ejj's 2023 Reading Challenge: at least 75 again!
Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2023
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1ejj1955
Here goes . . . I'm in the middle of three books and committed to starting two others, one of them a chapter-a-day reading of Les Miserables, which I've never read. That'll be fun--it's part of a challenge from a friend in my library reading group. We'll spice it up with discussions and maybe some outings to local French restaurants along the way.
So, everyone have a wonderful 2023 with lots of great books!
So, everyone have a wonderful 2023 with lots of great books!
2richardderus
Author Jewell! I'm glad to see you here in 2023. Hoping each of the three books will exceed your expectations for it.
3thornton37814
Hope you have a great year of reading!
4PaulCranswick
Wishing you a comfortable reading year in 2023, Elizabeth.
French restaurants or fiction - now there is a quandary - brain or belly?!
6ejj1955
Thank you all! And Paul--the answer is, of course, both! The French literature just guides us to French restaurants so we can eat and discuss simultaneously.
7ejj1955
1. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. This is a reread for me, as I have, by now, read everything Chambers has thus far published. It's a delightful universe she's created--not without problems, but filled with so many wonderful people/aliens/personalities. Rosemary, a young human woman, comes aboard the Wayfarer, a tunneling ship (one that creates tunnels that allow rapid transit from one part of the galaxy to another). She's gotten a job as a clerk to help Ashby, the captain. The crew includes Corbin, a disagreeable algaeist (algae being a fuel source); Doctor Chef, a member of a dying species, who serves as both doctor and chef; Ohan, the navigator, who has taken a drug known to his species that allows him to "see" his way through space and rapidly calculate routes to follow; Kizzy and Jenks, the engineers; Lovey, the ship's AI; and Sissex, the pilot, a member of a feathered species.
Rosemary has bought herself a new identity, given that her father is a now-disgraced arms dealer from Mars She's welcomed into the crew and gradually becomes very fond of the others (except perhaps Corbin). The ship receives a good contract to go to the planet in the title and open a new tunnel to the recently-admitted system. Along the way, there are visits to markets on a few planets and to a couple of fun spots.
There are a couple of romantic attachments, but they are not the main focus of this book, which is really about the feeling of family among this crew. When the Wayfarer goes to tunnel into the system of a new member of the compact, things get dicey and the ship is fired upon as it begins to tunnel. It's a devastating trauma, as one member of the crew is lost along the way--although she's found, in a fashion, in the next book in the series. That's one of the books up next for me.
Rosemary has bought herself a new identity, given that her father is a now-disgraced arms dealer from Mars She's welcomed into the crew and gradually becomes very fond of the others (except perhaps Corbin). The ship receives a good contract to go to the planet in the title and open a new tunnel to the recently-admitted system. Along the way, there are visits to markets on a few planets and to a couple of fun spots.
There are a couple of romantic attachments, but they are not the main focus of this book, which is really about the feeling of family among this crew. When the Wayfarer goes to tunnel into the system of a new member of the compact, things get dicey and the ship is fired upon as it begins to tunnel. It's a devastating trauma, as one member of the crew is lost along the way--although she's found, in a fashion, in the next book in the series. That's one of the books up next for me.
8foggidawn
Happy new year and new thread! I love the Wayfarers series, and your review is making me feel like a reread might be in order.
9libraryperilous
Happy reading in 2023!
10FAMeulstee
Happy reading in 2023, Elizabeth!
11ejj1955
Thank you, thank you!
SPOILERS! (But seriously, if you haven't already read this?!)
2. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I feel as though I have been reading this every day all day for the past two weeks! it certainly took me long enough to get through it . . . but I am glad I did. I rather feel as though I am now finally old enough to appreciate Henry James. On the one hand, there's not a lot of action in nearly 400 pages, although the characters certainly do plenty of traveling around Europe and back and forth to the United States. Isabel Archer, a thoughtful and idealistic young woman, is in the United States when her aunt, a widow who lives in England and Italy, comes to see her and invites her to Europe. Isabel turns down an offer of marriage from Caspar Goodwood, a wealthy mill owner, before she leaves. Once in England, she meets her ill cousin, Ralph Touchett, and the two form a friendship. She also becomes attached to her uncle (also failing in health). One of Ralph's friends and neighbors, Lord Warburton, visits, falls for Isabel, proposes, and is rejected.
Isabel also meets Madame Merle, a friend of her aunt's, and is taken by the woman's charm. Isabel's uncle dies and, urged by Ralph to change his will, leaves Isabel half his substantial fortune (her inheritance is about two million in today's dollars). When Isabel and her aunt go to Italy, Madame Merle does, too, and eventually introduces Isabel to her friend Gilbert Osmond (and his virtuous young daughter, Pansy). Madame Merle has recommended Isabel to Osmond, and Osmond courts her (knowing exactly how much money she has inherited). She falls for him and they are eventually married.
After a year or two, Isabel is aware that she has made a terrible mistake; that she and her husband have little in common and that he is sadistically cruel. She watches as her husband forbids Pansy to see the young man she has fallen for (and who is in love with her; he's well-off, but not titled nor extremely wealthy). When Lord Warburton comes to Rome, he seems to court Pansy, but eventually returns to England without proposing. Isabel realizes that Pansy does not love him, but her husband blames her for the lack of proposal. Eventually, he sends Pansy back to her convent school for a time; while it's a pleasant place and she is adored by the nuns, it feels like a prison to Isabel.
Another significant character is Isabel's friend Henrietta Stackpole, a journalist. Forthright and independent, Henrietta rubs a number of people the wrong way, but she's a loyal friend and enlists an Englishman, Mr. Bantling, who accompanies her on her travels and journalistic pursuits (and eventually they decide to marry).
The story is really about Isabel's emotional journey. She returns to England for Ralph's final days, and rejects a plea by Caspar Goodwood to leave her husband and spend her life with him, as he has never ceased to love her. But she has promised Pansy she will return to Rome, and at the end of the book she is headed back--although what she will be able to do for Pansy is a mystery, and how she'll endure her dreadful marriage is another one. One can only hope her husband, twenty years her senior, will predecease her sooner rather than later, but James gives no hint of this, only saying that she's convinced she'll have a long life.
Going off to book club to discuss all this . . .
SPOILERS! (But seriously, if you haven't already read this?!)
2. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I feel as though I have been reading this every day all day for the past two weeks! it certainly took me long enough to get through it . . . but I am glad I did. I rather feel as though I am now finally old enough to appreciate Henry James. On the one hand, there's not a lot of action in nearly 400 pages, although the characters certainly do plenty of traveling around Europe and back and forth to the United States. Isabel Archer, a thoughtful and idealistic young woman, is in the United States when her aunt, a widow who lives in England and Italy, comes to see her and invites her to Europe. Isabel turns down an offer of marriage from Caspar Goodwood, a wealthy mill owner, before she leaves. Once in England, she meets her ill cousin, Ralph Touchett, and the two form a friendship. She also becomes attached to her uncle (also failing in health). One of Ralph's friends and neighbors, Lord Warburton, visits, falls for Isabel, proposes, and is rejected.
Isabel also meets Madame Merle, a friend of her aunt's, and is taken by the woman's charm. Isabel's uncle dies and, urged by Ralph to change his will, leaves Isabel half his substantial fortune (her inheritance is about two million in today's dollars). When Isabel and her aunt go to Italy, Madame Merle does, too, and eventually introduces Isabel to her friend Gilbert Osmond (and his virtuous young daughter, Pansy). Madame Merle has recommended Isabel to Osmond, and Osmond courts her (knowing exactly how much money she has inherited). She falls for him and they are eventually married.
After a year or two, Isabel is aware that she has made a terrible mistake; that she and her husband have little in common and that he is sadistically cruel. She watches as her husband forbids Pansy to see the young man she has fallen for (and who is in love with her; he's well-off, but not titled nor extremely wealthy). When Lord Warburton comes to Rome, he seems to court Pansy, but eventually returns to England without proposing. Isabel realizes that Pansy does not love him, but her husband blames her for the lack of proposal. Eventually, he sends Pansy back to her convent school for a time; while it's a pleasant place and she is adored by the nuns, it feels like a prison to Isabel.
Another significant character is Isabel's friend Henrietta Stackpole, a journalist. Forthright and independent, Henrietta rubs a number of people the wrong way, but she's a loyal friend and enlists an Englishman, Mr. Bantling, who accompanies her on her travels and journalistic pursuits (and eventually they decide to marry).
The story is really about Isabel's emotional journey. She returns to England for Ralph's final days, and rejects a plea by Caspar Goodwood to leave her husband and spend her life with him, as he has never ceased to love her. But she has promised Pansy she will return to Rome, and at the end of the book she is headed back--although what she will be able to do for Pansy is a mystery, and how she'll endure her dreadful marriage is another one. One can only hope her husband, twenty years her senior, will predecease her sooner rather than later, but James gives no hint of this, only saying that she's convinced she'll have a long life.
Going off to book club to discuss all this . . .
12ejj1955
3. Owl Be Home for Christmas by Donna Andrews. I read a number of the books in this series from the start of it, but at this point, it really doesn't matter. There's the familiar cast of characters--Meg Langslow, her husband Michael, their twin sons; her doctor father and gracious, Southern lady mother; her ornithologist grandfather; and various denizens of Caerphilly. In this volume, it's a week before Christmas, and her grandfather, Dr. Blake, is hosting "Owl Fest" at the charming Caerphilly Inn. The academics show up and they, plus a few other people, are snowed in by heaps of continually falling snow. One of the ornithologists is a particularly unpleasant man, Dr. Frogmore, and it's not huge surprise when he dies during one of the dinners. The good guys are hampered by having no access to labs, but rooms are search and evidence is gathered, while Meg's father figures out what killed the professor.
There are trees, lights, carols, feasts, and tunnels in the snow (dug by the twins). There's an owl, a spider, and, as food for the owl, crickets and mice. There are a few red herrings, of course, but eventually two different people are arrested and the snow plows arrive. All good fun.
There are trees, lights, carols, feasts, and tunnels in the snow (dug by the twins). There's an owl, a spider, and, as food for the owl, crickets and mice. There are a few red herrings, of course, but eventually two different people are arrested and the snow plows arrive. All good fun.
13PaulCranswick
>11 ejj1955: That one is on my bucket list too, Elizabeth. Probably will get to it this year at some stage.
Have a great weekend.
Have a great weekend.
14ejj1955
>13 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. I do recommend that, if I didn't make it clear. I think the older I get, the better James gets!
4. Honor and Circumstance by Renee Gallant. Read for work; a story set in Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion.
