What Are You Reading the Week of 27 July 2013?

Booth Tarkington (29 July 1869 – 19 May 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only three novelists (the others being William Faulkner and John Updike) to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once.

Booth Tarkington was born Newton Booth Tarkington in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington. He was named after his maternal uncle, Newton Booth, then the governor of California. Tarkington was also related to Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth through his wife Almyra Booth Woodworth.

Tarkington first attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, but completed his secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school on the East Coast. Tarkington attended Purdue University for two years, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the university's Morley Eating Club. Tarkington later made substantial donations to Purdue for the building of an all-men's residence hall, which the university named Tarkington Hall, in his honor. Purdue awarded him an honorary doctorate.

When some of his family's wealth returned after the Panic of 1873, his mother transferred Booth from Purdue to Princeton University. At Princeton, Tarkington was known among his fellow Eating Club members as "Tark". He was active as a student-actor and served as president of Princeton's Dramatic Association, which later became the Triangle Club. According to Triangle's official history, Tarkington made his first acting appearance in the club's Shakespearean spoof Katherine. This was one of the first three productions in the Triangle's history that was written and produced by Princeton students. The Triangle tradition that Tarkington established for productions of students' plays remains to the present day. Tarkington returned to the Triangle stage as Cassius in the 1893 production The Honorable Julius Caesar. He gained prominence that year at Princeton as a co-author of the play. In addition to his role as a founding member of The Triangle Club, he was also among the earliest members of the Ivy Club, the first of Princeton's historic Eating Clubs. He edited the Princeton's Nassau Literary Magazine, known more recently as The Nassau Lit.

While an undergraduate he is known to have socialized with Woodrow Wilson, an associate graduate member of the Ivy Club. Wilson returned to Princeton as a member of the political science faculty shortly before Tarkington matriculated; they maintained contact throughout Wilson's life. Tarkington failed to earn his undergraduate degree, the A.B., because of missing a single course in the classics. Nevertheless, his place within campus society was already determined, and he was voted "most popular" by the class of 1893. In his adult life, he was twice asked to return to Princeton for the conferral of honorary degrees, an A.M. in 1899 and a Litt.D. in 1918. The conferral of more than one honorary degree on an alumnus(ae) of Princeton University remains a university record.

While Tarkington never earned a college degree, he was accorded many awards recognizing and honoring his skills and accomplishments as an author. He won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction twice, in 1919 and 1922, for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. In 1921, booksellers rated him "the most significant contemporary American author" in a poll conducted by Publishers' Weekly. He won the O. Henry Memorial Award in 1931 for this short story "Cider of Normandy". His works appeared frequently on best sellers lists throughout his life. In addition to his honorary doctorate from Purdue, and his honorary masters and doctorate from Princeton, Tarkington was awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia University, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize, and several other universities.

Tarkington was an unabashed Midwestern regionalist, if somewhat of a world traveler, and set much of his fiction in his native Indiana. In 1902, he served one term in the Indiana House of Representatives as a Republican. Tarkington saw such public service as a responsibility of gentlemen in his socioeconomic class, and consistent with his family's extensive record of public service. This experience provided the foundation for his book In the Arena: Stories of Political Life. While his service as an Indiana legislator was his only official public service position, he remained politically conservative his entire life. He supported Prohibition, opposed FDR, and worked against FDR's New Deal.

Tarkington was one of the more popular American novelists of his time. His The Two Vanrevels and Mary's Neck appeared on the annual best-seller lists a total of nine times. The Penrod novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor. At one time, his Penrod series was as well known as Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. He himself came from a patrician Midwestern family that lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873. Today, he is best known for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons, which Orson Welles filmed in 1942. It is included in the Modern Library's list of top-100 novels. The second volume in Tarkington's Growth trilogy, it contrasted the decline of the "old money" Amberson dynasty with the rise of "new money" industrial tycoons in the years between the American Civil War and World War I.

