been a leisurely week; because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the office was closed Thursday & Friday. And then I decided to take Monday through Wednesday off as well, so I've had a luxurious week at home. I started Christmas and birthday shopping (my daughters were each born on either side of Christmas!), took care of a few chores around the house that had been begging for my attention, cooked a nice Thanksgiving meal, walked the dog, and ... let's see, what else? Oh yes! I read books! And now November is coming to a close. Let's look back on the month's reading:

6 books (72 YTD)
1,894 pages (21,786 YTD)
4 written by women
1 Booker Prize winner
1 Pulitzer Prize winner
1 Orange Prize nominee
1 Virago Modern Classics
1 from the "1001 Books you Must Read Before you Die" list

More specifically, here's what I read this month:

Le Grand Meaulnes - review ( )
The Sugar House - review ( )
Offshore - review ( )
Angle of Repose - review ( )
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - review ( )
The Emperor's Children - review ( )

Kind of a so-so month, really, although Angle of Repose will definitely make my 2010 Top 10 (possibly even Top 5). I was incredibly moved and inspired by this book and even now, two weeks later, Lyman Ward and his amazing grandparents continue to occupy my thoughts. I made the most of my week off from work by finishing two books: A Short History of Tractors... and The Emperor's Children. Although neither of these really knocked my socks off, I still felt some sense of accomplishment. Go figure. In November I also finished the last of my timed challenges for 2009: (Another) 1-percent Well-Read Challenge, in which I read 10 books from the "1001 Books you Must Read Before you Die" list.

'Tis the season for announcing 2010 challenges, and while I've definitely learned not to over-commit myself, I'm sure I'll participate in a few. I've already blogged about Women Unbound. If there's another 1-percent Well-Read Challenge, I'm in. And then there's Book Awards, which is scheduled to begin in February. And I've also spice up The Complete Booker perpetual challenge, by hosting a 2010 timed challenge with several ways enjoy Booker Prize winners & nominees.. Information and signups can be found here.

Also this week, after helping my husband start his own blog devoted to furniture building, I was possessed with a fit of creative inspiration, and decided to move my blog to Wordpress at the end of the year. This has provided endless opportunity for ~~time-wasting~~ tinkering over this holiday week, and I've found the work oddly satisfying. My current plan is to close the year at this location with all the usual "year in review" content, and "go live" at my new address on January 1. Look for more details about the move closer to the end of the year.

Today I'll be working a morning shift at the local bird rescue, and putting up Christmas decorations in the afternoon. By evening I should start to wrap my mind around returning to work on Monday, but I may just live in denial for a few more hours, and instead continue with my current read. David Storey's Saville is a coming-of-age story set in a British coal mining town during World War II. This is one of those books where you can escape into a different time, and a different world view, and kind of forget the present for a while.

I hope you've had a nice weekend filled with good reading. I'd love to hear about it; leave me a comment!

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The Emperor's Children

2009-11-27T00:45:07Z

The Emperor's Children
Claire Messud
431 pages

Marina, Danielle, and Julius were classmates at Brown University and are all now approaching 30, and making their way in New York City. Marina is the daughter of Murray Thwaite, a famous journalist. She has been working on her first book for many years, and has never held a "real job." She lives with her parents, having recently moved back home after ending a long-term relationship. Julius is a gay freelance writer who lives lives in a squalid apartment and finds work through a temp agency while waiting for his next writing assignments. Danielle produces television programs, and is the only one with a steady income. The Emperor's Children follows these three over the course of a year. While they rarely cross paths in their day-to-day lives, the bonds of friendship are strong and they do call on each other for help and support. Another key figure in this story is Frederick "Bootie" Tubb, Murray's nephew, who has dropped out of university, and came to New York hoping to find himself and make a living. Murray provides Bootie a place to live, and takes him on as his secretary. Danielle is instrumental in finding Marina a job with a magazine startup, and Marina offers both Julius and Bootie the chance to write an article for the inaugural issue. Julius meets romantic interest David through one of his temp jobs, and begins to move in very different social circles. All of the young people look up to Murray as a role model of the successful and wealthy writer. Meanwhile, Murray is dealing with a bit of a mid-life crisis, and struggles to control everyone around him.

