What Are You Reading The Week of May 23, 2015?

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.

He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste.1 He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh.23 His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was born in England of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary (née Foley), was Irish Catholic. His parents married in 1855.4 In 1864 the family dispersed due to Charles's growing alcoholism and the children were temporarily housed across Edinburgh. In 1867, the family came together again and lived in squalid tenement flats at 3 Sciennes Place.

Supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, at the age of nine (1868–70). He then went on to Stonyhurst College until 1875. From 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria.5 By the time he left, he had rejected religion and become an agnostic,6 though he would eventually become a spiritualist mystic.

Doyle's father died in 1893, in the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, after many years of psychiatric illness.

Although Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or simply "Conan Doyle" (implying that Conan is part of a compound surname, as opposed to a given middle name), his baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his Christian names, and simply "Doyle" as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather. The cataloguers of the British Library and the Library of Congress treat "Doyle" alone as his surname.

Steven Doyle, editor of the Baker Street Journal, has written, "Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'."12 When knighted he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle.13 Nevertheless, the actual use of a compound surname is demonstrated by the fact that Doyle's second wife was known as "Jean Conan Doyle" rather than "Jean Doyle".

Doyle was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 188019 and, after his graduation from university in 1881 as M.B., C.M., as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast.5 He completed his M.D. degree (an advanced degree in England beyond the usual medical degrees) on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885.20

In 1882 he joined former classmate George Turnavine Budd as his partner at a medical practice in Plymouth, but their relationship proved difficult, and Doyle soon left to set up an independent practice.521 Arriving in Portsmouth in June 1882 with less than £10 (£900 today22) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea.23 The practice was initially not very successful. While waiting for patients, Doyle again began writing fiction.

In 1890 Doyle studied ophthalmology in Vienna, and moved to London, first living in Montague Place and then in South Norwood. He set up a practice as an ophthalmologist at No. 2 Upper Wimpole St, London W1.24 (A Westminster Council plaque in place over the front door can be seen today.)

Portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget, 1904
Doyle struggled to find a publisher for his work. His first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, A Study in Scarlet, was taken by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, giving Doyle £25 for all rights to the story. The piece appeared later that year in the Beeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald.5 Holmes was partially modelled on his former university teacher Joseph Bell. Doyle wrote to him, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes ... round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man."25 Dr. (John) Watson owes his surname, but not any other obvious characteristic, to a Portsmouth medical colleague of Doyle's, Dr James Watson.26

Robert Louis Stevenson was able, even in faraway Samoa, to recognise the strong similarity between Joseph Bell and Sherlock Holmes: "My compliments on your very ingenious and very interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ... can this be my old friend Joe Bell?"27 Other authors sometimes suggest additional influences—for instance, the famous Edgar Allan Poe character C. Auguste Dupin.28

A sequel to A Study in Scarlet was commissioned and The Sign of the Four appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in February 1890, under agreement with the Ward Lock company. Doyle felt grievously exploited by Ward Lock as an author new to the publishing world and he left them.5 Short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes were published in the Strand Magazine. Doyle first began to write for the 'Strand' from his home at 2 Upper Wimpole Street, now marked by a memorial plaque.29

Sherlock Holmes statue in Edinburgh, erected opposite the birthplace of Doyle which was demolished c.1970
Doyle's attitude towards his most famous creation was ambivalent.26 In November 1891 he wrote to his mother: "I think of slaying Holmes ... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things." His mother responded, "You won't! You can't! You mustn't!".30 In an attempt to deflect publishers' demands for more Holmes stories, he raised his price to a level intended to discourage them, but found they were willing to pay even the large sums he asked.26 As a result, he became one of the best-paid authors of his time.

In December 1893, to dedicate more of his time to his historical novels, Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty plunge to their deaths together down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem". Public outcry, however, led him to feature Holmes in 1901 in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

In 1903, Doyle published his first Holmes short story in ten years, The Adventure of the Empty House, in which it was explained that only Moriarty had fallen; but since Holmes had other dangerous enemies—especially Colonel Sebastian Moran—he had arranged to also be perceived as dead. Holmes was ultimately featured in a total of 56 short stories - the last published in 1927 - and four novels by Doyle, and has since appeared in many novels and stories by other authors.