Tarkington dramatized several of his novels; some were eventually filmed. He also collaborated with Harry Leon Wilson to write three plays. In 1928, he published a book of reminiscences, The World Does Move. He illustrated the books of others, including a 1933 reprint of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as his own. He took a close interest in fine art and collectibles, and was a trustee of the John Herron Art Museum.

Tarkington was married to Laurel Fletcher from 1902 until their divorce in 1911. Their only child, Laurel, was born in 1906 and died in 1923. He married Susanah Keifer Robinson in 1912. They had no children. Tarkington began losing his eyesight in the 1920s and was blind in his later years. He continued producing his works by dictating to a secretary.

Tarkington maintained a home in his native Indiana at 4270 North Meridian in Indianapolis. From 1923 until his death, Tarkington spent summers and then much of his later life in Kennebunkport, Maine at his much loved home, Seawood. In Kennebunkport he was well known as a sailor, and his schooner, the Regina, survived him. Regina was moored next to Tarkington's boathouse, The Floats which he also used as his studio. His extensively renovated studio is now the Kennebunkport Maritime Museum. It was from his home in Maine that he and his wife Susannah established their relation with nearby Colby College.

Tarkington made a gift of some his papers to Princeton University, his alma mater, and his wife Susannah, who survived him by over 20 years, made a separate gift of his remaining papers to Colby College after his death. Purdue University's library holds many of his works in its Special Collection's Indiana Collection. Indianapolis commemorates his impact on literature and the theatre, and his contributions as a Midwesterner and "son of Indiana" in its Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre. He is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Gentleman from Indiana (1899)
Monsieur Beaucaire (1900; later adapted as a play, an operetta and two films: 1924 and 1946)
Old Grey Eagle (1901)
Cherry (1901 - January, February Harper's Magazine) (1903 - book)
The Two Vanrevels (1902)
Poe's Run: and other poems . . to which is appended the book of the chronicles of the Elis (1904) - co-author, with M'Cready Sykes
In the Arena: Stories of Political Life (1905)
The Beautiful Lady (1905)
The Conquest of Canaan (1905)
The Guest of Quesnay (1907)
His Own People (1907)
The Man from Home (1908) - stage play co-written with Harry Leon Wilson
Beasley's Christmas Party (1909)
Your Humble Servant (1910) - stage play co-written with Harry Leon Wilson
Beauty and the Jacobin, an Interlude of the French Revolution (1912)
The Flirt (1913)
Penrod (1914)
The Turmoil (1915) (first volume of the trilogy Growth)
Penrod and Sam (1916)
Seventeen (1916)
The Spring Concert (1916)
The Rich Man's War (1917)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1918; won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize; filmed 1941 by Orson Welles, remade for TV in 2002; second volume of the trilogy Growth)
The Gibson Upright (1919) - stage play co-written with Harry Leon Wilson
Ramsey Milholland (1919)
War Stories (1919) - one of Tarkington's stories was included in this anthology
The Country Cousins: A Comedy in Four Acts (1921) - stage play
Clarence: A Comedy in Four Acts (1921) - stage play
Harlequin and Columbine (1921)
Alice Adams (1921; won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize; filmed 1923 and 1935)
The Intimate Strangers: A Comedy in Three Acts (1921) - stage play
Gentle Julia (1922; filmed in 1923 and 1936)
The Wren: A Comedy in Three Acts (1922) - stage play
The Ghost Story (1922)
The Midlander (1924) (1927 re-titled National Avenue; third volume of the trilogy Growth)
Women (1925)
Looking Forward, and Others, consisting of "Looking Forward to the Great Adventure", "Nipskillions", "The Hopeful Pessimist", "Stars in the Dust-heap", "The Golden Age", and "Happiness Now" (1926)
The Plutocrat (1927)
Claire Ambler (1928)
The World Does Move (1928)
Penrod Jashber (1929)
Mirthful Haven (1930)
Mary's Neck (1932)
Presenting Lily Mars (1933; filmed 1943)
Rumbin Galleries (1934)
Little Orvie (1934)
"Horse and Buggy Days" (1936) Cosmopolitan Magazine, September 1936
Some Old Portraits (1939) - essays on 17th century artworks
The Fighting Littles (1941)
The Heritage of Hatcher Ide (1941)
Kate Fennigate (1943)
Image of Josephine (1945)
The Show Piece (1947)

Whew!

