August Orange Books

Darryl has issued a challenge! He's encouraging us all to read at least one Orange book per month. If you plan on participating in August, here's the place to list your reading selection, comments, reviews and questions. Have fun!

I just started The Road Home by Tremain so I am in. I am really liking it so far.

Just finished Old Filth by Jane Gardam, a 2005 Orange short-lister. A good read about an English barrister who, at the end of his life, is reviewing it's path.

I didn't think I'd be reading an Orange book for August because I wanted to concentrate on books about the American West, but I just found The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber, long listed in 2009 and short listed for new authors that year. Yea, I'm in.

#4> Citizenjoyce, you have a great book ahead of you! The author is lovely too - she stopped by my blog to read my review and left a sweet message.

@#3:
Old Filth sounds good. I will have to get to that one soon as it is on one of my shelves.

I am in and laytonwoman3rd found a cross referenced list that listed some Booker Prize books that are Virago as well so my Booker Read for August will be
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor, my first knowingly Booker listed read and my first Taylor as well. And it was a duplicate copy gifted to me by LyzzyBee. Again, thank you lw3rd & LyzzyBee.
I am looking forward to the read. Don't know what my September Orange read will be as of yet.

I've begun Black Water Rising. It's more hardboiled than my usual style, but I'm going to stretch myself and stick with it! The writing is marvelous. :)

Ooooh, how exciting! :D

I have two Orange books on the August TBR pile: Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis (1998SL) and The Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo (2007SL).

#3 - I have Gardam's The Man in the Wooden Hat planned for August. It's a companion book to Old Filth, told from the perspective of the wife.

> 3 & 6: Old Filth is a good read. I enjoyed it. I also have The Man in the Wooden Hat on the shelf, but can't see myself getting to it for a while yet.

Currently I'm reading The Tenderness of Wolves as my Orange book for August.

I may have to add The Man in the Wooden Hat to my August list . . .

#8> HRO - I just ordered Lives of the Monster Dogs from Bookmooch. It sounded so intriguing. I will be curious to know what you think. I read a book earlier this year called Mr. Chartwell that featured a dog with human-like qualities. It was excellent!

Still undecided on what I will be reading.

#11 - I've heard other people say good things about Mr. Chartwell - I guess I need to add it to my wishlist! I'm really looking forward to Lives of the Monster Dogs.

I hope to be reading Gilead this month.

I'm hoping to finish Wolf Hall this month, but I'm not holding my breath ;).

I will be here silently rooting you on Samantha_kathy. I do hope you are enjoying it. Everyone seems to. It is awaiting me.

#15: I'm only two chapters in, but I am enjoying it greatly. It is a bit different in writing style than I am used to, but it's good.

When I read Wolf Hall several years ago, I was often frustrated with the writing and left confused, especially when trying to follow long lines of dialogue. . .
I was glad that I already knew the story and characters from previous non-fiction reading.

#17: I know the general story of Henry VIII, but not so much about Cromwell. I do have to keep my attention on the book when I am reading, more than normal, but I haven't been confused yet.

Is Wolf Hall terribly political? I've avoided it because I'm afraid it will be, and politics bore me silly.

#19 I suppose it depends what you mean by 'political'. Cromwell is a 'fixer', whose immense administrative ability helps two major figures in the world of Tudor politics and court intrigue to achieve what they want. But the novel is not so much about the politics as an attempt to imagine what is going on inside the head of someone in Cromwell's position. He reflects on the people and situations he is dealing with, but these include domestic situations as well as what is going on in public life.

Finished Black Water Rising! I admire the book: the plotting is tight and the writing assured, especially for a debut. But I can't say I enjoyed it very much...just not my cup of tea. It reminds me a little bit of Malla Nunn's mystery novels set in 1950s South Africa. So if anyone loved it and is looking for another (non-Orange) read, you might want to try Let the Dead Lie.