Jane Stanford compares some of Moriarty's characteristics to those of the Fenian John O'Connor Power. 'The Final Problem' was published the year the Second Home Rule Bill passed through the House of Commons. 'The Valley of Fear' was serialised in 1914, the year Home Rule, the Government of Ireland Act (18 September) was placed on the Statute Book.31

Doyle's first novels were The Mystery of Cloomber, not published until 1888, and the unfinished Narrative of John Smith, published only in 2011.32 He amassed a portfolio of short stories including "The Captain of the Pole-Star" and "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", both inspired by Doyle's time at sea, the latter of which popularised the mystery of the Mary Celeste and added fictional details such as the perfect condition of the ship (which had actually taken on water by the time it was discovered) and its boats remaining on board (the one boat was in fact missing) that have come to dominate popular accounts of the incident.15

Between 1888 and 1906, Doyle wrote seven historical novels, which he and many critics regarded as his best work.26 He also authored nine other novels, and later in his career (1912-1929) five stories, two of novella length, featuring the irascible scientist Professor Challenger. The Challenger stories include what is probably his best-known work after the Holmes oeuvre, The Lost World. He was a prolific author of short stories, including two collections set in Napoleonic times featuring the French character Brigadier Gerard.

Doyle's stage works include Waterloo, the reminiscences of an English veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, the character of Gregory Brewster being written for Henry Irving; The House of Temperley, the plot of which reflects his abiding interest of boxing; The Speckled Band, after the short story of that name; and the 1893 collaboration with J.M. Barrie on the libretto of Jane Annie.33

Sporting careeredit
While living in Southsea, Doyle played football as a goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur side, under the pseudonym A. C. Smith.34 (This club, disbanded in 1896, has no connection with the present-day Portsmouth F.C., which was founded in 1898.) Doyle was a keen cricketer, and between 1899 and 1907 he played 10 first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He also played for the amateur cricket team the Allahakbarries alongside authors J. M. Barrie and A. A. Milne.35

His highest score, in 1902 against London County, was 43. He was an occasional bowler who took just one first-class wicket (although one of the highest pedigree—it was W. G. Grace).36 Also a keen golfer, Doyle was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in Sussex for 1910. (He had moved to Little Windlesham house in Crowborough with his second wife, Jean Leckie, living there with his family from 1907 until his death in July 1930.37)

Marriages and familyedit
In 1885 Doyle married Mary Louise (sometimes called "Louisa") Hawkins, the youngest daughter of J. Hawkins, of Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, and sister of one of Doyle's patients. She suffered from tuberculosis and died on 4 July 1906.38 The following year he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie, whom he had first met and fallen in love with in 1897. He had maintained a platonic relationship with Jean while his first wife was still alive, out of loyalty to her.39 Jean died in London on 27 June 1940.40

Doyle fathered five children. He had two with his first wife: Mary Louise (28 January 1889 – 12 June 1976) and Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, known as Kingsley (15 November 1892 – 28 October 1918). He also had three with his second wife: Denis Percy Stewart (17 March 1909 – 9 March 1955), second husband of Georgian Princess Nina Mdivani; Adrian Malcolm (19 November 1910 – 3 June 1970); and Jean Lena Annette (21 December 1912 – 18 November 1997).41

Doyle's house in South Norwood, London
Following the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century and the condemnation from some quarters over the United Kingdom's role, Doyle wrote a short work titled The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, which justified the UK's role in the Boer War and was widely translated. Doyle had served as a volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June 1900.42 Doyle believed that this publication was responsible for his being knighted as a Knight Bachelor by King Edward VII in 190213 and for his appointment as a Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey.43 Also in 1900 he wrote a book, The Great Boer War.

