LizzieD: 2012*4 (April Will Be Ahsome)

April on the street side....

SIGNIFICANT IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2012
Fall on Your Knees
The Broom of the System
A Splendor of Letters
1Q84
Arcadia
Purgatory
The Siege
We Need to Talk about Kevin
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

APRIL
(* = review on book page)

1. Up the Country - letters home from India in the late 1830's - witty, observant, delightful
2. Gillespie and I - historical thriller - well-done but not an Orange winner
3. *Hide Me Among the Graves - sequel to The Stress of Her Regard - poets and nephilim - weird and fun
4. Lord of Misrule - broken people, broken horses, life! - LOVE
5. *Foreign Bodies - H. James's The Ambassadors redux - not awful, but stick with the original
6. Loitering with Intent - funny, sharp, my first Spark novel
7. Pictures from Italy - classic travel observed by Dickens - historically fascinating
8. Life Skills - chick lit - not first class

MAY

1. *Cindie - Virago - sugar cane in turn-of-the-last-century Australia - enjoyed it
2. The Bone People - New Zealand - 3 damaged people find new life - I find awe

NEW IN APRIL

1. Iris - PBS
2. When I Lived in Modern Times - PBS
3. The Dream Life of Sukhanov - PBS
4. The Well of Loneliness - Belva (Thank you!)
5. The White Bird Passes - Belva (Thank you!)
6. The Love Child - AMP
7. The Post-Birthday World - PBS
8. The Dangerous Islands - Kindle
9. Ghost Hero - PBS
10. Hen's Teeth - PBS
11. Foreign Bodies - AMP ✔
12. The Song of Achilles - Kindle ✔
13. Painter of Silence - Kindle ✔
14. Half Blood Blues - Awesome Books (20% discount!)
15. The Sealed Letter ✔ - Awesome Books (also 20% discount!)
16. Prophecy - AMP
17. Sacrilege - Elaine! (Great thanks!)
18. Images of Women in Antiquity - Elaine! (And again!)
19. The Two of Us - Elaine! (And a third time!)
20. Heresy ✔ - AMP
21. Bogeywoman - AMP

NEW IN MAY

1. State of Wonder - Bonnie (Thank you!)
2. Mrs. Tim of the Regiment - Kindle sale
3. The Solitude of Thomas Cave - Kindle sale
4. The Harper's Quine - Kindle - cheap
5. The Diary of a Country Parson ✔ - Thank you, Elaine
6. Jane Austen - Another of Elaine's orphans comes home
7. Emily Bronte: A Biography - Elaine again!
8. Housekeeping - Jill's World Book Night U.S. (Thank you!)

Moving right along...nice new spot!

April Will Be Ahsome! Good one, Peggy! Oh, and hi ...

Hello there! Lovely link on the previous thread, BTW. One never thinks of Dickens having descendants, he seems so singular, but what an interesting family. And rather an easy fellow to look at. Can't wait to watch that adaptation -- I almost bought the DVD today, but then caved and picked up Downton Abbey season 2 instead (it was on sale) so Dickens will have to wait for the next shopping trip.

Welcome to my new unfurnished place, Roni and Nancy. I owe the "ahsome" to a former student, who wasn't kidding.

UP THE COUNTRY by Emily Eden

Miss Eden and her younger sister Fanny travel with their brother George, Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India. The book covers their moves to escape the heat from Calcutta to Simla for about three years. The tedium of travel on the plain and of endless courtesies and parties is relieved by Miss Eden's sharp eye and witty voice. She is in her early forties and thus immune to the attraction of young officers but amazingly interested in everybody she meets and eager to sketch every exotic scene or person she sees.
Besides Miss Eden's riveting word portraits of Runjeet (Ranjit) Singh of Peshawar (famous as owner of the Koh-i-noor diamond and his personal power), the reader is also treated to notes by Edward Thompson, who corrects her factual errors and supplies information about his heirs whom EE entertained. I loved reading about the jewels and the confined lives of the ranis, about EE's love for Dickens and her pets. I wonder that such an intelligent woman made no attempt to learn "Hindoostani." I was appalled all around at the tiger hunts, both the necessity for them and their size. Likewise, I was at least bemused by EE's buying a couple of little girls with plans to put them in an orphanage when she returned to Calcutta. All in all, I was vastly entertained and seldom had to push to finish a section to get back to the good stuff. I just have to love a woman who could write, "I rather like whist, and think it will be one of the small vices of my old age."

I've been following your Emily Eden stories with amused interest. There's an anecdote (which you may have come at from the other direction) told by the sister of Lord Macaulay, the politician, historian and amateur literary critic, about the time in India there was an auction of English novels, and he and EE got into a bidding war over a set of works by Catherine (Kitty) Cuthbertson, one of my own favourite second-tier 19th century novelists. Evidently Macaulay the novel-lover won out over Macaulay the gentleman, because he refused to let EE beat him! :)

Have you read any of her fiction, by the way?

Hi Peggy, I havent heard of your latest read, but have to say it sounds a bit harsh that being in yor early forties makes you immediately undesirable! I intend for that not to be the case, in my case :)
She is in her early forties and thus immune to the attraction of young officers

But is that saying she's not attractive to young officers, or not attracted by young officers?

Wrong in both cases, anyway, I should think. :)

Hello to the new thread. Wondering what the small vices (and the large ones) of my old age will be...

Liz, that's a great story! I'm pretty sure I would have recalled it if it had been in this volume, which deals mostly with their time in the hill country and on the march, and in which her sister sends her most of her books. I own the two *semis* but haven't read them yet. They have leapt up the sides of Mt. Bookpile at a great rate though.
Megan, I do believe it's true that sixty is the new forty, so at our present sixty, I feel pretty safe in saying that Miss Eden would have had no romantic inclinations toward the young officers although she always commented on the handsome looks of young people of both sexes. Could be wrong. I can't see anybody not being charmed by her, however.
Genny, as a person of old age (rapidly closing in on the new fifty!), I can claim all my former vices intensified!

Hi Peggy, your garden is looking lovely -- spring is such a wonderful time of year, and April is ahsome indeed :)

I own the two *semis* but haven't read them yet. They have leapt up the sides of Mt. Bookpile at a great rate though.

That's how I reacted, too!

Saying hello to your new thread!

Thank you, Anne. I wish I could take credit for it, but it's leftovers from DH's mother's green thumb. Tonight we'll be down in the 40s again; didn't get much colder than that here all winter!
Hi, Liz! Hi, Lucy!

Peggy, how wonderful to be still enjoying leftovers from DH's mother's green thumb. Beautiful pic! I'm impatient here for our warm weather. Went for a hike in our of our provincial parks this afternoon and was cheered by the gores sunshine and the green that is coming to life everywhere! Bring it on!

Hope your April IS ahsome!

Peggy, have you finished Hide Me Among the Graves yet? I know you said you had started it, but haven't seen you post yet about it. I just finished it (right now) and need to get over to my thread to write something about it. It's percolating right now.

Nancy, since my thumbs are both brown, it's a good thing that my late mil was a planner and planter. I love everything that she did, but I don't really do anything to encourage it. For a time I planted and fussed over hybrid tea roses, but they are long gone except for one Don Juan. We did transplant an old pink rose from a friend last year - Queen Elizabeth, maybe? The scent is heavenly, so I hope that it thrives here.
Thanks for the good wish, Chelle, and the same back to you!
Roni, I've barely started *Graves* - maybe 100 pp into it. I checked your thread last night and saw that it must have been still percolating. I'm enjoying it, of course, but I can't read just one thing! The other main thing now is Gillespie and I. I'd so like to finish at least that one before the Orange short list comes out. And I started an Ann Bridge yesterday, The Lighthearted Quest because it was exactly what I was in the mood for - very unlike *Graves* and *Gillespie*. Hopeless!

Peggy - congrats on the new thread. Looking forward to your thoughts on Gillespie and I - No more Daily Dickens?

Also looking forward to your thoughts on Gillespie and I, Peggy. It's another one which is the subject of wonderfully varied reviews.

Paul and Nancy, if I have a thought, you're certainly welcome to it! Paul, I seem to be in the middle of a Dickens dearth right now - couldn't tell you why. I'll get back and try to make up a few of the lost days.

Hi Peggy. Going back to your previous thread for a minute - I adored both the Anne of Green Gables books and the films when I was growing up. It's rare that I love a book and its film but I thought Megan Fellowes was wonderful. Sadly, I have them on VHS but no VHS player - I need to upgrade to digital at some point.

And I also thumbed your review of the Bonhoeffer bio and wishlisted a copy. My husband has long been an admirer of Bonhoeffer and has quite a few of his theological writings. I thought it might be a good intro to read a biography so I tried The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Bosanquet but found it such a hagiography that I couldn't force myself through it anymore. I've just seen a review that says the second half is less florid so maybe I should try again.

