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4 June 2005

• Lois McMaster Bujold's new Chalion book, The Hallowed Hunt, just came out, so I used that as an excuse to reread the first two, The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, before starting the new one. I have little to add to my earlier comments on them, except that I still love the originality of the world and of the religious structure (to which The Hallowed Hunt adds more interesting bits).
  
  The Hallowed Hunt is set in the same world as the other two books, but in a different country: the Weald, conquered by the Darthacans years ago and still affected by the conquest even after throwing off the invaders. Lord Ingrey kin Wolfcliff is sent to arrest Lady Ijada, who killed the dying Hallow King's younger son under mysterious circumstances. Soon Ingrey and Ijada are tangled up in a scheme involving animal spirits, warrior ghosts, and the Weald's hallow kingship. I wasn't quite as enthralled by The Hallowed Hunt as by Paladin of Souls -- the plot dragged a little in the middle, and although I liked Ingrey very much, Ijada wasn't as engaging as Ista of Paladin of Souls -- but it's still an excellent addition to a wonderful series.

Books read: 3

5 June 2005

• Naked is by turns a hilarious and searing memoir of David Sedaris's life and family. I found myself alternately laughing hysterically and cringing at tales ranging from his own nervous tics and his mother's cancer to his college travels with a quadriplegic, his visit to a nudist camp. A typically sidesplitting quote: "[I]t is inhumane to place a nudist on horseback the day after a chili cook-off. ("Was he always an Appaloosa?")" I'm not sure why it took me so long to read more Sedaris after loving Me Talk Pretty One Day a couple of years ago, but I imagine it won't take me as long to get around to reading more.

Books read: 1

6 June 2005

• Beverley Nichols's Merry Hall is a marvelous reminiscence of how the author purchased and restored a British country mansion and garden just after World War II. It's the first of a trilogy, and I loved this one so much that I already have the other two books on hold at the library. The tone is chatty and informal, and the writing is often hilarious, particularly when Nichols is cattily pointing up the failings of the characters who move in and out of his narrative (like Our Rose, a pretentious, artsy maker of flower arrangements). At the same time, his descriptions of his garden and his plants are lovely and poetic, and I quickly became fond of him, his cats, his old gardener Oldfield, and his other friends. I'm enormously looking forward to reading the other two books.

Books read: 1

7 June 2005

• The Thurber Letters: The Wit, Wisdom, and Surprising Life of James Thurber is a vast collection of the correspondence of one of America's great humorists, edited by Harrison Kinney with Thurber's daughter, Rosemary A. Thurber. (It's so vast that I've been reading it since I got it for Christmas last year - it's too big to carry around easily, so I've read it in dribs and drabs for months). Encompassing Thurber's life from his twenties to the end of his life and including letters to family, friends, strangers, and fellow writers and New Yorker colleagues, this is a wonderful look into Thurber's life, times, and complex character. It even includes some of his drawings I'd never seen before - I particularly loved the "well-hung newcomer to the nudist camp" drawing. If you're a Thurber fan, you'll love dipping into this cornucopia.

Books read: 1

8 June 2005

• The Thursday Kidnapping is a rare children's book by the marvelous Antonia Forest, whose Marlow family series I've been tracking down and reading with joy for a couple of years now. This isn't a Marlow book (one of the few she wrote which isn't); instead it deals with the Ramsay children, who live in London with their father and mother in a house shared with Hungarian refugees Freddy, Marika, and their small son Bart. One day, when the Ramsays go out with Bart, he's kidnapped.
  
  Since the reader knows early on what has happened to Bart, there's little suspense on that front; the interest is in watching the Ramsays figure it out. As always, Forest's characters, particularly the children, are perceptively drawn, and their relationships are interesting, yet the loss of suspense to the reader in knowing the solution to the mystery makes for a pedestrian plot, which for me wasn't quite overcome by the interest of the characters. Still, Forest's books are so few and difficult to come by that I'm glad to have this one to add to my collection.

