The Penderwicks

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The four Penderwick sisters descend on the estate of Arundel for their summer vacation and find friendship and adventure around every hedge.

The sisters are each distinct and lovable; although they sometimes squabble their bond is unbreakable. They easily welcome Jeffrey Tifton, the lonely son of the estate's owner, into their group--though the same cannot be said for Mrs. Tifton, Jeffrey's snobbish and distant mother, who seems intent on ruining everyone's fun.

For fans of light-hearted family adventures or nostalgic summer vacation tales like Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome or Joan Aiken's Armitage family stories (collected in The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories).

The Love They Sought

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At the Midnight Bell, a quiet struggle embroils the hearts of three people: Ella the barmaid loves Bob the waiter, and Bob is hopelessly in love with Jenny--a prostitute with worries of her own.

This is a trilogy comprised of three novellas: The Midnight Bell (Bob's story), The Siege of Pleasure (Jenny's story), and The Plains of Cement (Ella's story) as these three unfortunates struggle against their fate in the backdrop of 1930s London. Hamilton has a gift for characterization, and each of the three vertices of the failed love triangle display his virtuosity at getting into the heart of each character.

Hamilton's side characters are something to behold: the denizens of the bar where Bob works, the two spinsters who employ Jenny, and Ella's pushy suitor feel like people Dickens might have written about, and the humor they bring relieves some of the bleakness of the main stories. His writing is gorgeous, witty, and sympathetic to these anguished souls.

Summaries:

March: Books Bought, Books Read

Continuing my Hornby "Stuff I've Read" emulation, I'm keeping a list of all the books I read in a month, and the ones in progress, as well as the ones I purchased. Considering how long it's gotten, it may be a better idea to break it up by week when it's this busy!

Books Bought in March

From the UW Bookstore's Spring Sale:
Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker - I love books about language, reading, and writing.
Mantissa by John Fowles - Ever since The French Lieutenant's Woman I've been meaning to read everything he ever wrote.
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney - Never heard of it, but it's the story of a woman trying to solve a murder in the Northern Territories during the dead of winter - in 1867. Yep, it's hitting all the right buttons.
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry - Magical realism, and I'm there! I still haven't found anyone to compare to Borges, Garcia Marquez, or Calvino, but I keep trying.
Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature by John Mullan - History of literature, check. Jane Austen first published anonymously, and there were conjectures about her sex when her books were reviewed.
About A Boy by Nick Hornby - I liked the movie, I liked Hornby's essays, so I'm going to try his fiction.
The Del Ray Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy ed. Ellen Datlow - Short stories and science fiction - I grew up on Golden Age scifi short stories, and I keep looking to reclaim those reading experiences.
Memoir: A History by Ben Yagoda - Another history of literature. I sense a theme.
The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun by Lisa Jardine - A slim book that promises an intriguing take on history.
That Mad Ache by Francoise Sagan (trans. Douglas Hofstadter) / Translator, Trader by Douglas Hofstadter (a two-in one book, with half being the story translated from French, and the other half the story of the translation)

Nook Books:
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy - One of my all-time favorite films, so I decided I might love the book. Noir is awesome.
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones - I love Wynne Jones, who is unparelleled at creating unusual fantasy worlds, with tricky rules that move the story in unexpected yet satisfying ways. I've heard this is a good one.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons - I've read it before, and it's stuck with me. Time to read it again.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - I gave away my last copy, but now I need to prepare for the MOVIE version, with Harrison Ford as Graff, who now officially has a monopoly on awesome adventure/scifi roles!
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - The first of a science fiction trilogy about the colonization of Mars that sounds amazing.
Trouble in Texas by Katie Lane - Why yes, that is a shirtless cowboy on the front! Romance is a bad habit to get into.
Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Neverfall by Brodi Ashton
Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London
She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor
The Essential Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill (Golgatha Press) - Reading The Wordy Shipmates got me interested in reading Churchill's histories, and this was a cheap collection at B&N.
Dunkirk: A Retreat to Victory by Julian Thompson - Another Vowell book that I purchased for its cheapness and my sudden interest in reading about Dunkirk.
Larklight by Philip Reeve - Steampunk space travel? Okay, you've got me.

And since I have NO self-control, from the indie used bookstore Magus Books:
The Box by Richard Matheson - remember the movie? There's a short story it's based on (by the guy who wrote I Am Legend, which is scifi/horror) - and for me short stories aren't that interesting unless they're science fiction.
The Faded Sun Trilogy by C.J. Cherryh - I've been searching for a cheap edition of Downbelow Station for a while now, to get into Cherryh's voluminous oeuvre, but no luck. It's not even digital! Shocking - you would think that all science fiction books would automatically converted to digital, just by virtue of their genre. Silliness aside, this trilogy will have to do as my intro to her work. It's about a dying race of aliens searching for their homeworld after human beings (! but yeah, sounds like us) have nearly wiped them out.
On Basilisk Station by David Weber - the first of the Honor Harrington series, which I hope I like since it features a strong female protagonist
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - In case I need some literary fiction at the end of the day.
Midshipman Bolitho by Alexander Kent - I picked this up hoping it will be like Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series, which I love.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - so cheap! And steampunk! I couldn't resist, and the woman who rang me up told me she loved the trilogy.
Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia by Janet Wallach - A bio of a strong woman? Yes please!

Books Read in March (reviews at links):
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby
Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See ed. Bill Shapiro
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

Three Free Books

Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments by Edmund Gosse (1907)
This is one of the books Nick Hornby writes about in The Polysyllabic Spree. This book is the story of Gosse's relationship with his marine biologist father, who was also a member of the Plymouth Brethren. Hornby writes that his "fierce, joyless evangelism crippled his son's childhood." Why am I so interested? I read Claire Tomalin's lovely biography of Jane Austen on Hornby's recommendation, and I hope he won't steer me wrong this time!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)
I read Gaskell in college, and recently watched a BBC adaptation that reminded me how romantic this book is. I recently did a booktalk on this novel, and the best way to describe Gaskell is this: she is Jane Austen with a social conscience, like Charles Dickens without the rambling. Plot: A genteel country woman is uprooted to a grimy industrial town, completely alien to everything she knows and loves. Her ideals of what it means to be a good neighbor clash with the ideals of a local factory owner, Mr. Thornton, a self-made man who is her equal intellectually but not socially. If you love Austen, the Brontës, and Dickens--or pretty much any great Victorian author--do yourself a favor and try Gaskell.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird (1879)
Isabella L. Bird was a well-known Victorian travel writer, and this book is probably the best-known of her works. I came across a description of this particular book in Barbara Hodgson's No Place for a Lady, a book about fearless female travelers. Bird was a woman who couldn't stay at home, and so of course I put this on my list!