SPOILERS!
5. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. I have a lot of "feels" about this one. Set mostly in Oxford, it deals with a girl who grows up in the Scriptorium, the garden shed in which the bulk of the work compiling the OED was done. As a child, she hides under the table where her father works, and she occasionally collects slips, the all-important citations of example sentences demonstrating the senses of words. While still quite young, she realizes that some words are excluded from the dictionary, either because they are considered improper ("cunt") or because they are used in conversation (often by women) but not in written works. She begins collecting these words and illustrating them with quotations spoken by women, including the maid, Lizzie, who works for the family of Dr. James Murray, the editor of the dictionary. Lizzie cares for the motherless Esme when she can, and it's Lizzie who eventually takes her to the market, where she meets Mabel, an old woman who gives her some colorful language, and the actress Tilda and her brother, Bill. After a brief liaison, Esme finds herself pregnant, but realizes she's not in love with Bill and doesn't tell him about the pregnancy. She goes to stay with friends, gives birth to a daughter, and then gives her to a couple she's met through her friends. After a couple of months, they move to Australia with her daughter.
Years go by, and Esme becomes more and more involved with work on the OED. She loses her beloved father, becomes interested in the fight for female suffrage, and gradually becomes friends with Gareth, the compositor at the printer. He prints a single copy of a dictionary of the "lost words" she has collected and gives it to her when he proposes. They marry, but before long, WWI breaks out, and Gareth is killed.
The trunk in which Esme collected the words, and in which she stores the volume Gareth had printed for her, eventually makes its way to her daughter in Australia, and, in an afterword, we find that the daughter becomes a lexicographer.
For anyone wondering why all this resonated with me so much, it's because I, too, have been a lexicographer. I worked for OUP's US offices, edited the New Oxford American Dictionary, and was sent to Oxford twice, first for six weeks and then the next year for seven, working at the Press in the current lexicography division, separated by a wall from the many editors still working on the OED.
4. Honor and Circumstance by Renee Gallant. Read for work; a story set in Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellion.
SPOILERS!
5. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. I have a lot of "feels" about this one. Set mostly in Oxford, it deals with a girl who grows up in the Scriptorium, the garden shed in which the bulk of the work compiling the OED was done. As a child, she hides under the table where her father works, and she occasionally collects slips, the all-important citations of example sentences demonstrating the senses of words. While still quite young, she realizes that some words are excluded from the dictionary, either because they are considered improper ("cunt") or because they are used in conversation (often by women) but not in written works. She begins collecting these words and illustrating them with quotations spoken by women, including the maid, Lizzie, who works for the family of Dr. James Murray, the editor of the dictionary. Lizzie cares for the motherless Esme when she can, and it's Lizzie who eventually takes her to the market, where she meets Mabel, an old woman who gives her some colorful language, and the actress Tilda and her brother, Bill. After a brief liaison, Esme finds herself pregnant, but realizes she's not in love with Bill and doesn't tell him about the pregnancy. She goes to stay with friends, gives birth to a daughter, and then gives her to a couple she's met through her friends. After a couple of months, they move to Australia with her daughter.
Years go by, and Esme becomes more and more involved with work on the OED. She loses her beloved father, becomes interested in the fight for female suffrage, and gradually becomes friends with Gareth, the compositor at the printer. He prints a single copy of a dictionary of the "lost words" she has collected and gives it to her when he proposes. They marry, but before long, WWI breaks out, and Gareth is killed.
The trunk in which Esme collected the words, and in which she stores the volume Gareth had printed for her, eventually makes its way to her daughter in Australia, and, in an afterword, we find that the daughter becomes a lexicographer.
For anyone wondering why all this resonated with me so much, it's because I, too, have been a lexicographer. I worked for OUP's US offices, edited the New Oxford American Dictionary, and was sent to Oxford twice, first for six weeks and then the next year for seven, working at the Press in the current lexicography division, separated by a wall from the many editors still working on the OED.
15m.belljackson
>14 ejj1955: February 1st was O.E.D. Day!
16foggidawn
>14 ejj1955: The Dictionary of Lost Words sounds really interesting. On the list it goes!
17ejj1955
6. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. This is a book I would not have read except that it was my classics book club book this month. It gave rise to one of our most heartfelt discussions, I think. A Newberry-award winning children's book, it's the story of a Black family in the Depression-era south (Mississippi). The Logan family owns four hundred acres of land; the family consists of the parents (David and Mary), four children (Stacey, Cassie, Christopher-John, and Little Man), and their grandmother, Big Ma.
With the drop in the price of cotton, David leaves the land to go work on the railroad so that the family has enough money to pay the taxes on the land. He explains to nine-year-old Cassie that she has never had to live on land that was not their own, and someday she'll appreciate that. The kids walk miles to school, dodging the school bus taking the white kids to their (separate) school. They are sometimes joined by T.J., a neighbor, a smart-talking kid who is always looking for an angle--as their mother is a teacher at the school, he often asks if they have the test questions or know what's going to be on the test. They are also joined by Jeremy, a white kid who tries to be a friend.
But Jeremy has a sister, Lillian Jean, who humiliates Cassie in town one day by forcing her off the sidewalk. Cassie is infuriated, and eventually plots her revenge by becoming apparently respectful, addressing her tormenter as "Miz Lillian Jean" and learning her secrets. When she then takes her into the woods and beats her up, she tells her that if Lilian-Jean tells anyone, she'll share all her secrets.
There are much more serious signs of racism and injustice, as one family is set on fire. Mary takes her children to see one of the survivors, a bedridden man without a nose who can no longer speak. And when T.J., upset at being failed at school by her, complains about her teaching to some white boys, the school is visited by some local white men who object to her teachings about slavery and fire her. At one point, her husband comes home and brings with him the giant Mr. Morrison, an unemployed Black man he leaves on the property to protect his family. The parents organize some of their neighbors to shop at a nearby town instead of the ruinous "company store" run by the locally powerful white family. During one evening, returning from a trip to the store, David is beaten and his leg broken.
In the midst of Cassie's gradual awakening to the realities of the times, the strength of her family and their values shines through. After T.J. and his two white friends rob a store, they turn on him and he's nearly lynched, that only being prevented when David sets fire to his cotton fields. All the neighbors come together to fight the fire, and T.J. is handed over to the sheriff. The book ends with his fate uncertain. It is, however, the first book in a series that continues the tale of the Logan family.
With the drop in the price of cotton, David leaves the land to go work on the railroad so that the family has enough money to pay the taxes on the land. He explains to nine-year-old Cassie that she has never had to live on land that was not their own, and someday she'll appreciate that. The kids walk miles to school, dodging the school bus taking the white kids to their (separate) school. They are sometimes joined by T.J., a neighbor, a smart-talking kid who is always looking for an angle--as their mother is a teacher at the school, he often asks if they have the test questions or know what's going to be on the test. They are also joined by Jeremy, a white kid who tries to be a friend.
But Jeremy has a sister, Lillian Jean, who humiliates Cassie in town one day by forcing her off the sidewalk. Cassie is infuriated, and eventually plots her revenge by becoming apparently respectful, addressing her tormenter as "Miz Lillian Jean" and learning her secrets. When she then takes her into the woods and beats her up, she tells her that if Lilian-Jean tells anyone, she'll share all her secrets.
There are much more serious signs of racism and injustice, as one family is set on fire. Mary takes her children to see one of the survivors, a bedridden man without a nose who can no longer speak. And when T.J., upset at being failed at school by her, complains about her teaching to some white boys, the school is visited by some local white men who object to her teachings about slavery and fire her. At one point, her husband comes home and brings with him the giant Mr. Morrison, an unemployed Black man he leaves on the property to protect his family. The parents organize some of their neighbors to shop at a nearby town instead of the ruinous "company store" run by the locally powerful white family. During one evening, returning from a trip to the store, David is beaten and his leg broken.
In the midst of Cassie's gradual awakening to the realities of the times, the strength of her family and their values shines through. After T.J. and his two white friends rob a store, they turn on him and he's nearly lynched, that only being prevented when David sets fire to his cotton fields. All the neighbors come together to fight the fire, and T.J. is handed over to the sheriff. The book ends with his fate uncertain. It is, however, the first book in a series that continues the tale of the Logan family.
18ejj1955
7. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novak. Well, this is the most enjoyable reading experience I've had in a while. This inventive fantasy centers on Galadriel (El for short), a student at the Scholomance, a school for young bearers of magic. There's death waiting at every corner here, from a variety of gaping-jawed monsters that fall from the ceiling, creep up through the floors, hide in bookshelves, and so on. Food in the cafeteria may or may not be safe to eat. The only way to head down the hall to the bathroom or up the stairs or anywhere is with a companion or two. The book begins with Orion Lake, the school hero, saving Galadriel's life, a feat he manages around a dozen times during the course of the book. Galadriel treats him more with contempt than the hero-worship he's used to, and only in time does she realize that he has acolytes, not real friends.
What Galadriel doesn't tell him--or anyone else--is that she's possessed of enormous talent for destruction; her own great-grandmother predicted she'd bring death and destruction to all the enclaves of wizards in the world. Galadriel's mother, a healer of great strength, shielded her daughter from her (dead) father's Indian family and removed to a commune in Wales, from where she uses her healing powers for good. Galadriel doesn't tell anyone at school who her mother is, though, and remains determinedly solo, separate from the powerful enclaves (generally centered in cities--there's a NY enclave that Orion belongs to, one in London, one in Mumbai, etc.).
During the course of the novel, though, Galadriel--to her surprise--gradually makes some friends and gains some respect. She decides to join with Aadhya and Liu for protection (the goal is to figure out a way to survive "graduation," the time seniors leave the school through a gauntlet of horrors that generally kills about half of them) and, possibly, friendship.
The novel ends at the end of a school year, during which seniors leave; Galadriel, Aadhya, Liu, and Orion all become seniors; and freshman arrive, bearing letters from the outside. Galadriel is surprised to get a note from her mother, who warns her to stay away from Orion . . .
And I've already requested the next book from the library--senior year at the Scholomance!
What Galadriel doesn't tell him--or anyone else--is that she's possessed of enormous talent for destruction; her own great-grandmother predicted she'd bring death and destruction to all the enclaves of wizards in the world. Galadriel's mother, a healer of great strength, shielded her daughter from her (dead) father's Indian family and removed to a commune in Wales, from where she uses her healing powers for good. Galadriel doesn't tell anyone at school who her mother is, though, and remains determinedly solo, separate from the powerful enclaves (generally centered in cities--there's a NY enclave that Orion belongs to, one in London, one in Mumbai, etc.).
