Cariola's 75 Books Challenge Reading Log for 2014

Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southampton. Artist Unknown, ca. 1595.

Elizabeth Vernon was a maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I when she fell in love with the Earl of Southampton. The two secretly married when she became pregnant, and the outraged queen had them banished from court and, for a time, locked away in Fleet Prison. They never regained her favor--but the marriage was a happy one. You can see a portrait of her husband, Henry Wriothesley, on my 2014 Club Read thread. A patron of the arts, he was very likely the "Master W.H." to whom Shakespeare's sonnets were dedicated.

Another year, another chance to tackle those TBR stacks! I finished my 75th book of 2013 (The Good Lord Bird) at about 11:45 p.m. on New Year's Eve; you'll find my review on last year's thread and on the book's page.

Top Five Reads of 2013:
Transatlantic by Colum McCann
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna

Currently Reading:
The American Lover and Other Stories by Rose Tremain




January
1. The Headmaster's Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene
2. Astray by Emma Donoghue
3. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
4. The Historical Novel by Jerome de Groot
5. Fools by Joan Silber
6. The Museum of Literary Souls by John Connolly
7. Isabella, Braveheart of France by Colin Falconer

February
8. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
9. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (reread with my seminar students)
10. Philomena: A Mother, her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search by Martin Sixsmith
11. To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl
12. Richard III by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
13. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
14. Restoration by Rose Tremain (reread with my seminar students)

March
15. Married Love and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
16. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
17. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (reread with my students0
18. Old Filth by Jane Gardam
19. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
20. Regeneration by Pat Barker
21. Bark by Lorrie Moore
22. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
23. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
24. Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon

April
25. Last Friends by Jane Gardam
26. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
27. Atonement by Ian McEwan
28. Othello by William Shakespeare
29. The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal
30. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell
31. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
32. The Quick by Lauren Owen
33. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
34. Small Island by Andrea Levy (reread with my students)

May
35. The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin
36. The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland
37. Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor
38. Her Highness, the Traitor by Susan Higginbotham
39. Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

June
40. Family Life by Akhil Sharma
41. Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn
42. The Way Home by Rachel Seiffert
43. Everything in This Country Must by Colum McCann
44. Runaway by Alice Munro
45. Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

July
46. An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer
47. Hamlet by A. J. Hartley and David Hewson
48. How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid
49. The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
50. The Home Girls by Olga Masters
51. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

August
52. Minette by Melanie Clegg
53. The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup
54. By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review
55. In the Land of the Long White Cloud by Sarah Lark
56. Mary by Janis Cooke Newman

September
57. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare (reread with my class)
58. Richard III by William Shakespeare (reread with my class)
59. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
60. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (reread with my class)
61. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (reread with my students)
62. History of the Rain by Niall Williams
63. The Children Act by Ian McEwan

October
64. My Notorious Life by Kate Manning
65. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
66. 6 Shorts
67. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
68. Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming
69. Nora Webster by Colm Toibin
70. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

November
71. The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett
72. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
73. Othello by William Shakespeare--reread with my students
74. Q & A by Vikas Swarup--reread with my students
75. The Ballad of Peckham Rye y Muriel Spark
76. The Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown
77. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (reread with my students0
78. Proof by David Auburn (reread with my students)
79. God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam

December
80. Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: The Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin by Susan Nagle
81. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozecki
82. One Small Candle: The Pilgrims' First Year in America by Thomas J. Fleming
83. Welding with Children by Tim Gautreaux
84. Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark
85. Georgiana Darcy's Diary by Anna Elliott

Welcome back!

Thanks--and Happy New Year!

Deb, 2014 brings us closer to retirement from academia!!!

Oh my, Deborah, what a lovely choice for your threads! Bookends of a happy couple. How very hopeful and positive of you.

Stop it at once.

:-)

Happy New Year, Deborah! Great review of The Good Lord Bird, although I'm sorry to hear that it was a disappointing read for you. I'll probably read it in the next month or two.

4> Thank you, Linda. Only three more semesters (I hope!). Couldn't be happier.

5> Vicarious joy, Richard; the state of wedlock was not so happy for me, and there's no way I'd embark on that road again. (They were happy, but Henry nearly got his head cut off a few years later as a conspirator in Essex's rebellion. Oh, and they're both dead, so not so happy now.)

6> Hopefully you will like the book more than I did, Darryl. I was surprised to see that its LT score averages only around 4; books that have gotten that much praise usually make it to at least 4.3.

>7 Cariola: There! That's more like it.

;)

Hi Deborah and happy new year!

Happy New Year to you, too! It just started snowing heavily here. I'm glad I don't have to be at work for a few weeks.

Finished the first book of 2014:



1. The Headmaster's Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene

What started out as a strange novel ended up also being a sad and depressing one. Arthur Winthrop, the 50-something headmaster of a Vermont prep school, has just been arrested for running naked in Central Park in the middle of a snowy winter's evening. In the police station, he begins to unravel his story. Bored with the job that he virtually inherited from his father and with his increasingly distant wife, Arthur has begun to drink heavily--and to obsess about one of his students. He confesses to having done some creepy and horrible things, putting his job on the line--and now this.

Halfway through the book, I began to wonder why it was titled The Headmaster's Wife--and then the author drops a bomb that totally turns the plot around, devoting the second half of the book to Elizabeth Winthrop's story. I won't reveal what changes the reader's perspective, in case anyone wants to read the book, but suffice it to say that it's one of those revelations that is truly surprising and that also kind of makes you groan because you should have figured it out. Although Greene tries to conclude on a hopeful note, I found the sadness overwhelming. Perhaps that is because, as Greene notes in the afterward, he started writing it during the six months that his now-deceased daughter spent in a neo-natal ICU; he dedicates the book to her.

Written in short chapters and a relatively spare style, The Headmaster's Wife is a quick read with some compelling (if creepy) moments. It ended up being quite different from the blurb I read on Book Browse, and if I hadn't committed to reviewing it for them, I probably wouldn't have chosen it for my first book of 2014. Someone who enjoys psychological studies might enjoy it more than I did.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

Ack! I sure hope your next read is better... o_O

2. Astray by Emma Donoghue

Astray is a fascinating and diverse collection of fourteen short stories/vignettes loosely based on snippets from letters, newspaper articles, footnotes, and other historical documents. Donoghue has taken these small pieces and used both her research and her imagination to flesh them out into complete characters and stories. They range across centuries (from the 17th to the 20th) and are set in various places (London, Texas, Ontario, Massachusetts, and more), and the main characters come from all walks of life: a young Hessian soldier in the Revolutionary war, an elephant keeper, two Gold Rush prospectors, a pair of female sculptors, a runaway slave, a prostitute, a young widowed mother unable to support her child--to name but a few. What they all have in common is that each has in some way taken a life journey that has gone astray, whether due to accident, ambition, corruption, madness, or the pinch of necessity. Each story is followed by a brief explanation of the document that inspired it and what Donoghue learned about the real-life characters' fates. I found two of the stories that were based on letters particularly moving. "Counting Down the Days" tells of a young Irish man who emigrated to Canada, leaving his wife and baby behind; now, at last, she is sailing to join him. In "The Gift," an impoverished young widow reluctantly gives her baby daughter into the care of a social services agency; they place her in a foster home and eventually facilitate her adoption. The story consists of letters written by the birth mother, who attempts to retrieve her lost daughter, and by her adoptive father.

While Astray bears some similarities to Donoghue's earlier collection, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, her skills as a writer have been finely tuned since 2002. Not all of the stories are equally strong, but there is something admirable in each, and something here for everyone. Highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars.

Oh,mi love that opening painting! I love how painters deal with fabric, and her beautiful gown is amazing.

15> That's what caught my eye. Did you notice what appear to be a ruff and an overskirt hanging in the corner?

I did! Looks live velvet, and so beautifully rendered. How they managed to make the fabrics look so real just amazes me.

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

Danticat's latest novel provides another moving portrait of life in a small island community. It begins and ends with the story of Claire Limyé Lanyé on her seventh birthday. As he has for each of her past birthdays, her widowed father Nozias considers giving his daughter to Gaëlle Lavaud, a seamstress who tragically lost both her husband and daughter. The developing chapters interweave the stories of these people with those of their neighbors: the lost fisherman Caleb and his wife Josephine; Gaëlle's husband Laurent; Max Ardin, Sr., the owner of the local radio station, and his son, Max, Jr.; Bernard Dorien, a young man struggling to avoid life in the gangs; Flore, the Ardins' former maid, and her young son; Louise George, a radio talk show hostess. Life for these people is hard, often sad and sometimes violent, but it is not without its moments of joy.

While Danticat creates a vivid and moving portrait, I have to say that this isn't a book that made a great impression on me or will stay in my memory long. I appreciated it as something different from my usual reads but, based on how much it held my interest, I can only give it a mild recommendation.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Hmm good to know. I had high hopes for that one.

4. The Historical Novel by Jerome de Groot

This brief book will be a good introduction for the students in my Seminar in Historical Fiction. It introduces and defines the genre, traces its origins and development, and reviews key critical theories. Most interesting are the connections to Marxist theories of history and the increasing popularity of the historical novel, and the revisionist views of feminist theorists. In a chapter on "genre fiction," De Groot details the most prevalent forms of historical fiction for women (romance and history, including Jane Austen prequels and sequels, the movement towards female agency, and an entire industry of Anne Boleyn fiction), men (adventure and heroism, mainly set in war time), and children). Most useful for my purposes will be the chapter on literary historical fiction and the influence of modernism and postmodernism, which includes brief discussions of two of the novels I will be teaching, Restoration and Regeneration, and a lengthier section on metafiction in Atonement. The book includes a useful glossary and an extensive bibliography. A very handy guide for historical fiction lovers.

4 out of 5 stars.

Have a wonderful weekend, Deborah!

Fascinating the book on Historical fiction looks to be, Deborah.
Genre is a favourite of mine and I'll be interested on what you have to say about Tremain, Barker and McEwan respectively.

Hi Deborah. I read your review of The hired man after I posted my commnets, and note that it was one of your top 5 reads last year. This is a book that I think will stay with me, as the excavated (and unexcavated) past are themes that I think we all deal with, whether we've lived through a civil war or not.

I'm deliberately not reading your comments on Claire of the sea light, as I am currently reading this one.

23> I thought it was a wonderful book--I plan to read more of her work.

I'm glad you're not reading my review of Claire of the Sea Light yet; it will be interesting to see how we compare.

I made a note of the book you are planning to use in your class. Historical fiction (particularly in the mystery genre) is a favorite of mine, although I do love most historical fiction anyway.

5. Fools by Joan Silber

As in her wonderful collection Ideas of Heaven, Joan Silber again creates a loosely connected 'ring of stories.' Characters from one tale drop into another decades later, sometimes as a mere mention, sometimes as an older but perhaps no wiser self. But what connects them all is a sense of loss, a search for meaning, and a link to the spirit of anarchy. And, of course, the lingering concern that one has been played for a fool.

The title story, first in the collection, sets the tone and establishes the framework. It's the 1920s, and Vera, born and raised in India by missionary parents, and her husband Joe are living in a beach house with a group of fellow anarchists whose main goal is to save Sacco and Vanzetti from the death penalty. Despite their earnestness, hypocrisy abounds--and lives begin to change. No one ends up following the expected path. One of the story's main characters is Dorothy Day, who later became a founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

In the course of "Fools," we learn that one of the wild young things, Betsy, left her husband Norman and ran off with an older speakeasy owner to run a hotel in Palm Beach. The second story, "The Hanging Fruit," focuses on their ne'er-do-well son, Rudy, who flees to Paris after several damaging escapades, only to be made a fool of again. One of his Parisian girlfriends reappears fifty years later in the collection's final story, "Buying and Selling," with an American friend, who happens to be one of Vera's daughters. Vera's older daughter, Louise, narrates "Two Opinions." Her father Joe was the only one of the original anarchists who stuck to his ideals; but the question is, was it really the right thing to do? And how has it affected her life? "Better" tells the story of Marcus, a newly-single gay man spending a weekend with friends and reminiscing about his former partner. He picks up an old book--which just happens to be a memoir written by Betsy's ex-husband. In "Going Too Far' we meet Gerard, the son of an employee at the Palm Beach hotel. He's searching for something, he's not quite sure what, but he recognizes a similar spirit in Adinah. It's only after they marry and become parents that he realizes that their spiritual destinies lie in different directions.

I'm not sure this description gives a very good sense of Silber's loosely connected collection, so let me quote a blurb from the back cover by Jim Shepard that does it much better:

"Fools is a wonderfully winning exploration of impetuousness in all of its appealing and appalling forms, and its deftly interconnected stories are devoted to those dreamers who act rashly and out of their better natures, who never quit asking the world, Can't you do better than that?--a question certain to become increasingly urgent as this twenty-first century progresses."

Silber is a wonderfully perceptive writer who creates characters that are simultaneously unique and familiar. Although I still think Ideas of Heaven is her best collection to date, Fools is also highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars.

I'm already sold by Joan Silber's track record, having loved The Size of the World. But Jim Shepard's blurb...! Thanks for the enlightening review, Deborah.

27> She is such a wonderful short story writer--and I know you love them. I was going to put you on to this collection but you beat me to it!

I went to her page and was surprised to see that I am apparently her #1 LT fan, owning eight of her nine books. I haven't read them all yet . . . maybe it's time to dig out The Size of the World.

Great review of Fools, Deborah. It sounds like a book I'd enjoy, so I'll add it to my wish list.

6. The Museum of Literary Souls by John Connolly

The Museum of Literary Souls by John Connolly

Somewhere between a short novella and a long short story, The Museum of Literary Souls was something I picked up as a Kindle special that I wouldn't normally read--but it was quite fun! On a late afternoon walk, Mr. Berger, a librarian witnesses a terrible event: a young woman throwing herself in front of a train. Yet when he makes a report to the police, they can find no evidence. Perhaps he has been reading too many books? Anna Karenina one time too many? The next day, he sees the same woman, red pocketbook over her arm, about to commit suicide again. His cries startle her, she runs off, and Mr. Berger follows her, until it appears that she fades into a wall. What he finds is a library that is never open and that no one knows anything about. Mr. Berger determine to uncover the mystery of what lies inside.

Not a great work of fiction, but a charming little bit of fantastical fluff for the literary minded.

3.5 stars out of 5.

