What Are You Reading September 2011

It's a new back to school month and seems appropriate that I finished a stolen life by Jaycee Dugard who was abducted at the age of 11 and was held by a psychopath for 18 years, so got no more than a 5th grade education. As in the fictitious Room, the story of her recovery is as interesting as the story of her captivity. The man who held her captive used such effective mind control on her that she thought she was responsible for saving others (he used her to "overcome" his sexual problems so he wouldn't have to hurt anyone else) and for his every mood. Also he encouraged her and his wife to discuss anything with him because he knew all the answers and Jaycee was told (at mind numbing length) whenever she disagreed why she was wrong and he was right. She's found an excellent "reunification therapist," Rebecca Baily, who is helping her grow into a strong, confident woman. She has started a foundation to help abducted and oppressed people using animal therapy. One of the things she wished for herself when she was a captive was that she would write a best selling book, and she has.

I also finished The Lady and the Unicorn which turned out to be great. Again there was an intense discussion of the oppression of women, this time in the 15th century. I'm always amazed when I can like a book and thoroughly dislike its main characters. Both the artist and the young girl about whom he obsesses are very deficient in character. The only people with whom the reader has any sympathy are the artisans, and they bring the tapestries to life.

Now I've started listening to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and have begun a month's concentrated reading about prostitution with The Crimson Petal and the White.

I am reading The Swimmer, by Roma Tearne, and I've started my monthly big book, which for September is Possession by AS Byatt. Not really sure what to expect with the second one.

Thanks for starting us off for Sepetember, CJ!

I'm still reading Night and Day by Virginia Woolf. I love her writing. Every word, every phrase is so beautifully executed and each has so many layers of meaning. That means, though, that she is not an author one can rush through.

I just finished (like right this second!) The Liminal People, by Ayize Jama-Everett, which I was very pleasantly surprised by. Not strictly a girly book, but perhaps of some interest to group members because it nicely inverts a fair number of gender-related noir tropes; the noir hero has healing superpowers, to start, and the whole story is about him growing towards embracing concepts of family and social connection.

I'm currently in the middle of:
Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor (still)

For sure this month I plan to read:
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
The Bards of Bone Plain, by Patricia A. McKillip

And I hope I'll be able to get to some of these:
Chill, by Elizabeth Bear
Servant of the Underworld, by Aliette de Bodard
Fever Season, by Barbara Hambly
The Whitefire Crossing, by Courtney Schafer

Wow! So many good rec's.

@2: I admire A.S. Byatt's powers as a writer, but parts of the resolution just didn't ring true. I hope you check back and let us know what you think.

I just watched the Diane Sawyer with Jaycee Dugard. It's here:

part 1: http://abc.go.com/watch/abc-news-specials/SH559036/VD55134743/jaycee-dugard-her-...
part 2: http://abc.go.com/watch/abc-news-specials/SH559036/VD55134784/jaycee-dugard-her-...

These are my planned prostitution reads for the month, not all by women:

Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas - Isabel Vincent
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
The Dress Lodger - Sheri Holman
Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
Lullabies for Little Criminals - Heather O'neill
Nana - Émile Zola
Slammerkin - Emma Donoghue
Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West - Anne Seagraves
Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS - Elizabeth Pisani

#2> Joyce, I do love Possession, so I hope you do too!

I'm still reading Small Wars by Sadie Jones. Having a slow reading week at the moment...

I'm still working on my re-reading of Austen's major works, picking up Mansfield Park tonight.

I also just started Little Bee, which is written by a man but features a young woman who seems like a promising strong female character.

Finished Slow River, which was terrific. It was gripping both plot-wise and in terms of character growth. I noticed some of the reviews said they found the use of three narrative strands to be jarring and confusing - not a problem I had.

Next up is Left hand of darkness.

7> Have you read Sold, CJ? I liked it very much.

#2> Joyce, Possession is one of my favourite books, EVER!