Books read: 1

9 June 2005

• Disney's Disneyland: The First Quarter Century is an interesting piece of Disneyland history, particularly to read now during the year of Disneyland's half-century anniversary. The text, though informative enough, is nothing special, but it's full of wonderful photos of Disneyland's first twenty-five years: the original construction of the park; Walt himself and the various celebrities who have visited Disneyland; and pictures of rides and shows, many now defunct. It's long out of print, of course, but fairly easy to find as a good addition to a Disneyland book collection.

Books read: 1

11 June 2005

• William Makepeace Thackeray's The History of Henry Esmond was widely considered the best historical novel of its day and often considered the best of Thackeray's novels as well; Trollope, who wrote a biography of his friend Thackeray, calls it his masterpiece. It's set just after the Glorious Revolution, during the reigns of William and Mary and then Queen Anne, and follows the life of Henry Esmond, gentleman and officer of the Duke of Marlborough's army, through his military career and his tangled family life.
  
  The novel begins with a preface by Esmond's daughter, before switching over to the third-person narration of Esmond himself, which itself contains footnotes by his daughter. (Word of warning: if you have the Penguin edition edited by John Sutherland, do not read the end notes to the preface until you've finished the book - they spoiled a couple of important plot points for me. Sutherland did mention that the preface probably should be read after the book, but not until the last note, by which time I was already thoroughly spoiled.) Esmond's voice is kept up beautifully, without breaking into the voice of the omniscient, ironic narrator more familiar to readers of Vanity Fair; my only confusion here was that occasionally Esmond would slip into speaking in the first person rather than the third for a few sentences. However, since I always thought of it as being Esmond slipping rather than Thackeray, I suppose that simply emphasizes how well the voice is sustained.
  
  Thackeray interweaves the story of Esmond and his family very cleverly with the history of the time, through Esmond's campaigns with the Duke of Marlborough and the family's intriguing for the Jacobites. The appearances of historical figures are nicely done also, never overwhelming, though Thackeray's negative portrayal of Marlborough did make me feel that in fairness I should also read Churchill's more positive biography of the duke. As Sutherland nicely puts it in his introduction, "Esmond, the fictional character, is kept on the edge of historical events...just as historical characters are kept on the fringe of the novel's crises." It's a difficult balance beam to walk, and Thackeray rarely missteps.
  
  I can't say that I enjoyed Henry Esmond as much as Vanity Fair; although I liked Esmond himself, I found several of the minor characters (specifically Rachel Esmond and her daughter Beatrix) less engaging. As an example of Thackeray's craft as a novelist, though, it's very impressive.

Books read: 1

12 June 2005

• Laughter on the Stairs and Sunlight on the Lawn are the second and third books in Beverley Nichols's Merry Hall trilogy, a mix of gardening, humor, and lightly fictionalized memoir. The first book focused on Merry Hall's garden; Laughter on the Stairs deals mainly with the restoration of the house and Sunlight on the Lawn with the array of eccentric characters with which Nichols has populated his books, including his old gardener, Oldfield, the shy ex-governess Miss Mint, and Nichols's several cats. These two books were just as charming as the first; the blend of wry humor and lovely descriptions was beautifully done.
  
  The editions I've been reading are recent Timber Press reprints, all nicely produced facsimiles of the original editions, with added introductions and indices. The introduction to Sunlight on the Lawn, by Nichols's biographer Bryan Connon, was particularly useful, as it provided a short but fascinating rundown to the various characters of the books (most of whom are at least partially fictionalized). I believe that Timber Press has reprinted other Nichols books, and I'll certainly be on the lookout for those as well.

Books read: 2

13 June 2005

• Daphne du Maurier's Frenchman's Creek is the elegantly told tale of Dona, Lady St. Columb, who has grown restless with her life at the court of Charles II and with her marriage to the lazy, slightly stupid Sir Harry. She leaves London with her children to visit the family estate of Navron in Cornwall, where she stumbles upon a crew of pirates and their dashing French master.
  