Botanical Beasts

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An alphabetical compendium of destructive, painful, irritating, offensive, illegal, intoxicating, dangerous, and deadly plants. They sting, poison, explode, and invade - and some of them are in your own home.

A fun read that gives me even more reasons (besides laziness) to never go outside or take up gardening. There are some great anecdotes here about ordeal poisons, suicide trees, trees that create zombie ants to spread their seeds, and of course the villain that took the life of Lincoln's mother - by poisoning the family's milk. Even a few friendlier plants can be toxic in the right circumstances - a few are phototoxic: "using sap that burns the skin when exposed to light" or making you more susceptible to sunburn after you eat them (limes! celery! mokihana, used to make leis!).

Read this all at once or a little bit at a time, if you're timid. My only complaint is the lack of an index, though there is an alphabetical table of contents, a good bibliography, and a list of poison gardens where you can visit to see many of the plants mentioned in the book.

Amy Stewart has also written Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Wicked Bugs, which sounds even more skin-crawly than this book!

Fairy Dust

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


When Prilla arrives in Neverland, it is clear she is different from the other fairies - she doesn't know what her special talent is. But when a terrible storm injures Mother Dove and puts the ageless residents of Neverland in danger, Prilla is called upon to perform extraordinary acts of courage.

This adventure story, written by Gail Carson Levine, hits all the familiar Neverland beats - Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Hook, and the mermaids - while adding a few others - a wicked dragon, Mother Dove and her one precious egg, and the idea that each fairy comes into the world with a special purpose that she loves to do above anything else (and yes, there are male fairies - but they are known as Sparrowmen).

Great for young children who love Disney's Tinker Bell movie and its sequels and want to hear more about Neverland's fairies.

Seraphina

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dragons and humans have maintained a fragile peace for years, but the murder of a human prince and the arrival of a dragon ambassador threatens everything--and court musician Seraphina, desperate to protect her own secrets, is caught in the middle.

Hartman's vivid writing evokes the strange beauty of Seraphina's medieval world, where dragons take human shape and live among the fearful and distrusting human population.The characters (draconian and homo sapien) feel like real people, and Seraphina herself is every bit as smart and courageous as a heroine should be. I found the main love story aspect truly romantic because I admired both of the characters and liked their chemistry.

Hartman breathes new life into the medieval/dragon fantasy tales: this is not your typical dragon story. Language lovers should definitely read Seraphina, and might also try Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series as well as Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels.

We Return to Fairyland

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

September stumbles back into Fairyland again only to find that her own lost shadow, who is now Queen of the Underworld, is draining Fairyland of its magic.

September is a year older and wiser, but even her familiarity with the laws of Fairyland can't quite protect her in the Underworld full of runaway shadows. Her traveling companions this time around are at once familiar and untrustworthy, and the Queen's new servant the Alleyman has the Underworld's denizens shivering with fear. (Though personally I found the Onion Man more sinister.)

Valente plays with the traditional rules of magic (my favorite was her EKT field: Everyone Knows That), though some of the speeches when September visits a Questing Physickist might be above the heads of younger readers.

The Physickist tells September and her new friend the Night-Dodo: "A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world." All the intricate charm of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is back, making our second trip through this particular door as vivid and weird as the first.

Enter the Underworld

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie is powerless, the people she loves most are missing - and at Hex Hall someone is raising a demon army that will destroy the world. To stop them, Sophie may have to enter Hell itself.

The thrilling finale to the Hex Hall series! I enjoyed this trilogy, which got darker and darker with each book. Sophie is a smart and capable heroine, quippy and loyal. The return of a character I wanted more of from Hex Hall was satisfying, and the ending is bittersweet but most of the plot threads are neatly resolved.

My only wish is that the island of Hex Hall was more appealing (though it is an unfair comparison, the gold standards of fantasy settings are Gormenghast and Hogwarts Castle). I wanted to see more of the world of the Prodigium, but the breakneck plot only allows for occasional glimpses into the concealed world of witches, shapeshifters, faeries, and vampires.

As an aside, while I love seeing Lord Byron resurrected as a vampire, I think that any vampire in his or her right mind would really have turned Oscar Wilde. We've seen vampire Elvis, natch (Bubba from Dead Until Dark). Why no Wilde? The man was known for wearing green velvet capes! "Creature of the night" would have been a perfect fit on him. (Also, why is there a black cat in every U.S. cover of this book? There isn't a single familiar - unless you count slobbery werewolves - in any of the three books. I suppose a black cat symbolizes witches, but still. It's a stretch.)

There is a spin-off series that starts with School Spirits and follows one of the Brannick monster-hunters (I suspect that the unresolved plot points from Spell Bound show up there). Other series with some of the boarding-school spirit and strong female characters are Mind Games by Kiersten White and Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger.

UPDATE: "A Boot Stamping on a Human Face"

Considering the disturbing threats coming out of North Korea lately, I though that this incredible TED Talk by North Korean refugee Hyeonseo Lee is especially timely and moving:

Her account accords perfectly with the story told in Demick's book, which I reviewed last month.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A journalist recounts the stories of defectors from North Korea in an attempt to understand what is happening in one of the most oppressive and regressive societies in the world.

The North Korean government stifles every aspect of its people's lives and the result is famine, death, and distrust between neighbors and family members. The Worker's Party rules over every human interaction with a brutal regime of brain-washing (I use the term intentionally), intimidation, and absurd demands that citizens demonstrate unconditional love for their dynasty of Dear Leaders and the communist ideals they claim to uphold. Going into North Korea is like traveling back in time, observers say.

In spite of this, people find a way to survive and connect with each other, and though it seems cliched the stories are a testament to the resilience of human beings. My favorite story--one with a bittersweet ending--is of two young lovers who secretly meet in nights made dark by constant power outages; who send letters through the tortuous mail system; who sneak train rides without travel permits to see each other for a few short hours.