He twice stood for Parliament as a Liberal Unionist—in 1900 in Edinburgh Central and in 1906 in the Hawick Burghs—but although he received a respectable vote, he was not elected.44 In May 1903 he was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.45

Doyle was a supporter of the campaign for the reform of the Congo Free State, led by the journalist E. D. Morel and diplomat Roger Casement. During 1909 he wrote The Crime of the Congo, a long pamphlet in which he denounced the horrors of that colony. He became acquainted with Morel and Casement, and it is possible that, together with Bertram Fletcher Robinson, they inspired several characters in the 1912 novel The Lost World.46 Doyle broke with both Morel and Casement when Morel became one of the leaders of the pacifist movement during the First World War. When Casement was found guilty of treason against the Crown during the Easter Rising, Doyle tried unsuccessfully to save him from facing the death penalty, arguing that Casement had been driven mad and could not be held responsible for his actions.47

Doyle statue in Crowborough, East Sussex
Doyle was also a fervent advocate of justice and personally investigated two closed cases, which led to two men being exonerated of the crimes of which they were accused. The first case, in 1906, involved a shy half-British, half-Indian lawyer named George Edalji who had allegedly penned threatening letters and mutilated animals in Great Wyrley. Police were set on Edalji's conviction, even though the mutilations continued after their suspect was jailed.48

It was partially as a result of this case that the Court of Criminal Appeal was established in 1907. Apart from helping George Edalji, his work helped establish a way to correct other miscarriages of justice. The story of Doyle and Edalji was dramatised in an episode of the 1972 BBC television series, "The Edwardians". In Nicholas Meyer's pastiche The West End Horror (1976), Holmes manages to help clear the name of a shy Parsi Indian character wronged by the English justice system. Edalji was of Parsi heritage on his father's side. The story was fictionalised in Julian Barnes's 2005 novel Arthur & George, which was adapted into a three-part drama by ITV in 2015.

The second case, that of Oscar Slater, a Yekke and gambling-den operator convicted of bludgeoning an 82-year-old woman in Glasgow in 1908, excited Doyle's curiosity because of inconsistencies in the prosecution case and a general sense that Slater was not guilty. He ended up paying most of the costs for Slater's successful appeal in 1928.49

One of the five photographs of Frances Griffiths with the alleged fairies, taken by Elsie Wright in July 1917
Doyle had a longstanding interest in mystical subjects. In 1887 he joined the Society for Psychical Research and was also initiated as a Freemason (26 January 1887) at the Phoenix Lodge No 257 in Southsea. He resigned from the Lodge in 1889, but returned to it in 1902, only to resign again in 1911.50

Following the death of his wife Louisa in 1906, the death of his son Kingsley just before the end of the First World War, and the deaths of his brother Innes, his two brothers-in-law (one of whom was E. W. Hornung, creator of the literary character Raffles) and his two nephews shortly after the war, Doyle sank into depression. He found solace supporting spiritualism and its attempts to find proof of existence beyond the grave. In particular, according to some,51 he favoured Christian Spiritualism and encouraged the Spiritualists' National Union to accept an eighth precept – that of following the teachings and example of Jesus of Nazareth. He was a member of the renowned supernatural organisation The Ghost Club.52

On 28 October 1918, Kingsley Doyle died from pneumonia, which he contracted during his convalescence after being seriously wounded during the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Brigadier-General Innes Doyle died, also from pneumonia, in February 1919. Sir Arthur became involved with Spiritualism to the extent that he wrote a novella on the subject, The Land of Mist, featuring the character Professor Challenger. The Coming of the Fairies (1922)53 appears to show that Conan Doyle was convinced of the veracity of the five Cottingley Fairies photographs (which decades later were exposed as a hoax). He reproduced them in the book, together with theories about the nature and existence of fairies and spirits.

In 1920, Doyle debated the notable sceptic Joseph McCabe on the claims of Spiritualism at Queen's Hall in London. McCabe later published his evidence against Doyle and Spiritualism in a booklet entitled Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? which claimed Doyle had been duped into believing Spiritualism by mediumship trickery.54

Doyle was friends for a time with Harry Houdini, the American magician who himself became a prominent opponent of the Spiritualist movement in the 1920s following the death of his beloved mother. Although Houdini insisted that Spiritualist mediums employed trickery (and consistently exposed them as frauds), Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers—a view expressed in Doyle's The Edge of the Unknown. Houdini was apparently unable to convince Doyle that his feats were simply illusions, leading to a bitter public falling out between the two.55 A specific incident is recounted in memoirs by Houdini's friend Bernard M.L. Ernst, in which Houdini performed an impressive trick at his home in the presence of Conan Doyle. Houdini assured Conan Doyle the trick was pure illusion and that he was attempting to prove a point about Doyle not "endorsing phenomena" simply because he had no explanation. According to Ernst, Conan Doyle refused to believe it was a trick.56