During the course of the novel, though, Galadriel--to her surprise--gradually makes some friends and gains some respect. She decides to join with Aadhya and Liu for protection (the goal is to figure out a way to survive "graduation," the time seniors leave the school through a gauntlet of horrors that generally kills about half of them) and, possibly, friendship.
The novel ends at the end of a school year, during which seniors leave; Galadriel, Aadhya, Liu, and Orion all become seniors; and freshman arrive, bearing letters from the outside. Galadriel is surprised to get a note from her mother, who warns her to stay away from Orion . . .
And I've already requested the next book from the library--senior year at the Scholomance!
19MickyFine
>18 ejj1955: I enjoyed that whole trilogy. I hope it continues to delight.
20ejj1955
>19 MickyFine: I have the next book in the series, so here's hoping!
18. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. This is one impressive first novel! It took me quite a while to read it--it's 484 pages--but it's an interesting premise. The Golem is created from clay in eastern Europe as a bride for a Jewish man emigrating to the United States; contrary to the advice of the man who creates her, he wakes her up on the ship before they reach NYC. As her potential husband dies shortly thereafter, the Golem becomes identified as a young widow. She avoids questions from the authorities by leaping overboard and walking underwater until she reaches the city. Somehow, she encounters a kindly older man, Rabbi Meyer, who realizes what she is and takes her in, gradually coming to see her as an individual who might be capable of emotions, even love. He names her Chava. She doesn't need to sleep or eat, but she learns how to bake, partly to feed him and partly simply from boredom, so he gets her a job in a bakery. She's fast and nearly perfect, but she learns to make small errors, take breaks, and eat a lunch she doesn't need in order to blend in.
Meanwhile, the jinni is released from his bottle after thousands of years of imprisonment. Originally a creature who could change shape and float through the air, observing humans as he wished before retreating to his magnificent, invisible-to-humans palace in the desert, he finds that he wears an iron bracelet that he cannot remove--this forces him to remain in human form. He has a few remaining powers--he also does not eat or sleep, and he is a creature of fire who can do metalwork by the heat of his hands. He roams the city at night, and eventually encounters an heiress, Sophia Winston, whom he seduces.
Another immigrant to NYC is Yehudah Schaalman, the creator of the Golem. He is driven by his desire to find a way to live forever; he's drawn to the area but can't figure out for a long time what or who is drawing him onward. He lives in a shelter run by Rabbi Meyer's son, Michael, and he makes himself so useful he's allowed to stay long beyond the usual time. He carries a valise with notes about his experiments and spells.
When the rabbi dies, Chava meets Michael, who is attracted by her. She initially puts him off, but she's formed a friendship of sorts with one of the women at the bakery, who becomes pregnant. She soon announces that her boyfriend is going to marry her, but when Chava is talked into visiting a dance hall with the other girls, the boyfriend doesn't turn up as scheduled. When his pregnant girlfriend finally sees him, he's flirting with another woman. Out in an alley, he slaps the girl. Chava comes to her defense and nearly beats the man to death. The jinni gets her away before the police arrive, but Chava is consumed by remorse and fear. She realizes, belatedly, that she no longer has the instructions to end her life (she doesn't realize the jinni has them). She tells him to stay away from her, and then proposes to Michael and marries him.
What she didn't realize beforehand was how hard it would be to live with someone who doesn't know her nature and who expects her to sleep--or, in her case, feign sleep--for the entire night.
There are plenty of twists and turns in this novel, as these two supernatural creatures become friends and try to live inconspicuously in late nineteenth-century NYC. The author does as wonderful a job portraying the time and place as she does creating these individual and relatable characters.
One only wonders what comes next! Ah--a search reveals there's a next novel in this series. Have placed a hold on it!
18. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. This is one impressive first novel! It took me quite a while to read it--it's 484 pages--but it's an interesting premise. The Golem is created from clay in eastern Europe as a bride for a Jewish man emigrating to the United States; contrary to the advice of the man who creates her, he wakes her up on the ship before they reach NYC. As her potential husband dies shortly thereafter, the Golem becomes identified as a young widow. She avoids questions from the authorities by leaping overboard and walking underwater until she reaches the city. Somehow, she encounters a kindly older man, Rabbi Meyer, who realizes what she is and takes her in, gradually coming to see her as an individual who might be capable of emotions, even love. He names her Chava. She doesn't need to sleep or eat, but she learns how to bake, partly to feed him and partly simply from boredom, so he gets her a job in a bakery. She's fast and nearly perfect, but she learns to make small errors, take breaks, and eat a lunch she doesn't need in order to blend in.
Meanwhile, the jinni is released from his bottle after thousands of years of imprisonment. Originally a creature who could change shape and float through the air, observing humans as he wished before retreating to his magnificent, invisible-to-humans palace in the desert, he finds that he wears an iron bracelet that he cannot remove--this forces him to remain in human form. He has a few remaining powers--he also does not eat or sleep, and he is a creature of fire who can do metalwork by the heat of his hands. He roams the city at night, and eventually encounters an heiress, Sophia Winston, whom he seduces.
Another immigrant to NYC is Yehudah Schaalman, the creator of the Golem. He is driven by his desire to find a way to live forever; he's drawn to the area but can't figure out for a long time what or who is drawing him onward. He lives in a shelter run by Rabbi Meyer's son, Michael, and he makes himself so useful he's allowed to stay long beyond the usual time. He carries a valise with notes about his experiments and spells.
When the rabbi dies, Chava meets Michael, who is attracted by her. She initially puts him off, but she's formed a friendship of sorts with one of the women at the bakery, who becomes pregnant. She soon announces that her boyfriend is going to marry her, but when Chava is talked into visiting a dance hall with the other girls, the boyfriend doesn't turn up as scheduled. When his pregnant girlfriend finally sees him, he's flirting with another woman. Out in an alley, he slaps the girl. Chava comes to her defense and nearly beats the man to death. The jinni gets her away before the police arrive, but Chava is consumed by remorse and fear. She realizes, belatedly, that she no longer has the instructions to end her life (she doesn't realize the jinni has them). She tells him to stay away from her, and then proposes to Michael and marries him.
What she didn't realize beforehand was how hard it would be to live with someone who doesn't know her nature and who expects her to sleep--or, in her case, feign sleep--for the entire night.
There are plenty of twists and turns in this novel, as these two supernatural creatures become friends and try to live inconspicuously in late nineteenth-century NYC. The author does as wonderful a job portraying the time and place as she does creating these individual and relatable characters.
One only wonders what comes next! Ah--a search reveals there's a next novel in this series. Have placed a hold on it!
21ejj1955
19. And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians) by Agatha Christie. This is certainly a classic Christie, although, as someone in my book discussion today pointed out, there's no Poirot or Miss Marple or other detective to root for or feel sympathetic toward. Ten people are invited to a private island and find themselves stranded there, a mile from shore with storms outside, as first they are accused (by a phonograph record) of being killers and then one by one they are each found dead. The first two deaths are assumed to be accidental, but then it becomes clear that murders are taking place, and by the time there are five people left, they realize, after searching the house and island, that the killer must be one of them.
In one of Christie's more inventive twists, the real killer fakes his own death and then turns up again when there is one other person left. He convinces her to hang herself and then, knowing he's fatally ill, kills himself, leaving the island with ten bodies and a mystery for the police.
One interesting aspect of this story is the question of what can be done when guilty people escape the justice system. Two members of my reading group were firm that we have to follow the rule of law, but I'm thinking about how flawed the system really is. I'm not really advocating vigilante justice, but . . . is there no other course?
I don't know the answer to that, but I'm going to go make some soup.
In one of Christie's more inventive twists, the real killer fakes his own death and then turns up again when there is one other person left. He convinces her to hang herself and then, knowing he's fatally ill, kills himself, leaving the island with ten bodies and a mystery for the police.
One interesting aspect of this story is the question of what can be done when guilty people escape the justice system. Two members of my reading group were firm that we have to follow the rule of law, but I'm thinking about how flawed the system really is. I'm not really advocating vigilante justice, but . . . is there no other course?
I don't know the answer to that, but I'm going to go make some soup.
22ejj1955
20. Bittersweet by Janet and Rachel Cooper. Read for work--a cookbook with stories of disappointments and redemption in love.
{SPOILERS GALORE}
21. Giants' Bread by Mary Westmacott. This is the first of six novels written by Agatha Christie under the Westmacott pseudonym. It is quite different from her mysteries. The story begins with Vernon Deyre, a young child at his family's estate, Abbotts Puissants. He is looked after by his nurse and sees his parents only occasionally--his emotionally extravagant mother and his distant father, to whom he's actually more attached. One day he unexpectedly sees the gate in his lawn open and wanders into the woods for the first time. He comes across a secluded cottage, where workmen are moving a grand piano in. Vernon sees the piano as a beast and backs away, breaking his leg. From that time until adulthood, he dislikes music and avoids it.
A wealthy Jewish family moves into the estate next door, and gradually Vernon and his cousin Jo (Josephine) become friends with Sebastian. The three grow up together, and as young adults in London, Vernon sees again Nell, who he disdained as a child. She's become a beautiful blonde and he falls madly in love with her. She's torn; she loves him, too, but her mother has been grooming her to marry for wealth. Vernon has inherited Abbotts Puissants from his father (who died fighting the Boers), but he can't afford to live there, so the estate is rented out. Nell is also courted by George, a wealthy, older man. Somehow, she decides to marry Vernon.
Vernon has met a singer, Jane, a forthright woman who also is a friend of Sebastian. Sebastian loves Jo, who runs off with someone inappropriate. The first World War leads the men into the armed forces; Vernon is reported killed in action. A year later, the heartbroken Nell marries George, who buys Abbotts Puissants and cares for it lovingly, making a secure and luxurious home for Nell.
But then Vernon escapes from being held prisoner and makes his way across France to Belgium, where he sees a newspaper announcement of Nell's remarriage. He deliberately steps in front of a lorry, and we find out eventually that he recovers his health but has lost his memory. He arrives in England as a chauffeur named George.
His employer visits Abbotts Puissants and Nell sees him but says nothing; shortly after that, Jane and Sebastian see him, too, and recognize him. They tell him who he really is and Sebastian (who has become wealthy) gets him a doctor, who helps him regain his memory. He goes to see Nell, who is torn between her remembered love for him and her current comfortable life--she lets him believe (erroneously) that she is pregnant, and he disappears from her life. Jane, who has always loved him, goes with him to Russia in the early 1920s. There, he rediscovers his passion for music and composition (Sebastian is convinced he's a genius.)
