PurpleElephant's 2008 challenge.

I've been listing books read for a couple of years now (usually in the back of my diary!) saw this group ages ago and keep meaning to share what I've read so far this year. So here it is;

My only goal this year is to read (or re-read) Elizabeth Gaskell's six major novels by the end of the year. I also tend to have three books on the go at once; a novel, a book of short stories, and a nonfiction book.

Looking forward to everyone else's lists...

1. Troy Chimneys, Margaret Kennedy
2. Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
3. The Cranford Chronicles, Elizabeth Gaskell
4. The Clerkenwell Tales, Peter Ackroyd
5. Not Forgotten, Neil Oliver
6. The Virago Book of Witches, Shahrukh Husain (ed)
7. The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant
8. The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
9. Alberta and Jacob Cora Sandel
10. Alberta and Freedom Cora sandel
11. The Rendezvous and other stories Daphne Du Maurier
12. Alberta alone Cora Sandel
13. Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
14. Something Might Happen Julie Myerson
15. My Place Sally Morgan
16. Falling Angels Tracy Chevalier
17. The Pavilion on the Links R>L. Stevenson
18. Restoration Rose Tremain

YAY! Glad to see you here. Now that you've caught up with yourself, please share some of your thoughts about your books as you add them.

What is your favorite so far?

Oooh my favourite so far? It's very difficult to say but probably the Cora Sandel Alberta trilogy. Those books were fantastic.

Next one;

19 Mary Barton Elizabeth Gaskell.
Part of my Gaskell challenge to complete all her books by the end of the year. Suddenly had the idea (after I read Cranford) that I should read them in the order in which they were written. Mary Barton was her first novel and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Most reviews cite that the Manchester Dialect was difficult to read. to be honest I didn't find this a problem, the notes in my edition are extensive and I found myself getting used to it after a while.
It is, of course, very heavy, depressing and melodramatic but I love this sort of thing once in a while!

20 The Collected Stories of Colette
Have to admit, I struggled through this in places. I did enjoy many of the stories but the tone and voice was very similar from start to finish and it was beginning to grate a bit towards the end. I think that perhaps I should not have read it from cover to cover (although I was reading other books at the same time!) It is probably more a book for dipping into.

Short story collections often affect me that way, Ms. Elephant. I have Dorothy Parker's complete stories at hand from the library, and I find them all to be much of a muchness. Brilliant, what she does, but she does it over and over.

I see you have read Restoration by Rose Tremain. I really like this author and am planning to read her latest Orange Prize nomination, 'The Road Home'.

I saw Rose Tremain at wordfest and she read from The Road Home. I've got so many books on my TBR that i think I can afford to wait for it to come out in paperback. I will wait for it to come out in paperback. I will i will!

Next up;
21) The Essential Handbook to Women's Spirituality & Ritual by Barbara G.Walker (can't get touchstones to find this one)
I found the guided meditations and suggestions for group work in this book inspiring and informative but there was little suggestion for how this might be applied for those of us not lucky enough to be able to find a group of local likeminded women, willing to set up a group.

23) The Judge by Rebecca West
Absolutlely thrilling and haunting. The characters are rich and believable (but not entirley likeable) This book will stay with me for a long time.

I was fortunate to find The Road Home in the library not long after it was published and I can recommend it most highly.

24) Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
A haunting, sometimes chilling but often witty tale of the lives of three men who are thrown together by a tragic accident.
I've not read any Robertson Davies before and I was mightily impressed. He finds his characterisitc voice in the first chapter and sticks with it for the whole narrative, a task some writers find difficult to achieve.

Yes - purpleelephant - I think that is the key to a lasting style - the ability to identify with the narrator! A recent complaint of mine with several acclaimed contemporary books. I really liked Fifth Business too!

25) Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King
To be honest, I've read many books about writing fiction, some helpful, some rubbish. I thought this one was going to be different, thought I might pick up some tips specific to editing. Like for instance how to go through your work (should you concentrate on one thing at a time - say grammar and then go over it again) Really this was just another how to write fiction book with really basic chapters about dialogue, show and tell etc. Still none the wiser as to how to actually edit my novel.

26) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I've had this on mount TBR for a while and I've been shying away from it because I haven't heard one bad thing about this book. Usually when this happens I read a book and wonder what all the fuss is about. I decided to make a start because it is going to be part of the Radio 4 Book Club at the beginning of next month.
Well what can I say? I've really tried to find fault with this book but it is impossible. Perfectly written, interesting real characters and I've learned all sorts of things I didn't know about the Biafran war. Got to read her other book now.