In 1922, the psychical researcher Harry Price accused the spirit photographer William Hope of fraud. Doyle defended Hope, but further evidence of trickery was obtained from other researchers.57 Doyle threatened to have Price evicted from the National Laboratory of Psychical Research and claimed if he persisted to write "sewage" about spiritualists, he would meet the same fate as Harry Houdini.58 Price wrote "Arthur Conan Doyle and his friends abused me for years for exposing Hope."59 Because of the exposure of Hope and other fraudulent spiritualists, Doyle in the 1920s led a mass resignation of eighty-four members of the Society for Psychical Research, as they believed the Society was opposed to spiritualism.60

Doyle and spiritualist William Thomas Stead were duped into believing Julius and Agnes Zancig had genuine psychic powers. Both Doyle and Stead claimed the Zancigs performed telepathy. In 1924 Julius and Agnes Zancig confessed that that their mind reading act was a trick and published the secret code and all the details of the trick method they had used under the title of Our Secrets!! in a London newspaper.61 In his book The History of Spiritualism (1926), Doyle praised the psychic phenomena and spirit materializations produced by Eusapia Palladino and Mina Crandon, who were both exposed as frauds.62 In 1927, Doyle spoke in a filmed interview about Sherlock Holmes and spiritualism.63

Richard Milner, an American historian of science, has presented a case that Doyle may have been the perpetrator of the Piltdown Man hoax of 1912, creating the counterfeit hominid fossil that fooled the scientific world for over 40 years. Milner says that Doyle had a motive—namely, revenge on the scientific establishment for debunking one of his favourite psychics—and that The Lost World contains several encrypted clues regarding his involvement in the hoax.6465 Samuel Rosenberg's 1974 book Naked is the Best Disguise purports to explain how, throughout his writings, Doyle left open clues that related to hidden and suppressed aspects of his mentality.66

Doyle's grave at Minstead, England
Doyle was found clutching his chest in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in Crowborough, East Sussex, on 7 July 1930. He died of a heart attack at the age of 71. His last words were directed toward his wife: "You are wonderful."67 At the time of his death, there was some controversy concerning his burial place, as he was avowedly not a Christian, considering himself a Spiritualist. He was first buried on 11 July 1930 in Windlesham rose garden.

He was later reinterred together with his wife in Minstead churchyard in the New Forest, Hampshire.5 Carved wooden tablets to his memory and to the memory of his wife are held privately and are inaccessible to the public. That inscription reads, "Blade straight/Steel true/Arthur Conan Doyle/Born May 22nd 1859/Passed on 7th July 1930."

The epitaph on his gravestone in the churchyard reads, in part: "Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, Physician, and man of letters".68

Undershaw, the home near Hindhead, Haslemere, which Doyle had built and lived in between October 1897 and September 1907,69 was a hotel and restaurant from 1924 until 2004. It was then bought by a developer and stood empty while conservationists and Doyle fans fought to preserve it.38 In 2012 the High Court ruled the redevelopment permission be quashed because proper procedure had not been followed.70

A statue honours Doyle at Crowborough Cross in Crowborough, where he lived for 23 years.71 There is a statue of Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, close to the house where Doyle was born.72

Reading Holmes -- a confession. Okay, I read all the "case of" books as a teenager, and frankly found one or two were good, others so-so, and some I just couldn't like. Frankly, I much preferred the old B&W movies and PBS series, regardless of who acted in them, to the written stories. Call me a Philistine.

Doyle's books are not in my library on LT as, likewise, many of the books I read as a youngster are not listed. And because I vacuumed up lots of murder mysteries and espionage novels in the past, I haven't listed everyone of the Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, P D James, and even John Le Carre novels I've scarffed up over the years.