7. Isabella, Braveheart of France by Colin Falconer

Having had a rough week--all that snow, falling on the ice, coming down with a cold, etc.--I was up for a something lighter than my usual fare, and this semi-fluffy historical novel filled the bill. The protagonist is Isabelle, ill-fated queen of Edward II. If you're familiar with her history, or with Marlowe's play about her husband, you know that her fate was determined by the fact that Edward preferred his male lover, Piers Gaveston, to the point of nearly ruining the kingdom. Falconer's Isabella is caught in a no-win situation, desiring her husband's love and the respect she is due as a queen, yet only able to gain a fraction of either by supporting his irrational devotion first to Gaveston and then Despenser. The novel pretty much follows the usual plotline, with Isabelle finally giving in to an affair with Mortimer and to his plot to put her son on the throne.

A quick read, this book was (thankfully) relatively free of bodice-rippery episodes or detailed accounts of Edward's affairs. I guess the "braveheart" in the title refers to both that impossibly ridiculous episode in Mel Gibson's flick--not included here--where Isabelle is sent to make peace with William Wallace and ends up in the sack with him (and supposedly pregnant by him--with the future king), and perhaps more to her courage in initially supporting Edward and subsequently taking arms against him. It was an OK way to spend an afternoon.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

I just want to let off a little steam and say how frustrated I am with SantaThing--well, not really LT, but with Powell's. I returned the book I received because I had been gifted a copy of the same book. After about 10 days, I contacted them, and they said they had received the book, and I would get an email soon telling me how to redeem my credit online. A week later, I contacted them again. They said they had sent the redemption instructions--to some wacky ebay email address! I have no idea where that came from; it was the same as the address I had given them and that I used for my account with them (although I haven't made a purchase in several years), but with the prefix "ebay." They offered to send it again to the correct address. But when I followed their instructions to redeem it, their system reported that it had already been redeemed by the ebay address. So I bought someone else a gift, paid about $7 to return and insure a book I couldn't use, and someone else got the refund for that book. Nice, huh?

Deborah - I have found that stores don't do sending books too well in comparison with specialist on-line services. I have had bad experiences locally doing the same thing. Now apart from things I know Ican't buy locally, I prefer to browse and pick up what I can find in the shops.

>32 Cariola:: that's awful, Deborah!
I'm also sorry to hear you fell on the ice. This has been one heck of a winter so far. I'm ready to be done with it.

Oh, dang. Screwed-up online returns are indeed very frustrating! Sorry that you got caught up in one.

I've never had a problem with Amazon or Barnes & Noble online. Sadly, this experience will probably make this the first and last time I participate in SantaThing, unless I opt for Kindle books next time. But it's not LT's fault. (Picking books for my Santee also wasn't much fun because she dictated exactly what I was to buy. Why not just buy the books yourself?)

34> Thank you, Laura. I was pretty sore for two days, but today I'm suffering more from the cold I'm coming down with. Not a great way to start the semester!

8. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)
9. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (reread with my seminar students)

10. Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search by Martin Sixsmith

As most of you probably know (due to publicity about the recent film based on Sixsmith's book), this is the true story of a young Irish woman sent a to convent to give birth, and of the son who was taken away from her at the age of three--sold, in effect, to an American couple. Fifty years later, Philomena reveals her secret to her family and launches a search for the long-lost son that she has always felt has been looking for her.

In a New York Times interview about the film, Steve Coogan, who plays Sixsmith, says, "“We didn’t want to become overly involved in the life of Anthony Lee or Michael Hess. What appealed to me was the search for the son and the tragedy of not being able to see him grow up. That’s how Philomena experienced it; it was just out of reach, just beyond her.” This explains the main difference between the movie and the book, which focuses predominantly not on Philomena's search but on the successful but sad life of her son.

Anthony Lee was just three when he was adopted, as an afterthought, by the sister of an American bishop and her husband. The family, who had three boys of their own, had always wanted a daughter, but medical problems prevented them from trying again for one of their own. When she met Mary at Sean Ross Abbey, Marge was struck by the affectionate, dark-haired little boy who hovered over her like a protective brother. And so the two were adopted together. Like all of the young mothers at the abbey, Philomena Lee was forced to sign papers giving up all rights to her son and agreeing never to attempt to find or contact him.

It is the story of Anthony, renamed Michael Anthony Hess, that fills most of Sixsmith's pages: growing up in a strict Catholic family in the Midwest, trying to please an adoptive father who hadn't been too keen on his adoption in the first place and becoming an over-achiever as a result, struggling with his sexual identity, rising to a major post in the Reagan administration, and, always, being haunted by the memories of Ireland and the feeling that the mother he left behind was looking for him. Realizing the effect this loss has had on his life, especially on his ability to feel close to other people, Mike makes several visits to Sean Ross Abbey in hopes of learning more about his origins, but, following investigations into wrongdoing by the Irish government, the books are closed (or lost, transferred, or burned) forever.

The final chapters return to Philomena's encounter with Sixsmith and their efforts to locate Anthony, a journey that comes to a bittersweet end.

I have to agree with the LT reviewer who questioned the account of Michael Hess's emotions. Although Sixsmith did interview people who had known him well (including his sister Mary, former coworkers and lovers, and several friends), all of these people admit that Mike was a very private man who compartmentalized his life and rarely revealed anything personal to anyone. So while Sixsmith does a fine job of imagining what Mike may have been thinking or feeling, it came as rather a shock in the end to realize that the man himself had not been consulted in the writing of this book. It also made me suspect that Sixsmith was promoting an agenda beyond telling Philomena's story and advocating for more open adoption laws.

But all this is in retrospect. Despite these concerns, Philomena is a moving and engaging story. Four stars here. I'm eager to see the movie version; although the emphasis shifts from Mike to his mother, that's to be expected when Judi Dench has been cast in the title role.

4 out of 5 stars.

How interesting, I didn't realize the book was so different from the film. I really enjoyed the film and hope you do, too.

On balance, I think I'll give Philomena a miss, both book and film. Thanks for that review!

Deborah - it has come to my attention that YOU were the one to start the 75er Group. This is my first year and I'm loving it. Just wanted to stop by and express my heartfelt thanks.

Just read your review of Philomena. Have an Oscar Best Picture nominated films marathon coming up and have been trying to read some of the books before seeing the films. Just finished Twelve Years a Slave and Philomena was on the horizon. Thanks for your thoughts. Quite interesting that Hess wasn't consulted at all! Nice review.

I saw Philomena over the weekend and finished the book yesterday. Loved both of them. Enjoyed your good review too.

Great review of Philomena, Deborah. However, I think I'll pass on the movie and the book.

I wanted to see the movie of Philomena, but it was not in the theatre very long.

What a sad, sad story.

I hope your semester is going well...What a weird one with all weather related closings...

11. To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl

The best thing about this book is the many photographs included; too bad it wasn't just designed as a coffee table book. I was fairly engaged by the early chapters, which detailed the first wave of American heiresses going abroad (mainly to England) in search of titled husbands. But once I got past Jennie Jerome, Consuelo Vanderbilt and a few others, their stories became repetitive, and, in fact, the remainder of the book is extremely repetitive. It's not just that the women's stories were all similar; MacColl actually recaps the SAME stories two, three, even four times in subsequent chapters. Then there are all those horrendous alphabetical lists. The worst was the last, which seemed to go on forever, listing each heiress with her father, husband, and manor house--again with much repetition. Add to this the fact that the book is full of annoying typographical errors (such as Alva Vanderbilt being referred to, not once, but twice, as "Aha"). I can only recommend that you flip through it to look at the photos and find a better book on the subject (which indeed deserves much better).

2 out of 5 stars (would have been lower without the photographs).

Too bad about To Marry an English Lord but thanks for the warning.

12. Richard III by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

**************************



13. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

I should probably begin this review by stating that I am not a fan of fantasy, and this novel is a hybrid of fantasy and historical fiction. It takes place in Alaska in the 1920s. Jack and Mabel, an aging childless couple, are newly arrived homesteaders. It was Mabel's idea to move to the northwest: she had lost a baby years earlier and was finding it increasingly difficult to be around their extended families. Rather than finding the wilderness lonely, she cherished the solitude and is rather surprised to find herself befriending their nearest neighbors, the Bensons.

The book gives a pretty good portrait of the hard life of homesteaders . . . but then it takes off towards fantasy. One night, following a playful snowball fight, Jack and Mabel make a little girl out of snow. Mabel is touched by the beautiful face that Jack has carved, and she provides mittens and a scarf to finish their snow child. When Jack rises the next morning, the mittens and scarf are gone, and he thinks he sees a little girl with a red fox at the edge of the tree.

At this point, Ivey's novel becomes a riff on a Russian folk tale, one that Mabel remembers hearing as a child, and the reader--like Mabel and Jack--can't quite determine if the girl is a real child or some kind of mystical being. Signs point in both directions.

I started out liking the homesteading story, but after awhile, Mabel got on my nerves. I can't quite explain why, except that she seemed at times to be naïve, bordering on stupid. And several of the other characters--like Esther, the resourceful, hearty, trousers-wearing Mrs. Benson--seemed like stereotypes to me. Since I am not fond of fantasy, I found that element more irritating than charming.

I think I just convinced myself to change my rating from 3 stars to 2.5. But if you enjoy fantasy, don't let this deter you.

14. Restoration by Rose Tremain

(I read this novel several years ago and just reread it with the students in my Seminar in Historical Fiction. I'm posting my original review below, then adding some comments on my students' responses.)

This novel had me engaged from the first page, and my interest never lagged. Tremain depicts the rise and fall of Robert Merivel, a young and gifted doctor, in the court of Charles II. Along the way, she does a fine job of recreating Restoration society, from the competitive, luxurious court to the struggles of the poor in the countryside, from a group of Quakers devoting their lives to the service of others to Londoners scrambling to keep up with the pace of the times. But the greater part of the story is Merivel's journey of self-discovery and his realization that those things he had been pursuing were not necessarily what will make him happy. Tremain's portrait of the king as a man more wise than his surface might reveal is another fine touch. Beautifully written and researched; highly recommended.

*********

So, how did my students respond? Their reactions were mixed. Most of them seemed to enjoy the novel, the portrait of the times it presented, and the strong characters--Merivel, Pearce, the King and others. They got the point that much of the book revolves around the themes of power and materialism.

But one particularly vocal student just didn't seem to get it--or maybe, indeed, to get historical novels. Or perhaps it is just that her perception of novels seems to be that they should focus only on good people in happy situations. She kept asking, "Why are we supposed to like or care about this horrible person who today would be arrested as a rapist?" I tried to make the point that we were supposed to see Merivel as a flawed character, someone to some extent at the mercy of the times he lived in, and that we didn't have to feel sorry for him and he certainly does some odious things that we are not expected to condone. But to her, this is just a bad book, because he ends up relatively off the hook in the end instead of in jail or on the chopping block.

But then this is the same woman who, in another class, harped on about The Awakening being the worst book she had ever read--for many of the same reasons. "Why should we want to read about this woman who abandons her husband and child and falls in love with someone else? Why should we care that she kills herself in the end?" I am beginning to think that, for her, the definition of "a good book" is "I like it, it made me feel good." If she doesn't like it, for whatever reason, it's a BAD book.

Not the best perspective for an English major . . .

She's going to LOVE Lolita!

15. Married Love and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley

This is a collection of twelve interesting but somewhat gloomy stories that explore the human heart through various prisms. A nineteen announces to her family that she plans to marry her lover--a professor 45 years her senior. A family gathers in the country for the matriarch's 60th birthday. A girl forms a friendship with an imaginative outcast. A young man sets his sights on marriage with a wealthy second cousin but returns from the war to a surprise within himself. A young woman struggling with her brother's suicide forms an unlikely friendship with a gruff older woman. Three adult godchildren gather to sort through their godmother's belongings. The situations Hadley depicts are, for the most part, rather banal, but once they take off, the stories tend to travel in unexpected directions. I read a review that claimed Hadley has a gift for opening lines. True--but she has an equally strong gift for conclusions. Most of these stories aren't neatly wrapped up; instead, they may simply come to an abrupt halt or gently wander off. But what they generally do is conclude with an image that stays in the reader's mind.

I enjoyed this collection much more than Hadley's novel The London Train, and perhaps it is because her style is so well suited to the smaller but more intense frame of the short story. It forces the reader to focus on her tightness of language and the crystalline quality of her descriptions, her believable dialogue and characters that ring true. While I can't say that I loved every one of these stories, I definitely appreciated Hadley's mastery of her craft.

4 out of 5 stars.

-----------

16. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
17. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Old Filth by Jane Gardam

Edward Feathers's story is full of insights into a familiar character type: the high achieving, emotionally repressed, stiff upper-lipped, superficially elegant, well-educated son of the pseudo-aristocracy that governed the former British colonies. Now a retired judge in his 80s whose wife has recently passed away, Old Filth (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong) struggles to find a mooring in a changing world, and along the way, comes to terms with his past.

Summed up, Feathers's childhood was shaped by a series of handings-off. His mother died following his birth, and, with barely a single glance, his father shuttled him off to live with Malaysian locals until he was 4-1/2, at which time he was ripped from the arms of the only caretaker he had ever known and sent, with two young female cousins, to live in a foster home in Wales. This home was not, shall we say, the ideal situation for young children, but it met Feathers Senior's criteria: it was cheap. When circumstances forced him to be moved yet again, young Eddie was whisked off to his father's old prep school--a place where, fortunately, he thrived academically and made his first real friend, Pat Ingleby. On holidays spent with the Inglebys (who were properly remunerated by his father), Eddie had his first taste of what family life might be like.

But, alas, World War II intervened, bringing with it a series of losses and tragedies. Almost 18, and just as he passed the Oxford entrance exams, Eddie's father decides he should join not the RAF but the ranks of England's child refugees, and, once again, he becomes a pawn in motion.

The above "life itinerary" barely scratches the surface of Gardam's thoroughly engaging story, a story that is alternately funny and heartbreaking. Nor does it do justice to the many unique and fascinating characters in Feathers's life: his Scottish wife Betty; his judicial rival Veneering; cousins Babs and Claire (both as girls and as elderly women); Albert Loss, a fellow passenger on board a ship bound for Singapore; "Sir," the lovable prep school headmaster; and many others.

Read it--you won't be sorry.

As for me, I'm off to start Gardam's follow-up novel, The Man in the Wooden Hat, which apparently focuses on Betty Feathers.

5 out of 5 stars.

>51 Cariola: I've just read this - Old Filth - and loved it. I have The Man in the Wooden Hat but as an audiobook so it will have to wait until I have finished The Last Chronicle of Barset. Although I have several print books on the go at any time I can't cope with more than one audiobook.

>51 Cariola: glad to see you enjoyed this so much. I read it ages & ages ago and had good intentions about reading The Man in the Wooden Hat, but never got around to it. I will eagerly await your review of that one now.

