amandameale 2009

I'm planning to read all of William Faulkner's novels and all of Virginia Woolf's novels - that includes re-reads. As 2009 looms closer, however, I am becoming less enthusiastic.

The other part of my plan, which reveals more of my personality than I should allow, is to read my TBRs from pre-2008 using a particular method. All of the titles are written on tiny pieces of paper, scrunched up, and held in a bowl. (This is already done.) So, for every other book I read, I must draw one title from my bowl and read that. (I have some wonderful books in that bowl.) This, apparently, is better than my previous method for dealing with prehistoric TBRs - I met dukedom_enough this year (lucky me!) and he laughed when I told him that I used to read my books in alphabetical order.

See, too much.

I am looking forward to your posts both on Faulkner and on Woolf. I have read most of the works but am not sure I will be rereading any in 2009.

The other part, you are clearly thinking that drawing out of a bowl is going to work better than the nudging group. :-)

Right, I have a slight confession. I hate Virginia Woolf. I mean hate. This is based on 2 not very good pieces of evidence. The first is Orlando, which really annoyed me. The second was a poster in the lift at Russell Square tube station with a Virginia Woolf quote that read 'if one has not slept well, loved well and dined well, then one cannot write well', which annoyed me more than...well, more than Orlando. I realise that this is scant evidence to dismiss one of the (apparently) great writers of the 20th Century, but its almost pathological now. Would you (Amanda, or anyones else) like to convince me otherwise?

Oh Andy. She's a great writer. I recently bought a set of her novels in one volume because it was incredibly cheap. My 17 year-old son picked up the book, in between computer games, and started to read Jacob's Room. A few days later he came to me and asked if he could read me something and it was a passage from the novel where Woolf had described a character's feelings in a beautiful and unique way. My son said: "That's the saddest thing I've ever read." He had no preconceptions about Woolf. Perhaps you can try again?

I will also confess that I've never been able to read Virgina Woolf, although I haven't tried in about 30 years.

Rebecca: I can guarantee that you would like Mrs Dalloway. Go and buy it.

A while back, the book club I'm in read To the Lighthouse. I was impressed by it, but didn't actually enjoy it very much. What did get me a lot more interested in Virginia Woolf was reading (and then watching the film of) The Hours. So perhaps that would be good preparation for embarking on Mrs Dalloway in particular.

Amanda, I have Mrs. Dalloway. In fact, I've had my copy since the early 70s, which is when I tried to read it, along with A Room of One's Own (given to me by my then-boyfriend's mother!), and several other books by Virginia Woolf. Perhaps they are due a retry, since this was so long ago, but they don't call out to me when I survey the masses of TBR books.

Rebecca, that's why I have books in a bowl. They're not calling my name, but I know that treasures lie within.

Oh hell, the worst that can happen is that you and Andy continue to dislike or neglect her, and so what if you do.

I don't want to continue to neglect VW, but I do have a real problem with her. I have always fancied To the Lighthouse, but Orlando really put me off. I have read that she described Orlando as a 'writer's holiday', suggesting that it isn't a typical VW effort. Any thoughts?

I used to work on Tottenham Court Road in London, which lies between Fitzrovia and Bohemia. I as always more attracted to the Fitzrovia thing (Malcolm Lowry, Dylan Thomas, George Orwell) than the Bohemia thing (Woolf, Wilde, Sackville-West). The latter always seemed self-indulgent, whereas the former just seemed not very grown up, and I know where my sympathies lie.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but my Woolfophobia has always kind of annoyed me, but I can't seem to get past it.

Yes, Orlando is the odd one out. Ignore it. Go to a bookshop with Rebecca and buy Mrs Dalloway. Try the first chapter, and if you don't like it, then you don't like it. Or perhaps Jacob's Room, which I haven't read - the passage my son read was lovely.

Rebbecca and depressaholic,

Yes, Mrs Dalloway is wonderful. Back in the mists of antiquity, I took an seminar devoted to Virginia Woolf. The memories of that class and its reading are still luminous. Perhaps you might enjoy her more if you looked at some of the wonderful pictures of her house and of her sister Vanessa's house. That said, I will admit she was a snob, some of which comes through in her writing and can be a bit off-putting.