  The romance between Dona and the Frenchman is beautifully understated and gradual, but deeply moving. Du Maurier doesn't focus on the romance to the exclusion of everything else, however; I also liked how she portrayed Dona's love for her children, as she is torn between her family and her new love. As always, du Maurier's descriptions of the Cornish countryside are lovely, and her pacing is excellent, from reflective passages on Dona's thoughts and feelings to the rousing adventures of the later part of the book. (I did feel that the first chapter was a little slow, though - if you get stuck in it, do persevere on to the second chapter.)

Books read: 1

14 June 2005

• Martha Stewart's Gardening is a big, lavishly produced coffee table book, essentially a month-by-month journal of Stewart's gardens at her house in Connecticut, Turkey Hill. It's interesting to read, as a lot of what Stewart has to say is useful, but there's nothing here that couldn't be gotten from other (less expensive) gardening guides. Also, I was less than impressed by the photographs, which were too often poorly focused and lit. (Yes, I know it's hard to control outside lighting, but there's no excuse for badly lit indoor photography.) Altogether, although I enjoyed the glimpse into Martha's admittedly beautiful gardens, I'm glad I bought this used.

Books read: 1

15 June 2005

• Annemarie Selinko's Désirée is on my favorites page.

Books read: 1

16 June 2005

• I've been meaning to get around to Tamora Pierce for a long time, as she's so often mentioned as a great YA fantasy author. I happened to pick up the Circle of Magic books (Sandry's Book, Tris's Book, Daja's Book, Briar's Book) first, largely because I found one used somewhere (Pierce seems hard to find used, perhaps due to popularity). The series is about a group of four children who each have a different magical talent; they're each discovered by the mage Niko and taken to the Winding Circle community, where they're brought together and form a deep friendship.
  
  The magic is unusual and interesting, but it's the relationship between the children, and also between the children and their mentors, which really made the books for me. Each book focuses on one of the young mages, whose very different personalities are delineated vividly, but all of the books show their developing relationship. I also liked that the children trust the adults who mentor them, and the adults actually help the children; the adults' support makes a big difference in several of the magical conflicts. I do get tired of the common "adults just don't understand/are all against us/never listen to us" thing (*ahem* Harry Potter *ahem*), and it was nice to see a different kind of relationship here.
  
  I'm happy that I finally got around to Pierce, as I really enjoyed these books. There's a second series about these characters, and I'm panting to get it now.

Books read: 4

17 June 2005

• As a long-time fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, I'm generally suspicious of newer books by other authors set in his world; I'm not even a big fan of Ruth Plumly Thompson, his immediate successor. However, I liked Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel enough that I thought it would be worth giving her Oz book, The Emerald Wand of Oz, a try -- and I loved it.
  
  Smith's heroines are Em and Dori, who live in Kansas and are reputedly related to the famous Dorothy Gale, who first visited Oz in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. When a tornado strikes their house, they're suddenly whisked away -- just like Dorothy -- to the land of Oz. Dori, who's loved Oz all her life, is thrilled, but the more practical Em can hardly believe it. Soon, they're pulled into a quest to save Princess Ozma and Glinda the Oz from a wicked enchantment that's been laid on them.
  
  Smith succeeds in bringing a more modern sensibility to her characters and a genuine sense of threat to the plot without dimming the charm and wonder of Oz. Em and Dori have family problems - their parents are separated - and Smith treats these realistically, with sympathy for the girls and for the adults. The threat to Ozma and Glinda and their country is vivid (particularly when a mysterious, frightening cloud shows up repeatedly), yet the country itself is every bit as inventive as Baum's, with pretty but vain unicorns, poppycocks (little scarlet birds which turn into flowers), and all manner of other Ozzy details. Smith handles Baum's characters nicely, too, particularly the dizzy Patchwork Girl.
  
  This is apparently the first in a series of four connected Oz novels Smith is writing. I'll happily read all of the others and am looking forward to them very much, particularly as The Emerald Wand of Oz closes with some intriguing unanswered questions.