Messud draws an intriguing portrait of a certain social class. The characters in this novel are are shallow, superficial, and materialistic. It was difficult to care much about any of them, but I still found myself oddly drawn to their stories -- like watching an impending train wreck. But this book takes place in 2001 (and remember, in New York City). So of course September 11 was like the elephant in the room the entire time I was reading this book. On several instances, characters discussed events planned for September, which I just knew wouldn't turn out as planned. I was curious how Messud would address this pivotal event in the novel. After finishing the book I was left wondering if setting the novel in 2001 was just an afterthought, a convenient way to tie up the plot. The year is casually thrown into the text about 50 pages in. September 11 occurs 60 pages from the end of the book, and while it understandably changes the characters' lives, it was an all-too-easy way to catalyze certain events and bring the novel to a close. While this was a light read and somewhat pleasurable, it wasn't quite my thing. ( )

Challenge Wrap-up: (Another) 1% Well-Read Challenge

2009-11-23T19:58:50Z

For this challenge, I read 10 titles from the new "1001" list (with links to reviews):

The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro (review)
Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Kenneally (review)
The Siege of Krishnapur, by J.G. Farrell (review)
The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (review)
Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons (review)
Vernon God Little, by D.B.C. Pierre (review)
The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler (review)
Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee (review)
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf (review)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka (review)

Favorite Book of the Challenge: The Remains of the Day. This 5-star read will make my 2009 Top 5.

Least Favorite Book: The Long Goodbye. I couldn't get into the characters or the plot.

What I Learned: I was able to learn more about Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf. The "1001 list" continued to be a good source of reading ideas, even after its revision in 2008. I'll be reading more of these titles in 2010.

Thanks to Michelle for hosting this challenge!

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

2009-11-23T19:43:54Z

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Marina Lewycka
294 pages

Oh, puh-leeze. This book annoyed me; let me count the ways.

First, we have two middle-aged sisters, Vera and Nadia, who emigrated from Ukraine to UK as children. They don't get along. And they have much angst about this but seem powerless to change their relationship.

Second, we have their father, Nikolai, an elderly widower also living in the UK. He's lonely and a bit naive. And he's writing a history of tractors, and relates the development of the tractor to other events in history. Actually, Nikolai didn't annoy me. I felt sorry for him. Let's move on.

Third, there's Valentina, a 30-something Ukrainian blond bombshell. She has a young son and very large breasts. Valentina convinces Nikolai to marry her in order to provide legal residency and an education for her son. As I mentioned, Nikolai is lonely and naive. And he likes her breasts. So he agrees.

Back to Vera and Nadia. Their father's marriage causes them even more angst. This, I could understand because Valentina turns out to be after Nikolai's money. And she spends it like there's no tomorrow. But Vera and Nadia? They whine, and talk, and fight with one another. Then they whine, and talk some more. Eventually they do something about the situation.

There were some interesting elements to this book, like gaining some understanding of Ukrainian political events that led to the family's relocation in the 1940s. And there was a great deal of humor in the book, especially the portrayal of Valentina who was really over the top. But almost from the beginning, I felt like I knew where the story would go. And the dynamics between the sisters bored me. When the "big reveal" came, which explained why the two were so different in a way that was supposed to be oh so emotional, it just left me flat. ( )

The Sunday Salon: The Classics Circuit

2009-11-22T11:24:20Z

I'm really excited about The Classics Circuit. The brainchild of Rebecca, The Classics Circuit "encourages the reading of classic works by celebrating them through book blogs," and is currently focused on older classics. The "celebrating" happens through blog tours focused on a specific author. I really enjoy reading classics, from "things you should have read in school," like Jane Austen and John Steinbeck, to 1001 Books You Must Read Before you Die, to the lesser-known but equally wonderful Virago Modern Classics. And the first two tours are going on right now!!!