Up the Country has also gone on my wishlist (of course - it's a Virago!) and I'm sure I saw someone in the Virago group rave about the Ann Bridge so that's also been added.

Hi, Heather. I'm totally happy that you've found my reading to square with your reading. That's my take when I visit your thread. Did I speak to the evangelical/fundamentalist approach in Metaxas? Probably not, since I'm not sure exactly where to place either author or subject on that continuum, but it's there - which may or may not make a difference to you. Anyway, thank you for a thumb which I may not deserve. I'll be interested to see what you think if you do read the book.

I've found some discount-priced Ann Bridge books for Kindle of late, which makes me v. happy! I have a few of hers that I bought when they were being republished in the early 80s -- mostly, I must confess, still unread! The Kindle versions are a series of what appear to be light-hearted mysteries from an earlier age.

That's why I have been avoiding the Metaxas bio of Bonhoeffer -- there is very much room for a bio that acknowledges his religious convictions, but puts his life in a broader context, including the fact that not all people of deep faith were able to act in as moral a fashion even as some who were not religious were able to see clearly the moral horrors of fascism.

Hi Peggy! Stopping by to say hi on your new thread.

Hi, Suz. I'm off to hunt the Ann Bridge on Kindle. I'm looking forward to the discussion of the Metaxas next week. I hope that the heavy-weights will be able to give me some perspective that I lack. I'll report.
Hi, Deb! You are always welcome!
I've been out of town overnight and not reading. So far, April hasn't been a very fruitful month except for new acquisitions.

GILLESPIE AND I by Jane Harris

Other folks have nailed this one, I think. It is a good specimen of what it is, a historical thriller with some pleasing ambiguity, but nothing more. That's O.K. I've long wanted to see excellent genre fiction recognized by major prize-givers. Harris writes well, and I was happy to follow her where she led.

What a great description, Peggy: historical thriller with some pleasing ambiguity. I'm interested! Thanks for that.

Nancy, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it. Please don't read any reviews of it though. They sort of spoiled the full effect for me!

>31 LizzieD:. I purposely wrote a very vague review Peggy because it was important not to go into the book with any expectations so I hope I didn't spoil it for you. If I did I wish you would tell me (I promise not to be offended) because I really tried to leave out the element that would spoil it for other readers and you know what I'm talking about.

Oh, I hope eventually to get to Gillespie and I . It's another book that has been patiently waiting for me in my TBR pile. It looks so big and maybe - chatty? Too chatty? I think that is what is holding me back. But I am very curious about it. I can't wait for the Orange Shortlist announcement... :)

I thought your review was perfect, Bonnie, and I thumbed it.
Deb, it may look big, but it reads shorter than 500 pp. Chatty? I don't know. I thought that the writing was very good, but Belva, for instance, thought it was awful. You'll just have to make up your own mind!

Hi Peggy, just catching up and cruising by. Nothing to add this time sorry, but Ill be back again with something to contribute Im sure :)

I really liked Gillespie and I too, Peggy, but I agree with you completely on not reading too much about it in advance. I wouldn't say the book was spoiled for me by any means, just that I gave myself a different reading experience than I might have had otherwise.

I think you summed up Gillespie and I perfectly with that one line, Peggy!

I enjoyed it but wasn't blown away by it.

Hi Peggy, I haven't caught up on your (and the other threads yet), but wanted to say that I could start Pictures from Italy this week, earliest on Tuesday.
Wishing you a happy Sunday!

Just skittering by.....

Megan and Lucy, I am happy that you stopped by. I haven't had much to say lately either although I've spent many words saying it.
Anne and Dee, I appreciate knowing that I didn't miss something wonderful. Nathalie, a happy Sunday to you too now that yours is winding down. Next week sounds fine for *Italy*!

HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES by Tim Powers

Lovers of new weird, unite! Once more Powers takes us into the world inhabited by the last of the OT Nephilim, vampires who love their human followers - this time the family Rossetti. I reviewed it on the book page, so you can see what it's about a little - especially if you check Roni's review too. Not everybody will enjoy this one, but I love his working his world into the historical world of the late 19th century.

I'm still working on Hide Me Among the Graves, but I didn't get a "new weird" vibe off it. May I ask what made you use that phrase? Or is that too spoileriffic to discuss just yet?

Oh --- well, Sarah, the whole cult of the nephilim, what to do to attract one, what to do to distract one, struck me this time as the same kind of thing that China Miéville does, especially in Kraken. Powers has been at it a much longer time than Miéville though, so maybe that's not a fair comparison. I think that Powers used to be considered an example of steam punk along with James Blaylock, and I never really got that. So, Sarah, how would you characterize it? And thanks for the question!

That sounds like the sort of thing which I love when it's well done and which drives me to despair when it isn't. As you liked it Peggy, I am assuming it is superior stuff and have added The Stress of her Regard to my wishlist!

Dee, I hope that you like it. He's one that I recommend with trepidation, but he does what he does very well!
And I totally caved. The Orange short list did come out as promised, and I downloaded The Song of Achilles and Painter of Silence to my Kindle. Can I read them both right now? No. Would they still be available when I could read them? Yes. Did I have to buy both at the same time? Well, apparently yes because I'm as happy as I can be!

Lovers of new weird, unite! Crack me up, Peggy! Hide Me Among the Graves is certainly outside of my usual fare - almost enough reason in itself to pick it up!

#45 Can I read them both right now? No. Would they still be available when I could read them. Yes. Did I have to buy both at the same time? Well, apparently yes because I'm as happy as can be! Love it! The perfect justification! And I'll be quoting you ...

Somehow I've never been bitten by the vampire bug.

#43 Re Powers and steampunk, it was apparently K. W. Jeter who first used the term to describe Powers' books among others. Some of us read The Anubis Gates as a steampunk group read in 2010 and agreed that Anubis Gates didn't really fit the definition of steampunk that's since developed (Victorian, steam technology, alternate history). Maybe it's proto-steampunk?

"Can I read them both right now? No. Would they still be available when I could read them. Yes. Did I have to buy both at the same time? Well, apparently yes because I'm as happy as can be!" Tee hee hee!

These are more obviously vampires in the second book than in the first. I'm not sure that you'd like them if they called them something else, Lucy, but it's not your typical "bite somebody on the neck and bleed her dry vampire."
Nancy, I'm glad that my screwy value system meets with your approval. Or am I sorry for both of us??? ----- nope. I think we're O.K.
I have to say that I'm really enjoying Lord of Misrule. The writing isn't especially doing it for me with multiple narrators and the total lack of quotation marks. (That still seems like an affectation to me, and that cheapens a book.) I do like the fact that each narrator has a distinctive voice. I don't like the second person narration at all. Old, black Medicine Ed's dialect seems all over the place to me - I've heard people say everything that he says, but somehow not all of it from the same person. The third person stuff is pretty wonderful. Mostly, though, I care about the characters and the horses. I'm a little over half through and waiting for something bad to happen on the race course, but so far, so good. This seems to be another one that gets extreme reactions. I'm pretty sure that I'm coming down in the LOVE camp.

Chiming in on the lack of quotation marks, which seems to be prevalent these days - it drives me nuts! Why do the writers want to make it harder for the reader to understand a conversation taking place in the book, especially since it is apparent that the reader needs that conversation or the writer would never have included it in the first place. Right?

That's interesting Stasia, sometimes I reckon it helps with the flow of the reading, but other times it irks me. Mostly it irks me I think :)

#51: It does not take much to irk me anyway, but this particular practice irritates the fire out of me.

>43 LizzieD:, 48, etc.: We did have a discussion regarding Powers and proto-steampunk, and I think that trend is indicative both of the madness to label anything tinged with Victoriana as "steampunk" and of something that always seems to happen with his work -- we always want to put him in a category, perhaps simply because his work does so many different things at once... which is also true of Mieville, so I can totally see why you might make that connection.

But I think Powers is really a true historical fantasy writer -- perhaps historical/supernatural fantasy -- and perhaps we've gotten too used to "historical fantasy" being one specific set of things (ah, yes, the medieval fantasy village... again... how archetypal). Powers himself says that he works within the confines of actual history -- doesn't change dates, etc. -- which makes me think of him as very different from some of the new weird authors, who seem to have an urban fantasy/horror "anything goes" perspective.

Perhaps, though, my own definition of the new weird is simply too limited. There certainly is that supernatural connection. I love Mieville, and though the Vandermeers often annoy me, I like that they promote new things like this sub-genre. But I guess I have never seen a new weird piece that is so specifically tied to historical place the way almost all of Powers' novels -- and especially the Nephilim sequence -- are.