When Sebastian finds that Jo is in NYC and very ill, he goes to her immediately and lets Vernon and Jane know; they travel to NYC, too, but the ship they are on sinks. Somehow, Nell and her husband are on the ship, too, and when faced with a choice of saving one of the two women, Vernon chooses Nell--only to realize, finally, that he loves Jane.
Sebastian tells Jo that he's convinced she can become well again, and plans to take her first to Arizona and then Switzerland (she has tuberculosis). He tells her if she becomes well they will be married.
Nell goes to Vernon and admits she still loves him, but he tells her he's busy with composing and asks her to leave. Finally, it seems that Vernon is doing the one thing he is meant to do with his life.
At one point, Jane, a source of blunt wisdom, tells Vernon that he wants a fairy tale--the love of Nell, to live at Abbotts Puissants, to compose music--and she believes that he can only do one of those things. Once again, it seems she was right.
There are some wild coincidences in this plot, but overall, it's really a character study, I think. The characters are individual and realistically flawed; they are drawn much more in depth than the usual Christie characters. I can understand why she wrote these books under another name.
{SPOILERS GALORE}
21. Giants' Bread by Mary Westmacott. This is the first of six novels written by Agatha Christie under the Westmacott pseudonym. It is quite different from her mysteries. The story begins with Vernon Deyre, a young child at his family's estate, Abbotts Puissants. He is looked after by his nurse and sees his parents only occasionally--his emotionally extravagant mother and his distant father, to whom he's actually more attached. One day he unexpectedly sees the gate in his lawn open and wanders into the woods for the first time. He comes across a secluded cottage, where workmen are moving a grand piano in. Vernon sees the piano as a beast and backs away, breaking his leg. From that time until adulthood, he dislikes music and avoids it.
A wealthy Jewish family moves into the estate next door, and gradually Vernon and his cousin Jo (Josephine) become friends with Sebastian. The three grow up together, and as young adults in London, Vernon sees again Nell, who he disdained as a child. She's become a beautiful blonde and he falls madly in love with her. She's torn; she loves him, too, but her mother has been grooming her to marry for wealth. Vernon has inherited Abbotts Puissants from his father (who died fighting the Boers), but he can't afford to live there, so the estate is rented out. Nell is also courted by George, a wealthy, older man. Somehow, she decides to marry Vernon.
Vernon has met a singer, Jane, a forthright woman who also is a friend of Sebastian. Sebastian loves Jo, who runs off with someone inappropriate. The first World War leads the men into the armed forces; Vernon is reported killed in action. A year later, the heartbroken Nell marries George, who buys Abbotts Puissants and cares for it lovingly, making a secure and luxurious home for Nell.
But then Vernon escapes from being held prisoner and makes his way across France to Belgium, where he sees a newspaper announcement of Nell's remarriage. He deliberately steps in front of a lorry, and we find out eventually that he recovers his health but has lost his memory. He arrives in England as a chauffeur named George.
His employer visits Abbotts Puissants and Nell sees him but says nothing; shortly after that, Jane and Sebastian see him, too, and recognize him. They tell him who he really is and Sebastian (who has become wealthy) gets him a doctor, who helps him regain his memory. He goes to see Nell, who is torn between her remembered love for him and her current comfortable life--she lets him believe (erroneously) that she is pregnant, and he disappears from her life. Jane, who has always loved him, goes with him to Russia in the early 1920s. There, he rediscovers his passion for music and composition (Sebastian is convinced he's a genius.)
When Sebastian finds that Jo is in NYC and very ill, he goes to her immediately and lets Vernon and Jane know; they travel to NYC, too, but the ship they are on sinks. Somehow, Nell and her husband are on the ship, too, and when faced with a choice of saving one of the two women, Vernon chooses Nell--only to realize, finally, that he loves Jane.
Sebastian tells Jo that he's convinced she can become well again, and plans to take her first to Arizona and then Switzerland (she has tuberculosis). He tells her if she becomes well they will be married.
Nell goes to Vernon and admits she still loves him, but he tells her he's busy with composing and asks her to leave. Finally, it seems that Vernon is doing the one thing he is meant to do with his life.
At one point, Jane, a source of blunt wisdom, tells Vernon that he wants a fairy tale--the love of Nell, to live at Abbotts Puissants, to compose music--and she believes that he can only do one of those things. Once again, it seems she was right.
There are some wild coincidences in this plot, but overall, it's really a character study, I think. The characters are individual and realistically flawed; they are drawn much more in depth than the usual Christie characters. I can understand why she wrote these books under another name.
23ejj1955
22. The Name of the Shadow by Mars G. Everson. I received this book in the Early Reviewers program. Few things in my reading experience are more annoying than starting a book that sounds promising, only to find that it has not been edited. Such was the experience with this book.
Here are just a few of the issues: In the opening sequence, Nara, one of three young people herding cattle, “had tied herself to the saddle during the manic race so as not to fall,” but a moment later, Arlan “grabbed her with his free hand . . . He flung her in front of him and around his back, throwing her on the saddle behind him.” How did he do this if she was belted to her saddle? No explanation is given.
There are grammar errors: “next to where I was laying” should be “next to where I was lying.” Punctuation errors: End punctuation placed outside of quotation marks ("You can still see them there”.) instead of inside. Incorrect use of words: “Arlan saw a silent plead on her face” uses the verb “plead” as a noun, when it should be “plea” or "pleading."
Some nouns are countable and some are not (mass nouns); these are confused: In “no amount of men from beyond the seas,” “men” is countable, so it should read “no number of men from beyond the seas.” But in “He had heard one too many news about . . .” “news” is not countable; it should be “one too many pieces of news” or “one too many news items” or some such phrase.
The story concerns a colony living in a relatively small area on an island. The eldest generation is respected as leaders; the society is agricultural; there are no nuclear families. Children are reared by all the adults, and books are rare. From a peaceful existence in which the colonists appear to have no natural predators, they suddenly find that cattle are being snatched at night. As they attempt to guard the cattle, men start being snatched as well.
Arlan, a young and vigorous man, joins in the attempts to track the mysterious beast. Eventually he decides to track it onto a forbidden mountain area, where he finds it inside a mysterious metallic structure and kills it. Exploring what turns out to be a ship, Arlan finds a written log and learns that the ship contained prisoners (a concept he doesn't initially grasp) who killed the crew of the ship and established the colony with stringent rules to create the society he's grown up with. He returns to the colony with the skull of the beast, a weapon, and some artificial lights he's taken from the ship, and he lies to the rest of the people about what he's learned, claiming that he's spoken with the "First," the founder of the colony.
Arlan becomes the de facto leader of the colony, changing the society to one preparing for the next threat. Boys are trained to use weapons, and girls are relegated to secondary status. Somewhere along the way, Arlan (despite having a casual sexual relationship with another woman) rapes Nara, who spends most of her life subtly resisting his social changes. When, years later, another ship lands on the planet, Arlan and his warriors go out to face it.
It's difficult to judge the book without thinking of all the errors, which are endlessly distracting. Overall, Arlan is both heroic and seriously flawed, and Nara, while less morally ambiguous for most of the book, is the only other character distinctly drawn.
Here are just a few of the issues: In the opening sequence, Nara, one of three young people herding cattle, “had tied herself to the saddle during the manic race so as not to fall,” but a moment later, Arlan “grabbed her with his free hand . . . He flung her in front of him and around his back, throwing her on the saddle behind him.” How did he do this if she was belted to her saddle? No explanation is given.
There are grammar errors: “next to where I was laying” should be “next to where I was lying.” Punctuation errors: End punctuation placed outside of quotation marks ("You can still see them there”.) instead of inside. Incorrect use of words: “Arlan saw a silent plead on her face” uses the verb “plead” as a noun, when it should be “plea” or "pleading."
Some nouns are countable and some are not (mass nouns); these are confused: In “no amount of men from beyond the seas,” “men” is countable, so it should read “no number of men from beyond the seas.” But in “He had heard one too many news about . . .” “news” is not countable; it should be “one too many pieces of news” or “one too many news items” or some such phrase.
The story concerns a colony living in a relatively small area on an island. The eldest generation is respected as leaders; the society is agricultural; there are no nuclear families. Children are reared by all the adults, and books are rare. From a peaceful existence in which the colonists appear to have no natural predators, they suddenly find that cattle are being snatched at night. As they attempt to guard the cattle, men start being snatched as well.
Arlan, a young and vigorous man, joins in the attempts to track the mysterious beast. Eventually he decides to track it onto a forbidden mountain area, where he finds it inside a mysterious metallic structure and kills it. Exploring what turns out to be a ship, Arlan finds a written log and learns that the ship contained prisoners (a concept he doesn't initially grasp) who killed the crew of the ship and established the colony with stringent rules to create the society he's grown up with. He returns to the colony with the skull of the beast, a weapon, and some artificial lights he's taken from the ship, and he lies to the rest of the people about what he's learned, claiming that he's spoken with the "First," the founder of the colony.
Arlan becomes the de facto leader of the colony, changing the society to one preparing for the next threat. Boys are trained to use weapons, and girls are relegated to secondary status. Somewhere along the way, Arlan (despite having a casual sexual relationship with another woman) rapes Nara, who spends most of her life subtly resisting his social changes. When, years later, another ship lands on the planet, Arlan and his warriors go out to face it.
It's difficult to judge the book without thinking of all the errors, which are endlessly distracting. Overall, Arlan is both heroic and seriously flawed, and Nara, while less morally ambiguous for most of the book, is the only other character distinctly drawn.
24ejj1955
23. The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. This is the second in the Scholomance trilogy (well, it's a trilogy now--not sure if it will be more than that?). At any rate, wow. Novik can tell a story and provide a fabulous conclusion with just one or two lines to set up the next book--the first thing I did after finishing was go to my library's website to put a hold on the third book. I'm just glad I didn't read the first two books before the third was published, I'd be going crazy.
So, okay: senior year begins for El with the unusual comfort of friends she's made a bond with to leave the school on the terrifying day of graduation, not to mention her relationship with Orion, the school's hero. She's not sure why her mother sent her a warning to avoid him, but she doesn't--as the year goes on, she's ever more attracted to him. Balancing the good things going on for her, she's also presented with a monstrous schedule, and finds herself in a small classroom with a bunch of freshmen. She reluctantly does whatever is necessary to save them from the mals that keep attacking the group. It does drain her of mana, but after she helps the New York group, she's given a power bracelet that allows her to draw mana from their shared stores.
Meanwhile, Orion is finding it difficult to do his favorite thing, which is to hunt mals--the only ones that seem to be common this year are the ones attacking El and the freshmen.