On Tour with Wilkie Collins, from November 2 to December 11
On Tour with Elizabeth Gaskell, from November 16 to December 24

Well, I joined the circuit the minute I found out about it. I've been sitting on the sidelines for the current tours, visiting the tour stops, reading reviews, and reconnecting with books I've enjoyed, like Collins' The Woman in White and Gaskell's North and South. But when Edith Wharton was voted to visit The Classics Circuit in January, I knew I had to be actively involved. I've read and enjoyed Wharton's The Age of Innocence, Roman Fever and Other Stories, and House of Mirth. Looking over Wharton's books on LibraryThing, I thought The Reef looked good. And guess what, it's been published as a Virago Modern Classic! So of course I had to have it, and of course Amazon was more than willing to help me. The Virago edition has a beautiful cover, and the back cover description reads:

Anna Leath is a young widow, an American living in France. Behind her lies an arid marriage and a life deeply influenced by the rigid code of Old New York. The novel opens as Anna awaits a new and fuller life: a chance encounter with George Darrow, the first love of her youth, has left her awakended, disturbed, filled with new hope. Anna returns to her beautiful country chateau, Givré, to await her future: between two short distances can anything happen to disrupt such promise? But the charming Sophie Viner, governess to Anna's young daughter, holds the key to a secret which comes to reveal that Anna's future - and the very foundation of her life - is fragile where it appears most strong.

This sounds like it will be highly autobiographical, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. The Classics Circuit committee assigned me a "tour stop" on January 12, and I'm already very excited about it!

Be sure to stop by the current tours. You may discover a new favorite author!

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Angle of Repose

2009-11-21T01:36:37Z

Angle of Repose
Wallace Stegner
569 pages

What interests me in all these papers is not Susan Burling Ward the novelist and illustrator, and not Oliver Ward the engineer, and not the West they spend their lives in. What really interests me is how two such unlike particles clung together, and under what strains, rolling downhill into their future until they reached the angle of repose where I knew them. That's where the interest is. That's where the meaning will be if I find any. (p. 211)

Lyman Ward is writing a family history. More specifically, it's the story of a marriage between his grandmother (Susan Burling Ward) and grandfather (Oliver Ward) who lived in the American West in the late 1800s. Day after day, Lyman pores over family records, news clippings, and letters, and records his thoughts on cassette tapes. Lyman lives alone, is out of touch with his family, and severely disabled due to a bone disease. He gets around in a wheelchair, and uses only a few rooms of his house. Every evening a neighbor woman stops in to check on Lyman and give him his bath, and they have a nightcap together. The story of Susan and Oliver Ward begins around 1870, when Susan was a budding artist in New York. She moves in artsy social circles, and spends nearly every minute with a very dear friend, Augusta. When Augusta decides to marry Susan sees their relationship beginning to change, and she sets her sights on Oliver, a mining engineer. While they agree to marry, the union is put off for several years while Oliver establishes his career and readies a home for himself and Susan.

When frontier historians theorize about the uprooted, the lawless, the purseless, and the socially cut-off who settled the West, they are not talking about people like my grandmother. So much that was cherished and loved, women like her had to give up; and the more they gave it up, the more they carried it helplessly with them. It was a process like ionization: what was subtracted from one pole was added to the other. (p. 277)
In moving west, Susan sacrificed all she knew and held dear. Accustomed to moving in cultured, literate circles, she initially threw herself into mining camp life with gusto. But she brought her art supplies with her, and continued to draw. Augusta's husband Thomas, now a successful magazine editor, commissioned several pieces and relied on Susan for her interesting portraits of life in the far-off west. Susan also enjoyed evenings by the fire with two of Oliver's colleagues, Frank Sargent and Ian Price. In them she found others who loved literature and stimulating conversation; it fed her soul.