Am I trying to high tone my future legacy library by leaving them out? I've left out most of the kiddie lit I read, too. Does it matter how truthful one is about our LT libraries, or is it more important not to have ethical guidelines regarding it?

Anyway, on to what I'm reading this week. . .

Longbourn (CD)
All the Light We Cannot See
A Man About the House (novella) (a little known work by Ward Durrance)
The President's Hat

All excellent. All in my LT record.

I'm still reading In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: a Memoir of Iran by Christopher de Bellaigue. It's a very interesting look at life in Iran, blending with great information about the history of the Iranian Revolution, all that led up to it, and its aftermath. I just haven't had much time for reading lately, but things should calm down after this weekend.

Marking my spot...

She-Wolves by Helen Castor
A collective biography of 5 Queens of England who made their mark before Elizabeth I.
Library copy

Just finished my re-read of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.

Onto (I think), Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman.

Finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Loved it. Next up is Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb.

I'm working my way through The Sportswriter by Richard Ford. Enjoying it so far.

>7 seitherin:

I bought Station Eleven on Kindle a few weeks ago. I hope to get to it soon.

I am reading, and really enjoying, Some Luck by Jane Smiley.

Started my ER read Running From the Mirror, which while interesting, has thus far put me to sleep twice for some much-needed lengthy naps. Great for this recent insomniac!

I finished No Country: A Novel which I quite enjoyed. It is a novel sprawling over 140 years, several generations, and three continents, providing a picture of everyday life in those various settings. The complexity of the lives of the various intriguing characters kept the book fresh although I must admit I lost some threads towards the end. As the title suggests, one theme is the dislocation caused by immigration.

Print books:
All the Light We Cannot See for the RL book club this week.
Bitch in a Bonnet which is laugh out loud funny as well as teaching me a lot
I Thought It Was Just Me - reading assignment

And my audiobook: Main Street. I live in a Very Small Town and it's sad-but-interesting how little attitudes toward 'outsiders' have changed in a hundred years.

ETA: Thank you Hemlockgang for that introduction. I agree with >2 Limelite: that although I really want to like Doyle's Sherlock books and I intend to read the entire cannon, it ain't easy.

>2 Limelite: It's totally up to you whatever you want to list in your library!

I am reading Gone Girl and trying to finish Place of Greater Safety. Both books are interesting but I am not going to have much time to read this next week.

I finished The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. It's a wonderful book -- so beautifully written.

I also finished The Best Spiritual Writing 2007 -- another good collection of essays and poetry. I especially appreciated essays by Adam Gopnik, Ann McCutchan, Garry Wills, Carol Huang, and Michael D. Jackson, as well as poems by Mark Strand, John Updike, Robert Cording, Deborah Digges, and Franz Wright. Tomorrow I will begin reading the 2012 edition of that series, one selection per day.

I'm now reading Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

I finally finished The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe. It's not a bad book, it's just not particularly good. It's a rather shallow treatment of the lives of Manet, Monet, Pissaro, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Morisot, Cassatt, Caillebotte, and several others. All packed into a 270 page book. Probably three or four times that space would have been needed to do the subject justice. Roe flits from painter to painter, seldom devoting more than a couple of paragraphs at a time to any one of them. You almost never get a good feel for the artists or their lives. What you will get is the street address of every home and studio they occupied between 1864 and 1886. It's like reading the Paris directory.

Next up is The Diary of Samuel Pepys: 1666 which covers the year of the Great London Fire.

>5 princessgarnet: Lime Spouse enjoyed that book very much. I enjoyed it in a way, too, as I listened to him wax on about the queens. Lot's of fun for both of us to wonder how much of their wolfish reputations are due to the misogynistic male contemporaries and historians.

>12 streamsong: Well, I'm glad to get someone's seal of approval about no rules nor requirements attached to LT library entries. And what is it about these Sherlock worshipers, anyway? Lord Peter Wimsey is so much more entrancing! Even his full name trumps Sherlock's. (grin)

I finished and loved Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins. She just can't write fast enough for me. Now I'm catching up on last year's Gamache, Louise Penny's The Long Way Home, before her new one is released in August.

Gave up on Dead Wake, (I know how it ends) and am starting All the Light We Cannot See to find out what all the fuss and prizes are about.