Okay, I finished The Tiger's Wife and I was disappointed. I never got into the swing of the story, the narrator didn't ring true (she just came across as one-dimensional), and while I may not always understand what's happening in a magical realism story, I do expect to *believe* what's happening. And, nope, I didn't. Especially towards the end, where characters just seemed to die randomly. And the jumping around in time didn't work for me, I couldn't keep it straight in my head (although that's usually not a problem).

I think maybe with a bit more understanding of Balkan history, it would have made a bit more sense. But I've read other books knowing nothing about the history of the region involved, and gone away knowing more, and enjoying that learning.

Plus, there were some sentences that I re-read and re-read and they never ever made sense. (And "kite" is not a verb. Hate being thrown out of a story so I can translate some wanky writing.)

Other people are raving, I'm not one of them. (Okay, I liked the story of the deathless man, that was pretty cool.)

Overall, just a sense of frustration with it all. First Orange Prize winner that's bombed for me!

I'm going to have to find the thread for The Tiger's Wife and comment there as well. See what other people made of it!

Cannot 'kited' mean to steal?

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kited

transitive verb
1
: to use (a bad check) to get credit or money
2
: to cause to soar
intransitive verb
1
a : to go in a rapid, carefree, or flighty manner b : to rise rapidly : soar
2
: to get money or credit by a kite

Or to fly an offer?

yes, exactly.

It was used to describe a stuffed bird (er, eagle?) that had been hung from the ceiling, as if it were in flight. Kudos to you, Belva, you've got the definition there: "to cause to soar".

So, my poor vocabulary, not one of those annoying "use a noun as a verb" moments. Mea culpa.

But it still doesn't help that some sentences never made sense. I gave up after a while. I did find it awkwardly and (at times) poorly written.

I know the feeling wookie. I still come at odds when I see "an hotel" on paper as I have such a tough time with the letter 'h' being a vowel. It was a consonant when I did my studies.

Finally finished The Tenderness of Wolves and loved it. Ticks in all the boxes for me.

I read The Ventriloquist's Tale and loved it! It reminded me quite a bit of A Spell of Winter, in that it plays with the major gothic themes (sex, love, death, taboo, etc.), and the setting (in this case Guyana, rather than an English country house) is so fully and lushly described. The woven in issues of colonialism/encounters between Westerners and Amazonian tribal cultures, and all of the rich myth was just gravy. Really marvelous writing, and another five-star Orange read for me. I'd highly recommend it! And now I want to read more of her, although it'll probably rquire more interlibrary loan requests. I wish she was more widely known: I think this one is already out of print. :(

Lives of the Monster Dogs was brilliant! 4 Stars. It's a very unique book - both in plot and construction - and it explores some very complex ethical questions.

#31> HRO: Can't wait to read it, especially after your four-star rating! =)

I've started a new project - to read all of the Orange Prize nominees and winners. Don't anticipate completing this any time soon. I went to Borders yesterday with my long list, hoping to pick up some at the 40% off sale but only came home with three - all by authors who are new to me. The first one up is What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn, 2007 Long list. It is good so far, liked it so well I've just ordered her new book from Amazon.

I read What Was Lost a few years ago and remember liking it very much. Enjoy!

I finished The Personal History of Rachel Dupree and the only 2 bad things I can say about it is that the birth scene is fairly unbelievable and the book was so interesting that I couldn't put it down. I finished it at 3 am and couldn't get to sleep for thinking about Rachel and her ideas. What a unique and nearly perfect book, I'm so glad I read it, and glad to know, Mrstreme that the author is a fine person.

So glad you liked The Personal History of Rachel Dupree! =)

I've just opened up Gilead and am hoping to read it before I finish my holiday tomorrow.

>37 gennyt:: ooh, a nice read. I think it would be a good fit for your holiday Genny, as well as your professional life. Can't wait to see what you think.

37 - I just finished Gilead and hope to move on to Home soon. I quite enjoyed the first one although my one criticism is that I just didn't buy the narrator as a male. He sounded just a little too female to me (just an overall feeling as opposed to anything specific).