I recently listened to The Year of the Flood and Oryx and Crake, related novels by Margaret Atwood. I don't typically like these dystopic novels, but I love Margaret Atwood.

girlfromshangrila, I just got Sold from the library and plan to read it some time this month; however, at 900 pages I'm afraid The Crimson Petal and the White is going to take a while.

shearon, I love Margaret Atwood, but Oryx and Crake didn't do much for me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for it. Before I'd read The Year of the Flood I'd have to reread Oryx, I wonder if that'll ever happen.

I should finish The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie today and am amazed that though it was written years after Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night, attitudes condemning unmarried women remained set. I grew a little tired of Sayers long discourse on the values of the unmarried life for women, but obviously such thoughts needed to be made public. Muriel Spark showed the common opinion that unmarried women are frivolous and less than admirable. Whatever they might do in the way of learning, teaching, social work or travel it was thought to be a pitiful distraction from their real purpose in life which was to care for a man and raise his children. I think one reason I so loved all the Willa Cather books I read last month was that she was a forceful representative of Sayer's viewpoint. Her devotion was to art and personal growth, and she felt that marriage and children would detract from that (which she showed well in the character of Antonia). Her friend and mentor Sarah Orne Jewett said that she didn't need a husband, she needed a wife, and Cather got one. She lived in a "Boston marriage" with Edith Lewis for 39 years with Lewis taking care of all their practical concerns leaving Cather free to pursue her art. Cather's women characters were strong, determined, and principled (or they died). Poor Miss Jean Brodie on the other hand is strong, intelligent and romantic - a deadly combination.

@14, you wouldn't have to reread "Oryx" to understand "The Year of the Flood," though you might want to read a quick summary somewhere like Amazon to remind yourself of the characters.

# 15, Citizenjoyce I love your analysis of Dorothy Sayers, Muriel Sparks, Willa Cather, and Sarah Orne Jewett! What a long, difficult road it was for women, and even though we're not there 100%, your post reminds me that we should be grateful for how far we've come.

I remember when I was in third grade, in about the mid-60's, the teacher asked the class what we wanted to be when we grew up. Basically, the only answers from girls were "Mother, teacher, secretary, or flight attendant (stewardess)". I think that today there would be a much wider variety of responses, which shows that there certainly has been progress in my lifetime.

I dunno. It seems to me that a "Boston marriage" could be just as exploitative and unequal as a hetero marriage of the same time period. Perhaps this is why many of my gay friends are less high on gay marriage than we liberal heterosexuals are on extending the option to them.

Also not sure that a fuller reading of Spark's books wouldn't reveal that Spark was a little less constricted in her views about single women specifically than advertised. Single women were treated quite variously in The Girls of Slender Means, and pretty much everybody, married and single, gay and straight, comes in for hilarius vitriol in The Finishing School. Just to name two.

I think Spark was presenting society's view of single women rather than her own. Any relationship can be exploitative, but when men traditionally and legally have all or the majority of power and the main job of women is to support and uplift them, then marriage is a pretty bad deal for the female half of the relationship. When the man controls the money and the time and women have all the work involved in bearing and rearing children it leaves them little time to develop their talents. That's why Boston marriages were so valued by artistic women. As Bookwoman said, we have come a ways down the road to individuality. Women do have a choice in careers, childcare is shared to a degree, we do have the right to our own property - that makes a great deal of difference in the benefits of marriage.

@19, thanks for clarifying. Interesting thoughts.

Just for fun, looked for literature about Boston marriages. There's the David Mamet play Boston Marriage and Henry James's The Bostonians, which may be the origin of the word. Also A.S. Byatt's "Possession," mentioned above (but don't want to say much for fear of spoilers), none of which treat the institution very kindly.

Apparently these relationships could be sexual or platonic. Frankly, I wish more elderly women (i.e., my mother) would consider cohabitation with friends. Perhaps current economic straits will encourage more women to think about living mutually supportive lives together.

From what I've read, Willa Cather definitely got the best deal out of her marriage, with Edith Lewis being the supportive wife.

19, 21 Citizenjoyce We women still do have a long, long way to go, though. Don't even get me started on the plight of single mothers!

