Book Psmith

Unofficially Joining the Read-a-thon

2011-10-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

What October means to me...the kick off to my three most favorite months of the year! The leaves are changing. Our homegrown pumpkins and cornstalks join the other harvest decorations around town. I am drinking way too many pumpkin spice lattes (a nod in return to JoAnn:). And Dewey's read-a-thon returns.

I was a lot late in learning the date for the RAT and decided not to participate as life has been a little fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants lately but now that the day is here I don't want to miss out completely. So although I am not signed up, I am going to join in...unofficially. The hour is late and I may be only able to read and cheer on for a few hours but nonetheless I am in and will begin by answering the traditional opening meme...

1. Where are you reading from today? Central PA, USA

2. Three random facts about me: 1. I was the top fundraiser in my third grade math-a-thon...I hate math. 2. I took the CBEST for fun...well and to rub the fact that I passed it in the face of a guy I despised because he was taking it for the fifth time. 3. I love games...I have this competitive side that I blame on my dad:)

3. How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? One book does not a pile make... I will be reading Bleak House.

4. Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon? No.

5. If you are a veteran read-a-thoner, do you have any advice for people doing this for the first time? Read whatever takes your fancy when it takes your fancy and if you have no fancy at all take a break.

I also hope to spend some part of the day catching up with my favorite blogs. My last post was in June and I am about that far behind as I was able to check in only a few times during the summer. My youngest began kindergarten this fall and as a family we are getting back in the groove, so I hope to return to blogging on a regular basis. I did return to the original name of my blog, I missed it so.

I am off for a hot cup of coffee to go along with the latest in Esther's narrative.

Gladys Taber wrote "There is, I think...

2011-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

...a special bond between people who like the same books." This thought goes a long way in explaining why I feel an affinity for people I have never met but know I like because we share a love for the written word. Once again, I have trusted another blogger's affection for an author and have been rewarded tenfold.

For the longest time, I have been bumping into Gladys Taber at Nan's Letters from a Hill Farm but not until Nan met Susan (if you scroll down on Branch's page, there is a beautiful tribute to Taber) during a fortuitous hour of blog-catching-up, did I finally seek Gladys out. I was lucky to find that my library had six of her books (and several others that I can attain through inter-library loans).

I am always a little nervous when I pick up a new-to-me author that a blogger who I respect loves for fear that I may not feel the same but Taber's Stillmeadow Calendar was finished within twenty-four hours and there was no need to worry. It was exactly the book I needed to settle my mind and my heart as we set up in our new home. So many things needed to get done that I couldn't truly relax. And I needed to relax after moving and cleaning for six straight days but with my mind racing with all that would need to be done within the next couple of months I just couldn't. The one thing that usually can slow me down, a good book, just wasn't working. Nothing I picked up had the desired effect. Until I tested the Taber waters by reading the foreword to Stillmeadow Calendar in which Gladys writes about the Connecticut farmhouse she and her friend, Jill, make, first, into their second home, and, second, into their first home. It was an ongoing process as the making of any home is. This, I needed to be reminded of.

As for the rest of the book, it is simply wonderful, full of so many passages I wanted to highlight or underline but alas could not since it belongs to the library:) There is an undercurrent of sadness as the year Gladys writes about is one spent without her beloved Jill but the presence of family and friends tempers the great loss.

I have moved onto Stillmeadow Daybook and am savoring bits of it in between organizing the garage (isn't the point to park the cars inside, not park boxes one doesn't wish to unpack) and filling up the wading pool to combat the heat and humidity. How I wish we had the Stillmeadow pond to paddle around in instead. I would wear my old suit and tennis shoes just like Gladys but would also throw on the great sun hat her friend dons for a swim. Oh well...I will just be grateful for the yard we have which is a perfect patch for reading a good book.

Currently Reading...

2011-03-30T08:41:00.001-07:00

...a lot of legal documents. We have chosen a home and reached an agreement with the seller. If all goes as planned, we should be in our new home by summer. Because of the brain cramp that comes over me every time I pick up contract to read and sign, I had to set Bleak House aside in favor of a comfort read... a rereading of James Herriot's complete series. With how many times my mind wanders while trying to get through a paragraph, Herriot is a perfect choice.

My reading takes place in the late minutes/hours before bed because I have started sorting, cleaning and planning the move. Next up will be packing what I can get away with so far out from the actual move. Free time is in short supply and as such I will be taking a break from blogging until life resumes normality.

A Little Distracted...

2011-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since posting. It seems pointless to say but I have been a little distracted from blogging...and, ugh, reading. I have picked up a handful of books only to put them down after 30 pages or so with the exception of Florence King's Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady which was a reread.

There are a numbers of reasons for my attention jumping all over the place...crochet projects for gifts, two March birthdays, and the hours I have spent glued to the radio taking in the turmoil in the Middle East and the tragedy in Japan as well as a very time consuming distraction...

Penelope Lane...

also known as Penny Lane.

My sister got an English Springer Spaniel for her birthday and she has become the center of our universe. We have also ramped up our house hunting with the better weather and I have finally settled with Dickens' behemoth Bleak House which seems to accurately describe the houses currently for sale in our area and my saddened outlook because winter, which is my favorite season, has ended. Boo!

Predicting more distraction to come as we tackle Penny Lane's housebreaking:)

My Computer...

2011-02-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

lies in little bits on our bedroom floor. We are having some technical difficulties while upgrading our hard drive. I am writing this post on a borrowed computer and will check in whenever I get access.

In the meantime, I have not started Hard Times yet because I started a new crochet project. Not sure if this Dickens will be set on the back burner just like Pickwick...I have an order from Book Depository coming in of five of his other books as well as a book on Churchill.

So, I put up the third read-along post for Oliver Twist early but am crossing my fingers the computer issues will be resolved soon.

Oliver Twist Read-along: Post Three (Spoilers)

2011-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

An early read-along posting due to computer issues...

Negative criticism abounds when it comes to Dickens...to each his own...a couple I hear often have to do with the way Dickens ends a story: there are too many coincidences that tie up the loose threads a little too neatly and his happy endings are unrealistic. These criticisms have some truth to them but as a reader they don't bother me. I like my books that way because so much of life is void of happy endings or dreams coming true or discovered unexpected riches. Besides Dickens gives the characters, and the readers, what they deserve because they have endured and suffered so much. So Oliver Twist could not have ended any better for me because every one did get what they deserved and I like myself a little justice at the end of my books. I read the last third of this book with a great sense of urgency. Practically every page was gripping reading with all the revelations and the implosion of the devious and evil.

I have been fascinated by how different my two readings of this book have been. Nancy became so real to me as opposed to the very superficial character I found her to be previously. Her struggle and hopelessness and how blinded by love(?) she was, her death was haunting and Sikes deserved to be haunted as well.

I will read Oliver Twist again as well as Dickens' other works. So much detail is lost over time, so much not observed nor absorbed in a first reading, that each subsequent reading is that much richer and more fulfilling to the reader.

Thank you, Allie, for hosting. To think that I am almost didn't participate...

Oliver Twist Read-along: Post Two (Spoilers)

2011-02-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

So rereading Oliver Twist is further proof that pretty much all I retain from a first reading is an impression while the details are lost. I can't believe I forgot so much of the story that this feels like a first reading of Oliver Twist. I don't remember Oliver being shot (from the first book) and I certainly did not remember him being left in a ditch to die. I also don't remember being less than patient with Dickens as he took his time coming back to that part of the story but I must have been (or else I forgave him his carelessness in return for that perfect chapter on Mr. Bumble's proposal to Mrs. Corney).

I also didn't recall Oliver spending so much time with the people he was set to rob but have quite enjoyed my time among them...except for that sense of foreboding because I know Fagin and Sikes won't stay hidden for long. I think at this point I want them to make themselves known, for even I am beginning to think Oliver might be making them up even though I have been a witness to his history all along.

Throughout this second book, I had to keep telling myself to slow down. The curse of rereading and not remembering what happened the first time around has me rushing to get to the end. I can't wait to get to the third book...and so I am off.

Me and the Pickwickians...

2011-02-16T05:55:00.001-08:00

...just don't get on. This was my third go and, once again, I cannot get into the club's adventures. The Pickwick Papers remind me of a lot of Sketches with Boz which, although I enjoyed the few sketches I read, I just didn't like them enough to continue. This seems to be the case with the papers as well. I am not completely giving up, the book will be waiting on the shelf for another time, but I am moving on to Dickens' Hard Times.

Kind of Yummy Cupcakes

2011-02-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Last summer, my sister and I bought Martha Stewart's Cupcakes with the intent to cook our way through the book. Really it was this recipe for Boston Cream Pie cupcakes that sold me but, eight reasons why later, have only just made them. Out of the nine recipes we have tried, only one... only one... has been a to-die-for- we-must-make-those-again-right-away recipe.
They sound yummy and they look yummy but they are only kind of yummy. And the thing about these recipes is they are pretty time consuming. Don't get me wrong...I don't have a problem putting a lot of time into my cooking but the result has to be worth that time, and the expense, and the dirty dishes, and the other cleaning up.
They aren't horrible and, with company coming over, they will be eaten up but I am about ready to copy out the one winning recipe for red velvet cupcakes and give up on this cookbook.

On a positive note...after buying a humongous bag of potatoes from Costco, my husband brought home a 5 pound bag of Yukons given to him by a vendor, and needless to say, we have been eating a lot of potatoes...potato soup, potatoes with kielbasa and sauerkraut, chicken and veggies with Nan's herb potatoes. These potatoes were yummy and my family thanks her for supplying me a recipe for oven-roasted potatoes instead of creating my own:)

Happy Valentine's Day...may it be filled with lots of lovely reading!

Cold Comfort Farm Giveaway - The Winner is...

2011-02-11T07:47:00.001-08:00

Names were thrown into a bowl this morning and the winner is...Karenlibrarian. Thank you for your comments and to those who entered:)

I am a little cut-throat when it comes to cleaning out my house as well as my bookshelves, and this pretty little number didn't pass the keep test whilst culling the volumes. It is a beautiful Folio Society copy of Stella Gibbons' classic with illustrations by Quentin Blake but I can't keep it just because it's a gem. I have tried several times to read it but can't get into the story, and I hate to see it languishing on the shelves. If you would like a chance to give it a better home, leave a comment below to throw your name into the draw that will take place Monday, February 14. (Due to the cost, this giveaway is limited to the States.)

Oliver Twist Read-along: Post One

2011-02-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, I chose Oliver Twist as my initiation into the world of Dickens. I loved it then and I am loving it more the second time around because there is a distance now between me and the movie musical which so colored my first reading. I am pretty sure this distance is due to getting to know Dickens through a few of his other works. I am grateful for it; I did not want to spend this reading of OT singing 'consider yourself at home' and 'oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa, that's how it goes', nor experiencing the characters at the same superficial level portrayed on-screen. I do admit to singing 'consider yourself at home' but after my reading and not during...that, my friends, is progress...and the characters are so much more alive to me. I am seeing Nancy in a whole new light, just as tortured and torn as Oliver, and some characters I feel as if I am truly seeing for the first time, like Mr. Brownlow, Mrs. Bedwin and Mr. Grimwig (what a fantastic name!).

So, this is Dickens at 25, and I feel that youth in his writing, in his narrating which feels so intimate when he addresses the reader directly. He writes about this stuff that would be downright depressing on its own except he keeps it light with sarcasm and humor, and keeps it hopeful with small gestures of kindness exhibited by his characters.

He has to because he places you on this roller coaster right from the start: the death of his mother to the small kindness extended by Mrs. Thingummy, the lows of living with Mrs. Mann to the little windows of goodness displayed by Mr. Sowerberry, and currently in the throes hoping Oliver can escape the evil of Fagin and Sikes and find his way back to Mr. Brownlow. One thing that remains the same between my two readings is the suspense; I am still anxious to know what will come next.

During my reading of Little Dorrit, I pretty much loved any part that skewered bureaucracy and politics as seen through the prism of the circumlocution office. I didn't notice this so much during my first reading of OT but am definitely appreciating the chance to see it right off in the second chapter regarding "Oliver's growth, education and board". Dickens is so, so good at this. I need to start a list, Dickens on Society, so I can go back and read these passages when in need of some levity looking at today's world.

This is my first time participating in a read-along and I can't wait to share the experience with other readers. But you don't have to be a part of the read-along to share your thoughts if you have read OT in the past. Thank you to Allie for hosting this event.

Completely Empty...

2011-02-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

...redundant, I know, but I can't spend three weeks with a book and not feel completely empty at the end. And it is hard to leave Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam but I have found an answer to my impulse to open to page one and begin rereading this Dickens right away. Watching the recent BBC adaptation has allowed me to stay in this world of poverty and riches and society and singular characters while moving on to the Oliver Twist readalong. I am ambivalent about the adaptation, loving it one moment and not so loving it the next, but I can't stop watching. Claire Foy and Matthew Macfayden are excellent in their roles and Eddie Marsan as Mr. Pancks (although missing the hair Dickens gave him) is stealing the show. James Fleet as Frederick Dorrit and Pam Ferris as Mrs. General are not the characters I drew in my head but I love them so much from The Vicar of Dibley and Rosemary and Thyme, respectively, I have adjusted my vision.

Little Dorrit (the book) has all the qualities I have loved from my other readings of his work but they seem magnified here. His characters are richer. His social commentary is pitch perfect satire transcending his own time period. He is at his funniest and spookiest and the settings he creates never fail in their originality. And the emptiness I feel derives from how much I came to love so many of the characters...Amy, Arthur, Frederick, Lion, Mr. Meagles, Daniel Doyce, Pancks, John Chivery, Maggy...even Tattycoram and Flora.

I have picked up the habit of rereading Susan Hill's chapter on Dickens from Howards End is on the Landing during and after reading his works. I become overwhelmed by this need to see my feelings about Dickens reinforced by her words. She writes "He is mighty." Yes! She writes "...his literary imagination was the greatest ever..." Yes! She writes "After that, it is time I went back to Little Dorrit. Is it the best? I sometimes think so." At this moment, I know so.

Is My Book Half-empty or Half-full?

2011-01-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

Book the First is read and, with 396 pages to go, I feel my glass is half-empty and am very sad to see that I only have half left. When it comes to Dickens, Little Dorrit has been little mentioned among my readings and listenings regarding others' love for Dickens' work but I am perplexed as to why. In spite of its great length, if anyone asks me where they should start with Dickens, my answer will emphatically be Little Dorrit. It is sooo good, I am employing different ways to draw out the reading...mainly rereading genius passages (eg. the entire chapter regarding the Science of Government...hilarious because it is so true, as true now as it was then).

I was thrown off for about two seconds with the opening chapter set in a Marseilles prison but, as per my experience with Dickens, the setting is secondary...it is always the characters that get me and hold me. I finally did meet Little Dorrit, Amy being her Christian name, and she is killing me, killing me. I understand Arthur Clennam's feelings towards her because I too want to protect her, provide for her, teach her, warn her, all while knowing she will do what her heart and mind guide her to do even if it hurts her in the end.

There is quite a bit of underlying tension in this work as Dickens introduces several sinister characters who are now cooling their heels in past chapters and I am just waiting for them to spring up at some point. The tension also stems from certain characters, like Amy's father, who continue to show their true character in episodes that astound this reader.

So I move on to Book the Second rich with riches...

Although wanting to stay as long as I can in the Dorrit story, I have put some thought to what I will be reading next. Specifically those thoughts are centered on the rereadability of Dickens. I have reread A Christmas Carol and found that I liked it the second time around. The first time I was ambivalent due to reading the classic in the wee hours of Dewey's read-a-thon when I am pretty sure I was not fully conscious. I want to know if my first Dickens read can withstand a rereading and will have the added benefit of reading it with others by joining A Literary Odyssey's Oliver Twist readalong.

Snowy Notes

2011-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

We had snow last night and the roads are a mess but no snow day for my oldest who let it be known how aggrieved she was. I white-knuckled my way to drop her off and didn't relax until I was safely parked inside the garage. I am a newbie when it comes to driving in the snow, so for all the experienced out there, I am the snail moving ten miles an hour that you are stuck behind. My youngest and I had a snow day of our own sledding down the steep hill in our backyard and throwing snowballs at one another finishing up with a happy face snow angel. Except for the driving, I love snow!

Moving along through Little Dorrit, I remembered a post from Thomas at My Porch about his progress through War and Peace. He created a character tree to follow events and associations. I knew I needed to do something similar because sometimes I lose or confuse characters and events when reading Dickens. Taking notes after each chapter to which I can refer seems a heck of a lot easier than digging through past pages to find the lost threads.

Where is the Main Character?

2011-01-11T06:08:00.001-08:00

It isn't often that I get to thinking about the trustworthiness of an author. I usually have a feeling of being able to rely on an author if I consistently love their works. But Dickens makes me contemplate what it means to trust an author.

So far I have been able to trust Dickens to carry me through an epic length novel without losing my interest in the story or my investment of feeling into the characters. At this point, I can trust him to deliver a good story chock full of characters to love. Now, I know I can trust him to bring me through the first forty pages of a book in which I have yet to meet the main character.

I expect to meet the main character of a book within the first few pages and realized that after reading the first two chapters of Little Dorrit, I still hadn't met Little Dorrit. Let me tell you, I wanted to meet this chick, because after reading reviews on blogs and on amazon, I wanted nothing more than to get to know this character created by Dickens. So after waiting the few days to receive the book in the mail and setting it aside until all were tucked in bed, I began this book and found myself not in England but on the hottest day in Marseilles, and not meeting Dorrit but two of the scrungiest prisoners this side of Magwitch.

But what do I care? I am now on page 41, in London, with a promise of meeting Dorrit soon made on page 40. I am once again lost in a world of Dickens making and he can do with me as he pleases. One thing I know now is not to have any expectations, great or small, when it comes to Dickens. I should have known better to have expectations regarding Dorrit when, looking back, I have come to love the peripheral characters most...Wemmick in Great Expectations and Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield...and now we will see with Little Dorrit.