I love genre discussions! It's all so interesting -- and at that same time so silly, since these distinctions are often pretty arbitrary. But all this gives me a great excuse to read more "new weird" stuff and expand that part of my mental bookshelf. :)

Many thanks for your informed and thoughtful analysis, Sarah! I guess I threw away that "new weird" tag without giving it much thought - I was also thinking at the time of the cosmic destruction that shows up in both Miéville and Powers. I had to google the Vandermeers and saw a number of familiar names.
Heather, I somehow missed your comment with the steampunk definition. If somebody asked me to name an example of s.p., The Difference Engine would be the first thing that popped into my mind - not *Anubis Gates*. And where would you/they put somebody like Neal Stephenson with the Baroque Cycle or The Diamond Age? I'm out of my depth. I just read and enjoy or not.
As to quotation marks, I'm with Stasia. Punctuation is intended to make reading easier, and for those of us brought up to read with punctuation, it is transparent and does facilitate understanding. (I've heard that business about helping the flow too, Megan, but I don't buy it.)
And at last, for anybody who was interested in what my local group made of the Metaxas Bonhoeffer biography, the sentiment was that even though he had plenty of texts to back him up, M. seemed to be imposing his own fundamentalist inclination on B. BUT. Most of us had never read anything specific about the German church's responses to Hitler, so we're glad for the experience....all pretty much what I had said before.

I'm so glad you are liking Misrule! I'll put 'Hide Me...." on my wishlist and look out for it.

>45 LizzieD:: love that! I've been thru that thought process before and so far have mostly resisted the lure of Kindle's instant gratification. There was one time I did it -- got all excited about a book, ordered it, and I have absolutely no idea when I'll read it. But it made me happy!!

Laura, what can I say? I don't often buy at full Kindle price, but somehow I just had to this time.

LORD OF MISRULE by Jaimy Gordon

I loved this book. I think I loved it even more than Fall on Your Knees. In fact, it is 2012's The Seas - so much wrong with it as a piece of art; so much right with it as flashes of brilliance and glimpses into the human condition. Wretched writing: no quotation marks, a second person narration, which finally worked to distance the character from common humanity. Beautiful writing! Breathtaking and poignant! It is set on a seedy racetrack in West Virginia. The protagonists and the antagonists are all damaged people, but they live and breathe on the page. The horses are just horses, carefully not anthropomorphized, but they are the repositories of the hopes, dreams, fears, reconciliations, accommodations that we all indulge in as we grasp at life. I loved them all, every sleazy one, and they have taken up permanent residence in my heart and mind.
I take my hat off to the judges for the National Book Award for recognizing the quality of this book and rue the shortsightedness of the Orange judges for not at least placing it on the short list!

Wow! Sounds like Lord of Misrule was a terrific read for you, Peggy!

Makes me happy when a friend has a great read!!!

Stopping by to say hi! I totally understand the need for instant gratification -like purchasing a book at full price! I did that with Painter of Silence which I've yet to get too. I'm really glad that you enjoyed Lord of Misrule- maybe I will read it yet!

Hm... I never read books about horses (not even in my teens), but your review made me put this one on my WL.

A first post on our Dickens (Pictures from Italy): I am really enjoying it although he obviously looks at things both in France and Italy in a slightly condescending (or patronizing? what's the right word here?) way. But he's a humorous and also generous person, curious and willing to learn. It's wonderful to get a view at private CD for a change.

I started Goethe's Italian Journey many years ago and abandoned it after the first chapters because he looked down on the poor people in the North with such open disgust. The main observation was that they were ugly, dirty and only ate polenta. And I remember a different travelogue on Italy by some English woman (Amelia Edwards?) where the author called the people in the small mountain villages 'barbarians', simply because they didn't know where England was.

So far I like Dickens' way so much better.

Thanks for rejoicing with me, Lucy and Stasia! I'm still gob-smacked, and I added a couple of thoughts to my comments because I neglected to say how wonderful the writing is in other places. It is. Deb (Hi!) and Nathalie, some people hate the book, and I can see why. It resonated with me though. It's not Black Beauty or National Velvet or even Horse Heaven. Even having spent all my $ on Oranges, I went ahead and ordered a 64¢ used copy of Bogeywoman from AMP.
Nathalie, I haven't gotten to Italy yet, just off the plain in chapter two. I too am struck by Dickens indulging in what I think of as the typical English disdain of things French - the dirt and the emotional excess, for example. It is funny, and really as good-natured, I think, as his digs at the pretensions of the English middle class. (Now there's a loaded sentence!) And I agree that he is vastly different from Amelia Edwards (Right! Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys)....but then, any man who will voluntarily get in a carriage with a wife, sil, 5 children, and 2 nurses and head across Europe has to be something special! I'm saving my DD quotation for later in case I like something better than the places I've marked so far!

Peggy, wonderful review of Lord of Misrule. I'm glad you loved it. I read it myself at the very end of March, and I felt very much the same about it, although I haven't gotten around to comments. In fact, I've been a little bit distrustful of my own reaction because I listened to the book in audio format versus reading it. The narrator was wonderful, I thought, and I sometimes have to pause to separate the impact of a narrator reading from the impact of the language itself. Was the book great or was the narrator great? So I spent a little time using the "see inside" feature on Amazon to read as much of the actual book as I could and decided it was definitely the writing that was so good, yes, Breathtaking and poignant!and the narrator was merely a good match.

As you say, I can see a lot of reasons not to like this book, but for me I thought Gordon did a masterful job of pulling me into a world I was not particularly interested in entering. (I resisted Lord of Misrule for a long time because the horse racing subject matter prompted a huge yawn, even though I'd seen some glowing reports. This is just to say, that if you think this is not your kind of book, you may want to think again.)

Now I should go and think about something to say on my own thread!

Thank you for the support, Anne! I'm glad to reinforce your appreciation for the writing too. I'll look forward to your comments eagerly - in fact, I'm on my way over there as soon as I post my picture of the kitchen chimney of the papal palace at Avignon. I've just read Dickens on his visit there (and I've finally gotten him to Italy, Nathalie). Apparently, the chute which he viewed down which the dead or dying victims of the Inquisition were tossed would have been something along these lines!

Interesting shot and some great reading Peggy - nice to see a mention of Dickens but missing my daily dose I must admit.

*trying not to think about down which the dead or dying victims of the Inquisition were tossed*

Hi Peggy, just checking in. I loved your comments about Lord of Misrule. Sounds like I need to find a copy!

Hmmm -- didn't Hannam go on and on about how the Inquisition didn't do so much hurling and etc. Although mostly I remember he said they were reluctant to convict. I suppose once your were convicted, anything went. ugh.

Megan and Lucy, this was the received wisdom in 1844 or 5 when Dickens was visiting. I got the image from a Victorian Times (or something - I copied it, but I'm too lazy to look) website. You remind me that I need to get back to Hannam.
Anne, if you do, I hope that you'll like it. Reactions seem to be radically different.
Paul, you're always welcome, and since I'm beginning to miss my Daily Dickens too, here's one from the beginning of Pictures from Italy. I also read the brief article about the book in my new handy, dandy Dickens Companion. Oxford says that some people were happy to have a travel piece that the common man could read. That would be me. Others panned it completely for his harshness in dealing with Roman Catholicism. That may also be me. In the interest of letting folks have their own opinions, I'll quote the first of these that I've found.

DAILY DICKENS
"In the cool of the evening: or rather in the faded heat of the day: we went to see the Cathedral, where divers old women, and a few dogs, were engaged in contemplation.....and there was a wax saint, in a little box like a berth aboard ship, with a glass front to it, whom Madame Tussaud would have nothing to say to, on any terms, and which even Westminster Abbey might be ashamed of."

Here's a prim example of the reason I love Charlie D.

DAILY DICKENS

"...fountains, too dull to play, and too lazy to work, have just enough recollection of their identity, in their sleep, to make the neighbourhood damp;..."

oh - I highlighted this one! :)

Thanks for posting the chimney, CD has described it very well. I made some progress, and there was only one chapter so far which I didn't like. I must reread it, maybe I was just too tired last night.
He now describes many places where I have been and it is interesting to revisit them this way.

Nathalie, as I suspected would happen, I'm much behind you: still reading about the sights of Genoa. I'm off to google for images since this is as close as I'm ever likely to get.

I'll have to concentrate on my Italian books this weekend, so I am taking a short break. I don't want to rush through it, and I am also planning to google some places and sights.
I also need to read some CD background, I forgot why exactly he went to Italy. Wasn't it debts?

It must have been awful having to spend days in a carriage, with the heat and the dust, and then with small children.

I never really thought about it till I watched "The Leopard" some years ago, the Visconti movie. A rich Sicilian family travels to their summer palace and when they stop for a break they are all covered in dust and feel dizzy and motion-sick due to the heat and constant shaking of the carriage. Terribly uncomfortable and boring, not a bit romantic.

Debt sounds right to me, Nathalie. At any rate, the companion says that he certainly intended *Pictures* to help defray the cost of the year abroad. I should really go check a biography because I don't know what his financial situation was in the mid 40s. He almost always needed money though because he supported his parents and some of his siblings as well as his giant family. Poor fellow.
The romance of the Victorian era wore off quickly if you had to live in it, I expect.
Meanwhile, some people with bright eyes will see that I just entered 2 books new to me. O.K. I ordered them before I went wild with the Kindle. Awesome Books offered me a 20% discount, but it was good only for a week. I had to use it right then or lose it, so there's no debate about whether it was the thing to do, is there? Besides, now I have all but one of the short list.....Happy! Happy! Happy! And if the missing one (The Patchett) wins, I'll just have to get that too.

