Archives - September 2006 archives -- index by author -- index by category -- favorite books -- links

Search Now:

1 September 2006

• Rosamond Lehmann, A Sea-Grape Tree: A Sea-Grape Tree is a sequel to The Ballad and the Source, published over thirty years later. By now, Lehmann's spiritualist beliefs were deeply ingrained, and they're readily apparent in A Sea-Grape Tree. Rebecca Landon, narrator of The Ballad and the Source, is now an adult, and she has come to a small Caribbean island after an unhappy love affair. Soon she discovers that Mrs. Jardine also lived, and recently died, there, and her spirit still touches Rebecca and the others on the island, especially Johnny, a crippled ex-pilot with whom Rebecca begins a passionate affair. Though many of the minor characters are memorable and the tropical setting is beautifully rendered, there's just not enough plot here to carry the book (though Lehmann did apparently intend a sequel). And I simply wasn't interested in Rebecca and Johnny or convinced by Rebecca's conversation with a ghostly Mrs. Jardine.

Books read: 1

2 September 2006

• Megan Whalen Turner, Instead of Three Wishes: a collection of charming little stories. Nothing here is as good as her novels (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia), but they're well told and offer some fresh perspectives on old tropes. I particularly liked the title story, in which an elf prince tries to reward a girl for helping him but can't come up with anything she really wants, and the last story, "The Baker King", about a kingdom which has misplaced their prince.

Books read: 1

3 September 2006

• Susanna Kearsley, The Shadowy Horses: When Verity Grey arrives in Eyemouth, Scotland, for an archaeological dig, she doesn't know exactly what to expect. When she meets eccentric Peter Quinnell, who's financing the dig, she's intrigued by his theory that he's found the lost Ninth Legion of Rome. However, Quinnell isn't working off solely archaeological evidence; there's a Roman ghost, and a small boy who can speak to him. I thought the style started out a little overly descriptive (I could feel myself skimming a little in the early pages), but settled down and developed a particularly good sense of place. The historical mystery is compelling, the supernatural bits appropriately creepy, and a nicely understated but convincing romance rounds out the book. I enjoyed this quite a bit and am now on the lookout for more Kearsley.

Books read: 1

4 September 2006

• Peter Dickinson, The Yellow Room Conspiracy: a very good British country house mystery, in which two elderly lovers try to figure out a years-old murder via a series of reminiscences. I was a little more interested in the details of upper-class British life in the WWII years and just after than I was in the mystery itself, but I enjoyed this a good deal.

Books read: 1

5 September 2006

• Rosamond Lehmann, The Echoing Grove: This is, I think, Lehmann's most painful novel to read, perhaps because it partly grew out of Lehmann's harrowing affair with Cecil Day Lewis, who wouldn't leave his wife for Lehmann (though eventually he left both his wife and Lehmann to marry a third woman). It concerns two sisters, Madeleine and Dinah; Madeleine is married to Rickie, who is having a longstanding affair with Dinah. At the novel's beginning, Dinah and Madeleine are meeting again, after many years of estrangement, and after Rickie's death. Lehmann constructs a series of flashbacks in which we see the marriage and the affair unfolding, creating a complex time scheme of past and present in which she moves from character to character, exploring each one's experiences and thoughts. Not all of the flashbacks seem truly necessary to the plot (especially a lengthy section near the end involving Rickie and the American wife of his friend Jack), but overall, the narrative Lehmann creates is rich and compelling, full of love, loss, and betrayal.

Books read: 1

6 September 2006

• Elizabeth von Arnim, The Solitary Summer: a sequel to Elizabeth and Her German Garden, just as lovely and possibly even funnier. Elizabeth begins the book by telling her husband, the Man of Wrath, "I want to be alone for a whole summer, and get to the very dregs of life." She chronicles her summer, from May through September, and though she doesn't generally manage complete solitude (there are always her husband and children to contend with), there's a wonderful passage in June: Elizabeth rises early in the morning and goes out into "a wonderful, unknown world," where she watches the sun come up over her garden and meditates on the quiet hour she has discovered.