Demick makes it clear that leaving North Korea is not necessarily the happy ending we might take it for. Defectors find that in spite of the wealth and plenty of South Korea, life is still a struggle as they learn to adapt and overcome the damage done to them by their totalitarian homeland. Many still have family members left behind in North Korea, and the grief of separation is difficult to imagine.

More than anything, Demick's final description of North Korea reminds me of the famous quote from 1984: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever." How long will forever be, in this case? And if eventually the North Korea government does fall (as it has been predicted to for the past twenty years), how will a country as deeply impoverished as North Korea ever catch up to the rest of the world, even with the aid of their neighbors?

Demick leaves us with these questions, but I believe that the answers lie in the survival stories of the defectors she interviews: the strong family ties, willingness to work hard, and the ability to adapt to difficult circumstances will be the greatest assets North Koreans have once they are allowed to make their long march back into the present.

Update:

Demick's book ends before the death of Kim Jong Il and the rise of his son Kim Jong Un. Here is a recent article she wrote for the Los Angeles Times, detailing the continued insanity of this brutal dynasty.

Raising Demons

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To convince Sophie against her decision to have her powers Removed, her absentee demon father shows up and whisks her off to the Council's headquarters in England. There are unnerving developments there - deadly encounters, an unexpected fiance, and the reappearance of her old crush, Archer, who is still working for the very people who want Sophie dead.

Sophie is still reeling from the events of Hex Hall, which have upset her deeply enough to throw off her ability to control her magic. This sequel takes us out of Hecate Hall and into a gigantic mansion in England. I appreciated the portrayal of the difficult relationship between Sophie and her father - though it is obvious that they love each other, they both must learn to trust each other's judgment and talents. The third vertex of the love triangle finally shows up, too! The triangle remains lopsided, possibly because of its late introduction: even though the warlock Archer has now been revealed to work for The Eye, the new potential flame felt like a weak third (and not a real threat to the main love story).

There is more action than ever, and Sophie gets a chance to stretch her powers and exercise her habitual snark, which is fun and lightens this much-darker book. The cliffhanger ending will have you reaching for the third in the series, Spell Bound, right away.

Boarding School Witches

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie was blending in with the human world until a disastrous spell gets her exiled to Hecate Hall, a detention center/boarding school for wayward Prodigium (witches, vampires, werewolves, and faeries). Among her own kind, Sophie finds that she needs to learn the rules of her birthright fast - or die young.

Sophie is a likable protagonist who struggles to fit into a world she was only vaguely aware of before she was sentenced to Hecate. The story is fast-paced and light in tone in spite of the dark happenings around Sophie (a girl was murdered at Hecate before Sophie's arrival), and the hints that the worst is yet to come.

Sure, there's a superficial cliched love story with the requisite unavailable hot guy, but did I enjoyed her friendship with her monster roommate. She also almost-befriends her sworn enemy, a beautiful coven leader named Elodie, in an unusual twist that I wish had more time to develop.

For anyone who loves boarding school books and stories about the paranormal (particularly witches).

There are hints of a dangerous and interesting world beyond the walls of Hecate, with three distinct groups of monster-hunters dedicated to murdering Prodigium - especially, as it so happens, Sophie. With two other books in the series (Demonglass and Spell Bound), I look forward to reading the rest!

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew

Reading post-quarter is amazing, except--well, I get overwhelmed. There are so many great books out there! Right at my fingertips! What is the right solution to this problem?

I don't know, either

So here's my current compulsive reading list of nine books (you can track my progress here):
The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of Journey to the West, translated and edited by Anthony C. Yu
A Few Good Books: Using Contemporary Readers' Advisory Strategies to Connect Readers With Books by Stephanie L. Maata
Demonglass (Hex Hall #2) by Rachel Hawkins
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente
When I Was A Child, I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart
The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris by Alicia Drake
Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan

And now I don't know which one to pick up first!

Such a good problem to have.

The Wordy Shipmates

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The unlikely account of a modern historian's love for the notoriously inflexible Puritans, highlighting the best and worst of America's New England forefathers.

Vowell has a great deal of sympathy and affection for the difficult-to-love Puritans, and she starts with the Arbella's sendoff across the Atlantic into the New World. She touches on the complex personalities of John Winthrop, John Cotton, Roger Williams, and Anne Hutchinson: four passionate Puritans who sought to live by the essential principles of Christianity, as their consciences understood them.

Reading this made me want to veer into history books about the Boston Molasses Disaster, Dunkirk, the 30 Years' War, and the Pequot War, all of which are touched upon in the text. Vowell wrestles with the contradictory and all-to-human nature of this group of the Elect, who strove to be worthy of grace yet struggled to reconcile the sternness of their own natures with the virtues of Christian charity and mercy. At times these saints succeeded, at other times their lofty goals led to devastating failures that have repercussions to this day.

The sour note for me was an anti-Reagan screed - it felt out of place. Vowell resents Reagan's American exceptionalist use of John Winthrop's vision of "a city on  a hill" but recounts how she swells with pride when she hears Kennedy saying the same words, in virtually the same way. She's open-minded and forgiving when it comes to the quirks and shortcomings of the Puritans, but far less so for modern Republican presidents. If you are a Democrat or a liberal, you may not mind this (and may even agree with Vowell's assessment of the Reagan presidency), but for me it marred the book. (Personal preference: I avoid political books like the plague.)

Three Free Books

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927)
I came across the name of this comic novel in Connie Willis' fantastic time-travel novel To Say Nothing of the Dog. The hero of that novel undergoes a Victorian trip up a river (with said dog), and is constantly reminded of Jerome K. Jerome's three men. I love British humor--and funny novels in general--so I've added it to my list for one of those days when I just need a boost.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950)
John Carter is a Civil War veteran who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars, where he is held captive by Green Men, meets a gorgeous alien princess, and fights a battle to save Barsoom. (Barsoom is the native name for Mars.) You may or may not remember the giant flop that was Disney's John Carter. Well, that was based on this series of eleven enormously popular science fantasy novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the man who brought us Tarzan of the Apes, also coincidentally a Disney film).

