June was a very light month for reading - in July I couldn't stop reading.
A Dead Man in Instanbul by Michael Pearce. The second in the series of mysteries I started last month, this time the hero is sent to Istanbul. It's a nice view of pre-World War I Turkey but the mystery is a little weak. I'm not sure I'll go further with this series. Can't really recommend.
Phryne Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. I've really been enjoying the television series on Netflix so I thought I'd go back to the original mysteries. I started at the first and am working my way through them - I won't list them all. The plots are different than the TV series and there is no sexual tension between Phryne and the police inspector. Instead she has multiple lovers but her main squeeze is a Chinese importer, Lin Chung. I am enjoying these very much and will probably finish the entire 20 volume series next month. Recommended.
In the Woods by Tana French The first in Tana French's series of mysteries set in Dublin. This was a very good novel although it was somewhat frustrating that one of the mysteries was never solved. The novel is written from the point of view of the detective investigating the murder who is slowly falling apart. When characters do things that I think are stupid, I prefer not to be in their minds. I'd rather read about it in third person. But it was not enough to stop me enjoying the novel. Recommended.
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro. Another novel written in the first person. For plot purposes she needs to be naive and a little bit stupid. Again, I prefer that if the protagonist is not smart that I not be in their head. There were interesting facts about forgeries but not nearly as good as the robertson Davies novel What's Bred in the Bone. Not particularly recommended but would make a decent beach read.
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Parts of this novel are written in the first person and parts are written in the third person. The narrator is not stupid which is a relief. This novel is the third in the series. Truthfully I don't remember all the characters of the other two novels but that didn't matter. It was a compelling read. Some day I'm going to read all three again, closer in time to each other. Recommended.
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante. This is the second volume of the Neapolitan Series. About halfway through this novel I found myself exasperated and thinking that the characters were all acting like a bunch of teenagers. And then I realized that they were a bunch of teenagers. Again, this is a novel written in the first person and again the narrator, for plot purposes, seems to be be required to not really be able to figure out what is going on. Probably I was just tired of first person narrative, but I didn't really enjoy this volume as much as the first one. I already have the third volume so I'll read it but I am still at a loss as to why people are raving about the style of the writer. Recommended with reservations.
Before She Met Me by Julian Barnes. This was an interesting novel - the story of a man who slowly drives himself crazy by being jealous of men that his wife slept with before she met him. The ending did totally surprise me. It was well written but sometimes I get tired of those 20th century novels written by men who are obsessed with sex. But at least it was written in the third person. Recommended with reservations.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The whole time I was reading this novel I kept wishing that I was seeing it as a movie instead. Then, right after I finished this novel, I read that Steven Spielberg would be directing a move version. This novel, set in a dystopian near-future, is about a society obsessed with 1980s culture. There were so many references that it was almost overwhelming. Many of them I didn't get since I never played video or arcade games. I'm also bad at identifying songs by titles or artists - I have to hear them. But despite that, I did really enjoy this novel. It was clever. And, even though it was a first person narrator, he wasn't stupid - at all. Recommended.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. This was an odd book. Again written in the first person but not a stupid narrator. it kept my attention but I didn't really like it. I never felt invested in the characters. Recommended.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
June Reading and Watching
I've gotten behind in posting what I've read. For some reason I thought I had done a post for June, but now I realize I never pushed "publish". In June I finished only three books:
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Lila has gone missing but Elena is not about to let her disappear without a trace. Instead she embarks on this memoir which takes the relationship between the two women from the time they were small girls until they are about sixteen. Lila isn't a particularly nice friend. She isn't particularly lucky in life but she is smart. Elena constantly feels inferior and tries to live up to Lila. It's a story that kept my interest and I enjoyed it. But I don't really see why the critics find her writing so compelling.
A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce. I'm not sure where I heard of Michael Pearce or why I decided to try this book. Maybe because I didn't really know where Trieste is and wanted to. The style is very old fashioned and the story is not particularly complicated. But he did paint a vivid picture of Trieste and the Balkins in the early 1900's.
Citizen: an American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. The winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, this isn't your typical book of poetry. Most of it, in fact, isn't poetry in the traditional sense. Her theme is the lived life of a black woman, of feeling invisible, or not belonging even in relationships with white friends. I appreciated the perspective but as a work of literature it didn't speak to me.
The reason I didn't finish many books in June is that I was spending a lot of time at the theatre:
Antony and Cleopatra at St. Louis Shakespeare in the Park
The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
La Rondine at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Richard the Lionheart at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Emmeline at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
My Fair Lady at the Muny
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Lila has gone missing but Elena is not about to let her disappear without a trace. Instead she embarks on this memoir which takes the relationship between the two women from the time they were small girls until they are about sixteen. Lila isn't a particularly nice friend. She isn't particularly lucky in life but she is smart. Elena constantly feels inferior and tries to live up to Lila. It's a story that kept my interest and I enjoyed it. But I don't really see why the critics find her writing so compelling.