I know that Grandfather was trying to do, by personal initiative and with the financial resources of a small and struggling corporation, what only the immense power of the federal government ultimately proved able to do. That does not mean he was foolish or mistaken. He was premature. His clock was set on pioneer time. He met trains that had not yet arrived, he waited on platforms that hadn't yet been built, beside tracks that might never be laid .... Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality. (p. 382)
Oliver was a successful engineer, rewarded for his hard work through promotions and special projects. He was a bit of a dreamer, envisioning possibilities and developing new materials and methods in his own time. He was usually a bit ahead of the curve, with ideas not quite ready for prime time. And while money was often tight, Oliver refused to allow Susan's earnings to be used to support the family. Oliver and Susan had a family, and moved several times for Oliver's work. Their son Ollie (Lyman's father) was often sent to stay with relatives in New York, because the mining camps were deemed unsuitable.

Through his research, Lyman carefully pieces together the story of Oliver and Susan's marriage, reconstructing the series of events which brought their relationship to the "angle of repose" (the angle at which soil settles after being dumped). Susan loved Oliver and had faith in his abilities, but was often disappointed with the actual results. She wanted so badly for her children to grow up refined and "Eastern," and became increasingly frustrated with their living conditions and the people she encountered day-to-day. Susan and Oliver's fortunes, and their hopes for the future, ebb and flow over the years. As Lyman tells Susan and Oliver's story, he tries to come to terms with his own failed marriage and the rapidly changing world around him.

I absolutely loved this book. The prose captured me instantly, and I became completely wrapped up both in Lyman's California of 1970, and the dusty Victorian mining camps. I identified strongly with Susan: her feelings of isolation, her persistence in keeping her artistic talents fresh, her devotion to her family, her longing for intellectual stimulation. And my heart went out to Lyman, with his own isolation and struggles with a failing body. These characters were so real to me; during the week it took me to read this book, I thought about them all the time. Towards the end, I wanted to prolong the relationship -- instead of rushing to finish, I read the last 50 pages very slowly, setting the book aside to make it last. This will undoubtedly make my "Top 10" list for the year. ( )

The Sunday Salon: Reading Stegner's Angle of Repose

2009-11-15T11:26:03Z

You might have noticed The Sunday Salon has been a bit under the weather of late. Last Sunday my Google Reader was completely devoid of posts, but Debra bribed the gremlins, so I am hopeful today's post will travel to feed readers far and wide. I've really come to appreciate and depend on this weekly ritual. While there are some Sundays that I am either too busy or uninspired, more often I find myself -- sometimes as early as Wednesday -- thinking about the upcoming Salon, and what I'd like to write about.

This weekend finds me wallowing in a truly excellent book: Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. I've not read Stegner before, and I chose this book because of The Pulitzer Project (it won the prize for fiction in 1972). I have to admit when I checked this book out of my local library, I blanched at its 550+ pages. Having recently read an equally hefty prizewinner, Wolf Hall (read my review), I wasn't sure if I was up for another chunkster. But I was hooked before I'd read 20 pages! The narrator is Lyman Ward, an historian confined to a wheelchair who decides to write his family history, beginning when his grandparents settled in frontier California in 1868. His grandfather, Oliver Ward, was a mining engineer; his grandmother Susan, an artist and writer from the East Coast. The family history is primarily a story of their marriage and the events that held them together. The prose is beautiful, whether Stegner is describing the rich California scenery, or portraying Lyman's emotions and infirmities.

Wikipedia defines angle of repose as "the maximum angle of a stable slope determined by friction, cohesion and the shapes of the particles." Um, that's not helpful (and physics never was my thing). However, Wikipedia's article about this book says, "the title is an engineering term for the angle at which soil finally settles after, for example, being dumped from a mine as tailings." That's a little better. Oliver Ward worked in mines across the American West, and given the nomadic lifestyle required of his profession, I can see how the angle of repose would be an apt metaphor for this novel.