I'm Not Afraid...

2011-01-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

My first year blogging was all about challenges. I longed to sign up for the Chunkster Challenge but I truly was intimidated. My second year blogging I signed up for only a handful of challenges including the Chunkster but failed. I suppose it is fitting that the year I finally feel up to the challenge is the year the Chunkster Challenge will stand alone as my only reading challenge of 2011. And this year instead of cowering I am giddy with excitement to get started. The challenge begins February 1, 2011 and ends January 31, 2012, and is hosted by caribousmom.

There are four levels to the challenge and I am signing up for the Mor-book-ly Obese one which challenges me to read eight or more chunksters (defined as a book containing 450+ pages) of which 3 tomes must have 750 pages or more.

One is not required to make a list of books to be read which works good for me because I want some freedom within the confines of the challenge but I do know there will be Dickens, possibly Trollope and maybe a knight tilting at windmills.

Too Good to be True

2011-01-06T05:35:00.000-08:00

I received a gift card for Christmas from my in-laws and headed directly to amazon to order two CDs (Perry Como and Dean Martin Christmas albums) and a book or two. I found a copy of The Best of James Herriot which was described as "Very Good Condition with Very Good Condition Dust Jacket". All that for a dollar. So I placed the order and waited all so patiently for the slowest of all postal delivery options...economy mail. The book arrived yesterday and, needless to say, the description was too good to be true. Underneath the packing slip, which clearly stated the glowing description of the book, was a book without a dust jacket covered with grime, a discolored cover, and hundreds of light brown moldy spots along the page edges. And the worst offense was the smell of mold and damp when I opened the book. I am still ticked but more than that I am befuddled over the conscience of a person who could place that book and the packing slip together and ship it off to a paying customer. Yes, it was only a dollar but how much does honesty cost?

This is me sulking...

New Year, Old Book

2011-01-05T07:58:00.001-08:00

I wrote this post on the 2nd but couldn't decide whether or not to publish it because it felt too personal but as my thoughts are with Nan today I thought it apropos.

I began the new year with an old book. Heading out with the fam to celebrate the incoming year at my sister's, I passed up all the never-been-read books on my shelves and pulled out James Herriot's Dog Stories for a reread. Feeling the need for a comfort read, indeed. I am always a little sad after Christmas passes. It is my favorite time of year and knowing that it won't be around for 11 more months provokes a small case of melancholy. I still have the decorations up and turn on the lights as dusk ushers in the night and play the occasional Christmas cd if I can get away with it but, on New's Year eve morning, my husband took down the outside Christmas lights and I knew it was the beginning of the end. Bah! On Monday morning, my husband and eldest will return to work and school, respectively, after their holiday breaks, and the youngest and I will round up and put away the Christmas decorations. Bah again!

God, I love these stories! In Herriot's introduction, he writes about his own dogs saying "I often think of them all, of their different characters and the happiness I had with them." This is something I do as well and wonder if other dog lovers do the same. Each and every one had their own character and this amazes me still. I always run through them chronologically, in the order they came into my life, my timeline of dogs.

The first was a shephard-collie mix named Crystal. Although she later came to live with my grandparents, I still considered her mine. She was beautiful but she was a rascal which made all of us love her more. As kids we rode our Big Wheel up and down the long driveway of our grandparents' home and if you had the misfortune of Crystal standing guard over the roadway, she would run up to the Big Wheel and begin biting the huge front wheel. No matter how much you begged her to stop, she would not let go and we would abandon the toy in despair either to find another or plead with an adult to put Crystal in the backyard. She also loved to smile by bearing her front teeth while simultaneously wagging her hind end furiously. She mostly did this when she was in trouble...like the time she ripped my grandmother's clean sheets off the clothesline and dragged them through the dirt. You could try disciplining a dog while they smile up at you but it is impossible.

But the one thing I had a difficult time forgiving her for was nipping at my heels. She was so unpredictable at this pastime of hers that one never knew when to expect it. Sometimes she let you walk by without harassment and the next time she would stealthily creep up behind you and nibble your Achilles which resulted in my jumping in the air and attempting to run back inside. Only this attempt at self-preservation seemed to instigate her bad behavior further and she would keep nipping as my running turned into shuffling in an attempt to avoid kicking her. It took a while to shuffle to safety but once I had the door in between the two of us I would try to tell her how naughty she was but on came the pearly whites and all was once again forgiven.

The day Crystal passed away, my mom picked me up from my part-time job after school. I felt so grown up earning my own money and working in an office among adults but I was reduced to a little girl again as I wept openly and my mother's arms around me were as comforting as Crystal's presence always proved to be.

Merry Christmas...

2010-12-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

...may it be one of many blessings and much happiness!

Oh the Persephone Excitement!

2010-12-21T12:45:00.000-08:00

A package arrived amidst the chaos of shopping and crafting...one with a royal mail stamp which my oldest immediately brought to me saying "I think it's a Persephone". She now associates any package coming from the UK with Persephone. Unfortunately I was getting ready to head 'into the city' to visit family and had to set the package aside but when I got home and up to bed around 2am...

...I couldn't resist a peek and saw this...
I practiced my patience until the morning when I pulled out this little bundle...
Can anyone say you had me at Quentin Blake? Oh, yes...this is all the goody goodness awaiting me...
The adorable card revealed who my Secret Santa is...Sakura of chasing bawa, a new-to-me blog which I can't wait to get to know.
Thank you so much, Sakura. The Whipple is perfect and I can't wait to read it in the new year. And I absolutely love the bag (which my oldest has already tried to borrow:) and your card is prominently displayed on the mantle. Here's one more peek at They Were Sisters...
Thanks again to my Persephone Secret Santa, and to Claire for organizing all the fun.

A Year of Good Reading

2010-12-08T06:33:00.000-08:00

I know it is a little early for an end of the year meme but as I only plan to do a close reread of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with the help of an annotated version, for the rest of my reading in 2010, I thought I would go ahead and look back.

I am using a survey created by The Perpetual Page-Turner which you can link your own answers to until the beginning of January. Here goes...

1. Best Book of 2010: This is a tie for me as opposed to last year which had a clear winner. Looking back over the list of books I read during 2010 (in my sidebar), all the others seem to fall away when it comes to Dickens' Great Expectations and David Copperfield and although Dickens could pick a favorite, I can't.

2. Worst Book of 2010: Now at this point, I am getting to know myself pretty well as a reader, so pretty much every book I read in 2010 I enjoyed to some degree. So my worst book of 2010 is not based on the story itself but the god-awful editing of High Rising by Angela Thirkell. Thank goodness the story was strong enough for me to get past all the editing I had to do in my head.

3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010: Definitely goes to Miss Read's Thrush Green. Just didn't measure up to my experiences with Fairacre.

4. Most Surprising (in a good way) Book of 2010: Richard Hack's The Duchess of Death had me completely enthralled from beginning to end, and read more like a novel than non-fiction.

5. Book Recommended Most in 2010: Was actually a book I read in 2009 and recently reread...Miss Read's The Christmas Mouse.

6. Best Series You Discovered in 2010: I feel a little saying 'I discovered' because if anything I felt I came late to the game when it comes to this author's work but the best series I read this year was James Herriot's first four volumes. I am saving the last.

7. Favorite New Authors in 2010: Well new to me anyway...James Herriot, Angela Thirkell, Dorothy Whipple and Elizabeth Taylor (the other one).

8. Most Hilarious Read in 2010: Definitely goes to Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small...laugh out loud kind of hilarious.

9. Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book of 2010: Dickens' Great Expectations was the book I would have tried to read while sleeping, driving, showering, if possible.

10. Book Most Anticipated in 2010: Dorothy Whipple's Someone at a Distance...I had received it for the Persephone Secret Santa and couldn't wait to get to it because of all the positive reviews it received from other bloggers.

11. Favorite Cover of a Book in 2010: Another tie...I just love this edition of A Christmas Carol and bought it even though I had two other editions on my shelf. And the cover of Herriot's Dog Stories makes me smile every time I see it.

12. Most Memorable Character in 2010: Wemmick from Great Expectations. My initial judgment of this character was so wrong and I came to love everything about him. He is the character I remember most fondly all these months later.

13. Most Beautifully Written Book in 2010: This one is a bit difficult as there are so many beautiful passages found within the many books I read but if I had to apply this description to a whole work, it would have to be Miss Read's Tiggy. A short work but each and every word conveyed the love the author felt toward this unexpected pet.

14. Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You in 2010: Great Expectations, for so many reasons, beginning with it becoming this measure for all the books that came before and after, and it really changed the way I look at what I read. It wasn't something I realized at first but I noticed that it became a kind of standard-bearer. This book also made me want to be a better person. There have been other books that have inspired me in a similar way but not to the degree which Great Expectations did and which David Copperfield reinforced.

15. Book You Can't Believe You Waited until 2010 to Read: David Copperfield. I always felt I should read Great Expectations but David Copperfield I could take or leave or at least save for one of the last of his books to read. So Copperfield first came across my radar how many decades ago and in 2010 I finally read it.

Last year, I read 119 books, 100 short stories and 30 essays. This year, the count will be 49 books, one of those books being a collection of essays, and no short stories that I can recall. There was definitely a difference in the way I read this year and the amount of time I spent reading. In 2011, I am looking to read more classics, more Dickens especially, and to try to read at a deeper, more intimate level.

Why Do I Feel Like a Jealous, Possessive Lover?

2010-12-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Oprah's latest book club pick has me feeling like a silly adolescent. On the one hand, I think it is great that Dickens will be read far and wide. On the other, immature, hand, I want to fight Oprah in a duel to prove I love him more.

Reading a blog about Oprah's pick, it said she hasn't read Dickens before. Having Jonathon Franzen on at the time of the Dickens announcement, she asked him if he had read Dickens. His answer...'yes, all of them'. Perhaps he loves Dickens the mostest:)

Hill on Dickens

2010-12-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

From Howards End is on the Landing...

In the silly game of which authors to throw overboard from the lifeboat and which one - just one - to save, I would always save Dickens. He is mighty. His flaws are huge but magnificent - and all of a piece with the whole. A perfect, flawless Dickens would somehow be a shrunken, impoverished one. Yes, he is sentimental, yes, he has purple passages, yes, his plots sometimes have dropped stitches, yes some of his characters are quite tiresome. But his literary imagination was the greatest ever...

That is just about how I feel at this moment coming upon the last hundred pages or so of David Copperfield. And with our thermometer hovering steadily at 32/33 degrees, I am completely feeling Hill's closing words to her chapter on Dickens...

Outside my window, the trees are bare. It is early dark but a silver paring of moon is bright in the sky, with a thousand frosty stars. The air smells of cold. A fox barks from the field.

Dickens for winter.

Throw another log on the fire.

Warmest Wishes

2010-11-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

Although an American tradition, I want to send the warmest wishes and thanks to you all. I am truly grateful for all the joy and good reading your blogs have brought into my life.

Book Strain

2010-11-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

It took one day to read Philip Gulley's Home to Harmony. It came in at about a 200 page count which would normally take me about 3 to 4 days to read but it was a fun read and I set aside all else in order to finish it. There was an unintended consequence to enjoying such a light read: I began to crave something in the arena of a doorstop classic to balance my literary appetite. Only David Copperfield would do even though I try to save Dickens for the beginning of the year when all is quiet and winter is settled in.

When I sit down with one of Dickens' work (with the exception of A Christmas Carol), I feel like I am committing for the long haul and cross my fingers there will be little to distract me. So I had some misgivings about reading David Copperfield when my mind is full of to do lists and dates by which to ship and calculations for the hours it will take to thaw and cook a turkey. I thought 'these are exactly the type of distractions I don't want when reading Dickens'. But a hundred pages in, I realize it is the other way around... I need to worry about Dickens distracting me from getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table on time, Christmas cards in the post before Christmas eve and stockings stuffed. As usual, he has drawn me into this world that I hate to leave and can hardly wait to return to.
Another worry was this Nonesuch edition of Copperfield that I purchased and fell in love with as soon as I lifted it from the box it was delivered in. I was so in love with the richness of the paper and the perfect size font and the gorgeous illustrations that I shoved to the back of mind the little voice that asked how in the heck was I going to handle this unwieldy tome when it came time to read it. Sadly after the first go at finding a comfortable position holding this behemoth, it went back on the shelf and I drove to Barnes and Noble to buy their $8 edition which, joy of joys, contains the classic illustrations and won't contribute to any pulled muscles.

As for the distractions... thank goodness I started all my Christmas preparations early...and if I miss the important turkey dates circled heavily on the calendar I have no compunction blaming Dickens.

Home...

2010-11-16T06:14:00.001-08:00

Today is one of those days where everything is wet and drizzly and misty and overcast...and I love it...but it has put me in a bit of a maudlin mood. To be honest, it has only exasperated this mood that has been with me for the past week which has been brought on by our house hunting and pondering what exactly 'home' means. The books I have been reading have fallen in line with this train of thought. I checked out multiple volumes on country/cottage home decor from the library. I paid a stupid amount of money for a book with one of the best titles ever (see picture below). And I reread the book that best represents 'home' to me.
My mother so kindly gifted me a subscription of Country Living and it quotes Mary Randolph Carter from her new book "A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life". The idea behind this thought appeals to me greatly as I often become bogged down in 'a place for everything and everything in its place' thinking. I crave order and do ascribe to the 'cleanliness is next to Godliness' philosophy. But this way of life is exhausting and frustration inducing when living with kids and a husband who doesn't exactly feel the same way. So lately I have been asking myself about what makes a home cozy and the type of place one wants to return to at the end of the day. I know it isn't one where the mother of the home follows you around making sure the house is in perfect order. So I guess Carter is playing the cheaper version of a therapist and reminding me to find the perfect medium between clean and cozy.
Another author helping me in this area is Miss Read. It is way too early but I had a sudden desire to reread The Christmas Mouse (my favorite read of 2009 and one I want to push on everyone to read this holiday season). Mrs. Berry understands exactly what it means to have a well-kept home that is also cozy and inviting. I didn't mean to but as soon as I finished The Christmas Mouse, I moved on directly to No Holly for Miss Quinn which I enjoyed much more the second time around. I then started a new-to-me series by Phillip Gulley. I admit that the main reason I wanted to try out this series is because there are two Christmas volumes to look forward to but there is this religious aspect that also represents the concept of home for me.

Along with the house hunting, I gained an excessive amount of nervous energy and to burn it off I began moving furniture. I rearranged my youngest's room and exchanged bookcases between floors. Room was made on the mantle for a new clock (a gift from my mother and father) and mental notes were made for changes I want to make when it comes to Christmas decoraring.
So in comes this clock just as I am so focused on thinking of home and it reminds me of all the little things that make a house a home...not just the actual structure. I spent many a weekend reading and sleeping next to my grandparents' booming grandfather clock and the Westminster chime became a symbol of home. This mantle clock isn't chiming every quarter hour but it plays every hour on the hour and it is one of the comforts of home.
And I recently added another little thing towards the neverending process of making a home...a pillow. I know it is possible to have too many pillows and I am quickly reaching that line but I tested out this pattern with a lap blanket in mind and thought that one more couldn't hurt.

So these are my mixed up, rambling thoughts on home...feel free to share your own.

Tuesday

2010-11-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

Moving to Pennsylvania over a year ago, we decided to rent a townhouse until we knew exactly which city we wanted to settle in. For so many reasons, we have chosen to stay in the town where we currently reside and have begun the great house hunt. It feels great (by which I mean huge) because after the initial start we see what challenges we face. Although my husband and I have been married for fourteen years, we are learning exactly how vastly we differ when we discuss our 'dream home'. The good thing is we love where we live right now and feel like we have the time to find something that will fit for all of us. One thing we agree easily on is how much we love this town and I am reminded of it every day and was especially so when I went to purchase some of our fall decorations from a family farm. No one manned the stand and it operated on the honor system. The honor system? No way. Foreign concept around the parts that I come from. But here, it is common practice and one of the many reasons I fell in love with this place.
Fall decorating has been taking place indoors as well and as much as I love putting out the decorations and enjoying them for the duration, I loathe cleaning them up. Ah well, it is worth the hassle.

I am still in Herriot country. I completed the biography written by his son and it is absolutely perfect. A must read for those who read Herriott. I have moved onto the fourth book in his series, The Lord God Made Them All, and while the episodes feel a bit disconnected, I like this view into his life as a father and am enjoying his adventures abroad as he oversees the delivery of livestock from England to other countries.

I am finishing up my last Christmas projects which makes me very happy. I can finish up the shopping next and then move onto a project for our foyer that I have been wanting to start using the same colors above and adding a brown. It took me ages to decide on this color scheme while in the yarn shop and was still iffy once I started but I like it so much I am going to use it to make our foyer a little more welcoming.

The weather has finally turned and I am all so happy. The flannel sheets and fleece blanket have made an appearance, and this morning I finally switched on the heater.
But I did brave the cold first thing this morning to vote and rewarded myself with a gingerbread latte. The cups are here!

Happy Tuesday!

Persephone Secret Santa 2010

2010-10-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

Oh, yes...I am hoping for another white Christmas but dreaming, once again, of a grey Christmas. The absolutely wonderful Claire at Paperback Reader is taking over and I cannot waste another second...I must go sign up now. Will you join in the merriment with me?

Life Gets Crazy...

2010-10-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

...which is of course so true it is a cliche but life also goes on in spite of the craziness. So as we are in the process of helping my sister move, I still sneak in a bit of reading and crocheting, and the mail still comes in.

I finished All Things Wise and Wonderful last night. As I turned the last page and looked at my shelf, I realized I have only two books left in the series. I don't want to read anything but Herriot at the moment and at the same time I don't want to take one step closer to the end. My only consolation is how much joy I am getting out of rereading some of the same stories that were included in Dog Stories and Cat Stories which means Herriot will be just as enjoyable the second (or third) time around.