A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce. I'm not sure where I heard of Michael Pearce or why I decided to try this book. Maybe because I didn't really know where Trieste is and wanted to. The style is very old fashioned and the story is not particularly complicated. But he did paint a vivid picture of Trieste and the Balkins in the early 1900's.
Citizen: an American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. The winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, this isn't your typical book of poetry. Most of it, in fact, isn't poetry in the traditional sense. Her theme is the lived life of a black woman, of feeling invisible, or not belonging even in relationships with white friends. I appreciated the perspective but as a work of literature it didn't speak to me.
The reason I didn't finish many books in June is that I was spending a lot of time at the theatre:
Antony and Cleopatra at St. Louis Shakespeare in the Park
The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
La Rondine at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Richard the Lionheart at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Emmeline at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
My Fair Lady at the Muny
Sunday, June 7, 2015
The Barber of Seville - A Visual Treat
As part of Opera Theatre of St. Louis' 40th anniversary season, it commissioned a new translation of Rossini's The Barber of Seville from Kelley Rourke. Of course the story is still the same: Count Almaviva is still in love (from afar) with Rosina, the ward of prominent Doctor Bartolo and he still asks the local barber and busybody, Figaro, to help him win Rosina. But the action is now specifically set in Seville during the April Fair and the time period is updated to, perhaps, the 1960's. It's hard to tell. The production notes tell us that during the April Fair people dress in costume - including historical costume. Figaro wears a costume that might not look out of place during the original time period but Dr. Bartolo is in the short sleeves and tie that men wore when I was a child. Parts of the chorus look like circus performers (including a person on stilts). While a bit confusing from a historical perspective, it still worked well (far better than many of OTSL's attempts to update operas, especially Mozart operas).
Rosina (Emily Fons) is now the Doctor's assistant, working in his office (he is now an optometrist) and is no longer quite as passive as she has been in past productions. Fons is making her OTSL main stage debut and has a lovely mezzo-soprano voice with pure diction. She was a joy to listen to. Christopher Tiesi, also making his OTSL main stage debut, started out somewhat weakly as Almaviva but as his voice warmed up he proved up to the role. Both are good actors as well as singers and handled the comedy ably. The true comedian turned out to be Dale Travis in the role of Dr. Bartolo, a role that I remember in the past as being nothing other than an annoyance. Here, Bartolo, still schemes to marry his ward while at the same time being obsessed with chickens.
Yes, that's right. Chickens. The production design, which is meant to evoke the films of Pedro Almodovar, is infused with images of chickens as well as chicken props. The colors are vivid and it took me a while to notice the chicken design at the bottom of the semi-sheer curtain that is occasionally drawn across the back of the stage.
But it is Benjamin Taylor who stands out as the self-confidant and funny Figaro. He is unafraid to play the role broadly, which is exactly what it needs amidst all the color and confetti on stage. And his voice was a delight. Conductor Ryan McAdams did not let the tempos lag and some of the music is tricky to sing (much less enunciate) in the original Italian far less in the clunkier English. But he handled it brilliantly.
In fact all of the enunciation was terrific - a far cry from some productions where they might as well be singing in Polish. I wondered if it might have seemed better to me because we changed our season tickets and are sitting further back this year. For the last 28 years we sat on the lower level, but on the side. Last year we tired of regularly not being able to see. Rather than cancel our subscription, we changed our seats.
Since Tim O'Leary took the reins as the artistic director he hasn't seemed to have made an effort to require his directors and set designers to direct and design for the 3 quarter stage at the Loretto Hilton Theater. Regularly cast members and often scenery is put at the side of the stage blocking the view of those who sit on the side. And in fact, this production has a large piece set on one side of the stage during the first scene, filled with sitting singers, blocking the view over there. This is just laziness on the part of Opera Theatre - certainly the Rep, which stages many more productions in that same theater each year, never has that problem. And OTSL never had that problem under Charles McKay.
But since O'Leary clearly isn't going to change his ways, we eventually decided to change ours and move our seats. We also decided to sit center for the first time. I'd like to be able to tell you it made a difference, but alas I can't. When we arrived in our seats on Thursday we found ourselves surrounded by 20-25 small children who are part of OTSL's summer camp. We asked for our seats to be changed and were moved to one of the sides. After a long day at work when all I wanted to do was sit back and enjoy the music, the last thing I wanted was to be surrounded by other people's children. Children, no matter how well behaved, are still children. While I applaud OTSLs efforts to build a young audience, children belong at matinees, not evening performances. And if they will insist on giving them tickets to an evening performance, season ticket holders should be warned in advance.