It will take me a few more days to finish Angle of Repose, but I'm also thinking about what's next. I have one timed reading challenge left in 2009, the (Another) 1% Well-Read Challenge, so I think I'll wrap that up with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka. Following that I have a couple books from my stacks that I'd like to read. But that's a subject for another time. I'll be back next Sunday with thoughts on Tractors and anything else that comes to mind.

Where is your reading taking you this weekend?
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Offshore

2009-11-12T01:29:07Z

Offshore
Penelope Fitzgerald
140 pages

"Battersea Reach, ladies and gentlemen. On your right, the artistic colony. Folks live on those boats like they do on the Seine, it's the artist's life they're leading there. Yes, there's people living on those boats." (p. 16)

Along the banks of the Thames, a small group of boats sit permanently anchored, serving as home not to artists, but to a ragtag group of residents who, for various reasons, have chosen to live on the river instead of on land. Their de facto leader is Richard, of the Lord Jim, by far the best-kept boat in the group. Grace is home to Nenna and her two daughters. Her husband has left them and the girls attend school only occasionally. One boat's owner allows stolen goods to be held on board. Another is trying to sell his boat, and hopes none of the other residents will tell prospective buyers about the leak. The characters were largely misfits, with humorous quirks. I was sympathetic towards Nenna, with her general awkwardness, her difficulty raising young daughters alone, and and her inability to rescue her marriage.

Unfortunately however, the central theme of the novel eluded me. There were also several loose ends and incongruities in the plot. It was a light and sometimes pleasant read, but I am positively baffled as to how it won the Booker Prize. Ah well, at least it was short. ( )

The Sunday Salon: It's all about Women

2009-11-08T13:56:16Z

This week has been all about women's literature -- at least, that's what has been front and center on my reading radar. I've come across several interesting items worth sharing with my Sunday Salon friends today.

In last Sunday's post, I mentioned the Women Unbound challenge, simply as something I found tempting and was likely to sign up for. Do you know, after publishing that post I couldn't get the challenge out of my head? I realized there are loads of books already on my shelves that would qualify, not to mention all the great suggestions I've seen from other participants. About an hour later, I had signed up and posted my reading list for the challenge! As the week progressed, I kept thinking about this challenge, about women and society, about the relationship between power and gender ... I could go on. Clearly I needed to get something out of my system. So, I posted the start-of-challenge meme, and read my first book of the challenge: Antonia White's The Sugar House (read my review). Antonia White wrote a series of autobiographical novels published as Virago Modern Classics. The first, Frost in May, was the story of a young girl educated in a convent in the early 20th century (reviewed here). This was a pretty classic boarding school novel with strong Roman Catholic overtones. In the second novel, The Lost Traveller, the girl finishes school and takes a job as a governess. The "girl as governess" theme is a common one, but The Lost Traveller was less about the governess experience, and more about the protagonist's changing relationship with her parents, and her own growth and independence (reviewed here). The Sugar House continues in that vein, as she gains more experience with romantic relationships, and begins to discover her own sexuality. I've found each book well-written and thought-provoking, and am looking forward to reading the final book, Beyond the Glass.

This week also marked the opening of an exhibit at The Morgan Library in New York City: A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy. I learned of it through Austenprose, who wrote this excellent post. My teenage daughter is quite an Austen fan, and is also really excited about this exhibit. A day trip to New York is ever so doable for us (much easier than visiting Austen's homeland!), so I'm hoping to fit it into our family schedule, perhaps over the Christmas holidays.