The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (1842-?)
Journalist and short-story writer Ambrose Bierce's acerbic wit is legendary, and you've probably heard many of the cynical definitions in his Dictionary without realizing where they came from--he's often quoted without proper attribution. The definitions were initially published a feature in a newspaper in 1881 and were later collected in a book. Here's a sampling:

LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder. [...] It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the physician than to the patient.

PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.

I could continue, but you should really just get the book for free at Gutenberg. Just be warned: he wasn't called Bitter Bierce for nothing!

Books aside, Bierce himself is an interesting historical figure. For one thing, he looked like this around 1866:


(I'm digging the mustache.Short bio and bibliography here.)

For another, you might have noticed the question mark for his date of death. Some people put it around 1913 or 1914, when at the age of 71 he was in Mexico to observe the Mexican Revolution (led by Pancho Villa) and vanished without a trace.

So you have a cynical, acid-tongued journalist who at the age of 71, controversial in his day, who vanished under mysterious circumstances. Intriguing. His disappearance is one of the great unsolved historical mysteries, and we may never know what really happened to Bitter Bierce.

Babymouse, Queen of the World!

Queen of the World! by Jennifer L. Holm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Introducing Babymouse, whose ambitions are modest (Queen! Of the World!), but whose current goal is to score an invitation to Felicia Furrypaws' slumber party.

This clever and charming graphic novel introduces Babymouse, who is sure to join Russell Hoben's Frances and Ian Falconer's piglet, Olivia, in the hearts of readers. Babymouse loves to read and indulges in flights of imagination which remind me of James Thurber's Walter Mitty, or Calvin's various daydreams (particularly his private eye Tracer Bullet). Plus, she's a bookworm! What could be better?

I'm recommending the Babymouse books to my niece at once!

Other People's Love Letters

Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See by Bill Shapiro
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You won't find anything on par with John Keats' longing letters to Fanny Brawne here (or the Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett's lovely correspondence). Still, the handwritten letters here may make you smile, laugh, and feel sad at the disappointment of lost love and missed chances. (There's also the guilty thrill of getting a glimpse into ordinary people's most private moments.)

Once you've read this slim volume, may I recommend Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne next, with its introduction by director Jane Campion? Campion's film of the same name does not quite convey the loveliness and tragedy of my favorite true-life historical romance, but the costuming is a wonder (Oscar-nominated, and even more interesting because Fanny Brawne did make her own unusual clothing).

Shakespeare Wrote for Money

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hornby is clearly running out of steam, but that doesn't prevent the last collection of his "Stuff I've Read" essays from being enjoyable. He discovers the joys of YA fiction (and reads a few of my favorites - Nick Hornby reading genre novels!), gets distracted by football, talks a little more about politics than I care for, and makes it all engaging enough to be worthwhile. As ever, he continues to add titles to my to-read list!

The "September 2006" essay was one I had read in another collection, and it was just as hilarious the second time around as Hornby skates around the fact that due to the World Cup he hadn't read any books that month. A quotation from that essay, absurd out of context but still funny: "And anyway, I was making an elementary error: I was trimming and lengthening the legs of the same ants - and this, I see now, was completely and utterly pointless: three hours of microsurgery on each ant and they all ended up the same height anyway." (Does he write or perform stand-up comedy? This essay seems like it would translate well into that medium, and the persona he builds in his "Stuff I've Read" columns is consistently likable and self-effacing.)

Fairyland Fiction

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Being heartless, September does not hesitate to accept the Green Wind's offer to take her to Fairyland: once she gets there, she befriends strange creatures and is conscripted by Fairyland's ruler to complete a dangerous quest.

Terrible events befall our heroine, who may be heartless in leaving her home without a backward glance but who proves she is as loyal, compassionate, and tough as they come. Valente's book has all the strangeness and wonder required to narrate a story set in Fairyland. Her description of a fairy harvest feast is mouth-watering, and I loved the concept of Pandemonium, a city made of embroidered cloth. I especially appreciated the appearance of tsukumogami, which are natural denizens of Fairyland.

Bookish has two book trailers for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland.

Readers who enjoy this may want to check out its sequel, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, or Valente's upcoming collection of scifi/fantasy short stories set in Japan:  The Melancholoy of Mechagirl.

You might also try Kelly Barnhill's Iron-Hearted Violet, about another brave girl adventurer. Or go back to the book that started it all, and is the clearest ancestor of Valente's fairy tale: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

That Patrick Hamilton can write!

"Those entering the Saloon Bar of "The Midnight Bell" from the street came through a large door with a fancifully frosted glass pane, a handle like a dumb-bell, a brass inscription "Saloon Bar and Lounge," and a brass adjuration to Push. Anyone temperamentally so wilful, careless, or incredulous as to ignore this friendly admonition was instantly snubbed, for this door actually would only succumb to Pushing. Nevertheless hundreds of temperamental people nightly argued with this door and got the worst of it." - page 16, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton (1935)

The Good, The Bad, and the Duffy

The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When womanizing jerk Wesley Rush dubs Bianca Piper the "DUFF" of her friends (the Designated Ugly Fat Friend), it only cements her hatred for him. But then life at home falls apart, and in need of an easy distraction, she turns to the one guy she should hate forever....

This book drew me in, and I finished it quickly, but it has some major flaws that I can't overlook. I liked Bianca's voice, and I loved the way she relies on her girl friends (mostly). But I can't get over some of the messages in the book!

(SPOILER)

In the Realms of the Unreal

I've had a DVD from Netflix sitting on my bedroom floor for over a month now, and a few nights ago I finally got around to popping it into the player: I was glad I did! The film was the documentary, In the Realms of the Unreal, directed by Jessica Yu.

In the Realms of the Unreal is a unique look at the life and work of Henry Darger (1892–1973), a man who worked as a janitor by day and by night was a prolific writer and painter, the hero of his own vast novels. His mother died when he was young, and his father died after Darger was institutionalized. He later escaped the institution and returned to Chicago. Though fully capable of caring for himself, Darger was certainly eccentric (and possibly autistic, but not mentally ill). He lived in almost complete isolation. The people at his church and in his apartment building were vaguely aware of his existence, but for the most part his relationship with the world was what Yu termed "mutual indifference."