One of the main activities for seniors is to enter the gym, which is enchanted to give them practice runs of the graduation experience (basically, fighting mals until they get out the door or die trying, which normally a large number do). At some point, El's response to the challenge remakes the gym, restoring a lovely wonderland (that still becomes horrifically dangerous as the course is remade each week). People begin to realize her enormous power, and eventually most of the school has allied with her. She begins to rethink her plans to leave the school. What if, instead of ensuring her own safety, she tried to get everyone out safely?
That's not where the planning stops, though, and I'll skip further spoilers here. To say that she comes up with an ambitious plan is an understatement.
But oh, what happens next? What's going on in the outside world with the various enclaves? I can't wait to read the next book!
So, okay: senior year begins for El with the unusual comfort of friends she's made a bond with to leave the school on the terrifying day of graduation, not to mention her relationship with Orion, the school's hero. She's not sure why her mother sent her a warning to avoid him, but she doesn't--as the year goes on, she's ever more attracted to him. Balancing the good things going on for her, she's also presented with a monstrous schedule, and finds herself in a small classroom with a bunch of freshmen. She reluctantly does whatever is necessary to save them from the mals that keep attacking the group. It does drain her of mana, but after she helps the New York group, she's given a power bracelet that allows her to draw mana from their shared stores.
Meanwhile, Orion is finding it difficult to do his favorite thing, which is to hunt mals--the only ones that seem to be common this year are the ones attacking El and the freshmen.
One of the main activities for seniors is to enter the gym, which is enchanted to give them practice runs of the graduation experience (basically, fighting mals until they get out the door or die trying, which normally a large number do). At some point, El's response to the challenge remakes the gym, restoring a lovely wonderland (that still becomes horrifically dangerous as the course is remade each week). People begin to realize her enormous power, and eventually most of the school has allied with her. She begins to rethink her plans to leave the school. What if, instead of ensuring her own safety, she tried to get everyone out safely?
That's not where the planning stops, though, and I'll skip further spoilers here. To say that she comes up with an ambitious plan is an understatement.
But oh, what happens next? What's going on in the outside world with the various enclaves? I can't wait to read the next book!
25ejj1955
24. Call Me Adam by Jennifer Oddo. Read for work. Apocalyptic science/fantasy fiction; Covid is followed by a much worse pandemic.
26ejj1955
{SPOILERS!}
25. The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik. El is finally home from school, back in the yurt in Wales with her mother, but she's devastated because every student made it out of the Scholomance except for Orion, who inexplicably pushed her out the door and then stayed behind with Patience, the massive maw-mouth. After some days of weeping and confusion, she's pulled out of her isolation by Liesel, the valedictorian, elegantly dressed and fresh from her new London enclave. But London is in trouble, and Liesel asks El to come help them. When she does, she finds a maw-mouth and kills it. Then she resolves to go back to the Scholomance to kill Patience and thus relieve Orion of the unending misery she assumes he's enduring there, so she goes to the New York enclave to ask for their help (mainly for power). She meets his father, who seems unassuming despite being a well-known artificer, and then she meets his mother and realizes she's a maleficer, a user of dark magic.
When El and her friends get to the Scholomance and they get inside, they find it completely empty of mals and about to break off into the void. After searching the whole school, El finally finds Orion in the gym. But he's not himself, clearly. She leads him out and takes him to her mother in Wales. Her mother does what she can, but admits she can't heal him. All she has done is given him hope.
Then El is called to Beijing after Liu sends her a muted message--Liu is in tears, but it's obvious (to Liesel, anyway) that she's under compulsion not to say why she's crying. El discovers that Liu is being used to make a new enclave, and the way that is done, she realizes, is that someone (in this case, Liu) is imprisoned and made the first meal of a newly created maw-mouth. El stops this and rescues Liu, beginning to realize that all enclaves have been formed this way since ancient times--and that the Golden Sutras she has been treasuring show the way to create enclaves without this dark magic.
Along the way to a final battle among enclaves at the gates of the Scholomance, El grapples with Orion's "not rightness" and reconciles with her father's family as she realizes why they pushed her and her mother aside when she was a baby. It eventually becomes clear that El was born/created to be in opposition to what Orion's mother created when she "made" him--essentially, a maw-mouth in human form. But there's a human Orion, too, the one who loves El. Can she separate the two? Should the Scholomance be let go into the void or saved and remade to be a place in which magic children can be safe?
I loved this series! I have a pile of other books I have to read, but I definitely want to get some more of Novik's work to read. Extremely memorable characters.
25. The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik. El is finally home from school, back in the yurt in Wales with her mother, but she's devastated because every student made it out of the Scholomance except for Orion, who inexplicably pushed her out the door and then stayed behind with Patience, the massive maw-mouth. After some days of weeping and confusion, she's pulled out of her isolation by Liesel, the valedictorian, elegantly dressed and fresh from her new London enclave. But London is in trouble, and Liesel asks El to come help them. When she does, she finds a maw-mouth and kills it. Then she resolves to go back to the Scholomance to kill Patience and thus relieve Orion of the unending misery she assumes he's enduring there, so she goes to the New York enclave to ask for their help (mainly for power). She meets his father, who seems unassuming despite being a well-known artificer, and then she meets his mother and realizes she's a maleficer, a user of dark magic.
When El and her friends get to the Scholomance and they get inside, they find it completely empty of mals and about to break off into the void. After searching the whole school, El finally finds Orion in the gym. But he's not himself, clearly. She leads him out and takes him to her mother in Wales. Her mother does what she can, but admits she can't heal him. All she has done is given him hope.
Then El is called to Beijing after Liu sends her a muted message--Liu is in tears, but it's obvious (to Liesel, anyway) that she's under compulsion not to say why she's crying. El discovers that Liu is being used to make a new enclave, and the way that is done, she realizes, is that someone (in this case, Liu) is imprisoned and made the first meal of a newly created maw-mouth. El stops this and rescues Liu, beginning to realize that all enclaves have been formed this way since ancient times--and that the Golden Sutras she has been treasuring show the way to create enclaves without this dark magic.
Along the way to a final battle among enclaves at the gates of the Scholomance, El grapples with Orion's "not rightness" and reconciles with her father's family as she realizes why they pushed her and her mother aside when she was a baby. It eventually becomes clear that El was born/created to be in opposition to what Orion's mother created when she "made" him--essentially, a maw-mouth in human form. But there's a human Orion, too, the one who loves El. Can she separate the two? Should the Scholomance be let go into the void or saved and remade to be a place in which magic children can be safe?
I loved this series! I have a pile of other books I have to read, but I definitely want to get some more of Novik's work to read. Extremely memorable characters.
27foggidawn
>26 ejj1955: Yay! I loved that series, too!
28richardderus
You have been on a tear through Novik's work, Author Jewell! I'm glad it's working so well for you!
29ejj1955
Thanks! I did enjoy them. But pressing onward . . .
{SPOILERS!}
26. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. I think what's most interesting about this book is that there's definitely change and growth for the two main characters. The story begins with the honeymoon of Susy and Nick Lansing in Lake Como, Italy, at a borrowed villa. It flashes back a bit to detail the meeting of the two, both impoverished young people living by their wits among the denizens of wealthy international society. Nick lives in a bare and shabby apartment, but Susy stays with various friends, usually in luxury. Although Susy resolves to tell him they can't see each other any longer, the feelings are too strong, so the two make a bargain. They'll marry and live together for a while as comfortably as they can, and then each of them will seek wealthy mates. They'll help each other in this quest and divorce when either of them finds someone.
The problem, of course, is that they are in love with each other. But Nick gradually discovers that his and Susy's moral compasses are slightly different; when it's time to leave the Lake Como villa, she packs the owner's cigars for Nick. He discovers this and makes her put them back, and she tries to tell him that she never would have taken anything for herself, she was doing it for him.
They next go to Venice, and staying in a palazzo there, Susy realizes she's expected to conceal and abet her hostess's affair and deception of her husband. She sends a letter every week to the husband, pretending that the wife is still at home. When the wife returns, she gifts Susy with expensive jewelry and gives another expensive piece to Nick, who only then learns of the deception. He's appalled at what Susy has been doing, and he leaves her.
Nick becomes involved with a wealthy family with a well-educated, clear-speaking daughter. Susy unexpectedly finds her old friend Strefford, poor but aristocratic, has had a change in fortunes--his uncle and cousin have both died, leaving him the heir to a title and fortune. He has, Susy senses, always wanted her, and she tentatively promises to marry him, not having heard from Nick in months. Nick, on a cruise with his friends/employers, reads about her social appearances and assumes that she has decided to honor their original bargain and divorce him to marry someone (Strefford) who is wealthy. He himself knows that his employer's daughter is in love with him.
When push comes to shove, though, Susy realizes she doesn't love Strefford and is not even attracted to him physically (after a disastrous kiss or two). She resolutely rejects him and decides instead to go look after the five children of an artistic pair of friends (an artist and a musician). She finds herself unexpectedly challenged but charmed by the kids, who are intelligent, rambunctious, and affectionate.
After some back-and-forth between lawyers, Nick returns from his travels to Paris (near where Susy is living with the kids) to formalize the divorce. More misunderstandings occur before the two finally face each other and their feelings. Nick reveals that he's written a couple of travel articles, for which he's been paid $200 (equal to just over $3,000 today). Susy says that she hocked the jewelry given to her by her faithless friend, and is overjoyed to think she can reclaim it and send it back, although she knows the woman won't understand it.
There's a good deal in this novel about the lives of wealthy socialites, with affairs, divorces, drinking, travel, buying of clothes, and occasional forays into the arts. One senses that by the end of the novel, Susy and Nick, at least, have found something a bit more substantial to do with their lives.
{SPOILERS!}
26. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. I think what's most interesting about this book is that there's definitely change and growth for the two main characters. The story begins with the honeymoon of Susy and Nick Lansing in Lake Como, Italy, at a borrowed villa. It flashes back a bit to detail the meeting of the two, both impoverished young people living by their wits among the denizens of wealthy international society. Nick lives in a bare and shabby apartment, but Susy stays with various friends, usually in luxury. Although Susy resolves to tell him they can't see each other any longer, the feelings are too strong, so the two make a bargain. They'll marry and live together for a while as comfortably as they can, and then each of them will seek wealthy mates. They'll help each other in this quest and divorce when either of them finds someone.
The problem, of course, is that they are in love with each other. But Nick gradually discovers that his and Susy's moral compasses are slightly different; when it's time to leave the Lake Como villa, she packs the owner's cigars for Nick. He discovers this and makes her put them back, and she tries to tell him that she never would have taken anything for herself, she was doing it for him.