Books read: 1

18 June 2005

• Jamaica Inn is a dark, grim, yet exciting Gothic by Daphne du Maurier; after Rebecca, it's probably one of her best-known books. (I thought I hadn't read it before, but after the ease which with I guessed most of the plot, I think I probably have, years ago.) After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan goes to live with her aunt and uncle, who keep Jamaica Inn, avoided by respectable travelers and shadowed in mystery. When Mary discovers the awful doings of her uncle and his band of followers, she is torn between trying to end their activities and protecting her sad, nervous aunt.
  
  As I said, I guessed most of the plot fairly quickly, but du Maurier's tense pacing managed to keep me in suspense most of the time anyway. I liked the plucky, intelligent heroine and thought the other characterizations were well-done, particularly of Mary's brutal uncle. I wasn't entirely convinced by the romance, but overall, the book worked for me quite well; I was particularly struck by du Maurier's vivid sense of place, of the gloomy moors and the wild sea coast.

Books read: 1

19 June 2005

• The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm is another good fantasy anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (known for their Adult Fairy Tales series of anthologies and many years of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror). It begins with a fine essay by Windling on the origins of faeries, from medieval times to today, and includes a list of recommended reading and even of faery-related music. The stories I particularly liked were: Bruce Glassko's "Never Never", a wry tale of Peter Pan -- from Captain Hook's point of view; Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Immersed in Matter", about a half-elf who longs to speak with horses; Delia Sherman's "CATNYP", a story of the faery folk who live in New York Between; and especially Kelly Link's "The Faery Handbag", a striking tale of a magical handbag and the family who takes care of it. I was a little underwhelmed with The Green Man, the last anthology of Datlow and Windling's that I'd read, but I was very happy with The Faery Reel.

Books read: 1

20 June 2005

• In Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages, Phyllis Rose examines the fictions and realities of Victorian marriages, through analyses of five famous couples: Jane Welsh and Thomas Carlyle, Effie Gray and John Ruskin, Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill, George Eliot and G.H. Lewes, and Catherine Hogarth and Charles Dickens. Rose does not attempt to provide a complete chronological portrait of each marriage, instead focusing on one period or issue per couple, with usually two chapters per couple (grouped together, except for the chapters on the Carlyles, which appear at the beginning and end and thus frame the others). This approach offers a fascinating spectrum of experiences, from the Ruskins' apparently unconsummated marriage, to Eliot and Lewes's non-legal but very happy "marriage". Rose's prose is vivid, and her perceptive analyses of each couple's relationship are interesting and compelling, making Parallel Lives an excellent read for those interested in sexual politics as well as those simply interested in Victorian literary biography.
  
  
• C.W. Scott-Giles's The Wimsey Family is a treat for any lover of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. In 1936, Scott-Giles, a heraldic expert, wrote to Sayers, inquiring as to the origins of the arms of the Wimsey family. A correspondence began between the two (and later grew to include Helen Simpson and Muriel St. Clare Byrne, close friends of Sayers) during which they gradually "discovered" the history of the Wimsey family. Some of this material was published; after Sayers's death, Scott-Giles collected together the published and unpublished research, and this charming book is the result. It's out of print, but worth the effort to track down if you're a fan of Sayers and Lord Peter.

Books read: 2

22 June 2005

• Although I like almost everything L.M. Montgomery ever wrote, I have to admit that two of her later books, Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat are not my favorites. Pat Gardiner lives with her family at Silver Bush, an old house and farm on Prince Edward Island. Unlike Montgomery's other heroines, Pat has no ambitions other than to stay at home forever, taking care of the home and family she loves. There's a feeling of domesticity and hominess which pervades the books, and I appreciate that more than I used to, but Pat is so neurotically attached to her home that she becomes a little hard to take. Happily, there are other characters who are more engaging (the old servant Judy Plum and Pat's sister Rae are probably my favorites), and Montgomery's affectionate descriptions of Prince Edward Island do make up for a lot of Pat's (and Pat's) failings.