When Darger was moved into a Catholic mission to be cared for at the end of his life, his landlords Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner came across his huge body of work: "four unpublished manuscripts comprising more than thirty thousand pages of text; more than three hundred watercolor paintings that are often longer than nine feet; and thousands of ephemera Darger collected and used in his artistic process" (The Henry Darger Study Center).

Nathan Lerner was a photographer, and immediately recognized the unusual beauty and worth of Darger's art. After Darger's death the Lerners remained in charge of the estate and advocated for it so well that Darger is now internationally known. His work is considered the most famous example of outsider art.

"At Sunbeam Creek, are with little girl refugees again in peril from forest fires..." by Henry Darger

Darger's most famous book spans 15,145 pages and is titled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. It is the story of a vast war between enslaved children and their oppressors, the evil Glandelinians.

Darger also wrote an autobiography/novel ("Thank God!" says Yu - we would know next to nothing about his life if not for that) called The History of My Life. Only about 206 pages deal with his life - the other 4,672 tell the story of the charmingly named twister "Sweetie Pie" (Wikipedia).

Never formally trained, Darger often traced his figures from magazine pictures which he clipped, repeating his favorite images throughout his works - you might even recognize the Coppertone Girl or Little Annie Rooney. His use of colors is extraordinary, and the paintings have a strange beauty to them. Part of their strangeness stems from the fact that he frequently depicted the Vivian Girls with penises. (It is unclear if he was even aware that girls are physically different from boys.)

Director Jessica Yu spent five years studying Darger and creating her documentary. The DVD has a fascinating interview with her where she talks about her storytelling choices and her own perception of Darger's life. She chose to tell the story almost entirely with pieces of Darger's autobiography, excerpts from The Realms, and his illustrations (which have been animated). Dakota Fanning narrates portions of the film with uncanny maturity. She is an appropriate choice given that she was about the same age as Darger's heroic Vivian Girls: when the film was released in 2004, she was only ten years old.

Much of Henry Darger's life and mind remains mysterious in spite of the volume of his work, and Yu does not attempt to resolve all the mysteries with easy answers. There are no art critics or psychologists interviewed in her documentary, just Darger's own naïve, passionate, unselfconscious voice interspersed with the narrative. There are moments of real darkness here - and real beauty, too. Yu's film is certainly not trying to be the definitive biography, but as an introduction to Darger's work it is excellent.

For a more thorough traditional biography, see John M. MacGregor's 2002 book Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal. For more about the art, see Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings, edited by Michael Bonesteel. The American Folk Art Museum has a large collection in its Henry Darger Study Center. Today Darger's works sell for more than $80,000 - amazing when you consider that during his life he was unable to spend five dollars a month extra to own a dog, and that he died in the same poorhouse as his father.

Side note:
This documentary  reminded me of Séraphine (starring Yolande Moreau), a beautiful film about the life of a French painter Séraphine de Senlis (her gorgeous paintings are examples of "naïve art", but considering her later institutionalization you could probably consider her an outsider artist as well). Séraphine is available streaming on Netflix, but In the Realms of the Uncanny is only available on DVD.

Jeeves Again

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bertie Wooster's tranquil existence is continually disrupted by his lovelorn friend Bingo Little, the fearsome Aunt Agatha, or an engagement with a strong-willed woman - fortunately, Jeeves is always present to smooth over difficulties.

This is probably the best collection of Jeeves stories I've read so far. They are sequenced chronologically, though technically separate stories. I found myself laughing out loud in public (sorry if you came across me and were frightened) at Wooster's turns of phrase. Jeeves doesn't walk into a room; he 'shimmers in.' Grown men don't leave a club, they 'toddle.'  People don't scarf their food, they 'shove their heads down' and go for it. Wooster's narration is charming and silly, as Wooster himself is.

The dialogue is likewise brilliant: "'What ho! What ho! What ho!' I said, trying to strike the genial note, and then had a sudden feeling that that was just the sort of thing I had been warned not to say." Bertie is always overestimating his own ability to express himself, and is usually unintelligible to other characters because of his frequent use of slang. (And Wodehouse can get dialogue and narration to tell two different stories like no other writer.)

For reading when you're sad, or for reading when you're happy, or reading when you don't know what you feel, Wodehouse has no equal.

Homage to Hornby: Books Bought, Books Read

Lately I've been reading Nick Hornby's collected essays from his Believer column (Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, The Polysyllabic Spree, and More Baths, Less Talking. The format goes like this: at the beginning of each essay, he lists the books he's purchased and the books he's read for that month. Like most bibliophiles, those two lists rarely match up.

While I'm still experimenting with the best way to structure this blog, I'm going to steal a page from Hornby's amusing and smart books and present you with my lists (the links will take you to the Goodreads profile or to my reviews):

Books bought in February:
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (Nook)
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (Zones of Thought #2)
The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge (Zones of Thought #3)
The Fiction Writer's Handbook by Shelly Lowenkopf (Nook)
Zig Zag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits Of Double Agent Eddie Chapman by Nicholas Booth
Hunk for the Holidays by Katie Lane (Nook: don't judge - he has whiskey-colored eyes! I love whiskey!)
A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
Frederica by Georgette Heyer
The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
Revenge: A Story of Hope by Laura Blumenfeld
Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan
I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination by Francis Spufford

I swear I don't normally buy so many books in a month...you should see my library hold list for an indication of my more frugal self. This list is the result of some late-night buying at Powells.com, where it's all so cheap, and shipping was only $4 for everything from Zippy down!

Books read in February:
Jane Austen: A Life by Clair Tomalin
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (Discworld series; re-read)
The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
Nonfiction Readers' Advisory ed. Robert Burgin
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (Zones of Thought #1)
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (audiobook)

In progress:
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
A Few Good Books: Using Contemporary Readers' Advisory Strategies to Connect Readers With Books by Stephanie L. Maatta

The one wrinkle I'll add is that I downloaded a HUGE number of books from the fantastic Project Gutenberg this month--far too many to list in one entry, or even ten.

So instead I'll give you a teaser of the obscure (and not so obscure!) classics that I'm excited to read about, and the reasons for my enthusiasm (links will take you to free copies via Project Gutenberg):

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (1905)
A swashbuckling adventure story along the lines of The Three Musketeers, this is the story of a Frenchwoman named Marguerite who marries a handsome fop, Sir Percy Blakeney, at the start of the French Revolution. Their love is meant to be, but a terrible misunderstanding estranges them as the Terror begins in France, where a mysterious hero who calls himself the Scarlet Pimpernel is smuggling French aristocrats out of the country.