How nice! Almost no one reads Tarkington anymore and he's definitely worth a look-see. I have Penrod and Penrod and Sam on my Kindle and when I get bored with the other things I'm read I fire them up and chuckle.

I'm reading West with the night by Beryl Markham and trying to finish Lolita

#74 Sebago (from the previous thread)

The White Queen is the first in that series - The Cousins War. The White Princess is the last. In between are four other really good books. I especially liked Lady of the Rivers about Jacquetta Rivers, the mother of Elizabeth - the White Queen, and grandmother to Elizabeth of York, the White Princess.

The author uses the very different lives of four of the major women involved in the War of the Roses to tell the story of that upheaval. I think it is very well done and I can't wait to see the TV series of it.

I finished reading two books today. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. The book was based on an idea by the YA author Siobhan Dowd who died from cancer. This is a very good YA novel about the difficult topic of losing a parent to cancer. The illustrations are wonderful and add to the story. The other book was the National Book Award winner for non-fiction a few years back The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. This book was so easy to read. Like sliding into a hot tub. I learned so much a out lots of early Renaissance history -things from Papal history to how middle class merchants paid taxes. Great stuff.

I finished Russell Hoban's Turtle Diary -- a lovely gem of a book.
Now I'm reading A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet by Eavan Boland.

I'm finishing Brilliance by Marcus Sakey and wondering what will be my next book.

Just started Where'd You Go, Bernadette. Hopefully I'll really get into it; the last couple of books I've read were just okay for me.

Finished Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant

Now: The Age of Ice by J.M.Sidorova

I'm still reading and enjoying If Jack's In Love by Stephen Wetta. My goal is to finish before school starts on Monday.

I just finished reading Middle Passage by Charles Johnson and posted a full review:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/157164

Now, I'm trying to decide for my next read between Home by Toni Morrison or A Mind To Murder by P.D. James or The Wayward Bus by Steinbeck. I guess I will try all three and the book that captures me will be the choice.

Marion

Taking a break from all the other reading to zip through Erica Bauermeister's latest: The Lost Art of Mixing. Very easy reading, touching a few nerves, though the fact that everyone is divorced/breaking up is a little tedious: long-standing, loving marriages may be rare, but not quite so as hen's teeth, I hope!

I didn't finish Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts in time for Thursday's meeting of the book club but have decided to carry on reading it anyway, although it is rather slow. Currently trying to finish War and Peace.

Finished Up in Flames by Geraldine Evans and started The Swimmer by David Haynes.

Started The End of Baseball last night and really, really like it. It's about an incredible 1944 baseball season that might have happened if Bill Veeck had been able to create a team major league team of Negro League stars.

Greetings all! My wife and I are back from two fascinating, enjoyable, action-packed weeks in Trinidad & Tobago. Perhaps I'll have some photos to share soon. During the trip, I finished three "vacation reads," a science fiction novel, a western and a mystery:

Sci Fi: Time Capsule by Mitch Berman

Western: Settler's Chase by D.H. Eraldi

Mystery: Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb

They were all entertaining. You can find more about each on my 50-Book Challenge thread or on the books' work pages. Note that I am the only LTer listing Settler's Chase right now. The touchstone isn't working at this time, although I did create a page for the book, so I guess it will start working shortly.

With the All-Star break just past, I finally decided to read my first baseball book of the year, and decided on The Year the Mets Lost Last Place by Paul Zimmerman and Dick Schaap. It's the story of the legendary Miracle Mets of 1969, written shortly after that remarkable season had concluded.

Touchstone: Settler's Chase

I'm slowly working my way through O's story by Pauline Reage. It's not a long story, but as it's not really gripping me, it is taking me some time. Not so much an 'erotic classic' in my opinion, more a story of letting people push your boundaries until you lose yourself more and more completely. I am interested in O, wondering why she let's herself be treated the way she is, why she is doing everything to hang onto the love of her lover Rene, which isn't too apparent anymore from about halfway through the book.

