The Christie Affair

The Christie Affair 

by Nina de Gramont
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am familiar with the basic biography of Agatha Christie and have read/seen several works that purport to explain what happened during the days she was missing in the 1920s. This is the most impressive spin on that question that I have read. Instead of focusing on the Christie's exclusively this story delves deeply into the life of Archie Christie's mistress, Nan. There are quite a few very compelling and well developed characters in this novel and the twist that is put on the few known facts about Agatha's Christie's disappearance is absolutely brilliant. 

This book is one of my 20 Books of Summer and it counts towards the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Small Ceremonies

Small Ceremonies 

by Carol Shields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“It's the arrangement of events which makes the stories. It's throwing away, compressing, underlining. Hindsight can give structure to anything, but you have to be able to see it. Breathing, waking and sleeping: our lives are steamed and shaped into stories. Knowing that is what keeps me from going insane, and though I don't like to admit it, sometimes it's the only thing.”

The story of a year in the life of Judith Gill, a Canadian biographer. Through her relationship with the world around her, especially the people, it examines the question of how the story of our own lives is created.

This book is one of my 20 Books of Summer and it counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge.

The Stone Carvers

The Stone Carvers 

by Jane Urquhart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"In 1867 Pater Archangel Gstir is sent by God to the Canadian wilds. Soon the backwoods are transformed into a parish and Joseph Becker, a woodcarver, is brought together with his future wife. Decades later when an architect plans a memorial to the Canadian dead in France, their grandchild Klara must use her family skills - to carve, and to create." --publishers blurb

This is a beautifully written novel that tells the story of a variety of Canadian carvers and how they intertwined with one another over time. This is the second historical novel I have read by Urquart and I plan to read more. She is a Canadian author and her stories of life in the wilds of Canada are full of interesting details and appealing characters.

This book is one of my 20 Books of Summer; it counts toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge; and it counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge.

Burning Questions

Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021 

by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This volume is a collection of essays, speeches, and book introductions written by Atwood in the beginning of the 21st century. Quite a few of the pieces are about nature, politics, and environmental issues; in Atwood's capable hands these are clear statements of her positions, but they don't feel like diatribes. I most enjoyed the pieces where she is talking about how other of her own works came into being. One of these is "The Writing of the Testaments" which was a fascinating glimpse into her mind regarding this sequel to The Handmaids' Tale. 

"As Thomas King has remarked, history isn't what happened--it's the stories we tell about what happened. How we interpret and present what happened. And that interpretation and presentation is always taking place in the now of the speaker or interpreter because where else can it take place? Therefore the past as we know it is always changing. Some parts of it are buried, but then dug up again. Some are spun positively, and then spun negatively. Statues are erected to admired or important figures, then they are pulled down."

This book is one of my 20 Books of Summer, and it also counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge.

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven 

by Nathaniel Ian Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The captivating story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything." --jacket copy

This fictional memoir takes place between 1916 and 1946, mostly on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. On my own I would not have picked up this book, but I had to read it for a project at work and I am extremely glad I did because it was a beautiful book. The writing is elegant and the frozen world of the Arctic is stunningly described. This is a story filled with the details of wilderness adventures (polar bears, mining accidents, murder, and a lot of animal carcasses come into it). Despite that, it is a quiet book with a lot of philosophy mixed in and a wonderful cast of characters.  

"Fate is empty. Any Arctic explorer or common sailor can tell you this. So you must make the best choices you can, knowing they may lead you astray, but proceeding boldly lest your life become one long monotonous drift between death and your last interesting choice." (p. 170)

This book counts toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. 

The Power of Regret

The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward 

by Daniel H. Pink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Pink's book When a few years ago and really liked it so when I heard about this book I jumped right in. Pink conducted the World Regret Survey (which is still going on) and used the stories he collected there as a data set to analyze the role of regret in our lives. He identified correlations among the various regrets and addresses each type as well as talking about the implications of regret more generally. 

This was a thought-provoking book and Pink is an excellent writer. Mixing in people's personal stories with the social-science make this a very readable book.