Ms. Elephant, you nailed why I have been putting off reading Half of a Yellow Sun. I have both it and Purple Hibiscus just sitting there on the bedside TBR pile. I have also been wondering if reading the Yellow Sun before the Purple Hibiscus would be a good or bad thing. Dither, dither.

I've read Half of a Yellow Sun and have a copy Purple Hibiscus, which I should get to in a couple months. My understanding is they are not sequential or related in any way, so order doesn't matter in that sense.

Ms. Elephant, I'm glad you liked Half of a Yellow Sun as much as you did. I can understand your apprehension but it's really a fantastic book!! (dither no more tiffin!)

Absolutely dither no more Tiffin. I've not read Purple Hibiscus but I will at some point. Sometimes, even if books are not sequential in anyway it's quite nice to read them in the order in which they were written, to see how the writer developed. I'm trying to do this with Elizabeth Gaskell.
Maybe close your eyes and pick one out of a hat?! Just read them. NOW!

Last night I finished.

27) Is this What you Want? The Asham Award Short-Story Collection.
I picked up a copy of this at Cambridge Wordfest, after seeing the winner and the two runers up read extracts from their entries. The winners are in here, as well as the runners up and some more well known short story writers such as Kate Pullinger, Patricia Dunker and Rachel Cusk If you want to know where the short story is going then read this book. The stories are technically very well written and unusual. Most are funny but in a very dark way. My favourite was 'Mrs Laidlaw's Event Horizon' by Lois McEwan (The Second Prize) which tells a woman's story backwards as her life flashes before her eyes.

28) Murder in the Collective by Barbara Wilson
I'm really busy at the moment and I needed a light easy read for a while. Okay so it this is book about murder (and as it's fiction can I say in this case the guy deserved it?!) and there are some cutting paragraphs about what was going on in the Philippines at the time but I knew everything would get sorted in the end. Not going to tell you if it did or not because that would spoil it now wouldn't it.

In between I did have a go at Giotto's Hand but thought the writing was so bad, the characters so dull (and too alike) that I had to give it up after 40 pages. I've never read anything else by Iain Pears but I do have An Instance of the Fingerpost on my TBR pile. Can anyone tell me if he is usually this bad?

purpleelephant, to tell you the truth, I read An Instance of the Fingerpost years ago and did not like it. I found it confusing and could not understand how the book ended, it left me kind of suspended. I am probably dumb, but I would really really like it if someone were so kind as to take the trouble and explain it to me.

29) Daphne Du Maurier A Daughter's Memoir by Flavia Leng
Borrowed this one from my Mum. This is a mildly interesting memoir of life as a child in the Du Maurier (or should that be Browning) household, written by Daphne's youngest daughter. If I'm perfectly honest I found her style slightly dull and she struggled to bring, what should be a household of interesting characters to life. I think it's because she tended to gloss over all the gritty bits - for instance Daphne went to bed with 'nervous exhaustion' for a couple of months and then got up again, almost within one paragraph! I WANT TO KNOW MORE!

30) Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Stop number 3 on my year long tour through the Gaskell novels. As always some great characters in here, Jemima Bradshaw for one and a whole load of melodrama and serious social issues. Single-motherhood 1850s style. I love it!

Wow, nice going with the reading purpleelephant!

I'm waiting to read Half of a Yellow Sun until I'm done with War and Peace and I can give my full attention to it. Soon!!

You are going great guns Ms. Elephant!

I've thought of reading the Leng memoir for a while, now, but not if she somehow manages to make Daphne dull!

There are a couple of Gaskells on my TBR list for this year, too, including Ruth. Great thread!

I read the Leng memoir recently as well. My feeling was that it was quite readable but it suffered because the author seemed reluctant to include anything beyond her understanding as a child.

I also have Ruth in my TBR collection, so I'm pleased to read such a positive report.

Ruth seems to be a popular title (except with the touchstones)---I'm reading it as well!

We are introducing ourselves on the 'gathering place to chat' thread. Come on over!!

Yes Marise I think that was it, she didn't want to include anything beyond her understanding as a child but then I don't think she really got back into her childhood voice either.

Anyway I've got some catching up to do on this thread. In the past couple of weeks, I've finished;

31) Carrie's War by Nina Bawden.
Of course I read this several times as a child and fancied reading it again, did so in a couple of days. Still as charming as I remember.