Amanda,

Your first entry about reading in alphabetical order reminded me of one of my favorite books: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Francie, the young protagonist of the novel, is reading her way through the public library in alphabetical order. She allows herself a break on weekends.

Amanda, I love your books in a bowl idea, and I am stealing it for myself!

Andy, if it helps, I loved To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, and gave up on Orlando about a third of the way through.

Amanda, if anyone gets me to read Mrs Dalloway it will be you. However, I would be happy to send my early 1970s copy to Andy/depressaholic if he wants to read it first!

Thanks very much for the offer, but, rest assured, I have vowed to read Woolf this year. Its the sort of thing I will be definitely be able to find cheaply in a 2nd hand shop somewhere, so please don't go to the trouble of sending it. If you want to do me a favour though, just give me a big (metaphorical) boot in the backside if I haven't read it by June.

I won't, but Amanda probably will!

I've been looking forward to reading Mrs Dalloway since I read The Hours, like timjones. Maybe in 2009!

I see a Mrs Dalloway Challenge looming...

Yes, you seem to have inspired us. :)

Hmm. I am the only person who seems to have enjoyed Orlando which I read twice because it was on my candidacy lists. Perhaps I'm coming at it from an overly academic perspective, but it just makes the most wonderful object of critical inquiry! This amazing trans-gendered, trans-historical figure raises epic possibilities for a critique of social mores and the constructedness of gender and sexuality. I know it sounds pretentious and off-putting, but I actually found the novel riotously funny. Oh well. Just me, I guess.

I have also deeply enjoyed Woolf's not-much-talked-about non-fiction, and developed a dire hatred of Mrs. Dalloway based solely on the fact that before reading it I saw an annoying film version of it with Vanessa Redgrave who (irrationally) bothers me greatly. Thus the book was spoiled. I did, nevertheless, really enjoy The Hours.

cocoaf(r)iend,

I loved Orlando. And your brief analysis is dead-on.

Oh, Cocoa,

I am disappointed then that you did not speak up in the other thread when we were discussing Comic Geniuses such as Kafka and Freud and Camus, to add Comic Genius Virginia Woolf.

I think we need to return to that inquiry, too.

(And I am most pleased you responded to my Kafka "article of interest". I may have to buy the book you mention.)

Following urania1's lead, we must coin a new term to describe the solidarity amongst LTers: fiendship.

Good point, polutropos - Woolf was a comic genius too! As demonstrated by those bits about the grass-guarding beadle at the men's colleges and the dreary food in the fictional women's college in A Room of One's Own.

Ooh, I didn't know about F5. Safer than the bowl - I was telling Chris that one night I tripped and scattered over 50 tiny book titles all over the room.

**Dear Anyone Who Comes To Visit,
I have carpal tunnel syndrome and won't be around much until I've had surgery.

#25: Sorry to hear--hope you have a speedy recovery.

May your carpals emerge unscathed from their tunnels.

another victim of the computer age? Dragon Naturally Speaking v10 is a pretty impressive and useful piece of voice recognition software - i use it at home and work..it does require a lot of memory!~

Thanks fellas!!

Amanda, that's a bizarre story, isn't it, about the man who pretended to be an abused child? I found it both compelling and disturbing.

9.1.09
The Door by Magda Szabo (Hungary,1987)


This novel is about the relationship between the narrator and Emerence, her elderly neighbour and cleaner. "The door" is both literal and metaphoric - Emerence will not allow anyone into her heart or her home.
Although the two main characterswere frustrating to me and at times beyond credibilty, I found The Door UTTERLY COMPELLING.

Utterly compelling
Recommended (3.5/5)

Amanda, the book touchstone in #32 takes me to a different work, and there are no books listed on the author's page. What nationality is Magda Szabo? I'm wondering if she's from a country I haven't "visited" yet.

Hi Laura:

from Amazon re Magda Szabo's The Door: Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hungarian

Thanks!

I like that you're tracking your article reading, too!

Hi Amanda,

I'm so sorry I've come so late to your book log party over here on Club Read. Apologies also for dragging out the Virginia Woolf argument further than it needs be - As far as her fiction goes you either love her or hate her. Enough has already been said about Orlando (Cocoafiend has just about said everything I wanted to say in messsage 20)

Plus if anyone has a copy of Mrs Dalloway to hand I direct you to paragraph five that begins 'For having lived in Westminster ...' I've always thought this paragraph could pretty much be written as a stand alone poem, the imagery, the rhythm, the way she takes to right there, standing under Big Ben chiming the hour. Also, her almost self deprecating humour is there '(but that might be her heart, affected, they said, by influenza)' If you are not convinced by this paragraph alone, then we will have to agree to disagree.