Decided to ditch the touchstone for the work as it came up as The hobbit and I don't want anyone accidentally ordering it thinking it's about hobbits, dwarves, dragons and trolls... :-)

I am reading Short Cuts by Raymond Carver.

#17> Cool, it's working now. I think it takes a bit for touchstones to start working when you add a new book to the system, as I had with this one.

Finished the art history murder mystery, The Last Judgement by Iain Pears. Enjoyable! Now to listen to the 4th in the Palliser series, Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope.

I'm just now starting on Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie, which I checked out from the library. It should be interesting. It is mystery set in Pakistan involving a murdered poet, his lover who disappears two years later, and her daughter who receives a mysterious letter in a secret code that leads her to search for her mother.

How about some superhero fiction? League of Somebodies made me smile. http://www.librarything.com/topic/157135#4218223

I finished and REVIEWED Ruth Ozeki's inventive novel A Tale for the Time Being.

Up next: Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe.

Reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette and enjoying it. Interesting to me too since it takes place in Seattle, a city I love and used to live in.

My latest is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, so far fascinating historical fiction.

Finally getting to Art Forger. It's enjoyable.

Finished TransAtlantic last night which I really enjoyed and am about to start Eight a girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto

Hallelujah, I finished The Golden Notebook.

Now I've started Lucky Jim, which seems pretty entertaining 25 pages in.

Finished The Swimmer by David Haynes. Very badly edited. Random commas all over the place except where they were actually needed. Question marks in places where questions weren't being asked or even in places where sentences ended. A few instances of the wrong word being used or the correct word being used multiple times but with another word separating the duo. And the story itself was mediocre at best.

Started A Long Time Dead by Andrew Barrett.

I started reading Southwestern Homelands by William Kittridge since I finished my other non-fiction book The Swerve. I wanted to take a little vacation from heavy hitting non-fiction so went with a travel book. I purchased this book after visiting my sister who was living in El Paso at the time. I figured I would be visiting her more often in the future and so needed to bone up on the area. Last week she moved to Bozeman, MT. I guess I still need to learn more about the desert Southwest so will go ahead and read the book.

I am really enjoying The Trudeau Vector, I don't understand why I wanted to long to read this book. It is set in the Arctic and makes a cool summer read.

I'll have to take a short break from The Passage - I just don't have the mental focus for this book right now. But in the meantime, I'm working on Breed, rereading Sphere, listening to 11/22/63, and I just picked up The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes as well as Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde, for a touch of YA fantasy/horror.

I have picked up to read The Upright Piano Player by David Abbott.

I finished Maggie O'Farrell's latest, Instructions for a Heatwave, which I loved. I don't know why I've waited so long to try this author.

My current read is a Travis McGee book, Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D MacDonald.

I finished Short Cuts by Raymond Carver and put up a small review. I am now onto the (wonderful so far) novel Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler.

I'm in and out of a lot of reads these days: Sacred Acts in the mornings, The Interestings and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking during the days and evenings, and Salt Sugar Fat and The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry just before bed.

Finished reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette which was the first book all month that I loved. It was unique, funny, and fast-paced, with a main character that I fell in love with. A must-read for anyone with a sense of humor.

Just finished Hand Me Down World by New Zealand author Lloyd Jones. Good...different but good. I enjoyed his Mr Pip, which again was different but good.

Next up is Caleb's Crossing: A Novel which has been on my TBR list for ages.

After years of struggle my husband, just 52, died two days ago of cancer. I will need the solace of my second love reading as soon as I am able. I do have a couple of books unique to me to share with everyone when I recover.

>39 Travis1259: Oh David! I am so so very sorry for your loss. Safe journey home to him, and a swift return of reading solace for you.

I'm sending hugs for you, and wish I could give them to you personally.

>39 Travis1259: Travis1259

I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope his loved ones are waiting for him on the other side and your loved ones will comfort you on this side.