Books read: 1

7 September 2006

• Sarah Dessen, Just Listen: A lot of people would think that Annabel Greene has a wonderful life. After all, she's pretty, a model, and the star of a back-to-school commercial in which she appears as student, prom queen, and all-around popular girl. Real life, though, isn't so pretty. Annabel's former best friend hates her, her mother is suffering from depression, and her older sister has an eating disorder, and Annabel can't bring herself to talk about any of it (or about other secrets she has). When she becomes friends with loner Owen, who's intense, direct, and obsessed with music, Owen encourages Annabel to be honest, to speak out, to tell others what she's feeling. It's beautifully written and sensitive, and I loved the characters and their relationships (not just Annabel and Owen, but Annabel and her family and her friends).

Books read: 1

8 September 2006

• Parke Godwin, A Memory of Lions: This is set in northern England in the years after 1066; the Norman Eustace de Neuville has been granted the newly created barony of Montford, previously Brandeshal, the hold of the Anglo-Saxon Brand Ulfson. Brand was killed in the Norman invasion, but he left behind a bastard son, Gurth, who falls in love with Gerlaine, daughter to the Norman baron, setting off a violent and grim chain of events. This is an excellent portrayal of the clash between the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans; as in his other novels set in this period (Lord of Sunset, Sherwood, Robin and the King), Godwin shows a deep knowledge of the history and cultures he's writing about. The characters too are excellently portrayed and believable as people of their times. However, it was just a little too dark and violent for me, or maybe I just wasn't in the mood. I'll try it again in a couple of years and see what I think.

Books read: 1

9 September 2006

• Selina Hastings, Rosamond Lehmann: a thorough, entertaining, and well written biography. Hastings does draw some unavoidable parallels between Lehmann's life and her novels, but she stays away from too much biographical criticism. Her handling of Lehmann's later-life spiritualism, which started at the death of Lehmann's beloved daughter Sally, is also very good, showing respect for Lehmann's beliefs but also showing how Lehmann unconsciously began to use those beliefs to feed her own ego (for instance, saying that Cecil Day Lewis had visited her from the afterlife in order to implore her forgiveness for how he'd treated her). I would also like to read Lehmann's autobiography, The Swan in the Evening, but I haven't come across a copy yet.

Books read: 1

10 September 2006

• Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm: This caused me almost immediately to cry, "Why have I never read this before?" This send-up of earnest fiction about country life is totally hilarious; the cats kept glaring at me for laughing and interrupting their naps.

Books read: 1

11 September 2006

• Elizabeth Bear, The Chains That You Refuse: Here, I think the intricacy of Bear's writing ran up against my preference for longer fiction -- by the time I had penetrated deeply enough into the narrative of a story to enjoy it, it was almost always over. This is not to say that I didn't appreciate the finely crafted writing, though, and I think perhaps I might do better on a reread. Favorites: "This Tragic Glass", "Ice", "The Devil You Don't", "And the Deep Blue Sea" (some of the longer stories, I note).
  
  
• Robin McKinley, Spindle's End: reread. I like this more every time I read it. The setting is just wonderful, and I love the heroine, and the animals (McKinley always does good animals). I even pretty much understood the ending this time.

Books read: 2

12 September 2006

• Susanna Kearsley, Season of Storms: not as good as The Shadowy Horses, I'm afraid. Celia Sands is an actress who is invited to take part in a production of a play that's been labeled cursed; written by Galeazzo D'Ascanio in the early 1900s for his mistress, also named Celia Sands, the play has never been successfully produced since the earlier Celia's mysterious disappearance just before its premiere. Now, D'Ascanio's grandson wants to put on the play at Galeazzo's villa in northern Italy, but when Celia arrives there, strange things begin to happen. Though I liked the characters, the colorful setting, and the nicely handled flashbacks, the pace was slow, up until the rather rushed ending, and the mystery not very interesting.