For movie fans, the 1934 adaptation starring Leslie Howard will make you forget all about the limp Ashley Wilkes (Gone With the Wind). Not to get sidetracked or anything, but the actor Leslie Howard died in 1943 when his plane was shot down by Nazis. He may have been acting for British Intelligence at the time, though the official story is that he was doing anti-Nazi propaganda. So Howard was a bona fide spy, playing a fictional spy! He was a talented actor whose life was tragically cut short, and the rest of his filmography is worth checking out, too.

I'll stop here for now, but there are so many fantastic books available for FREE through Gutenberg that I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me on the subject in posts tagged Three Free Books.

Three Free Books

The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer (1902-1974)
This writer started a whole new genre--Regency romance--hit a home run her very first time at the plate. Here is her description of the wicked, fascinating, and impeccably dressed Duke of Andover, who is attempting to seduce a young woman:

"He walked coolly forward into the full light of a great pendant chandelier, standing directly beneath it, the diamond order on his breast burning and winking like a living thing. The diamonds in his cravat and on his fingers glittered every time he moved, until he seemed to be carelessly powdered with iridescent gems. As usual, he was clad in black, but it would have been difficult to find any other dress in the room more sumptuous or more magnificent than his sable satin with its heavy silver lacing, and shimmering waistcoat. Silver lace adorned his throat and fell in deep ruffles over his hands, and in defiance of Fashion, which decreed that black along should be worn to tie the hair, he displayed long silver ribands, very striking against his unpowdered head."

Sadly, we have to wait a few more years for any of her other works to fall into the public domain. This gem of a book was the first Heyer I read, and it's every bit as thrilling and romantic as you could wish!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
Anyone who has only seen a movie version of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster probably doesn't know that the original is slightly more philosophical than the groans and screams of the many adaptations. Its alternate title is "The Modern Prometheus." The Goodreads summary does a good job here:

"Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever."

All this philosophizing doesn't make the story of monstrous hubris any less sinister than it was when it first came out in 1818.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (1820-1849)
The youngest and least-known of the famous Brontë sisters, Anne wrote two novels: this one and Agnes Grey (a governess story!) Goodreads says that her writing is sharper and more ironic than the romantic style of Charlotte and Emily. The lesser known female novelists of the Victorian era are hidden gems, and I look forward to reading the last Brontë's works.

(So I gave you more than three this time. Bonus: here are Anne, Emily, and Charlotte Brontë's tiny but wonderful oeuvres in Project Gutenberg. Enjoy!)

Nick Hornby Strikes Again!

The Polysyllabic Spree: A Hilarious and True Account of One Man's Struggle With the Monthly Tide of the Books He's Bought and the Books He's Been Meaning to Read by Nick Hornby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A collection of essays about books bought, books read, and occasionally Arsenal football, Nick Hornby's voice remains consistently funny and smart. He reads literary books and thick biographies, but undercuts any hint of snobbery with a wry and self-deprecating humor (perhaps this is a uniquely British skill). I love hearing his thoughts about his reading life, and I always come away with a few unexpected additions to my to-read list.

Sometimes I know he's thinking my thoughts:
"I don't reread books very often; I'm too conscious of both my ignorance and my mortality.[...] But when I try to recall anything about [a certain book] other than its excellence, I failed. [...] And I realized that, as this is true of just about every book I consumed between the ages of, say, fifteen and forty, I haven't even read the books I think I've read. I can't tell you how depressing this is. What's the fucking point?"

On why he bought a book right then even though it wasn't the one he had come for:
"I didn't know for sure I'd ever go to a bookshop again; and if I never went to a bookshop again, how long were those several hundred books going to last me? Nine or ten years at the most. No, I needed that copy of Prayers for Rain, just to be on the safe side."

Now THIS Is Science Fiction

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two human children crash-land on a planet populated by wolf-like aliens, and they are soon enmeshed in a local war. But beyond the planet an even more desperate war is being waged--one that will determine the fates of entire species and change the fabric of the galaxy itself, but hinges on the doings on the surface of the alien world.

Wow. Reading this book reminds me why I love grand-concept science fiction. It's been a while since I read a story that absorbed me so completely, and to my joy it's a stand-alone (though there is a prequel and a sequel)! There is genocide on a galactic scale, ethnic cleansing on a medieval scale, and a complex, satisfying story in one volume. It's amazing that in telling the story of such huge events, Vinge never loses sight of the individual characters we come to care about.

Human beings are only one sentient race in a galaxy populated by super-intelligent beings known as Powers, which exist in a special area of space known as the High Beyond. Their doings are as unfathomable to us as our doings would be to an ant. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, this does not stop us from messing around with things beyond our comprehension and resurrecting a Perversion, a Power dedicated to the subjugation and destruction of other creatures.

The human survivors crash-land on a planet populated by the Tines, a species of alien absolutely brilliant in concept and execution.

I won't add more, simply because Vinge tells the story so well and spins out the difficult exposition slowly, building tension in the reader as new understanding illuminates this complex and well-designed universe. If you liked David Brin's Uplift trilogy, Orson Scott Card's Enderverse, or even the 2004 Battlestar Galactica TV series, you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. (I do not recommend it as an entry point for non-science fiction readers, however.)

Nonfiction Reader's Advisory

Nonfiction Readers' Advisory by Robert Burgin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Every reference librarian should recognize the value of suggesting nonfiction to patrons. Ultimately, the fiction/nonfiction divide, useful though it might be, is still an artificial one.

The essays in this book discuss everything from theory to practice, including sources for finding books worth recommending, the reading habits of avid readers, and multicultural nonfiction. I suggest reading with an eye to expanding your personal to-read list as well: I must have added dozens of titles that piqued my curiosity. I'll be a nonfiction reader yet!