#74 And I remember reading somewhere recently that in the nineteenth century nobody would dream of visiting Italy in the summer. Peak season was winter or spring.

#57 Peggy, your review of Lord of Misrule has made me reconsider not reading this book (I felt very uninterested in a 'horsey' book). I may look it for at the library - glad you enjoyed it!

#65 Wow!

#75 "Awesome Books offered me a 20% discount, but it was good only for a week. I had to use it right then or lose it, so there's no debate about whether it was the thing to do, is there?" I have these sorts of conversations in my head all the time!

Off to see what Tomalin says about Dickens' financial situation around Pictures from Italy time...

Of course I had to race over to yr profile to see whatcha got!

I've skimmed Tomalin and it seems that it was debts and a lack of money and a bit of overwork. CD has just finished Martin Chuzzlewit which hadn't sold well, and although A Christmas Carol had sold well it made very little profit (the first editions sound beautiful but ended up quite expensive to produce). He'd also been unsuccessfully trying to sue various overseas publishers who had published his books without his permission and without paying any royalties and had racked up huge legal costs. Tomalin also thinks he was just worn out and didn't want to be forced to write another novel straight away. So, off to Italy where it was cheaper to live and he could have a break.

Thanks for doing the research, Heather! My Dickens knowledge is not so good that I know what he published when. He did have trouble with this one...the original illustrator was offended by his disrespect to Roman Catholicism and quit. For whatever reason it took two more to do 8 prints. My 188? has only the picture of "The Chiffonier." (I'm reading it on Kindle.) Rhian, Dickens makes summer sound pretty awful - actually a lot like around here before air conditioning. Hot, mosquitoes, and fleas. He says he fully expects to see a team of fleas drag that big carriage away.
(Lucy, I have a list of my April acquisitions at the beginning of the thread, sort of a post of infamy.)
And, Heather, if you do try *Misrule*, I hope you like it. I did learn a good deal about what goes on behind the scenes on a racetrack but more or less by osmosis.
I'm reading in Foreign Bodies and just don't quite know where I'll come down on the like/dislike spectrum. It's easy reading, and it's short, so even if I decide against it, it won't take long.

Apparently oddsmakers have made Ozick a 2 to 1 favorite to win. I haven't read that one yet Peggy.

Really, Bonnie? That's a bit surprising. It's a mighty little book, which isn't all that significant, except that I can't see gold on every single page that I'd expect from a small contender.

Peggy - thanks for reprising the DAILY DICKENS. The subsequent conversations re his straitened circumstances are an illustration of much changed times. Can you image a writer of his popularity and renown these days scrabbling around for funds. Readers then were also astute weren't they - Martin Chuzzlewit was his first dud IMHO.

Oh, but Paul, *MC* has so much to love! Even I'll admit that the American adventure was a mistake and Ruth Pinch - well, she's not as sickening as some. I'm happy to be doing DD again too and am glad that you're reading them.

Interesting to ponder that some of my fave novels of late have all been books that I shouldn't have liked and was ambivalent about picking up. Lord of misrule -- a horse book?? I don't like horse books... (nope, not even Black Beauty). Song of Achilles?? I don't like historical fiction that's all about the military and battles. Gillespie and I?? Sounded a bit odd to me when I read the precis on Amazon.co.uk, so I delayed until I could get a library copy. The Night Circus?? I don't like fantastical supernatural books.
Sigh. Maybe I should just toss my preconceptions out the window.

Ozick is someone I keep 'meaning' to get to, and haven't. Maybe one, but I can't remember it right now.....

>85 Chatterbox: That's one of the main reasons I love following literary awards (leaving out the Pulitzer for the time being). I've also read a good number of books that have become recent favorites, that I almost certainly wouldn't have heard about otherwise or been willing to read: Wolf Hall, The Glass Room, Gillespie and I, Grace Williams Says it Loud, etc.

I'm trying to think what I avoid reading if I know about it........... Math and short stories and bodice-rippers and YA of the Twilight/50 Grays ilk, but I'm up for almost any novel, at least in theory. The trick is knowing about them, and LT has opened a world to me. I'm happy if I know a novel has won a good prize. I'm sure that I have preconceptions, but they're so close that I don't know what they are.

DAILY DICKENS
(Why it's better to look at the Riviera from afar...)
"...and the withered old women, with their wiry grey hair twisted up into a knot on the top of the head, like a pad to carry loads on, are so intensely ugly, both along the Riviera, and in Genoa, too, that, seen straggling about in dim doorways with their spindles, or crooning together in by-corners, they are like a population of Witches--except that they certainly are not to be suspected of brooms or any other instrument of cleanliness."

(I think that is the record-holding sentence for commas.)

>85 Chatterbox: >87 kidzdoc: true....the prize winners to tend to break you out of your reading comfort zone. Im sometimes accused by my bookclub of being a snob because I go for prize winners, but I maintain it is a valid way to expose yourself to new and interesting reading.

#88 recording-holding sentence for commas, indeed! I am never going to feel quite the same about people watching, particularly older women, on the Riviera, LOL.

LOL, i think the only one of my previous list that I didn't become aware of before it was a prize winner (or nominee) was Lord of Misrule. Gillespie and I was on my amazon UK shopping list for a year; I just ultimately decided I wasn't interested enough to fork over 7 pounds for postage. Song of Achilles was recommended to my by a fellow historical fiction nut, and it's been pretty much impossible to avoid Night Circus, although I picked up a copy only when I saw some LT raves.

Memory of Love & The Finkler Question were novels that I was made aware of because of award nominations, although in the former case I probably would have read it anyway. On the other hand, I found some books I read because they were on the Booker longlist to be underwhelming: Sisters Brothers, Pigeon English, etc. Not bad, certainly, but nothing that made me want to jump up and down with excitement, either. Clever but nothing I responded to. Julian Barnes I like -- but that wasn't his best novel, by any stretch.

Ruth Pinch - well, she's not as sickening as some

Sez you. :)

O.K. O.K. I claim a little personal weakness for Ruth that doesn't extend to Bella Wilfer, for example.
Suzanne, I have to say that I've resisted last year's Booker list, and since The Sisters Brothers was one of the only ones that I thought I might like, I've moved it even further down my list. Besides, I have an unread copy of Doc on my Kindle, and that may take care of my Western fix for a year or so.
No DD tonight because I haven't had time today to read enough to find one. *sigh*
I am pushing on through Foreign Bodies and should finish tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll be glad.

FOREIGN BODIES by Cynthia Ozick

In the end, I tried to write a review on the book page just to see whether I could sort out what I think about this one. I feel indifferent to negative about it, but I think it's worth more than that. I did check to see Ms. Ozick's age (she's 83 or 84) after Lucy suggested that the Orange nomination might be a way of recognizing the body of her work. Since this is the only one I've read, I have no idea where it rates on a value scale. It wasn't awful; it wasn't wonderful. It was too short to do what I suspect that she was aiming for. It was too long to do what I think it did. Altogether I'm left in a thoroughly unsatisfactory state of mind, so I'm going to forget her and cleanse my palate for The Song of Achilles by reading Loitering with Intent!

#94 I'm halfway through Foreign Bodies and have absolutely no reaction to it so far. I don't like it and I don't dislike it either. I have no idea what Ozick's trying to do or what the point of the book is. Sigh.

That's pretty much what I said in my review, Heather. I can grasp handles here and there, but none of them is hefty enough to support a real evaluation or reaction. I also sigh.

>94 LizzieD: It wasn't awful; it wasn't wonderful. It was too short to do what I suspect that she was aiming for. It was too long to do what I think it did. Altogether I'm left in a thoroughly unsatisfactory state of mind

Well said Peggy. I'd say I will probably never read this book now, even if it wins. Too many books, not enough time.

Bonnie, since I'm in such good company, I don't think I've led you astray. If it wins though and I were you, I'd have to read it.
This afternoon I've indulged in a very violent bit of scifi/action from a guy I like (Richard Morgan) called Thirteen. The link will take you to the alternate title, Black Man. Curious!

#94 I'll join Bonnie with "Well said!" Peggy. Pass for me, too.

Well, thank you, Ms. Nancy. It's true; I'm not sure that I'm glad that I read it.
I did read a little *Pictures from Italy* today, Nathalie, so you're not alone. We're in Ferrara. I would be enthralled, but CD found it dreary.

DAILY DICKENS

"I wonder, above all, why it is the great feature of domestic architecture in Italian inns, that all the fire goes up the chimney, except the smoke!"

(This is a throwback to ancient Rome. You will remember that I quoted one of my students who wrote that, "The roads were great. The ends were terrible.")