I read Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things today, and didn't much enjoy it. This never happens. Gaiman is a guaranteed good read. *sigh*

Now I'm steeped in Jane Austen knock-offs, thoroughly enjoying Longbourn by Jo Baker. I've read Pride and Prejudice at least a dozen times, and never given a second thought to the lives of their servants, so I'm finding this book very interesting. So glad I'm not a servant!

I just flew home from an out-of-town conference and started Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The story was immediately engaging and it made the flight go by quickly!

I'm now 200 pages into Road Dogs and am still waiting for something to happen. It's my first Elmore Leonard and on this showing, it'll be my last.

Finished A Survey of Russian Music. It's good to know I'm not the only person who doesn't rate Shostakovich.

Currently reading Graham Masterton's Charnel House and Other Stories. Read it years ago. It's a horror story about the demonic Native American trickster god, Coyote. Masterton's first novel was The Manitou (filmed with Tony Curtis and Michael Ansara as John Singing Rock), then spun off not only several sequels over the years since, but other books on ethnic demons and creatures like The Djinn, The Sphinx, Pariah, Tengu, etc. In recent years I understand he's moved away from the pure supernatural just as he switched away from his early specialty, sex guides, when that market collapsed. (Prior to that, he edited Penthouse.) I love his demon stories, they're somewhat Lovecraftian, but you don't get teased with the monster. They actually slam their way fully into the story. And I like monster stories...I've always felt psycho killers are too close to reality. I'll probably finish it today and may turn to the fourth Marcus Didus Falco novel...Lindsay Davis' Falco is a private informer in Emperor Vespasian's Rome.

I finished Dead Wake and am pondering my review. It bears comparison to Walter Lord's A Night to Remember, notwithstanding the crucial difference: namely, that the Titanic sank through an accidental collision, and the Lusitania was targeted in an act of war. Both were catastrophic losses that resulted from an almost unimaginably tight convergence of variables.

I stayed up most of the night to finish Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also finished a book I've been reading -- a few letters at a time -- for a couple of years: What There is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell. Those last few letters were difficult to read, knowing as I did that they were approaching the end of their lives. I will miss this book. It's been such a privilege to see into their world, into that marvelous friendship. I'm tempted to start it over again at the beginning, and perhaps I shall someday, but the TBR pile beckons.

I'm going to begin a project I've thought about for some time: reading the poems and the autobiographical prose pieces of Elizabeth Bishop. I also want to read Words in Air, Bishop's correspondence with Robert Lowell, and Colm Toibin's new book, On Elizabeth Bishop, from the Writers on Writers series. This will be a long-range project which I'll work on a little each day.

I recently came across this article about Toibin and wanted to share it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/promotions/events/11620240/Colm-Toibin-Writing-is-alw...

I'm also reading a novel by Michael Byers, Long for This World.

After a month+ of craziness, which involved moving to our new house, which has A LIBRARY (squee!), I am finally back on LT. Right now, I'm reading Sex on the Moon, One Thousand Gifts, Letter to a Future Lover, and Harvest Poems.

#21
I love Shostakovich. And Rachmaninoff. I just love those big Russian symphonic pieces.

#24
I have that book of the letters of Maxwell and Welty languishing on my book shelves. I am beginning to hear it calling faintly to me. Maybe after I finish Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914.

I am reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, good read but seems to drag on sometimes, lose concentration sometimes and having to re-read chapters (I hate that). This for me seems to be a slow reading year, slowly finishing up the fifth book this year. I'm going to blame Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler as the culprit for my slow reading year. It took me nearly three month to get through the first volume, and eventually I will pickup the second half. I am also trying to finish up Grimm's Fairy Tales. Seems like the past few years that I have been reading a few stories out of it every now and then, mainly in between books before I pick up another book, or early in a book before I get into the book. I'm going to have to look at some better choices for my next book, I'd rather be devouring books as opposed to limping through them.