I was a little hesitant when I began All Things Wise and Wonderful because I knew it focused on his time spent in the RAF during WWII. I read Herriot for his animal stories and knew I was not in the mood for war stories but he did a genius job of using small portraits of his service time as introductions to anecdotal flashbacks to his vet work with only a few chapters fully focusing on the war. My favorite story being the one when he volunteers for harvest work on a farm instead of digging a trench and as the days unfold he and the farmer learn quite a bit from one another about the very different yet similar lives they lead. Very touching stuff.

I think I have three favorite moments when working on a project...the beginning, the end, and the moment when I see the light at the end of the tunnel. That moment happened this morning as I finished the second to last panel and looked at my diminished piles of squares and realized they were the last. After I assemble that last panel and attach it, all I have left is the border and then I am done...yea!
Looking at that last pile, I realized I had made about 10 too many squares and decided to stitch some together and do a test border to see if I would like it. But why waste it as a test, I thought, and attached the flower tassel to make a bookmark. It is so bulky, I think the only kind of book it will work in is a softcover bible, and that will accompany the scarf perfectly for the person I have in mind whose Christmas tree these gifts will be under.
As far as the mail, I had a package from England containing my own copy of The Real James Herriot which I borrowed from the library and partially read earlier this year. I am so excited to add it to my own library and plan on reading/rereading it after the series.

Having a lovely, if crazy, day...and hope you are too (not the crazy part:).

RAT: The Final Update

2010-10-10T08:13:00.001-07:00

Well this is how I spent the final hour of the read-a-thon...not the 24th hour, mind you, but my final hour which would have been around the 15th hour...reading Herriot and drinking a dark cherry hot chocolate. It was bliss and then I was blissfully tired and then I found blissful sleep, for the next ten hours. I had the best intentions of getting up early to be a part of the last few hours but didn't quite make it. All in all, I think this was the most relaxed read-a-thon I have had. I took many breaks, visited other participants and took part in some of the mini-challenges, read many different things, slept when needed, and ended on the happy note of Herriot once again coming under the spell of Granville Bennett (or is it under the spell of the drink, maybe both). So thank you to the awesome organizers, the cheerleaders and those who read along with me. What a grand time!

The Second Update: A Semi-Coherent Review

2010-10-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

I loved the ranting parts of this book...all the anecdotes and examples of the bloody rudeness that permeates our day and age...because you just don't feel quite so alone or silly or possibly mistaken knowing others feel the same. The rants are the strength of this book but the weaknesses are when Truss tries to explain the lack of civility. She completely lost me when she wrote that "modern people are impatient with the bad-good distinctions; they consider it intellectually primitive" because I would consider this condescending attitude toward morality to be one of the main reasons civility is on the decline. I also found it quite surprising that she doesn't bring up religion. So I think the parameters for her book should have been restrained. If she wasn't going to seriously and thoroughly look at or outline the underlying reasons for why the world is so rude today, she shouldn't have brought this aspect up. The book could have been one long rant and leaving it at that it would have been perfect. One doesn't have to offer up explanations or solutions.

The Mid-Event Survey

2010-10-09T16:00:00.001-07:00

1. I am reading Lynne Truss' Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door and dipping in and out of Michael Dirda's Bound to Please.

2. No full books...only essays and columns.

3. I am most looking forward to finishing Truss' book.

4. At this point, the only special arrangement I make is clearing it with my husband and he then plans an outing for himself and our girls.

5. There are always interruptions and one just deals.

6. I am most surprised by how well picking essays and columns and episodic writing fits the read-a-thon. Because there are so many breaks in the writing, it makes it easy to take breaks, to remember to eat, and to check what is happening with other participants.

7. My only suggestion would be to bring back the page that would update when any of the participants posted. It made it easier to know who had posted and pay them a visit.

8. There isn't anything I would do differently as a reader.

9. Not tired yet. I remember that at this point during prior read-a-thons I was usually a little dazed and loopy at this point but I think mini-breaks are really helping with that.

10. No tips. There are already so many good ones out there and there also seems to be a certain amount of individual trial and error that is idiosyncratic.

The First Update

2010-10-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

Almost seven hours in and here are the stats:

1 pumpkin spice latte consumed

1 slice of leftover margherita pizza consumed

7 essays by George Will consumed

22 columns by Florence King consumed

1 book review of Pops by Terry Teachout consumed

1 book review of P.J. O'Rourke's book about cars and driving consumed

3 passing references to Wodehouse consumed

So far a heavenly day of taking it all in.

Some Books

2010-10-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Crystal at My Reading Room is hosting the mini-challenge for hour five which asks participants to "Show Me The Books". Here they are...

Back-in-the-Day: Hour 2 Mini-Challenge

2010-10-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth at Miss Wisabus is hosting the hour two mini-challenge asking us to share a favorite children's book from any age.

My favorite as a child was Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. I am pretty sure I have told the story before but what is once more. I read and reread this book so many times that one summer day I took it to the beach and due to the hot sun and the repeated cracking of the spine, at the end of the day when I went to put the book in the car, pages began fluttering into the street. I am pretty sure I didn't just cry, I balled. I so loved that book.

My mother found this copy of Mary Mapes Dodge's Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates at an antique sale and brought it home for my daughters. I ended up reading it and loved every word, every adventure, every moment of this book. I know if I had read it as a child, White would have had some serious competition from Dodge.

Dewey's Read-a-thon Begins

2010-10-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

I wasted a lot of time booting and rebooting this morning, so I am going to answer the introduction questions and get reading...

1. Three facts about me: 1. I hate mushrooms. 2. December is my favorite month. 3. I once cheated on an algebra test...the one and only time I cheated because I got caught (well we all did because it was a concerted effort). All boring but true.

2. What is in the book pile: I only have two books: James Herriot's All Things Wise and Wonderful and George Will's One Man's America. I have about 25 magazines in my pile as I am trying to catch up with Florence King's The Bent Pin column.

3. Any goals: No goals.

4. Any advice: Be flexible. I learned from my first time participating that nothing went according to my plan, so all subsequent read-a-thons I just went with the flow.

Oops, almost forgot...I am reading from Pennsylvania...my new home state now for a little over a year and I absolutely love it!

Happy reading!

Current Reading and Project

2010-10-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the year I read two wonderful volumes by James Herriot, Cat Stories and Dog Stories, and immediately ordered his series of veterinary tales. I pulled down All Creatures Great and Small a couple of weeks ago and have been lost in the delightful world of the Yorkshire dales ever since, finishing All Things Bright and Beautiful and presently reading All Things Wise and Wonderful. Since my youngest can't read yet, I will share that among my early Christmas shopping lies a copy of Herriot's children's treasury which Santa will bring and I will have the pure joy of reading to her.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my parents gave me a copy of All Creatures Great and Small when I was young and that, for reasons unknown, I couldn't get into the stories. Now that I am reading them, I believe it had to do a lot with my lack of maturity and life experience as well as an non-existent appreciation for Great Britain and its' literature. Whatever the reason, they are working for me now.

My latest crochet project is inspired by Coco Rose Textiles. These little squares are being assembled into panels which will then be joined to make a scarf. Another Christmas project which will get me closer to my goal of having all my shopping and crafting done before December. I usually am one to save all Christmas related matters for December but the nature of making gifts doesn't really allow for that. So once I started making gifts, I started thinking about which store-bought gifts would be perfect fits for family and friends and started purchasing them. I never really thought shopping early could make a difference but I have found that I am putting a lot more time and thought into the gifts and enjoying myself more while feeling absolutely no stress about the upcoming holidays. So I guess you could say I have been converted. (And yes I admit to watching one holiday movie already, The Family Stone, and listening to Bing Crosby croon Christmas tunes which I do all year long anyway.)

So now that I feel caught up, I am looking to the future...not too far...only to tomorrow which is Dewey's 24-hour-read-a-thon. Running to the library and Barnes and Noble this afternoon to get all my reads in order and will share them tomorrow morning before the event begins. Happy reading to those who will be joining me.

What I Made

2010-10-06T05:46:00.001-07:00

During the spring, I found myself knitting washclothes obsessively which in the end payed off as my daughter has a very nice collection now. But I began to wonder if I wasn't playing it a little safe especially as I was dwelling on several failed attempts to make a granny square (one that actually looked like a granny square and not a hot mess). I put down the knitting needles and tried a few more times and came away with something bordering on success.

At the same time, my sister came across a blog which came to dominate my summer projects. If you know it, you will understand why it became my inspiration but if you don't, please stop by Lucy's Attic24. Even if you don't crochet, it is such a lovely blog to read. I am a novice when it comes to crochet but her patterns and tutorials are so well done, I was able to complete quite a few of her projects.

The first was her Lucy bag (as it has come to be known around the blogosphere and on Ravelry) which I made for my oldest. There are many components to it including the handles, the flower detail and the scalloped edging but all relatively easy to learn if you know basic crochet.

One element I added was a liner which was worth it in the end but almost killed my patience and my sewing machine. But adding the liner to the bag and handles makes it a bit more sturdy.
This is the end product which being the slow hooker I am took two weeks (others who were more experienced finished within a few days).
I did some sewing which I hadn't done for years. The first and last thing I made was a pair of white shorts when I was about fourteen. The first lesson I learned about sewing: make sure the material you choose isn't see through. The shorts were unwearable. But this privacy curtain isn't.
With the leftover material I made a runner for a bookcase. (My mother visited her parents in Holland over the summer and my sister and I placed an order with Cath Kidston to be delivered to her there...anything to save a few bucks on shipping.)
I made a huge mistake buying ball after ball of Sugar and Cream cotton when it was on sale, so I used Lucy's flat circle pattern to make coasters in an attempt to decrease my stash.
My favorite part of making the aformentioned bag is the flowers. I used the same pattern and attached the leaf and a pin on the back. (I found the book in the background at our library sale for a dollar! I was going to purchase it at the bookstore for its' regular price...so glad I waited.)
Using the same flat circle pattern, I made an accent pillow to match our comforter...
...as well as a cover for the stool which goes to my childhood desk.
Now this is a doll blanket which I made for my youngest. It has been reincarnated twice...first as my first successful granny square. Then, because I couldn't stop making new rounds, I was going to make a lap blanket for a Christmas gift. But pretty soon I was bored using the same color and repurposed it into the blanket for my daughter's itty bitty twins.
Another accent pillow which I made for my sister matching the colors to the rag quilt my mother made.
And last (but definitely not least because, although I made two of these for a gift, I so wanted to keep them for myself), a summer garden granny square pillow.
I found that I have to have something on in the background as I crochet. I have yet to try an audiobook but I did do about three more cycles of Rosemary & Thyme's three seasons (why did that show have to end). I didn't think it could happen but I got tired of them and branched out to Miss Marple. I love Joan Hickson as Miss Marple...so perfect. But those ended soon and then it was off to Poirot which I have been enjoying since...because there are more episodes and movies than I imagined.

Next, what I am currently reading and working on...

What I Read

2010-10-05T05:03:00.001-07:00

My dear sister likes to make fun of the number of unread books on my shelves and as I try to explain to her, and as this summer proved, they are there waiting for me when I am ready for them.

I pulled down, and thoroughly enjoyed, three Barbara Pym's: No Fond Return of Love, An Unsuitable Attachment, and (my favorite) Crampton Hodnet.

I ventured into the world of Thrush Green beginning with the second book in the series, Winter in Thrush Green, because it was so stinkin' hot and humid this summer that even imagining snow and freezing temperatures brought minor relief. And it was fortuitous that I didn't begin at the the beginning because I finished Thrush Green more out of a sense of duty than desire. I found it very hard to get into and connect with the characters so that if I had not already made that connection in Winter, I may have abandoned the whole series based on the first book. As it is, I am reticent about moving onto the third book.

Towards the end of the summer when I was restless and cranky, I reread some of my favorite columns by Florence King from her collection Stet, Damnit! She never fails to make me laugh out loud and this time around I just skipped over all the words I didn't know instead of lugging out the dictionary (okay, I meant walking to the computer and using dictionary.com).

Of course I did buy a few books. Clara's Kitchen which just seemed to fit my mood as we reassessed finances and our spending habits in preparation for whatever may come our way as the general economy continues to stumble along. What I loved most was the lessons Clara learned from living through the depression and maintaining an attitude of frugality and common sense instead of austerity and desperation.

I picked up Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English. I usually only keep the books I truly love and donate the rest but this one is beautiful and it remains on my shelf. I wanted to love this book all the way through because the beginning was so strong but by the end I was done with Jack and yearning for the story to be Sadie's. I wanted to be a part of her inner world and I wanted to be in that kitchen with her instead of on the golf course with Jack. The final disappointment was the feeling that the end wrapped up too quickly and too conveniently.

On the other hand, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand was wonderful from beginning to end. I love grumpy old men in literature and Pettigrew is another I found to be endearing. Although I could guess how the story would end, there was a delicious amount of suspense which made the book difficult to put down (and I needed to as I was trying to finish a project on a deadline).

Now one of the best reads of my summer came from the library: Richard Hack's unauthorized biography of Agatha Christie. Do I trust an author whose last name is Hack and who plainly states the book is unauthorized? But the cover said that he drew from 5,000 unpublished letters, notes and documents. I would read it with a grain of salt. But it was a terrific read, very fair and producing a portrait of Christie that was enthralling and bewitching. I came away loving Christie instead of just liking her. And Hack produced a biography that was too easy to read because it read like an un-putdownable novel. Definitely recommend The Duchess of Death.

I also checked out Goodbye Mr. Chips which, hello, if any book could be expanded upon this was it. I wanted more and was surprised to find that at the end of so few pages I was heartbroken and cried like a baby. No tears but many laughs while reading the Duchess of Devonshire's Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts.

Did I Say the Last Post?

2010-10-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I had a blog called Book Psmith which I decided to stop for so many reasons and now for so many reasons I wish to start up again. This time under my name (Stacy) and a new blog name (Stories & Stitches).

Reason number one for wanting to come back: in my heart and mind I was never really gone because I was still reading blogs but more and more missing being a part of the conversation.

Reason number two: remember that hand-written journal I was keeping to write about my reading experiences? Fell by the wayside with sad little entries that included abbreviated titles, initials of authors, and a simple note saying 'I liked it' or 'wow this ended badly'.

Reason number three: I started seeing posts about Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon. I love, love, love this event and didn't want this to be my first time missing out. Having a whole day to read takes me back to those weekends as a child where I could plant myself in one spot and not move, ever, if I so chose.

As far as the name change, I so loved and am still attached to Book Psmith but I know coming back I don't want to blog about just books and reading anymore. I want to write about the other hobbies that are fighting hard against reading for equal time. And then there are life's adventures which I sometimes wanted to share but I felt constrained by my self-imposed label of being a 'book blog' and everything in it being somewhat book related.

So there it is and once again the blogging adventure continues...

The Last Post

2010-06-02T06:25:00.001-07:00

I didn't think it would be so difficult to make such a decision but this will be my last Book Psmith post. I decided at the beginning of 2010 to keep a personal journal of my reading, and although I have been doing a monthly review, I find that I lack a certain motivation to write about my reading twice. However I cannot give up reading and commenting on my favorite book blogs...there are just too many delicious authors and books I get to know through them...nor do I want to give up the wonderful bloggy friends I have made over the past year and a half...is this considered selfish blogging etiquette? Regarding the challenges I joined for 2010, I will still be working on them, and the You've Got Mail challenge I am hosting will carry on.

On to May's reading...for some reason I felt I had read tons but it turns out only finished seven books beginning with The Children Who Lived in a Barn read for Persephone week and written about here. My copy of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's The Home-maker didn't arrive in time for Persephone week but I began reading it the day it came and found myself wishing for one of those long weekends from my childhood where I looked forward to doing nothing more than settling on my grandparent's couch with a good book and no interruptions. As it was, I stole pages here and there and read a paragraph or two whenever I could. The Home-maker lived up to all the things I had read about it but I had a curious reaction to the story during the days that followed my finishing it...I began to despise it...not the characters and their actions but the story itself. It was a very strange experience and one I am still trying to figure out.

I read two books by Barbara Pym, Some Tame Gazelle and Jane and Prudence, both of which I loved but for very different reasons. Some Tame Gazelle is a book I wished I had read in the dead of winter because there was a certain level of coziness to be found in the sisters' home and their relationship that it would have been ideal reading it next to a fire with a blanket thrown over and a hot cup of cocoa (or Ovaltine) to sip. I have to admit that I didn't understand the tenacity of Belinda's feelings for the Archdeacon over so many decades nor Harriet's obsession with curates but I didn't have to in order to love their character and idiosyncracies. As for Jane and Prudence, I felt that I understood Jane a little too well for the fact that I could identify with her inability to say and do the right things in any role she had chosen for herself. Then I also could identify with Prudence and the way in which she reveled in her romantic drama. Prudence was a reminder of my foolishness in youth and Jane in my negotiating the path of being 'grown up'. Plus the book was downright funny.

I was slightly disappointed in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four which didn't have the same suspense factor as his other works I have read. Nor did it seem very clever. But I am glad I read it just for witnessing the further character development of Holmes and Watson. Sad to say but I was also disappointed in Miss Read's Village Affairs...and it does make me sad to say that because I have loved everything I have read by her so far but I hesitate to say it was the fault of Miss Read because I kept feeling a level of pettiness as I read this installment in the Fairacre series. Minnie Pringle grated on my last nerve and I wasn't convinced by the drama that surrounded the possible closing of Fairacre school (perhaps because a quick glance at the rest of the Fairacre titles on my shelf gave the whole thing away). But I did appreciate Mrs. Pringle's frustration with her reducing diet. To paraphrase her argument which I whole-heartedly commiserate with...they aren't fattening foods, they are sustaining foods.