I especially enjoyed the chapter on nonfiction for school libraries. I myself only started enjoying nonfiction as an adult after I read two excellent books: Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, both books that showed me the power of nonfiction storytelling. I did read nonfiction as a kid, but mostly when I was curious about a topic (sharks, 19th century clipper ships, books on etymology and language - you'd be amazed at what kids will pick up when given the chance). And I'll never forget those trusty DK Eyewitness books with their densely packed pages of text and pictures.

I know I should be working now....

But I'm too busy racing through Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. I've never read his stuff before. It reminds me a lot of Brin's Uplift trilogies in scale - there are a dizzying number of races and expanses of time in this universe.

02/15

page 32

5.0%

Whoa. Just figured out how the aliens work, and I'm hooked. They are mind-blowingly cool: lupine creatures with a gestalt organization to their telepathic packs. One individual, many creatures. If that makes no sense to you, fine. (But it would if you read the book, and that is why this is great science fiction.)

02/15

page 88

14.0%

Get back to the wolves! The "zones of thought" are only slightly less cool than the gestalt packs: basically in our part of space physics works slowly. Brains are dumber, light speed travel is impossible. But the further out you go from the central "Unthinking Depths" (where everything, including intelligence, stops working), the faster and smarter things get - including AI. There are many traps for the unwary there, including malevolent computer intelligences that trick you into writing them...

The Two Princesses of Bamarre

The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the kingdom of Bamarre live two princesses: the brave Meryl and the cowardly Addie. When Meryl is stricken by the incurable Gray Death, Addie must find her courage if she is to save her beloved sister's life.

It's been a while since I picked up one of Gail Carson Levine's books, and I'm glad I chose this one. I didn't love Ella Enchanted: despite the promise of its brilliant premise, the execution was flawed. Though The Two Princesses is the second of the Enchanted books set in the same fantasy world, it is a completely separate story from Ella Enchanted. This series can be read in any order.

In The Two Princesses, the simple fairy-tale style fits the story well, and I found myself completely absorbed in Addie's quest to save her sister. Levine is known for writing strong female characters and the sisters' friendship is the central relationship of this story.

The dragon Volly is a great, complex villain - in spite of her charms, it's hard to forget that she's a monster who likes to play tyrannical mind games with her unfortunate victims (and future meals). She's a true descendant of Smaug from The Hobbit.

I love seeing classic fairy tale elements used like this: the specters that try to mislead travelers are extremely creepy, and I want a pair of Seven League Boots for myself (as well as one of those nifty magical tablecloths). In the background is the story of Drualt, a hero of ages past who left Bamarre after its people failed to live up to the example of his endless courage. Levine knows her fairy tales and Drualt is a combination of King Arthur and Beowulf: a monster-slaying hero who is too good for his world.

Fans of Levine might also try Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series, Robin McKinley's Beauty, or Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle.

For other strong female characters in unique fantasy worlds, check out Garth Nix's Sabriel (darker than Levine's stories), Kristen Cashore's Graceling, Patricia C. Wrede's Dealing With Dragons, or Terry Pratchett's funny and charming Tiffany Aching series, beginning with The Wee Free Men.

There are so many fairy tale/fantasy books out there for the YA crowd that star great heroines. Add this one to that list for the YA readers in your life!

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The Talisman Ring

The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eustacie longs for romance and a lover who rides ventre a terre (she's French). Sir Tristram, handsome and sensible, is not that lover (he's English). But when Eustacie stumbles across Ludovico, a man in hiding after being framed for murder, she and her new friend Sarah Thane get more adventure and romance than either of them bargained for.

Heyer delivers her usual sparkle with this caper. The MacGuffin is a valuable antique ring that can prove one man's innocence and another's guilt. The chemistry between playful and smart Miss Thane and the level-headed Sir Tristram is a delight, and Eustacie could be related to another Frenchwoman: Léonie from These Old Shades (also by Heyer). Fans of regency romance and adventure stories couldn't ask for better.

I could have wished for a few more scenes between the Beau and Sir Tristram. Both are worthy adversaries, and few techniques work better for ratcheting up the tension than having two well-matched opponents circle, each trying to guess how much the other knows and what he might do next.


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Welcome To Xanth

A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Laughably sexist but nevertheless funny in the right ways, Xanth is a magical land full of hidden dangers, strange magical creatures, and powerful Magicians. When Bink faces exile after exhibiting no magical talent, his quest for a way to stay within his homeland of Xanth takes him to places he never imagined.


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Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An Easter egg that holds the key to an eccentric billionaire's fortune is hidden in the virtual reality world of OASIS - and a high school boy has just deciphered the first clue.

Wade Watts, master of obscure 80s geek culture, lives in a trailer park stack in the energy-starved America of 2040. His only relief from his dangerous life comes when he plugs into the expansive OASIS to hunt for the holy hand grenade of questers all over the world. To figure out each clue, he must rely on his extensive knowledge of 80s pop culture touchstones - from Ladyhawke to Dungeons&Dragons to Atari. But he has stiff competition - not only in the form of fellow questers, but also the ruthless corporation IOI and its hordes of "Sixer" hunters - men and women hired to hack the game to win control of OASIS. Can one otaku hope to prevail?

I only happened to be born in the 80s and have never once played an arcade game or entered the World of Warcraft, but I read this book in a day, sucked in by its puzzle premise. Cline pays tribute to leagues of gaming geeks without mocking them. In fact, he shows the value that connections forged in virtual reality can have IRL (though eventually Watts realizes that going out into the sunlight now and again might be a good idea). It lacks Snow Crash's electric style, but Ready Player One is another great trip through a fun and vivid virtual world.

This book would definitely appeal to fans of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. (The premise reminded me of Ellen Raskin's children's book, The Westing Game, too.)


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Jane Austen

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The facts we have about Jane Austen's life are sparse (thanks to a few letter-destroying relatives), and much of her life is an absence, drowned out by the bustle of a large and semi-prosperous family. She was self-effacing, and little of her personal thoughts are known beyond the great works of literature she left us and a few letters.

Tomalin's book is well-researched and gracefully written; I am rarely able to finish a biography, but I enjoyed every page. She weaves together the many lives around Austen skillfully, with an eye toward capturing the telling details. I could have used a few helpful reminders in the text to keep the women straight - there are plenty of Marys, Janes, Elizas, Fannys, and Annas/Annes to mix up.

I even teared up at the description of Austen's death, and the grief of her beloved sister, Cassandra. I'll consider forgiving her for the letter-burning, but that ninny Fanny is beyond saving for me.