Books read: 1

13 September 2006

• Roger Angell, Let Me Finish: an excellent collection of autobiographical essays. I'd only read Angell's baseball writing before (specifically, The Summer Game); there's a little of that here, but what I found particularly compelling were Angell's memories of his parents, of their divorce, and of his mother's remarriage to E. B. White, whom Angell affectionately calls by his nickname, Andy. Also a highlight was the long section on The New Yorker, Angell's longtime employer, with witty, often moving reminiscences of Wallace Shawn and Harold Ross, among others.

Books read: 1

14 September 2006

• Rosamond Lehmann, The Gipsy's Baby: Lehmann's gift for portraying children is much in evidence in The Gipsy's Baby, a collection of short stories she wrote during World War II. The first two, "The Gipsy's Baby" and "The Red-Haired Miss Daintreys", use Rebecca of The Ballad and the Source as narrator, telling of two different families whose lives intersect with Rebecca and her family, while the three that follow are about Mrs. Ritchie and her children, John and Jane. I especially liked "The Red-Haired Miss Daintreys" and its portrayal of the eldest Miss Daintrey, Mildred, first "the picture of a horror-governess" but then the unexpected object of romance.

Books read: 1

15 September 2006

• Susanna Kearsley, Named of the Dragon: I didn't like this much and am glad I got it from the library instead of buying it. The plot concerns a literary agent, Lyn, who is haunted by dreams of the son who died as a newborn years ago. When Lyn agrees to spend Christmas in Wales with one of her authors, she starts to have strange dreams, of legends and prophecies, and is pulled unwillingly into a mystery surrounding a young widow, Elen, with a baby son. I didn't particularly care about any of the characters (and found the hero actively annoying), and I didn't think the supernatural element worked at all.

Books read: 1

28 September 2006

• Susanna Kearsley, The Splendour Falls: rather better than the two Kearsleys above. The setting (Chinon in France) is beautifully evoked, the characters are memorable, and the blending of past and present is much better done than in Named of the Dragon. Kearsley still has pacing problems (which were even more evident after rereading Madam Will You Talk?, below, for comparison), and the plot was a little bit predictable (I knew who the villain was very early on), but I think I'll be rereading this sometime with pleasure.

Books read: 1

29 September 2006

• Stephen Jay Gould, Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: A Lifelong Passion for Baseball: Gould's recollections of his personal history with baseball and his passion for the Yankees got a teeny bit repetitive (okay, maybe this is just because I am a rabid Yankee-hater), but overall, I enjoyed this quite a lot. The statistical analyses were a little over my head at times, but interesting, particularly Gould's well-known theory of why there are no more .400 hitters. I also liked the critical pieces that make up the last section of the book, as I am always looking for book recommendations.

Books read: 1

30 September 2006

• Mary Stewart, Madam Will You Talk?: This was the first Mary Stewart I ever read, when I was eight or nine; I have reread it so many times that I've lost count, and it's still one of my favorites. Marvelous characters, excellent dialogue, and a fabulous car chase (in which the heroine drives just as cleverly and audaciously as the man chasing her). Why didn't anyone ever think to film this? Or any of her books, besides the Disneyfied version of The Moon-Spinners? This one would make a fantastic movie; it's tightly written and suspenseful, and not even very long, so I don't think much of the plot would need to be cut.

Books read: 1

• Gerhard Herm, The Celts
• Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan (Penguin edition, A.J. Hatto translation)
• The Youth of Alexander the Great, Aucassin and Nicolete, Havelok the Dane (all in Medieval Romances, eds. Roger Sherman Loomis and Laura Hibbard Loomis)
• a whole slew of Martha Wells: Wheel of the Infinite, The Element of Fire (reread), The Death of the Necromancer, The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, The Gate of Gods -- all of which I enjoyed (especially The Death of the Necromancer). I really like her worldbuilding, and the sense that there's enormous back story and history to the characters and their cultures.

Total books read this month: 28
Total books read this year: 335

Last updated 18 December 2006. All text and photographs © George Mitchell and Margaret Johnston, unless otherwise noted Comments, questions, suggestions to margaret@lonelymountain.net.