How interesting that even in a "Boston marriage" someone seemed to get the raw end of the deal. I know that writers and others need to devote a lot of time to their craft, but surely, since there were no children, they could have divided the household duties. But then, I guess those duties were far too demanding in those days! Thank goodness for washers and dryers and dishwashers and vacuum cleaners and microwaves...ad infinitum!

I'd never heard of the term "Boston marriage" before!

I finished reading Small Wars, which I thought was truly excellent. And have moved on to Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

Lillian Faderman has written a couple of books which discuss "Boston Marriages" pretty extensively. They are Surpassing the Love of Men and, if I remember correctly to a lesser degree, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. They both were very good.

After reading a rather dark book, picked up Bossypants for something a bit lighter and am loving it so far. As a 30 Rock fan, it's fun to spot apparently real-life experiences that Fey has incorporated into the show.

@24, I did see those books, which seem to be nonfiction, no? Just looking to see how such marriages might be treated in fiction.

Regarding Willa Cather getting the better deal in her marriage, I think she inspired such devotion in Edith Lewis that Edith thought she was getting a wonderful deal just by being able to share her life and manage their daily affairs so that Cather's art could be developed. Artists of any gender seem to have a way of inspiring such ardor and devotion.

Wookie, I have Packing For Mars on my Nook and have heard such great things about it, I have to find a way to get to it.

Nancy, from the reviews of the books you mention it seems Faderman thinks that sexual love between women is a new phenomenon, is that right? When I was reading about Cather's Boston marriage I read that such arrangements were very acceptable because it was assumed that sex was for procreation and since women couldn't reproduce they would have no interest in sex. Then men began to realize that some of these quality women were devoting themselves to nurturing each other thus depriving men of their services, so the idea of "perversion" entered into the picture and the marriages faded away. That's not to say that sex wasn't a part of the relationship all along, just that it wasn't acknowledged until it could be used against the relationship.

14> Sold is a pretty fast read, CJ. You could read it in a sitting if you're in it for the story, and only so much longer if you like to savor the writing style. It's more or less in the same style than The House on Mango Street: brief and poetic.

Thanks for that word of encouragement, girlfromshangrila. The Crimson Petal and the White is taking me a looooong time, so I appreciate that there's a shorter read to follow.

I just read and reviewed the puzzling but compelling The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress by Beryl Bainbridge and will be looking for more novels by Bainbridge.

#30, nice review! Makes me want to read some Bainbridge. I see on her bib page that the move "An Awfully Big Adventure" is based on her book. It's one of those very flawed but completely compelling movies. So now I want to read even more!

Wookie, I have Packing For Mars on my Nook and have heard such great things about it, I have to find a way to get to it.

Ah, if only there were more hours in the day!

ETA: Yes, a nice review of The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress! I've got An Awfully Big Adventure near the top of Mt TBR, I must bounce it up a bit.

What a strange book that sounds like, Rebecca. Do you think she planned to cover the Kennedy assassination?

No, Joyce, I think she intended to end it as mysteriously as the rest of the book. But I understand from a comment on another thread that she had been struggling with the book for years and may not have felt it was finished enough to be published. It was published posthumously.

I made the mistake of buying an iPad and now I have been doing almost no reading. However, I did hit up a local Borders and obtained a few pieces of fiction from female authors on their 70% discount. (Commencement, American Wife and White Teeth, which I look forward to reading.)

>>27 Citizenjoyce:. If I remember correctly, Faderman feels that for most of the female partnerships pre-Freud, we don't know whether or not they were sexual. But I'd agree that once it became widely understood that sex might be a part of them, they became less publicly acceptable. Of course, there was an element of wanting to control women that probably led to attaching perversion to the idea of female romantic relationships.

That being said, I'm 44 and can remember 'old maids' living together in my childhood neighborhood and it not being frowned on at all. I suspect that gender conformity played a role in whether it was determined to be okay or not.

Edited to reign in rogue punctuation.

Now started Hollywood Savage by Kristin McCloy, which has a male narrator throughout. Hero Miles is in Hollywood working on a movie script to adapt his successful novel to screen, and he becomes convinced that his wife back in New York is having an affair. I don't think I'm going to care for this book, but it's a pick for my book club so I will probably finish it or at least give a valiant effort.