Other than having to change our seats, however, the evening was enjoyable and the production was a visual treat. I can only imagine what it looks like when not looking at it from an angle.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
May Reading
Here is what I read in May:
Mr. Mac and Me by Esther Freud. Real life Scottish architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh and his artist wife Margaret MacDonald have retreated to a village on the Suffolk coast to recuperate and paint. An unlikely friendship arises between them and a local (fictional) boy named Thomas Maggs, son of an alcoholic pub keeper. When World War I breaks out, life changes for the village and strangers are viewed with suspicion. Even Mr. Mac. A lovely portrait of a coastal village at war, Freud also vividly portrays the artistic process as Mr. Mac and Margaret work on their studies of local plant life. This novel sent me to Google to look at some of their work and once again despair that I arrived in Glasgow the day after the School of Art (MacIntosh's masterpiece) burned and, thus, never had a chance to see it. 
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck. The latest collection of poetry by Louise Gluck is concerned with death, aging and the act of dying. Parents die in a sudden collision with a tree, leaving two children to be brought up by an Aunt. A painter is dying and can no longer use his arm to paint - it seems the painter is one of the children all grown up. At some point the Aunt dies. But each poem could also stand on its own. Is the voice female or male? Is the voice the poet's or her creation's? Sometimes it is hard to tell - and really, what does it matter? Time itself seems mutable - the present and the past confused in the way that they often are for old people. Is the poem representing reality or a dream? Again, hard to say.
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. With the end of World War I many formerly upper middle class women found themselves in straightened circumstances. The men in the family were dead, money was often tight and good help was hard to find. The Wrays are just such a family of women, living in a fine old house in a genteel suburb of London - a house that they can no longer afford. They are forced to take in lodgers, or "paying guests" as Mrs. Wray would prefer to call them. In the first third of this novel, Sarah Waters creates the world of 1922 in great detail with appropriate atmosphere. If you, like I, have little interest in novels about obsessive love or criminal trials you might find the last two-thirds of the novel somewhat hard going. The twist here is that the love affair is between two women, but otherwise it reads something like an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller. I truly love the way that Sarah Waters strings together her sentences, but the plot of this novel just did not grab me.
The Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley. Flavia de Luce has been shipped off to boarding school in Toronto, Canada, a foreign land that uses dimes and nickels rather than good old English money. Of course the first night she arrives a body is discovered in the bedroom to which she has been assigned. In addition, the school is not all that it seems. More strange is the fact that she misses Feely and Daffy back at home. This particular mystery suffered from the need to introduce a new country, a new school and an entirely new cast of characters. This is a story that seems meant to take Flavia to the next level. Flavia is as enjoyable as ever but I hope she can return to Buckshaw and her friends in England.
St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis de St. Ange de Bellerive, by Carl J. Ekberg and Sharon K. Person. A book about the founding of St. Louis that focuses on the first Commandant of Upper Louisiana to live here. Louis de St. Ange de Bellerive lived a fascinating life. Born in Canada, he came from a military family and followed his father and brother to the new colony of Louisiana. They were the first French to try to permanently settle the Missouri River Valley. After the death of his brother, Louis was put in charge of the post at Vincennes. After the end of the French and Indian War he was moved to Fort de Chartres and made Commandant of Upper Louisiana where one of his principal jobs was to hand over the fort to the British. After the handover he moved his command to the west side of the river to the new settlement of St. Louis. I reviewed this book here.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive
When the history of St. Louis is written, historians inevitably begin with the "journal" of Auguste Chouteau. Not really a journal but a memoir written many years after the event, Chouteau gives a version of the founding of St. Louis in which he and Pierre LaClede are the major players. And why not? Chouteau would become one of the most important businessmen in the young town of St. Louis, his family becoming very rich in the fur trade. The Chouteau family were definite "winners" in the economic race run by the first founders of the City. And, as we know, history is written by the winners.
But there are always, of course, others who were important in history. Perhaps those who do not have descendents to write about them. Or those for whom the written records is scattered. If those records can be gathered they often document lives of great interest.
Carl J. Ekburg and Sharon K. Person have written about such a life in this book. Louis St. Ange de Bellerive led one of the most interesting lives in French colonial history - and possibly in all North American colonial history. The Groston de St. Ange family came from Canada where the father, Robert, had immigrated in 1685. Robert was a member of the French Marines. (Despite most of the French North American colony being landlocked, the area was under the jurisdiction of the Marines. This probably made sense as supplies needed to be sent by ship.) He would spend his entire career in service to the French crown and his career would take him and his family all over what is today the American midwest.
