enheduanna's books for 2010

Alright! Back again. Not much to show for this month... I was apparently pretty self-indulgent and read more than the usual amount of crap. :)

1. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

More awful than amusing, I think. It's not badly written, or anything, but I liked Tony too well to appreciate what happens to him. I mean, he is an idiot but he just wanted to be happy in his house; I don't think that's so bad. And there was the business of John Andrew, which was just too sad.

2. The Gigolo Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer

Our intrepid kick-boxing transvestite is back, hacking into government computers and solving another murder whilst running a nightclub and looking fabulous, of course. Well, these are silly but I like them. This one was a bit vulgar in parts, even for me, but otherwise very similar to the first one.

3. Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe

I already own several copies of this and have read it numerous times, but this particular book is the Calla reprint of the edition with the Harry Clarke illustrations, which I LOVE. I'm rapidly becoming a big fan of the Calla editions. And naturally, I've always loved Poe, so it was a highly enjoyable endeavor that I was in no hurry to finish.

4. Trinity Blood: Reborn on the Mars: Empress of the Night by Sunao Yoshida

I take it from this release that Tokyo Pop hasn't totally abandoned the series post-manga-meltdown, like they did with most of the rest of their books. I am such a huge fan (well, the manga doesn't do anything for me) I can't help but be glad. With this installment we're finally getting into the really good story so I hope they didn't just publish this as a last hurrah.

5. The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell

Well, while the last parts of the book were...unlikely, it has cemented my opinion of the series. They are really rather good, as I suspected they would be after I finished the first one, and I look forward to reading more of them. I may even branch out into Mankell's non-Wallander books. Maybe.

6. The Birth of Mischief by Rafael Sabatini

This was published during WWII, and the obvious parallel between an 18th Century German prince and his modern equivalent looms large in the narrative. Unlike many, I did not lament the lack of Sabatini's usual swashbuckling hero and adventure. I'm not really attached to that aspect of his work; it's his impressive talent that draws me to his books, and that was not lacking here. I was quite pleased with it.

7. Vampire Hunter D: Twin-Shadowed Knight parts 1 & 2 by Hideyuki Kikuchi

....what can I say? I like them.

8. No Tomorrow by Vivant Denon

Written in the late 18th century, this is the story of a tryst between a woman and her best friend's lover. She begins by practically abducting him, and then quite openly declares his role in upcoming events: "you're supposed to entertain me and amuse me". Clearly she is in control; however, he is responsible for their first embrace in the carriage. He claims this was quite unintentional on his part, but do we believe his protestations of innocence? Particularly when we know that he already had suspicions of the denouement, if he had dared to believe his luck? Well, perhaps. He seems quite a sincere fellow, and he did make a point of claiming to be naive; and one cannot blame him for taking advantage of an invitation. So. What we have here is a play conceived and directed largely by one party but acted fully by both. It's a nice depiction of the idea that the greatest enjoyment of sex comes from engaging the mind and the senses and from building anticipation. As the great lover himself said: The best moment of love is climbing the stairs.

9. The Glass Cage by Georges Simenon

Wow. I say that because that's what I said, out loud as an exhalation, as I closed the book. It was so stifling, and such an excellent depiction of general misanthropy and an intense feeling of "otherness" that contains an almost unconscious rage toward all of humanity. Not exactly a fun read but I was deeply impressed with it. I'm glad I already have another of his books in the house.

10. I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy by Hafiz

Well, Hafiz/Hafez is endlessly awesome. I'm also still reading a much longer collection, and I love it. I can see that some people would be somewhat put off by the apparent... irreverence, but to me it is anything but. Also, this "translator" doesn't actually translate them, and this doesn't bother me either, because I have read a few actual, honest to god translations and they don't really seem to get the spirit quite right. It's there, I mean, accuracy is not the issue, but it's harder to feel them. There's a greater distance. At any rate, I am utterly enamored.

11. The Secret by Charlotte Bronte

I really enjoy getting to read the early works of writers I love. On the one hand they're fun little stories and on the other it's interesting to see how they developed their interests over time.

Nice start to your reading year!

Welcome back!

Thanks! This is my favorite group, though it is very difficult to keep up with all of you!

12. Masks by Fumiko Enchi

Masterful. It's the only word I can think of to describe it. Her books are so good, they're really almost impossible to describe in just a few words. This was the best of her books that I have read, I think, because it's the most direct. This one had an added particular interest for me in that so much of the characters' attention was occupied with heian scholarship and spirit possession. But I think you'd have to be conversant with not only heian literature and no plays but also with some of the scholarship on them to truly understand exactly how masterful the work really is. Her books are so deep that, as usual, I will have to read it several more times before I can feel like I've gotten everything. Well, the fact is that she is one of my favorite authors ever, and I can't recommend her work, and particularly this book, highly enough.

13. The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler

Oh, I love these books. Love all of them, love almost every word of them, and occasionally, about every dozen pages, I have to take a break, lest the unrelenting awesomeness overwhelm my senses completely. The first time I had to put this particular book down was when Marlowe said, "So long, beautiful hunk," and I nearly fainted dead away. My first thought upon finishing the first few pages was, "My God. They just get better and better."

love you description of The Lady in the Lake...Isn't it great when you find an author whose books you relish!

I am trying to update this more often so that I'll be more likely to actually keep up with it. It's rather a bother to wait until the end of the month and assemble that many blurbs.