Ah, I'm also attempting to "give a valiant effort" to a bookgroup read, in my case, The Book of Emmett which did not grab me this morning on the bus. I'm over dysfunctional families in my literature.

I also have a nasty headcold and am in a grumpy mood, so I may not have given the book much of a chance. But it's not that long, so I'll keep on going.

I finished Packing for Mars and had a great time. Fascinating stuff, and with Roach's usual amusing digressions making for brilliant footnotes.

I read Sold today. What a devastating book. Living in a city, even in the US, houses full of sex slaves are being found all the time. I envy the dedication of people who work to rescue them. I like the way Patricia McCormick showed her little Nepalese girl as needing to be rescued but being unresponsive to those who tried to help her. It also seemed very strange to see McCormick's smiling face on the cover after having submersed herself in the lives of the tortured girls.

Now I'll start People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks for my real life book club.

Glad you could get to Sold, CJ. That is one book that stays with the reader.

Did not, in fact, make it through Hollywood Savage. I have a hard time reading books in which I find the protagonists neither sympathetic nor interesting. Am now about halfway through The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, which I'm enjoying immensely.

Hm. Didn't even make it to page 32 of Karin Slaughter's Blindsighted. Murder can be tricky to write about, because it's disturbing making such a violent crime entertainment. Murder with a sexual aspect is trading a fine line between Too Disturbing and Genuine Thrilling Entertainment. And then, of course, one can always drive a Humvee over the demarcation and make your readers feel ill.

I can't believe anyone can read something this disturbing as entertainment. Anyone who wants to claim I've misunderstood this book, that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion. And I'm entitled to be slightly worried about you.

42 - That's precisely the reason why I stopped reading James Patterson's stuff. I am more about the mystery and how it gets solved (give me clues, give me false leads) than about the details of how mangled the body is or how twisted the murderer's mind is. These days I am turned off by a lot of my once favourite authors because its become more about the gore factor than about the story.

I've just read and reviewed climatologist Heidi Cullen's chilling book about global warming, The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms and Other Scenes from a Climate-Challenged Planet, in which she relates the impacts of climate change to people's lives.

That's a very interesting review, Rebecca. The book looks readable and frightening at the same time.

#43> I shan't be reading any James Patterson any time then. :)

I usually do enjoy crime, it's a good puzzle, there is a thrilling aspect to the murder, and a good sense of justice when the perpetrator is caught. But when you add sex to the mix, you have to tread carefully and this was just over the top gross. No sign of any careful treading to me.

Yes, there are a lot of crime writers who I don't read because the graphic violence makes me feel uncomfortable. That said, I've recently enjoyed Lennox by Craig Russell which has a fair bit of graphic violence, but somehow it felt necessary to the book (Lennox is a private eye who mainly works for gangsters, so the occasional violent scenes reminded you how much danger he was getting into by going off the investigation he was being paid for).

I'm not usually overly worried by graphic violence; although I do acknowledge that sexual violence is a whole 'nother kettle of fish for me. Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo definitely trod a fine line, but with Lisbeth being such a strong character, a survivor and more, I hoovered up the books. And I was a fan of Dr Kay Scarpetta back in the day, I did love reading about the maggoty goodness of forensic medicine, even.

But. The murder in Blindsighted was violent, sexual, degrading, and just plain ICK. A combo I did not appreciate.

I am trotting my way through Shades of Milk and Honey and plan to unload it after I've read it. I think others (Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club, or even Linda Berdoll's soft porn, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife) have done better in the Austen-scape.

Some judicious editing would have helped. Mrs. Ellsworth, for instance, is described as an "invalid," but is then seen shopping with her daughters for ball dresses and attending parties. She ought at least to have been given a stick and sent home from these events with the vapors.

BUT I reserve judgment; I'm only a third of the way in. And it's mildly diverting to guess which characters and scenes from which Austen the characters and events come from.

If anyone wants the book, post your address in a confidential message, and I'll send it media mail when I'm done. First-come, first-serve.