(((Travis1259)))) I am so, so incredibly sorry. Sending love to you.

Travis 1259 -I am so sorry for your loss. I lost the love of my life almost 16 months ago and I know the difficult road you're on Hugs coming your way((((()))))

{{{{{Travis1259}}}}} I am so sorry for your loss.

#39: Our thoughts are with you. So sorry for your loss.

{{{{{{{{{{{Travis}}}}}}}}}}}}}

I'm so sorry.

I am so terribly sorry for your loss. May you find solace in the good times you had together. {{{David}}}

Travis my deepest sympathy for your loss. May you find great solace in reading.

Travis, my condolences. May peace be with you as you adjust to the new shape of your universe!

Travis--All my sympathies.

The late, great Iain (M.) Banks's passing inspired a number of group reads of his books in different Internetty places. I joined one for THE WASP FACTORY here in the 75ers group. A lot of people had ewww-ick responses; my response is here, and on the book's review page.

This is one great, as in Lolita-type great, book.

The Never List by Koethi Zan - Great debut novel about a depraved madman who abducts young girls and imprisons them in his cellar where he tortures them. One eventually escapes and he is sent to prison. The story takes you through both their past struggles while held captive, as well as their on-going challenges to put the past behind them and trying to live normal lives. After 10 years, they learn that the man may soon be released, and that he has not forgotten them. Read the entire book in one day!

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole - Another good debut novel written entirely through letters. Wasn't sure that I was going to like a story told in this way but I found that the letters were able to tell the story just as clearly, while keeping your interest.

<3 hugs Travis.

I just finished listening to Shelter Me! What a great book... I cried, laughed and the book left me not wanting to start another right away. I need to "let this one settle" for a bit. I might have to pick this up in written form for my library because I know I will want to read it again! Next up Clash of Kings I am having a difficult time reading this series, find myself losing track of people and kingdoms. Love the HBO series though so will continue reading. :)

I'm currently in the middle of Shade of the Tree by Piers Anthony, which I've read at least twice before, not since I was a teenager though. I'm enjoying it just as much as I did then. I don't think it occurred to me at that age what a strongly recurring motif of death it has - not normally something that would attract me to a book, but for some reason I really like this one.

I'm now reading Twenties girl by Sophie Kinsella. It's sweet, it's light, it's funny. Just the sort of thing I was looking for and I'm enjoying it very much.

**Travis** so sorry, my thoughts are with you.
My husband has been battling cancer for 18 months, he is now receiving palliative care, mostly at home but occassionally in the Hospice. Reading is certainly an amazing release in times of need. I seem to have been saying one day at a time for such a long time now, but there is no other option than to deal with whatever comes your way each day.
I hope your happy memories bring you some comfort xx

Read and thoroughly enjoyed The Cuckoo's Calling. This is a genre that I haven't explored that much but now I will!

So, I almost forgot to write about all the books I read this week! :) I know that I can skip a week, but I like keeping track this way. Anyway, I finished reading A Crime of Honor by Giovanni Arpino on Tuesday, July 23rd. It was a translation from the Italian, and was a superb look at the changing social mores of Italian society between the World Wars.

The next day, I started reading Bloodprint: A Novel of Psychological Suspense by Kitty Sewell - a Swedish author who is new for me. I finished this book on Sunday, July 28th. It certainly was an exciting plot, just a bit too slow and convoluted for my taste.

On Sunday night, I began reading Island Murders by Wanda Canada. This was the first book of the Carroll Davenport Mystery Series. I finished reading this book on Tuesday, July 30th. The book certainly started off strongly, and Carroll is a feisty, determined heroine; but her feistiness tended to get on my nerves because she was constantly arguing with the FBI agent charged with protecting her.

On Tuesday night, I started reading The Wheat Field by Steve Thayer. I finished reading this book on Wednesday, July 31st. This is the first book in the Pliny Pennington Series and is a mystery that takes place in Wisconsin in 1960. I really enjoyed it! :)

On Wednesday night, I began reading Bloodroot by Amy Greene. At 193 pages in, I'm really enjoying it so far.