And finally, after you read this post you must immediately visit Belletrista, where the second issue has just hit the press. Belletrista is a celebration of women writers from around the world. I crowed about the first issue in a Sunday Salon post back in September, and have found the second to be just as rich and delightful. Having just finished reading Wolf Hall, I especially enjoyed Carolyn Kelly's The Man Booker Prize and Other Musings. And the reviews ... oh my. Let's just say my wishlist is growing exponentially thanks to Belletrista -- it's a good thing Christmas is coming! This issue also includes features on Nobel winner Herta Müller, the Giller Prize, Ugandan writers, biographies of women writers, holiday shopping suggestions, and the "new and notable" section. I've already decided that one of my 2010 reading goals will be all about reading books reviewed on Belletrista. My greatest challenge will be narrowing down my choices!

Well that's the week that was. Today promises to be rather busy with humdrum chores, and a bit of work that needs doing before the actual workweek begins. I'm sure I'll manage to slip in a bit of reading, too ;-) What are you doing and reading today?

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The Sugar House

2009-11-08T02:48:15Z

The Sugar House
Antonia White
255 pages

This is the third in Antonia White's autobiographical series of novels. In two previous works, Clara Batchelor came of age through convent education and a job as a governess. The Sugar House takes place in 1920, when Clara is 21 years old and working as an actress with a touring company. Her naivete is evident from the start, when jokes about two gay actors go right over her head. Clara shares rooms with an older, brassier actress named Maidie. She also pines after Stephen Tye, an older actor she met prior to leaving on tour. Stephen is full of empty promises and strings Clara along for a while. When the inevitable happens, Clara turns to Archie, a former love who has turned up after a long absence. Clara met Archie while working as a governess, and was even engaged to him for a time. Archie has changed over the years, and not necessarily for the better. Eager to escape theatrical life and yet remain independent from her parents, Clara is blind to Archie's flaws and agrees to marry him. Almost immediately, the couple find themselves severely in debt due to a general unwillingness to live within their means, and exacerbated by Archie's drinking problem. He pours money into hare-brained schemes that go nowhere, and she loses confidence in her own ability to earn a living either by acting or writing.

As Clara and Archie's relationship deteriorates, Clara's depression worsens and she retreats into a bit of a cocoon. Two chance encounters help her emerge from the chrysalis with greater self-awareness. She is no longer a girl, but a woman desirable to other men. The novel concludes with a number of loose ends, but Clara is poised to exercise her independence in completely new ways. The Sugar House reinforces Virginia Woolf's view that that a woman needs "a room of her own" and an independent income, while also highlighting the importance of sexual discovery and independence. ( )

Women Unbound Start-of-Challenge Meme

2009-11-07T14:10:53Z

Last weekend I joined the Women Unbound challenge, and I've been thinking about it all week! In particular, I've been meaning to post my response to the challenge meme. The organizers graciously asked, "before you even lift a book, though, please take some time to fill out the meme below." Oops. I've nearly finished my first book. Please forgive me! I wanted to do this when I felt relaxed, and had time to put some thought into it.

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?
Wikipedia's article on feminism is useful here. I grew up in the 1970s, when feminism was in its second wave. It was all about equality and wiping out all forms of discrimination. The Equal Rights Amendment was a very big deal. This period certainly shaped my personal definition of feminism, which was largely about the workplace. When I entered the workforce in 1984, my antennae were "live," ready to pounce on examples of discrimination. As it happens, I have been fortunate to spend 25 years working for a company that, while far from perfect, has never given me cause to complain about discriminatory practices. And because I personally felt secure, I was able to broaden my definition as feminism's third wave came about. Today I see feminism as more all-encompassing. It concerns the rights of women in all countries, all social classes, and in all aspects of our lives. Feminism also encompasses women's history and theology. So much of what we've been taught in these areas has been presented from a predominantly male point of view. I love learning about the role of women in history, dating all the way back to Biblical times.

2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?
I think my response to the first question pretty well answers this one!