They next go to Venice, and staying in a palazzo there, Susy realizes she's expected to conceal and abet her hostess's affair and deception of her husband. She sends a letter every week to the husband, pretending that the wife is still at home. When the wife returns, she gifts Susy with expensive jewelry and gives another expensive piece to Nick, who only then learns of the deception. He's appalled at what Susy has been doing, and he leaves her.
Nick becomes involved with a wealthy family with a well-educated, clear-speaking daughter. Susy unexpectedly finds her old friend Strefford, poor but aristocratic, has had a change in fortunes--his uncle and cousin have both died, leaving him the heir to a title and fortune. He has, Susy senses, always wanted her, and she tentatively promises to marry him, not having heard from Nick in months. Nick, on a cruise with his friends/employers, reads about her social appearances and assumes that she has decided to honor their original bargain and divorce him to marry someone (Strefford) who is wealthy. He himself knows that his employer's daughter is in love with him.
When push comes to shove, though, Susy realizes she doesn't love Strefford and is not even attracted to him physically (after a disastrous kiss or two). She resolutely rejects him and decides instead to go look after the five children of an artistic pair of friends (an artist and a musician). She finds herself unexpectedly challenged but charmed by the kids, who are intelligent, rambunctious, and affectionate.
After some back-and-forth between lawyers, Nick returns from his travels to Paris (near where Susy is living with the kids) to formalize the divorce. More misunderstandings occur before the two finally face each other and their feelings. Nick reveals that he's written a couple of travel articles, for which he's been paid $200 (equal to just over $3,000 today). Susy says that she hocked the jewelry given to her by her faithless friend, and is overjoyed to think she can reclaim it and send it back, although she knows the woman won't understand it.
There's a good deal in this novel about the lives of wealthy socialites, with affairs, divorces, drinking, travel, buying of clothes, and occasional forays into the arts. One senses that by the end of the novel, Susy and Nick, at least, have found something a bit more substantial to do with their lives.
30ejj1955
27. Burned Out Leader by Don Womble. Nonfiction; read for work.
{SPOILERS}
28. Assassin's Orbit by John Appel. This was my sci fi/fantasy book club book about a week ago. One of the things most of us agreed about was that there were so many characters in this book that we couldn't keep them straight easily, and they didn't have strongly defined personalities. Additionally, this is the first book of a trilogy, and some felt that there wasn't enough resolution in the end of this book; that it was mostly just setting up readers for the next book. This is, admittedly, a talent that many sci fi writers don't have well developed--the ability to tell a complete story and conclude it as one part of an overarching story in a series (one thing J.K. Rowling did in a masterful way). At any rate, humans have left Earth after some kind of mind-control plague and established themselves on a number of planets. One planet, Ileri, has a space station above it, and it's on the space station that most of the action of this book occurs. There is, first of all, a murder of group of people, including government ministers and a security guard who is related to one of a pair of private investigators, Noo and Fari Tahir (his sister). The investigation eventually involves the police commissioner, Toiwa; a spy, Meiko Ogawa; a gangster, Pericles Loh; and Josephine Okafor, a blind infonet security specialist from the planet below the station. Most of the main characters, and virtually everyone in any position of power, is a female. Toiwa has a husband who is a nurse, and there are a few men on the periphery of the commissioner, including a burly and dedicated guard.
There are battles on the station, battles on the planet, and battles among the ships in space. Eventually it becomes known to a few people that the plague they fled from on Earth has made it out into space with them, and desperate efforts are taken to contain it. They succeed . . . for the moment. And that's the lead in to the next book in the series, basically.
{SPOILERS}
28. Assassin's Orbit by John Appel. This was my sci fi/fantasy book club book about a week ago. One of the things most of us agreed about was that there were so many characters in this book that we couldn't keep them straight easily, and they didn't have strongly defined personalities. Additionally, this is the first book of a trilogy, and some felt that there wasn't enough resolution in the end of this book; that it was mostly just setting up readers for the next book. This is, admittedly, a talent that many sci fi writers don't have well developed--the ability to tell a complete story and conclude it as one part of an overarching story in a series (one thing J.K. Rowling did in a masterful way). At any rate, humans have left Earth after some kind of mind-control plague and established themselves on a number of planets. One planet, Ileri, has a space station above it, and it's on the space station that most of the action of this book occurs. There is, first of all, a murder of group of people, including government ministers and a security guard who is related to one of a pair of private investigators, Noo and Fari Tahir (his sister). The investigation eventually involves the police commissioner, Toiwa; a spy, Meiko Ogawa; a gangster, Pericles Loh; and Josephine Okafor, a blind infonet security specialist from the planet below the station. Most of the main characters, and virtually everyone in any position of power, is a female. Toiwa has a husband who is a nurse, and there are a few men on the periphery of the commissioner, including a burly and dedicated guard.
There are battles on the station, battles on the planet, and battles among the ships in space. Eventually it becomes known to a few people that the plague they fled from on Earth has made it out into space with them, and desperate efforts are taken to contain it. They succeed . . . for the moment. And that's the lead in to the next book in the series, basically.
31ejj1955
I feel as though I've fallen off the planet for a while. But really, I haven't. I just lost track of everything, I guess. Let's see if I can do some reconstruction . . .
29. Three Quarters Dead by Lisa Larsen, read for work. Upbeat nonfiction about growing older.
30. Into the Next by Raphael Bernier, read for work. Science fiction about taking Earth back from invaders.
31. Dick, Dog, Dollar by Brendan Moran, read for work. Nonfiction, meant in jest, with advice for women.
32. Firefly: New Sheriff in the 'Verse, Parts I and II, by Greg Pak. This was a graphic novel based on the canceled-too-soon TV show. Mal Reynolds has become a sheriff; he ends up hunting a murderer who seems to be targeting employees of the Blue Moon conglomerate. Mal occasionally runs into Inora and also his crew, which, under Zoe, is looking for a planet they can call home (safe from the Alliance). As some online reviewers noted, the tone overall wasn't quite right (no Chinese used, for example), and some characters (Jayne) were hard to recognize as drawn. Still, for one who loved this series, it was nice to see the group still out there, chasing various dreams and surviving somehow.
29. Three Quarters Dead by Lisa Larsen, read for work. Upbeat nonfiction about growing older.
30. Into the Next by Raphael Bernier, read for work. Science fiction about taking Earth back from invaders.
31. Dick, Dog, Dollar by Brendan Moran, read for work. Nonfiction, meant in jest, with advice for women.
32. Firefly: New Sheriff in the 'Verse, Parts I and II, by Greg Pak. This was a graphic novel based on the canceled-too-soon TV show. Mal Reynolds has become a sheriff; he ends up hunting a murderer who seems to be targeting employees of the Blue Moon conglomerate. Mal occasionally runs into Inora and also his crew, which, under Zoe, is looking for a planet they can call home (safe from the Alliance). As some online reviewers noted, the tone overall wasn't quite right (no Chinese used, for example), and some characters (Jayne) were hard to recognize as drawn. Still, for one who loved this series, it was nice to see the group still out there, chasing various dreams and surviving somehow.
32drneutron
>31 ejj1955: Hmmm, gotta find that Firefly one - I’m definitely a brown coat. 😀
33ejj1955
33. The American Senator by Anthony Trollope. This was my first ever Trollope, and I enjoyed it despite the fact it took me a ridiculously long time to finish. It's set in a small English town for the most part, one in which there's a wealthy lord nearby (Lord Rufford) and two men who are first cousins once removed, John Morton, a diplomat, and Reginald Morton, a man who keeps mostly to himself and enjoys books. John Morton is engaged to Arabella Trefoil, a sometimes beautiful young woman (but not that young: in her late twenties and, a well-born girl in poverty, determined to make a good marriage). Arabella is not in love with Morton, and she flirts with Lord Rufford, who flirts back.
This relationship forms a large part of the story, as Arabella not only convinces herself that a few kisses and a declaration of love are the same as an engagement, and when Rufford backs off from her and leaves a country house where they were visiting, she involves her aunt and uncle, a duchess and duke, as well as her own estranged parents, in her attempts to either make Rufford marry her or to shame him for not doing so.
Meanwhile, a local attorney, Mr. Masters, has a daughter, Mary, as well as a second wife and two more daughters. Mary is courted by Larry Twentyman, but although her family likes him and her stepmother constantly nags her to accept his proposal, Mary will not. She is in love with Reginald Morton, although she has little hope that he feels the same. (In fact, he does.)
Interwoven with all this romantic entanglements there is a lot of hunting, including a case against a poor local man who is suspected of having poisoned a fox because the hunt habitually ran over his land and crops. The American senator, Mr. Gotobed, from a fictional state of Mikewa, observes all this and throws his support behind the man accused of the poisoning. He eventually realizes that the man is quite a scoundrel, but argues that, on principle, the poor man is ill-treated by the wealthy man (men).
As the novel unfolds, the two young women find their ways through the murky waters of love, and a number of other characters also have changes in their marital status. A number of characters die, with significant side-effects felt by one of the other characters.
I'd like to read more Trollope, but it will certainly have to wait a while. So many other books . . .
This relationship forms a large part of the story, as Arabella not only convinces herself that a few kisses and a declaration of love are the same as an engagement, and when Rufford backs off from her and leaves a country house where they were visiting, she involves her aunt and uncle, a duchess and duke, as well as her own estranged parents, in her attempts to either make Rufford marry her or to shame him for not doing so.
Meanwhile, a local attorney, Mr. Masters, has a daughter, Mary, as well as a second wife and two more daughters. Mary is courted by Larry Twentyman, but although her family likes him and her stepmother constantly nags her to accept his proposal, Mary will not. She is in love with Reginald Morton, although she has little hope that he feels the same. (In fact, he does.)
Interwoven with all this romantic entanglements there is a lot of hunting, including a case against a poor local man who is suspected of having poisoned a fox because the hunt habitually ran over his land and crops. The American senator, Mr. Gotobed, from a fictional state of Mikewa, observes all this and throws his support behind the man accused of the poisoning. He eventually realizes that the man is quite a scoundrel, but argues that, on principle, the poor man is ill-treated by the wealthy man (men).
As the novel unfolds, the two young women find their ways through the murky waters of love, and a number of other characters also have changes in their marital status. A number of characters die, with significant side-effects felt by one of the other characters.
I'd like to read more Trollope, but it will certainly have to wait a while. So many other books . . .