Counts toward the Nonfiction Reader Challenge as a 2022 book.

The Jane Austen Society

The Jane Austen Society 

by Natalie Jenner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a wonderful book about a group of people living in Chawton England in the 1940s. They each have their own struggles and tragedies and they come together to preserve the memory of Jane Austen, whose novels they all love and who lived in Chawton at the end of her life. Every character in this story is well drawn and I felt like the interconnections between them made the story very believable. 

“We love Jane Austen because her characters, as sparkling as they are, are no better and no worse than us. They’re so eminently, so completely, human. I, for one, find it greatly consoling that she had us all figured out.”

Jenner's characters are the same way. If you love Jane Austen this is a not-to-be-missed novel. If you don't love Austen this book might make you reconsider.

Jenner was raised in Toronto and lives in Ontario so this book counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge. It also counts toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. 

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary 

by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel is often cited as being one of the greatest novels of all time. It was an early example of realism (think James Joyce and Virginia Woolf). I don't see what makes it so amazing. Emma Bovary was not a like-able character, I didn't even find her to be sympathetic. She is a spoiled, self-centered, fool who makes a mess of the lives of those around her for no reason other than to satisfy her own whims. 

Perhaps at the time of publication (1856) it was so different from what had gone before that it dazzled. The writing was extremely skillful and the action moved quickly. I would go so far as to say this book is a page-turner which is impressive given how much of it is internal thoughts. The translator's introduction supports the notion of innovation as what makes this novel great.

"Yet Proust, in the course of his vehement response, in 1920, to a negative article about Flaubert, commented (admiringly) on what he called Flaubert's 'grammatical singularities,' which, he said, expressed 'a new vision'; our way of seeing external reality was radically changed by Flaubert's 'entirely new and personal use' of the past definite, the past indefinite, the present participle, certain pronouns, and certain prepositions. He went on to talk about other singularities: Flaubert's unprecedented manner of using indirect discourse, his uncoventional handling of the word 'and'--omitting it where one would expect it and inserting it where one would normally not look for it--his emphatically 'flat' use of verbs, and his deliberately heavy placement of adverbs. But it was Flaubert's innovative use of the imperfect tense that most impressed Proust: 'This [use of the] imperfect, so new in literature,' he said, 'completely changes the aspect of things and people.' (p. xix)

This book is on my Classics Club list (it was the selection for the most recent spin) and also counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (a classic in translation) and the TBR Pile Challenge. It is one of my 20 Books of Summer.

99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret 

by Craig Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first picked up this book (at a library book sale I think) I thought it was a novel, and in some ways (having now read it) I think I was correct. Technically it is a biography of HRH the Princess Margaret (1930-2002), sister to Queen Elizabeth II. It was published in Britain under the title Ma'am Darling.

Rachel Cook, writing in The Guardian, said:

Brown has done something amazing with Ma’am Darling: in my wilder moments, I wonder if he hasn’t reinvented the biographical form. Subtitled 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret, it is described by his publisher (which, infuriatingly, hasn’t given him an index) as “kaleidoscopic”. But this doesn’t do it justice. It is a cubist book, a collection of acute angles through which you see its subject and her world (and, to an extent, our world) anew.

I really liked the form of this book -- each chapter (or glimpse) is a self-contained view. Some are diary entries from various people who met PM, others are press clippings, lists of related things, narrative descriptions of events in her life (like you would expect to find in a biography). Some of the glimpses are fictional "what-ifs" presented as if they had happened: a marriage to Pablo Picasso, and PM becoming Queen of England. This multiplicity of viewpoints comes together into a fascinating portrait of a life lived in a very strange fishbowl.

The New York Times Review of this book concludes with what I think is an accurate depiction of what this book does:

"Without ever explicitly positioning Margaret for our pity, Brown reveals how we elevate in order to destroy. Who or what, in the final reckoning, is the true grotesque — the absurd, unhappy princess, those desperate to get close to her, or the system propping them all up?"