3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?
There are numerous obstacles, which vary by country & culture. I'm very concerned about women who have little or no protection from abusive environments or relationships. I'm concerned about women who cannot choose their life partner. I'm concerned about flawed legal systems that fail to protect women. I'm concerned about lesbians who cannot form lifelong legal partnerships (I have equal concern for gay men in this area). While these modern-day obstacles differ from those of greatest concern 10-20 years ago, equality and civil rights are foundational to all of them.

Now I'm fired up. I think I'll go finish my first book of the challenge!

Le Grand Meaulnes

2009-11-05T01:32:07Z

Le Grand Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier, translated by Frank Davison
205 pages

Le Grand Meaulnes is a romantic coming-of-age tale, a story of friendship, love, and loss. When Augustin Meaulnes arrives at a small French school, he is befriended by François Seurel, the 15-year-old son of the headmaster. François looks up to Meaulnes, who is two years older and both a dreamer and a rebel. The boys nickname him "Le Grande Meaulnes" which the translator explains is similar to the English phrase, "good old Meaulnes." One day, in an act of bravado, Meaulnes gets hold of a carriage, heads off on his own, gets lost, and ultimately finds himself at a very strange wedding feast. There he encounters the most beautiful woman he's ever seen: Yvonne de Galais. The feast breaks up rather abruptly when the groom's fiancee decides not to go through with the wedding. In the confusion, Meaulnes is separated from Yvonne, and he vows to find her again. He embarks on a quest of sorts, leaving François behind to finish his studies. The search for Yvonne takes a circuitous path involving François, a number of other colorful characters, and unexpected connections with the groom from the wedding feast.

Le Grand Meaulnes was Alain-Fournier's first novel. Sadly, he was killed in World War I in 1914, just two years after publication. His writing is beautiful; I was instantly transported back to 1890s rural France, where women dried their linen by draping it over the bushes, and men engaged in vigorous debate in the local cafe. The weather and scenery were described in vivid detail, further immersing me in the world of François and his friend Meaulnes:

And now, to swoop down from a hill-top into the hollows as if on wings; to see a blurred landscape far ahead divide and make an aisle for you and burst into leaf as you passed; to slip through a village taking everything in at a glance ... Only in dreams had I been wafted on such delightful flights. (p. 139)

While there were parts of this book I found a bit bizarre, and others that were slow-moving, overall the writing was so wonderful that I enjoyed it a great deal. ( )

Women Unbound Challenge (November 2009 - November 2010)

2009-11-01T14:03:36Z

For this challenge, participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of "women’s studies." According to Merriam-Webster, this is defined as "the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender." Ooh la la, this is right up my street!

Details, including challenge rules, are posted here on a beautifully-designed challenge blog. There are three levels of participation:

Philogynist: read at least two books, including at least one nonfiction one.
Bluestocking: read at least five books, including at least two nonfiction ones.
Suffragist: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones.

Eligible fiction books should take "a thoughtful look at the place of women in society." Right -- I have about 100 Virago Modern Classics that I haven't read yet (and I'm still collecting!). So this challenge is a nice overlap with my perpetual Virago challenge. The non-fiction category includes "books on feminism, history books focused on women, biographies of women, memoirs (or travelogues) by women, essays by women and cultural books focused on women (body image, motherhood, etc.)." I have been reading far less non-fiction lately so while this initially sounded more difficult, as I wrote this I realized I had qualifying books already sitting right on my shelves!

So, I'll join the Suffragists. Here's my list, which is most definitely subject to change (links to reviews included as books are completed):

Fiction

The Sugar House, by Antonia White (review)
The Judge, by Rebecca West (review)
Crossriggs, by Jane & Mary Findlater (review)
Virago Modern Classic, TBD
Virago Modern Classic, TBD

Non-Fiction:

At Large and at Small, by Anne Fadiman
Eleanor of Aquitaine, by Alison Weir
A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present Vol. I, by Bonnie S. Anderson & Judith P. Zinsser