Enticing review of Old Filth which is now on my wish list.

I have Old Filth on my shelf. Your review makes me excited to get to it soon.

>53 lauralkeet:, >54 RebaRelishesReading:, >55 porch_reader: Hope you all enjoy the book as much as I did.

19. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (reread with my freshmen)

20. Regeneration by Pat Barker (reread with my Seminar in Historical Fiction)

Great review of Old Filth -- It's been on my wishlist for-evah. Will have to move that up further along Mt. TBR. Thanks.

21. Bark by Lorrie Moore

Let me say first that I am a big fan of short stories and of Lorrie Moore's earlier collections. This one, not so much. It left me feeling . . . well, nothing, or maybe a better word would be empty. The writing is fine enough, and the characters are all unique and well fleshed out, so my lack of engagement with this collection is due more my current mood rather than to bad writing. I just didn't feel like interacting with this bunch of depressed, manipulative, angry, aimless, cheating, or soulless people. Overall, a disappointment, at least for me.

A rather generous 3 stars out of 5.

22. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

If you are looking for one of those uplifting stories full of Irish resourcefulness, indomitability, and bleak humor, you had best look elsewhere. While The Spinning Heart has a few bright moments, overall, it's what I'd call a downer. Ryan tells the story of an economically depressed small town through the distinctive voices of 21 of its inhabitants, each of whom is given a chapter of his or her own in which to comment on the neighbors and their business as well as recent events in the town, most notably the collapse of a local building company whose owner first wiped out his workers' pensions, the disappearance of a small child from a care center, and the arrest of the local golden boy, Bobby Mahon, for the murder of his father. Everyone has his or her own point of view, depending in large part upon their own history with the novel's major players, Bobby Mahon, Pokey Burke (the construction business owner), and Realtin (the single mother of the missing child). What they all have in common is an oppressive sadness, tinged with anger, and a prevailing sense that life is just not fair. Added to this, well, these just aren't very nice folks. Fathers mock their children (when they aren't beating them), bosses rip off their employees, husbands cheat on their wives (when they aren't beating them) and beat up the women they cheat with, children are fearful of their parents' constant quarreling, friends confess to being jealous of one another--well, you get the picture. Hence the "downer" label.

Still and all, I have to give Ryan the technical high marks he has earned. He has created 21 distinctive voices for his 21 characters, ranging from a little girl of about four or five to a number of elderly men and women. And while the town he creates is not one I'd willingly visit, he brings it sharply into view. These stories could veer off into multiple digressions; in fact, sometimes they do. But each returns to the main themes: the essential hopelessness wrought by the economic downturn and, despite their shared experiences, the emotional isolation of the townsfolk. Themes that are depressing, yes; but Ryan skillfully builds his plot around them.

On the title: some have speculated that the rusty, paint-chipped spinning heart set into the Mahon's gate represents the ongoing love these people have for one another in troubled times. I don't see that. For me, the heart spins as we would say "he's spinning his wheels"--it's furious, agitated, spinning, but it really doesn't move. This isn't Eliot's "still point in the turning world." It's stagnation: hearts skewered, stuck on anger and despair.

4 stars out of 5 (but make sure you're in the mood for this one).

23. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam

Another lovely installment in the Old Filth trilogy, this one told from the point of view of Betty Macintosh Feathers, Old Filth's wife. Like Edward Feathers, Betty was raised in the far eastern parts of the British commonwealth, and she, too, had lost her parents at a young age. She understands his loneliness and the pleas that comes with his proposal: "Don't ever leave me." Yet almost as soon as she accepts, Betty has regrets--particularly when she meets Eddie's arch rival, Terry Veneering. But a promise is a promise . . .

This is the same story we heard in Old Filth, at least from the time that Betty meets Edward Feathers, but here we get her perspective. It's quite intriguing to see how Eddie's interpretation of events differs from the reality that Betty reveals, and to learn of secrets that apparently were never revealed. Like so many women of her day, Betty focused on fulfilling her wifely duties and appeared to lead a rather dull life focused on her tulips, dinner parties, and her husband's career. Gardam lets us see, however, that she has a vibrant inner life, full of secret memories, dreams, and loves. Her relationship with Harry, the Veneerings' young son, is one such secret. Unable to bear children, Betty becomes attached to Harry, a charming and clever boy whom Filth later says is "the only one she ever really loved."

The Man in the Wooden Hat serves as a reminder that even ordinary lives can be extraordinary.

I'm looking forward to the last book in the Old Filth series and will be seeking out more novels by Jane Gardam, whose writing is beautiful, original, amusing, and moving.

4 out of 5 stars

Posted the below on my thread, but thought I'd post it here as well. Hoping your students are docile and well behaved...

"Came across this bit of oddity --

A George Mason Law professor was attacked with pepper spray while giving a lecture. The assailant also tried to make a citizen's arrest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/tyler-cowen-pepper-sprayed_n_5042358.ht...

One of the most amazing parts? Prof. Cowen was lecturing on vigilanteism at the time.

Add college professors (and all teachers for that matter) to the list of dangerous professions.

Sometimes you just can't make things like this up..."

eta: Need to find some of the Gardam Old Filth books. I love your reviews!!

Hi Deb

I hope your weekend is restful. As I read your reviews, I cannot help but hope that your students appreciate your knowledge base and intelligence.

>62 michigantrumpet: How bizarre! Sadly, I've dealt with a number of students who need some mental health care--but none has ever been violent towards me. The worst episode I've had to deal with was once when my seminar was watching a video clip and the lights were dimmed, an angry student punched out the window from the hallway. He was not angry with me or anyone in the class; he had just had a fight with his girlfriend and took it out on the window. He got the worst of it, since this was an older building, and the window was backed with iron mesh. But my students had to pick glass fragments out of their hair and bookbags, and one young woman got a small cut on her arm.

So what was his penalty? Well, I hate to say this, but he got off easy: they just prohibitied him from entering that building again, because his girlfriend worked as a student aid there. But he was allowed to continue to take courses and to graduate with no blemish on his record.

63> Thank you, Linda, I hope so, too! The Seminar in Historical Fiction is going fairly well, though some of them are rather bewildered by Atonement.

>64 Cariola: What was that young man's 'take away' from that? 'We'll put on the pretense of disliking violent acting out, but that's just a show...'

One worries for the people he encounters later in life.

I think they were concerned about losing one of their not-so-abundant minority students . . .

24. The Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon

The Snow Hunters tells the story of Yohan, a Korean war prisoner who has made his way to Brazil aboard a cargo ship. Uncertain of what his future holds, he disembarks with little besides a card with an unfamiliar name and address on it and a blue umbrella. The latter was given to him by one of the sailors, who pointed out the young girl who directed him to give it to Yohan. The card leads him to the shop of an elderly Japanese tailor who takes him on as an apprentice.

Told in understated, lyrical prose, Yohan's story takes us through his adjustment to a new life. Kyoshi, the tailor, never speaks of his own past or what brought him to Brazil, but it's hard not to like his character as we see his love and concern for Yohan. From the beginning, he is more than an employer to Yohan, and over the years, the two become almost like father and son. Among the friends Yohan makes are two street children, Bia and Santi, and Piexe, the caretaker of the local church. The novel only briefly touches upon the horrors of the war and the prison camp, most movingly in Yohan's haunted memories of the friend he could not save.

Yoon uses sensory details and images well, both to allow the reader to enter this world and to convey mood. If there is one notable flaw in the book, for me, it is the improbable conclusion, which ties things up too neatly. In the last chapters, I was also irritated by the portrayal of Bia, now a grown woman; this was mainly because she (or Yoon) seems to be trying to hard to make her a 'mysterious creature' of sorts.

Final reckoning: The book is better than average, but just by a few hairs. I would recommend it to anyone interested in lyrical prose or the immigrant experience. And it's very short, more novella than novel.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Deborah, I can't believe that I had lost you all year, but that seems to be the case. I'm sorry for myself. I'm also alarmed at another sign of mental deterioration. Before I go though, I'm going to read Restoration. I tend not to read Rose Tremain often because I like her so much, and I know that's weird.
I'm about to finish The Good Lord Bird today, and while I'm liking the last half better than the first, I'm off to see what you thought of the whole thing. I'm afraid that it's another book that should have been wonderful and isn't quite.

>69 LizzieD: Oh, I know exactly what you mean! When I find an author that I love, I don't want the good reading experience to end, so I savor it be stretching out the reading.

25. Last Friends by Jane Gardam.

This third book in Gardam's Old Filth trilogy is fun, yet not quite as good as the first two installments. Edward and Betty Feathers and Terry Veneering have passed on, and the story continues with the lesser characters in the series, most prominently Fiscal Smith and Dulcie, widow of Pastry Willie, the judge who was Betty's godfather. Much of the novel is flashback telling Terry Veneering's past as the son of an impoverished mother and an Odessan circus performer who ends up making it good. Recommended for fans of this series.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

*****************

26. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

27. Atonement by Ian McEwan

This was my second venture into Atonement, this time reading along with the students in my Seminar in Historical Fiction. We also read quite a bit of critical material on the novel, and ultimately I enjoyed it much more than the first time around. (I changed my rating from three stars to 4.5, and, seeing as how I did not review the book then, I will do so now.)

Let me say first that I am a big fan of McEwan's work (although not so much the earlier novels that earned him the "Ian Macabre" moniker). It's not surprising that the very things that so many readers disliked about Atonement are, for me, it's greatest strengths. If you are reading the novel solely as a linear story, you are likely to be irritated by the questions it poses about the process of writing, the "authority" of the author, the responsibilities of the writer to his or her subject and readers, and the readers' responsibilities. You'll probably hate the conclusion. And perhaps be annoyed by the "revisions" of the story as the third person narration moves shifts in time, place, and point of view--something I found particularly intriguing. McEwan plays with all kinds of additional lit crit-type things, including metafictional allusions to Jane Austen, Dante, Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and more, and some heavy handed symbolism (the broken vase, the recurrence of threes).

The story itself--which is probably known well enough for me to skip a lengthy summary--is an intriguing one that eventually focuses on the issues of guilt, punishment, and atonement. It also examines the snobbery of the British class system (especially in the first section, set in 1935), the ugliness and inhumanity of war, the power of words and the imagination, and the painful coming of age of Briony Tallis, the central character. Written with a third person omniscient narrator, the novel is divided into four sections. The first is set in 1935 on the Tallis family's country estate. It's Briony's 13th birthday, and she plans to celebrate her brother's homecoming with a performance of the first play she has ever written, "The Trials of Arabella." But things go terribly wrong, disrupting Briony's penchant for order--for the world to be as she would have it be. Lola, Jackson, and Pierrot, cousins from the north who have arrived in the wake of their mother running off to France with a lover, are assigned parts in the play--but not necessarily the parts Briony intended, and their interpretations don't necessarily agree with hers. In addition, the relationship between her sister Cecelia and Robbie Turner, the charwoman's son, which Briony imagined as a romance similar to that in her play, has taken a turn that confuses and surprises her. When a crime is committed, Briony's rigidly ordered and highly imagined world begins to fall apart.

I don't want to give away any more details that would spoil the reading experience, so let me say only that Part Two is told from Robbie's point of view as a soldier in France, heading towards the beach where the Dunkirk evacuation is about to occur; and Part Three relates Briony's wartime experiences as a nurse trainee. The last, and shortest, section jumps ahead to 1999 and is told, again, from Briony's point of view.

For me, Atonement is a rich novel that I know will take me deeper each time that I revisit it. I loved the metafictional elements, and I really enjoyed making a study of it this time rather than simply taking it on as pleasure reading. Highly recommended.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

28. Othello by William Shakespeare--reread with my students.

29. The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal

This book had a lot going for it in terms of what I like to read: it's an historical, it's set in the early modern period, it revolves around a painting, and it's told by multiple narrators. Despite all that, for the most part, it failed to engage me. Like Tracy Chevalier and others, Siegal has focused on a famous painting, Rembrandt's "The Anatomy Lesson," and created a backstory involving the painter, the anatomist, and the corpse. Each of these is given a voice, as are other narrators she imagines involved in the surrounding events: the dead man's lover, the doctor's wife, the philosopher René Descartes, and the supplier of all things strange (including corpses). To add a contemporary note, there's a modern-day art conservator.

I found the lives of the ordinary people fairly interesting: how the dead man, who had been executed, came to a life of crime, and how his pregnant lover came to Amsterdam in hopes of saving him--or at least bringing his body home for burial after the anatomy lesson. The description of how Rembrandt prepared for the task of painting the anatomy lesson was also intriguing--but I found it a bit of a stretch that he and the dead man just happened to have been friends. But the last third of the book was just plain dull. Aside from learning that the dead man's organs were passed around among the spectators, I was not interested in the details of the anatomy itself, which seemed to drag on and on. Nor was I much engaged with the various musings of Descartes on morality and the soul, or the conservator's examination of the painting.

Siegal's writing is capable, but nothing extraordinary. I was, in fact, a little surprised to read in her acknowledgments how much support she had gotten to write this book (two MacDowell Colony fellowships, a Guggenheim, etc.). Perhaps the award committees, like me, were intrigued by the idea behind this book; but sadly, I can only say that it was a hair above mediocre.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

I really liked Atonement, Deborah. I'm glad it was better for you the second time around.

When I saw the movie, I decided I wouldn't read Atonement but from your review, it sounds like there is much more in the book that would intrigue me. Thanks.

>76 ffortsa: Definitely so! McEwan himself said that the movie version was probably one of the worst films ever made . . . I wouldn't go quite that far, but it certainly missed a lot.

30. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell

I tried, really I did, but I just couldn't finish this one. I expected historical fiction, not a gloppy romance focused on a silly, spoiled, unlikeable girl. I struggled through Anna's unfortunate affair with Benucci because I wanted to see what happened when Mozart came on the scene. I made it past the first hundred pages before I couldn't take any more of the stilted dialogue and generally bad writing; the book is extremely overwritten. Mozart's Aria is sitting in my TBR pile. Hopefully that one will be better.

I gave the book two stars for the author's research and the pretty cover.

Oops--double post!

Happy Easter!

80> Thanks--that's adorable!

31. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

I finished The Invention of Wings late last night. I had not read any of her previous books--just didn't sound like something I would enjoy. But I quite liked this one. The main character is based on a real person, Sarah Grimke, the daughter of a Charleston judge and plantation owner. In the nineteenth-century, she shocked her family by becoming a Quaker and a noted abolitionist; coming from a slave-holding family, she was the perfect spokesperson--once she overcame a stammer that she had had since childhood. She was also one of the first to speak in favor of women's rights. Her younger sister Angelina also became a renowned proponent of these causes.