14. Reflections of Osiris: Lives from Ancient Egypt by John Ray

This is a series of biographical sketches of individuals from ancient Egypt, designed to illuminate the culture in a specific context. It bills itself as a very basic introduction, and while it does not seem to require any previous technical knowledge, I am no beginner and I found at least a few bits of information I hadn't already come across in my reading, particularly regarding the late period which I tend not to care about but found quite compelling here. More importantly, there were several lovely descriptive passages--almost poetic explanations of various aspects of the culture. Therefore, I don't think the audience for this title should be restricted to only the novice of ancient Egypt. I found it quite enjoyable: easy to follow, interesting to read, and conversational rather than scholarly in tone. One doesn't always agree with all interpretations, of course, but there was nothing patently inaccurate or misleading as is often the case in books designed for a general audience--though by nature of it being nearly ten years old, some of the information is out of date. I will say, however, that for those whose interest in ancient Egypt is fueled primarily by Tut, Ramesses II, and Akhenaten: move along, there is little for you to see here. For me, the almost total absence of these figures came as a relief; one gets heartily sick of all three of them after a time, but I am sure many readers would be bitterly disappointed to find only passing references.

15. The Gift by Hafiz

Wonderful.

16. The Sirens Sang of Murder by Sarah Caudwell

I do really enjoy the Hilary Tamar mysteries. They're fun--this one especially because there was quite a lot of Cantrip in it, and he's my favorite character. I seem to be reading them in reverse, but it isn't the sort of series in which publication order really makes that much of a difference.

#7: Adding The Gift to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation - it looks great!

Thanks for the review of Reflections of Osiris: Lives from Ancient Egypt. I am a relative novice to the study of ancient history, having come to it through an art history study group in which I participate. I've been reading Red Land, Black Land, but I will look for Reflections of Osiris, since it sounds fascinating.

17. Little Hands Clapping by Dan Rhodes

I quite enjoyed this; it was macabre and grotesque and absurd; but it was also, in terms of events rather more than characters, more plausible than is comfortable to admit. On the surface the story was amusing and entertaining, but on a deeper level it was also a surprisingly effective commentary on the insatiable consumer (in this case, literally) culture of a monstrous selfishness and self-involvement that is essentially driven by a profound emptiness.

18. The Book of The Duke of True Lovers by Christine de Pizan

While largely following the classic mode of medieval courtly romance, this nevertheless has some interesting features. First, I couldn't help but notice that the paradigm laid out for the perfect lady is in many ways exactly the opposite of that defined by Heian standards. That really has nothing to do with the book; it was just an observation that I found personally interesting to think about--the different standards of female conduct in courtly societies in certain cultures. Slightly (but only slightly) more relevant was how perfectly the Lover's response to the Lady's request that he not see her any longer predicts the Vicomte de Valmont's much more aggressive approach to seducing Madame de Tourvel in Les liaisons dangereuses nearly three hundred and something years later. The argument is almost identical. They both swear to obey any command, and then disobey the only one they are given, saying that their love renders them incapable of obedience. I am sure it is a very old ploy, and probably not even uniquely French, but still I was surprised by how closely they resembled each other. Apart from that, the real distinction of the work is that rather than blithely follow the classic template of the genre, it attempts to explode it, rather subversively it seems to me, whilst still appearing to fit the expected mold. It throws ice water over the idealized vision of courtly romance by inserting a pragmatic realism, in the form of Madame de la Tour's admonishing letter, that reveals the actual life consequences of such behavior to the women involved, or even suspected of involvement. It is a less surprising stance to find in a romance than it might otherwise seem when one takes into account the ideology of the author, well known for her belief that women could protect themselves from becoming victims of society only by adhering to the highest standards of virtue.

This romance is the most readable of her works among those I have read. I think it would be a good introduction to her, for someone who has never read any of her books, because it outlines her general theme in the midst of a perfectly engaging and interesting medieval romance filled with knights and ladies, beautiful clothes, jousting and hunting. In other words, it's not as boring as some of her other work. It's all worthy, particularly as an interesting form of early feminism, it's just that some of it is a little easier to...absorb, shall we say.

#10: Little Hands Clapping intrigues me. I will have to keep an eye out for that one. Thanks for the recommendation!

19. The Gospel of Thomas: Discovering the Lost Words of Jesus

I got this as a second, more recent translation to a volume I already have that dates from about thirty years ago. It did not add anything in my opinion, except for a rather odd narrative at the end of the process of locating and acquiring the texts. Even that description sounds more interesting than the thing itself turned out to be. I really do not understand what the point of it was. The notes, which were blessedly few, were also mixed in their usefulness--sometimes glaringly obvious, sometimes missing the point so utterly one has to wonder if they really knew what they were doing. I don't think it does any damage to the text, but as far as I'm concerned it only served to prove to me how superior my old copy of it is.

20. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

This positively throttled me with boredom on practically every page, and the phrase "..of which I shall say more hereafter.." seemed to be my cue to weep in despair.

It wasn't entirely a loss: there were several interesting interludes, such as the driver-less corpse cart dropping bodies out the back as it wandered aimlessly down the street; and the scene of apparently rabid infected roaming the streets biting people, so reminiscent of a zombie film. But I did want to howl in agony when he started talking about the price of bread. Apart from the deadly prose, the organization of the narrative was rather messy--sometimes chronological, sometimes spatial, without seeming to make much forward advancement either way. The whole thing was incredibly difficult to slog through, which I was not expecting at all because the plague is a particular interest of mine and I have never found it to be coma-inducing before....