You will be inspired to reread every one of Austen's novels (don't worry, there are only six completed ones), so be warned!


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Good Omens

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When an angel and a demon mislay the Antichrist, the Apocalypse comes as expected - but doesn't proceed according to plan..

For fans of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, it will be clear that the majority of the writing and style is Pratchett's. The humor, plus his ever-present humanism, is a lot like what you will find in the Discworld books. So you'll meet funny characters: witches who are ahead of their times, the Four Horseman (including Death, who speaks in all caps!) and the Satanic nuns, a gang of imaginative kids, a dog-like Hellhound, telephone salespeople, and bikers - all of whom will irresistibly remind you of the good people of Ankh-Morpork.


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P.S. A friend asked me why I didn't give this book more than three stars. Here is my response:

"While I enjoy the works of both of these writers, I confess that I can't fully love a book where two atheists reinterpret the Bible to fit their own worldview. That makes me a little uncomfortable, and I am definitely not a secular humanist like Pratchett.

If not for my philosophical differences, I might have enjoyed "Good Omens" as much as the best of the Discworld books (for me, "Small Gods" has the same problems with religion as "Good Omens"). A lot of people love this book to pieces, though, and you may not have the same reservations I did.

That's not to say that I don't find the characters charming and the book well-written. It's just a personal hangup that kept me from fully engaging in the story."

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

The Cavendish Home For Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Victoria Wright's well-ordered town suits her perfectly - but when her messy friend Lawrence goes missing, she begins to sense the wrongness crawling behind each shiny facade.

This book definitely reminded me of Coraline. Mrs. Cavendish could be the Other Mother's creepy twin, and the House and its inhabitants reminded me of the other side of Coraline's door. I liked the precocious and prickly Victoria, whose affection for her one and only friend carries her through some truly terrifying experiences. This book is not for the faint of heart. If you can't take multitudes of cockroaches, tortured children, and (shudder) mystery meat, stay away!


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Tom Lefroy

Jane Austen's only love:

Pretty handsome guy (the white is undoubtedly powder, fashionable at the time). His brief non-courtship of Jane Austen is the subject of Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy. The real Lefroy married an heiress, had oodles of kids, sat in Parliament, and was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, his native country. He had a good life, it seems.

I'm reading Claire Tomalin's wonderful biography of Jane Austen, and this is what she has to say about Jane's brief and joyful flirtation with Lefroy:

"We can't help knowing that her personal story will not go in the direction she is imagining in the letter; that, as it turned out, it was not Tom Lefroy, or anyone like him, who became her adventure, but the manuscript [Elinor and Marianne*] upstairs. Not marriage but art: and in her art she made this short period in a young woman's life carry such wit and human understanding as few writers have managed to cram into solemn volumes three times the size."

It makes you wonder if the great female writers who are known to have remained single all their lives (I'm thinking of Emily Dickinson here, too) would have managed to produce their art if they had the added demands of marriage and motherhood. Would they have been happier? Maybe, maybe not. Would we? We would be unfortunate in the sense that we would never know what we missed. Imagine all the great works lost -  works that might have been created by men and women who were too burdened by other concerns.

Okay, stop thinking about it. It's too sad.

*Elinor and Marianne was later renamed Sense and Sensibility.

Year Zero

Year Zero by Rob  Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Humanity is about to be tricked into destroying itself by musicophilic aliens unless Nick Carter (a lawyer, not the Backstreet Boy) can figure out a way to thwart Earth's absurd copyright laws.

Year Zero is not destined to be a classic like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it's certainly a breezy, fun read. Lawrence Lessig-quoters who agree that worldwide copyright laws are greedy and penny-pinching will certainly enjoy this send-up (in spite of the hero being a copyright lawyer himself). A few jabs at pop music, and a very funny take on what aliens might do with reality TV complete the fun.


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Found on Netflix Streaming

Yesterday I discovered that many classic Disney animated films are available. I promptly rewatched The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under (did you know that the poacher Percival C. McLeach is George C. Scott? Fantastic voice work!). So many childhood memories...and I only just realized how disturbing it is that the poacher spent his time interrogating the little boy by throwing knives at his head! Holy goodness! Scott's heartwarming version of "Home on the Range" still gets me, though.


*Tear*

Dumbo is there, too. No Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. What gives, Disney?

Today I found out that Going Postal, the first Discworld book I ever read, is a movie, and it's available on streaming! So far so good! I like the Richard Coyle, who plays Moist (less impressed by Angua's stupid eye makeup, but I do like her sneer).

I enjoyed Hogfather a while back, which stars an actress Downton Abbey watchers know as Lady Mary Crawley (called Michelle Dockery in her real life). Lady Mary plays Susan, Death's adopted granddaughter.

Oh yeah, and Hogfather is also available streaming, as is The Color of Magic, which stars Sean Austin and Tim Curry, among others.

In short, what homework?

About

In my reviews, I try to be even-handed and suggest additional titles I think readers may enjoy. I'm not always right by any stretch of the imagination, so argue away if you disagree with what I write!

Please feel free to comment on my posts or even suggest titles you think I might enjoy! I love hearing about new books, though my to-read list is longer than a person with only one pair of eyeballs can view in one lifetime.

One star = Hated it with a burning, loathing passion
Two stars = Meh. It was just okay (not quite bad enough to hate)
Three stars = Liked it (not quite great enough to love)
Four stars = Really liked it
Five stars = Loved it completely

My ratings don't indicate the objective quality of the fiction I read, but instead reflect how much I enjoyed it (or not). Only a five star review is a clear recommendation from me for quality and enjoyment. I take genre considerations into account, too, and don't judge a romance novel the same way I would a literary novel.

In short, it's totally subjective and you can feel free to love the books I hate and hate the books I love (but why would you?)

The Future of Libraries

From Open-Site

More Baths, Less Talking

More Baths, Less Talking by Nick Hornby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My only complaint about this sprightly book of essays is that now I've added about twenty books to my to-read list, most of them biographies (which I rarely ever get through). Hornby's writing reminds me why I love essays and writing about literature. Witty, funny, and full of insight into a few good books, this is exactly what I was looking for.

Now to track down the rest of his Believer articles and read them through!


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