Edited about 15 times to fix punctuation around bracketed book titles.

48 - I agree. If the violence has a valid place in the story, then I am fine with that. I read Larsson's trilogy and quite enjoyed it. It touched the line a few times but each scene made sense to the plot so I went with it. Patterson seems to be on a kick to out do himself each time he writes (but honestly, is he even writing any of his own stuff these days?)

But back on topic, I just started Portrait in Sepia by Allende and it's good so far.

I am *this* close to be done with Little Bee, which is written by a man but features two strong female leads. I am enjoying this book a lot - very well written, compelling plot, & deep issues addressed.

I am also still working my way through re-reading Mansfield Park, and then picked up another re-read yesterday - The Bell Jar. I'm just a little bit into The Bell Jar and I'm remembering why I liked this book so much the first time I read it....it's so very beautifully written.

I finished another great Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book. I love that she's able to take a few facts and thread them into a whole believable story. I'm going to have to look for images of the Sarajevo Haggadah. She makes them sound beautiful. Now I'm back to prostitution with The Dress Lodger.

@52, this is a nice site for the Sarajevo Haggadah.

http://www.haggadah.ba/?x=2&y=1#

I enjoyed Brooks' "People of the Book" a lot, although a librarian friend who specializes in conservitorship thought it was kind of meh. Maybe when you work with the real thing every day, it's more blase.

Am audibooking Sylvia's Lovers (which, sadly, makes that Dr. Hook song, "Sylvia's Mother," run through my head everytime I think about the title) and am further into Shades of Milk and Honey, which is now more engaging.

Having read only fiction for the last few months, I'm redressing the balance by reading American Eve, a biography of Evelyn Nesbit. It's an interesting look into turn of the century NY, and a disturbing portrait of a girl caught up with some very unsavoury, though outwardly respectable, men.

#42 I've wanted to read Blindsighted, but now am not so sure! Although my Dad jokes that now anytime I recommend a book to him it is sure to be extremely dark and disturbing, so maybe I've built up a tolerance, but I still don't care for "tortureporn" (for instance, I love horror movies but refuse to watch things like Hostel. I find gratuitousness to be lazy).

Yesterday started Long Gone by Alafair Burke, in which an unsuspecting woman gets framed for a murder.

I agree with all of you about torture-porn - won't watch the movies, don't read the books. There's a surprising torture scene in People of the Book, amazing the inventive ways people can find to be evil. If Geraldine Brooks had included more of it, I would have stopped reading. I know it's such a big part of what has happened to the Jews, but I can't take it any more. It's just like when I'm watching TV and a commercial comes on about saving abused animals. I turn that off immediately. It's a good cause, and I donate, but I won't expose myself to it. The same goes for the movies that show the horrors of corporate-farm raised animals. It's good to show meat eaters what goes on, but I know. I'm a vegetarian, and I won't watch or read about it any more.

But, off that disturbing topic, I've just started listening to Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. So far, so good.

I've added another book to my reads about prostitution this month, The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman. It's about prostitution, motherhood, medicine, medical training and cholera in 19th century England. Holman's research is amazing. This is a very good book from many different angles, and very depressing.

Joyce, I started The Dress Lodger a long time ago and then dropped it. Perhaps, after reading your comments, I will give it another try (that is, after I have found it).

58/59 - Me too! I tried years ago and couldn't finish (although at this point I have no idea why not). But the friend who recommended it couldn't praise it enough and her and I generally agree on things. I have a copy so maybe I will try again.

Aluvalibri and Bucketyell, it will make you both very grateful you don't live in 19th Century England. At first I thought it would relieve some of the angst I felt when The Crimson Petal and the White was over since Gustine seemed so much like Sugar. But it's amazing the difference 65 years can make, even among the poor. Gustine is as intelligent as Sugar but she can't read and she spends her whole life sleeping on straw in a room with 30 other people. Maybe the reason you both dropped it was that it concentrates so much on medical matters when you really want to know more about Pink and the Eye and Gustine.

I'm about to start Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue. The only other book I've read by her is Room which I liked very much. I have Kissing the Witch somewhere, but haven't read it. I may have to try to find it for next month.