21. Fadette by George Sand

This was lovely. A country love story of the diamond in the rough variety, with a liberal side of don't judge a book by its cover. That makes it sound awfully trite but it was really quite nice, and came as something of a relief from Indiana, which I read a few years ago and which I thought just tried too hard and seemed artificial. The emphasis here was on the story, with the themes informing the action, rather than the other way around. It's difficult not to interpret the twins as two parts of a single psychology, but the interesting possibilities of the symbolism in no way distracts from the general pleasantness of the pastoral tale. I especially like my edition, a very small, very old hardcover with silver chasing and a floral-patterned cloth cover.

22. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I chose this to read on the exercise bike, a resolution that didn't last a day. I was too curious about the story to confine it to just an hour a day. I can't say that I liked anyone in it especially, and there was no real style to speak of, but it held my interest and even rather shocked me in a couple of places--not an easy thing to do. I objected to the length--I mean, really, if I'm going to commit to more than 600 pages it ought to be to that copy of War and Peace that's been mocking me for the last few years--but I honestly can't say that I found sections that should have been cut out. It just seemed unnecessary. And I also objected to the title. In fact, that was the number one reason why I actively ignored the thing for so long. I wouldn't have let it get all the way to mass market paperback before actually bothering to pick it up if it had had a less noxiously moronic title. Now, if they had kept the original title I would have picked it up instantly. And it would have made more sense. After I read about a third of this book, I became totally convinced that the person who wrote it, whoever it was--I've heard there's some conspiracy theory about it--did not choose that title. He could not have written such a specifically targeted novel and chosen such an idiotic, generic name for it. Because it's not just a thriller, it's a thesis. No one would title a thesis "the girl with the whatever", particularly when that "whatever" is utterly irrelevant to the message. It is eye-rolling in the extreme. I got to the point where I couldn't stand to read any further until I knew what the damn thing was supposed to be called. Because the author deserved the real title, and I as the reader deserved it. And I was totally satisfied with it. It confirmed what I could easily guess from the content. It just drives me nuts when things like this happen. Titles are so important. At least, they are to me. I understand when translation becomes an issue, as it undoubtedly was to the third novel in the series, but to totally change it just to pander to an intellectually terrified audience makes me ill. At least the second one is close to the original, but I can only hope the third title isn't actually a betrayal of the text itself like this first one was. Which brings me to my third (and final) problem with it: the fact that all of the male lead's romantic relationships were unrealistic, with one possible exception, and amounted to male fantasy nonsense in which every attractive woman literally throws herself at a still attractive middle-aged man who, despite his many on-going, simultaneous sexual relationships, gets to somehow remain the sensitive, lovable good guy. Oh, please. At least he doesn't only screw girls half his age. And it was made to serve a useful function in the narrative structure.

But other than that, I quite liked it. I won't be reading the others any time soon, mostly because I have more interesting things to read but also because I simply do not care about the main characters, one way or the other, although I wouldn't mind if all of them could get over themselves for a moment or two. I liked and disliked each of them at different times and by the end was left largely indifferent. But it wasn't necessary to like them in order to appreciate the book: it was the subject and the plotting that drew me in. If I actually cared for the cast, or if it had a different one, I might get to the next book sooner, but I've had enough of them for now.

23. Musui's Story:The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai by Katsu Kokichi

Well, he's not a little full of himself, but you have to admit, it is really interesting to read the adventures of a degenerate 19th century samurai.

#13: I am adding Fadette to the BlackHole. I have not read anything by George Sand.

#14: I think it may be atypical of her work--if Indiana is typical--but that might be a good thing. She seems to have felt the need to apologize for it not being exceptionally deep in a preface to my edition. I still think it was a lovely read.

Since I have never read anything by her, I have no idea what is typical or not. I will just enjoy the book for its own sake and not the author's.

Ok, so my life has been in total upheaval for the last couple of months. I have managed to read a book here and there, but output has been markedly reduced. So, trying to catch up:

finished

March:
24. The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France

In short, it's effing brilliant. On the surface it's wonderfully amusing; on a deeper level it's an excellent exploration of the conflicts between science and religion, and an even better cynical reflection of the society of the time.

25. The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith

I just think her novels are wonderful. Her psychological insight is fantastic and I think that's what makes her stories so fascinating. Also, her facility with prose doesn't hurt either.

April:
26. Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World by Irwin W. Sherman

This was a survey of twelve major diseases or plagues that had an indelible impact on not only our society but also on the course of medical advancement. For each disease it gave a summary of how it functions in the body and how medicine attempted to deal with it, as well as the effect of the epidemic on social structure and behavior. It wasn't very long, but it had a very high information density and wasn't difficult to read.

27. Madam Crowl's Ghost by Sheridan le Fanu

M.R. James edited this collection of ghost stories, which is very exciting because he is such a good writer of creepy stories himself. They were all excellent, but I preferred the older stories near the end. I love scary stories.

28. The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum

Wonderful. I was quite impressed. It was engaging and informative and entertaining. It traced the formation of forensic medical examination in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century, against the backdrop of the Jazz Age and Prohibition.

29. The Widow by Georges Simenon

Well, the man himself might have been a reprehensible pig, but he definitely wrote excellent, tense novels about emotional, social and psychological dysfunction.

May:
30. The Romance of Tristan by Beroul

The earliest extant version of the poem. It's not complete, it's not even very good. It's probably only going to be of interest to those who study the story. I didn't exactly care for the introduction, because I felt he seemed to entirely miss the point of the tale.

31. Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield

Bless this book. I have wanted to read it for years but only acquired a copy recently. My goodness, it came exactly when I needed it, and by pacing myself slowly, it managed to keep me sane through a week-long vacation with my MIL. I would sneak away and lock myself in the microscopic bathroom of my stateroom on the ship for a few minutes, returning fortified and remarkably relaxed. I have to wonder what the steward thought upon finding a book hidden away between the rolls of toilet paper. I sought out the sequels immediately upon returning home, and found the London diary, which I want to read this minute but will save for a more trying moment in my life. Which really ought not to be long; the whole thing seems to be heading into one of those cartoon tunnels where you can't actually see what's happening but the sounds and the space-warping of the tunnel to accommodate the disasters are sufficiently suggestive.

Wow. That was pathetic. But hopefully I'll actually get back to normal now that things have calmed down a bit.

I am glad to hear that things are calming down for you! Still, you did get some very nice reads in.

Yes, quantity might be low, but quality is definitely high. :)

Quality is definitely the more important!

Look at that nice slew of reads! The Poisoner's Handbook is already on my list, but The Revolt of the Angels and Twelve Diseases that Changed Our World both sound very interesting too!

Apparently I missed a few:

32. Orient Express by Graham Greene

My first Graham Greene. I got fed up with hearing about "Greeneland" over and over in the introduction and decided to blow it off in order to get to the actual text. I figured I'd go back and read it afterward if it turned out that I actually cared. It didn't. In fact, I just didn't care period. The only character I was moved by was the soldier, Ninitch, which proved that Greene was capable of creating really compelling characters--there just didn't happen to be any in this book. While the plot failed to interest me, I have nothing to say against the writing, which seemed perfectly competent; however, I also saw nothing in it that made me think I was really missing something special by not having read any of his other novels. I shall leave him to the hordes of patriotic Greenelanders.

33. Trinity Blood: Rage Against the Moons book 4 by Sunao Yoshida

I hope they actually finish translating these, even though the series itself was never finished.

Resuming the list:

34. The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It is uncommon to find an author that is a good writer for a children's/YA audience, but it's even more unusual to find one who is an excellent novelist for adults who can also write well for a younger audience. But when you do find them they are usually the best at it, period. I am an enormous fan of Ruiz Zafon--I fell for him about twenty pages into The Angel's Game--but even I am impressed with how good he is here. It wouldn't be fair to compare him to Gaiman as he is so distinctly his own universe, so I won't, but in Ruiz Zafon, Gaiman may start to have some actual competition for all those YA awards he's been receiving. I could have devoured this quickly but instead I read it one or two sections at a time to maximize my enjoyment. This also matches the pace with which he threads out the story, so I could hardly have read it any other way.

35. The Crimes of Love by Marquis de Sade

Sade the moralist? Interesting. Actually, the first two stories here were more engrossing than I was expecting, the third was mortally boring but with a good ending, the fourth was abridged and I was glad of it, and the last one held my attention. No pornography in these, but they are full of violence and vice.

36. Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan

This is a collection of Heian-era and later love poems by women. It doesn't provide new translations, but at least it uses good ones from other collections. I probably would have chosen different poems, but that's part of the reason I buy so many editions of Heian poetry. The collage-based art produced for this volume is attractive. It strikes me as a gift edition, more than anything else, but as I am building a Heian-library (apparently) and I got it cheap from a used bookstore (in excellent condition), I'm pleased with it. I can't say it's worth the retail price, though.

37. Tale of the Shining Princess

This is an adaptation of Keene's translation of the Taketori monogatari published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to showcase the illustrations of the same tale from their Tokugawa-era manuscript. It's beautiful, and well done, though I'd have preferred they just use what they actually have written in the manuscript. But not everyone knows the story so I suppose they felt they needed to try and convince their audience of its worth. By overstating it and removing all the poetic suggestiveness. But whatever. Jeez, and I liked this. Can I never be kind?

38. The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays by H.R. Trevor-Roper

The essays here are rational and use compelling logic, and all revolve around the social, religious and political upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the main interest is, of course, the witch-craze. He did a good job of addressing almost every factor involved in the circumstances and development of the persecutions, with one major exception: misogyny. He did indirectly acknowledge that most victims were women, but he basically blew it off. Even when he admitted that on at least two occasions only one female was left in a village after a witch-purge, there was a deafening silence on the subject of why so many women were targeted, and what may have caused them to be singled out for abuse. Because while they burned men and children, women were overwhelmingly the victims here. His unstated position seems to be that they were insignificant as a class of victims, because they were either old women, the natural target for village hatred, according to him, or just plain hysterical. Clearly this guy was not a student of the early feminist movement. Still, it was interesting to read, both as a scholarly work and as a document of its time.

39. Alaska's Watchable Whales

Which is just a small book with lots of beautiful pictures and general information about humpback whales and orcas that I got while I was in Alaska. It also has a few personal stories of individuals who have had interactions with whales, which was a nice addition.

40. The City and the City by China Mieville

The world building in this felt a little forced at first, and to be honest, its conspiracy was a bit thin and I wasn't totally convinced by the motives of the final bad buy, but otherwise it was a good read. Not everything can be Un Lun Dun.

41. Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

Well, it's certainly not a pleasant read, but it was... absorbing. The psychology of masochism will never be a sought-out theme for me but the quality was just so high. I couldn't help but contrast it with Tanizaki and Kirino. I've been wanting to read her books for a while now, but this was the first one I've managed to pick up. Now I want to see what else she can do because I think she's probably a very talented writer, even if she may never be a personal favorite.

42. Lady Into Fox by David Garnett

Ok...maybe I just didn't get it. If it was meant to be more than a moderately interesting diversion, I missed it. Well, maybe hat's not entirely true. It did occur to me that perhaps it was meant to convey the idea of love triumphing over the dominance of a society-enforced patriarchal organization, but I wouldn't swear to it or anything. It was alright, it just wasn't that interesting.