However, I must stand my ground and insist that Virginia Woolf is often taken out of context and almost misquoted as far as the snobbery of her non-fiction work is concerned. The above quote 'if one has not slept well, loved well and dined well, then one cannot write well', is a perfect example, as is the often quoted "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction..." Woolf is not dismissing the work of the poor, rather lamenting the loss of possible works by those members of society. I think the following quote presents her views more accurately;

'When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.'

Lecture over! I also want to add that I'm looking forward to following your reading Amanda...

Well said Mandy!!

1. I have read and loved Orlando, agreeing completely with Cocoa that it's very funny. It has been yonks since I've read it, so it's about time for a reread.
2. Purplee, well expressed re Woolf and I agree with you completely.

Great thread, Amanda, as usual. I'll be starting Hedgehog soon too but need to read an ARC (about which I'm stupidly balking).

Irwin Shaw. Now there's a name I haven't heard for a while. The Young Lions, Rich Man, Poor Man. . .seems I was reading him about the time I was reading Herman Wouk.

purpleelephant, that is my favorite Woolf quote (the last one you transcribed).

The Elegance of the Hedgehog was one of my favorite books for 2008.

I have the portable Parker, too. Don't miss her review of Winnie the Pooh.

Amanda, if you're going to read all those American authors I think you really need to get yourself over here and experience the US to the fullest. We would give you the full red carpet treatment including hamburgers, milkshakes, riding in a large gas-guzzling car, perhaps attending a rodeo ... I could go on. Whaddaya say?

One day, Laura...

TEOTH was also on my top 5 for 2008! Great book.

>44 lauralkeet: add to that list some decidedly excellent ice cream.

#48 Yes, Emerence II, the story could have been anywhere, anytime, because it was all about the characters.

Later than anybody else, as usual, I concur with the appreciation for Orlando and Virginia Woolf's work.

Funny as I bought The Portable Dorothy Parker as a Christmas gift for a friend, but I have not read it myself. However, I have some of Parker's works, especially stories that I really really enjoyed.

Glad you liked this book Amanda. I thought it was lovely.

I'm looking forward to your posts on Faulkner and Woolfe. I'm also looking forward to your views on Dorothy Parker: she is a wonderful (cynical) treat: remember to read her with several martinis to hand.

Somehow I can't hear you saying "jolly good".

Has the cast come off yet?

Yes, but stitches remain. Still, day by day one hand is getting better.
(I think I say "jolly good" rather well!)

what ho! amanda...so glad the healing is nearly complete.

The Conte book looks fascinating. Another TBR coming my way!

waiting. *drums fingers on desktop*

De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage (Lebanon/Canada, 2006)


p.1-2 "Summer and the heat had arrived; the land was burning under a close sun that cooked our flat and its roof. Down below our white window, Christian cats walked the narrow streets nonchalantly, never crossing themselves or kneeling for black-dressed priests. Cars were parked on both sides of the street, cars that climbed sidewalks, obstructed the passage of worn-out, suffocating pedestrians whose feet, tired feet, and faces, long faces, cursed and blamed America with every little step and every twitch of their miserable lives."

Since his childhood Bassam has lived in the midst of the Lebanese civil war. Will he escape Beirut, or will he be drawn to the military like his friend George?

I found Hage's writing style refreshingly different and easy to read.

Winnder of the IMPAC Dublin Prize 2008
Recommended (4.25/5)

4.25!! - we are allowed decimal places now, Amanda! You write tantalizing reviews.

Must read the Hage book - it has won prizes and is Canadian and gets 4.25 from you!! He has another one out now.

The Tremain books need no selling for me. I love her style.

Thanks for pointing out De Niro's Game, Amanda. I've seen the title on lots of "best of" lists, but I have never stopped to find out what it's about (the title vaguely made me think of The Da Vinci Code, which is pretty silly now that I see it in writing).

</b> Is Wonderful Town, stories about one specific town/city? or various?