The story is told in alternating chapters by Sarah and Handful, a slave she was given as a present on her 11th birthday and with whom the author imagines her forging a friendship. Both young women face struggles, Sarah to conform to social expectations that go against her core values, and Handful to survive the brutal realities of slavery.

At times predictable and also a bit longer than it needed to be, The Invention of Wings is nevertheless an engaging read, particularly because of the unique and realistic voices Kidd creates for her two protagonists and the parallel events in their lives.

4 out of 5 stars.

32. The Quick by Lauren Owen

I had to stop reading my current book, The Quick by Lauren Owen. I received an ARC from one of my online book groups. It sounded like a good, literary Victorian mystery, and the cover blurbs by Hilary Mantel and others made it sound like something new and brilliant.

I don't usually give spoilers, but I feel that other readers need to be forewarned. Last night I reached the point where the promised big "secret" or "twist" was revealed. My reaction: "Oh, crap, it's another dang vampire novel!" I read on for another 25 pages or so, but, seeing as how I have a huge TBR stack with many good books that are calling my name, and 300+ pages to go in this one, I'm done with it.

In fairness, since I only could manage about 1/3 of the book, and it's just not my cup of tea, I won't give it an official rating. Unofficially, the best I can manage is two stars for the fairly good writing. And perhaps I shouldn't count it as a book read, since I only got through about 1/3 of it, but I need to get something out of my disappointment.

Reporting from your Group read thread...

As always, great reviews. >78 Cariola: The cover art does indeed merit a 1/2 star. Too bad the rest didn't live up to expectations. >82 Cariola: Saw this one before and it looked intriguing. >83 Cariola: I hear you. I would have thrown the book against the wall....

>83 Cariola: Oh, good Lord. Aren't there enough vampire novels out there already?

>85 kidzdoc: What I don't understand is why, considering how popular this genre is, the publisher didn't just advertise it for what it really is. Maybe they thought it would be more likely to garner a literary prize if it sounded like something new, brilliant, and literary (as the blurbs from Hilary Mantel and others suggested).

>86 Cariola: Wow, Hilary Mantel wrote a blurb for a vampire novel? How much was she paid to do that???

>87 kidzdoc: ^ What Darryl said!

Rats. I really liked the summary when I saw it on my library's new acquisition list. Thanks for taking one for the team... :)

>89 drneutron: You're welcome. Glad to have spared you the pain.

Noted I'd requested The Quick from the ER list. Whew! Unrequested that just in the nick of time! How upset I would have been over that! It would have been just my luck to win it!

33. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

34. Small Island by Andrea Levy

I read this book when it first came out and just reread it with my Seminar in Historical Fiction students. I'm really happy that I chose it to close out the course.

Levy tells her tale through as somewhat complex structure. She uses four narrators: Queenie, a white working class British woman; Bernard, her ultraconservative husband; Gilbert, a Jamaican who served in the RAF during World War II; and Hortense, Gilbert's wife, a proud woman who believes her education will get her anywhere. Added to this, Levy gives us two timeframes, 1948 (present day) and "Before," which ranges from 1924 to 1948. In addition, the characters move among many locations, including London, Jamaica, Hertfordshire, India, France, and Brighton. If this sounds confusing, well, surprisingly, it isn't.

All of these characters live on dreams--hopes to better their lives. In the prologue, a seven year-old Queenie visits the 1924 British Exhibition in Wembley and leaves convinced that she has been "in Africa." Queenie dreams of escaping her father's pig farm, of becoming a lady, of living a more comfortable life in London, of motherhood. But as it happens, the road to that dream takes her to marriage with a "solid" but dispassionate man--Bernard, a bank clerk. Hortense is convinced from an early age that she will go to England and live in a big house with doorbell that goes ding-a-ling--and that she will marry her handsome playboy cousin, Michael Roberts. All his life, Gilbert Joseph has been told that Jamaicans are British subjects, and he believes that if he can just get to England, opportunities will open wide. What better way than to fight for the Mother Country? And Bernard--poor Bernard. He doesn't really know how to dream, so his dream is the dream of the British Empire: British superiority, a stiff upper lip, living your life as others think you should. For him, the war is becomes a real game-changer.

The characters' lives become complicated and intertwined when Gilbert and Hortense marry, emigrate to England with high expectations (Gilbert first, Hortense several months later) and rent a room in Queenie's house. In time, they learn a lot about the way of the world--particularly the English world--and even more about themselves.

I don't want to give up any more particulars of plot, so let me just say that this is a lovely book, finely written and imagined, with more than one meaningful message for us all.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Nice review of Small Island, Deborah. I loved it as well.

35. The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin

I have to begin by saying that I am not a Dickens fan, and as I read this book, I began to like him even less. Tomalin focuses on Dickens's relationship with the Ternan family, in particular his presumed affair with the youngest daughter, Ellen, best known as Nelly. She was only 18 at the time their affair began, Dickens 45. The Ternans were an acting family, and Dickens used his prestige first to persuade Mrs. Ternan and the girls to perform in his play 'The Frozen Deep,' then to secure various roles for her with his theatrical friends. Before long, he abandoned his wife (the mother of his 10 children), spreading rumors about her mental health and the ingratitude of her family members for all his assistance. (Wikipedia notes, "Matters came to a head in 1858 when Catherine Dickens opened a packet delivered by a London jeweller which contained a gold bracelet meant for Ternan with a note written by her husband.") Dickens began to lead a double life, leasing and purchasing a series of homes for Nelly, her sisters and her widowed mother--homes deliberately located further and further from the public eye. After all, the man whose works were supposed to be the moral compass of England couldn't be caught with a mistress! His financial and personal arrangements were handled through coded letters to friends who acted as go-betweens, including Wilkie Collins. Nelly was kept such a deep, dark secret that her identity was even hidden when she suffered a serious injury in a train derailment while traveling with Dickens. Tomalin posits that she had at least one, and perhaps two, pregnancies by Dickens but lost both babies shortly after birth. Later in life, long after Dickens's death, Nelly supposedly confessed the affair to her pastor, saying that she greatly regretted it and loathed Dickens in those last years but could not, financially, break away.

The last section of the book addresses Nelly's life post-Dickens and the history of both the coverup and revelation of the affair.

I felt sorry for both Catherine, Dickens's long-suffering wife, and for Nelly, a young woman pressured by poverty and impressed by celebrity. As for Dickens, what a pompous, self-righteous hypocrite!

3.5 out of 5 stars.

>95 Cariola: Wow. Regardless of your opinion of the book, your opinion of the man seems well-justified. Poor ladies.

36. The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland

One thing I can say for this author: she certainly got across how boring the life of a transcriptionist can be. For me, this book was a real snoozer. I sense that the author had some grand philosophical or metaphysical statement in mind, but it passed me by. Lena, a young woman whose job is transcribing news stories phoned in by reporters, is shocked to learn that a blind woman she had met on the bus the day before committed suicide by entering the lion's enclosure at the zoo. She becomes obsessed with the story and the woman's fate. As others have stated, the story line is slim, as are the connections between various parts of the plot, and the writing was adequate but nothing special. Sorry, not recommended.

2 generous stars out of five.

37. Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor

While I did not appreciate this collection quite as much as I have others by Trevor, his usual skill in storytelling and style prevail. The twelve stories here are, if not exactly sad, wistful or regretful. Nearly all involve characters who have experienced the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, or some other form of longing or loss, and the thin Irish melancholy pervades them all. I do agree with the LT reviewer who feels that Trevor is best writing about the 1960s and '70s, and that the contemporary stories seem a bit lacking in truth. But, as always, Trevor is well worth the time.

I was thinking about you the other day when I ran across a quote (which of course I can't find now) to the effect that education involves being able to try out someone else's positions, choices, etc. If i can find it again, I'll post it. The young woman in your class who refuses to appreciate any character unlike her was what came to mind.

>74 Cariola: I've added this book to the ever expanding TBR pile.

I hope your summer is restful!

>99 ffortsa: Surprisingly, she actually wrote a good paper about madness and decided to write about Merivel's obsession with the king as part of it. I was quite surprised!

>101 Whisper1: Me, too! Hope you enjoy the Trevor--I've liked other of his works better, but it's still good.

38. Her Highness, the Traitor by Susan Higgenbotham

The story of Lady Jane Grey, England's "Nine Days' Queen," is a familiar one, but Susan Higgenbotham gives it a new twist by using two alternating narrators, the mothers of Jane and her husband, Guildford Dudley. In some ways, this renders Jane's tragedy as almost peripheral--which is not a bad thing. Beginning with the death of Henry VIII and the accession of his nine year-old son, Edward VI, the plot focuses on the political machinations at court, religious controversy, questions of loyalty, and the rising influence of John Dudley and Henry Grey, the narrators' husbands. But it is also a domestic story, giving glimpses into the women's relationships with their husbands and children and, in the case of Frances Grey, her cousin, Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. It's particularly intriguing to see how the same incidents are variously interpreted by these two narrators.

Both well researched and imaginative, Her Highness, the Traitor was an enjoyable read. My only disappointment was the rather schlocky conclusion, in which Frances consummates a marriage of convenience with her master of the horse. The two have been eyeing each other for years; even her husband suspects there may be some hanky-panky going on, but on the night before his execution, he asks Master Stokes to take care of Frances. While it's true that these two did marry, it's presented here almost as a toss-in romance element.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel enough that I will be looking for others by Higgenbotham.

4 out of 5 stars.

Great review. The era was so filled with drama, sometimes it's difficult for me to decide if the writing is over the top or if it's just the tenor of the times.

39. Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

Sorry to say that, in the end, I'm rather disappointed with this one. Gardam uses an epistolary framework--although it's hard to remember that midway, when the letters become so lengthy and self-absorbed that the reader forgets there is a supposed recipient. The writer/narrator, Eliza Peabody, is a middle-aged know-it-all who initially feels compelled to proffer her superior wisdom--gained as a hospice volunteer--to her neighbor, Joan, who apparently suffers from debilitating pain in one leg. Eliza has decided that Joan's pain is psychosomatic and advises her to just get over it, offering her own help as an amateur psychotherapist. Surprisingly, after a few more letters, it is discovered that Joan has run off, leaving her leg brace in the marital bed. Although Joan never replies to Eliza's letters, we learn that she has embarked on a new life, travelling to exotic locations and having affairs with much younger foreign men. Periodically, gifts from Joan arrive--but never a letter. In the meantime, Eliza's own life takes a turn for the worst as her husband moves out to take a flat with Joan's abandoned husband. The letters continue, with Eliza portraying herself, narcissistically, as the abandoned spouse, now abandoned as well by any borderline friends she might have had, and making herself out to be the heroine of everyone's lives, from Joan's university-student daughter to Barry, a young man dying of AIDS in the hospice.

Initially, I was intrigued by Eliza's voice, which Gardam conveyed with much humor. But as the letters dragged on and the descriptions of her own escapades and musings became longer and more self-pitying, I got bored. Yes, I do understand that what Gardam was trying to portray was the sadness and near-madness of a woman who has isolated herself from everyone; it just didn't particularly interest me, and I found the one-sided epistolary device tedious.

Three stars for the writing and the creation of a complete character, plus the initial humor is Eliza's self-deceptive letters to Joan. But Gardam has written much better novels.

40. Family Life by Akhil Sharma

What begins as a fairly typical Indian immigrant story soon takes a devastating turn. The parents of the narrator, Ajay, decide to move the family to the United States in hopes of a better life. Hardworking and ambitious, they push their two sons to excel, especially in school, and are ecstatic when the elder boy, Birju, passes the entry exam for the Brooklyn School of Science. But during summer vacation, Birju suffers a traumatic brain injury in a diving accident. Life for the family will never be the same.

The majority of the novel explores the effects of Birju's disability on his family and the local Indian community. Sharma takes us through the highs and lows, the hope and the despair. There are intense descriptions of Birju's physical care (and, in some cases, the lack of it). When the decision is made to bring Birju home, family life gets even more difficult. The invalid's bed becomes the center of the home, each member responsible for a shift of turning, feeding, cleaning, medicating. Members of the Hindu temple they attend are unsure of how to react: Should they offer help or sympathy, or should they just pretend that nothing has happened? Some even begin to treat the boy's mother as a saint, asking her to lay hands on their children in blessing. Young Ajay is particularly conflicted. He loves his brother; he hates his brother. He wishes his brother would die; he prays for his brother not to die. He hides the fact that he has a brother; he gives unasked-for grotesque details about his brother to his classmates as a means of getting attention.

Although the novel is an emotionally difficult read, it's not told without humor and, if not hope, at least love.

The end of the novel rushes through Ajay's adult years, giving snippets that demonstrate the powerful effects of the family's sad circumstances. I would have preferred Sharma to slow down a little here, perhaps been a bit more reflective. Still, this was a moving and gripping novel.

4 out of 5 stars.

What a lot of good reading you've been doing! Thank you, thank you for removing The Quick from my wish list! No need.
You know that I am a real Dickens fan, but the man himself was not loveable.....at all! His male biographers treat him a bit more kindly than Tomalin does. Surprised?

41. Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn

This was my first experience reading Edward St. Aubyn, and I quite enjoyed the ride. Lost for Words is a send-up of the British literary scene--in particular, the Man Booker Prize and all the hubbub surrounding it. St. Aubyn clearly took his inspiration from the controversy of a few years back, when a semi-qualified panel decided to invoke popularity over literary quality. Several of the judges for the Elysian Prize for Literature have spurious qualifications; others unabashedly admit to not planning to read all the submitted books, and each is promoting a particular book because of preference (e.g., one likes nothing better than Scottish historical novels). The hopeful authors have their quirks as well. (My favorite was an Indian writer whose publisher mistakenly submits his aunt's cookbook instead of his own novel, The Mulberry Elephant.) St. Aubyn provides subtle humor in the behind-the-scenes rivalries and passions as well as the public debates. I saw the ending coming, but it was still fun getting there.

4 out of 5 stars.

I've been curious about this book. Nice to see a trusted positive review!

Hi there! I hope summer is providing a break from stress. I've added Her Highness, The Traitor to the tbr list. Your review is captivating.

>109 lauralkeet: From the reviews I've seen, I guess if you've read a lot of St. Aubyn, there isn't much new here. But he was new to me, and I enjoyed the book. The style parodies were a real hoot.

>110 Whisper1: I think you'll like it, Linda. Have you read anything else by this author?

As always, thoughtful excellent reviews. Heard Sharma being interviewed a while ago and the book sounded quite interesting. Glad to see that impression echoed here.