I just finished The Man in the Wooden Hat which is a companion book to the Orange nominated Old Filth.

I rated it 2 Stars. Here's the review I wrote:

Big huge massive DISAPPOINTMENT! Betty has had this amazing life - growing up in China, spending time in the Japanese internment camps, a career in espionage. Do we get to read about any of that? NO! The book begins when she is 28 years old and newly engaged to Filth. There's no back story at all. Just the vaguest hints of what her life was like in the 27 years Before Filth.

And so all it is, is this vague boring story. There's very little plot and virtually no character development.

Filth and Betty don't really know each other, but they decide to get married for some reason, and once they're married there really isn't a relationship because Filth is always away on business. Betty supposedly has an affair with Filth's career rival, Veneering, but it's all kind of distant and obscure and you're never really quite sure if there was an affair or not. And Filth becomes a famous lawyer, and they're ridiculously rich, and they live in Hong Kong, and they live in England, and Betty plants tulips. The End.

Reading "The Man in the Wooden Hat" is kind of like eating celery. It's not exactly bad, but it would be a whole lot better if you had the ingredients to make Ants on a Log (celery stuffed with cream cheese and garnished with raisins).

Love your celery analogy . . . The Man in the Wooden Hat is coming up soon on my list, having read Old Filth recently. Sorry to hear that it was a bore.

I've decided on Savage Lands by Clare Clark. According to Hilary Mantel, Clark "meets the eighteenth century on its own terms; knocks the wig off, twists its private parts and spits in its eye...". A recommendation if ever I've read one.

#40> Ants on a log! I haven't heard of that for years, but I used to do peanut butter instead of cream cheese. :)

Am now a fair way into Jamrach's Menagerie. Her writing style (overly descriptive) is getting in the way of the story (I'm in the mood for something more straightforward), but it's a great story. And sometimes those descriptions are actually spot-on and positively breathtaking. Other times I feel like I'm wading through too many adjectives in search of a verb, damnit.

I'm reading Jamrach's Menagerie also - and I feel the same way about the adjectives. The story still hasn't "grabbed" me yet but I'll keep plugging along with it for a while.

>43 wookiebender: - I love pb & celery, but never thought of it as an alternative to cream cheese for Ants on a Log. Yum.

>41 brenpike: - Perhaps you'll enjoy The Man in the Wooden Hat more than I did. I hope so!

>32 mrstreme: - I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Lives of the Monster Dogs!

>29 crimson-tide: - I adore The Tenderness of Wolves...one of my all time fav books. I look forward to reading the author's newest book The Invisible Ones which releases next month.

>20 gennyt: -Thanks for sharing your perspective on Wolf Hall. You make it sound more interesting than I thought it might be.

#38 Yes I think I'm going to like it very much. Only got about 60 pages read yesterday, and no chance to read more today so far, so it won't be finished on my holiday as I'm now home, but I hope to finish reading it while still partly in holiday mood!

#45 You are welcome, re Wolf Hall. I did find it interesting myself, because she takes a historical figure who is usually very much a background figure, and often cast as a villain, or at least as unscrupulous/ruthless, and imagines this whole interior mental life for him which gives a very different view of the period from more conventional historical novels or straight history. However, if you've never read anything about/set during the Tudor period, it might be quite hard-going. People have found it hard remembering who all the characters are, especially when half of them seem to be called Thomas - that's a drawback of writing about historical characters: real life is more confusing than fiction, as people are more likely to share a common name!

I've finished Jamrach's Menagerie and have mixed feelings about it. Some bits were very, very good (some of the language was breathtakingly perfect), some bits less so (as I mentioned above, too many adjectives in search of a verb in some paragraphs). I didn't really buy the narrator's voice, but I did mostly like the story.

Apart from the very, very long bit which reminded me mostly of Sam and Frodo plodding across Mordor. Endless hunger, endless bleakness of landscape. I can forgive the hobbits, they were taking down Sauron (boo! hiss!) and were such wonderful everymen. I was less forgiving here, especially when I could see how it was all going to end.