Have just finished Sylvia's Lovers, and MaryLou0 and I are discussing it on another Girlybook thread. Come on over. We have helpfully numbered the various topics in our discussion (and will add more as needed) to help you follow it!

@62: Did you like "Room"? I have that on my Amazon wish list, and the reviews I read/heard on NPR sounded very intriguing and perhaps allegorical, a la "The Road."

Room is very good. Straight out of her imagination Donoghue was able to conjur up some of what Jaycee Dugard felt during her own abduction and imprisonment, though the story is not about her. I would say it is in no way like The Road which was a disgusting book that I will forever regret having read. Room is intriguing, but allegorical? Hm, not that I noticed.

No, I wouldn't call Room allegorical either. I didn't like it as much as others did, but I do think it's worth reading.

I'm flim-flamming through books at the moment, just can't quite settle. One of the books I'm not quite settling on is Donna Leon's Death at La Fenice, the first in a fairly long-running crime series. Not a brilliant opening, but good enough that hopefully I won't get distracted by another book in the meantime. :)

I just finished an audiobook of Bee Season. Wow. I had no idea what it was about except a spelling bee, which I think is the best way to go into such a bizarre and amazing book. Everything was a surprise. Such hope and sorrow combined in one book. Now I start on an audiobook of Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell. Again, I'm not sure what it's about. Something about an honors student who is sent by her grandmother on a tour of Southeast Asia.

I read American Eve the other week, a biography/true crime book about Evelyn Nesbit, the girl at the centre of a sensational murder case at the beginning of the C20th in New York. Her story was a sad one of exploitation at the hands of wealthy men - she didn't even seem to have any women on her side. It was an excellent look at the seamy side of the Gilded Age, although the author's prose was a bit too purple at times.

Now I've started reading East Lynne, a Victorian "sensation" novel by Ellen Wood. So far it is fun, though I will be surprised if either of the two female leads turns out to be a feminist role model!

@65,66: Thanks for the info on The Room. It still sounds like a good read. I heard extracts of it on NPR or someplace. I did like The Road, though it was hard to read in places.

It seems like it's been ages since I've been over here... Nice to see you around again, norhrt!

I'm reading several books; of which two are by women:

Bellefleur by JCO. I have been reading this for 6 (?) weeks now, dithering away with it a little bit each night. Usually I gobble her books right up, but for some reason this one seems to demand I take it slowly. I have loved her other "American Gothics".

The Woman I Kept to Myself, Poems by Julia Alvarez. I'm enjoying exploring the poetry of an author whose fiction I have also enjoyed.

I'm really enjoying my prostitution reads. In Slammerkin a very mean woman quotes the bible regarding the punishment of harlots: The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee till thou perish...And the Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness and astonishment of heart. Looks like not much has changed.

I finished and reviewed Slammerkin. What a great book. Emma Donoghue did her research on 18th century England prostitutes and women in general. The book pulls you into the life of teenage Mary, and I kept hoping life would work out for her. She was meant for better things, at least that's what she dreamed. Now I start Lullabies for Little Criminals.

#72 - Oh, good! I often agree with your taste in books. I have Slammerkin buried in my TBR pile, so I'll have to pull it out sooner rather than later. I haven't read Emma Donoghue yet, but my book club just deemed Room one of our reads for the year, so I think I'll read both together.

I REALLY loved Lullibies for Little Criminals, and I think it will go down as my best read for 2011. Probably will make my top reads for the decade list too. The prostitution angle only takes up a bit of the book, so I hope you're not disappointed.

I can't remember why you're on this prostitution-in-literature search....? (feel free to link to your explanation). (Or not explain at all--just being conversational here). I remember reading some essay, perhaps by a famous actress, that said too many of the good roles in films for women were prostitutes. It was good point--I have known a few in my life, but I've known many through film and literature. What's up with that?

OtherJoyce -- just went and read your review of Slammerkin. Sounds like a must read--immediately! Shooting that one to the top of Mnt TBR.