32) Innocent Traitor : a novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir.
A brilliant book about Lady Jane Grey who was exploited by everyone around her for their own gain, ended up being Queen for nine days and then was executed as a traitor by Mary I. Weir is a Historian first and Novelist second, so all the little historical details in this novel are spot on and make yu feel as if you are actually there. Absloutely fantastic

33) The Silken Thread by Cora Sandel
A selection of scetches and short stories by one of my latest favourite authors. Cora Sandel is like Collette in that she often appaers in her own stories, so you are never sure which stories are autobiograpical. There's everthing here, failing marriages, war, financial desperation, even cats! A woman after my own heart!

who was Queen for only nine days

Whoah! I haven't updated for ages. good job I have the books written down in the back of my diary!!
I am just going to add the books for now and then maybe add my thoughts later.

34) The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
35) Solstice Joyce Carol Oates
36) The Rose of Sebastopol Katharine Mcmahon
37) Midnight all Day Hanif Kureishi
38) Primavera Stevie Davies
39) The Dark Tide Vera Brittain
40) North and South Elizabeth Gaskell
41) Bury Me Standing Isabel Fonseca
42) Looking for the Possible Dance A.L. Kennedy
43) The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
44) Writing a Novel and Getting it Published for Dummies George Green & Lizzy Kremer (Touchstones not working)
...... to be continued

Some more!
45) Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood
46) Eats Shoots and Leaves Lynne Truss
47) Lark Rise to Candleford Flora Thompson
48) Like Ali Smith
49) Gone to Earth Mary Webb
50) Closing the Book Stevie Davies

Great list, purpleel! Hope you get a chance to comment on some, they sound interesting. What did you think of Eats, Shoots and Leaves? I thought it very well done.

Yes, Teelgee I thought Eats Shoots and Leaves was very well done. I heard a lot about it and a lot of people thought she needed to get down off her high horse but the impression I got was that she was taking the mickey out of herself as much as the people who don't use grammar properly. It was all very tongue in cheek.

Yes, but...as a bona fide spelling and punctuation nazi myself, I understand how one can go crazy seeing all the misspellings and misuses of same. I see it at work all the time. Unfortunately, I was born holding a red pen and I'm not afraid to use it!!!

Oh yes and as a mother, I worry about how my daughter is going to learn if grown ups are making mistakes around her the whole time. You should see some of the letters we get home from the school. I mean if the school can't even get it right...

What annoys me the most is inconsistency. I saw a van the other day offering ‘JACKET POTATOES, SANDWICHES, CRISPS & SNACK’S’ Even if you know absolutely nothing about grammar then something is wrong there. All four instances can’t be right.

Another member of the Punctuation Police here. I loved Eats, Shoots and Leaves. And the Purple one gave me a chuckle because she unconsciously (was it unconscious?) edited the title to remove that comma!

Ha! That's my downfall. I 'get' just about everything else about punctuation but I just can't do commas. I don't see them at all when I read and for that reason I have no idea where to put them when I write. I think it's because I'm scared of heights and my motto is 'Don't look down!'

That was one of my reasons for reading the book. I was trying to cure my comma phobia. It obviously didn't work!

My grade three teacher told me that a comma is like a breath between words to help the sentence make sense. It made sense then and, surprisingly, it still does.

I am such a grammar freak that I wrote a letter to the publisher of Philip Hensher's Northern Clemency, pointing out grammatical errors - three spelling mistakes and two punctuation flubs - it was really unnecessary but I thought they would be doing a massive paperback print and could use the editorial advice*.

I stewed over the mistakes through-out the whole 700 pages ( it did make the book look sloppy).

I never heard anything back from them, though.
-
-
-
-
*(Admission of truly excessive obsessionality - this is not the first!!)

I'm not a grammar freak, but Karen I have wanted to write a letter like that to publishers several times and never have! Maybe we should start a movement!

I'm joining! I've both written letters AND marked up books with corrections. If you know how obsessive I am about having my books pristine and well cared for, you'd know what lengths I was driven to to actually write corrections in them.

Oh Tiffin - marking books with corrections!?! Ouch. That is what makes some first editions valuable, and distiinguishes them from reprints.

The Hensher book is a first edition - so I just leave the corrections in a piece of paper in the fly - leaf.

And of course the book is covered with mylar to protect it!!!