But I did acutally like the ending. Everything seemed to come together then, but it may have been a case of too-little-too-late.

Oh dear, my last two Orange reads from the 2011 list haven't been great successes with me! I feel like such a curmudgeon.

Have decided to read The Help for my August Orange;
long listed for 2010 I believe. Will probably get to that one for the weekend.

Enjoy. . . The Help is a great book.

I loved The Help, but I wonder if any African Americans do. I've heard so much criticism, which I feel is unwarranted, but I'm caucasian.

A friend loaned me her copy of The Help yesterday (I knew if I held off, I'd find a free read somewhere!). When people first started talking about it here at LT I thought it sounded like one of those over-rated, saccharine best-sellers. But then I saw the trailer for the movie and I thought it looked interesting. And now I've heard so many criticisms (mostly about the movie, but flowing over to the book too). I guess I'll have to read it for myself, but yes, I wonder if any African Americans liked this one.

I read a fabulous book about domestic workers--Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night, by Sindiwe Magona. It's about South African woman, and I wrote a review on it at: http://www.belletrista.com/2011/Issue12/anth_10.php This book completely changed my way of thinking. Unfortunately, it is not an Orange book. But it was voted one of the most important African books, which seems more important, actually.

Oh, I did enjoy The Help, and while I went into it with some slight squeamishness at the whole thought of "white woman telling black women's stories" (with a side order of "white woman helping black women to realise they're oppressed"), I didn't find that was justified. (IMHO. I am a white woman, I probably see these things differently to a black woman!) Especially not that side order - they KNOW they're oppressed.

There was an essay by the author that explained that she knew that people would have this squeamishness, and explained her justification. (And I liked that essay.) Unfortunately, it was at the END of the book. For me, it should have been up there at the front, gotten that whole uneasiness out of the way.

I haven't actually heard any criticisms, but then I'm in Australia, far away from where these criticisms would be voiced.

I haven't actually heard any criticisms, but then I'm in Australia, far away from where these criticisms would be voiced.

For me they popped up on my FB page. Here were two of them:

1. http://www.alternet.org/culture/152002/new_film_%27the_help%27_whitewashes_the_c...

"New Film 'The Help' Whitewashes the Civil Rights Struggle into a Heartstring-tugging Hallmark Card . . . Thanks to The Help’s sugarcoating, the National Domestic Worker’s Alliance has been compelled to release a video discussing the truth of the country’s maids, nannies and chauffeurs. ”

2. http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/08/11/the-terrible-awful-sweetness-of-the-h...

"The Terrible, Awful Sweetness of The Help ...If Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help was an angel food cake study of racism and segregation in the 60’s South, the new movie adaptation is even fluffier. Like a dollop of whip cream skimmed off a multi-layered cake, the film only grazes the surface of the intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender and geohistory."

Maybe I'll wait for the DVD.

edited to say: not sure if the second link is working. If not, I'll come back and fix it tomorrow.

The Help is a good story. It may not be an accurate portrayal of 1960's Mississippi, though I would argue that it's pretty darn close, but it's a good story. I think people lose sight of the storytelling and how readers learned something about that time.

It always begs the question: Can white people really tell a story about black people? Can men really tell a story about women? People get sticky when a member of the majority writes about the minority. I think it's possible, but some would disagree.

>54 mrstreme:: you're begging some thought-provoking questions there, Jill. Joyce, thanks for those links. Hubby and I have been discussing those very concerns -- he'd read some sources, not sure if they were the same ones. I'd prefer to read the book before seeing the film but that's not likely to happen so I probably won't see the movie either.

I quite enjoyed the book (had no idea what it was about and didn't read the book flap before starting so I didn't have any squeamishness but can totally understand how that could happen) but I will not see the movie. It looks way too saccharine for me.