I'm in Rome already, but have to reread the "Dreaming of Venice" chapter. I'm sure you'll laugh when you read his first hought when seeing Rome. I was a bit disappointed with his very short visit to Siena, I had hoped for more details.

Yes, CD's not too happy with the state of things in Italy, but he likes the people and more than once says their friendliness and hospitality make him forget the smoking chimneys in the inns. I think I like him.

I think he's hard not to like, Nathalie. And he is generous about the people as people whatever he may think of their way of life.

Oh, such a relief to know that I can cross off Foreign Bodies according to you and Bonnie! Big sigh!

Also according to Suzanne, Deb, and that really counts with me!
I just read the Venice chapter, Nathalie, and am off to look at images and also of Verona, which he found delightful. I also found my quotation for the DD which I shall copy forthwith.

DAILY DICKENS

"But close about the quays and churches, palaces and prisons sucking at their walls, and welling up into the secret places of the town: crept the water always. Noiseless and watchful: coiled round and round it, in its many folds, like an old serpent waiting for the time, I thought, when people should look down into its depths for any stone of the old city that had claimed to be its mistress."
and in Verona ...
"In another place, there was a gallery of pictures: so abominably bad, that it was quite delightful to see them mouldering away."

If I remember well, Verona was where I left Goethe on his Italian journey, I couldn't bear his endless complaints about the dirt and the vulgarity of the people anymore.

I have been to Verona 3 times and can say that also today it is a city well worth a visit. Sure not as famous as Florence, Rom, Venice, but a pretty, clean and friendly place. And the arena is awesome. If I didn't have a problem with large crowds I'd love to go there and watch an opera in summer.

CD would be no doubt very happy to know that Julia's house is no longer sinking into the mud. The courtyard is now overrun with tourists and all walls are covered with multicolored marker scribblings. Quite an amusing place, actually.

I'm happy to know that the Capulet house is no longer sinking into the mud although I'm not too happy with the marked-up walls. I took CD to bed last night and read a full paragraph before I drifted off - not the way to make it through Italy or anything else! I was interested to read about The Last Supper as it appeared in 1844 - or whatever the year was. I'm copying a little bit of it here for my DD. (And, Nathalie, I'm actually reading what he's telling us that he's not going to tell us about Switzerland!)

DAILY DICKENS

"In the old refectory of the dilapidated Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, is the work of art, perhaps, better known than any other in the world: the Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci -- with a door cut through it by the intelligent Dominican friars, to facilitate their operations at diinner-time....I would simply observe, that in its beautiful composition and arrangement, there it is, at Milan, a wonderful picture; and that, in its original colouring, or in its original expression of any single face or feature, there it is not. Apart from the damage it has sustained from damp, decay, or neglect, it has been (as Barry shows) so retouched upon, and repainted, and that so clumsily, that many of the heads are, now, positive deformities, with patches of paint and plaster sticking upon them like wens, and utterly distorting the expression."

I just read the wikipedia entry on "The Last Supper". Especially interesting is the "Damage and Restoration" part which gives an idea of what Dickens is complaining of. I never know where I am allowed to quote or use pictures from, so here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo_da_Vinci)

The Capulet courtyard is tiny. Access is free, so you have to queue to get in. There's a fake balcony (added in the 1930s) and you have to pay to get up which I never did. There are bronze statues of Romeo and Juliet, and it seems to bring good luck to touch Juliet's breast, which is now all gleaming, while the rest of her and all of Romeo have darkened with the years.

I haven't made much progress in the last two days, just read another half chapter on Rome.

Thank you, Nathalie! That's fascinating!! I knew about the modern restoration and the controversy about reviving the bright color, but that's about all.
And I never knew anything at all about Juliet's breast!

Hi Peggy,
I am just about ready to start reading The Bone People, how are you placed for joining me? I will not be a fast reader of it, so if you want to give me a head start, just say :)

Megan, I certainly won't need to let you have a head start! I can start in May if you'd like. It's been on my shelf forever, so I'm game. When were you planning to get going? (This means I'll have to step up my leisurely pace with CD's Italy, but I needed to do that anyway.)

How about May 1 we both start. Sounds good, and I will try to read at least 20 pages a day, just to keep things moving. Its a fair goal for me I think....was going to say 50, but Im not sure I could keep true to that

Twenty sounds realistic. Then, if we find we love it, we can read more. Since I have so many other things pulling at me, that sounds like a real plan. Now, at last, I'm off to finish Loitering with Intent, truly a one-setting novella that I've had to let drag on and on because of Real Life!!! I look forward to *Bone* with you, Megan!

LOITERING WITH INTENT by Muriel Spark

A fair number of Spark novels have come to me by way of library sales and remainder tables because I thought I would enjoy them someday. Someday is now, and I was right! I loved this smart, funny tale of aspiring novelist Fleur Talbot in the very middle of the 20th century! She says that it's wonderful to be a woman and an artist in the 20th century, and she's right. We get a crazy cast of characters with life copying art and lots of comments about novel writing. Lucy suggests that Spark writes the same novel almost every time, and that it's a wonderful one. I'll be ready to read it again soon. Meanwhile, here's what Fleur says about repetition: "I would write about them one day. In fact, under one form or another, whether I have liked it or not, I have written about them ever since, the straws from which I have made my bricks."
Oh ---- and I put a copy of Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua on my Kindle too!

You really brought out the quirky fun of that book, Peggy!

Great review, Peggy. I've not read any of Spark's work. Sounds like that needs to change.

Thank you, Laura, but you wrote the real review.

I'm glad you liked your first Spark novel, Peggy. I've read 4 of them in the last months, and imo Lucy is right. They are all similar, but they are good. I also liked this one very much, but Memento Mori remains my favorite. She does the characterization of those old ladies very well, and the Dame Iforgothername in "Loitering" is a good example.

>116 LizzieD:: pish posh. A review's a review, no matter how small.
(with special thanks to Horton Hears a Who!).

Really encouraged to read Lord of Misrule by your review, Peggy. As others have said, horse racing wouldn't normally pull me in as a read but this one sounds really interesting. The chimney pic made me shudder {vivid imagination so could imagine being hurled down this thing}. Big guffaw about Dickens' take on fountains.

Spark is wonderful. A Far Cry from Kensington and The Girls of Slender Means are my favorities.

I would never dispute with Horton, Laura! Tui, if you read Lord of Misrule, I hope you come to love it too. It did take some reading to get into it, but then, I hated to put it down and thought about it while I was away. Hi, Beth! I started *Girls* and liked it, but something else demanded my time, and I never got back. I will though. I'm happy to have so many Sparks squirreled away ready to be read.
Tui, I eventually become overwhelmed with the fertility of Dickens and have a hard time picking out a new one to post. (Zeugma gets me every time!) I decided on his description on the end of a typical meal at country inn. Nathalie, I'm about to get to Rome!

DAILY DICKENS

"There are a scrap of Parmesan cheese, and five little withered apples, all huddled together on a small plate, and crowding one upon the other, as if each were trying to save itself from the chance of being eaten."

I also was drawn to this description of Siena: "It is like a bit of Venice, without the water."

Nathalie, we're in Rome, and CD is not completely pleased. I tried to find a bit of straight description without a typical twist, but that's hard to do. Anyway, here's the DD as we close in on the end.

DAILY DICKENS

"Among the people who drop into St. Peter's at their leisure, to kneel on the pavement, and say a quiet prayer, there are certain schools and seminaries, priestly and otherwise, that come in, twenty or thirty strong. These boys always kneel down in single file, one behind the other, with a tall grim master in a black gown, bringing up the rear like a pack of cards arranged to be tumbled down at a touch, with a disproportionately large Knave of clubs at the end."

Boys on knees... wait till you get to the Easter ceremonies. :)
I finished it last night. The Rome chapter is very long, but at some point he travels on. The last paragraph almost had me in tears - beautiful and absolutely true, can be applied 1:1 to Italy's current situation which is a little sad. I loved this little book and got the impression that it influenced Bill Bryson and maybe other modern travel writers.
I'll write some more when you have finished as well.

Lots of chat about Muriel Spark. I've got The Girls of Slender Means - but so far it's sitting in the TBR pile -and it's so short, too!

I read the Easter ceremonies today, Nathalie, so it shouldn't be long.
Deb, I think that MS didn't write a long novel. She's like a squirt of lemoncello to the brain!

She's like a squirt of lemoncello to the brain!

I love that! I enjoyed Loitering with Intent too and have just finished Miss Brodie so know exactly what you mean!

I'll take a curtsy, Dee, being enormously proud of that one.

PICTURES FROM ITALY by Charles Dickens
I just finished my Dickens travel and will quote a bit of the last paragraph that so moved Nathalie. Since I know Italy mostly from the printed page, I can't speak to its application to the current situation although I can see it theoretically. Thank you, Nathalie, for encouraging me to read this! I found treats or amusement or information on every page. I'll be eager to read what more you have to say!