To match the strange experience I had with The Home-maker, I read Angela Thirkell's first Barsetshire novel, High Rising, in the beautifully published but badly edited edition by Moyer Bell. This is a fantastic read that I found irreverant in its commentary on motherhood and perfectly entertaining on every level. Simply put it was a blast to read. But once finished I felt no compulsion to continue the series which I am guessing has to do with the fact that I really felt no emotional connection to any of the characters. I already had the second book, The Demon in the House, on its way to my home but for now it will be shelved just in case sometime down the line I feel an urge to pick it up.

Two books I started but didn't finish were Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark. Within the first couple of pages, I just couldn't get into Rebecca but have set aside to try again come this October. I can't completely give up on it because I really liked her short story, Don't Look Now, and because so many people recommend it. I got to about page 75 in A Far Cry from Kensington and then shut the thing in a huff. The story started in one place, which I was really enjoying (I mean how great is the scene where Mrs. Hawkins states to Hector Bartlett how she really feels about him and then to find the story behind the story of this character) and then veer off to another centering around a Box just didn't mesh for me. I skipped ahead to read the last few pages which reinforced my decision not to finish.
Currently I am inhabiting that detested state of not reading as I wait for Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont...no other book will do at the moment:)

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to read and comment, and extra big thank yous to all the bloggers who have influenced, and will continue to influence, my reading in immeasurable ways.

PRW: The Children Who Lived in a Barn

2010-05-05T08:28:00.001-07:00

First I will begin by saying that the endpapers for this book is one of my favorites. Then I will tell you how much I adore this little book by Eleanor Graham. Graham tells the story of the five Dunnet children who are left to care for themselves when their parents leave to be with Mrs. Dunnet's dying mother. What should be a short trip turns into an extended absence as the parents' plane goes missing. The children are soon turned out of their home and take up residence in a kind farmer's unused barn. The oldest girl and boy assume parental roles as they try to provide for the most basic necessities of life. The children face further challenges as 'well-meaning' neighbors seek to split them up for proper placement and search for any justification to make this happen.

I still read quite a bit of children's literature for my own pleasure (especially the classics I didn't get to while growing up) but I am always aware that no matter how much I enjoy it, I am judging the work from an adult perspective. But while reading Graham's book, I felt like a kid again reading with that giddiness that comes from finding a really good adventure. It reminded me of when I was young and I would come up with all these 'what if' scenarios. A recurring one was what would I do if for some reason I was left alone. Would I be able to cope and take care of myself? How would I do it? The Dunnets did it. Although it was harder than imaginable and just as frightening as a child would think it could be, they created a makeshift home in this barn. Graham's story constantly reminded me what it was like to be a kid and I think that is what allowed me to read the story with so much childlike wonder.

I am grateful to Persephone for publishing this book as it really should be included in the canon of classic children's literature...not only because it is a good read but because there just seems something right about the founding editor of Puffin having this book in print.

April in Review & Persephone Reading Week

2010-05-03T04:38:00.000-07:00

April was a bit abysmal as far as my reading went. I finished four books, one of which I began in March. I was literarily restless and couldn't commit to the majority of the books I started. I also whiled away a week waiting for Excellent Women to arrive in the mail because I was in the mood to read that book and none other.

So last month I wrote about my starting to read Farther Afield by Miss Read. Miss Read and Amy set off for a Greek island vacation as Amy works through a rough patch in her marriage. Miss Read begins to struggle with her choice of spinsterhood, questioning the practicality of growing older on her own and wondering about warding off any episodes of acute loneliness. Since I haven't met a Miss Read I haven't loved, I was not about to begin with this one...it was, as usual, perfection between two covers. I had only one complaint which came up a few days after finishing the book...I must have developed a case of sympathy pains, for just like Miss Read, I took a tumble down a flight of our stairs. Luckily, I came away from it with just a bruise on my right arm while Miss Read suffered far more significant damage. I thought the majority of the damage for me was to my ego as there were a couple of witnesses to my folly but, within the hour, we were having a good laugh over it all.

I had been thinking about joining the Folio Society but kept putting it off because I couldn't stomach the expense. In the meantime, I kept checking amazon and ebay to see if any of the books on my Folio wishlist turned up for sale and two did...Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. The Gibbons was a little expensive but still way under the original Folio price and the Pym felt like a steal for it was less than the cost of any given hardback. Once I received Excellent Women, I started reading, stealing away any spare moment I could to follow Mildred Lathbury as her usually quiet life is jarred by her new neighbors and the shocking engagement of her vicar who is also a close friend. This experience of reading Pym closely matches last year's reading of Quartet in Autumn but this time I did feel an emotional connection to the characters which ultimately made Excellent Women a more satisfying read. The downside to reading Pym: I wanted to pack a bag and set off for London immediately but contented myself with the much more afforable alternative of ordering more of her books (No Fond Return of Love, An Unsuitable Attachment, Jane and Prudence, and Crampton Hodnet).

Against my better judgment, I watched the recently released on dvd Sherlock Holmes. I rebelled against this film because it did not in any way resemble my interpretation of Holmes and Watson but curiosity got the better of me (as well as a long-standing Downey crush) and I have to admit that I loved it. It was good fun but still somewhat foreign to my experience of Doyle's writing, so that the movie is like a fantastic forgery while the literary Holmes is the real deal. This impression had me sitting up until 2am reading A Study in Scarlet and finishing the short work up on Sunday (just in time to be free for Persephone reading week). Doyle wrote this book while his fledgling medical establishment was somewhat slow. Just reading the genius opening chapters, I couldn't believe this work had been rejected several times before finally being accepted for publication in the Beeton Christmas annual. Meeting Holmes for the first time was adventure enough but what ensues as Watson witnesses Sherlock's solving of a double murder is pure literary perfection.

So now the path is clear for my participation in Verity and Claire's Persephone Reading Week. I will be starting off with Eleanor Graham's The Children Who Lived in a Barn with The Home-maker arriving in the mail soon. If not there is a copy of Mariana on a shelf at Barnes and Noble waiting to find a nice home...

Keeping Good Company

2010-03-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

James Herriot was not in favor of a biography being written about his life but told his son, Jim Wright, if it should be done, it should be done by him. Following the great vet's death and after much deliberation, Wright set down his father's life in The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father. I only read about half the book as I skipped over any parts that retold episodes from Herriot's books. I purchased the set of his books and look forward to reading them soon but did not want the element of surprise to be compromised by first reading the stories in Wright's memoir. So for now they occupy shelf space next to Wodehouse which was really the only choice after reading this: "On the lighter side, P.G. Wodehouse was [Herriot's] number one author, and the Jeeves Omnibus his favorite book of all. He read and re-read this book throughout his life, the antics of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster, Young Bingo and others invariably rendering him helpless with laughter." On the heavier side, was Herriot's love for Dickens. Wright writes that his father had read the entire works of Dickens by the age of fifteen and how he collected his father's cigarette coupons in order to send away for 'the works of Dickens in 16 superb volumes for 10 shillings.' Wright goes on to talk about his father's general love for books and how his home was 'always bulging with books'...I love this kind of stuff.

The most fascinating part of this book deals with Herriot's rise to fame and how very little, if at all, the money and the notoriety changed him. His integrity was such that when he was advised by others how to avoid paying 80% of his earnings in taxes, he declined to do anything that would compromise his commitment to his family or take him away from his beloved Yorkshire. This book reinforces my growing impression of Herriot having been an extraordinarily exceptional human being whose character one feels inspired to emulate and why I am so attracted to his books and other authors like him. One tribute by Mary Ann Grossman included in the book best put my feelings in words: 'But there's something else in Herriot's writing that I can't quite articulate, a glow of decency that makes people want to be better humans.' In my opinion, perfectly articulated.

This 'glow of decency' has me picking up one Miss Read after another starting with Tyler's Row, onto The Caxley Chronicles and currently reading Farther Afield. For some reason, I was not looking forward to Tyler's Row which accounted for my short Fairacre break but of course once I started reading I hated to put the book down. Tyler's Row is put up for sale and the new residents from Caxley look forward to restoring and renovating the rundown cottages into one abode. Unfortunately the second phase of remodeling will have to wait until their feuding tenants choose to vacate the premises. This little gem reminded me of the continuous frustration felt by the Blandings as they embarked on a similar venture in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. I completely adored Hodgins' book but was grateful to Miss Read for being kinder to readers by offering more hope to the Hale's than Hodgins did the Blandings.

The Caxley Chronicles consists of two Miss Read books: The Market Square and The Howards of Caxley. In the introduction, Read explains that although she intended to continue with this series, her time and attention were fully given over to the demands of her Fairacre and Thrush Green series. Upon finishing the entwined stories of the North and Howard families, I seriously contemplated how I would have been fine with one or two less installments from Fairacre if given over to Caxley but any misgivings were replaced by my starting Farther Afield which finds Miss Read (the teacher) seriously injuring herself in a fall and being nursed by her best friend, Amy. The two will soon travel to Crete and I am not sure I would have wanted to miss this adventure in exchange for a third or fourth Caxley book.

So thanks to Miss Read, I have completed the Typically British Reading challenge. Not making much progress on any others but I feel lulled into a sense of possibility when I see nine more months of the reading year stretching ahead of me. Perhaps I am being as naive about challenges as I was about my commitment to a year long book buying ban. Initial failure took place a few days into the ban but that failure pales in comparison to my lack of restraint in procuring books this past month. I am feigning guilt at this point because nothing brought me more pleasure than adding several more Miss Reads to my collection, a Nonesuch Dickens edition of David Copperfield, two books by Austen, the entire set of Herriot's tales, two of the six Barchester chronicles by Trollope, seven Virago classics found at a library sale and a reference guide to Victorian literature. On top of these, I entered for a chance to win the complete set of Wodehouse books published by Everyman...that's 70 volumes...not rummy in the least. I found out about the contest at Rochester Reader's blog where I encourage you to go if you would like to know more as well as visit her post which offers details on raising funds to save and restore Dickens' chalet.

So that was my end of March reading. I can't complain...it was all wonderful. Looking forward to April, I know there will be more Miss Read and possibly the first in Herriot's series along with some Beaton to kick off the Cozy Mystery challenge. The Brothers Karamazov is also a possibility. Until next month...happy reading!

The Four Month Challenge - Part Three

2010-03-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

5 Point Challenges
Read a book by an author you've never read before
Read a book with a one word title
Read a book with an animal name in the title - Cat Stories by James Herriot
Read a book with a proper name in the title - Tyler's Row by Miss Read
Read a fantasy

10 Point Challenges
Read an 'Austenesque' book
Read a book with a two word title - Dog Stories by James Herriot
Read a book that is part of a series - Farther Afield by Miss Read (Fairacre series)
Read a book about a real person
Read a mystery - A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

15 Point Challenges
Read a book written in the 60s (any century)
Read a book with a number in the title
Read a book by an author born in March, April, May or June - Miss Read, 17 April 1913
Read a book with a three word title - Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Read a book by an author with three names - The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

20 Point Challenges
Read a book with over 500 pages
Read a book with a four word title
Read a book by two authors
Read a book written in the 70s (any century)
Read a book that has been number one on the NYT bestsellers list

All James Herriot Great and Small

2010-03-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

In the fourth grade, my friends and I would set up a makeshift vet's office during recess complete with an index card box with our patient's names and afflictions, a couple of stuffed animals, our pencils doubling as syringes and thermometers and a clipboard to hold our charts. I wanted to be a veterinarian and my parents demonstrated their support of my dream by giving me a copy of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. Over the next few years I attempted to read this work but could never get past the first 50 pages. I still don't know why and spending the last week immersed in his Cat Stories and Dog Stories has not helped to shed any light because I absolutely loved these two collections. Cat Stories is a bit shorter than Dog Stories (which is filled with 50 canine tales) and both are illustrated (Cat Stories with wonderful watercolors by Leslie Holmes). I know so little about cats that reading Herriot's stories along with Miss Read's Tiggy felt like receiving a crash course in feline nature where as growing up around dogs I felt an instant affinity towards the characters in Dog Stories. I read a couple of the dog stories to my oldest and she begged me to stop because they made her sad. There is that aspect to both of the books...the loss of a pet and Herriot telling of sicknesses that he could not cure...but what mostly comes through is the great importance our pets have in our lives and how they become one of the family. I just can't recommend these two books highly enough and because most of the stories are taken from his classic series chronicling the life of a veterinary surgeon I will be giving All Creatures Great and Small another try.

On an aside, I am posting more sporadically as this new year progresses and this will continue to be as we are welcoming some new changes on the homefront. There are just never enough hours in the day it seems and while I want to keep up on reading my favorite book blogs, I will be moving towards a once monthly post reviewing books I have read and progress made in challenges. I will continue to participate in events like the 24 hour read-a-thon and Persephone reading week, and of course, the You've Got Mail challenge is still on. So don't be alarmed if it is more quiet at Book Psmith than it already is:)

Exceeding Expectations

2010-03-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

That's it! It's done, and I hate that it is done. I am feeling quite petulant towards Dickens at the moment. I mean if he can give 800 plus pages to his other works, why not equal time to Pip. The story is over when it is over, I know...but I could have stayed with Pip and Joe for another two weeks...and Herbert...and Mr. Jaggers...and Wemmick...even Estella.

So I am shirking from any desire to write a proper book review. I don't want to synopsize it, don't want to analyze it, don't want to sum it all up. What I did want the entire time I was reading this masterpiece, was the chance to discuss these characters as if they were real people. Great Expectations is the perfect read for a group and I recommend, if given the chance, not reading it in a vacuum.

Dickens is genius when it comes to creating characters. There are too many that he renders lovable when my instinct is to turn away in disgust. How else could it be that I developed tender feelings toward Magwitch? I cursed Miss Havisham, as Pip did, but I couldn't help being intriqued and wanting to return to those rooms and that cake. And how many times did I want to slap Pip for the way he treated Joe? But it was Wemmick I couldn't get enough of. His philosophy regarding 'portable property' was almost slimy but I was taken from the moment Pip is welcomed into the Castle and the reader witnesses Wemmick's transformation. He must have been a character that inspired Wodehouse's writing as evidenced by Wemmick's use of 'the aged relative' as a term of endearment and the shortening of words to the first letter. The love and respect that Wemmick exhibited towards his father most certainly affected Pip as they did me.

Whatever my expectations were of Great Expectations, Dickens exceeded them. The thing about Dickens is often the reputation of his works proceeds my actually reading them. So I knew a little about the book...somebody named Pip is looking back on his life and there is a creepy lady who wears nothing but her old wedding dress and it is supposed to be some kind of masterpiece...but there was so much I didn't know that made the story completely unexpected. I mean this book has everything...heartbreak, romance, mystery, suspense, violence, redemption, and humor (I can't forget to tell you that there are parts of this story that are laugh out loud funny). And what I find most meaningful about the work is how Dickens expertly forces the reader to think about the 'big issues'. What does it mean to be good? What are the true riches in life? What is love? Can a person truly be redeemed and how does one attain redemption? What of forgiveness?

So, yeah, this is me gushing. It rarely happens but when it does I can go on and on, so I will restrain myself and ask, have you read Great Expectations, and if you did, did you want to gush too?

p.s. As part of the Read the Book, See the Movie challenge, I attempted to watch the 1998 Masterpiece Theatre adaptation starring Ioan Gruffudd but abandoned the movie about half way through the three hours. It was so not a match for the way I had envisioned the story as it unfolded in my mind's eye and I just didn't enjoy it the same way I did the book.

This Week on Animal Planet...

2010-01-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

It worked out that last week all my reading was about animals and that thread continues into this week as I read Fresh from the Country. Not that there is a lot of talk of animals in my current Miss Read read but Potter's wonderful story of The Tailor of Gloucester gets a mention as the protaganist Anna Lacey returns to her home at the Christmas holiday and stops in at the local village school where she is invited to sit next to the fire and listen as the teacher reads the little book to her small group of attentive students. It is a welcome respite as Anna struggles with the challenges of teaching 48 students at once in a classroom built of steel and glass.

I have encountered several references and fitting quotations from Potter's work in Miss Read's books and the author's affection extends to the naming of her newly adopted cat Tiggy. The namesake of the slim volume of remembrances is easy to fall in love with and was quite an eye opener into the nature of cats which is a foreign area for me (I grew up in a committed family of dog lovers and that love goes back for generations). Any animal lover can easily relate to Miss Read's resistance to allowing another furry creature into her heart after losing one too many but it was also easy to see that her resistance was futile for it was only a matter of time before the mother cat and her kittens had found a new home with Miss Read and her family.

So it was Miss Read who inspired me to finally read all 23 of Potter's tales in order that I would know the stories behind each reference or pet name. As a child I was more apt to look at the pictures in Miss Potter's little books than read the stories and I have only read a handful to my own children. Whether I liked the story or not, the art of Potter still continues to make the greatest impression. I did fall in love with The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and The Tale of Ginger and Pickles (which struck me as funny since it wasn't big on plot). I finally read The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (as a child I always got stuck on the word 'soporific' and quickly moved on to look at the pictures) and it was a joy to revisit The Tale of Two Bad Mice which was my favorite as a child.

Reading Potter's canon was long overdue. She is one of those authors where it seems a crime not to have read the majority of her work and having done so has added a new layer of depth to my reading of Miss Read. So now I return to Anna as she faces the daunting summer term and my hopes of her finding a village school post somewhere near a certain Mr. Drew continue to build.

Reviewing My Reading Year

2009-12-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

I had no idea when I began blogging the influence it would have on my reading. Book bloggers extended the boundaries of my reading world in a way I didn't know possible and challenges taught me to manage my reading time in order to get the most out of it. It has just been a phenomenal reading year...one unmatched by any in the past and the one that will be difficult to beat in the future.

Although a couple of George Orwell's essays tried to knock it out of place, my favorite essay of the year (and so far of all time) was a rereading of Anna Quindlen's Good Dog. Stay. Picking one favorite short story for the year was impossible and so Edith Wharton's Roman Fever, Elizabeth Enright's I Pine for Thee, and Bernard Malamud's The First Seven Years share the number one spot for my affection.