I've posted this on a couple other threads, so forgive me if you've seen it already, but I heard one NPR commentator speaking in response to some of the criticism of The Help (movie) last week. He didn't specifically address the book or movie, but merely said it had prompted him to revisit a story written by Eudora Welty. I was in the car, on the way home at the time, and when I got home I immediately found my Library of America volume of Welty's essays and stories, and that night read the chilling and remarkable "Where is the Voice Coming From?" I urge you all to do likewise. Her explanation of how this story came about is important too. She sat down and wrote it in its entirety the night Medgar Evers was shot in Jackson, Mississippi, her hometown. She said "I thought, with overwhelming directness: Whoever the murderer is, I know him: not his identity, but his coming about, in this time and place... I wrote his story--my fiction--in the first person: about that character's point of view, I felt, through my shock and revolt, I could make no mistake." By the time the story was in the hands of her editor (William Maxwell) at The New Yorker, which published it immediately, a man had been arrested for the shooting, and certain "outward details" had to be changed because they were too close to actuality. In light of the brutal beating and murder of a black man by white teenagers in Jackson this summer, it appears that "point of view" is still too much with us. I submit that if a cultured white woman could put herself into the head of that maniac and produce such a story, the question of whether "the other" can be written is settled. That's not to say it works every time, of course.

I will have to check out that story, Linda. I am not familiar with it, but now my interest is piqued!

Me too.

Linda, Is this it? http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/somethingelse/welty.html

That's it, Joyce. As you see, it isn't very long, even for a "short"story! Thanks for the link. I didn't realize it was available on line.

I am currently reading Homestead by Rosina Lippi (an LT author), and finding it extremely good. In fact, I think it kept me awake last night, as I must have been subconsciously processing and internalizing some of the emotional content. Shortlisted in 2001.

I just hit the link and read Where is the Voice Coming From. Amazing that a woman wrote this amazing short, short story. All I can say is Wow! I now look at Eudora Welty in a whole new light.
Thank you Linda. That was an eye-opener.

"A Dreft commercial comes on and Miss Celia stares out the back window at the colored man raking up the leaves. She's got so many azalea bushes, her yard's going to look like Gone with the Wind come spring. I don't like azaleas and I sure didn't like that movie, the way they made slavery look like a big happy tea party. If I'd played Mammy, I'd of told Scarlett to stick those green draperies up her white pooper. Make her own damn man-catching dress."
LMBFAO!~!
This is wonderful!

Wow, great story. So obviously an artist can write in the voice of the other.
One of the criticisms I read of the movie was that it had great African American actors playing maids again, as if they hadn't graduated from such parts. Well, they did a great job, and I can only imagine they're proud of the work they did. Strangely enough for the critics, I'll bet there are even maids who are proud of the work they do. My best friend is a housekeeper, she's very good at what she does and very glad of the money it brings in. I'm just not so sure of the critics in this one. And I would recommend the movie. It's not as harsh as the book, which some would say is not harsh enough, but you sure get the idea of what those days might have been like and how easy it would have been to get sucked into bigotry if it would please the ones around you.

The Help isn't meant to be a gritty tale of the horrors of Southern life in the 60s. It's not told from the viewpoint of the lawyers and activists who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. (If you want that, watch the movie "Mississippi Burning.")

The Help is told in the voices of a naive young woman who was only just beginning to understand that the treatment of blacks by whites was unfair. And it's also told in the voice of the maids for whom this life was "normal," though the stirrings of the Civil Rights Movement was making them question if maybe "normal" wasn't necesssarily right.

Readers can't expect the story to be something it's not. It's like saying To Kill a Mockingbird should have been told from Atticus' viewpoint with more of an emphasis on how the justice system wasn't fair to blacks.

#65 Very good points about both books, Royal.

To me, it doesn't really matter. If it were non-fiction that would be another matter. But The Help is fiction, not non-fiction so it is really the author's story to tell, not history's. I am enjoying it immensely.