I love that Dorothy Parker story!! She is soooo witty and cynical! "the assisted gold of her hair..."

#66 Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker edited by David Remnick.

#67 Yes, it's very clever.

Amanda,

I see on your profile you are currently reading Roth's Radetzky March. I have been thinking about it for a long time and received it as a Christmas present this year. I will keenly await your comments.

James Wood writes very eloquently of this book in The Irresponsible Self. I have not read it yet, but I did stumble upon some of Roth's travel writing and essays in Report from a Parisian Paradise and they are exquisitely written. I must read this one too.

Amanda, I picked this up on a recommendation from Rebecca, but haven't read it yet. Now seeing how much both of you loved it, I am putting it on top of the pile.

Thanks, Chris, and I'll take this opportunity to recommend it again! I recently found The Emperor's Tomb, which is said to be a continuation of The Radetsky March in that it focuses on the Trottas after the first world war (i.e., the final collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire). I'm looking forward to reading it.

I will have to check THIS one out, Amanda, if you are giving it a five. And then to find Rebecca endorsing it too...into the basket it goes.

The Radetsky March has been on my shelf for too long--I'm going to have to get to it sooner rather than later.

#75 Yes! You won't regret it.

Happy For No Reason by Marci Shimoff (USA, 2008)


NON-FICTION
If you are depressed this book will not help you. Find a psychiatrist, get some medication, and start Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

For people simply feeling a bit down and in need of a lift, there are a couple of strategies here which might do the trick.

Not recommended (1/5)

Currently reading: Staying On by Paul Scott and Still Alice by Lisa Genova.

Maybe I'll try Kavalier and Clay based on your encouragement. It's been on my shelf for a long time, a gift from a friend whose taste I don't always agree with, and I've been resisting it because I thought I wouldn't enjoy it. But with you giving it 5 stars . . .

#79: that review cracked me up. I never read books where the author is photographed with their face on their hand.
#77: that I definitely want to read now, especially with 5 stars from you, as Rebecca notes.

I read Kavalier and Clay this summer and loved it as well. There are so many aspects of the story that I feel like it appeals to a wide range of people. It sucked me in instantly, and I couldn't get enough.

it's really hard to go wrong w/ Kavalier & Clay; totally agree. I like just about everything Chabon's done since, as well.

Just joining in the chorus on Kavalier and Clay. I loved that book (and, like Bob, just about anything else Chabon has written). Now I'll have to figure out who I lent my copy to so I can read it again!

i hope we don't all feel really abashed if Rebecca finds Chabon not to her taste. I realized this is an easy target, but one of my local reading friends with whom i exchange (physical) books regularly, really enjoyed .....yes the davinci code and gave me his copy. Which just ended up irritating me no end (Mike and I usually agree). And i even enjoy a good conspiracy ride.
(I'm not as fond of Chabon's taste in short stories, at least if his McSweeney's (sic) are any guide). But..if you like tall tales/Americana there's summerland; if you like swashbuckling medieval ..tall tales there's Gentlemen of the Road (aka "Jews with swords" his original title, which i wish he'd kept); alternate history/detective story the yiddish policeman's union. He just seems to like to pick a genre and then exploit it to its fullest -w/out really going beyond the "accepted" genre limits, which makes for great fun much of the time. He CAN be serious (K&C defn has serious themes lurking behind the humor) while going over the top @ the same time.

I haven't decided not to try Kavalier and Clay, but I have to say that I started reading Gentlemen of the Road when it was serialized in the New York Times Magazine and I really really wanted to like it . . . but I just could get into Chabon's style and gave up.

But it would be boring if we all liked the same books.

Gentlemen of the road is probably the least liked of his post K&C books, even though i liked it, the couple of people i loaned it to didn't care for it. Part of the problem w/ Chabon is if he's working in a genre, he takes its stylistic parameters to the limit - and arguably beyond (though i think he stays w/in the rules).

Tiffin... I never read books where the author is photographed with their face on their hand. LOL!

Tiffin... I never read books where the author is photographed with their face on their hand. What a great precept! I'm going to have to figure out my own rules about author photographs now...