Out of 119 books read this year, four I regret reading. All the rest I liked or loved or learned I will not be able to live without rereading over and over again (which must go beyond love but not sure what the word would be for that). Honorable mentions include The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Juniper Tree and Other Tales by the brother Grimm, The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgins, Over the Gate by Miss Read, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and Ring for Jeeves by Wodehouse.

My top ten reads of 2009 are:
10. The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
9. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico
7. Miss Clare Remembers by Miss Read
6. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
5. In-N-Out by Stacy Perman
4. Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
3. Village School by Miss Read
2. Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
1. The Christmas Mouse by Miss Read

Persephone Secret Santas Revealed

2009-12-14T18:53:00.001-08:00

Here it is...the 15th. How quickly it came and thank goodness because I don't know about all the other secret santas out there but I have been so excited to share what I have received and to give a proper thank you...not only to my Secret Santa but to everyone who participated in spreading the Persephone cheer. You all have been wonderful and I no longer wish you a grey Christmas but a very merry one as well as many blessings in the new year.

Here are all the Secret Santas:

Ana @ things mean a lot
Astrid (Mrs. B) @ The Literary Stew
Claire @ kiss a cloud
Claire @ Paperback Reader
Danielle @ Leaning Toward the Sun
Frances @ Nonsuch Book
Jodie @ Book Gazing
Karen @ BookBath
Marie @ Boston Bibliophile
Meredith @ dolce bellezza
Miranda @ skirmishofwit
Nadia @ A Bookish Way of Life
Nat @ In Spring it is the Dawn
Sarah @ what we have here is a failure to communicate
Simon @ Stuck In A Book
Sophie @ An Embarrassment of Frivolities
Stacy @ Book Psmith
Thomas @ My Porch

Please leave a comment or email me the link to your post and I will put it up here as soon as possible. I hope you will all have a chance to explore these wonderful blogs beyond the Persephone post and get to know one another if you don't already.

I have to say it one more time...thank you!

(If you have not received your parcel yet, please do email me so we can try to iron out any issues that may have arisen with shipping.)

Something from a Distance - Persephone Secret Santa

2009-12-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

Can you guess from the post title which Persephone I received? It is a play on the book as well as on the location of my Secret Santa. My new Persephone is Someone At a Distance from Dorothy Whipple and it made it's way all the way from Portugal...care of Ana, also known as Nymeth, of things mean a lot.

I can't say thank you enough to Nymeth for choosing this Persephone. I have been reading a lot about Whipple at some of my favorite blogs and each time a review popped up I kept wishing I had one of her books on my shelves. Now I do and I so look forward to reading Someone At a Distance right after the new year...maybe earlier.

More meaningful than the book was the extra goodies she included...a beautiful homemade bookmark (these mean so much to me), a little something for my not-so-little sweet tooth and a recipe for Formigos, a yummy Porteguese Christmas tradition. I made the formigos on Sunday and they turned out to be the perfect hearty and warming morsel for the dreary day we had weather-wise. The dish was a hit with the whole family, and with Nymeth's permission to reprint the recipe, I hope it may be with your's as well.

Ingredients (For about 6 servings):
300 gr of sugar
750 ml (around 3 cups) of milk
1 cinnamon stick
ground cinnamon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 spoonfuls of honey
1 spoonful of butter
3 egg yolks
a medium-sized loaf of bread

1. Boil the milk, the lemon zest, the honey and the cinnamon stick for about 10 minutes. 2. Break the bread into small pieces and add them to the mix, along with the butter and the sugar. 3. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring with a large wooden spoon. You have to make sure the bread is dissolving and the mixture is becoming uniform. 4. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. 5. Add the three egg yolks, stir, and return to low heat for another 2 or 3 minutes. 6. Pour into a dish or bowl and decorate with ground cinnamon.

Thank you, Ana, for the wonderful gifts and helping to make my Christmas that much more special. When I read this book and each time I use your bookmark, I will think of you fondly.

You've Got Mail Reading Challenge

2009-12-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

It would have been more obvious for my first reading challenge to be Wodehouse but I am hosting a reading challenge to celebrate my favorite movie, You've Got Mail. There are two parts to the challenge: reading authors highlighted in the film and bi-weekly events such as memes, quizzes and giveaways. Please visit the dedicated blog for all the details and I hope you will join in the fun.

Curioser and Curioser

2009-12-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

All my grand Christmas reading plans by the wayside, I am going from one Miss Read to the next. I can't help myself...she seems to be all that I am in the mood for. Yesterday I finished Storm in the Village and now my biggest dilemma on the reading horizon is whether to see what happens to Miss Clare in Miss Clare Remembers or should I stop delaying gratification and pick up No Holly for Miss Quinn. I have a feeling I will know exactly which one once I step up to the bookcase to shelf Storm in the Village.

I am coming up on the one year mark for Book Psmith and my thoughts have been turning to the second year. My reading and blogging will both be moving toward a leisurely pace as I look forward to taking my reading to another, deeper level. Last year with all the joining of challenges, I was reading and taking notes but not really allowing myself to experience the books to the degree that I wished...for I always had an eye toward time. I am so thankful for those challenges for they gave me some direction when I first started blogging but now I am ready to go in the direction that was my original intent which was more of a journalling approach toward my reading rather than proper book reviewing. A lot of thoughts and impressions will end up in my personal records and mostly what will make it to the blog are bits and pieces that made me think and want to seek out the opinions of others, books that I want to gush about or rail against, and other points of a more general bookish nature.

And in that vein comes the curiosity part that I alluded to in the title. Curioser number one: After finding a Folio Society edition of Wodehouse's short stories, I have been debating whether or not to join. The books are absolutely gorgeous (an example is this edition of Exellent Women I have been coveting) and a real joy to read and one of the joining offers I am having a difficult time ignoring (a breathtaking two sets of Beatrix Potter's complete
tales) but oh the cost...anywhere from $39 to $59 for the average book (I am completely flabbergasted by the editions that reach the astronomical price of hundreds of dollars) with a joining commitment to buy four. For the time being, I am saying no due largely to the used editions I have been finding for sale through the internet for a fraction of the price. But I am curious to know if anyone out there has had or currently does hold a membership and what your experience has been.

Curioser number two arises from an incident in Storm in the Village that got me thinking about setting out reads for overnight guests..."I had put out a vase of my choicest roses on the bedside table, and spent some time in deciding on a variety of books. After much thought I had selected Country Things by Alison Utley, The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield, Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, an anthology of modern verse, and one of Basil Bradley's novels bearing a reclining Regency beauty on its dust jacket." I have never thought of setting out specific reads for guests. My shelves are open to their perusal and they are free to read anything that may take their fancy but as a general rule if the guest is a reader they have already seen to their own books whilst packing and if they are non-readers are more likely to watch television than pick up any volume I might suggest. Still I thought it a lovely gesture and winced when Miss Read's guest dismissed the books as 'juvenilia' and went on to outline her boring and self-pitying bedtime routine. So I am curious to know if bookloving hosts put thought and time into setting out a few beloved tomes for the enjoyment of their guests.

p.s. My youngest and I just spent the last fifteen minutes running from windows to doors to see the falling snow...which has decided it...No Holly for Miss Quinn is next!

A Christmas Game of Tag

2009-12-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by skirmishofwit to list seven loves and with it being the first of December I thought I would make my list Christmas themed.

Ornaments - My mother began collecting ornaments for my sister and I when we were kids and by the time my husband and I were making our own home I had enough ornaments to decorate the tree twice over. She has continued the tradition to this day and extended the gift to her granddaughters. Adventures of a Book Lover (pictured) is one of my favorites but each and every one makes me smile and I love the moment we all step back from the tree and declare it wondrous.

Books - This year as I unpacked the Christmas books for my youngest I said no more...I was disappointed to find doubles and knew it was a sign that for this age range there are more than enough. If I were to check the upstairs bookcases I would find more than enough for the next age range as well and in any case should wait until that age where she asserts her own tastes in holiday reading as my oldest has done.

Movies - These are just some of the Christmas movies we watch each and every year...and some of them over and over during the month. At some point, I stop counting our views of Charlie Brown. Christmas Vacation and White Christmas are watched as well as put on for background noise. And then there are the new favorites that seem to come far and few in between...elf and The Family Stone.

Music - I was so relieved to find one of those 24/7 Christmas music stations. In California, it was always KOST that was put on all hours of the day in practically every room and I was worried that there wouldn't be an equivalent in Pennsylvania but I am starting to think they must be in each and every major radio market. How is it that I can listen to the same songs year after year and never tire of hearing them them yet again?

Countdown - Is it possible to have too many countdown/advent calendars? I mean you really only need one but where is the fun in that? The chocolate countdown calendars were my favorite growing up and we continue the tradition today with our kids. As I see more and more retailers carrying these I have a feeling I will be gifting them to grandchildren as well (or so I hope).

The Christmas Mouse - This is a new love and one that I have a feeling I will be indulging in every year.

And last but not least...food...all those favorite foods that make an appearance once a year: my mom's yummy cookies (I am putting in an early request for extra seven layer bars), cold cuts and fresh bread and pastries from Alpine Market, homemade cinnamon rolls, Christmas morning pancakes, gingerbread lattes, peppermint hot chocolates, and egg nog.

You're it! Consider yourself tagged if you want to play along.

DNF 2009

2009-11-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

Here is my list of the books I could not, would not, or refused to finish in 2009. There is still December to think of but as I am on a Miss Read kick combined with other Christmas reads, I seriously do not think I will run into any more books I won't be able to finish this year.

1. Why We Hate by Dick Meyer - On an every day basis I have to deal with people who irk...those who think everybody else wants to listen to their music; people who don't even know there is such a thing as cell phone etiquette; people who have forgotten to use words like hello, good-bye, thank you, you're welcome, have a nice day, excuse me; and so on and so forth because Lord knows I could go on forever. Since I have to live it, I choose not to immerse myself in a book about it...too frustrating (especially if I do not agree with the author on some of the causes and the cures). (p.22) I wrote this DNF note at the beginning of the year and have since moved to a town where I haven't encountered these same frustrations but I still won't be reading this one...too negative.

2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov - Just can't do it and believe me I tried...65 pages of trying but here is the thing, I have a thirteen year old daughter and I can't turn off that mother part of me when reading a book...just can't. I chose Lolita for one of my mini-challenges where you are asked to read a book outside of your comfort zone and this has always been that book for me...and I guess it will continue to be so. (p. 65)

3. Thirteen by Lauren Myracle - My daughter began this series with Eleven and it has become a tradition for me to buy the latest installment on her corresponding birthday. She loved Eleven and Twelve but had a hard time finishing Thirteen. I decided to give Thirteen a try for my YA challenge but couldn't get into the story. Maybe I should have started at the beginning but I can tell when a book/author just isn't the right fit. (Chapter 2)

4. Writing Home by Alan Bennett - This book is a good read but at 600+ pages it is too much Bennett all at once. I will return and finish this at some point.

5. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen - Janzen is very funny and there was one part in this memoir where she describes what it was like to go on camping trip with her family that I was laughing so hard I had to put the book down. But I couldn't get past the feeling that under the layer of humor she was jabbing members of her family and the community she had grown up in in a mean-spirited way. There were also two too many incidences of TMI which as my age progresses my tolerance for decreases. (p. 61)

Going over this list has got me thinking about the books I did finish but couldn't stand. On some occasions I finished because I was reading for a challenge. On others, my curiosity to see how the book ended sustained me through my disdain. But the first question asked when I say I didn't like a book is 'why did you keep reading' and, looking back, whatever the reason it wasn't good enough to justify the time and the frustration. I should have moved on and, if I have any reading resolutions for 2010, to move on will be at the top of my list.

Read the Book, See the Movie

2009-11-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

1. Cranford

2. Great Expectations

3. Sherlock Holmes

Gratitude

2009-11-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

The leftovers are put away. The dishes are clean. A piece of pumpkin pie awaits. My annual viewing of Home for the Holidays has concluded. The house is decorated and the presents are wrapped for the youngest's birthday tomorrow. Amidst the bustle and moments of chaos, I finished Time Remembered by Miss Read. Lamentably, it is too short a work, as is her A Fortunate Grandchild which I finished about a week ago. Both are autobiographical volumes that cover her childhood years, respectively, those that tell of her move to the countryside and her attendance at a village school, and the earlier years of living in London and her interactions with her two grandmothers. Reading both of these works gives a glimpse into some of the real life experiences that influenced her fiction. If you have read Miss Read, these two works are just as delightful. If you haven't read Miss Read, I believe they stand up wonderfully on there own merit.

I am thankful for these two books as well as all the other fabulous reads I have enjoyed in 2009. I am thankful for the book bloggers that led me to a lot of these books and authors. I am thankful for books, friends, family...I am thankful for this day.

A Man and His Cat

2009-11-10T17:45:00.001-08:00

Cynthia Rylant writes the wonderful Henry and Mudge series about a boy and his lovable dog. My youngest and I have been enjoying the books since the summer but it was only last week that I spied her Mr. Putter & Tabby Catch the Cold. To think they were sitting there the whole time and I, for whatever reason, overlooked them.

Mr. Putter is getting older and when he begins to wish for a companion to share a cup of tea with and to tell his stories to, he sets out to find a friend just like himself...with creaky bones, thinning hair and with hearing not quite as good as it used to be. He finds Tabby and they suit one another perfectly.

After finishing Mr. Putter & Tabby Catch the Cold, my youngest and I looked at one another and we were wearing the same wide, goofy grin that comes with instant book love. Since that first read, we returned to the library and grabbed up all the books in the series we could find. Rylant's fantastic stories accompanied by Arthur Howard's charming illustrations make for great reading at any age. I have counted eighteen different adventures ranging from the quiet scenes of writing a book to the rascally Zeke (Mr. Putter's neighbor's dog) raising a raucous on his daily walks...I just hope our library system has them all...or I will have to use that as an excuse to add them to our personal library.

Today...

2009-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

...is the last day to sign up to for Persephone Secret Santa. So far we have three participants who will be receiving their very first Persephone...so exciting! And our Santas herald from regions other than the North Pole...the UK, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Portugal and the US.

Tomorrow (probably later in the day since my daughter will be assisting), you will be receiving all the information needed to hit the workshop. Please don't hesitate to email me at slaven614@gmail if you have any questions.

I'm Dreaming of a Grey Christmas

2009-10-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

Persephone grey, that is, and wondering if others will want to join in and spread the Persephone cheer by playing Secret Santa to our fellow Persephone-loving bloggers. Here are the particulars:

1. Email me at slaven614@gmail.com on or before November 10th with your name, address (all personal information will be destroyed after completion of gift exchange), a list of Persephone titles you have read and/or own and specify whether or not you are willing to ship your gift internationally.

2. On November 11, names will be randomly drawn and participants will be notified as to who they are playing Santa to.

3. Using the list of Persephone titles provided by your recipient, go back through your assigned blogger's posts looking for favored authors or subject matter and choose a title you know the blogger will enjoy.

4. At this point, it is up to you as Santa how creative you wish to be in the workshop. You can order the book, have it gift wrapped and sent straight on to the recipient...or you can have the book sent to you first and go a step further by including a small gift that is homemade, bookish in nature or related to how you celebrate Christmas, then wrap it all up and send it on its way. Either way make sure you include a card revealing your identity. (Please indicate in your email if you will be including an additional gift.)

5. With the increase of packages being sent during the holidays, please aim to have your package delivered before or during the first week of December. Take into account the extra time needed if shipping internationally or if you are going on vacation.

6. On December 15th, let's get together by posting who your Secret Santa is and sharing what he (or she) brought you.

7. Spread the word...the more the merrier! Feel free to use the image above.

If after signing up, something comes up to where you cannot participate, let me know as soon as possible so that I can make other arrangements. Please consider all costs involved before participating (for the book, for any shipping, the additional gift, etc.). This is meant to be fun, not stressful, and I wouldn't want anyone to feel overwhelmed by the commitment.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment or email me.

Thank you to Claire at Paperback Reader for your help in coming up with the particulars and to my oldest who will be assisting in the matching up so I can play Santa too.

Awesome Author Challenge 2010

2009-10-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Alyce at At Home With Books is hosting this awesome Awesome Author Challenge 2010. It runs all of 2010 and you can choose from four different levels of challenging. Alyce writes, "The idea behind this challenge is to read works by authors who have been recommended to you time and again, yet somehow you haven't managed to read any books by those authors. These are the authors that everyone else tells you are awesome, thus the "Awesome Author Challenge" title." I am choosing the easy level which is to read one title from three 'awesome' authors. Here are the authors:

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Anthony Trollope
Dorothy Whipple (completed Someone At A Distance)

If you are interested in participating, please click on the button able to visit At Home With Books.

Reading Susan Hill

2009-10-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

It seems that I have had a little bit of Christmas in each month of 2009 whether it is something as small as my White Christmas ring tone or something as wonderful as Howards End is on the Landing. When my husband told me I had a package from The Book Depository, I couldn't help grinning and saying 'it's like Christmas in October'. That was before I started reading it, I was so sure it would be my kind of book, and it turned out to be so.

From the beginning, Hill's account of her year reading from the shelves of her farmhouse took on a conversational quality as I agreed, argued, tried to persuade and meditated upon my own reading history.

Agreed on issue-led children's books: "Realism comes home soon enough and many children have too much anguish to cope with in their everyday lives as it is. Their books can be one corner of life that remains untainted by the troubles brought upon their heads by unthinking, unloving adults."

Argued about the effects of the internet: "The internet can also have a pernicious influence on reading because it is full of book-related gossip and chatter on which it is fatally easy to waste time that should be spent actually paying close, careful attention to the books themselves, whether writing them or reading them." (This sentence is qualified by the word 'can' but I wanted to argue for the opposite effect it can have...from finding new books and authors, and since I started blogging about the books I read I find that I pay closer attention to what I am reading because I plan to write about it at some point. I have found the internet, and book blogging in particular, to be more beneficial than detrimental to my reading.)