Now your know the full extent of my psych. state!!

Sorry to take over your thread, purpleelephant.

I have to join the group of 'freaks'. Whenever I find a mistake in a book I get really upset. Like Christine, there have been many instances when I wanted to write and I did not. I think I will start doing it.

Edited to correct "insances"..AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!

mmmh! insances!!! :-))

Kiwidoc, All that work and not so much of a thanks!
I am proud that my 7 year old knows what to do with an apostrophe, (I'm taking a breath here, tiffin, am I right?) so I'm thinking it shouldn't be too difficult for adults too.

And ta-da finished
51) Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
I found this quite slow at first but really got into it about two thirds of the way through. Found myself rather annoyed with Syliva most of the time (I mean make up your mind girl) but I was very much in love with Hester Rose and found myself wishing the book was written from her point of view. Now there was a story.
Now I only have on more Gaskell novel to read before the year is out!

WOW!!!! I humbly apologize......(blushes and runs away).

>41 purpleelephant:: nice breath-taking, ms. elephant.

Yes, you breathed beautifully.

Well, I already knew I was a bit slow. Now I find that it has taken 10 months to discover this thread!

When you have time, would love a comment on The Golden Notebook.

Hi Amandameale, I did enjoy The Golden Notebook, I found some sections of it very interesting. I have to admit that I still feel that it could have done with some serious editing (it could have been said in about 1/2 the number of pages) What did you think?

52) Tell Me a Riddle Yonnondio by Tillie Olsen.
(The Virago combined edition)
I am so ashamed that this book has been sitting on my shelf for so long and I hadn't yet read it till now. It's been a long while since I've felt that a piece of fiction really spoke to me but this made me feel like a teenager again in that respect. 'I Stand Here Ironing' made me cry as did the title of the collection - 'Tell Me a Riddle' All these stories are about missed opportunities and I think it equally sad that Olsen did not get to finish Yonnondio. I now can’t help thinking of all the books out there that have gone to the grave with so many women just because they didn’t have the chance…

53) A Writer's Diary by Virginia Woolf
I would love to read all five volumes of Virginia Woolf’s diaries but sadly I don’t quite have the time just yet. I thought it would be interesting to work my way through this selection of her entries concerned with writing and reading (edited by Leonard) Of course it was fascinating to see the emotional ups and downs she went through with each book and how the ideas were formed. I did feel it needed a more comprehensive glossary of some of the people and places she mentions. I felt slightly patronised by the half a page in the front of the book (I mean I know who Ness was thanks Len!) yet there were times I couldn’t grasp who on earth she was talking about.

Also while I’m ranting can I also ask why sometimes it seems that there must be only one picture that survives of Virginia Woolf and it’s this one.



It really grates me that they seem to use it on everything that mentions Virginia Woolf, even though it was taken in 1902, a good 12 or so years before she published her first novel. I’ve just started The Letters of Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf, and would you believe it - There it is! The same photo on the front cover! Even though she didn’t even meet Vita Sackville-West until 1922 - a whole 20 years after the photo was taken!
Does it bother anyone else as much as it bothers me? Personally I find it slightly dishonest.
Here is my favourite picture of Virginia Woolf…



Isn’t that better? I like the way she seems to be smirking at the camera, saying ‘Yes, hello, I wasn’t always the sad tortured soul you want to paint me as…’

On a similar note; The last two sentences of A Writer’s Diary are; ‘And now with some pleasure I find that it’s seven; and must cook dinner. Haddock and sausage meat. I think it is true that one gains a certain hold on sausage and haddock by writing them down.’

Rant over. Thanks for listening!

Enjoyed your rant purpleelephant!

Me too!!

THanks for the rant and the photos - I confess the second picture is not familar to me but I do prefer it, too.

If you like reading diaries you might be interested in Love's Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen And Charles Ritchie edited by Victoria Glendinning. This is a fairly new release and details letters between these two.

Rave on, purpleelephant!! The second picture is much better!

I recently read Tell Me a Riddle and loved it. I was struck by just how perfectly crafted her stories are. I meant to read Yonnondio next, but it is lost somewhere on my bookshelves! Will continue to search, however, this always leads to the distraction of finding other books instead.

It is a long time since I read Tillie Olsen (back in the late 70s/early 80s), but I loved both Tell Me a Riddle and Yonnondio -- maybe it's time for a reread.