34ejj1955
34. Biblical Greek: An English Text; Becoming a Servant; Foundations of Faith by various authors. Three religious pamphlets, read for work.
35. Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather. This was my first Cather, and it was a charming story. Set in late seventeenth-century Quebec, the story is as much a collection of character studies as anything else; the plot is not dramatic. Centering the story is the scientific apothecary, Euclide Auclair, a widower who lives with his young daughter, Cecile, who is twelve at the beginning of the novel. Cecile is a loving and industrious housekeeper and cook, who takes great care of her father. Auclair's patron is the Count de Frontenac, the governor of Quebec, and the little family lives a comfortable life in the rocky colony so far from home. Ships arrive from France in July and depart in October, leaving the colonists to winter.
The book covers a year from October, with the ships leaving, to July, when they return, with an epilogue that notes Auclair is now living mostly alone, as Cecile has married and is the mother of four sons--the "Canadians of the future."
Cather's language and descriptions are lovely as she describes the geography, the rocky hills on which Quebec is built, the sun and the moon and the crisp, clean air in midwinter. The sight of the first birds of spring on an icy cliff is a cause for joy. Cather herself lived in Canada for part of her life, and her love for the land is clear.
35. Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather. This was my first Cather, and it was a charming story. Set in late seventeenth-century Quebec, the story is as much a collection of character studies as anything else; the plot is not dramatic. Centering the story is the scientific apothecary, Euclide Auclair, a widower who lives with his young daughter, Cecile, who is twelve at the beginning of the novel. Cecile is a loving and industrious housekeeper and cook, who takes great care of her father. Auclair's patron is the Count de Frontenac, the governor of Quebec, and the little family lives a comfortable life in the rocky colony so far from home. Ships arrive from France in July and depart in October, leaving the colonists to winter.
The book covers a year from October, with the ships leaving, to July, when they return, with an epilogue that notes Auclair is now living mostly alone, as Cecile has married and is the mother of four sons--the "Canadians of the future."
Cather's language and descriptions are lovely as she describes the geography, the rocky hills on which Quebec is built, the sun and the moon and the crisp, clean air in midwinter. The sight of the first birds of spring on an icy cliff is a cause for joy. Cather herself lived in Canada for part of her life, and her love for the land is clear.
35ejj1955
36. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell. I almost have no words. Young, pretty Ruth is orphaned and placed in a sort of sewing factory, where she and other girls are worked pretty mercilessly by the owner, a hard-hearted woman. When several girls are taken to a ball one night to help the attendees with their dresses, Ruth is selected because she is pretty. There, she mends a young woman's dress and is noticed by her escort, handsome Mr. Bellingham. Despite their social disparities, the two begin meeting when Ruth is sent on errands or has a half-day off. He talks her into a long walk one day, and she is "caught" by her boss, who instantly dismisses her. With no other option, Ruth joins the man who becomes her seducer. She believes she loves him, although she soon realizes she bores him, too. When he becomes ill and his mother arrives to care for him, Ruth keeps watch outside his door, but his mother is appalled to find her son keeping this girl, and soon takes him away to recuperate elsewhere.
Ruth is abandoned without a goodbye, although 50 pounds are left for her. She swoons and is taken care of by Mr. Benson, a Dissenting minister on holiday, who is bent and deformed; he fell, and she helped him up before her own collapse. He eventually summons his sister, Faith, who joins him in caring for Ruth. Eventually, they realize she is with child, and they take her home with them, giving her the name of a distant relative and claiming she's a widow.
Their modest household consists of one other, Sally, who is housekeeper and cook, and fiercely devoted to them. She soon figures out that Ruth is not a widow, but agrees to the pretence to protect her employers. And eventually Ruth's son, Leonard, is born. After a few years, when he's been weaned, Ruth takes a job as a governess to a local (well-off) family with one son and three daughters; the older daughter, Jemima, is a year or two younger than Ruth, but her sisters are quite a bit younger.
Jemima initially loves Ruth. Her father wants Jemima to become the wife of his business partner, Mr. Farquhar, who is a good bit older than she is. Jemima hates being managed, and secretly loves Mr. Farquhar, but she isn't sure he cares for her rather than simply considering her a good business proposition. She is so rebellious against the arranged match that he despairs and begins to wonder if Ruth would not suit him better--she, meanwhile, is oblivious of his interest.
At this point, Jemima's conversation with a saleswoman in a hat shop reveals Ruth's true past; the saleswoman figures out who is being discussed and soon spreads the tale everywhere in town. Ruth's reputation is ruined and her son known henceforth as a bastard; she's dismissed from her job by Jemima's angry father.
Years go by with Ruth and Leonard shunned by most in town, though Mr. Benson and Faith continue to support them. Ruth eventually figures out that she can do nursing, usually of poor people who cannot pay her. But an epidemic occurs, and she goes into the worst of that, emerging as practically a saint, revered by many. She returns to the Bensons and her son, but then leaves to nurse Mr. Bellingham when she hears he's ill. He recovers, but she sickens and dies.
So, basically, she's seduced as an innocent girl and spends her life feeling she's a worthless sinner; she acts nearly perfectly from that point on, but it's only near the end of her short life she gains the respect of many people around her. And then she dies. There is a ton of religious thought in this book; Ruth prays continuously, especially for her son.
And I'm just here with my twenty-first century sense of morals, and I'm outraged at nearly every moment of this girl's life.
At least I already know the woman in the next work I'm reading is a lot more in charge of her own fate . . . well, Lady Macbeth. Yes, she's different from Ruth!
Ruth is abandoned without a goodbye, although 50 pounds are left for her. She swoons and is taken care of by Mr. Benson, a Dissenting minister on holiday, who is bent and deformed; he fell, and she helped him up before her own collapse. He eventually summons his sister, Faith, who joins him in caring for Ruth. Eventually, they realize she is with child, and they take her home with them, giving her the name of a distant relative and claiming she's a widow.
Their modest household consists of one other, Sally, who is housekeeper and cook, and fiercely devoted to them. She soon figures out that Ruth is not a widow, but agrees to the pretence to protect her employers. And eventually Ruth's son, Leonard, is born. After a few years, when he's been weaned, Ruth takes a job as a governess to a local (well-off) family with one son and three daughters; the older daughter, Jemima, is a year or two younger than Ruth, but her sisters are quite a bit younger.
Jemima initially loves Ruth. Her father wants Jemima to become the wife of his business partner, Mr. Farquhar, who is a good bit older than she is. Jemima hates being managed, and secretly loves Mr. Farquhar, but she isn't sure he cares for her rather than simply considering her a good business proposition. She is so rebellious against the arranged match that he despairs and begins to wonder if Ruth would not suit him better--she, meanwhile, is oblivious of his interest.
At this point, Jemima's conversation with a saleswoman in a hat shop reveals Ruth's true past; the saleswoman figures out who is being discussed and soon spreads the tale everywhere in town. Ruth's reputation is ruined and her son known henceforth as a bastard; she's dismissed from her job by Jemima's angry father.
Years go by with Ruth and Leonard shunned by most in town, though Mr. Benson and Faith continue to support them. Ruth eventually figures out that she can do nursing, usually of poor people who cannot pay her. But an epidemic occurs, and she goes into the worst of that, emerging as practically a saint, revered by many. She returns to the Bensons and her son, but then leaves to nurse Mr. Bellingham when she hears he's ill. He recovers, but she sickens and dies.
So, basically, she's seduced as an innocent girl and spends her life feeling she's a worthless sinner; she acts nearly perfectly from that point on, but it's only near the end of her short life she gains the respect of many people around her. And then she dies. There is a ton of religious thought in this book; Ruth prays continuously, especially for her son.
And I'm just here with my twenty-first century sense of morals, and I'm outraged at nearly every moment of this girl's life.
At least I already know the woman in the next work I'm reading is a lot more in charge of her own fate . . . well, Lady Macbeth. Yes, she's different from Ruth!
36ejj1955
37. Rhythm of Death by Eric Blake. Let me just say, 600 pages and it's "to be continued." Read for work.
SPOILERS
38. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. This was an 800-page work, so took a while, but I did enjoy it. It's a sprawling fantasy set on a mythical world with magic and dragons and shapeshifters. Main characters include Sabran IX, queen of Inys; Eadaz uq Nara, an initiate of the Priory of the Orange Tree (the oranges of which give those who eat them power), who is assigned to Sabran's court to protect the queen; Tané, a young woman chosen to be a dragonrider; and Niclays Roos, a scientist and alchemist, banished by Sabran after he failed to make her immortal. It certainly took me a while to sort all this out, as the story shifts from character to character and from place to place, and the relationships between the places are not clear from the start (or weren't to me, anyway).
One important piece of information is that there are good dragons (like the one Tané rides, Nayimathum) and bad dragons, like the rumored-to-soon-arise Nameless One, who vows to destroy humans. Diametrically opposed religions and ancient rivalries have to be put aside to fight the Nameless One, but when all the nations come together, along with Tané and Eadaz fighting with two powerful jewels and a historic sword, they're able to face the Nameless One and his minions in a final, dramatic battle.
It takes a while to develop, but there's a romantic connection between Sabran and Eadaz that grows stronger and stronger throughout the novel. Each has her own responsibilities that sometimes keeps them apart, but they pledge to each other that they will be together eventually.
I have sooo much reading to do. So much. Total number of books this year will not be terribly impressive, but it is what it is.
SPOILERS
38. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. This was an 800-page work, so took a while, but I did enjoy it. It's a sprawling fantasy set on a mythical world with magic and dragons and shapeshifters. Main characters include Sabran IX, queen of Inys; Eadaz uq Nara, an initiate of the Priory of the Orange Tree (the oranges of which give those who eat them power), who is assigned to Sabran's court to protect the queen; Tané, a young woman chosen to be a dragonrider; and Niclays Roos, a scientist and alchemist, banished by Sabran after he failed to make her immortal. It certainly took me a while to sort all this out, as the story shifts from character to character and from place to place, and the relationships between the places are not clear from the start (or weren't to me, anyway).
One important piece of information is that there are good dragons (like the one Tané rides, Nayimathum) and bad dragons, like the rumored-to-soon-arise Nameless One, who vows to destroy humans. Diametrically opposed religions and ancient rivalries have to be put aside to fight the Nameless One, but when all the nations come together, along with Tané and Eadaz fighting with two powerful jewels and a historic sword, they're able to face the Nameless One and his minions in a final, dramatic battle.
It takes a while to develop, but there's a romantic connection between Sabran and Eadaz that grows stronger and stronger throughout the novel. Each has her own responsibilities that sometimes keeps them apart, but they pledge to each other that they will be together eventually.