Tried to persuade: "Here are two collections of short stories by P.G. Wodehouse, that comic genius. But they don't work, or not for me, because Wodehouse thrived on the leisurely approach, ambling up to a novel, taking the scenic route, and the short story form does not work like that." (They so work for me...Rodney Has a Relapse, Uncle Fred Flits By, the whole of Young Men in Spats...so many have I loved just as much as his best novels.)

Meditated upon: I found the discussion on disapproval of Roald Dahl's books fascinating because when I was growing up Dahl was read in classrooms and his books were given as gifts by our parents. Her trips to libraries on Saturdays and Wednesdays reminded me of my own happy hours spent among the stacks. Although I dared myself to be inspired by Hill to write my impressions in her book, I just couldn't, and don't think I ever will write in books again. And, finally, I couldn't agree more...the book ain't broke.

Of course my tbr list grew: Trollope, Greene, Wodehouse, Sayers, Sebald and Dickens along with Hill's own titles which brings me to The Woman in Black. read_warbler suggested I start here with Hill's fictional work on the strength of it being "very atmospheric and genuinely scary". This ghostly tale is both of these and I was surprised to find that such a story could have me so on edge one moment and completely devastated another. Arthur Kipp is sent by his firm to settle the affairs of the deceased Mrs. Drablow. Eel Marsh House and its grounds (which include a graveyard) are perfectly suited for a haunting as it is unreachable when the tide is in and subject to sudden fogs and mists. No one in town wants to discuss the house or Mrs. Drablow in depth but he is warned off, in not too many words, staying at the house for an extended period of time. But just like those horror films, Kipp decides to stay for a couple of nights in order to complete his work, even after prior unpleasant experiences at the house and in the marsh. What happens during and after his stay makes this another perfect read for October.

Poe, Dickens and Shots of Shorts

2009-09-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia...home of the liberty bell, independence hall, Philly cheesesteak and those famous steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art conquered by Rocky Balboa. All exciting to experience but I feel a little unpatriotic when I admit that the highlight of our recent day spent in the city of brotherly love was standing in the one surviving dwelling of five that Poe inhabited during his six years living in Philly. I am not Poe's number one fan and until the past month I hadn't read his work since high school but I have continued to be fascinated by the man, his talent and his legend. Couple my fascination with my daughter reading Poe in her language arts class, and this stop was a timely one. I ask you, who needs GPS? Just keep an eye out for Poe on the wall.

Poe lived in this semi-detached house with his wife, Virginia, and his mother-in-law as well as a cat named Catterina. It is assumed that The Black Cat was written while Poe lived here and the cellar recalls the spooky scenes from the short story.

The raven overlooks the gardens and seems to be guarding Poe's front door. There were a total of four stories including the cellar. All the rooms, hallways, closets and stairwells seemed so small. When I saw the room that was assumed to be the parlor for entertaining, all I thought was the number of guests would need to be kept to a minimum. The house was not furnished and the walls seemed to be crumbling giving an overall impression of decay.

The whole building is considered a national historical park, so part of the neighboring dwelling is a very well put together exhibit of Poe's life. There is also a small theatre that shows a short documentary.

There is a small exhibit that explains the influence Poe's work had on other writers within the mystery/detective story genre. Poe is credited with writing 'the first modern detective story'.

There were some interesting papers written on his death, the defamation of his character and how the city itself influenced Poe's writing. They certainly challenged some of my long held assumptions regarding Poe's rumored use of opium and the circumstances surrounding his death.

After Poe, we were off to see the only statue ever made in the likeness of Charles Dickens...or so I read. There is quite an interesting story behind this statue that went against Dickens' wishes expressed in his will. I had to see it but was saddened to see it being used as a jungle gym.

To go along with these literary spots, I read Poe's The Black Cat and Dicken's The Haunted House. I bought an illustrated edition of Poe and made the mistake of looking at some the illustrations before reading the pieces. One of the illustrations for The Black Cat included the last line of the story which gave all away. It was still a good read but what a bummer to know the end at the beginning. Dicken's The Haunted House was too strange for me as I followed the main character on his descent into madness...or was he mad from the beginning? I don't know. All I do know is that the last half was practically unreadable which was such a disappointment because the story started out so strong.

Two more short stories to mention: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body-Snatcher. My daughter read The Yellow Wallpaper in class and the teacher was kind enough to pass on a copy of the story to me. Gilman tells the story of a woman who is driven mad by the wallpaper in a room of the house she and her family are renting as she seeks tonic for her nerves. I found the first half a little dull but, as this woman is gripped by an obsession with the wallpaper, I was gripped by the last couple of pages...creepy. Darlene at roses over a cottage door recently reviewed Stevenson's The Body-Snatcher which convinced me to pick up this story. After reading it I want to know more about the real-life case this story is based on. Stevenson did a fantastic job introducing the moral aspect behind such evil and desecration along with giving me the heebee-jeebees.

10 Books To Read Before You Die...

2009-09-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Happily I have not been reading much for the last ten days. My sister came to visit and, although we shopped for a lot for books, I wasn't reading them. I am catching up on all my favorite blogs and came across Bibliophile by the Sea's book bucket list (based on a meme Bookalicio.us is hosting). Thanks to several challenges many of the books and authors I have always meant to read were read this year...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Animal Farm, Anne of Green Gables...but, of course, there are more and Bookalicio.us asks us to share ten of them.

Two of my ten are actually books I hope to reread at some point: Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (a book I probably had no business reading when I was 19) and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Red and the Black by Stendahl

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy (after watching the pbs series, I had to know if the book was just as good or, as most often is the case, even better)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (I am one of the few who did not like Pride and Prejudice but S&S is what I consider my Austen second chance book...if I loved two of the film adaptations I have had the chance to watch, I have to love the book...right?)

Middlemarch by George Eliot (this is one of those books I feel I have to read)

The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (since spying the audiobook at the library, this one has been on my tbr list but I am hesitant about reading books written in the 1700s because I fear I won't 'get' them)

Something...anything by Tom Wolfe

Even though this makes eleven and it is a short story...The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (one I aim to mark off my list this October).

My tbr list is long but these are books and authors that stay with me year and year and will probably haunt me until I finally get to them. If you would like to share your list, click on the button above to participate.

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

2009-09-18T10:36:00.001-07:00

Pym tells the story of four co-workers who are facing life after retirement. They work in a London office together and the depth of their relationship to one another hovers somewhere between mere colleagues and friendship. In their interactions, they seem driven by what is socially expected of them instead of genuinely caring for one another. It is a fascinating dynamic.

But what I found more fascinating was Pym's representation of how lives are affected by the "welfare state" and the church. Both take upon themselves the task of caring for those who do not have the support of family and friends but in a way that is condescending to the receiver and uplifting only to the giver. I loved being invited into the character's heads as you get the truth behind their actions, intentions, thoughts and feelings. At the same time, I felt a distance from the main characters because they did not inspire any degree of affection.

Based on this read, I look forward to reading some of Pym's earlier work. Quartet in Autumn was "written at a time when the author had given up hope of ever being published again" (from the front flap), some sixteen years after her prior book, and I am interested to see what, if any, differences arise in her writing.

Persephone Reading Week - A Book Review and Final Thoughts

2009-08-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

The last day of the Persephone Reading Week is here...unbelievably. I can't say enough about the phenomenal job Claire and Verity did. They were the perfect hosts and I hope they will hold another week of Persephone reading soon.

I finished Miss Buncles' Book this evening and do wish I had Miss Buncle Married on hand. I suppose I have the sequel to look forward to as well as all the other titles added to my wishlist thanks to many wonderful reviews of other Persephone titles written by other participants in the challenge.

Barbara Buncle has watched her dividends dwindle (if anyone can explain the concept behind dividends I would be so grateful) and must find another source of income. She decides to write a book but because she has 'no imagination', she decides to write about the village she lives in. Once the book is published and read by her neighbors, the drama ensues, and Miss Buncle's quiet life is turned upside down.

I do agree with the Persphone catalogue that describes DE Stevenson's book as "an undemanding, fun and absorbing novel" but it is a also a book that made me think...about the ethical aspect of publishing; how others see us as compared to how we see ourselves; the realities of living in a small town or village; and, how reading, as well as writing books, can influence lives. Stevenson created a world I wanted to crawl into and be a part of. I wanted to put certain characters in their place and befriend others but most of all I wanted to sit in a cozy chair and put my feet up to the fire with a copy of Disturber of the Peace in one hand and a hot cup of tea in another.

This is my first Persephone read and it has been a charming place to begin. Where will it lead? For the time being I have three other Persephone titles on my shelf but soon I will have to place an order and start ticking off titles on my wishlist. Nymeth and Claire shared some of the titles they look forward to reading and I thought I would do the same. Here are my top ten...

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield-Fisher
Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey
Flush by Virginia Woolf
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan
The Village by Marghanita Laski
Making Conversation by Christine Longford

Thank you again to Claire and Verity for a wonderful reading week.

Persephone Reading Week - Day Two

2009-08-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well I didn't get any serious reading done until after nine o'clock last night and stayed up until an unwise hour because I didn't want to put down Miss Buncle's Book even for something as necessary as sleep. For the second time in a few weeks, I have been reminded of Clifton Fadiman's essay Pillow Books in which he advises not to choose a book that is too exciting and wonderful nor one that is so slow as to induce sleep. I haven't always completely agreed with this sentiment because I have always loved reading a really great book until the wee hours but I am not as young as I used to be and can no longer get away with three or fours of sleep days on end. Getting up this morning was not fun...but this Persephone read is. I have tabbed it all up because there are so many sentences or paragraphs that make me ponder, laugh, or just revel in its perfection. Here are some that I have particularly enjoyed...

"What fools the public were! They were exactly like sheep...thought Mr. Abbott sleepily...following each other's lead, neglecting one book and buying another just because other people were buying it, although, for the life of you, you couldn't see what the one lacked and the other possessed."

"It will have been deduced from the foregoing that Mr. Abbott was a bachelor - what wife would have allowed her husband to sit up all hours for two nights running reading the manuscript of a novel? None."

"'People fed them,' replied Uncle Mike. 'People don't feed saints nowadays, they ask them why they are not on the dole, and advise them to apply for parish relief.'"

"Sarah turned on the reading lamp and opened the book; quiet fell in the room as she began to read." (I love that moment at the end of the day when it is quiet all around and it is just you and a good book. BP)

The whole of Mrs. Walker, the chapter this last quote was taken from, was delightful. It was the last chapter of the day and a wonderful way to end it.

Persephone Reading Challenge - Day One

2009-08-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Today is the kick off for the Persephone Reading Challenge Week hosted by Paperback Reader and Verity. I finally chose Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson for my first read. Although I haven't gotten very far because after reading the first few pages I had a craving for fresh pastries and took my girls out to get breakfast (we also needed double-sided tape for a bookmark making session...so not a lot of reading happening yet). What a great beginning to the challenge it has been though...two great contests and two inspiring kick off posts. Thank you to Paperback Reader and Verity for hosting. It isn't too late to join in, just click on the image above. Happy reading to all my fellow challengees.

Bon Appetit, DC!

2009-08-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

There is something very exciting about being in Washington DC...seeing all the old, beautiful buildings; being in a place that is so full of history; seeing the monuments, the National Mall and the White House; and now...the permanent home of Julia Child's Cambridge kitchen at the Smithsonian. We picked a perfect day to go, as it is Julia's birthday, the weather was doable and the capital didn't seem overly crowded. What was crowded was this wonderful exhibit.
The perimeter around the kitchen displayed photographs, magazine covers, kitchen equipment she used over the years as well as her full collection of books.

The size of her kitchen is pretty much my ideal. There was plenty of counterspace, storage space, room for a huge stove and at the center an inviting family table.

It takes some time to take it all in, all the details from her knives to her cookie sheets to a roll of paper for lists and notes.

But my favorite part was these bookshelves that contained her own cookbooks as well as those by others including the infamous Joy of Cooking...two copies.

My only complaint about the exhibit were the two television screens, one showing one of her many cooking shows and the other an interview. Their placement caused so much congestion, it was difficult to get around and view the kitchen and various displays.

I cannot go to a museum without stopping in the gift shop and this one was awesome. I would estimate that about 25 percent was dedicated to books. They had an extensive display of Julia's books for sale but in the end I couldn't resist this one...

Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate by Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris. The front flap reads, "At the height of her career, Clementine Paddleford was as popular as Julia Child and as respected as James Beard. Today, she's the most important food writer you've never heard of." Too interesting for me to pass up and beautifully made from the deckle cut pages to the sepia-toned scrapbook fashion endpapers.

After bath and story time, my youngest said, "I'll really liked today. Will we go again after we wake up?" She summed up the day perfectly.

Comfort Read

2009-06-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

We have been in Pennsylvania for one week now. We are finally settled and I finally have time to pick up a book. I had a whole line up of books ready to go starting with George Orwell's Coming Up for Air. I set these books aside when I realized I needed a read that felt like home and could give some comfort. Now that things are slowing down, I have been dwelling on how much I miss family and friends. So I need a book that is all about family and friends and love and comfort. I couldn't think of a better book than Jacques Pepin's The Apprentice. Pepin's love for food, family and friends permeates this book and a reread is exactly what I need. The other thing that is making this move a little easier is how beautful Pennsylvania is. The humidity takes some getting used to but the town we are living in is so green and the houses are charming and the people are friendly. We have been enchanted by the most simple things...lightening bugs at dusk, sharing roads with horses and buggies, even the groundhogs who are kicking up a lot of dirt but are too cute to be mad at for long. I guess we are both working on feeling at home.

Book Review - A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam

2009-03-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Growing up with the Great Books of the Western World at my fingertips, I was very interested in reading this book. I read a review by Adrienne at Bookmark My Heart who shared that the author was not very kind toward his subject. I endeavored to read the book with an open mind and come to my own conclusions.

The Great Books of the Western World is a set of 54 volumes which contains the classical works of authors like Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Melville, Marx and Goethe. The first set published contained no works written by women or minorities. The sets were sold through advertisements and by door to door salesmen. My grandparents owned a set that held a place of honor on two of the six built-in bookshelves in their dining room. From the time I was very young, I was attracted to those books, I believe because of the brightly colored spines. Once I could read, I began to memorize the names, not realizing until I was much older that I mispronounced a good number of them. In high school, I began to take the books off the shelves and read bits and pieces, most of which I did not understand. By the end of high school, I was reading the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare and had borrowed War and Peace to read for my senior book report. Whether or not I read them, I loved those books and believe they were the seeds that grew into my love for the written word. So, yes, from the first snide remark made by Beam, to the last, I was on the defensive. I liken reading this book to crossing a minefield. As long as one can screen out the sarcastic commentary and foolish interpretations, there is a fascinating history behind the Great Books.

Publishing the set was an answer to a demand for the classics that were being read for classes and seminars (as well as great book groups) offered by the likes of Mortimer Adler, Robert Hutchins and John Erskine. Students and attendees had a difficult time getting their hands on the texts and the Great Books of the Western World was the solution. The main complaints of the Great Books were that they were written by dead, white, males; grievous omissions of other great works; the middle class not being smart enough to read and understand them; huckster-type sales methods used to oh-my-god make a buck in a capitalist society (sarcasm mine); and they were unreadable, very unreadable, and highly unreadable. (I do think that if I came across that adjective one more time I was going to deem this book unreadable.) Yes, the text was small. Yes, the pages were double-columned. Yes, it was a legitimate complaint. But to say it over and over and over was overkill.

There was a fascinating chapter on St. John's college (a large part of the book focused on the great books being part of college curriculum) and a touching portrait of a man named Thomas Hyland who, at the time of his death, had built a 63,000 volume personal library (for this alone, I thought the book was worth reading). The two men most responsible for the Great Books were Adler and Hutchins, and despite the ugly picture Beam painted of these two men, I chose to believe that they had created a good thing and held onto the fact that they did not see any barriers to who could or could not partake in the great works of Western civilization (as they and a small group of others defined it).

Beam writes, "Somehow, somewhere, someone drained the energy and fun out of the Great Books." I am sorry that has been Mr. Beam's experience and I am continually grateful it was not mine.

Book Review - The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong

2009-03-05T11:55:00.000-08:00

Storks no longer make their seasonal homes in the seaside Dutch village of Shora. Many decades have past since they have taken up residence but there are some who remember and begin to dream of having them back. This dream is sparked by a young girl, Lina, who asks why the storks do not come to their village but do stop and stay in the neighboring ones. Encouraged by their teacher, Lina and her five classmates work to solve the mystery and take steps toward fulfilling the dream of the storks' return. These steps are arduous, frustrating, and frightening but each one gets them closer to the "impossibly impossible". The novel teaches a respect for tradition and the elders amongst us. Without old Douwa and Grandmother Sibble III, the children would not have been able to begin making their dream come true. The children must also overcome their fear of Janus, a man who has lost his legs in a rumored shark attack, and when they do, find his smarts, experience, physical strength and leadership are indispensable to the obstacles they encounter. DeJong's writing is suspenseful and humorous and slightly rebellious against the established political and journalistic order of Holland which transcends time and culture. The book most certainly deserved the Newbury medal (awarded in 1955) but I wonder if it could win today in our hypersensitive, politically correct and highly litigious society. There was a whole lot of cutting school, climbing buildings, risking life and limb battling the ocean tides, handling of wild animals, talk of corporal punishment, and several instances of 'verbal' abuse. I have to say I enjoyed it all so much, I felt slightly naughty. In all seriousness... it takes the courage and tenacity of the whole town to make this dream come true and not once did the dream die. Believing that the "impossibly impossible" can be realized is the great lesson of The Wheel on the School.

(The book is full of delightful illustrations by Maurice Sendak which makes the reading even more enjoyable.)