Slammerkin and Room are so different it's hard for me to believe they were written by the same woman except that both are realistic and excellent. I'm part of the Take It Or Leave It challenge group in which we post different challenges for our reading each month; so I decided that I would try to read books on one topic each month. The topic just comes to me according to what books I have around, they lead me to other books from the library. No rhyme or reason. I can't find it now, but I think on either Girlybooks or Feminist Theory there was a topic about books about prostitution last year, and it had me classifying my books on a lookout for the topic since.

Prostitutes always fascinate, I guess. It's a neat classification in which to place women so leads to an overabundance of film roles.

I've just finished and reviewed the subtle, complex, and bitingly witty The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay.

Am knitting my way through The Eustace Diamonds. Have been on a Henry James and Anthony Trollpe kick all summer, so should go find some groups for them, eh?

Lullabies for Little Criminals was my favorite book of 2009. I keep hoping she'll release something else soon.

I'm reading The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.
I read it once long time ago, but never got to finish it for some reason.
I'm enjoining it so far XD

Rebecca, there are quite a few free downloads of Rose Macaulay's books on Nook, but unfortunately The Towers of Trebizond isn't one of them. Good review. I've ordered the book.

I'm reading Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas and enjoying it much more than I thought I would, after checking out the mixed reviews on Amazon. The book has characters I can identify with, which isn't usually the case with metafiction.

Thanks, Citizenjoyce. I am told The Towers of Trebizond is considered her masterpiece. I don't have a Nook (or a Kindle for that matter) so I'm still reading print!

>81 Lindaannstrang: Linda, make sure you let us know what you think about Our Tragic Universe when you finish. I've never read anything by Scarlett Thomas, and it sounds pretty strange.

>75 Citizenjoyce: Ah, but there is "rhyme or reason", a method to your madness: it's based on the books you have around:-)

>84 avaland: You have a point there, avaland.
I started reading Nana, can't say Emile Zola does much for me, so I'm moving on to an author who does - Sarah Waters with Tipping the Velvet.

Just finished The Wedding Group by Elizabeth Taylor and Travelling Light, a collection of stories by Tove Jansson. I had mixed feelings about the Taylor -- rather grim, but good character studies. I loved Travelling Light -- my brief review is on the book's page.

>86 janeajones:, Good review, Jane. What an interesting sounding book, alas Traveling Light is neither in my local library system nor on Barnes and Noble. Maybe in time.

The Pest Mary Lou says - Oh, CitizenJoyce, please, 'Sylvia's Lovers?' Or is that for October...?

>83 Citizenjoyce:, I second that! I just read PopCo and enjoyed it. Not sure what her other works are like.

>88 MaryLou0: It's a free download on Nook, Mary Lou, so I have it. Now whether or not I get around to reading it is another story.

I finished and reviewed Tipping the Velvet and am so glad I finally read it. When the BBC production was on TV a few years ago I saw it, but once again I had to remind myself that seeing a movie and reading a book are two separate experiences. The sex is very graphically portrayed, which rather surprised me, and Nancy's faults are very prominently displayed as are her strengths. She's pretty irresistible.

Now I start a book that maybe Other Joyce recommended The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani. I'm just a few pages in, but it's as gripping as a novel.

*JaneaJones* Re Elizabeth Taylor I read 'Mrs Palfrey at the Clair mont'. Oh dear, what a depressing book! My mother knew her in Buckinghamshire when she (my mother) was a girl, and said she was a very positive person, particularly politically.For sure that doesn't show up in her writing...

MaryLou

MaryLouO -- I've only read a couple of Taylors, and while neither was particularly uplifting, they certainly contain fascinating characters.

I was reading something serious and blokey, but was very (very) tired, and just missed the bus on the way home so popped into the bookshop to kill some time, and bought Divergent by Veronica Roth. YA dystopia, and I'm halfway through already. A great read.

But why are YA novels almost always dystopias? Not a utopia in sight!

But why are YA novels almost always dystopias?

Good question. What's up with that? Even the "adult" dystopians I've read over the last few years read like YA.