DAILY DICKENS

"...let us part from Italy, with all its miseries and wrongs, affectionately, in our admiration of the beauties, natural and artificial, of which it is full to overflowing, and in our tenderness towards a people, naturally well-disposed, and patient, and sweet-tempered. Years of neglect, oppression, and misrule, have been at work, to change their nature and reduce their spirit; miserable jealousies, fomented by petty Princes to whom union was destruction, and division strength, have been a canker at their root of nationality, and have barbarized their language; but the good that was in them ever, is in them yet, and a noble people may be, one day, raised up from these ashes. Let us entertain that hope!"

Hi Peggy: Great quotes from Pictures from Italy; I've never read that one but it sounds like a winner.

Thank you for reading this book with me Peggy, and for posting all those great DD quotes!

I love that last quote, and except for the 'barbarizing of the language' it is still quite true today. Italy has been united 150 years ago, but there are still very strong groups, especially in the north, wishing for a separation from the poor south where so much money is transferred to, often just to disappear in dubious projects.

This book let me see CD at work. He looks at a building and sees its history, he immediately imagines stories that might have taken place there. He sees a person and develops a story around him/her. He is a fantastic observer, and a friendly and compassionate one.

I don't know if he criticized Catholicism or just the rites he witnessed in Italy. I guess you might still encounter similar scenes in the far south, but throughout the country mass has become quite a sober business.

Great quote, once again. And I think Dickens got his wish.

Memento Mori is firmly on my best books by women list.

Beth and Lucy, CD is the best! I will get back to *D&S* now, and I will post the daily dose of Dickens. Nathalie, thank you for reading with me!! You brought so much to my experience since you know the places and can bring a contemporary perspective to them. You're right about his method of work - and he walked and walked and walked wherever he went and observed and filed away for future use. I'm not sure about the anti-RC bias either. His sympathies were certainly with the Catholics in Barnaby Rudge. I'm not sure that I remember his paying any attention to them at all anywhere else - something to look for.

LIFE SKILLS by Katie Fforde

This is unabashed chick lit and not as good as the other KF that I've read, not that I've read much. It would probably constitute a waste of time except that I read it in 5 or 10 minute segments when nothing else would have fitted. It's set on a narrow boat, a canal barge, where our heroine takes a job as the cook. Lots of silliness, but the premise is that she can't marry the man she's infatuated with because he might leave her someday. Want to guess what happens???

I got it! I Got It!! I GOT IT!!! BRING UP THE BODIES!!!! I got it!!!!! From ER!!!!!! I know that some of you deserve it more, but I'll do my best to write a splendid review because I GOT IT!!!!!!!
Off to do the happy dance.

WOW! Congratulations Peggy!!! I am sure you'll write a wonderful review for it. And now - enjoy!

I wasn't sure if I should read it, because I had expected a direct sequel to Wolf Hall and not just another take at the Anne Boleyn story which was already covered well in WH. And I hate trilogies!
But who am I kidding - I am going to read it as soon as it's available for me.

G'wan, you didn't! Wow, maybe you had better dash out and buy a lottery ticket, beating the odds like that!

Congratulations! I'm happy this morning too, as I got the new N. K. Jemisin, The Killing Moon.

I did, Tui, and I'm feeling pretty humbled by it as well as ecstatic. I think that's my luck for a year or so. I will remind myself when I'm waiting at red light after red light for the rest of 2012.
Thank you, Roni, and the same back to you!

Congratulations, Peggy! I look forward to reading your review. I wish I could say I was similarly blessed but I'm relatively content with my consolation prize - the new Michael Frayn.

Hey Lizzie - I finally found your thread!

Congratulations on getting Bring Up the Bodies! I know a lot of people wanted that one, so I hope you enjoy it.

Like Roni, I'm delighted I got The Killing Moon - it was my top choice. The Michael Frayn was actually my second choice, TomKitten, and I'd would have been pretty happy with that, too.

Now that I have you starred, I'll be visiting often. Well, ok, as often as I'm managing to visit threads, these days.

* high fives Peggy *
Woo hoo! I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

Good for you getting the book you wanted from ER! What are the chances of that?

I have made my start on The Bone People....me being a day ahead of you gave me a head start. :)
Im trying to read carefully until I get used to the style....and it seems to be working so far. I definitely have a sense of place form the novel, and the characters are growing.

Many thanks, Mr. K, Dejah (and you are so welcome here AND congratulations on getting your top choice!), Laura, and Megan! I can't wait to get it so that I can see what I think too. I have probably unrealistic expectations.
Megan, I've just barely started The Bone People too. I'll tootle right over to your thread to see what you've said. I am interested to see what special insights you have as you live in the place. (I guess that sounds a bit dumb. I wouldn't have any special insights about Wallace Stegner, for instance, but just ask me about The Help. I was here then!)

Peggy, I'm delighted you GOT IT!! I know you will enjoy, and we will all enjoy your thoughts/comments : ).

Me too Peggy! I'll read it the second it arrives!

YAY, Bonnie!!! Thank you, Nancy. Looks like the 25 copies are making their homes at 75 or Virago or both!

DAILY DICKENS

(Miss Blimber is reading Paul her assessment of his character.)
"'...his general disposition to study may be stated in an equal ratio. Thus, taking eight as our standard and highest number, I find these qualities in Dombey stated each at six three-fourths!'
Miss Blimber paused to see how Paul received this news. Being undecided whether six three-fourths meant six pounds fifteen, or sixpence three farthings, or six foot three, or three quarters past six, or six somethings that he hadn't learnt yet, with three unknown something elses over, Paul rubbed his hands and looked straight at Miss Blimber. It happened to answer as well as anything else he could have done..."

Congratulations on Bring Up the Bodies}! As for me I will be waiting patiently until it is available more widely. And you are also reading The Bone People--that's two very thick books for one month.

I know, Anne. Ain't life grand?!?!?!

Woot! Congratulations on winning Bring Up the Bodies. I'll look forward to your comments/ review ! :)

Hi Peggy, maybe we could use my Booker thread to discuss our reading of the Bone People?

http://www.librarything.com/topic/136381

Just to keep our usual threads clear for the masses? :) Wherever is fine for me, but that thread is sitting there practically empty so could be a good place to compartmentalise the conversation?

Thank you, Deb! I'm still grinning - and being uncommonly apprehensive..... The USPS BETTER NOT LOSE MY BOOK!!!!!
Megan, that's a great idea. I'll get over there forthwith. (Masses, you say?)

Congrats on your Early reviewing success Peggy, you deserve it!

I remember enjoying Life Skills years and years ago and thinking it was one of Ffforde's better ones! I think I was pleased because it was the first one of her's I'd read which hadn't followed exactly the same formula!

Thank you, Dee, and "oh." Well, I must like her common formula. I liked the time on the narrow boat and was really bored by all the pregnancy...
I'm pretty sure that most people are going to disagree with me about this next one too. Anyway, it's on to The Bone People!

CINDIE by Jean Devanny

I quite enjoyed this look at a sugar cane plantation in Queensland during the White Australia movement (1896-1907 were the years covered in the book). At age nineteen Cindie goes to the new farm as the servant of the farmer's wife but immediately falls in love with the land and works like a man to make the farm a success, later introducing timbering and coffee to the plantation. She and her boss recognize the South Sea islanders, the Kanakas, that he hires (although that's not an accurate description of what he does) and the Aborigines as humans and treat them with dignity even as they exploit their labor. Devanny, herself a Communist, has written a sort of problem novel, and that's my main problem with it.
It's clear that describing and explaining the political and human ramifications of Australian unification are more important to her than the crafting of a novel as a work of art. Most of the time that didn't matter because she did tell a compelling story to support her concerns. I just couldn't quite believe in Cindie herself. Her motivation for staying with the Biddows was not adequately explained to me when she was offered marriage by a man whom she liked and respected, who would have given her her own farm to develop. Her romance at the end of the book struck me as equally contrived. Those quibbles aside, I was fascinated with the time and place and with some of the other characters.

I've only read a few Ffordes and it feels like a very long time ago, so I'm not going to argue the case for the canal boat book too strongly!

The Bone People's another one which ring bells. I remember there being loads of controversy about it in the eighties and thinking that I really should read it but then never doing so!

I enjoyed your review of Cindie. I have this on my Virago shelf and feel I have a much better idea of what to expect from it now.

Congrats on the Mantel coup! I got the ER book I wanted - probably because it's not one of the biggies. I figured I would be reading Bring Up the Bodies anyway...and the only way I would read a Ridley Pearson thriller would be because I owed a review. I'm actually looking forward to it as he was quite entertaining in person.

I'm a big fan of The Bone People and will add your discussion of it as another thread to lurk on.

Oh Peggy, I'm planning on reading The Bone People during Orange July so I'll be looking forward to your comments. Dense is the thing I remember being associated with it.