Anneliese's Angle 3.1.09

2009-03-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Hello. My name is Anneliese, the oldest of Stacy's (aka Book Psmith) two daughters, and I am twelve. Over the next year I will hopefully be doing a monthly post on the books I have read and what I am currently reading. In January I read a total of five books. The first one I read was Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech. Sharon Creech is one of my many favorite authors because she has a way of capturing any reader. This particular story was somewhat of a follow up from Love That Dog, another one of my favorite books. Hate That Cat was short yet very enticing, enjoyful, and somewhat relaxing. One of those books that just makes you what to read it in one day, and I did! Highly recommended... five stars for sure. The next book I completed was a carry over from last year, New Moon, the second book in the engaging Stephanie Meyer Twilight series. New Moon was not one of her best books in the series from my perspective. It was a little slow in the beginning but it definitely grew stronger in the middle and towards the end. I give it a four star rating. The next book that I read was Eclipse, the third book in the twilight series. Eclipse was a very mysterious, breath taking, and enjoyable book. Eclipse took me eighteen days to complete. With cheer leading after school and school work, you have to make time for these kinds of things. I give it five stars. After completing Eclipse I decided to take a break from the series and read some Charles Schulz. These five books carried over into February as follows: What's Wrong With Being Crabby, It's Great to be A Superstar, Peanuts Every Sunday, You've Come a Long Way Charlie Brown, and Lead on Snoopy. I give all of these some major LOL's and five star ratings. The next book I read in February was Breaking Dawn. I am sad to say the series is over but I loved it... five stars. February total four books. I am currently reading Animal Farm and a young adult series Missing Persons #1 The Rose Queen. I hope you enjoyed reading my post. I cannot wait until next month.

Signing Off:

Iceskater96

Book Review - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

2009-02-27T22:43:00.000-08:00

It is so strange the way a film can infiltrate the psyche and completely alter the experience of reading the book upon which it was based. My father, in an effort to get his offspring some culture, made us sit and watch the 1968 film version of the musical Oliver! My sister and I loved it, memorized and sang the songs, and, to this day, make references to the dialogue. So I am wondering...how different could Oliver Twist, the book, be? Completely. Yet in my reading, the characters I see in my mind's eye are played by the actors in the film, I hum the songs associated with the appropriate passages, and I almost argue with the narrator when the book differs from the script thinking that that is not the way it happened in the movie. The book, as is so often the case, is far superior than the movie, yet they are both wonderful. Oliver Twist follows the life of one very unlucky orphan. His life is constant misery punctuated by short stints of complete and total happiness. Because he is powerless, he easily falls into the hands of those who want to use him to their gain. His heart and character remain true and noble throughout which endears him to the good people whose path he occasionally crosses. The despair in this book is unrelenting and as a reader I was grateful for any kindnesses Oliver received. Dickens's writing is descriptive and humorous and sarcastic and suspenseful and mysterious and heartbreaking...and so many things that create a story which can withstand the test of time and become a classic beloved by generations. Oliver Twist was the perfect initiation into Dickens's writing and I look forward to reading more.

Book Review - Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passions by Leona Rostenberg & Madeleine Stern

2009-02-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

There are some books that I want to gush over, and just go on and on about how much I loved them...this is one. Rostenberg and Stern are two women who have dedicated their lives to books and scholarship and one another. Their lives did not intersect until they were in their twenties and they did not connect right away but once they did it led to a friendship so rare and so beautiful it was worthy of several books. After spending the early years of their friendship overcoming collegiate and career obstacles, Stern makes a gift of the necessary accoutrements for starting a rare book business to Rostenberg. Later Stern joins her as partner and the intriguing adventures of finding and selling rare books begins. They transform and break ground in what up to that point had been a male domain. Because of Rostenberg's area of study, they were able to find treasures that other booksellers had no idea they possessed and so sold many of these gems for a pittance. Rostenberg and Stern would then create catalogues (which became famous in their own right for their creative formats) and sell the books at a huge gain. Throughout the book, the women compare their work to that of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. In one case, their 'literary sleuthing' led to a huge discovery...Louisa May Alcott's pen name A.M. Barnard. This led to Stern's concentrated efforts on an Alcott biography and the collection of Alcott's pseudonymous writings. Along with the theme of friendship, the importance of family runs through this book. Both women were well-loved by their families and they return that love through their writing. The fascinating lives of two women who followed their hearts and each other, and found a life so rich and rewarding among books...a perfect read.

Essay Reading Challenge 2009 - Completed

2009-01-30T20:31:00.000-08:00

Challenge Summary

I joined this challenge to reconnect with my love for reading essays. I used to be a regular reader of contemporary essays but what I loved about this challenge is that I was introduced to essays that would be called classics. I read several from George Orwell, a couple from E.B. White and James Thurber. I traveled further back to read pieces by Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens and Charles Lamb. I did mix in some current pieces by Christopher Hitchens, Julian Barnes and David Sedaris. There is only one I read that I wished I hadn't: In New England Everyone Calls You Dave by David Rykoff. I had several favorites: Bookshop Memories and Such, Such were the Joys by Orwell, How Should One Read a Book? and Hours in a Library by Virginia Woolf, and My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage by Thurber. I was most pleasantly surprised by my readings of Woolf and know I will give her the second chance she deserves. My number one favorite is the one I saved for last...Good Dog. Stay. Thank you to Carrie at Books and Movies for hosting this great challenge.

Completed Essays

30. Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen - I first read this essay in 2007 and thought it so beautiful. A loving tribute to her black lab, Beau, Quindlen is able to put into words all that my dogs have meant to me over the years. The photographs of dogs interspersed throughout the text goes perfectly with the poignant writing.

29. Once More to the Lake by E.B. White (from Essays of E.B. White) - White returns to the lake where he spent his childhood summers. He is now the father who brings his son. The lines of time begin to blur...the place is so so unchanged, he feels that time has stood still in this magical place. There are small reminders that the march of time goes forward and in these reminders White glimpses death.

28. Five Days in Finland at the Age of Fifty-Five by John Updike (from Odd Jobs: Essays and Criticism) - Read in honor of the prolific author's passing. May he rest in peace.

27. Hours in a Library by Virginia Woolf (from the Collected Essays of Virginia Woolf, v.2) - Ok, I must have missed something when I read Woolf in my early twenties, or perhaps I was missing something like maturity and experience. I just didn't get Woolf then but reading her now...I am in awe of her beautiful writing. And these essays on reading, it is like finding a kindred spirit. So I will stop gushing long enough to describe this piece. She writes about the natural evolution of a reader. At first, I am defensive reading this...each journey of the reader is unique...and to a certain extent it is but then I see that I have followed this generalized path from my childhood magical reading to what Woolf describes as "the great season for reading" being between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four to where I am today experiencing all that I read through the prism of the "great books" I have read before and still return to today. Another wonderful essay by Woolf.

26. The St. Nicholas League by E.B. White (from Essays of E.B. White) - After reading The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge, I tried to find out as much as I could about her on the internet. She was well-known for editing The St. Nicholas, a children's magazine. So when I came across this essay by White, I was fascinated to find that the magazine had a St. Nicholas League which children could become members of by submitting their creative works such as prose, poem, essays and photographs. White describes what it was like to be a member and its importance in his life. He then walks the reader through the issues that he kept and lists other soon-to-be-famous contibutors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ring Lardner and Vita Sackville-West. Reading this essay reminded me of the League equivalent I subscribed to growing up, Chart Your Course, a publication completely made up of children's art.

25. E.B.W. by James Thurber (from Thurber: Writings and Drawings) - Thurber wrote this touching tribute to his friend E.B. White. I haven't had the chance to read a biography on White (and at this point I don't even know if one exists) but find this essay to speak volumes about the author. He was a bit of a recluse bordering on anti-social. His talent was so obvious that the New Yorker sought him out instead of the other way around. This piece combined with Death of a Pig and my undying love for Charlotte's Web makes me want to know everything about this man and read everything he has written....another literary crush.

24. Death of a Pig by E.B. White (from Essays of E.B. White) - I chose this essay thinking it might reveal the inspiration behind White's classic children's book Charlotte's Web. I soon forgot my ulterior motive as I was drawn into the account of White losing the pig he had been fattening up for his family's consumption. White says this pig was not the inspiration for Charlotte's Web but the event must have had some bearing on the story of Wilbur because the feelings both pieces evoke from the reader are so similar. I did some research on this essay and found that there is an annotated version of Charlotte's Web. Perhaps that is where I can find a better understanding of the story behind the story and leave this essay to stand on its own beautiful merit.

23. Damned Spot by Michelle Latiolais (from Woof: Writers on Dogs, ed. Lee Montgomery) - I am intimidated by the author of this essay. She and her husband name their English bull terrier Damned Spot for mean-spirited reasons. The first is to get a good laugh at people who do not feel comfortable using curse words (even ones as tame as damn). The second to generate a feeling of superiority when they must condescend to explain the reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth. She dedicates quite a bit of time convincing the reader they should never own an English bull terrier. The breed is stupid, insolent, stubborn, untrainable. Her protestations remind me of silly teenagers who want to claim their's is the only true loyalty to whatever rock band is the flavor of the moment. I could picture her saying, "I loved bull terriers before they sold out and went mainstream." The intimidation steps in when she reveals that her husband committed suicide. She is able at this point to show candid affection towards her dog and a vulnerability that is at odds with the hardness of her earlier writing. At this point, I don't know what to make of the author or her essay, and I always find this kind of dissonance in reading to be intimidating.

22. Pillow Books by Clifton Fadiman (from A Passion for Books, ed. by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan) - Fadiman argues that the ideal reading before going to bed should neither act as a stimulant nor as a sleeping agent. The reading we do before sleeping should act as a bridge between the reality of daily life and our nocturnal dream state. While he suggests Trollope as the perfect before bed author, he acknowledges that the final decision lays with the individual reader. My choice? Whatever I am currently reading which often does get me into trouble. As Fadiman would advise against, the majority of books I read act as a stimulus because I put off going to sleep, no matter how exhausted, in order to read one more chapter.

21. How Should One Read a Book? by Virginia Woolf (from the Collected Essays of Virginia Woolf v.2) - A couple of years ago, I became obsessed with reading about food and cooking. Naturally I became acquianted with several French terms and phrases. One of them was mille-feuille...a thousand leaves or layers (in reference to a popular type of pastry). This came to mind when I read this essay...a thousand gorgeous layers of words and ideas and beliefs and truths and on and on and on. How should one read a book or how should one read in general? How should one approach reading and writing and thinking and reviewing? Woolf writes "to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions". In other words, the reading journey is a private one that is unique to each individual and should be determined only by that individual. I cannot even begin to do justice to this essay. I can only implore others to read it. Of course, in light of what I wrote above, that is entirely up to you.

20. Literature and Life by Arthur Christopher Benson (from Escape and other Essays) - This essay contains interesting sketches on great writers such as Dickens, Tennyson, Keats and Browning. Benson uses these sketches to show the contrast between honest artistry and that of "men who would be great if they knew how" who create an illusion of superiority and exclude those who have a geniune interest in and love for art. The author then moves on to questioning the methods we use as a society to evaluate the value of a man. He concludes with a thought-provoking quote from Dr. Johnson, "A book should show one either how to enjoy life or how to endure it." Food for thought in my never-ending debate on the purpose and meaning of reading and writing.

19. Thoughts on People by Charles Dickens (from Sketches by Boz) - "They furnished food for our amusement" is the perfect phrase penned by Dickens to describe his observations made while people watching. We get to meet a few of the characters you might encounter in 18th century London as well as some of the ways in which life was lived. Dickens also plays the game of wondering what life is really like for the various people who cross his path (one I have played myself while waiting for a plane or sitting in a mall).

18. Postcards to Myself by Peter Terzian (from Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo) - I don't remember when I realized there was a whole world beyond my little universe of family, friends and home but Terzian knows early and wanderlust is born. The common thread throughout this essay is the postcards he obsessively collects and cares for. The author comes to understand the importance of friendship especially in the life of an only child and basically teaches himself how to be social outside of his home and family.

17. In New England Everyone Calls You Dave by David Rykoff (from Fraud) - Rykoff based this piece on an assignment he was given to climb up a mountain with a man who has made the same climb every day for the past five years. The essay would have been vastly more interesting if he had actually written about this man and his motive, the mountain and the experience of climbing. He attempts but fails to be funny. The last two paragraphs of self-analysis and admonishment feel convenient and lack autheticity.

16. My Jane by Peter Ho Davies (from Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo) - For the longest time, my husband and I thought we were going to have only one child. The decision to have children, let alone how many, is a private matter between husband and wife. I can't stand when people think they have a right to comment on that decision and I found that a lot of people felt free to criticize us. One woman in particular I will always remember...she begged me not to do that my daughter and it was horrible if I did. I was curious then, as I am now, if it really is so horrible which is why I picked up this book of essays. Davies analyzes his desire for a sibling and discusses how literature helped him to deal with that desire and fill the role of the missing sibling. He now faces what it means to parent an only child himself.

15. On Cats and Dogs by Jerome K. Jerome (from The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow) - In the beginning this essay was on cats and dogs but moved on to rats and pied pipers and death and the yearning to be young again. The writing was not focused and became a sort of rambling from one topic to the next. I did appreciate the bit on dog's upsetting anything from tables to drinks to guests but this is not enough to recommend the essay.

14. This Dog's Life by Ann Patchett (from Dog is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World's Oldest Friendship) - Patchett and her boyfriend adopt a rescued puppy. The way in which she cares for the dog leads those around her to suspect that she didn't really want a dog but wanted a baby. The essay is a defense against this assumption as well as a sweet tribute to Rose the Pondego puppy.

13. Confessions of a Book Reviewer by George Orwell (from In Front of Your Nose v.4 Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters) This was an interesting portrait of the book reviewer in the 1940s. Orwell discusses the average number of books a reviewer may read and critique, what percentage of books he actually enjoyed, the reality that not all books are read due to lack of time, and at times the reviewer possesses no background expertise when some would be required. It would be interesting to find an essay in the same vein written recently and compare the two portraits.

12. Books v. Cigarettes by George Orwell (from In Front of Your Nose v.4 Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters) - If you ever think you can't afford a book, this essay will help you find a solution. Orwell took it upon himself to find out the cost of reading after a friend had been told by readers of his newspaper that they couldn't afford to read the books discussed in the literary section. He estimated as closely as he could the cost of the library he had built over 15 years and averaged it into a figure that expressed his cost of reading per hour. Considering the essay was written in 1946, I am not sure what that cost would translate into today's money, but whatever amount it is doesn't compare to the amount of money spent on things like cigarettes, alcohol, a night on the town or at the movies, or, in our day and age, a trip to Starbucks. Orwell also states the fact that books can be bought second-hand or borrowed from the library. Orwell's conclusion...people should be honest about the reasons they don't read which rarely have to do with the cost and more to do with people thinking books are dull. How wrong they are.

11. Thinking Ourselves into Trouble by James Thurber (from Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself) - Thurber pokes fun at how far humans think they have come and their mistaken position of superiority over other species. He argues that art and its many forms are the only worthwhile results of man's time on earth. This essay is good for a laugh but one I took as written tongue in cheek.

10. Funny, But Not Vulgar by George Orwell (from As I Please v.3 Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters - In this essay, Orwell returns to the political and the assumption that his view of the world is the right view. He talks of the decline of 'funny' because it has ceased to be vulgar (not always meaning obscene but also 'offensive or frightening'). Orwell believes "every joke is a tiny revolution" and something is not truly funny unless it is subversive. To me, the purpose of humor is to provide the comic relief needed to withstand life's challenges. I tend not to laugh at jokes that are politically 'subversive' and am uncomfortable when faced with the obscene. Is this the revolution Orwell wishes for? The one in which their is no sense of propriety or morality. We experienced that revolution in the 60's. Has a better world been realized?

9. Bookshop Memories by George Orwell (from An Age Like This v.1 Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters) - So I think I am developing a love/hate relationship with Orwell. Loved Down and Out in Paris and London, hated 1984. Loved Such Were the Joys, hated Why I Write. Love him again with this essay. He writes about his time working in a bookshop where he comes to hate books (not reading) because he is surrounded by them. Thankfully, I did not have the same reaction after my employment at a bookstore. I also learned where all the dust in my house comes from..."And books give off more and nastier dust than any other class of objects yet invented(...)" Good to know.

8. Why I Write by George Orwell (from An Age Like This v.1 Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters) - Orwell knew as a youth that he wanted to be a writer. He gives a short literary history and then outlines what he believes to be the four major motives of writers. The fourth is political and it seems the motive he regards as the highest. To understand Orwell's main inspiration makes me wary of future readings. He falls into the trap of thinking he lives in the worst of times and must work through his writings to bring a new world order. Each age has its own challenges and Orwell's vision of the perfect world may not be another's.

7. On Not Knowing the Half of It: My Jewish Self by Christopher Hitchens (from The Book of 20th Century Essays) - I am completely intriqued by Hitchens. Whenever I see him or hear him being interviewed or in debates or on panels, I always wonder what makes the cool-as-a-cucumber yet grumpy English-born American tick. Most of his writings reveal nothing to me...I don't understand 'the half of it'. But I understood this personal essay and it ticked me off to no end. He is an atheist but in this open narrative he reveals what may be a supressed desire for the existence of God. Why else does he begin to question what it means to find out he is Jewish? He states that he has no interest in his lineage unless there is a title or inheritance for bestowal so it shouldn't mean anything to him. His mother for reasons unknown denied her Jewishness and he makes a living denying the existence of God. So is it a hidden desire to believe in a God or is his readiness to claim his Jewish heritage exploitation to further his socialist political philosophy?

6. Mrs. Thatcher Remembers by Julian Barnes (from The Book of 20th Century Essays) - This was a strange essay. I couldn't find a unifying theme which resulted in a critique of the PM's governing years that was all over the place. One moment he is listing writers who adore the Iron Lady, the next seeming to pick a fight in the style of 'I know you are but what am I' because Thatcher referred to certain writers and artists as 'vain intellectuals'. Well...just as heads of state are fallible, some writers and artists are vain people singularly obsessed with ideas. I am open to well-thought out arguments made regarding a political leader's performance but once Barnes implied Thatcher is a fraud because she cleaned up a conversation that contained an expletive, I realized the theme of this essay was payback for a perceived insult.