42. The Way Home by Rachel Seiffert

I am a big fan of Rachel Seiffert's earlier books; this one--not so much. It's pretty much the story of a dysfunctional family, but the only thing that makes it dysfunctional is religion and the continuing quarrels between Protestant and Catholic Irish. Set in Glasgow, it's the story of an Irish family displaced by the Troubles. Brenda and Malky are happily married with three grown sons. When the youngest, Graham, brings home a pretty, pregnant girlfriend, they are readily taken in; Lindsey is well-loved by Brenda, who takes her along on her cleaning jobs and helps to care for young Stevie. She says little about the home she ran away from, aside from the fact that her father ranted from the bible. Surprisingly, Lindsey forms a close friendship with Eric, Brenda's brother, an aging widower who spends his days drawing strange pictures. Life seems pretty good, if a b it hardscrabble, but Lindsey is frustrated by Graham's reluctance to move far from the old neighborhood--and his continuing participation in an Orangeman's marching band the goes on The Walk each year.

The story alternates between past and present. The latter focuses on young Stevie, who has left home and works for a Polish contractor. The time shifts are confusing at first, but eventually they make sense.

I never really connected with these characters, except perhaps Brenda and Malky, who were doing their best to keep the family afloat. And I have to say that the Scottish dialogue was a little hard to follow. (Characters seem to end every sentence with the word "but," sometimes meaning "however," but sometimes simply arbitrary.)

3.5 stars.

43. Everything in This Country Must by Colum McCann

The novella and two stories in this slim book are set in Ireland and peripherally deal with The Troubles. Each features a teenaged protagonist hose life is somehow affected by the lingering residue of the hatred between Catholics and Protestants. In "Wood," young Sam and his mother must hide from his blind father the contribution they are making to a political march. The title story depicts the confusion of a girl whose father would rather lose his draft horse than owe a debt of gratitude to the British soldiers who try to save it. And in "Hunger Strike," a coming-of-age story, a boy rages against the disruption caused by the family moving from north to south for 'safety.' Always in the background, always presuring the foreground are the ongoing religious and political divisions that plague the Irish. A very fast read, but--as usual--McCann's lyrical prose demands close attention.

4 out of 5 stars.

44. Runaway by Alice Munro

I know that I am part of a very small minority, but I am not an Alice Munro fan. Her stories aren't bad, but to me, they are just incredibly boring. I will give her credit for writing realistic contemporary dialogue, and I guess it's a talent to be able to write a long story about ordinary people in fairly ordinary situations. And there are brief moments of insight into human nature. But that's about all I have to say. I've now read several of her collections, and I've felt the same way about each. It's never a good sign when you are about halfway through a story and just want it to end . . . For the last 100 pages, all I've been thinking about is what I will read next. (Hint: It won't be by Alice Munro.)

2.5 out of 5 stars.

45. Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

Katherine Parr seems to be this year's hot ticket as far as the Tudors go. I've seen at least three new novels focused on Henry VIII's last wife, and more seem to be popping up regularly on my Amazon recommendations. This one started off with a bang. Katherine's second husband, Lord Latymer, is on his deathbed, in extreme pain, begging Katherine, who apparently has great knowledge of herbs, to euthanize him. Shortly after his passing, she and her stepdaughter are called to court and put into the service of Mary Tudor, the king's eldest child. Almost simultaneously, Katherine falls in love with the dashing but unscrupulous Thomas Seymour and is singled out to be Henry's next queen. When duty calls, love must wait.

Most of the novel follows the historical course of events--with, of course, some speculation and embellishment. Katherine is a sympathetic but somewhat dull figure, but, fortunately, Fremantle develops some very interesting secondary characters who keep the story going. Dr. Huicke, the king's physician, is sent to Latymer's sickbed. He admires Katherine's strength, diligence, and cunning in herbology, and the two become close friends, to the point where they share some dangerous secrets. Fremantle also develops a side story focused on Dorothy (Dot) Fownten, a maid first to Katherine's stepdaughter and then to her. Dot, a keen observer of human nature and devoted to the queen, provides insights into the historic events and persons and even has a romance of her own.

Although I love historical fiction, I prefer mine to have a bit more history and a lot less schlocky romance--which, unfortunately, is where this novel heads in the last third or so. Still, it was a fast and fairly enjoyable read. Fremantle provides an appendix to the book that I know I will return to in working on my own novel. It includes not a brief "who's who" list of the historic figures but also a very fine list of resources.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

>114 Cariola: You got me with this one! Another of your excellent reads now added to the TBR pile.

117> Happy to be of service, ma'am!

46. An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer

This is definitely not my usual reading fare, and in fact I am not sure why I chose this book. Maybe it had something to do with having just had a root canal and needing something very light to read on a holiday weekend. Plus I think Amazon offered it as a Kindle special when I picked it up. It wasn't bad, just not particularly memorable. It's the story of Edward Schulyer, a recent widower, and his reintroduction into and resistance towards dating. As "an available man," it's not long before the sixtyish Edward starts getting calls from women he doesn't even know and his friends start trying to set him up. His stepchildren even place a personal ad in the New York Review of Books ("SCIENCE GUY. Balding but still handsome . . . "). The rest of the story is pretty much what you might expect. Edward initially resists dating any of the women who have responded to the ad but, lonely and curious, ends up giving in, with disastrous results. The one compatible woman he meets on his own . . . well, that ends up not working out well either. Then there is the former fiancee who left him at the alter decades ago. But never fear, love wins out in the end (of course). I will give Wolitzer credit for creating a sympathetic, likable character in Edward and for giving us what would seem to be a pretty good portrait of widowhood from a man's point of view.

3 out of 5 stars

>119 Cariola: Reminds of the true story of Anne Roiphe's daughters placing an ad for her in the NYRB. Can't remember if it turns out well or not.

47. Hamlet by A. J. Hartley and David Hewson

This is the second adaptation of a Shakespearean play by Hartley and Hewson that I've listened to on audio, and it was just as much fun as the first. In part, this is due to the excellent choice of readers: Alan Cumming for Macbeth and Richard Armitage for Hamlet. If you are a Shakespearean purist who can't abide embellishments to the 1623 Folio, best skip these novelized versions. In the H & H Hamlet, for example, a key character is added: young Yorick, son of the old jester, who tries to knock Hamlet out of his melancholy with more wisdom than foolery and is a constant companion to the prince throughout the novel. You might also be put off by the cruelty of both Old Hamlet and Polonius, the portrait of Fortinbras as a rather bumbling and brooding braggart, the details offered regarding the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia,and the fact that Ophelia's death is not depicted as a suicide here. But if you are willing to suspend what you already know about this cultural icon, you're in for quite an entertaining ride.

4 out of 5 stars

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid

As its title suggests, this book works within the frame of a self help or "how to" book. Each chapter is headed with a rule (e.g., "Don't Fall in Love"), and the narrator uses imperatives, addressed to "you," as is typical of the genre--a clever device used by many writers, most notably Lorrie Moore. (Note: It would be impossible to write a book "in the second person." Person refers to the narrator, not the listener/addressee. Imperatives are simply commands--"Don't fall in love"--addressed to "you.") One of the effects of addressing the reader in this manner is to deliberately distance the speaker from the subject of his story, but this is clearly a very personal story of a man rising from abject poverty to wealth and of a woman (known only as "the pretty girl" well into her fifties) whose life intersects with his. So how does one become filthy rich in rising Asia? Through one form of corruption or another: hustling, stealing, prostituting, threatening, payback, demeaning, disloyalty, submission to those even more corrupt than oneself, etc. It's a life shadowed by sadness and anxiety, even when one's efforts succeed. Hamid gives us keen insights into life in "rising Asia" (no exact location or even a country is ever named), a view that contrasts with recent western paranoia about those nations supposedly poised to take over the world's economy. It's a story about the lengths to which desperation drives human beings in an increasingly materialistic world, and about the discovery, in the end, of what is most important to our lives.

4 out of 5 stars.

49. The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks

There has been a terrible accident in Sam Dent, New York: a school bus veered off the road and into a gravel pit, leaving 14 of the small town's children dead and others with devastating injuries. Russell Banks's novel explores how the townspeople deals with the tragedy, dedicating each section to a different character. The first and last are given to Dolores Driscoll, the middle-aged bus driver, a hard-working woman with a husband severely disabled by a stroke. In other sections, the story is picked up by Billy Ansel, Vietnam vet and garage owner, who was following the bus his two children were on that morning; a slick New York lawyer who persuades several grieving families to sue; and Nichole Burnell, a pretty, popular cheerleader who survived the accident but will never be the same. Their narratives inevitably intertwine, and we learn that life in small upstate towns isn't really quite as simple as it seems. Banks's character studies and the portrait of small town life are stunning. (I recall seeing a film version of the novel several years back, which was also quite good. A sad story, but one that ends on a note of some hope.

4 out of 5 stars.

50. The Home Girls by Olga Masters

This collection of short stories by Australian Olga Masters left me very frustrated. I didn't care for the way many of them started by throwing the reader into the middle of the story, and I cared even less for the abrupt, unresolved endings (the stories just stopped, as if the writer had fallen asleep at her desk). Worse still was the overall tone and subject matter. Nearly every story involved child or wife beating, intended, I suppose, the show how tough life was for people trying to scrape a living in small towns and the outback. I just can't get into a father beating his son bloody at the dinner table while all his wife does is offer him brownies in an attempt to distract him, and one of the daughters keeps throwing out more suggestions for why her brother needs to be beaten to ramp up the violence. I got about 2/3 through this one and just couldn't take any more.

1.5 out of 5 stars.

Oh god that sounds horrible. How did it happen to land on your TBR pile in the first place?

Yikes, that last read sounds pretty darn terrible.

>125 lauralkeet: >126 Whisper1: I am a big fan of short stories and hadn't read any set in Australia. It was truly awful, and she is supposed to be the vanguard of new Australian writing.

>124 Cariola: Ugh! Horrific. Would have hurled that one against the wall, I think.

51. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

This book isn't something I would normally pick up, but it was lent to me by a friend of my daughter who felt sure that I would like it, and I did. I've read two previous books by Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary, which I quite enjoyed, and The Jane Austen Book Club, which--well, it's typical chick lit. You've got to hand it to Fowler, she's certainly willing to stretch her writing wings. This book is something entirely different for her. Yes, as some reviewers have mentioned, it does have a political agenda. But that doesn't take away from the fact that she has created a unique story, told by an engagingly honest but unreliable narrator. The questions the novel raises have as much to do with morality and our place in the larger world as with politics, and I was much more interested in how the family's liberal, intellectual experiment backfired on each member.

I'm being deliberately vague, just as Rosemary, the narrator, is vague for the first third of the novel. We know that her family has been split apart: her dad, once a university psychology professor, is now a sorry drunk; her mom, the perfect housewife and mother, wallows in depression following a mental breakdown; her brother, star of the local football team and heading off to college, has become a fugitive; Rosemary herself seems to be a lost soul; and her sister's disappearance was the start of it all.

That's all you're going to get from me. Read some of the reviews below if you want spoilers--it's a very hard book to talk about without giving them.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was just nominated for the Man Booker Prize long list, and it also won the Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction. Although I liked the book, I'm not sure that I'd consider it Booker-worthy. But the Booker has undergone some major changes this year, so perhaps the nomination reflects the "new face" of the Booker Prize.

4 out of 5 points.

>129 Cariola: I loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, and wouldn't've read it if not for the... spoiler. I read Sarah Canary afterward, out of curiosity, and respected it but can't say I enjoyed it. I've avoided The Jane Austen Book Club because, well, chick lit. I'm in no position whatsoever to evaluate prize nominations.

>126 Whisper1: OMG how awful!!!!

53. The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup

I am a big fan of Vikas Swarup's Q & A, the book upon which the movie Slumdog Millionaire is VERY loosely based; in fact, I will be teaching it again this fall in a gen ed lit course. So, naturally, I was eager to read his latest novel. Sadly, it did not live up to his first.

Like Q & A, Swarup has created a frame around which to build his story. In the former, it was a series of questions the protagonist is asked on a game show; here, it is seven tests that the protagonist must pass in order to be named CEO of a huge company, a prize that will enable her to leave her boring, low-paying job in an electronics store and to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. Both story lines are a bit fantastic, but this one lacks the delight in coincidence that figured into Q & A. Instead, Sapna is put to a series of grueling tests--without ever knowing until they are over that they actually were tests. Some of them border on downright cruelty. Sapna is warned that the final test will be the most difficult. It certainly is--but it is also way over the top and unbelievable, as is the final resolution.

3 stars--it had it's moments.

By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from the New York Times Book Review

This is a terrific browsing book for anyone interested in contemporary books and reading. The back cover blurb describes it well: "Sixty-five of the world's leading writers open up about the books and authors that have meant the most to them." I found many of my favorites--Ian McEwan, Elizabeth Gilbert, Hillary Mantel, Khalid Hosseini, Amy Tan, E.L. Doctorow, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chang-Rae Lee--revealing such fun bits as what's on their nightstand, what they read as children, what book was most disappointing, what writer would they like to meet, and more. If you are into best seller crime novels, you'll find a lot of your favorites here, too. There are nonfiction writers as well as fiction writers, and even a few celebrities not particularly known as great authors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sting, Emma Thompson, and Lena Dunham. Each entry is 3-6 pages in length, so it's the kind of thing you can pick up whenever you have a few moments. Very entertaining.

4 stars out of 5.

>129 Cariola:

Good Morning Deborah! I very much like your review of We Are all Completely Beside Ourselves.

I gave it a three star rating My problem with this book was that it was very convoluted and felt like a wild ride that I would not have purchased the ticket if I knew it had so many twists and turns.

In the Land of the Long White Cloud by Sarah Lark

This novel, translated from the German, centers around two women who emigrate to New Zealand in then ineteenth century. Helen Davenport, a governess who keenly hears her biological clock ticking and desperately wants a family of her own, responds to a notice in her church newsletter seeking wives for "well-established gentlemen" in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although she can't afford the passage, she is offered the chance to escort seven orphan girls destined to become servants in the new country, giving her the chance to join the gentleman farmer with whom she has struck up a correspondence. Gwyneira Silkham, youngest daughter of a Welsh lord/sheep baron, longs for adventure and a place where she can be free of the social strictures of her class. When her father loses several rounds of poker to a visiting New Zealand sheep baron, the man, Gerald Warden, offers to take the bet of asking for Gwyneira's hand--not for himself, but for his son--and she willingly accepts. The two women become friends aboard the ship bound for New Zealand. But, of course, once they arrive, all is not as rosy as either woman had hoped.