Books read: 2

23 June 2005

• Randy Bright's Disneyland: Inside Story is an excellent look at the creation of Disneyland and at its first thirty or so years of operation (the book was published in 1987). I've read a lot about Disneyland, and this book came up with a few stories even I hadn't heard. In addition, it has an excellent collection of photographs (my favorite was the one of Walt looking down over the model of Main Street) and a good list of attractions by year of opening. It's out of print, hard to find, and expensive, but it's worth if you're a Disneyland fanatic.

Books read: 1

24 June 2005

• Geraldine Jewsbury's The Half Sisters is an unusual, radical novel of 1848 which contrasts the lives of two half-sisters in Victorian England. Half-Italian, illegitimate Bianca fights poverty by entering into a career on the stage, where she achieves fame, while her sister Alice marries respectably and is trapped in a stultifying existence which deadens her latent intellectual talents. Through the lives of her two heroines, Jewsbury emphasizes women's need for something real to do; Bianca says late in the book, "I have had work to do, and have done it. I have had a purpose, and have endeavoured to work it out," while Alice's life is blighted by her lack of purpose. Occasionally the narrative bogs down in excessive sermonizing, but Jewsbury's fierce energy keeps it going. Although the ending is disappointingly timid, The Half Sisters is full of life and interesting ideas and characters, well worth reading for those who are interested in lesser-known Victorian novels and in the concept of Victorian womanhood.

Books read: 1

25 June 2005

• A Long Way Down is a welcome change from Nick Hornby's last novel, How to Be Good, which disappointed me after I'd loved his first two novels (High Fidelity and About a Boy). In A Long Way Down, four would-be suicides meet on the roof of Topper's House, a London building famed for the number of people who kill themselves by jumping from its roof, and form an unlikely bond. Hornby switches freely between the points-of-view of each character -- Martin, a washed-up talk show host; Maureen, a middle-aged woman with a disabled son; Jess, a rebellious, unstable teenager; and JJ, an American rock musician whose career is seemingly over -- and manages to keep each section individual-sounding; I never had to look back to see who was narrating, because the character's voices were so well differentiated. Hornby handles the potentially difficult subject well, too, with comic episodes deftly interwoven with more introspective passages.

Books read: 1

26 June 2005

• Ambitious Heights: Writing, Friendship, Love - The Jewsbury Sisters, Felicia Hemans, and Jane Carlyle is a wonderful study by Norma Clarke of four Victorian women, the bonds between them, and their lives as women and as writers. Mrs. Hemans was the best-loved female poet of her time, and her friendship with writer Maria Jewsbury provides an interesting counterpoint to the relationship between Jewsbury's sister Geraldine (a novelist and reviewer) and Jane Welsh Carlyle, wife of the famous Thomas Carlyle and an excellent writer (though of letters rather than of novels or histories) in her own right. Clarke examines their lives and writings and the bonds between them to produce a fascinating look at Victorian womanhood.

Books read: 1

28 June 2005

• L.M. Montgomery's Emily books are on my favorites page.

Books read: 3

30 June 2005

• It's been a long time since I read Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, and I thought it would be interesting to try The Essential Phantom of the Opera, edited by Leonard Wolf, which offers footnotes and illustrations galore, along with an introductory essay on Leroux's life and works. The introduction was certainly interesting, but the rest of the book...not so much. I had forgotten the essential thinness of the book's characters; there's some life to the Phantom himself and to Christine, but generally, they're a shallowly drawn bunch, and the moments of lyricism and drama (which were certainly there) weren't enough to make up for my unengagement with the characters. Also, the footnotes were simply too many and too often overly long. Really, I'd have much preferred to have the analysis of plot and character handled in the introduction, where the constant interjections wouldn't have interrupted the narrative, and footnotes like the one on page 54, telling us that this is the reader's first glimpse of the Phantom, are just unnecessary -- as an attentive reader, you know, I actually noticed that this was the first time I'd seen the Phantom. Read this edition if you're intensely interested in the book; otherwise, skip it.

Books read: 1

Total books read this month: 33
Total books read this year: 208

Last updated 29 November 2005. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.