43. Zofloya by Charlotte Dacre

I can't even begin to care about its place in feminist history because I think it's pretty obviously not feminist at all. Quite the opposite, it reeks of misogyny, so much so that I can't justify the introduction's delusional attempts to make it so, even while it acknowledges the significant opposing views. The relentless blaming of the mother, which I found to be less than convincing, the endless parade of depraved women, exaggeratedly evil whenever not utterly pure, pristine and cowed, the lionizing of the male prerogative, the undeniable moral hypocrisy of the avowedly conservative author, all point to anti-feminism, despite the fact that the author was a woman writing trashy/marginally obscene novels. I think the introduction made at least one good point and that was to wonder how differently we would read the book if we didn't know the gender of the author. I agree with this because I think the author's gender operates here as a red herring as far as interpretation goes. I couldn't help responding to the text politically and socially at certain points, but for me, the only way to read it was as pure entertainment, and it certainly provides that. Melodramatic and operatic, perhaps, but a hell of a story. It goes on too long--a common flaw of gothic novels in general--and I was quite tired of it by the end, but my interest in it was largely academic anyway; it was a good edition and I'm glad I read it.

44. Mademoiselle Fifi by Guy de Maupassant

A small collection of his short stories revolving around women in one way or another. They were good and I liked them but it was nothing earth-shattering.

45. Icelander by Dustin Long

I just massively didn't care. It was meant to be inventive and novel and clever and perhaps I would have found it so had I read it at a different time, or under different circumstances. As it was I kept trying to read it more quickly just so I could move on to something else, and on several occasions I caught myself thinking, "Oh, my God I don't even care."

I've got to start updating more often, avoid these huge entries.

Wow! You have been busy. Congratulations on making it past the halfway point of the challenge.

46. The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler

It spends the first few paragraphs detailing Marlowe's attempt to end the life of a fly in his office, after reading which I closed the book, put my face against the cover and thought that I am probably going to have to hold an official day of mourning when I have finally read the last word of these books. Seriously, if books were rock stars, I'd swoon every time I caught sight of one of these. It was the most angry and aggressive of Chandler's novels so far, but it was just as excellent as the rest of them.

47. A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

I read both this and The Little Sister at the same time, switching from one to the other and I don't think I've ever had a pleasanter dilemma than trying to decide which of my favorite authors to read. A View of the Harbour is the most obviously literary work of Taylor's that I've read, and it was really so perfect for what she does. It had none of the weaknesses of her novels and all of the strengths.

48. Seer of Shadows by Avi

This was really good! Matt and I read it as a bedtime story and we both really enjoyed it. A very nice little ghost story.

49. Isis by Douglas Clegg

Well, it was an odd, and somewhat obviously trite, tale of the need and inability to accept death, but it did turn out to be a rather creepy horror story by the end.

50. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Overwrought and overblown but excellent fun for all that. I wouldn't want to read a great many mysteries like this but I did really enjoy it.

51. Parsifal by Oliver Huckel

To be honest, I was underwhelmed. It did not send me into raptures, as it obviously did masses of others at one time. Frankly, I vastly preferred the source material. I've always found opera plots to be less than compelling; without the music it's really just a waste of time. This takes less time to read, certainly, but I'd recommend von Eschenbach's Parzival over this any day. I loved my edition, though. It had never been read so I had to cut the pages myself. ^_^

52. Chinese Love Tales by G. Soulie de Morant

This is an old book from the 30s that collects a few stories from the 17th century. They are mostly about young people getting together to do things they shouldn't be doing, but they were good. It was interesting. Especially the fact that the book had originally been challenged in court on decency standards and was vindicated.

53. Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George

Have I read too many of these? Because I could see everything coming a mile away here. I like George and I appreciate her social concerns but what happened to giving me a mystery? And Lynley's not even in this one. But it's appropriate in one way, at least. Both in the book and in real life I was suffering through an aberrant and endless roasting heat wave. I think I'm just bored with these now. It's too bad, since I had really liked them, but I've got plenty of other series to read.

It is interesting that I found your thread today, because just today I finished the very last book in the Phillip Marlowe series, Poodle Springs.
It is a sad day indeed...

Ah, you have my deepest sympathies. I dread the day myself. But I cannot imagine they will diminish upon re-reading.

True. A re-read would definitely work. And I must admit there's a sense of satisfaction that comes from finishing a complete (though small) series of books!

Hi, I know we don't have many books in common, but regarding Yoko Ogawa, I haven't read Hotel Iris yet but I thought The Housekeeper and the Professor was absolutely wonderful. You might want to give it a try.

Well, as usual, life intervenes in my best attempts to keep up with this. Thus begins the series of "catch-up" posts.

54. Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane Roller

It's nice to read a biography that sticks to known facts and avoids speculation as much as possible. I thought the notes could have been more expansive, but really it was quite a good relation of what is known to be factual and what is extremely likely to have been the case from associated material. I also liked the way he handled the appendices.

55. Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan

I did find it interesting, but I didn't like it at all. It's difficult to like a book which has no likable characters. I'm all for anti-heroes, but this one didn't have one. It had a villain and another villain. I was interested in what he was trying to do, and I liked his premise (to explain further would be too involved and a giant spoiler), but the main character starts out bad and gets worse and it's hard to care much. I also thought it didn't exactly work as an "adult" novel. It certainly isn't childish, but I don't think the transition between his children's books and this was entirely successful. At any rate, I won't be reading any further in the series.

56. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

Wow. Well, that was pretty awesome. I read The Postman Always Rings Twice ages ago and I remember thinking this guy really knew what he was doing but I didn't actually like the story very much. Not so this time. I loved it.

57. Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime by Mizuki Nomura

When I started this I didn't think it was leading me anywhere I wanted to go, but eventually, and I do mean eventually, it began to interest me, once the mystery kicked in. It is not even remotely redeemable literature or anything, but it was a pleasant way to spend the time. It is one of those light novel series that explores the fundamental emotional ambiguity of Japanese society through the eyes of teenagers, but it has a heavy focus on literature and I like that. I'll probably pick up the next one.

58. Vampire Hunter D: The Dark Road Parts 1 & 2 by Hideyuki Kikuchi

Well, he died at least once that I recall and has been fighting for three days totally blind. Which means this is a completely typical Vampire Hunter D novel and I still read them. Waiting for part 3!

59. Ten Foot Square Hut by Chomei

I read this periodically. It's short so it doesn't take any time. I saw someone quote the famous first line somewhere recently and it brought it to mind again. I wish I had a different translation, though. There's one I want but I've not run across it anywhere yet. I'll be pleased when I do.

60. The Pocket Rumi

I have to say that I tend to prefer Hafiz to Rumi, in almost exactly the same way I prefer Chuang Tzu to Lao Tzu, but really it's all good.

62. Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R.L. LaFevers

Yay! I love these. And it looks like she's going to Egypt again! And then probably actually end the series sometime after that.

63. Scottish Bodysnatchers by Norman Adams

Disastrous organization, but even so, the great age of Scottish resurrectionists can't fail to hold my interest, even if I do have to go on a jungle expedition--machete in hand--searching for the continuity of the narrative thread. I think it was probably intended to be a tourist-y souvenir-type publication. Even so. Love your editors, people.

64. The Summer of the Ubume by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

Hmm. Well, it wore me out, and the plot twists did not come as a surprise at all, and I was grateful to be released by the time I finished it, but I did read it almost non-stop until I had. It actually did a pretty good job of immersing the reader in the psychological disease of the main characters. Too good. It was more than a little uncomfortable.

65. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I read this as a bedtime story to Matt. I had told him over and over to read it because it was so awesome--I even bought him his own copy--but he never did and eventually we read it together. Naturally, he loved it.

66. The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West

I wanted something sane after the psychotic Ubume and the twilight of the British aristocracy seemed safe. On the whole, I liked it. It was concerned at bottom with a contemporary social issue that doesn't age well so far from the era, but it was still an interesting pageant, with a solid story and setting. However, the main result of it is that it made me want to watch Gosford Park again (for the 2,365,980th time), though it is set somewhat later. My biggest issue with it is that I despised Anquetil, who had such a serious formative influence on the two siblings in the story. I simply could not abide him, or his noxious self-righteousness, and had he appeared more often in the story I should have put it down.

67. They Wrote on Clay by Edward Chiera

This a very early (late 30s) popular science approach to Assyriology. The guy got tired of hearing that cuneiform texts weren't sexy--of course, they didn't use quite that term back then. So he decided to write a book to educate the average person on how totally awesome those texts in fact are. I thought it was very good popular history. Much of it is quite outdated, but he did an excellent job conveying the potential and importance of the clay tablets found all over Mesopotamia, and outlining the paradigm-changing information they contained.

68. The Dance of Dust on the Rafters

This is a selection of imayo from the Ryojin-hisho. I don't have a direct interest in the folk songs, but they are referred to occasionally in classical Heian literature, in which I do have an interest, and they were collected by Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he of Genpei War fame (or rather, infamy)--a major obsession of mine. So when I saw this I thought it would be good to get it for my library. I have to say that I tend to agree with the court snobs that these are really not particularly artful and only occasionally do they evince the kind of refined feeling that court valued so highly. In other words, they show their origins. Which is natural, and doesn't devalue them, it just isn't especially to my taste. I think even apart from their associations with areas of my interest it was good to read them because it provides a contrast in which the court poetry really shines.

69. Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens by Mark Lamster

The title pretty much says it all. This is not a biography of the painter, nor is it an art history approach to his art work, though both aspects perforce appear in the book. The focus was the various diplomatic missions Rubens undertook on behalf of Spain in the interest of securing peace for his native homeland, and how surprisingly good he was at it. It will hold the greatest interest for those fans of his art who want to know more about his life, or those who have an interest in the tangled diplomacy of the seventeenth century. It had an added silly interest for me in that it fills out the historical scene of one of the Alatriste novels. I know, I said it was silly. But I was not at all expecting to meet so many familiar faces in a book about a Flemish painter. I felt it wandered in places, but on the whole I thought it was a solid book.

70. Land of the Reed Plains

Why am I so unreasonably picky about Man'yoshu translations? It can only be because I was spoiled with excellent translations in my first experiences with it. In particular the collection illustrated by Miyata was wonderful. In this one I objected to the insistence on forcing the translations into the 31 syllable form of the Japanese, needlessly hindering the experience in my opinion, and I wasn't terribly impressed with the choices of poems to include in the edition either.

71. The Book Without Words by Avi

There were a couple of continuity errors in this that should have been caught by an editor, and may have been in a later edition, but otherwise it was a fairly realistic, if grim, setting for an interesting, if not exactly uplifting tale of magic. What I mean to say is that I liked it, but I'm not exactly sure who I would rec it to, if it came down to it.