Just finished Longbourn by Jo Baker. I don't know how to feel about it. I wasn't happy with the ending, as I admit readily that I like neatly-packaged fairy-tale conclusions. I did enjoy, very much, the details of housework and the duties of servants in the Georgian era. There is so much I take for granted in this century, here in urban Ontario, Canada. I also liked the plot twist a great deal; it blindsided me. However, I feel unsatisfied, and whether that is the book, or the sheer amount of painkillers I've needed to take today numbing the capacity of my brain, I simply do not know. The book certainly engaged my interest and was an easy, enjoyable read, for all that I am complaining.

Tomorrow I will start Redbreast by Jo Nesbo. I'm looking forward to the solving of Norwegian crime.

#28
I think that Redbreast is the best of the Jo Nesbo books. I want to read the new non-fiction book about the Andre Brevek neo-nazi massacre because the Redbreast so intrigued me. I discovered that Norway has quite a past.

>28 ahef1963: If you think about the ending of Longbourn in contrast to the ending of P & P, it takes on added meaning, and for me, it became satisfying. I'm a fan of Longbourn, and thought it was cleverly and engagingly done.

I'm reading a couple of unusual (for me) ones: Artificial Absolutes, a sci--fi tale recommended by Publishers Weekly, and The Chimes, a music-based story recommended by a fellow LTer.

#21, 26

I adore Rachmaninoff. Calvocoressi, writing in 1943, describes his music as "conservative and non-national".

Finished Road Dogs.

Did you like A Fine Balance? You must have as you're reading it again. I ask because I found it more than a little off-putting.

'haven't read Fragile Things as yet, but I do read lots of NG

>29 benitastrnad: I'm only two chapters into The Redbreast, so I can't give an opinion yet. I find all of Nesbo's Harry Hole books very good, particularly Police. I admit surprise that Norway has neo-Nazis, I will say that. In my head, Norway is travel-poster perfect, with fjords and seafood, and there has been no place in those travel posters for racism. I will definitely need some historical background.

>30 jnwelch: I hadn't looked at Longbourn's ending in comparison to Pride and Prejudice's ending, but I see your point. Thanks for suggesting that angle! I think that tiredness and pain had made me a less-than-perfect judge of literature; this morning I looked back at Longbourn with much more tolerance!

>31 cappybear: Oh, I won't argue with the off-putting. There are some things in A Fine Balance that I wish I hadn't read. Unfortunately, it's the case with most literature about India - the realities of life there must be very harsh for filth and dire poverty to be so much the rule, rather than the exception. I love the book. If I were making a Top 10 List for books, it would be there. Such fine story-telling, no matter how hard the tale.

I finished Some Luck and loved it. However, the interesting and engaging children, save one, all became really selfish and unlikable adults. So I don't know how well it bodes for the second book in the trilogy, Early Warning ... that said, I'm going to give it a go. No one promised me any family saga would be a happy event. The writing is mesmerizing. So is the American history.

>33 ahef1963: Ah, good. Glad that helped.

A Fine Balance takes the prize for the saddest book I've ever read.

I just finished Laura Pritchett's Sky Bridge. It was her debut book. She's written a few others since, all good, and it's a shame she is not better known. She is a great voice of the new American West.

My current reads are A God in Ruins and The Ghost Fields.

I'm reading my second Nevil Shute, In the Wet, and struggling just a little bit because of the casual racism taken for granted at the time of publication (1953) . . . even though I generally manage to read books in the light of their own historical and cultural context and not blame people for seeing things as their neighbors did rather than as they (presumably) would see them now.

I'll go on with it for now, since the focal character is interesting and the setting and situation entirely novel to me, but, as always, I reserve the option to drop out. Waiting on deck is another LT book bullet, Love and Garbage, by Ivan Klima.

I finished up Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E. Ambrose (also author of Band of Brothers). It was a fascinating but heart-rending account of the first British troops to land by glider as part of the D-day landing operations (they landed further inland in order to capture and hold while awaiting parachute support two bridges to facilitate movement of the troops who would land later the same day). This week I've been able to visit the area which has added further to the impact of it.

I also finished Dracula at last which was with relief rather than enjoyment - I found it a little disappointing and a surprise for how little Dracula was actually in it. I gave up on the The House at Riverton and Dear Life audiobooks, because I just wasn't in the right mood. I can see me coming back to THOR at some point.