In 1720, Robert, his second wife and two adult male children, Pierre and Louis, were at Post St. Joseph at the bottom of Lake Michigan near present-day Niles Michigan. From that posting, Robert (and presumably his sons) accompanied the Jesuit Father Charles Charlevoix down the Mississippi to Kaskaskia and Fort de Chartres. The St. Ange family were now a part of the colony of Louisiana. In 1723, Robert and his son Pierre were ordered to accompany a man named Bourgmont who was tasked with setting up a post on the Missouri River - Fort d'Orleans. Louis St. Ange eventually joined the family there and remained as commandant of Fort d'Orleans in the 1730's while his father returned to Fort de Chartres and became commander there.
When Louis' brother Pierre was killed in action against the Chickasaw, his now retired father requested that Louis be given command of the post at Vincennes. Louis St. Ange remained as the commandant at Vincennes from 1736-1764 when the end of the Seven Years War resulted in the transition of all the land east of the Mississippi to the English. St. Ange was then moved from Vincennes to Fort de Chartres and was made commandant of all of Upper Louisiana. It was he who eventually handed over the fort to the English and moved his troops across the river to the new settlement established on the west bank where he remained commandant of "Spanish Illinois" until an actual Spaniard could show up to take over. An old man, he died a few years later in St. Louis in the home of Madame Chouteau.
As a genealogical researcher with family living in Upper Louisiana during that time, including in Vincennes, I've been well aware of St. Ange's history. Ekburg and Person are to be commended in putting the history of the St. Ange family into one place where it can be easily accessed by the general public and where Louis de St. Ange might finally get his due.
In addition to the history of the St. Ange family, Eckburg and Person have also spent time researching the written records of the village of St. Louis in the years leading up to 1770 when Pedro Piernas finally arrived in St. Louis to institute Spanish governance. They write a fascinating social history of the village, examing births, deaths and marriages. They discuss the architecture of the village and include a creditable discussion of the law of the land: the Coutume de Paris. They include a full chapter on slavery in early St. Louis and describe the foundations of the fur trade.
For anyone interested in the founding of St. Louis this book is a must-read. My only complaint is that, in their zeal to show that the story of Laclede and Chouteau are not the only important, or even the most important, story to know about the founding of St. Louis, they sometimes get a little petty. Every book has a point of view - even history books. But far better to show that St. Ange was more important than Laclede by writing about St. Ange than by editorial comments about Laclede. If you can ignore that editorializing, this is a book well worth reading.
But there are always, of course, others who were important in history. Perhaps those who do not have descendents to write about them. Or those for whom the written records is scattered. If those records can be gathered they often document lives of great interest.
Carl J. Ekburg and Sharon K. Person have written about such a life in this book. Louis St. Ange de Bellerive led one of the most interesting lives in French colonial history - and possibly in all North American colonial history. The Groston de St. Ange family came from Canada where the father, Robert, had immigrated in 1685. Robert was a member of the French Marines. (Despite most of the French North American colony being landlocked, the area was under the jurisdiction of the Marines. This probably made sense as supplies needed to be sent by ship.) He would spend his entire career in service to the French crown and his career would take him and his family all over what is today the American midwest.
In 1720, Robert, his second wife and two adult male children, Pierre and Louis, were at Post St. Joseph at the bottom of Lake Michigan near present-day Niles Michigan. From that posting, Robert (and presumably his sons) accompanied the Jesuit Father Charles Charlevoix down the Mississippi to Kaskaskia and Fort de Chartres. The St. Ange family were now a part of the colony of Louisiana. In 1723, Robert and his son Pierre were ordered to accompany a man named Bourgmont who was tasked with setting up a post on the Missouri River - Fort d'Orleans. Louis St. Ange eventually joined the family there and remained as commandant of Fort d'Orleans in the 1730's while his father returned to Fort de Chartres and became commander there.
When Louis' brother Pierre was killed in action against the Chickasaw, his now retired father requested that Louis be given command of the post at Vincennes. Louis St. Ange remained as the commandant at Vincennes from 1736-1764 when the end of the Seven Years War resulted in the transition of all the land east of the Mississippi to the English. St. Ange was then moved from Vincennes to Fort de Chartres and was made commandant of all of Upper Louisiana. It was he who eventually handed over the fort to the English and moved his troops across the river to the new settlement established on the west bank where he remained commandant of "Spanish Illinois" until an actual Spaniard could show up to take over. An old man, he died a few years later in St. Louis in the home of Madame Chouteau.
As a genealogical researcher with family living in Upper Louisiana during that time, including in Vincennes, I've been well aware of St. Ange's history. Ekburg and Person are to be commended in putting the history of the St. Ange family into one place where it can be easily accessed by the general public and where Louis de St. Ange might finally get his due.