72. My Lady Scandalous: The Amazing Life and Outrageous Times of Grace Dalrymple Elliott, Royal Courtesan by Jo Manning

The personal biography aspect of the book is largely (if not entirely) the conjecture of the author, but when it comes to setting the stage she is on considerably firmer ground. Essentially, this is the work of a flibbertigibbet who is nonetheless well-informed about the era. This excuses the book for me far more than it would otherwise deserve in that my sole interest in it was in getting a stronger idea of the popular culture of the times. I did see the film that was based on Grace's sojourn in France during the revolution, so I had some prior awareness of her, but my choice of this book was for the background, not for the particular courtesan or her paramours. I meant it to be an example of a general situation at a particular time, and in this it has not disappointed me. I could fill several volumes in a critique of her lack of appropriate methods, use of sources, poverty of facts, and flighty organization, but I don't really care and as I can't imagine anyone could take this as Serious Scholarship, I don't see any damage in neglecting an attempt to refute such a claim. It's a fairly interesting diversion, if a bit tiring, and I can't think it was ever intended to be much more. I read it before bed and it worked beautifully for putting me to sleep.

73. The Abbe Constantin by Ludovic Halevy

Late 19th century French countryside: An exemplary French soldier falls in love with an astronomically rich, exemplary young American heiress. It's really a charming book in which wonderful things happen to wonderful people and everything is perfect. Apparently knowing that such goodness can only get nauseating after too long an exposure, the author kept it fairly short.

74. Moomin Book Five: The Complete Tove Jansson by Tove Jansson

I was really pretty disappointed in this. Not because of the content, I do love Moomin, but the editing was totally incompetent. In two instances, whole strips were misplaced and inserted into the wrong story. For instance, in the Fuddler story, strip 80 was actually the strip 80 from the first story in the collection. I also felt that the lettering was sloppy. In all, as part of a high-quality, definitive collection, it left much to be desired. How could they let it go to print like that? There's really no excuse for it. It's not as if it was even a rush job, seeing as they wait about fifty years between volumes.

75. The Mother Hunt by Rex Stout

Solid, as usual.

76. Three Ladies by the Sea by Rhoda Levine

I got this because it was illustrated by Edward Gorey, but I liked the poem itself quite well. It cost too much money, even after my standard discount plus special coupon, but what doesn't?

77. The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (again)

I read this earlier this year but then read it to Matt as a bedtime story.

78. The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham

I gave this up. I got to about page seventy before I decided I have literally roomfuls of books I'd rather read. The fact is that I could least stand the one character the entire book is written to applaud, and I have a new Alatriste book. I can often read books that are focused on people I don't like, so it isn't as though that is an automatic write-off, and I marked the page in case I ever want to go back to it. I do quite like him as an author and I found nothing wrong with the book's writing or execution. I actually liked it on the whole, but when I understood that this character I have zero respect for was going to be engaged in a long and fatuous search for God, I found myself debating the idea of scanning through the book for what happens to the other characters and skipping over entirely any parts Larry was actually in. So I shelved it. There are a few authors I can read regardless of the plot or subject matter of any individual book; apparently Maugham isn't one of them. I don't fault him for his point of view in regard to Larry and his search, but I don't share it.

79. Pirates of the Levant by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The most wandering of the Alatriste series so far, but then, it is designed to be so as they are chasing pirates hither and thither across the Mediterranean. It's just a change because usually the books have a strong focus on continuous plot. Inigo is being a typically arrogant and annoying teenager, but that had to come eventually, and one hopes it won't last beyond this book. It is hugely mitigated by his voice as narrator from the distance of greater maturity, when he is very well aware of what a jerk he was at that age.

80. 100 Poems from the Japanese by Kenneth Rexroth

This book surprised me. I loved his choices, his translations were unobjectionable, and his notes were pretty good. I liked it so well that it made me finally decide to read his 100 Poems From the Chinese, which you see everywhere but which I had avoided, finding Chinese poems often less than compelling in most anthologies. In fact, I avoided both of these for a long time based on my experiences of poetry anthologies in general; they choose the most banal crap, trying to appeal to the largest possible audience, or they merely regurgitate the previously established cannon of "great" poetry, which I rarely if ever agree with. But these are different. They are the personal choices of a poet, and I am in complete agreement with him that tanka are superior to haiku--not that all haiku are bad, they're just rarely as good, in my opinion.

81. The Ise Stories translated by Royall Tyler and Joshua Mostow

This was a massive disappointment. This new edition is apparently in service to an overview of current and historical scholarship on the work, and I do not object to the intent, but the translation itself is awful. Not only is the translation as a whole stripped of any of the courtly elegance I've come to associate with the work, but the poetry translations are particularly dismal. In one case there was a pun so badly used that I initially thought it was a typo. Otherwise they can be confusing and often grammatically ridiculous. The entire tone of the translation is far too casual and vulgar and I do not understand the goal of it. Why do this? I ended up disgusted with the whole thing. But I still love the work. So long as I'm not reading this translation.

82. The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa

Yoko Ogawa is an excellent writer. I concede this, I even acclaim it. But I don't like her work. It's ugly. It's disturbing. If she was less great as a writer, it would be less painful to read. I agree with Mantel: she is "original, elegant, very disturbing. I admire any writer who dares to work on this uneasy territory--we're on the edge of the unspeakable". Even when her characters are not torturing infants or degrading their lovers who like it, reading her stories is like turning over a psychological rock and seeing all the nasty squirmy things that live under it for that split second before you drop it back down again. It's just too realistic. She does her work too well and it makes me vaguely sick. I don't think she should do anything differently, I have no criticisms of her style or her ability or even her subject matter. I definitely think her work is worth reading, and I'm not going to read any more of it.