Arggggggggggggg;
This is troublesome as I had my year in reading pretty well slated out. I did not anticipate falling in love with the Orange books as I have. Always, previously, I just tinkered and read 1, perhaps 2 for Orange January/July. But this year I started off hot in July with Great House and it was so good that I went on to read 15 I believe, and loved almost every one of them. Now, having nearly finished The Help, which I am also loving, I cannot imagine that as good as it is, it only made the 2010 long list. So I am going to have to read the ones shortlisted & the winner for that year as well...if I am to believe that they are better than The Help. I will work them in to answer Darryl's challenge of an Orange a month I guess.
Ha! Just pulled up a hard copy of the Orange Winners and Shortlists from 1996 to this year and find that I have already read the winner and two on the Shortlist for 2010. So I have yet to read: Wolf Hall, A Gate at the Stairs and The Very Thought of You. The winner for 2010 was The Lacuna and while I thought it was wonderful and it got 4 1/2 stars from me, The Help is definitely more engaging for me and without having finished it ( I have a few pages left to go) I know it will be a 5 + star read for me. All around, a better book in my humble opinion. Of the two I have read, I rated them:
Black Water Rising: 3 1/2 stars
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle: 4 stars

Jill; you have turned me into an addict of the Orange.

Thanx for the shoulders team,
~belva

>68 rainpebble:: yay! Another Orange addict!

Gee thanx Laura. ;-)

I've finished The Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers and, after much deliberation, am giving it 3 Stars. It's more like 2.75 Stars, so I had to decide if I wanted to round up or down. :)

I really enjoyed that it was written in "broken English," and though at times this seemed uneven to me, it is the first book the author had written in English, so I am certain that she has a better understanding than I do about this matter. And it was an interesting (and sometimes amusing) examination of the vast differences between Chinese and English cultures, covering everything from food choices to life philosophies.

I did not like the protagonist, Z, and this was a huge stumbler for me. She is just so whiny and clingy and needy, and I couldn't get into her head at all. And when she toured Europe, I wanted to smack her. She had this awesome opportunity (that I would kill for) to sightsee and discover all this culture and history - but all she does is complain and hook up with random men. Which is the second thing I didn't much like about the book: there is a lot of sex. I'm not a total prude, but this was just major overkill. I mean, comparing a lighthouse to a certain part of the male anatomy? Completely unnecessary.

>71 Her_Royal_Orangeness:: I felt pretty much the same way!

I started Gilgamesh last night!

Jill, I really liked Gilgamesh. In fact, as I recall, I gave it 4 1/2 stars. I hope you like it a lot as well. When I finished it I went right online and ordered The Epic of Gilgamesh which I most likely won't get to until winter but am hungry to read it.

I just finished reading Mitchell's translation of Gilgamesh (can't find right touchstone) and found it short and quite entertaining.

My copy is a Sandars translation. I hope it is as good as the Mitchell. I understand that the Mitchell trans is top-notch.

I finished Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch early this morning, and I'll review it in the next day or two. I'm still trying to decide which book to read next month; I'll probably read one of the Orange books on my Kindle, most likely The Tiger's Wife.

Which Orange book are you planning to read next month?

>77 kidzdoc:: Which Orange book are you planning to read next month?
We might as well start the September thread ... join the discussion here!

I finally wrote my review for my August Orange pick: Gilgamesh by Joan London. Thanks to you all for tipping me off on this great book! Here's my review: http://www.librarything.com/work/301905/reviews/76369228

I finally got around to starting The Swimmer. The only person I know who has read this is Darryl, and he really didn't like it. I'm only about 30 pages in, but so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Not sure where it's going though . . . .

I read one orange book in August which was Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and really enjoyed it.

My September Orange was The Long Song by Andrea Levy. I had such high hope for this one and those hopes entertained me about 4/5 through the book. Then things went rather off-kilter for me.
Here's hoping my October Orange is a little sweeter.
My review is here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/8964519
~belva

I forgot to mention that I completed Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch at the end of last month, which was my Orange book for August. My review is here:

http://www.librarything.com/review/76123441