In addition to the history of the St. Ange family, Eckburg and Person have also spent time researching the written records of the village of St. Louis in the years leading up to 1770 when Pedro Piernas finally arrived in St. Louis to institute Spanish governance. They write a fascinating social history of the village, examing births, deaths and marriages. They discuss the architecture of the village and include a creditable discussion of the law of the land: the Coutume de Paris. They include a full chapter on slavery in early St. Louis and describe the foundations of the fur trade.
For anyone interested in the founding of St. Louis this book is a must-read. My only complaint is that, in their zeal to show that the story of Laclede and Chouteau are not the only important, or even the most important, story to know about the founding of St. Louis, they sometimes get a little petty. Every book has a point of view - even history books. But far better to show that St. Ange was more important than Laclede by writing about St. Ange than by editorial comments about Laclede. If you can ignore that editorializing, this is a book well worth reading.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
April Reading
April was a busy month. Here's what I was reading.
In the King's Service by Katherine Kurtz. This article caused me to remember how I had enjoyed Katherine Kurtz when I was young. I looked her up and realized that I had never read the last three books she published. Kurtz is a fantasy writer who began writing back in the late 60s/early 70s. She created a world of historical fantasy loosely based on medieval England, including a strong pre-reformation Catholic Church. The fantasy involves a group of people with the ability to read minds and do some magic, called The Deryni. I remember loving the world that she built. Back in those days people didn't write fantasy novels that were 1000 pages long (a la George R. R. Martin) so, instead, she wrote in trilogies. Each trilogy totaled about 1000 pages. Each trilogy takes place in the world she created but often at different time periods. It has been years since I read them and maybe that's why I found many of the "family trees" hard to follow in the first part of this novel. But eventually I got into it and am ready to move on to the other two books. The article compared her to Dorothy Dunnett but I don't really see it. Her style and language is much simpler and, in fact, sometimes too simple; her characters are interesting but the side characters are not as deeply developed as Dunnetts' and her plots are not nearly as complicated. And she tends to "tell" and not "show. But I do love the world she created and am happy to go back to it.
How to be Both by Ali Smith. This Booker Prize longlisted novel has a gimmick. The dual story of a teenage girl in the 21st Century and a yohttps://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1974275832677042000#editor/target=post;postID=4052206831820001768;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postnameung female artist in the Rennaissance, half of the book is told from the point of view of one character and half the book is told from the point of view of the other character. That isn't really the gimmick. The gimmick is that in some editions of the novel, one story is first and in other editions the other story is first. I read it in the NOOK version so I was asked to pick which half I wanted to read first. I ended up with the renaissance character first. Since that character is a dead consciousness come back to life in the 21st Century, the first 20-30 pages are a little confusing; not to mention that you don't know that the character is female. And the "ghost" thinks that she's following a boy, but she's really following George, the girl from the other part of the novel. But once I caught on to what was happening, it worked fine for me. A meditation on how the past is always with us, there was a lot to think about in this novel.
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley. The sixth Flavia de Luce novel. Turns out I wasn't quite right in my guess about Flavia's mother's demise but I was close. Some loose ends were tied up, but not all. Flavia's sisters are getting much more human and Flavia has grown slightly less annoying in her ways. When Alan Bradley began the series he clearly did not intend to be writing a series. He's done a good job of opening up the characters little by little, while still keeping them the stereotypes that girls of Flavia's age think people are. Again, the mysteries are really beside the point.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. An unexpected delight chosen by my reading group. Eleanor is the new girl at school and Park is the only Asian American boy. Both ride the bus and eventually become friends and then more than friends. Rowell's depiction of the slow way in which people get to know each other was spot on. The two studiously ignore each other on the bus until Park realizes that Eleanor is reading along with him as he reads his comic books. Even then the conversations are limited as they very slowly get to know each other; each holding back from the other the harder aspects of his or her life. Rowell does not tie up the ending with a bow, which seemed appropriate.
Aimless Love by Billy Collins. I received this collection of poems by the former US Poet Laureate for Christmas and I read it very slowly - one poem a day. It is not, technically, a completely new book as two-thirds of the poems were previously published. Collins is known as our "accessible" poet and he certainly is. But his poems are humorous and sometimes poignant and often don't end where you think they are leading. It seems that he can turn anything into a poem and, apparently, people are always pointing this out to him:
In the afternoon a woman I barely knew
said you could write a poem about that,
pointing to a dirigible that was passing overhead.
West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt. In our Anglo-centric view of American history we focus on what the British and their colonists on the east coast of the North American continent were doing in the 1770's. In Alaska, the Inuit were dealing with abusive Russian fisherman; in California the Spanish were moving up the coast to found San Franciso as a result of the threat that Russia would move down the west coast of North America. In the north, British traders were exploring the vast Canadian wilderness in search of trade. And in the south, the Creeks were seeking help from Spain to fight the English. This relatively short book (about 200 pages before the end notes) gives a good overview of what the rest of the North American continent was dealing with in 1776. And what is clear is that they weren't at all concerned about the civil war that was going on in the East between the British.