Although this novel leaned a little more towards romance than I usually prefer, I enjoyed the details of life on a sheep farm--one more successful than the other--and the conflicts both women encountered with their husbands and the land, and their relationships with the Maori. The story--saga, really--continues for about 20 years. This is the first of a trilogy, which continues with Helen's and Gwyneira's grandchildren in the second installation, which I plan to read soon. (But not before a break to read something entirely different.)

4 out of 5 stars.

Some wonderful reviews here. We are All Completely Beside Ourselves sounds intriguing and the By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life is right up my alley. Thanks for pointing me their way.

56. Mary by Janis Cooke Newman

I was very interested in the main subject of this book, Mary Todd Lincoln's confinement to Belleview Hospital for the Insane, which was granted by her son Robert's petition to the court. I wondered if being present at her husband's assassination had driven her mad, and I had heard that much of Robert's motivation was to get his hands on her money.

Newman does a good job of depicting life in the asylum, and, as a reader, I was frustrated by the restrictions put upon Mary. She could not spend a penny, move a foot, have a single visitor, or send a letter without Robert's express permission--a situation that must have been hard on the former first lady. She takes us back through events in Mary's life that strongly influenced her: the death of her mother and her father's remarriage to an unaffectionate stepmother who sent her off to boarding school; family resistance to her engagement to Lincoln; the death of her sons; newspaper attacks; the assassination; etc. But on the whole, Mary does not come off sympathetically. She's depicted mainly as somewhat of a nymphomaniac; Lincoln complains that her passion is too strong and makes her promise to withhold it, and he is often so repelled by it that he avoids her bed (which of course only makes her more sexually frustrated). Mary later concludes that this suppression is the reason her son Robert is so unaffectionate. In addition, she's a neurotic shopaholic. During the war, in addition to wracking up bills that her husband simply cannot pay, she squanders tens of thousands of dollars on jewelry and silver tea services "because they will last." She stashes the goods in the attic and visits them religiously as totems that will keep her husband and sons alive. If that isn't crazy, I don't know what is!

The thing I hated most about the book was the sex scenes. Don't get me wrong: sex can be good, and I don't mind it in most novels, as long as it's appropriate. But I really, REALLY did not want those detailed graphic descriptions of sex between Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, both in younger days and their middle age. Some things you just do NOT need to visualize! Newman also details a one-night stand Mary has with a New York escort; whether this has any basis in fact, I do not know, but I could have done without it.

If, like me, you'd like to know more about the subject matter, I'd advise you to skip this one and find a credible biography. It raised a lot of questions for me about Mary's political influence and her confinement that really weren't satisfactorily answered for me here. I'm giving the novel three stars, mainly because it did raise questions, and because the first half or so did keep me engaged.

3 out of 5 stars

Deb
I understand what you feel regarding the unnecessary sex scenes in books. I feel the writing suffers and I often wonder if authors feel they must include this to sell the book. A cheap tactic that turns me off totally!

Hi, Deb. I still can't quite commit to *WAACBO* I was thinking that it had been nominated for the Orange/Bailey too, but that's not true. I'll keep it in mind.
Meanwhile, your By the Book bullet got me right where I live, but I think you took one for the group with *Mary*.

>138 Whisper1: Linda, I have yet to mention this book to anyone who expresses an interest in the Lincolns' sex life. The usual response is, "EW!"

>139 LizzieD: I liked the Fowler, but I have to say that I forgot about it pretty quickly, so not really memorable.

57. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare (reread with students)
58. Richard III by William Shakespeare (reread with students)

My reading is always a bit slow once classes start. Plus my audiobook, Outlander, is more than 33 hours long!

59. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I resisted starting this series for quite a few years. I suspected it was a bit too far on the romance side for my taste, and I wasn't enamored of the time-travel element, although I am a big fan of literary historical fiction. I decided to read (well, actually, listen to the audiobook of) Outlander along with viewing the new televised dramatization. On the whole, I enjoyed it--although it was indeed a bit fantastical and overly romantic with formulaic sex scenes. Nevertheless, Gabaldon has created vibrant, unique characters, and she brings 18th century Scotland to vigorous life. I certainly understand why so many readers--primarily women--have been so entranced by this series. I found the last quarter of the book particularly hard to take; I won't give anything away by providing details, but I will say that it took a turn that I felt was unnecessarily brutal. Will I read the next installment? Yes; in fact I've already downloaded it--but I will need to take a break first.

4 out of 5 stars.

60. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (reread with my class)

61. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (reread with another class)

62. History of the Rain by Niall Williams

This is one of those books that I was sad to leave behind when I finished, and that probably means that I will be returning to it down the road. The story is a fairly simple one: Ruth Swain is a sickly young woman living in the attic room of a damp house in Faha, County Claire. She is surrounded by the physical legacy her father Virgil left her--his extensive library--and caught up in his less tangible legacy, a fierce love of and belief in the power of language and the longing to write. Virgil, tormented by the Swains' version of The Impossible Standard, could neither shake his passion for writing nor ever be satisfied with his efforts. It's his daughter Ruth who decides to write his story, going back to her grandfather's small book, Salmon Fishing in Ireland and relying heavily on Virgil's library to better understand him.

This is a small story, revolving around some of the familiar stories set in Ireland. often sad, sometimes magical, sometimes sparkling with humor (much of it dark, however). What makes it extraordinary is Williams's style, which is simultaneously poetic, commonplace, rapturous, and brutal. It did for me what a book that totally failed for me--Tinkers--apparently did for many other readers: it gave me transcendant, almost spiritual moments rooted NOT in the sublime but in the inner life. If you are a writer of poetry, or have ever aspired to be one, you will know exactly what Virgil is feeling here:

What he did was stand beside the river.

That's where he found the rhythm.

There were no words at first. At first there was a kind of beat and hum that was in his blood or in the river and he discovered now somewhere in his inner ear, a pulsing of its own, a kind of pre-language that at first he wasn't even aware of sounding. It was release. It was where the brimming spilled, in sound. To say he hummed is not right. Because you'll suppose a tune or tunefulness and there was none, just a dull droning inside him. He went up and down the riverbank. He went the way Michael Moran the Diviner goes when he's going round and round a source, head bent and almost holy, shoulders stiff, neck-crane like Simon the Cross-carrier, wispy hairs on the back of his neck upright and all of him attentive to an invisible elsewhere.

Virgil walked the rhythm the river gave him. Over and back. Back and over. Lips pressed shut now, brow like a white slab, eyes watery and in a way unseeing. And now he was tapping. Three fingers of his right hand against his thigh, dumda dumda dum dum-da. The ground softened and mucked under the weight of the not-yet-poem, was printed and overprinted, bootmarks rising little ridges, small dark river waves, as he tramped and hummed and heard the hum of a first phrase.

He had something.

Just a lovely, lovely book. It made me want to recapture the joy--no, the necessity--of writing again. I can't believe that it didn't make the Booker shortlist.

5 out of 5 stars.

63. The Children Act by Ian McEwan

McEwan's latest novel initially had me captivated, but something--mainly, my interest--got a little lost along the way. Fiona Maye, a British judge who decides cases involving child welfare, has just reached a number of difficult and controversial decisions. One concerned the custody of two young girls whose parents belong to a strict Jewish sect. Unable to bear more children, the mother enrolled in open university classes and began to pursue a career, becoming more "worldly" in the process, much to the dismay of her husband. The second was the case of conjoined twins, one of whom could survive if they were separated; if not, both were doomed to die. The hospital asked the court to intervene because the parents believed that whatever happened was God's will. Now, sitting on her desk, is yet another difficult case. Adam Henry, just three months shy of his majority (18), suffers from leukemia, but he and his parents, who are Jehovah's Witnesses, reject the blood transfusions that could save his life. In making her decision, Fiona tries to keep focused strictly on the letter of the law, the sanctity of individual faith, and the welfare of the child in question. However, her ability to keep her professional life separate from her personal life quavers when she meets Adam, a sensitive, self-assured, intelligent young man.

For in the midst of all this, Fiona's marriage has begun to fall apart. Her husband announces that, with her permission, he would like to have an affair while he is still capable, complaining that she has no interest in sex and is just no fun anymore. He also feels that she has become closed off and is keeping things to herself that he wishes she would share. Fiona begins to contemplate the past: what she has given up for the sake of her career, including having children of her own.

In some ways, I would have been happier had the novel ended with Fiona's decision, or perhaps with Adam's letter in response to it. But, as is usual for McEwan, things take a detour that is a bit off kilter. Of course, this leads to more self-analysis on Fiona's part--another hallmark of McEwan's work. In this regard, The Children Act is somewhat reminiscent of another brief novel, On Chesil Beach.

All in all, this was a fairly engaging read up to the rather muddled, rushed, unsatisfactory conclusion. Definitely worth reading, but not among McEwan's best. If you haven't read Atonement or On Chesil Beach, I recommend picking those up first.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

64. My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

Well, THAT was quite a ride! I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Manning has taken the bare bones outline of the life of Ann Trow, a Victorian midwife/abortionist, and created the fascinating story of Axie Muldoon, Irish immigrants' daughter who rose from the slums of New York to living in a Fifth Avenue mansion. Along the way, Axie gets shipped west on an orphan train with her younger brother and sister, is shipped back for her recalcitrant behavior, then finds a job as a maid to a local "ladies doctor" who takes her on as an assistant. Through pluck and enterprise, Axie--known as Madame Debeausacq--and her husband Charlie survive and then thrive on her remedies for "female obstructions." Apparently the law turned a blind eye to such doings until Anthony Comstock and his Society for the Suppression of Vice (which included everything from prostitution and abortion to contraceptive pamphlets and anatomy texbooks) got involved.

Manning's strategy for giving this story something new is to create Axie as a sympathetic character who is neither a crusader nor the monster that Comstock insists she is. We see her as someone with a conscience whose personal history prompts her compassion for the women--many of them in dire circumstances--who come to her for help. The novel's subplots and lesser characters are equally engaging. It left me wanting to know more about Ann Trow, her life, and her struggles.

4 out of 5 stars.

-----

65. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

66. 6 Shorts--The finalists for the 2013 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award

Well, I was interested to see what's trending in Short stories, so I downloaded this collection to my Kindle. Moist of the winners are well-known: Junot Diaz, Mark Haddon, Sarah Hall, Ali Smith. But these stories did nothing for me. Sorry, but I really have no interest in a teenager's affair with an older neighbor, two kids who confiscate a gun and shoot a deer, a badger hunt in Wales, or anything involving sci-fi/fantasy. I won't be reading the subsequent collections in this series.

2 stars out of 5.

>146 Cariola: This sounds like a great book. It is now on the tbr pile.

Mid way through the semester -- How is it going for you?

>148 Whisper1: Fall Break began today--which is no big deal, just Monday and Tuesday off. The semester is going pretty well. It may be that I'm more relaxed now that I'm 90% sure this will be the last year.

I'm sold on History of the Rain (thank you), the Manning is a maybe, and I realize that I do really want to read a decent biography of Mrs. Lincoln. I just can't decide which one. Anyway, that's quite a lot for a visit to one thread! Keep reading!

Getting close to that 75 books read goal!

67. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Burton gives us a novel set in 17th century Amsterdam, a booming mercantile center. Young Nella has arrived from the country, newly married, only to find that her merchant husband Johannes is away on business and that her harsh sister-in-law, Marin, rules the roost. When he returns, he presents her with a wedding gift that he believes will keep her busy: a cabinet designed like their house, but empty. It's Nella's task to fill it, and she contacts by mail a miniaturist to create the first pieces. When the package arrives, it includes additional, unordered pieces that are astonishingly identical to reality. How does the miniaturist know so much about the Brandt home? Even more strangely, some of the figures representing the family start to change . . . and Nella begins to feel that she is living in a house of secrets.

This novel was really slow-going at first, so slow that I almost gave up on it. While I'm glad that I stuck with it to the end, there were a number of problems. First, we never really learn exactly who the miniaturist is or how she knows so much. At times, Nella seems almost too naive, and she and other characters change far too abruptly to be believable. The ending--well, lets just say that we're somewhat left hanging. While it feels like a conclusion, again, there are just too many holes.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

68. Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming

I don't read a lot of biographies and memoirs, particularly contemporary ones. But I've always liked Scottish actor Alan Cumming, and the blurb sounded interesting, so I thought I would give this one a try. I'm very glad that I did.

In 2010, Cumming was asked to be the focus of the Brit version of the TV reality show "Who Do You Think you Are?" He hoped to learn more about his maternal grandfather; pretty much all he knew was that Tom Darling went off to World War II and never returned, later dying in Malaysia in a gun cleaning accident. Cumming uses this search as the framework for a story that goes much further and brings him to examine more closely his complex relationship with his abusive father. It's a sad story, but Cumming's gentle humor and the interweaving of happier stories make it not only bearable but engaging. And it has made me admire him even more.

I strongly recommend listening to this book on audio (read by Cumming) as I did. And if you are interested in his search for the truth about his grandfather, you can watch Cumming's episode on YouTube.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

>153 Cariola:
thank you for your review of Alan Cumming's book. I have only occasionally seen the TV program that he is on and I recall at first being a little put off by his character. But as I have seen him as the announcer on Masterpiece Mystery, my feelings have warmed. I just viewed the YouTube piece - most interesting (I didn't realize that WDYTYA played in the UK also - thought it was only an American phenomenon). And just downloaded the book to my Kindle. Thanks so much.

Hi Deb

Thanks for saving me the trouble of reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. I saw it prominently displayed at Barnes and Noble and was tempted to read it.

I'm very glad that you are seriously contemplating retirement!

You are contemplating retirement? I retired in Feb and can truly say it is close to being the best thing I've done. Go for it!!

>156 catarina1: I'm about 90% sure there will not be one more year. Too many changes coming next year in my university and department. I teach Shakespeare, and it will no longer be required for English majors; it will be part of a grab bag. And theoretically, majors will be able to graduate without ever studying anything earlier than Wordsworth. Instead of teaching what I'm good at, I will be in the position of having to come up with something catchy and/or trendy every semester--or get stuck with freshman writing sections. (Vampire novels, anyone?) Plus our contract is being renegotiated, and the university is revamping gen ed requirements. Not to mention the considerable changes in students, their habits, their expectations, etc. and the general disrespect for higher education. I am becoming an old fart; so be it! I'm anxious to get to work on my historical novel.

>155 Whisper1: Someone asked on my Club Read thread if the reason the ending seemed unfinished might be because a sequel was planned. That wasn't the issue. Without giving away too much, let me say that the miniaturist--the title character, after all--is never really fleshed out. We never know exactly who she is, where she has gone in the end, why she "chose" Nella, or how she created figures that can change with events. And considering the fate of Nella's husband and sister-in-law at the end and the heritage of her niece, the rather "happy" conclusion just wouldn't have been possible. The conclusion is rushed and a lot of impossibilities and unlikely changes in characters are just brushed over.