Hi purpleelephant,

I was just perusing a few 50 book challenges this lovely Saturday evening and was struck by your Woolf picture rant.

I very recently bought Virginia Woolf and Her World, an odd little memoir written by the former partner and manager of Hogarth press, at a local library sale. It's filled with wonderful pictures of Woolf and her friends, family and associates and opens with a full page photo of Woolf in 1939 that I had never seen before.

In this closeup she's holding a cigarette near her face. She still has that great bone structure, but her face is lined and her hair appears to have more than a little gray in it and she has this wonderful wry, knowing smile. And I had a similar reaction to yours. When I thought of her death, it is with that ubiquitous photo of her young, ethereal self in my mind. So it was jarring to see this Woolf, a terribly interesting older woman for whom I had many questions, and to realize it was taken less than a couple of years before her suicide. It changed the whole story for me.

By the way, at the same library sale I found an American first edition of A Writer's Diary, the one with the nice cover art by Vanessa Bell, for $2. Hope to get to it sometime this winter.

#53> theaelizabet, the photo you refer to might be a famous one, by Cecil Beaton.
I have all VW's photos very clear in my mind's eye as, when I was writing my dissertation on the letters of Virginia Woolf, I kept seeing them over and over.

Great rant, Mme LePhant! I agree completely.

Hi aluvalibri--Had to check--the photographer wasn't Beaton (would love to see that one), was Gisele Freund, whose work I'm not familiar with. Found out that its original is in color. It can be seen here:

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=virginia+wool...

Sorry for butting in purpleelephant, but thanks again for a great rant! Couldn't agree more.

Ooops! I know there is one by Cecil Beaton, but I guess I got them confused (senior moment, you know....;-)

I love that picture Theaelizabet, thank for sharing. I've also added Virginia Woolf and her World to my evergrowing Amazon wishlist!

Aluvalilbri, you wrote your dissertation on VW's letters? It sounds really interesting. Do you still have it?

Yes I do, purple.
:-))

54) Surfacing Margaret Atwood
As always with Atwood, I read this pretty fast. I think she lulls you into a false sense of security with the simple language and intriguing plot. It's not till after I finished I realised that there was a lot to think about regarding male/female roles; the past and the present; life and death etc. I shall be thinking this one over for days.

Surfacing was the book which really brought her to the forefront of the Canadian consciousness as an Author To Watch, Purplee. She is now, of course, our Queen of Canadian Lit. and we love her to bits.

55) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
(Not in my library - borrowed from my Mum!) An intricately woven tale of a woman trying to discover her origins. This is a beautiful, epic book of grand ambition. Morton takes a risk in jumping between several time frames but she manages to pull it off without confusing the reader. This is due, in part, to her exceptional storytelling skills and also her intriguing characters who come alive on the page. Morton succeeds in making even her walk-on parts as vivid (if not more so) than her protagonists.
I felt in one or two places she was stretching credulity with her plot and so you could hear the gears clunking a bit (people turning up, just at the right moment, oh and there's a bit of paper sticking out from under the skirting board that nobody's noticed before etc) But this is overridden by a truly excellent story.

56) A Light that is Shining Harvey Gillman.
An interesting and thoughtful introduction to the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers as most people seem to know them. Very short but with a good bibliography and suggestions for further reading.

57) You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down by Alice Walker
A mixed bag of stories, if I'm honest. One or two very good ones and one or two I struggled to engage with. I was reminded a bit of reading Colette in that I wasn't sure how far the stories were actually made up and how far they were biographical or even autobiographical.

58) Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.
I really enjoyed the interesting structure of this book. It is written as a connected and varying group of short stories concerning with Olive Kitteridge a retired school teacher trying to cope with her twilight years. Some a written from Olive's point of view, others from characters who seem to have little to do with her whatsoever. This gives us a multifaceted view of a very complex woman.

59) The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
A fantastic story for old and young alike about a boy who finds a magic advent calendar with the pieces of a story behind each door. It is his job to piece the story together. Each chapter corresponds with a day in December as the boy opens the doors. I read this to my 7 year old and we both really enjoyed it.

60) Contemporary Women's Short Stories: An Anthology (touchstones won't find it) edited by Susan Hill

This is my last book of the year. (I actually finished it on January 1st but I'm guessing it counts as it was mostly read in 2008!!) A nice interesting book of women writers I know and some I've never heard of. My only dissapointment was that there was no list of contributers at the back, so I could look up those I didn't know. An eclectic mix here.