Gentlemen of the Road was a bit thin, and I think he was more constrained by the serial format than he would have liked. (I agree with you, Bob, re the title.) It's more for Chabon fans than for those encountering him for the first time, in that it plays into his whole genre fascination. Summerland was also ok, but not great. But I think Kavalier and Clay is light-years beyond both of those books.

I liked Chabon's The Final Solution: A Story of Detection for the prose style, which I thought was very classy. Kavalier and Clay is quite different in style but I was in awe of Chabon's ability to keep me fascinated for the entire length of this hefty book.

Tiffin, I also avoid book where the author has a "vampish" look in the photo. Is this a book jacket photo or the head shot of a Playboy centerfold?

#79 and connected posts

I'm curious about this. If the book was so bad, why did you finish reading it? Couldn't you see from the cover and title that it was going to be bad? Even the author's (grandiose title) name is bad.

Curious, really.

To all who have given Kavalier and Clay such thoroughly rousing rounds of applause - I am beginning to feel intrigued. Hitherto, I felt no "intriguement" at all. I simply didn't plan to waste my time with it. Perhaps I must rethink the matter.

Amanda, I meant to be curious not nosy or prying. Forgive me.
The best cure for anxiety I know is a purring cat sitting in one's lap. So let me oblige you.

>95 amandameale: Amanda, not to hijack the thread, but as one who suffers major panic attacks, I've got the 3M strategy. (1) Music. I find certain music really helpful. Brian Eno in his ambient mode often works wonders for me. Certain Gregorian chants and the Tibetan chants of the Gyuto monks also work. NPR did a piece on the Gyuto monks today. And Australian aboriginal didgeridoo music is great. (2) Meditation. (3) Medication.

Thanks urania: I do find my MP3 player helpful.

tomcat: Forgiven. But I really did want you to know why I would read a dud book in its entirety.

I am familiar with panic attacks myself, and in my family they call them "dragons", as in "Dad is suffering from his dragons today."

Once you are able to remove yourself from the meltdown point, I also find another remedy most helpful: 4) laughter.

A funny book, someone funny on the computer, any variation on it. Now of course, that can only be once I have started breathing again, and inability to breathe is certainly an issue, at least in mine.

Now back to Amanda's book thread.

Still in high-jack mode, but only because I think a lot of people are dealing with anxiety/depression. . . what's worked for me in the past: 1) a good psychologist (you have to find someone you click with), followed by, in no particular order, 2) meditation/relaxation exercises 3) regular vigorous exercise & 4) music.

My MD tried me on medication, but I didn't like the side effects. My personal goal is to achieve "paxil calm" without the paxil. Still working on that one.

Okay, back to the book talk . . .

Happy Birthday!

Thanks Lois!!

ALSO READING:
Je Suis Australienne: Remarkable Women in France, 1880-1945 by Rosemary Lancaster


The women include Daisy White, an Australian girl sent to a French finishing school; Nancy Wake, a worker for the French resistance; and Christina Stead, novelist. Interesting.

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books edited by J. Peder Zane


Lists upon list of writers' Top Tens, followed by lists which analyse the lists. I love lists and I'm loving adding titles to my MUST READ list.

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook: Fourth Edition by Edmund J. Bourne


An excellent workbook using cognitive behaviour therapy. If you use this book I suggest you have a person as a sounding-board, e.g. doctor or psychiatrist.

As I said in your other thread, Amanda, Netherland was one of my favorite books last year, and I'm so glad you liked. It is very New York, and I always wonder whether that will translate for people who don't live here -- sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Rebecca, I always wonder the same about Australian books. No doubt you identified with the Netherland in a slightly different way to me but I certainly had no problems with it.

>106 amandameale:, Ok, after reading this description: Lists upon list of writers' Top Tens, followed by lists which analyse the lists. I love lists and I'm loving adding titles to my MUST READ list. I must get this book. Who doesn't love lists? Although it sounds incredibly dangerous - Continent TBR could become Planet TBR, which would be really embarrassing.

Stop it. I will not buy Netherland. I am not reading this thread. I am not listening. I am not, I am not, I am . . .

Just downloaded Netherland, which I've been considering for quite some time. Thanks, Amanda!

>111 Cariola:, Dammit, so did I. Thanks a lot Amanda. You should be ashamed for so shamelessly enabling poor, helpless book addicts.

I hope you have been reading! :-)

#110 HA! I know EXACTLY how you feel!