I keep on being reminded of Bart Simpson's quote when Homer takes him and Lisa to "Hullabalooza": Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Maybe they just respond to the "inevitability" of a global (soft, or not) apocalypse.

But I do like how the younger generation always solves the issue, although not always perfectly or without personal trauma themselves. Even though they are predicated on some horrible disaster, there's always a sense of hope that while the older generation has stuffed it all up thoroughly, the younger generation will fix it.

ETA: Joyce, what adult dystopias have you read? I can only think of The Road, which definitely didn't read like YA to me. :)

The last two I've read have been The Testament of Jessie Lamb (which was long listed for this year's Booker), and Salvation City. I've avoided The Road, but might read it if it fell in my lap.

(I actually didn't think that Salvation City was that dystopian, but it wanted to be).

Ah, I am curious about The Testament of Jessie Lamb, but haven't found a copy yet. Not going out of my way for that one, I've got plenty to go on with anyhow. :)

"But why are YA novels almost always dystopias?"

My first thought is that the popularity of The Giver by Lois Lowry encouraged YA authors to challenge the kiddies about the kind of society they want to live in. All to the good, as far as I can see, though I found The Testament of Jessie Lamb and America Pacifica a tad clunky as literature.

(Frankly, as someone on the far side of 50, I'd like all teenagers to read The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, in which adults over 50 are rounded up and put in compulsory "retirement homes" where they can be of use to society.)

And the publishing world, which does not really encourage innovation but the tried and true formulae, has allowed a lot of these through the door because they sell. Along with the scourge of vampire (and now zombie) YA fiction.

OTOH, my kid and his girlfriend, both 16, have now "graduated" from these youthful horrors to Dante's Inferno. Bless them, they sit there with their iPhones pressed to their little ears and their books open on their little laps, reading cantos to each other over the phone long distance.

"But why are YA novels almost always dystopias?"

I think it's a matter of fads. Dystopias are the new Harry Potter, as Harry Potter was the new something-else. And after dystopias lose their current feverish popularity, there will surely be another fad to replace it.

Although I have to say, I agree with @wookiebender on why this particular fad has rooted up so effectively. And being a Ray Bradbury fan, I’m happy to see this gender grow popular all over again. =)

Oh, and I agree on this too: Divergent is a great book! It has quickly become one of my favorites: I’ve read it three times in the last six or seven weeks already.

"I think it's a matter of fads. Dystopias are the new Harry Potter ..."

If Harry Potter wasn't largely a dystopian fantasy (government-imposed threats to personal liberty, equality, and fraternity), I don't know what was.

"But I do like how the younger generation always solves the issue, although not always perfectly or without personal trauma themselves. Even though they are predicated on some horrible disaster, there's always a sense of hope that while the older generation has stuffed it all up thoroughly, the younger generation will fix it."

They do in that dreadful Mockingjay series, but not always. Certainly, adults fail youngsters in YA dystopians (or it wouldn't be a dystopian), and the kids are plucky, but often their thinking is woolly (Jessie Lamb and America Pacifica). Or they're impulsive and don't have the resources to fight the Establishment (The Giver).

In any case, the kids may be optimistic about their ability to fix what we Boomers have screwed up. I'm not. Young people seem to have a very rich culture that has grown out of technology, and they are good at responding to local needs. Communitarianism is great, but I worry that their responses are largely reactionary than proactive.

95, 96: A lot of Margaret Atwood is dystopic, e.g. The Handmaid's Tale, The Year of the Flood and Oryx and Crake- and at least some of her short stories. I read it a long time ago, but maybe The Handmaid's Tale is YA-ish, but I don't think The Year of the Flood or Oryx and Crake fall into that category.

I had a completely different view of Salvation City. I thought the dystopian environment was just a means to setting up the situation, and that the story was reapply about how the protagonist develops psychologically and intellectually when thrust into a very unfamiliar place and coming to terms with the death of his parents and millions of others. And, as you know, I also didn't think of it as YA.

Rebecca - that's what I thought of Salvation City too. I was puzzled as to why the publisher would market it as a dystopian novel, but maybe they thought they'd attract more readers.

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