5. My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage by James Thurber (from The Oxford Book of Essays) - I knew that Thurber was a cartoonist for the New Yorker but how did I miss the fact that he was a writer...and a darn good one at that. This essay was funny probably because of its truths about the constant balancing act that goes into making a marriage work. I am now on the hunt for more Thurber.

4. To Make a Friend, Be a Friend by David Sedaris (from The Best American Non-Required Reading 2002) - I chose this essay because more often than not I like what Sedaris writes and to honor my good friend's upcoming birthday. This essay isn't really about friendship (unless you count ones based on delusion) and I will not be adding it to the list of Sedaris's work I like. I do believe that if someone threw a rock at my face resulting in the need for a root canal, I would not want to be his friend (no matter how popular) and I would not find myself hoping to run into him decades later. In the end, Sedaris's father seemed the only rational person in the situation.

3. Such, Such Were the Joys... by George Orwell (from The Art of The Personal Essay) - If I used a rating system, I would give this essay 5 out of 5 stars, A+, thumbs-up. Orwell writes about his days spent at Crossgates boarding school which are rarely touched by happiness. Orwell does so in a way that does not beg self-pity but does remind the reader what it is like to be a child in a world that is difficult to know and understand.

2. Unpacking My Library by Walter Benjamin (from The Art of the Personal Essay) - The title is what attracted me but I think those who collect rare books will appreciate the content more. I did appreciate the love of books conveyed by the author which all of us bibliophiles understand.

1. New Year's Eve by Charles Lamb (from The Art of the Personal Essay anthology) - Lamb expresses that he is not one who happily greets the new year. He loves this life and all that living entails, so each year that passes brings him closer to the day when he will no longer be a part of life. Perhaps that is why new years seems bittersweet...we have the passing of another year that we cannot get back and the hope that comes with a new year to be lived.

Book Review - The Man Who Invented Christmas

2009-01-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford

Christmas always seems to come and go too fast. My solution is to keep up the decorations, listen to carols, watch holiday movies and read Christmas-themed books well into the new year. I picked up The Man Who Invented Christmas for two reasons. One, it is a beautifully made book. The cover is festive, the pages deckle-cut, and the text is adorned with an illustration and colored print. Two, I wanted to see what the author meant by the title. Did Dickens have a hand in creating the Christmas we celebrate today? I found the subtitle to be a more accurate description of the impact A Christmas Carol had. The book focuses on what Christmas was like in England and the US prior to and after the publication of A Christmas Carol with honorable mentions to countries like Germany and Holland (where Christmas seems to have had a consistently strong following). The biography of Dickens given here is enough to support the focus of this book and spark a further interest in who exactly this man was. We get a first-hand look at Dickens's process of writing and publishing the 'little book' as well as the immediate success that ensued. And because I haven't read A Christmas Carol yet, I learned why my husband gets a turkey every year from his employer. The book is a relatively short read and I do recommend it especially if you loved A Christmas Carol or just want to know the story behind this beloved classic.

Mother-Daughter Annual Book Talk

2009-01-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in a prior post that my daughter and I have a friendly competition to see who can read the most books throughout the year and on New Years day we go to Starbucks with our lists and talk about what we read. She won the contest this year at 55 books:) Her favorite book was The Giver by Lois Lowry with Twilight by Stephenie Meyer coming in a close second. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett made her top ten list (I told her to pretend the curse words were not there). She has been so excited about some of the challenges I joined that she is going to do the YA challenge and some of the Novel Challenge mini-challenges with me. I may have lost the contest but everytime I see her reading I feel like a winner. (Please excuse my cornyness;))

100 Shots of Short Challenge - Completed

2008-12-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

Rob at Robaroundbooks hosts this perpetual challenge. I will be using a 5 out of 5 rating system but where indicated you will be able to click on a more detailed review. As for the rating system, 5 means excellent, 4 means very good, 3 means I liked it, 2 means I could have done something better with my reading time, and 1 means avoid at all costs.

1. The Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
2. A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
3. The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)
4. A Case of Identity by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
5. The Boscombe Valley Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
6. The Man with the Twisted Lip by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)
7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
8. The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)
9. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (5/5)
10. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)
11. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3/5)
12. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches (4/5)
***All of these stories are in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Here is my review.

13. The Shadow Passes by P.G. Wodehouse (3/5)
14. Bramley is Bracing by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5) (review)
15. Up from the Depths by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5) (review)
16. Feet of Clay by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5)
17. Maigret's Christmas by Georges Simenon (3/5) (review)
18. Excelsior by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5)
19. The Tuesday Night Club by Agatha Christie (3/5) (review)
20. The Idol House of Astarte by Agatha Christie (5/5)
21. Ingots of Gold by Agatha Christie (2/5)
22. Rodney Has a Relapse by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5) (review)
23. Tangled Hearts by P.G. Wodehouse (3/5)
24. Birth of a Salesman by P.G. Wodehouse (4/5)
25. How's That, Umpire by P.G. Wodehouse (3/5)
26. Success Story by P.G. Wodehouse (3/5)
27. The Book Bag by W. Somerset Maugham (4/5) (review)
28. The Bloodstained Pavement by Agatha Christie (4/5) (review)
29. The German Refugee by Bernard Malamud (5/5) (review)
30. The Storks by Hans Christian Anderson (2/5) (review)
31. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (5/5) (review)
32. The Key by Isaac Bashevis Singer (2/5) (review)
33. Motive v. Opportunity by Agatha Christie (4/5) (review)
34. The Thumbmark of St. Peter by Agatha Christie (3/5)
35. The Blue Geranium by Agatha Christie (3/5)
36. The Companion by Agatha Christie (4/5)
37. The Four Suspects by Agatha Christie (3/5)
38. The First Seven Years by Bernard Malamud (5/5) (review)
39. The Country Husband by John Cheever (2/5) (review)
40. A Christmas Tragedy by Agatha Christie (3/5) (review)
41. The Second Tree from the Corner by E.B. White (4/5) (review)
42. The Silver Dish by Saul Bellow (3/5) (review)
43. The Literary Life of Laban Goldman by Bernard Malamud (3/5) (review)
44. The Herb of Death by Agatha Christie (3/5) (review)
45. The Affair at the Bungalow by Agatha Christie (4/5)
46. Death by Drowning by Agatha Christie (3/5)
47. Miss Marple Tells a Story by Agatha Christie (2/5)
48. Strange Jest by Agatha Christie (4/5)
49. The Case of the Perfect Maid by Agatha Christie (5/5)
50. The Case of the Caretaker by Agatha Christie (3/5)
51. Tape-Measure Murder by Agatha Christie (3/5)
52. Greenshaw's Folly by Agatha Christie (2/5)
53. Sanctuary by Agatha Christie (4/5)
54. A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell (5/5) (review)
55. The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson (2/5) (review)
56. In the Gloaming by Alice Elliot Dark (4/5)
57. Christmas Gift by Robert Penn Warren (2/5)
58. Theft by Katherine Anne Porter (2/5)
59. The Man Who Knew Too Little by James Thurber (2/5) (review)
60. The Catbird Seat by James Thurber (4/5) (review)
61. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber (3/5) (review)
62. My Dead Brother Comes to America by Alexander Godin (3/5) (review)
63. Here We Are by Dorothy Parker (2/5)
64. Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier (3/5) (review)
65. Seven Little Crosses in a Notebook by Georges Simenon (4/5) (review)
66. The Stroke of Twelve by Elizabeth Enright (4/5) (review)
67. An Hour in September by Elizabeth Enright (3/5) (review)
68. I Pine for Thee by Elizabeth Enright (5/5) (review)
69. Morgan's Rest by Elizabeth Enright (4/5) (review)
70. Free Dust by Elizabeth Enright (3/5) (review)
71. A View by Lightning by Elizabeth Enright (2/5) (review)
72. Siesta by Elizabeth Enright (3/5)
73. Rex by Elizabeth Enright (3/5)
74. A Distant Bell byElizabeth Enright (4/5) (review)
75. Doublefields by Elizabeth Enright (4/5) (review)
76. The Lady's Maid's Bell by Edith Wharton (3/5) (review)
77. Dental or Mental, I Say It's Spinach by S.J. Perelman (5/5) (review)
78. Suspicion by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/5) (review)
79. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (4/5) (review)
80. God Sees the Truth but Waits by Leo Tolstoy (2/5) (review)
81. The Blue Cross by G.K. Chesterton (3/5)
82. The Leader of the People by John Steinbeck (4/5) (review)
83. Mr. Know-All by W. Somerset Maugham (4/5) (review)
84. Vanka by Anton Chekhov (2/5)
85. The Open Window by Saki (2/5) (review)
86. Roman Fever by Edith Wharton (5/5) (review)
87. The Secret Garden by G.K. Chesteron (3/5) (review)
88. The End of the Party by Graham Greene (4/5) (review)
89. The Duplicity of Hargraves by O. Henry (4/5)
90. The Angel of the Odd by Edgar Allan Poe (2/5)
91. A Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Punsters by Oliver Wendell Holmes (2/5)
92. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe (3/5) (review)
93. The Haunted House by Charles Dickens (2/5) (review)
94. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (2/5) (review)
95. The Body-Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson (3/5) (review)
96. The Jolly Corner by Henry James (3/5) (review)
97. The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (2/5) (review)
98. The Eyes by Edith Wharton (3/5) (review)
99. The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell (4/5) (review)
100. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (4/5) (review)

Books Read in 2008 (Part Three) - Analysis

2008-12-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

My favorite read of the year was Hans Brinker and The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge. The story is set in Holland and centers on one family who has fallen on hard times. There are several ice skating adventures that take place along the canals and mysteries to be solved. What most attracted me to the story was the element of goodness...the young characters searching themselves to know they were acting in a way that was kind to others and uplifted those around them.
A close second in my line of favorites was Good Dog, Stay by Anna Quindlin. If you have loved a dog and lost a dog (as we have, several over the years), this feels like a love letter to all dogs who have ever meant something to someone.
I rarely say this but I actually hated one of the books I read this year. I disliked Foreskin's Lament so much, I actually threw it away after reading (please don't compare this to censorship...I am not asking for it to be banned). I usually donate books I don't care for but this book made me feel so icky I did not want to be responsible for bringing that feeling to someone else. My daughter asked me why I continued to read it if I hated it so much...I had to know if this man's life ever changed or if he would be miserable for the remainder of his days. He chose misery and self-pity and comtempt and so on down the list.
Another book I could have done without reading was How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors. I love books about authors and their writing process but this one just wasn't very interesting.
My favorite tie-in book was Wicked: The Grimmerie. We saw Wicked the musical and the Grimmerie is the perfect companion to find out how the show came to be, the story behind its success and lots of information on the actors, sets and costumes.
The undeserved bad rap for a book award goes to Hilary and Jackie, a biography of Jacqueline du Pre written by her siblings. Several of the people who knew her later in life critized the book as being a hit piece on the famous cellist but her brother and sister were the closest to her except for during her short marriage to Daniel Barenboim (in which he was largely absent especially after Jackie became ill and he began a family with another woman while still being married to her). I think her siblings were the ones who knew her best and showed her to be wonderful as well as flawed (as most of us are).
Other notable reads were Boy and Going Solo by Roald Dahl, and The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jabar. All three perfectly delightful.

Books Read in 2008 (Part Two) - Commentary

2008-12-30T11:26:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I started a tradition in 2007 where we track all the books we read during the year. On New Year's we go to Starbucks and talk about the books...which ones we loved, disliked, actually hated, etc. We also make a competition out of who read the most...I won in 2007 and my daughter won, huge, in 2008. For reasons I am still sorting out, I had a reading slump in 2008. I am the type of person who always has a book going but I went whole months without reading. I would pick up a book and lose interest a few pages in. I felt kind of lost and very sad. Towards the end of the year, I began searching for funny writers and found Florence King. I began lauging out loud while reading and I couldn't remember when I had ever done that. I have cried, smirked, smiled, grunted in disgust, but laughing out loud in the style of watching an episode of Seinfeld was foreign to me. So after exhausting King, I tried Wodehouse and the same thing happened. When I look back at the books I have read over the past few years, they tended to be on the dark and depressing side. The books that did make me smile were rare. So I will be making a shift in my reading pattern this year by trying to balance the heavy with 'sweetness and light'. I wondered if all the planning that goes into making reading lists for challenges would help or hinder this shift. I am finding that the planning allows me to find that balance.

Books Read in 2008 (Part One) - The List

2008-12-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

1. Confessions of a Carb Queen by Susan Blech and Caroline Bock
2. Good Dog, Stay by Anna Quindlin
3. Start Living, Start Losing by Weight Watchers
4. Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir by Shalom Auslander
5. Cupid Chronicles by Coleen Murtagh Paratore
6. The Adultery Diet by Eva Cassady
7. Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
8. How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors by Dan Crowe and Philip Oltermann
9. Wicked: The Grimmerie by David Cote
10. D is for Dahl by Roald Dahl, Wendy Cooling, and Quentin Blake
11. Matilda by Roald Dahl
12. Boy by Roald Dahl
13 Going Solo by Roald Dahl
14. The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jabar
15. The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden and Niki Daly
16. Horowitz: His Life and Music by Harold Schonberg
17. Lang Lang: Journey of a Thousand Miles by Lang Lang
18. Hilary and Jackie by Hilary du Pre and Piers du Pre
19. With Charity Towards None by Florence King
20. Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King
21. Lump It or Leave It by Florence King
22. STET Damnit by Florence King
23. Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye by Florence King
24. Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People by P.J. O’Rourke
25. Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
26. Plum Pie by P.G. Wodehouse
27. Leave it to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
28. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
29. Young Men in Spats by P.G. Wodehouse
30. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

100+ Reading Challenge - Completed

2008-12-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

Completed Books

1. The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford (review)
2. Bears and Forebears: A Life So Far by Michael Bond (review)
3. A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond (review)
4. The Dog Department by James Thurber (review)
5. Evelyn Waugh: Portrait of a Country Neighbor by Frances Donaldson (review)
6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (review)
7. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico (review)
8. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York by Paul Gallico (review)
9. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Parliament by Paul Gallico (review)
10. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico (review)
11. Dog is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World's Oldest Friendship (ed. by The Bark) (review)
12. The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick (review)
13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (review)
14. Much Ado about Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick (review)
15. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (review)
16. A Book of Ages by Eric Hanson (review)
17. Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
18. Old Books, Rare Friends by Rostenberg and Stern (review)
19. Bookends by Rostenberg and Stern (review)
20. Ice in the Bedrooom by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
21. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (review)
22. The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
23. Nothing Serious by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
24. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (review)
25. Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice (review)
26. The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (review)
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell (review)
28. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgins (review)
29. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh (review)
30. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (review)
31. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (review)
32. A Great Idea at the Time by Alex Beam (review)
33. Blandings Castle by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
34. P.G. Wodehouse: A Biography by Frances Donaldson (review)
35. Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie (review)
36. Novel Destinations by McKenna Schmidt and Rendon (review)
37. The Cruellest Month by Hazel Holt (review)
38. Spring Fever by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
39. Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard (review)
40. Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (review)
41. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (review)
42. Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
43. The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer (review)
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (review)
45. All Quiet on the Western Front: Literary Analysis and Cultural Context by Richard A. Firda (review)
46. Psmith in the City by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
47. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright (review)
48. The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright (review)
49. Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright (review)
50. Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright (review)
51. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (review)
52. Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (review)
53. Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
54. His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (review)
55. Ethel & Ernest: A True Story by Raymond Briggs (review)
56. In-N-Out Burger by Stacy Perman (review)
57. My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
58. Ring for Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
59. Jeeves in the Offing by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
60. East Hope by Katharine Davis (review)
61. The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin (review)
62. Coming Up for Air by George Orwell (review)
63. Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett (review)
64. North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley (review)
65. Stephen Fry in America (review)
66. The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm (review)
67. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (review)
68. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (review)
69. The Reader by Bernard Schlink (review)
70. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (review)
71. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (review)
72. Knickers in a Twist by Jonathan Bernstein (review)
73. Julia Child: A Life by Laura Shapiro (review)
74. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell (review)
75. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (review)
76. Imagined London by Anna Quindlen (review)
77. Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson (review)
78. The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (review)
79. Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl (review)
80. The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton (review)
81. The Vicious Vet by M.C. Beaton (review)
82. Doublefields by Elizabeth Enright (review)
83. Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym (review)
84. Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
85. A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons (review)
86. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (review)
87. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (review)
88. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn (review)
89. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley (review)
90. Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
91. Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill (review)
92. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (review)
93. French Milk by Lucy Knisley (review)
94. The Awakening by Kate Chopin (review)
95. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (review)
96. Xenophobe's Guide to the Dutch by Rodney Bolt (review)
97. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (review)
98. Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast by Bill Richardson (review)
99. A Child's Garden of Verses by RL Stevenson (review)
100. The Wonderful O by James Thurber (review)
101. Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener by M.C. Beaton (review)
102. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith (review)
103. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (review)
104. Village School by Miss Read (review)
105. On the Other Side: Letters to My Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg (non-review)
106. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (review)
107. Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley by MC Beaton
108. A Fortunate Grandchild by Miss Read (review)
109. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage by MC Beaton
110. Village Diary by Miss Read
111. Time Remembered by Miss Read (review)
112. The Christmas Mouse by Miss Read
113. Storm in the Village by Miss Read
114. No Holly for Miss Quinn by Miss Read
115. Miss Clare Remembers by Miss Read
116. Over the Gate by Miss Read
117. The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck
118. Village Christmas by Miss Read
119. Tales from a Village School by Miss Read