In the King's Service by Katherine Kurtz. This article caused me to remember how I had enjoyed Katherine Kurtz when I was young. I looked her up and realized that I had never read the last three books she published. Kurtz is a fantasy writer who began writing back in the late 60s/early 70s. She created a world of historical fantasy loosely based on medieval England, including a strong pre-reformation Catholic Church. The fantasy involves a group of people with the ability to read minds and do some magic, called The Deryni. I remember loving the world that she built. Back in those days people didn't write fantasy novels that were 1000 pages long (a la George R. R. Martin) so, instead, she wrote in trilogies. Each trilogy totaled about 1000 pages. Each trilogy takes place in the world she created but often at different time periods. It has been years since I read them and maybe that's why I found many of the "family trees" hard to follow in the first part of this novel. But eventually I got into it and am ready to move on to the other two books. The article compared her to Dorothy Dunnett but I don't really see it. Her style and language is much simpler and, in fact, sometimes too simple; her characters are interesting but the side characters are not as deeply developed as Dunnetts' and her plots are not nearly as complicated. And she tends to "tell" and not "show. But I do love the world she created and am happy to go back to it.
How to be Both by Ali Smith. This Booker Prize longlisted novel has a gimmick. The dual story of a teenage girl in the 21st Century and a yohttps://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1974275832677042000#editor/target=post;postID=4052206831820001768;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postnameung female artist in the Rennaissance, half of the book is told from the point of view of one character and half the book is told from the point of view of the other character. That isn't really the gimmick. The gimmick is that in some editions of the novel, one story is first and in other editions the other story is first. I read it in the NOOK version so I was asked to pick which half I wanted to read first. I ended up with the renaissance character first. Since that character is a dead consciousness come back to life in the 21st Century, the first 20-30 pages are a little confusing; not to mention that you don't know that the character is female. And the "ghost" thinks that she's following a boy, but she's really following George, the girl from the other part of the novel. But once I caught on to what was happening, it worked fine for me. A meditation on how the past is always with us, there was a lot to think about in this novel.
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley. The sixth Flavia de Luce novel. Turns out I wasn't quite right in my guess about Flavia's mother's demise but I was close. Some loose ends were tied up, but not all. Flavia's sisters are getting much more human and Flavia has grown slightly less annoying in her ways. When Alan Bradley began the series he clearly did not intend to be writing a series. He's done a good job of opening up the characters little by little, while still keeping them the stereotypes that girls of Flavia's age think people are. Again, the mysteries are really beside the point.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. An unexpected delight chosen by my reading group. Eleanor is the new girl at school and Park is the only Asian American boy. Both ride the bus and eventually become friends and then more than friends. Rowell's depiction of the slow way in which people get to know each other was spot on. The two studiously ignore each other on the bus until Park realizes that Eleanor is reading along with him as he reads his comic books. Even then the conversations are limited as they very slowly get to know each other; each holding back from the other the harder aspects of his or her life. Rowell does not tie up the ending with a bow, which seemed appropriate.
Aimless Love by Billy Collins. I received this collection of poems by the former US Poet Laureate for Christmas and I read it very slowly - one poem a day. It is not, technically, a completely new book as two-thirds of the poems were previously published. Collins is known as our "accessible" poet and he certainly is. But his poems are humorous and sometimes poignant and often don't end where you think they are leading. It seems that he can turn anything into a poem and, apparently, people are always pointing this out to him:
In the afternoon a woman I barely knew
said you could write a poem about that,
pointing to a dirigible that was passing overhead.
West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt. In our Anglo-centric view of American history we focus on what the British and their colonists on the east coast of the North American continent were doing in the 1770's. In Alaska, the Inuit were dealing with abusive Russian fisherman; in California the Spanish were moving up the coast to found San Franciso as a result of the threat that Russia would move down the west coast of North America. In the north, British traders were exploring the vast Canadian wilderness in search of trade. And in the south, the Creeks were seeking help from Spain to fight the English. This relatively short book (about 200 pages before the end notes) gives a good overview of what the rest of the North American continent was dealing with in 1776. And what is clear is that they weren't at all concerned about the civil war that was going on in the East between the British.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
March Reading
Here's what I read in March:
1. Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. I read this book of essays over the last few months while I was getting my hair colored or getting a pedicure or sitting in waiting rooms. Many good topics, some good thoughts, but I found myself mostly unsatisfied with the essays. And I can't explain why.