Dee, I've certainly said all that I think that the canal boat book deserves! Thank you for the Cindie compliment. So far, and it's not far at all, I'm enjoying The Bone People. It's certainly written with a very distinctive voice.
Thank you Donna, and congratulations right back for getting your Ridley Pearson. I've neglected your thread lately - total bummer! - so I didn't realize that you met and heard him. Megan and I are going to talk about *Bone* on her Booker thread over in that group. Not much going on so far! Bonnie, I think we're all in for an impressive time.

Peggy, like wise, I'm so delighted to learn of another non- Three Pines fan! :) I read the first 3 books of Louise Penny's and I think I enjoyed the first one, but then the characters began to get under my skin! ;) Armand Gamache is just so full of himself, I couldn't take it! And village is full of sort of " stock " odds and sods. Too politically correct, sort of.

Shhh - I know how everyone on LT loves Three Pines and I don't want to be shunned by the others. ;)

Ann Cleeves is not the best, but for an easy comfort read - - well, this is my second book in the series ( She has quite a few series. At least Detective Perez is unsure of himself. Perez is much more tolerable than Gamache. ;)

Congratulations on winning Bring Up the Bodies, Peggy! I look forward to reading it alongside you and other 75ers later this month or next month.

I liked The Bone People ...

What a lovely thing to bring up the thread with messages from Deb (sisters of the meh), Darryl, and Laura!
I wonder how many of the 25 are 75ers, Darryl. I know you and Bonnie R and I got it, and my friend Elaine (who wrote the definitive review of Wolf Hall as far as I read) got copies. All I can say is, "Bring on Bring Up!"
I'm enjoying *Bone*, Laura, even if I haven't read much of it - the social whirl and all. (That was a joke....We do have a friend overnighting in his old home, and we spent an enjoyable evening with him talking about the Civil War among other things. He collects maps.) Lucy was saying that she heard Hulme read excerpts once, and she was obviously so ill at ease that she didn't read well. Megan and I are speculating that she must share a lot of her character, Holmes's eremitism (a word coined yesterday by our friend with reference to our scaredy cat.)

Fforde disappointed me, just not enough substance..... I wanted so badly to love them too.

Ah well, when you know there's nothing to it, it can still be fun if it's not too ridiculous.
I'm still with *Bone People*, and it's breaking my heart.

I am still planning to resist this book, at least for the next few weeks, but you are making it hard. :)
Need to save up my book money for Bring up the Bodies which right now is sth around 18 USD on Kindle.

Which one is Elaine's review for WH - is Elaine the LT name?

Holy Moly, Nathalie!!! That's more than I spend on books in a month!!! But when you do get time and money at the same time, I think that you will not be able to put down *Bone People* either. It's powerful.
Here's a link to Elaine's Review. It's about the 20th one down. Oh.... Elaine is Liz1564, a date you might recognize!

I'm here to say that The Bone People is just about to replace Lord of Misrule as the best novel of the year. I'm not quite half through, but I'm loving it even though some of it is so hard to read. I'm in a good patch right now though.

ok, I'll bite -- what happened in 1564?? Elizabeth was on the throne of England.... but???

Congrats on the Mantel win! I scored Skios by Michael Frayn, for which I'll whet my appetite by reading Copenhagen this month. I adored the play when I saw it -- it was one of those plays that is just so through-provoking you think your brain will explode -- and I bought this at the theatre in London expecting to read it soon. Flash forward 13 years...

I think I liked that particular Katie Fforde novel. The bits I find interesting now tend to be the backdrop details -- such as the narrow boat operations. The romance? Well, predictable and warm and fuzzy but sometimes that is what the doc orders. I have her new one here and am saving it for a bleak and gloomy day when I need something to cheer me up! (Right now I'm reading about the Tehran hostage crisis of '79/'80, which is fascinating, because I knew some of the people involved; hey, I may need the cheer-up Rx sooner rather than later!!)

I'm here to say that The Bone People is just about to replace Lord of Misrule as the best novel of the year
Woah! Big call there early on.....it is looking promising for a good star rating from me too :)

#163: found it and thumbed it. You're right, it's such a comprehensive review.

As much as I'd love to read Bring up the Bodies immediately next week, I don't accept a Kindle price that's 3 USD above the price for the hardcover. So I might end up ordering the paper copy from the IT amazon together with The Bone People which has not yet been published on Kindle.

I feel stupid for not knowing what happened in 1564. Hey - wiki says it's Shakespeare's birth year! Sure you meant that? I am terrible with dates. And faces. And book plots, and names, and... what exactly do I remember well? As long as I don't forget my LT password not all is lost.

>131 LizzieD:: "Unabashed chick lit" isn't in my sweet spot, so I can't see picking up that book. The description, however, did remind me of another book. Floating Island was a (slightly fictionalized??) memoir of a canal boat trip magazine editor Emily Kimbrough took with her friend, actress Cornelia Otis Skinner, and some other friends. Some might edge it into chick lit territory but it struck me more as travel memoir. Either way, it was funny and relaxing and I rather enjoyed it. She was more famous for her best seller, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, but I think I liked this one more.

You made me laugh - Bone People replacing Misrule: I had a nephew who when he was 4 or so would snuggle up to whoever was with him and say, "You're my love, my only love."

Cindie sounds rather interesting to me. It's good to know that there's a Virago edition, because my library sure doesn't have it!

First, my apologies to Suzanne and Nathalie. I forget that all you superbly-read people around here are not English majors. Yes, indeed, Nathalie, we all know (whatever else we may have in common) that W. Shakespeare was probably born April 23, 1564 and died April 23, 1616. It's part of the English major oath. Skios does look like fun - the reviewer here says it's "Wodehouse meets Twelfth Night." I'm glad to have it on my radar.
Nathalie, I don't think you need to worry about what you remember or not quite yet........... I'm just happy to see that your priorities are straight!
Tad, I guess I don't really see you reading chick lit either. I started Fforde because when I inherited a bunch of the chicks from our friend last year, I remembered Suz and Lucy as naming her as one with a bit more to offer than the standard. I also remember that you both preferred the earlier ones. I think that Life Skills was pretty early, but I've liked the two later ones better. I guess I want my cl clean with no thought attached at all, and I did enjoy the narrow boat part. I'll be on the track of Floating Island immediately! Our Hearts Were Young and Gay is one of my all-time favorites from childhood. Thanks, Tad.
Has that nephew grown up to be a complete charmer, Lucy? Bound to be! Meanwhile, I can't rank novels... *Bone* is better than *Kevin* and *Fall on Your Knees*, which are my other two loves of the year so far.
Dejah, I don't know how easy the VMC is to find. It was one of the original green ones from the 80s, and I doubt that they reissued it. I'm very grateful for Virago! You know, lots of people in our group really loved Cindie.

I doubt I ever said anything terribly positive about Fforde -- I love Jasper, but not Katie, who I feel strongly could do better if she slowed down a little.

My nephew James, who is essentially Australian, having lived there all his life, is indeed a darling - he was our first nephew family-wide and thus heavily doted upon!

Ranking novels is so impossible. One novel can have a weight and importance and you can appreciate it and all that, and yet it might not be the one you simply loved, no? I have two kinds of 5 stars I think.... because of just that problem!

I plan to read The Bone People in July Peggy so I hope I enjoy it as much as you do.

I'm glad you're enjoying The Bone People--I have that and it's on a list of books I plan to read this year, so more inducement to get to it soon.

Peggy I am really pleased that The Bone People is being so warmly received. Largely written off as incomprehensible when it won the Booker in the eighties and thought of as a freak choice - I notice that the appreciation of it seems to broaden over time.

OK, now I feel ashamed of myself!! But then, not only was I not an English major, I didn't take a single college-level English course. (I rationalized that two ways -- I had OD'ed during high school, doing IB Higher level English, getting 7/7 on that exam and a 5 on the AP, etc; also I was finding that reading to analyze was wreaking havoc on reading for pleasure.) It means that I don't have factoids like that at my finger tips, however, and I'm not nearly as widely read as I should be because after high school I never had anyone steering me toward some novels or authors. Some I found on my own -- Woolf, Forster, et al.; George Eliot. Others I have never read, such as a lot of Americans (Henry James remains my bete noire) and some more modern writers. I'm certainly not a "critic".

NO shame, Suzanne. Who else but English majors cares? *beam* at 5 on the AP.
Bonnie, Anne, and Paul, I'm happy to be reading *Bone* at last and hope you first two like it as much as I do. Paul, it's maybe not the easiest thing I've ever read - I'm not sure what I would have made of it in '85, but right now it's just about perfect.
(Lucy, I cared enough to go back to check, and here's what you said - not particularly as positive as I remembered.... "I have had tried Katie Ff and I'm glad she's written a better one -- she seems like a good enough writer to write books that have just a little more to them all around, so I've often felt frustrated reading them."