Thanks for your thoughts on the Alan Cummings memoir. I read an NYT article about it a few weeks ago and it looked pretty interesting.

Shakespeare no longer a requirement for ENGLISH major! Oy vey!! I understand all of your reasons for considering retirement. I was in the medical field, had similar issues. It got to be that I would sit in my car in the parking lot every AM and dread going into the building. That is no way to live every day of your life. Who cares if we are old farts! After reading so many of your reviews, I will look forward to your book.

Addendum: I'm reminded of similar myopic changes at the other end of the education spectrum - my grandson is in third grade at a very well respected public school where penmanship is no longer taught! Even his parents are aghast at this.

>160 catarina1: I've had students recently coming to me to say that they can't read my handwritten comments on their work--and my writing is very legible. They just can't read cursive.

Attending some meetings in Ann Arbor two weeks ago, the topic of the state of modern University education was discussed at length. Makes one wonder how these youngsters are going to survive once they graduate and have to find work. Parents negotiating adult students grades? I'm certain my mother had NO idea what classes I took, the name of my professor nor the results of every little paper and test. And she was an educator herself.

Hmm, with all the FERPA protection laws, I don't see how parents can be negotiating grade, unless their kids are asking them to. If I get a call from a parent, I can't even knowledge that I recognize the student's name. However, retention is such a big issue that a student practically has to kill someone to get kicked out. If a student hasn't been coming to class, I get an email from the Registrar at the end of semester asking the last day he/she attended. Then they give them a late withdrawal rather than an F so that the student won't lose financial aid. And now they have a new intervention program. We're supposed to report any excessive absences, changes in appearance, missed work, behavioral issues, socialization problems, etc.

I think the kid was plenty happy to sign away(up?) on the FERPA issue and have mum/dad try to pressure re the grade.

Reading >163 Cariola:, I can see why retirement would look enticing...

69. Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

This is a quiet little book centered around Nora Webster, a fortyish Irish woman living in a small town outside of Dublin in the late 1960s. Her husband Maurice has recently died of a painful illness, and not only is she devastated by the loss, but caring for him in his last weeks seems to have sapped all of her energy. Nora is left alone to raise four children. One daughter, Fiona, is finishing teacher's training in Dublin, and Aine is close to prepping for her final exams, but the boys, Donal and Conor, are still young, vulnerable, and strongly affected by their father's death. Donal has developed a stammer, and while Conor seems fine, Nora wonders if this is so.

The novel follows Nora through a series of changes and struggles, from selling the family's vacation house and taking a job to finally, after six years or so, beginning to blossom as her own person. If you are looking for an exciting, plot-driven novel, Nora Webster will not be your cup of tea. But Toibin's writing is fine, as usual, and his character sketch a full and affectionate one.

4 out of 5 stars.

Nice review of Nora Webster, Deborah. It's at the very top of my wish list, so I'll definitely read it soon.

I'm interested in that one, too. Thanks for the review.

Deb, I'm glad you are nearing retirement. Sad though of all the changes that are occurring which lead you in this direction.

Thanks for the great review of Nora Webster. And, I am excited that when you retire you can write a book...That sounds great!

#165: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Deborah!

>168 Whisper1: I'm glad, too. Dealing with yet another cheating episode this week. As bad as the cheating is (she not only tried to copy but at one point asked another student if she could take a photo of her exam), it's even worse that the students who came to me will only speak with me with assurance of anonymity. They are afraid of retaliation--although I have no reason whatsoever to think that this young woman is violent. We live in a sad world when people refuse to report crimes because they fell it will put them in danger. I can't report her on the basis of anonymous reports, so she will get away with it, and all I can do is warn that I will be watching her during the next exam.

Hope everyone who posted enjoys Nora Webster; it's a very fine book indeed.

70. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (reread with my students)

>170 Cariola: Another reason that I'm so, so happy not to be teaching now. My practice for papers was to print off a copy of their source and staple it to the student's work. I sent that combination home the last year I taught and got a phone call from the parent, "Did you SEE him copy that work? Then you can't PROVE he copied that work. Maybe they just had the same ideas...." (and same words for 3 pages straight....not the kind of miracle I believe in...) It's a great sadness. Also, I feel my blood pressure rising at an alarming rate, so I'm going away now! Anyway, I'm sorry that you continue to deal with cheating at your level of instruction.

>170 Cariola: >172 LizzieD: Wow. Just ... Wow. This is truly frightening.

71. The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

The Air We Breathe is narrated by an unnamed patient residing in a sanitarium in the Adirondacks as the first World War approaches. The patients, all of whom suffer from tuberculosis, have been sent here by the state; most of them are poor immigrants, many of them Jews, Russians, and Germans. Because of the healthful environment, many private homes in the area also cater to wealthier TB victims. One such home is run by Mrs. Martin, with the help of her teenage daughter, Naomi. When one of her tenants decides to start a Wednesday learning circle at the state institution, the story is set into motion.

Although Miles's lectures on fossils initially bore the men, the Wednesday group flourishes when others share their expertise and life stories. There's Ephraim, a communal apple farmer; Irene, the Russian radiologist; and Leo, a former chemist who attracts the romantic interest of both Naomi and her friend Eudora, an aide at the sanitorium who longs to follow in Irene's footsteps. Meanwhile, Miles has fallen in love with Naomi, who has been serving as his driver. As one would expect, conflicts develop from misplaced romantic notions, and even the serene town of Tamarack Lake is not immune to the effects of the rising war in Europe and the political fallout at home.

Barrett is often praised for bringing science and technology into her novels, and there are lengthy sections here on chemistry, radiology, fossils, etc. I have to admit that, while I was engaged with the characters, I found the science rather awkwardly integrated and intrusive: it felt like the author was writing a novel to expound on scientific topics rather than writing a novel in which science plays a role.

3 out of 5 stars.

Nice review of The Air We Breathe, Deborah. It sounds interesting, but I'll pass on it, since you didn't think highly of it. Are there any books by her that you've read and would recommend?

>175 kidzdoc: I did really enjoy her first short story collection, Ship Fever.

Great review of The Air We Breathe! Think of all the marvelous books you can read, and the reviews you can post when you are retired.

I'm ready!

I have three more years to go until 65. I think that we know when we are ready. I'm getting there, but would be foolish to retire now. Given the fact that I'll be on short term disability after the January surgery and will be recovering for perhaps four months, I can still collect my salary, build up my pension and social security.

A lot hinges on how I recover and if I can indeed return. I still like what I do, especially the financial aspects of the publications, but each day, as my energy is less I get nearer and nearer to the day when I don't have to get up in the morning and go into the office.

Happy retirement Deb. You deserve it.

I am putting in course preferences for 2015-16, just in case. If I somehow got an exceptional schedule (like the one I have this year--no freshman comp!) I might stick it out for one more year. That's a long shot. But since admin has not been replacing ANY faculty who leave or retire (and we have had five go in the past two years), the chair might want to make it worth my while to stay. Part of me would really like to have one more year of working with no house payment; the house will be paid off around April. But I think it's unlikely.

Of course you will want to hang on with your health issues in flux. I hope the next surgery gives you enough relief that you can stick it out for a few more years.

>180 Cariola:
house mortgage - that exactly was my goal. I did have it paid off the month I retired. So now I am pretty sure that I can live comfortably with SS and my pension. And I'm pretty sure that the pension is safe. (That is why I continued to work where I did - we still got a pension and they paid better than any place else.) It still am responsible for taxes and insurance but I set $$ aside every month for that. I think that you have a good plan in place.

>179 Whisper1: That is good that you still enjoy what you do - that is important. (For me, I was very bored with the work and it was a very high stress place). I hope that the surgery goes well for you. It sounds as though you have a good plan in place also.

>181 catarina1: Thanks for your input. Since I am on a 12-month paycheck plan (rather than 9, which is an option for academics), I will still get my regular pay check through August, so I will still have a few months to put away some extra cash. I've also been putting an extra $300-500/month on the mortgage to pay it off early, so that will be an additional savings. It's still a little scary; I've only been teaching since 1991, and I don't have a huge cache saved up or in my retirement account, but I think that I can make it. There are a lot of expenses I won't have anymore or that will be reduced when I retire.

>182 Cariola: "putting an extra $300-500/month" - we're on the same wave length. I did the same and paid off a 30 yr mortgage in 13 yrs.
"I've only been teaching since 1991" - I went back to grad school in 1991 and finished in 1995, so only had been working since then. I had a very small amt saved previously but not much. For the last several years I maxed out the contribution to the 403B each year. Now the total is not fabulous but is OK. Starting about 6 months before I retired, I spoke to a lot of financial people - not just one, I wanted to get a consensus. After looking at all the numbers, three separate people said it looked solid that I could retire. So you may want to start looking into that. One person was a family friend but I also approached Charles Schwab and the planning dept at the mutual fund co where my 403B money is.

# 170 - Your story so much reminded me of Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey. How very odd.

>183 catarina1: Good idea. I have an independent financial advisor but want to speak with someone at TIAA-CREF, where my main retirement fund is. Unfortunately, being single and putting a daughter through college as soon as I finished my PhD, I hadn't been putting in the max. I also got a bit scared by the crazy market downturns. Most of my retirement fund is now in fixed income; I just don't feel like I have time to carp shoot with it on the market. I have enough left in stocks that I've been earning a little extra.

I had a 30-year mortgage that I converted to a 15 year in 2004, so I will be way ahead when it is paid off.

Of course, the big dream is that the historical novel I plan to write after I retire will be a success! And I have two sequels in the back of my mind.

>184 Trifolia: On the cheating situation: After I spoke with her, the young woman who cheated has been sitting in one of the front rows every day, of her own volition, and she has been very actively participating in class discussions. I guess she got scared and figured she needs to prove herself. Good for her, I say!

>185 Cariola: As I said, it looks like you have a plan, a good one. And I am looking forward to your books! And I'm glad that the confrontation with your student worked out to the best (we hope).

About the "crazy market" - I was on a trip to Japan during that upheaval in Sept-Oct 2008. Not only that, I was way out on the west coast of the country. There was TV where I stayed but there was no English translation, no CNN. And the place did not have Internet and I couldn't find a public internet. So I just watched a chart of the Dow going down and down. Talk about heart attack! Not much I could do at that point. Luckily a few months earlier I had moved a large chunk into a safe fund.

72. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this book. The cover intrigued me, it was set in Scotland, and the present day main character is a writer of historical fiction, so I thought I'd give it a try. In the end, it was just OK--a bit too heavy on the romance for my taste. The novel centers around a young, successful writer who has gone to Scotland to do research for a new book that will be based on the life on one of her ancestors. Set in the 18th century and focused on the efforts to bring the Stuarts back to the throne of England, the novel shaped some of the more interesting chapters. The modern-day story involves two handsome Scottish brothers who both are attracted to Carrie, the writer. This I could definitely have done without, and I thought the concept of Carrie channeling the memories of her ancestor was also a bit of a stretch.

I doubt that I will be looking for more novels by this author.

3 out of 5 stars.

# 188 - Cariola, that plot really reminds me of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander-series. It's a good thing you don't like it that much, so I don't feel tempted to read it, since the resemblance would probably bother me.

>189 Trifolia: Yes, the whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking that she was riding Gabaldon's coattails. The brother she falls for has striking similarities to the love interest in the 18th C story--sound familiar?

73. Othello by William Shakespeare--reread with my students

74. Q & A by Vikras Swarup--reread with my students

75. The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark

Another wry (pun intended) novel by the witty, observant Muriel Spark. It centers on Dougal Douglas, a young Scotsman newly arrived in Peckham Rye. Dougal has his fingers in many pies, spying for more than one master, chatting up whatever available young woman happens to be around, and warning everyone that he has "a fatal flaw" (which seems to change with the occasion). In the meantime, Dougal is writing a kind of moral history of Peckham, based on his observations of and interactions with his neighbors, friends, and coworkers.

Spark was an impeccable observer of English society, always writing with affection and tongue in cheek. While I enjoyed this novel, I didn't think it compared favorably to her others that I have read, including Memento Mori. A Far Cry from Kensington, and The Girls of Slender Means.

3 out of 5 stars.

Congratulations on 75 books read this year!

>193 torontoc: Thanks--it took awhile, but I made it a little earlier than last year.

Slowly catching up on LT after little WiFi access for a month. I really enjoyed your review of The Children Act. I've only read on McEwen before and I wasn't overwhelmed by it. Your comments made me think my hesitancy to go back to him is a good thing. Then I read what you said about Nora Webster and was equally pleased because I had just put that on my "wish list" yesterday after reading a summary of it in The Book Passage flyer. I've never read anything by Tobin before but I'm really looking forward to it.

Congratulations on reaching 75. I'm just poking along.

76. The Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown

This is not the first novel I've read based on the true story of Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan woman who survived a brutal Indian attack on Lancaster, MA, only to be taken into captivity, along with three of her children. While I did enjoy Amy Belding Brown's rendering well enough, I have to say that it is not as good as Deborah Larsen's lovely, poetic book, The White.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot for those who aren't familiar with Rowlandson's story. Suffice it to say that, just as she is becoming accustomed to life as a slave and beginning to appreciate the Nipmucs' ways, she is ransomed and returned home--and the readjustment is not an easy one. At the urging of Increase Mather, the real-life Mary wrote down the details of her tribulations, intended to show the prevailing goodness of the Lord. In Brown's revision, Mary strikes a significant bargain with Mather in exchange for her memoir, which he publishes with extensive revisions to suit his own purposes.

A few things about the novel don't quite ring true, and, in fact, Brown affixed an author's note at the end to explain them. Still, making Mary an early abolitionist and Native American sympathizer (as well as something of a feminist upon her return) seems imposed to engage contemporary readers. These elements stick out as artificial and out of place. I also felt that some of the characters nearly went beyond stereotype and into caricature. The worst of these is Mary's husband Joseph, a harsh Puritan preacher who yammers on about God's will continually and in the most inappropriate circumstances, to the point that he isn't left with a single human quality. While it's true that the Puritans were a rather straight-laced bunch, let it not be forgotten that they were among the first in England to advocate companionate marriage--the idea that one should marry for love and companionship rather than money, the engendering of heirs, and financial and political alliances.

Overall, The Flight of the Sparrow is an interesting look at a time and place often overlooked by fiction writers--but it's not without its flaws, which are hard to overlook.