I have sooo much reading to do. So much. Total number of books this year will not be terribly impressive, but it is what it is.
37PaulCranswick
>36 ejj1955: Mmm I am pretty sure that is on the shelves somewhere. Perhaps I should......
38foggidawn
>36 ejj1955: I read and enjoyed The Priory of the Orange Tree, but the sequel is equally chunky and I can't quite convince myself to pick it up -- even in a format that won't hurt my wrists!
39ejj1955
>37 PaulCranswick: and >38 foggidawn: I enjoyed the book but I'm not sure I could face the sequel either . . .
SPOILERS!
39. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. Read this after seeing the movie for the twentieth time or so. The screenwriters certainly beefed up the initial meeting between the two main characters (Phyllis and Walter), giving Barbara Stanwyck more to do (and she ran with it). In the book, Phyllis initially seems almost innocent, as Walter suggests killing her husband. But once the deed is done, Walter immediately realizes he doesn't love her at all. He begins seeing Lola, the dead man's daughter, and falls in love with her. Only gradually does he realize she still loves Sachetti, and she's extremely happy when she realizes Sachetti had nothing to do with her father's murder. Eventually, the relentless insurance man Keyes figures out what has happened and that Walter is involved--Walter confesses when Lola is implicated by Keyes, making it clear that she was innocent. Unlike the end of the movie, Keyes expresses sympathy to Walter and arranges for him (after he's been hospitalized for the bullet wound from Phyllis and then released) to leave the country. On the ship on the way to Mexico, he realizes Phyllis is beside him and that there's really no escape. The two plan to suicide by jumping from the ship--and Walter mentions that he's begun bleeding from his wound again and that there's a shark following the ship. Yikes. There's also some backstory that makes it clear Phyllis has left a trail of murder victims behind her--not only her husband, but his first wife and, before that, three children at a hospital (because one of them had property she could inherit). Oh, what a sordid tale!
SPOILERS!
39. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. Read this after seeing the movie for the twentieth time or so. The screenwriters certainly beefed up the initial meeting between the two main characters (Phyllis and Walter), giving Barbara Stanwyck more to do (and she ran with it). In the book, Phyllis initially seems almost innocent, as Walter suggests killing her husband. But once the deed is done, Walter immediately realizes he doesn't love her at all. He begins seeing Lola, the dead man's daughter, and falls in love with her. Only gradually does he realize she still loves Sachetti, and she's extremely happy when she realizes Sachetti had nothing to do with her father's murder. Eventually, the relentless insurance man Keyes figures out what has happened and that Walter is involved--Walter confesses when Lola is implicated by Keyes, making it clear that she was innocent. Unlike the end of the movie, Keyes expresses sympathy to Walter and arranges for him (after he's been hospitalized for the bullet wound from Phyllis and then released) to leave the country. On the ship on the way to Mexico, he realizes Phyllis is beside him and that there's really no escape. The two plan to suicide by jumping from the ship--and Walter mentions that he's begun bleeding from his wound again and that there's a shark following the ship. Yikes. There's also some backstory that makes it clear Phyllis has left a trail of murder victims behind her--not only her husband, but his first wife and, before that, three children at a hospital (because one of them had property she could inherit). Oh, what a sordid tale!
40ejj1955
SPOILERS
40. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. Boy, did it take me a long time to get through this book, but I've done it. I've seen the movie a few times (currently can't watch it without paying more), but I had never read the book until now. It was the book club book several weeks ago. So, Wilfred of Ivanhoe shows up as a nameless knight at a tournament that takes up much of the first part of the book; the tournament is attended by his father, Cedric; Cedric's ward, Rowena, whom Ivanhoe loves; and Athelstane, the descendant of Saxon royalty that Cedric would like to place on the throne. Also at the tournament is a Black Knight, who goes under this guise for half the novel or more, but who is actually Richard the Lion Heart, released from his Austrian imprisonment. Other attendees include his brother Prince John, greedy for power, and the Jewish moneylender Isaac, with his beautiful daughter Rebecca. Another attendee is an archer, who eventually turns out to be Locksley--better known as Robin Hood.
When Ivanhoe is wounded in the tournament, he is taken by Isaac and Rebecca, who nurses him back to health. Various people in the story journey; the Black Knight (Richard) finds himself at the hut of a friar, who turns out to be the jovial Friar Tuck, who eventually pulls out all matter of food and drink for the two of them. Ivanhoe, Isaac, and Rebecca, as well as Cedric, Rowena, and Athelstan, are captured by several Norman nobles. One, falls in love with Rebecca and, rebuffed when he tries to rape her, he becomes a sort of suitor, although Rebecca steadfastly tells him no, she could never love him, and they are not a good match.
There's a huge battle for the castle where the captives are held; they are freed, but Rebecca is taken from the chaos by Brian de Bois-Guilbert (the Norman who desires her) and carried to the fortress occupied by the Templars (of which he is a member). They soon discover her there and decide to try her as a witch. Her fate (to be burned alive) is fairly certain, but she asks for trial by combat, and it's agreed, if only she can find someone to defend her. Ivanhoe arrives in the nick of time and agrees to fight Bois-Guilbert (selected to fight for the Templars because he's their best warrior, and Rebecca refused to run away with him to avoid all this), but Bois-Guilbert is knocked (or falls) from his horse and is struck dead without a wound.
Athelstane is thought to be dead but isn't, Richard reveals himself to everyone, Athelstane tells Cedric in no uncertain terms that he doesn't want to marry Rowena and claim the throne; Cedric forgives Ivanhoe for loving Rowena, and the two are finally married. Rebecca, who loves Ivanhoe, goes to see Rowena and asks her to thank Ivanhoe for saving her life, gifting Rowena with a diamond necklace along the way before leaving the country with her father, vowing to spend her life nursing the sick.
A friend was very put off by the constant anti-Jewish sentiment in the book; I found it a bit less troubling, because it was both reflective of the times being portrayed and because it was fairly clear that Scott himself did not share these sentiments--as one book club member pointed out, he could not have otherwise created Rebecca, who was about the most morally upright heroine ever seen. She was kind, knowledgeable, lovely, logical, a dutiful daughter, loyal to her religion, and so on. I just wish she had been given a slightly happier ending, although it wasn't tragic. By contrast, Rowena seemed to have much less personality--she was more of a stock beautiful woman whom the hero loves, full stop. And, as was also noted by a friend, none of the characters develops in any kind of arc during the book, unless you count Athelstane realizing he doesn't want to be king nor married to Rowena!
Scott deliberately uses archaic language, as the novel was set many centuries before his own time. I'll note that reading in my Kindle app allowed me to click on any word for a definition (although even the included New Oxford American Dictionary did not have all the archaic words available!). Well, there's always Google as a backup.
40. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. Boy, did it take me a long time to get through this book, but I've done it. I've seen the movie a few times (currently can't watch it without paying more), but I had never read the book until now. It was the book club book several weeks ago. So, Wilfred of Ivanhoe shows up as a nameless knight at a tournament that takes up much of the first part of the book; the tournament is attended by his father, Cedric; Cedric's ward, Rowena, whom Ivanhoe loves; and Athelstane, the descendant of Saxon royalty that Cedric would like to place on the throne. Also at the tournament is a Black Knight, who goes under this guise for half the novel or more, but who is actually Richard the Lion Heart, released from his Austrian imprisonment. Other attendees include his brother Prince John, greedy for power, and the Jewish moneylender Isaac, with his beautiful daughter Rebecca. Another attendee is an archer, who eventually turns out to be Locksley--better known as Robin Hood.
When Ivanhoe is wounded in the tournament, he is taken by Isaac and Rebecca, who nurses him back to health. Various people in the story journey; the Black Knight (Richard) finds himself at the hut of a friar, who turns out to be the jovial Friar Tuck, who eventually pulls out all matter of food and drink for the two of them. Ivanhoe, Isaac, and Rebecca, as well as Cedric, Rowena, and Athelstan, are captured by several Norman nobles. One, falls in love with Rebecca and, rebuffed when he tries to rape her, he becomes a sort of suitor, although Rebecca steadfastly tells him no, she could never love him, and they are not a good match.
There's a huge battle for the castle where the captives are held; they are freed, but Rebecca is taken from the chaos by Brian de Bois-Guilbert (the Norman who desires her) and carried to the fortress occupied by the Templars (of which he is a member). They soon discover her there and decide to try her as a witch. Her fate (to be burned alive) is fairly certain, but she asks for trial by combat, and it's agreed, if only she can find someone to defend her. Ivanhoe arrives in the nick of time and agrees to fight Bois-Guilbert (selected to fight for the Templars because he's their best warrior, and Rebecca refused to run away with him to avoid all this), but Bois-Guilbert is knocked (or falls) from his horse and is struck dead without a wound.
Athelstane is thought to be dead but isn't, Richard reveals himself to everyone, Athelstane tells Cedric in no uncertain terms that he doesn't want to marry Rowena and claim the throne; Cedric forgives Ivanhoe for loving Rowena, and the two are finally married. Rebecca, who loves Ivanhoe, goes to see Rowena and asks her to thank Ivanhoe for saving her life, gifting Rowena with a diamond necklace along the way before leaving the country with her father, vowing to spend her life nursing the sick.
A friend was very put off by the constant anti-Jewish sentiment in the book; I found it a bit less troubling, because it was both reflective of the times being portrayed and because it was fairly clear that Scott himself did not share these sentiments--as one book club member pointed out, he could not have otherwise created Rebecca, who was about the most morally upright heroine ever seen. She was kind, knowledgeable, lovely, logical, a dutiful daughter, loyal to her religion, and so on. I just wish she had been given a slightly happier ending, although it wasn't tragic. By contrast, Rowena seemed to have much less personality--she was more of a stock beautiful woman whom the hero loves, full stop. And, as was also noted by a friend, none of the characters develops in any kind of arc during the book, unless you count Athelstane realizing he doesn't want to be king nor married to Rowena!
Scott deliberately uses archaic language, as the novel was set many centuries before his own time. I'll note that reading in my Kindle app allowed me to click on any word for a definition (although even the included New Oxford American Dictionary did not have all the archaic words available!). Well, there's always Google as a backup.
41PaulCranswick
Thinking about you during the festive season, Elizabeth.
42richardderus
*smooch* for dear Author Jewell!
43ejj1955
>41 PaulCranswick: Thank you! Hope your holidays were wonderful! And, of course, that you have much good reading ahead in the new year.
44ejj1955
>42 richardderus: Thank you! Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Merry Kwanzaa . . . may the new year be kind and healthy and full of good books!