Right now, I'm making my way through The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis and The Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters (turns out this is actually the fourth in a series but I've picked up what I needed to for it to make sense).

>19 ahef1963: Your comment with regard to Fragile Things is actually reassuring - it's the only Neil Gaiman that I've read and I can't say that I enjoyed it, but still sitting on the TBR pile are American Gods and Neverwhere both of which are languishing somewhat due to my reaction to FT.

>36 Copperskye: The interest in Laura Pritchett is spreading on Librarything, in part because of this short and sweet article about Kent Haruf mentoring her, the link to which appeared on msf59's (Mark's) thread: http://lithub.com/the-kindest-mentor/

I'm reading Haruf's new, and last, book, Our Souls at Night, and it's wonderful.

I've canceled my library request for Love and Garbage. Maybe another time. I can't handle something that dark right now. Nor do I want something giddy and insubstantial. I'll be looking for an absorbing novel that doesn't sound anything like present reality. Kind of wish I hadn't read Lexicon already.

>35 jnwelch: Ah, but I like sad. A good book/movie for me is often one that has required tissue!

>38 Peace2: Neverwhere is a fine story. I didn't like American Gods much. My favourite of his works is The Graveyard Book, which I recommend highly.

I just finished Redbreast by Jo Nesbo. I've been reading crime fiction since I was about 15, and I'll be 52 this summer....Redbreast is the finest crime novel I've read in all that time. Quite brilliant.

I'm not sure what I'm reading next. I'm going to bed now, and tomorrow I think I shall start Pat Conroy's The Water is Wide or Rene Denfeld's The Enchanted....it will depend on my mood.

This week so far I have read Saint Odd by Dean Koontz (finally finished a series!) and Pop Goes The Weasel by James Patterson (Slowly working my way through that series). Now I'm currently reading Maurice by E.M. Forster. Hoping to finish by Sunday. Have Triptych by Karin Slaughter waiting on my Kindle that I got from the library.

>42 pontiacgal501: How was Saint Odd? I've read the series up to that one.

New Thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/191557#

Disturbing The Peace by Richard Yates; just got it in under the wire.

Saint Odd was good. It was like the earlier Odd Thomas books. To me the last 2 or 3 books in the series were a little bit out there but this one was better to me. It may be because it takes place back in Pico Mundo with the old crew.

>46 pontiacgal501: Good to hear, thanks. I liked the earlier ones better, and Pico Mundo with the old crew.

Finished Endangered by C. J. Box, Stomping Grounds: A Pilgrim's Progress Through Eight American Subcultures by W. Hampton Sides, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, The Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness by Peter Matthiessen
and listening to The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank.
Started The Ethical Dog Trainer: A Practical Guide for Canine Professionals by Jim Barry, but I had to stop. I need a place to ponder and write to get the most out of this book. Hope I get back to it before too long.

Reading Sula by Toni Morrison (a reread) and Carting with Your Dog: Positive Draft Training for Fun and Competition by Laura Waldbaum.
Started listening to Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach.

Now reading, and enjoying The Cure of Souls, the fourth in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series.

Incidentally, Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard received a unanimous thumbs-down at my local reading group.

I just finished Lord Jim and now, I'm reading The Red Badge of Courage. And still working on Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I am currently also eyeing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty, Breaking Dawn and Catching Fire.

>50 josmith16: Really, they don't have books on this website?

What are you referring to here? Finding book pages for these titles? Is this what you're looking for?

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Breaking Dawn
Catching Fire

All you have to do is put the title inside square brackets. If there's more than one book with a given title, as there is for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, you click "(others)" and pick yours from the list. If what you want isn't there (and you've made sure everything is complete and spelled correctly), you can add a page for your book.

>51 Meredy: Meredy

Apparently, my problem was with using double brackets instead of single brackets. I don't know why double brackets worked on three of the books but not all six of them. Thank you for straightening me out.

Finished dragging through Lord Jim Friday night. Started The Red Badge of Courage Saturday morning, and finished it tonight, Sunday night.

I picked up a little mystery called Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham. The narrator is kind of quirky. I like it, so far.

I'm doing a re-read of Cordelia's Honor, the start of the Vorkosigan sci-fi series, which is one of my favorites.