2. My Dear I wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young.
Riley Purefoy is a young, working class boy, who becomes friends with Nadine Waveney and her upper middle class family who live near Kensington Gardens. The Waveneys are friends with an artistic set and Riley meets and begins to study with an artist friend-of-the-family. As he grows older, he and Nadine form a close friendship and begin to fall in love, but her family disapproves because of the difference in their classes. Feeling rejected young Riley joins the army to go to France where the new war has started. It is summer of 1914, everyone expects it will be over by Christmas. Up until this point (which is fairly early in the novel) this is fairly conventional novel. But more than almost any other novel about World War I that I've read, Young really captures the slow mental and physical disintegration that happened to men who survived the war, as well as the women who spent the war nursing the hundreds of thousands of casualties and also the women who stayed behind where life changed at a different pace than for those on the battlefield. The mental states of Riley and his Commanding Officer, Peter Locke, are reflected while they attempt to appear "normal" on the outside. Unlike other novels where the main characters make it through the war, these men don't come through undamaged either physically or mentally. I very much enjoyed the last two thirds of this novel (although some the long descriptions of the medical procedures might have been a bit shorter for my taste). I understand there is a sequel and I'm sure I will read it.
3. Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley.
This is the next installment in the Flavia de Luce mystery series. I only have one more to go before I'm caught up and I'm not looking forward to the day that I don't have a Flavia de Luce novel to read. Flavia and her sisters are getting along much better. Feely (Ophelia) is engaged and Flavia spends some time trying to figure out which of Feely's beaus is the lucky winner. Could it be the American, Carl, from St. Louis, Missouri? "Carl's going to take me to watch Stan Musial knock one out of the park." I had forgotten that Carl was from St. Louis and I wonder why Bradley decided to choose St. Louis out of all the obscure (to the British) cities in America. The actual mystery revolves around the exhumation of the bones of the local saint from his vault in the village church. Flavia is surprised that some of the history of the saint seems to have been forgotten and Bradley has a great line: "History is like the kitchen sink ... Everything goes round and round until eventually, sooner or later, most of it goes down the waste pipe. Things are forgotten. Things are mislaid. Things are covered up. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of neglect." How true. The ending has a twist that I've suspected was coming for some time but I did not expect it at the time it happened and the way it happened. Can't wait to read the next book.
4. Murder on the Champ de Mars by Cara Black.
The next in the Aimee Leduc mystery series, Aimee is now a single mother with a six month old baby named Chloe. But she has a great child-minder and is able to spend all the hours she needs solving crimes, still dressed in her chic second hand designer clothes, albeit with a little baby spit-up on her shoulder, and wearing her red Chanel lipstick. This mystery is a little more personal to Aimee because it might lead to clues as to who is responsible for the death of Aimee's father many years before. I can't say I was completely surprised by the ending, I've seen it coming. But I still liked it and it makes me want the next novel to come sooner.
5. Hush Hush by Laura Lippman. The long awaited next installment of the Tess Monaghan series, it picks up a few years after the last one. I almost had forgotten where we were in Tess' life story, that's how long it has been. In the meantime, Lippman has been writing stand-alone crime novels with a strong psychological bent and that comes through in this novel. In some ways she seems more interested in all the characters other than Tess. But I enjoyed it.
6. A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear. Another long awaited next volume, this time in the Maisie Dobbs series (not as long as wait as from Lippman, but long enough). One of the weaknesses in the last few Maisie Dobbs mysteries has been Winspear's reluctance to break off Maisie's relationship with James or to have Maisie commit to James. She solves that in this novel. I won't say how but you will know very early on in the novel. And it works. This novel takes place in Gibralter in the late 1930's with the Spanish Civil War raging just across the border. Moving Maisie out of England works too - although I'll be content to have her return home eventually. The mystery is serviceable but the picture of Maisie at this point in her life is very good. Well done.
7. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill. The narrator explains to us, her readers, how her world was so normal but then it came apart. She speaks to us directly in short little bursts, very much like a character in a play. In fact I was very much reminded of those plays from the 1980’s that explored women’s “consciousness”. The Vagina Monologues maybe. Except this was a lot about being obsessed with a child. But then suddenly it becomes a third person novel, the narrator no longer, apparently, even able to speak directly about what happened in her life. Finally it reverts back to the first person. This is an odd little book. Most of the time, I just felt sorry for the narrator’s husband. Which I’m thinking was not what the author was going for.
1. Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. I read this book of essays over the last few months while I was getting my hair colored or getting a pedicure or sitting in waiting rooms. Many good topics, some good thoughts, but I found myself mostly unsatisfied with the essays. And I can't explain why.