</b>I thought you didn't care much for Malouf, was I mistaken? (or was it the man, not the literature?)

Glad you liked the Oates.

eta to try to close your emboldening, but it didn't work!

</b>Great list of books, Amanda. I have just finished The Radetzky March this month - it was very very good. Is it your gold standard for 2009, or your best book ever? I am now very tempted wrt the Malouf book.

edited to close bold

Lois: I do like Malouf - the writer, and the man.

Karen: Yes, The Radetsky March is one of the best books I've ever read, and my 5/5 standard for the year.

Amanda, do you have a Malouf book you would recommend as a start?

Yes, Harland's Half Acre, or Fly Away Peter, or Johnno or Remembering Babylon which I think won the Booker Prize (?). They're all good. All similar length.

#121 I don't like the man any more - showed up two days late at the Canberra Arts Festival.

I also enjoyed Grace Notes, so I'll have to add this one to my wish list.

Another author to discover with MacLaverty - thanks Amanda.

Your Lamb link went to a book called Fluke. Let see: Lamb.

Amanda, just finished Women in Black. Just delightful :-)

Also, just noticed that on The First Tuesday Bookclub this week they are reviewing Ransom and The Great Gatsby.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (Republic of Ireland, 2009)


I have to start by recommending Toibin's astonishingly good book The Master (2004), a fictionalised account of the life of Henry James. I believe that it will become a classic. Those I have read of Toibin's other works are different to The Master in style, and more contemporary in their settings. Brooklyn (c.1950s) belongs to this second category.

Eilis Lacey, a young Irishwoman, is forced to emigrate to the USA where she can find work. At first Eilis misses her family in Ireland but, with the help of her local priest, begins to embrace a new life in New York. An unexpected event causes Eilis to choose between her old life and a future in America. And you don't know until the very end what that choice will be.

A good, light read with some very real and touching observations
Recommended 3.75/5

</b>Re: msg 131, will you be reviewing Slightly Foxed? I keep looking at it by the bookshop counters but I've not bought a copy yet.

#125 I wasn't planning to review it but I can tell you that the articles/essays are written in an accessible style - not too highbrow, not trashy at all. If you like books about books, as I do, you will like Slightly Foxed.

Hi, Amanda. I also finished Brooklyn yesterday and rated it just a notch below you (3.5). I was a bit frustrated by the ending--not WHAT her choice was but HOW she arrived at it. (Don't want to say too much and leave a spoiler!) Like you, I thought The Master was . . . well, masterful.

I might have to add The Great Gatsby as my only re-read this year. I remember loving it in highschool. I keep looking at the Slightly Foxed website and am only just resisting hitting the subscribed button.
Brooklyn sounds interesting but I'll be looking with renewed interest for a copy of The Master. It's another one on "that bloody list" I keep talking about ;-)

I just received my copy of Slightly Foxed, actually the second I get, and can't wait to start reading it. It is a fantastic magazine. I totally agree with your comments re The Great Gatsby, which, by the way, I think could be applied to many other books Fitzgerald wrote.

Niiiice reading...

#133 Changed my rating of Brooklyn from 4 to 3.75.

You're still a notch above me! ;)

Oh good, 4/5 for "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders". It's on my wishlist. And glad you liked Gatsby. I did too. AND I have the summer edition of "Slightly Foxed" waiting to be dipped into in a quiet moment. Loved the cover too.

Amanda - did you subscribe to Slightly Foxed. I bought a couple of quarterly editions and liked them but didn't pull out a subscription. I wish I had.

I have heard such mixed reviews about Brooklyn but no-one seems to hold it in the same high esteem as The Master?

Thanks for the great reads. A few are hitting my TBR pile.

Amanda, The Voyage Out has been sitting on my shelf for forever. Looks like it's time to pull it off and finally read it.

I wasn't impressed with Gemmell's Alice Springs either. Nice to know I don't have to give her a second chance.

The Voyage Out was one of my young days' favourite books.

I like your idea of the 1/4 ratings for books (i.e., 4.25). I think I'll do the same on my threads.

I haven't read anything by Malamud, but I'd like to. Have you read anything else by him?

No others, but this book was excellent! I hope you read it.

I recommend The Fixer by Malamud. Difficult, but profound.

Amanda, where are you?