This was one of my 20 Books of Summer and I it counts toward the Nonfiction Reader Challenge in the category of "social history." I already have a book for that category however, so this one becomes one of my "wildcard" titles.

Summer 2022 To Read List

The Top Ten Tuesday topic this week is "Books On My Summer 2022 To-Read List" I am participating in 20 Books of Summer so I already made a TBR list for the summer. For this list I picked the ten books from my longer list that I am most wanting to read. My list is kind of in order so I numbered it as a countdown.

#10 - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
This has been on my TBR for a very long time and it will count toward 2 different challenges so I want to get it read.

#9 - Sentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett 
It's been a while since I read any of this series and it will be nice to dip back into it.

#8 - The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
I liked The Underpainter and this one sounds like an interesting story.

#7 - Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
You can't go wrong with an Hercule Poirot novel, especially one set at a dig.

#6 - Jingo by Terry Pratchett
This is a "City Watch" sub-series title and those feature some of my favorite Discworld characters.

#5 - Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs
A cozy with my favorite tea in the title seems perfect for reading at the beach,

#4 - NPR's Podcast Startup Guide by Glen Weldon
I'm intrigued by the mechanics of podcasting -- I don't anticipate starting my own however.

#3 - Fluke by Christopher Moore
The other books in this "series" were very fun.

#2 - Bloodline by Felix Francis
This is no longer TBR as I started with it and it was very good.

#1 - Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood
New Atwood is something I always look forward to. This is my "at work" book so I am reading it in lunch-time-length bits. It's excellent so far. 

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 

by Benjamin Franklin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I expected this book to be boring, but it wasn't. Even though it was written more than 200 years ago it didn't seem old. Franklin is funny and self-depricating and his stories of his life, and what he learned as he went along were a delight. 

“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endevour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible”

My Dad recommended this book to me when I was in High School making it my oldest TBR title. I am counting it toward the Back to the Classics challenge in that category. This book is also on my TBR Pile Challenge list. It is also one of my 20 Books of Summer.

Bloodline

Dick Francis's Bloodline 

by Felix Francis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I discovered Dick Francis last year when I read The Edge and have been reading and loving his books (6 so far) since then. Felix Francis is the son of Dick Francis and helped his father with his later books then took over the "brand" 3 years before his father's death. I wasn't sure I would like these as well, but this one was excellent and read just like a Dick Francis novel. 

One of the things I really like about Francis's books is that they include lots of insider details about the world of the main characters. Bloodline features a race commentator and takes the reader into the world of horse-race broadcasting which I found fascinating. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the outcome of the mystery, it felt a bit unsupported. Despite that I would definitely recommend this novel and will continue to read the Felix Francis volumes of the "Dick Francis" novels. 

This was my first finish for 20 Books of Summer.

20 Books of Summer 2022

Once again  746 Books is hosting the 20 Books of Summer challenge. Here's how it works: you make a list of 20 books you want to read between June 1 and Sept 1. You read the books. If you want to change out your list, or only read 10 that's OK.

Here is my list:

1. Bloodline by Felix Francis [June]
2. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin* [June]
3. Jingo by Terry Pratchett [June]
4. 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown* [July]
5. Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris [July]
6. Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood [July]
7. Fluke by Christopher Moore* [July]
8. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert* [July]
9. Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie [July]
10. Biography: Fiction, Fact and Form by Ira Nadel*
    The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner [July]
11. The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart [July]
12. Sticks & Scones by Diane Mott Davidson
    Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller [July]
13. Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs*
    The Power of Regret by Daniel Pink [July]
14. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson 
    Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie [July]
15. Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton 
    The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont [August]
16. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett [August]
17. Sentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett [August]
18. Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields [August]
19. NPR's Podcast Startup Guide by Glen Weldon
    The Lazy Genius Kitchen by Kendra Adachi [August]
20. Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs [August]

The books marked with * I have on my shelves and the rest will come from the library. 

Through the summer I will be coming back to this post and linking to my reviews (if I do them) of the books I finish. Crossed out titles were on my original list but got swapped out for something else.