83. Vampire Hunter D: The Dark Road Part 3 by Hideyuki Kikuchi

These really do get more and more ridiculous, but I just don't seem to care.

84. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

I find it absolutely fascinating that a novel which follows two pinhead jerks--one full of youthful arrogance, who is bizarrely obsessed with one filled with the cynical arrogance of greater age--can still be such a fantastic, excellent book. But it seems to me that the theme had more to do with isolation than with loneliness. But maybe that's splitting hairs. I could probably go on for days about this and that brilliant aspect of the book but I won't. There is definitely plenty of fodder for a couple of term papers, though. Particularly about social change and individual isolation and the monstrous nature--and consequences--of human self-interest.

85. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

At first I thought I hadn't read this before, but now I'm not sure. I'm almost positive I read a play version at some point in high school. It was less impressive than everything I've heard about it led me to expect, but truly not at all bad. I think it would work better on someone who doesn't have a visceral loathing for anything to do with turn of the century middle America. It is, at the very least, an excellent insight into the pathology of the neurotic.

86. The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi by Okamoto Kido

People are apparently constantly apologizing for its resemblance to Sherlock Holmes stories, including the author, but I have to say the comparisons are pretty superficial from my perspective. They're both detectives that use their own cleverness to solve crimes but apart from some intentional quotes, the impression the stories give couldn't be more different. I really liked this and I don't wonder that the stories have never gone out of print. I hope they eventually translate more of them.

87. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

By the time I got to the last line of the first chapter, I had decided that it was absolutely brilliant. It reminds me of every single excellent ghost/horror story and author I've ever been thrilled by (at least three names came to me during the first chapter alone), and combined with a wonderful emotional and psychological realism all its own, it simply cannot fail. It is occasionally repetitive with its vocabulary, but oh, such minor flaws. I hadn't even finished this before I decided that I must read more of her work at some point, whatever its subject. It even creeped me out. After putting the book down--I had been reading it in the dark silent house before bed--I hesitated to go into the dark hallway to the bathroom. This is beyond cliche of course, except that that sort of thing just doesn't happen to me. I have been immersing myself in the creepy and scary for decades and have long been largely impervious to it. So it is a testament to the power of her spell that it lasted even from the bed to the hallway.

Glad to see you back! It has been a while.

Congrats!

I really ought to be able to do better than posting once every three months.

88. 100 Poems from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth

I didn't like this as well as the Japanese, but I was generally pleased with it. It is always kind of a shock for me to read Chinese poetry because I'm so used to Japanese, but I mostly liked his choices, although on one or two occasions I rather wrinkled my nose at his translations as being a little too free for my taste.

89. Enter Jeeves: 15 Early Stories by P.G. Wodehouse

I vastly prefer Bertie to Reggie, so reading the last few stories in this collection was rather painful.

90. Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

I was sick the weekend I read this. I needed something to read that didn't require a lot of brain power. This is the only excuse I can come up with. But I did kind of like it, despite the eye-rolling title. I nearly put it down, though. I was reading along and getting tired of the apparently endless scene-setting for this series and I decided that if a corpse did not appear soon I was going to give it up. It appeared about ten pages later.

91. Tales of the Undead

This is an anthology of ghost/vampire/zombie stories published in the 40s and covering a large span of time. A few I had already read, (Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, for example) but I really enjoyed almost all of them. It was the perfect book to read for the Halloween season.

92. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

This was wonderful. I really think it is probably the sweetest, most charming book I've ever read. A little girl goes on a quest to bring fortune to her village. It combines quite a few Chinese tales into the story and is really well done.

93. Light Metres by Felicia Lamport

I picked this up because the illustrations are by Edward Gorey, but the poems are really very amusing. I liked it.

94. One Hundred Poems from Old Japan

This is a rhyming translation of the Hyakunin Ishhu, which tells you in general what I think of it. But it had some biographical notes on the poets, and it's interesting to read what was being put out there about the Heian period at that time, compared to what we know now.

95. The Mystery of the Buried Crosses by H. Garland

A book from the 1930s that recounts attempts by a paranormal researcher to scientifically prove the accuracy of psychic mediums by locating items buried the previous century.

96. Tales of Tears and Laughter: Short Fiction of Medieval Japan by Virginia Skord

A selection of otogi zoshi. I didn't care for them. They were coarse and not very interesting. At least now I have some experience of them, which is good. But no one is going to convince me that The King of Farts has been unfairly categorized as inferior literature.

97. The Twelve Kingdoms: The Skies of Dawn by Fuyumi Ono

More of the same. Anyone who enjoyed the other books in the series would probably enjoy this one. I did.

98. The Seance by John Harwood

An entirely satisfying pseudo-Victorian ghost story. The flaws were minor, and easily indulged considering the enjoyment I derived from it. I am pleased that I already have another of his books here. I often think that the kinds of books I really enjoy reading aren't being written anymore, but that is apparently not entirely true.

99. 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

This made me bawl. I am trying to resist buying a copy for everyone I know.

100. The Great Escape of Edith Wharton by Connie Wooldridge

A short biography for young adults, the success of which is almost entirely due to the near impossibility of reducing the subject to anything other than an amazing example of human talent and energy. It was scattered and left strings hanging everywhere. I'm convinced someone else could have done a much better job with it. A handsome volume, however.

101. Bram Stoker's Dracula by Nicky Raven

An abridged retelling for younger audiences, and not, I have to say, an unmitigated success. In fact, I found it rather eye-rolling at times, but the art!! Entirely worth it on that account alone. It is fantastic.

Congratulations on passing 100 books for the year!