>172 sibylline: Ranking novels is so impossible
I know! So hard, we have debates about this at our book club catch ups, I go with overall feeling as the main criteria for a rating, good writing can be excellent, but if the plot is nothing, I dont rate too high, and other way too. If the story is utterly amazing and the writing crap, its neither here nor there either.

Luckily for both me and Peggy it seems, writing and plot are both excellent in the case of *Bone*!!

Thanks for digging around Peggy -- it is so reassuring to find one has been consistent!!!!!

Suz - Likely there is a freshness to your approach NOT having been an English major, just loving to read seems enough credentials to me! I didn't major in anything because one doesn't at Sarah Lawrence - you can't accumulate more than a certain # of credits in any one field. I was pretty evenly distributed around Literature/History (including of Religion and Art)/Language.

Hello to you Peggy!

Hi Peggy, adding my belated congratulations for winning an ER copy of Bring Up the Bodies - I hope it arrives soon!

Hi Peggy,
I read The Bone People when it first came out and I've never forgotten it. I'm sure that if I was ranking things in those days it would have been my number 1 for the year. It's good to know it remains as powerful and compelling as I found it.

Megan, I agree - especially about *Bone*! I don't think I'll forget it anytime soon either, Mr. K.
Lucy, you're right about the freshness of reading for love. Getting that English major was sometimes problematic. I mostly enjoyed and loved what I read for the major, but I missed being able to read what I chose for myself.
Thank you for speaking, Linda and Heather (with thanks for that good wish!) I visit other threads and don't speak because I don't want to take up space and really have nothing to add to a discussion. I forget what a warmth I feel when somebody drops out of lurk here to speak to me!

Lucy, you may well be right. I do know that very little today feels like "prescribed reading" to me, and I can approach it on my own terms. And I feel just fine running the gamut from silly fluff to weight serious tomes. Though if you catch me reading Descartes, feel free to summon the men in their white coats.

Yes, it's always nice when someone de-lurks. It confirms that you aren't just speaking to yourself, which I sometimes feel!

#183 I missed being able to choose what I read for myself

I'm doing an English Literature degree and having just come to the end of a module I certainly feel like that at the moment. I'm sure I'll be fine by the time the next one starts after the summer break. I do have a friend though, who studied English at college and has virtually not read a book since. She said that analysing the books in detail completely turned her off reading them for fun - which is so sad.

Hi Peggy! I have to de-lurk a minute just to say that I'm an English major (BA & MA) who loved, loved, loved my classes. I spent 10 years getting the two degrees while I was working as an R.N. and raising my kid. I would take a class or two a semester, and I think that's what kept me sane, if I was indeed sane and there may have been "some question" about that. But then I'm also one of those people who love school--still do. Nutso.

Welcome to my thread, Rhian! It's always good to find another English person. Hi, Becky! I knew about you!!!! I was good in school, so that must suggest that I loved it, and I guess I did. I'm not eager to take a formal course although I've thought about looking at the new free, online courses at ??? - the name escapes me. I don't mean to imply that I disliked my English courses. I chose my major because it was my love. But I did miss the element of choice, and I think that may be part of the reason I'm so set on reading 4 or 5 things at once now.
Rhian, you have me thinking of the young women who also taught English, and who never read anything more than romances or mysteries. Now, that might have been due to stress levels, but from their conversation, I don't think so. Not reading for any reason is a sadness. I'm off to be joyful!

I'm willing, always, up to a point to sign up to read something out of my comfort zone (which much grad school reading is comprised of) - it's the idea that a work of art can be dissected that I can't take after a certain point. A novel isn't a clock, it's a living thing. I loathe loathe loathe the way poetry is taught in high schools, please don't let me get started on that. (Hint: approached like a 'puzzle' to be 'solved', among other analogies.

#187 young women who also taught English, and who never read anything more than romances or mysteries

My sister-in-law once confessed to me that she had never read a book after leaving school. The problem was she was a librarian in charge of children's books for her area. I think I just stood there with my mouth open.

I'm with Becky -- another English major who loved my classes and would still be in school today if I could make a living at it. I like to be able to look at things critically -- I find it increases my enjoyment. Some things don't lend themselves to analysis as much as others, but I think it's fun.

I'm just finishing a semester and while I am often discouraged at how little students read, I do have some who have found an appreciation for poetry this semester, which is rewarding for me.

And it is nice when people delurk and stop to visit.

Lucy, Rhian, and Beth, I think I must have been one of the happiest of English majors. I remember almost all of my professors as having a real passion for the work that they were teaching, so if things were over-analyzed, it was the over-analysis of lovers obsessed to know the depths of the beloved.
I'm not sure how poetry was taught in my high school, but a puzzle to be solved sounds pretty dreadful and very unlike poetry. On the other hand, I'm not sure how to teach children who don't read and don't comprehend what they're forced to read. I knew less and less about how children learn the more I taught anyway - sad but true.
Beth, you'll remember your students who catch the glow forever! I wish you a good summer break! (My whole life is now a summer break no matter what the weather.)
All of this strikes me as funny because I've just finished THE BONE PEOPLE by Keri Hulme, and I could no more analyze it right now than I could play baseball or understand calculus or fly.
WHAT A GREAT BOOK!!!! It's magic, numinous, awe-inspiring. In other words, it hit me where I live. I suppose that if I looked at it objectively, I could poke some holes here and there. I don't want to. I just want to rejoice that the three very hurt, hurtful, contrary, beautifully extraordinary characters got down to their bones and - I won't spoil the rest. I loved it. I'm going to bed!

Oh boy Peggy now you've got me really looking forward to reading The Bone People in July.

I could be wrong but I think most of you who have spoken about reading and learning are teachers in one way or another and I believe that teachers as a whole are, for the most part, life long learners. We value so much exploring, evaluating, contemplating, discussing so much of what goes on in the world. How could we not when we spend our lives honing that skill in others?

That said, sometimes it's just fun to sit back and enjoy what we read, without analyzing anything about it and that's the time for me to enjoy a mystery. Whether it's Inspector Gamache, Matthew Shardlake, Jackson Brodie, Rev. Clare Fergusson, or ____________(fill in the blank), my brain needs a dose of non-taxing material to be completely happy. But a steady, uninterrupted dose of it would be so unproductive IMO.

Peggy: The Bone People sounds great. I'll add it to the ever-growing list of summer to reads.

Bonnie is right -- my "escape" reading tends to be mysteries -- even though more and more the best ones explore current, controversial topics! Can't get away from analysis!

Hi Bonnie and Beth! I love the shout-out for teachers! We care and we try and we keep on learning!
When I was teaching, I couldn't read anything much except mysteries and scifi. Now, I have the leisure to expand, and I'm loving it, but mysteries and scifi still have their place! I read a little LBJ this morning. It is fascinating but has so much print per page that I don't seem to make much headway. I'm in 1943 reading about the acquisition of the first radio station by Mrs. Johnson. She bought it with her money, but LBJ's influence made it wildly profitable. He dismissed it his whole life as being Bird's business. What a guy!

I just packed a big shopping basket at bookdepository, after comparing prices everywhere. The Bone People is in it (+ the complete "Dance to the Music of Time" series). Didn't go to checkout yet, I am trying to hold out some days longer.

>190 BLBera: if I looked at it objectively, I could poke some holes here and there. I don't want to.
I know what you mean Peggy, the story and great prose by far overwhelms any need for nit-picking! I still feel all warm inside from thinking about it.

Funny story....I read to the end and was left a little confused. I put the book down and thought about it, picked it up and reread the "last" section. And when I got to the end of the "last" section, I realised there was more! I had missed the whole epilogue! Haha, and what a relief it was to read those real last pages. It tied the whole thing up neatly.

I am not a teacher -- but I come from a long line of 'em. One distant relative, Lydia Chase Ranney, not only snuck the secret of Vermont cheddar into Ontario but also opened the first school in SW Ontario, getting a grant from the Ontario government (or rather, the Lower Canada government) in the 1830s. Born 1801; she died in 1901. Her niece was my g-g-grandmother.

Nathalie, I completely support your need to own and read ALL of *Dance* and *Bone* too. About the rest --- I probably support that too! Hopeless.
OH Megan, My heart would have been broken without the epilogue. Some mysteries remain, but that's O.K. Life's like that.
Ms. L.C. Ranney sounds like a hero. Energy! My own grandmama lived to 102, and she was a fast little woman. I'll bet LCR was too - not giving death much chance to catch up with them.

I'm so Bone was such a satisfying read. I read it long ago, and remember it as being enthralling.

Peggy and Megan--I'm so glad you loved The Bone People. I wonder if she'll ever write anything else? Maybe she's just a one-book writer, like Harper Lee.

Thank you, Lucy and Deborah. I just checked here, and they have several volumes of non-fiction, short stories, and poetry listed for Keri Hulme. I'm interested to see that there is no reference to the only other book Amazon lists, Bait.
O.K. I'm going to continue in a May-June thread even if I don't take time to do much setting up now!