Happy Thanksgiving Deb.

Your retirement plan sounds reasonable. Good for you in paying off your mortgage in a timely manner. My pension is also with TIACREFF. It took a difficult hit for a number of years, but this year it seems to be making some money.

Will and I are very close to an elderly neighborhood couple who have lived past their financial security. They have a difficult time adjusting. They came from a wealthy area in Northern NJ, sold their house at a great profit 17 years ago, moved to our neighborhood, and now sadly depend somewhat on their sons to help with house repairs and bills. It is sad to watch. They had a wicked car repair bill a few months ago. Luckily, I was in a position to help. Still, they hate having to accept gifts.

My issue with retirement is what to do with my time. My job as publication adviser at Lehigh is deadline driven and very stressful. In many ways, my life is/was consumed with my job. To go from that intensity to lots of free time may be an adjustment for a period of time.

I previously volunteered and served on the board of directors for a local homeless shelter for fifteen years. So, I feel that I've already done my stint in the community and volunteering.

What do you envision for your time when you are retired, other than writing that marvelous historical best-selling novel?

Hmm, I don't feel like I will have any trouble filling my time--there are so many things I have put off while working. As you say, work absorbs all my time now. My first priorities are to rid myself of two major frustrations by 1) being able to keep up with housecleaning; and 2) being able to work out. Every summer, I go faithfully to the fitness center, watch what I eat, and drop 15-20 pounds. And every fall, I don't have the time to go and the weight comes right back on. With my arthritis and past bouts of sciatica and Achilles tendonitis, I really need to get this weight off--not to mention that cancer and heart disease both run in my family. I plan to make a schedule for housework and assign a definite time slot for daily fitness. And yard work fits in there somewhere as well--another thing that too often gets put off.

I will also schedule in my daily time for writing and research. I'm thinking maybe 3-4 hours/day. But I know that when things are going well with any writing project, I lose all sense of time; I forget to eat and work well into the night. Will have to keep a handle on that!

As you know, I've been processing cat adoption applications for Furry Friends, and I may have time to get more involved in their other activities. There is also a very nice family library just down the street. I don't know if they need volunteers, but it is something I've thought about. I could also volunteer at the local shelter; they need people to come in and help to socialize the cats. I don't think of volunteering as putting in my time for the community; this is something that I get a benefit from as well (at least in terms of Furry Friends, in knowing that I am helping a lot of rescued cats to find forever homes).

I may try to pick up some freelance or editing work, part-time, for a little extra cash.

And there are all those books stacked up and waiting for me! I can read them and move them along, freeing up more space in my house.

I really think all that will pretty much fill my days.

I do worry about being in a situation like your neighbors, but I think I will be OK. Looking at Social Security, a small pension from a former job (that I am already collecting), and two small annuities that I have set up, and with the mortgage paid off, I figure I will only need to draw about $1000/month from TIAA-CREF to get by. I have a decent savings that should help me with anything unexpected that comes up. I will not be living high on the hog, nor will I have the luxury of travelling the world as some people do in retirement, but I am OK with that. I plan to stay put as long as I can manage on my own but will likely move to be closer to my daughter down the road. What I don't want is to have to depend on her financially. She's doing fine but is not really in a position to be supporting me.

Have to run--Ellen flies into BWI this afternoon and I still have to grocery shop. House will still be a mess--oh, well.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving--looks like it will be a white one!

Happy Thanksgiving, Deborah! How much snow did you get?

Not much--maybe 2.5-3", and it melted very quickly with the rain. Just a little left on the ground.

Hope you had a lovely holiday, Darryl.

77. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (reread with my students0
78. Proof by David Auburn (reread with my students)

----------



79. God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam

This early novel by Gardam had it's moments, but I can't say that I enjoyed it as much as Old Filth, the book that set me in search of more works by this author. I got lost somewhere in the middle--perhaps due to the favt hat I was listening to the book on audio during Thanksgiving commutes to and from the airport. I should go back and reread it, but there are too many other books calling from my stacks and shelves.

The story begins with a focus on eight-year old Margaret, daughter of a rabidly evangelical minister. Her mother, Elinor, a convert to this small religious sect, has recently given birth to a son. A rather flashy young maid, Lydia, is hired to help with the housework--and to take Margaret for outings as a treat to make up for the lack of her mother's attention. Elinor fears that Lydia is a bad influence, but her husband insists that "Lydia was sent" by the Lord.

Where I started to get lost was when Margaret encounters on her walks people her mother knew when she was young. The story suddenly shifted its focus to Ellie, her friendships with Charles and Binky (neighbors who have recently moved back into the family home) and with an artist named Drinkwater. I had difficulty sorting out these people and others and telling when the story was in the distant past, the less distant past, and the present. At the end, I found myself at a memorial service, not sure who was being memorialized or why, who tried to save who, what had happened to Elinor, etc. Utter confusion--and what I could figure out, I had no idea where it occurred in the sequence of the story.

So I'm giving this one an extra half star for what may be my own inattention, but I think 3.5 stars is about right.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Loved the thoughts on both Muriel Sparks and Jane Gardam -- thanks for sharing. Also, thanks for sharing your retirement perspective. Exciting times. It sounds as if you're well on track. We've been meeting with a financial planner as well. paying off the mortgage will play a huge role in our plans, too. Another 3 years to go!!

80. Mistress of the Elgin Marbles: A Biography of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin by Susan Nagel

Mary Nisbet led quite a fascinating life in the late 1700s and 1800s. One of the wealthiest women in Scotland and heir to an even larger fortune, at a young age she married Lord Elgin, aristocratic but debt-ridden diplomat who counted on his wife's money to finance his interest in antiquities. The young couple seemed very much in love in the early years of marriage, but Elgin's frequent travels (both diplomatic and personal) and Mary's frequent pregnancies (which prohibited her from accompanying her husband) later got in the way. Mary did, however, join him in Turkey, Egypt, and Athens, where she thoroughly charmed sultans and pashas. She was the first Eurpoean woman invited to visit the Turkish sultan's seraglio, and she even attended court disguised as a man--with his permission. And indeed, it was Mary's money that paid for most of the expenses of transporting the famous Elgin marbles back to London.

The Elgins were travelling during the Napoleonic wars when Mary again became pregnant, this time with their fourth child. She decided to stay in Paris to await the birth, but Elgin continued his travels--in the course of which he was taken hostage by Napoleon's forces and imprisoned in a remote Swiss village. Elgin said repeated demands that Mary join him there, along with demands for luxury items that Mary tried to secure and send. She continued to work at negotiating his release but refused to take on the perilous journey in her pregnant state. Elgin became convinced that she had abandoned him and was enjoying the social whirl of Paris. These quarrels were the beginning of the end of their marriage.

Mary gave birth to a second son, William, who was the closest to her of all her children. An early advocate of smallpox vaccinations, she had helped to bring the practice to many of the foreign countries in which Elgin served. Because smallpox vaccinations were not mandatory in France, she decided to nurse William (unusual for noblewomen at the time) rather than risking the use of a wet nurse. Still working to secure her husband's release, Mary was assisted by his good friend, Robert Ferguson, who adored both Mary and her children. Sadly, William died suddenly before his father ever met him; Mary mourned alone, with Ferguson at her side.

Elgin's selfishness, anger, and jealousy increased, but once he was released, the couple attempted to save their marriage. Mary became pregnant for a fifth time, and her health was so damaged after the birth that she begged her husband to promist that there would be no more children. Elgin, having lost his second son and needing more than one to secure his titles, refused, and when Mary moved into a separate household, he began divorce proceedings. It didn't help that at about this time, Elgin discovered a letter from Ferguson to his wife that revealed how close they had become (which was VERY close but apparently not yet adulterous). The proceedings scandalized London at the time. Elgin was granted the divorce and sole custody of the children, who were not allowed even to see their mother, but his efforts to gain control over her remaining fortune failed. Still, Mary was, for a time, a social pariah. She married Ferguson and moved north to Scotland, where she lived a relatively happy life, supported by friends and family.

Nagel's biography was, for the most part, a fascinating depiction of the life of English aristocrats and diplomats and their wives in both home society and abroad. She includes many excerpts from letters and journals written by those involved, and these add much color to the story. The final four or five chapters sped by with much less detail and at times seemed like a list of dates and events--with the exceptions of Mary's reunions with her son Bruce and her three daughters. Recommended for those interested in the lives of women in this time period.

Four out of five stars.

81. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozecki

I really, really hated this book--almost as much as I hated The Elegance of the Hedgehog, another pretentious novel impressed with its own philosophy. The author tries way too hard to be profound--and, worse still, her supposed profundity is put into the voice of an irritatingly precocious, self-absorbed teenager. As in the aforementioned despised book, the young person learns the wisdom of life from a wise elder (at least in this case not a cranky one). Who are we? What is the meaning of life? What is time? Do we have an essence beyond our bodies? Are we connected to all other persons and things? Who cares?

1/2 out of 5 stars.

>81 Cariola:. Ouch. Well the Hedgehog infuriated me at the end. Maybe I should skip this one.

I liked A Tale for the Time Being slightly better than you did, but not much. I have no idea why it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

>205 Cariola: wow. I have to admit I've seen enough negative reviews to warn me off this book already, but that's pretty scathing!

>208 lauralkeet: Sorry, couldn't help myself--I really resented the time I spent hoping it would get better. It didn't.

Hi Deborah, just stopping by to wish you a very merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, Laura, and everyone else who stops by!

82. One Small Candle: The Pilgrims' First Year in America by Thomas J. Fleming

This little book is an account of the Pilgrims' plans to resettle in the New World, their voyage on the Mayflower, and their first year in Plymouth. The basic story is, of course, familiar, but I did learn a number of new things. For example: there were originally two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, the latter of which was to carry supplied. The Speedwell proved unseaworthy, and the Mayflower had problems as well that required time in the shipyard. After starting out and returning to England several times, the Mayflower had to set out alone. I also didn't know that not everyone aboard shared the same religion: there was a sizeable group of passengers who wished to resettle for other reasons. Miles Standish, the only military man in the group, spent time during the journey training the other men to use muskets. And some of the passengers actually lived on the Mayflower for almost the entire first year. Fleming also provides details of the Plymouth settlers' relations with the local natives.

4 out of 5 stars.

Oh, that last read of yours sounds interesting...

Happy Holidays, Deborah!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, Deborah! I hope that we can meet again, in Philadelphia or elsewhere, in 2015.

83. Welding with Children by Tim Gautreaux

I received a copy of this book from my LTSanta, Ridgewaygirl, who knew that I like short story collections, and I quite enjoyed it. The eleven stories here are set primarily in the deep South (Louisiana, to be specific), with a few exceptions. Gautreaux develops a wonderful sense of local color and community. Most of the characters are poor, uneducated, and flawed, struggling along against the tide. There's the grandfather babysitting his four daughters' four illegitimate children (two of whom have the fabulous names of Tammynette and Moonbean--not a misspelling); the elderly widow who tries to talk a burglar out of robbing and/or killing her while plying him with food; the priest who gets into more than one scrape for being unable to say no; the one-time heiress, aging and lonely, who befriends her piano tuner and ends up playing in a hotel lounge; and many many more. Gautreaux is a fine writer indeed, and I will undoubtedly seek out more of his work. (As a side note, I'm now reading Burning Bright a collection by Ron Rash, which rather pales in comparison.)

4 out of 5 stars.

It has been so much fun to follow along on your reading adventure this year, Deborah. I've so enjoyed your wonderfully insightful reviews and commentary on life. Looking forward to more of the same in 2015.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

84. Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark

Another witty tangle of characters and events from Muriel Spark. Everyone in the novel is hiding something, often a secret identity or mysterious past. Robert, a young art student (or is he a male prostitute?), has just arrived in Venice, supposedly to complete his studies, having just broken off a complicated but unexplained relationship with Curran, a wealthy American art dealer. He no sooner arrives at the Pensione Sofia than he runs into his father--and a female companion. Back in England, Robert's mother, suspecting that her husband's travel companion is more than a colleague, contacts a private investigator--but her friend Grace decides to do her own detective work, arriving in Venice with Leo, a much younger man, in tow. Meanwhile, Robert's Bohemian artist girlfriend Lena Pancek, a Bulgarian defector, is trying to find out where the body of her father, a revolutionary, is buried; rumor has it he was killed in Vanice. Even the elderly sisters who run the Pensione Sofia seem to have something to hide. The fun is in the many crossed paths, unexpected twists, and slow unravelling.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

(Read before 1/1/15--just posting reviews as I just got home from a family visit.)

Georgiana Darcy's Diary by Anna Elliott

Midway through my post-Christmas visit with family, I was in need of some serious fluff, and this book supplied it. As the title makes apparent, it focuses on Georgiana, Darcy's sister (who, as we learn in Pride and Prejudice, had been rescued from the dreadful fate of eloping with George Wickham), and takes the form of a diary. Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for almost a year, and Aunt de Bourgh has been parading eligible young men through Pemberly in hopes of finding a suitable match for Georgiana, who reveals in her diary that her heart belongs to her cousin Col. Fitzwilliam, an early suitor for Elizabeth's hand. Unfortunately, he seems to still consider Georgiana, now 18, as a child.

In the course of the novel, Georgiana develops a spine and even helps her cousin Anne de Bourgh to find one as well. And, of course, there is a happy ending for all.

The author's forward informs us that she chose the diary form as she had no intention of trying to replicate Austen's style, and that worked fairly well. While I can't say that I'll be rushing out to buy the rest of the series, I'll keep it in mind the next time I need a little fluff in my life.

3 out of 4 stars.

(Read before 1/1/15--posting late!)

>217 michigantrumpet: Hi, Colleen! Happy New Year to you, too. I've been away visiting family.

On to the 2015 thread!

Hi Deb/ I'm stopping by to see how you are.

Just hanging in there--3.5 more weeks of classes and then exam week and I am done! I am so exhausted from all these illnesses--I just want to sleep for a month! The strep was actually bad over the weekend, very sore and I had trouble swallowing. I thought it was tonsillitis. I felt better by the time I got to the doc on Monday afternoon, but the strep test was positive. So more antibiotics.

I've been watching your progress whenever I get time to check facebook. So glad to hear that the pain is a little better and that you have such a positive attitude.

Hi Deb. I hope you are feeling much better than when I stopped by earlier in April. Strep is a serious thing; it knocks the energy right out of you.

Soon, your semester is over and then perhaps you can rest fully.

>223 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda. Have had a few more health issues crop up following the strep--it is getting so old that I didn't bother posting them on facebook. Just one more week of classes, three days of exams, and then one last marathon grading week.