2. My Dear I wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young.
Riley Purefoy is a young, working class boy, who becomes friends with Nadine Waveney and her upper middle class family who live near Kensington Gardens. The Waveneys are friends with an artistic set and Riley meets and begins to study with an artist friend-of-the-family. As he grows older, he and Nadine form a close friendship and begin to fall in love, but her family disapproves because of the difference in their classes. Feeling rejected young Riley joins the army to go to France where the new war has started. It is summer of 1914, everyone expects it will be over by Christmas. Up until this point (which is fairly early in the novel) this is fairly conventional novel. But more than almost any other novel about World War I that I've read, Young really captures the slow mental and physical disintegration that happened to men who survived the war, as well as the women who spent the war nursing the hundreds of thousands of casualties and also the women who stayed behind where life changed at a different pace than for those on the battlefield. The mental states of Riley and his Commanding Officer, Peter Locke, are reflected while they attempt to appear "normal" on the outside. Unlike other novels where the main characters make it through the war, these men don't come through undamaged either physically or mentally. I very much enjoyed the last two thirds of this novel (although some the long descriptions of the medical procedures might have been a bit shorter for my taste). I understand there is a sequel and I'm sure I will read it.
3. Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley.
This is the next installment in the Flavia de Luce mystery series. I only have one more to go before I'm caught up and I'm not looking forward to the day that I don't have a Flavia de Luce novel to read. Flavia and her sisters are getting along much better. Feely (Ophelia) is engaged and Flavia spends some time trying to figure out which of Feely's beaus is the lucky winner. Could it be the American, Carl, from St. Louis, Missouri? "Carl's going to take me to watch Stan Musial knock one out of the park." I had forgotten that Carl was from St. Louis and I wonder why Bradley decided to choose St. Louis out of all the obscure (to the British) cities in America. The actual mystery revolves around the exhumation of the bones of the local saint from his vault in the village church. Flavia is surprised that some of the history of the saint seems to have been forgotten and Bradley has a great line: "History is like the kitchen sink ... Everything goes round and round until eventually, sooner or later, most of it goes down the waste pipe. Things are forgotten. Things are mislaid. Things are covered up. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of neglect." How true. The ending has a twist that I've suspected was coming for some time but I did not expect it at the time it happened and the way it happened. Can't wait to read the next book.
4. Murder on the Champ de Mars by Cara Black.
The next in the Aimee Leduc mystery series, Aimee is now a single mother with a six month old baby named Chloe. But she has a great child-minder and is able to spend all the hours she needs solving crimes, still dressed in her chic second hand designer clothes, albeit with a little baby spit-up on her shoulder, and wearing her red Chanel lipstick. This mystery is a little more personal to Aimee because it might lead to clues as to who is responsible for the death of Aimee's father many years before. I can't say I was completely surprised by the ending, I've seen it coming. But I still liked it and it makes me want the next novel to come sooner.
5. Hush Hush by Laura Lippman. The long awaited next installment of the Tess Monaghan series, it picks up a few years after the last one. I almost had forgotten where we were in Tess' life story, that's how long it has been. In the meantime, Lippman has been writing stand-alone crime novels with a strong psychological bent and that comes through in this novel. In some ways she seems more interested in all the characters other than Tess. But I enjoyed it.
6. A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear. Another long awaited next volume, this time in the Maisie Dobbs series (not as long as wait as from Lippman, but long enough). One of the weaknesses in the last few Maisie Dobbs mysteries has been Winspear's reluctance to break off Maisie's relationship with James or to have Maisie commit to James. She solves that in this novel. I won't say how but you will know very early on in the novel. And it works. This novel takes place in Gibralter in the late 1930's with the Spanish Civil War raging just across the border. Moving Maisie out of England works too - although I'll be content to have her return home eventually. The mystery is serviceable but the picture of Maisie at this point in her life is very good. Well done.
7. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill. The narrator explains to us, her readers, how her world was so normal but then it came apart. She speaks to us directly in short little bursts, very much like a character in a play. In fact I was very much reminded of those plays from the 1980’s that explored women’s “consciousness”. The Vagina Monologues maybe. Except this was a lot about being obsessed with a child. But then suddenly it becomes a third person novel, the narrator no longer, apparently, even able to speak directly about what happened in her life. Finally it reverts back to the first person. This is an odd little book. Most of the time, I just felt sorry for the narrator’s husband. Which I’m thinking was not what the author was going for.
8. The House Girl by Tara Conklin. This was a book chosen by my book group and no one, including me, liked it. Perhaps because we are mostly lawyers and roll our eyes at unrealistic depictions of first year associates in Big Law Firms. Perhaps because some of us (me) have done a lot of genealogical research and it is NEVER this easy (this novel makes those people on the PBS genealogy show look like they are really working, and I never think that about them). The novel is divided into two parts, one of which takes place on a plantation in the mid 1800s. That part is fine and Conklin should have stuck to it. She did create a compelling character and set up a good, tense storyline. The other, modern, part? Not so much.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)