Spiderweb

Spiderweb: A Novel 

by Penelope Lively
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reminded me a bit of Barbara Pym's work; both in tone and in content. There were a lot of documents (letters, newspaper clips, etc.) mixed into the narrative which worked well with this story. There was a second thread of the novel about a neighboring family which turned the book in a darker direction than I had expected.  I didn't feel like the ending worked which diminished my rating. If you are a person who can't read about bad things happening to animals this is not a book for you.

This was a book from my owned-but-not-read shelf and I chose it for the January Unread Shelf theme of "comfort." I didn't find it particularly comforting but it is a good novel. I have read 2 other books by Penelope Lively (How it All Began, and Life in the Garden) both of which I liked but didn't love. Not sure if she is a writer for me to keep reading or not. Any suggestions of standout Lively novels I should consider?

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.

Spinning the Classics +

It's time for another Classics Club Spin. The number will be picked on Sunday, 6/12/2022 and the goal is to read the selected book by 8/7/2022.

Here is my list (with some duplicates to increase the odds for specific titles) of 20 not-yet-read titles from my Classics Club List:

1. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry, 1985
2. Walden, Henry David Thoreau, 1854
3. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1882
4. Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen, 1937
5. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, 1856 
6. A Tale of a Tub, Jonathan Swift, 1704
7. The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith, 1952
8. The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant, 1926
9. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak, 1957
10. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick, 1968
11. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier, 1951
12. Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty, 1946
13. The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922
14. The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers, 1946
15. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1882
16. The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O'Connor, 1960
17. A Tale of a Tub, Jonathan Swift, 1704
18. The Waves, Virginia Woolf, 1931
19. Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong, 2000
20. The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant, 1926

For the last Classics Club Spin I also posted a list of 20 titles from my owned-but-not-read list and pledged to start that book before the end of the spin. I am going to do that again, so here is my Unread-shelf list:

1. The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
2. Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
3. What Would Audrey Do? by Pamela Keogh
4. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
5. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
6. Lost by Gregory Maguire
7. Michael Tolliver Lives by Amistead Maupin
8. The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
9. Ninety-nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
10. Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter
11. So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan
12. We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
13. The Secret Life of the American Musical by Jack Viertel
14. For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose
15. Fluke by Christopher Moore
16. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
17. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
18. The Russia House by John Le Carre
19. Come and Get It by Edna Ferber
20. On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

The High Mountains of Portugal

The High Mountains of Portugal 

by Yann Martel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When you make a mystery quilt you are given the directions for various pieces separately without knowing when you begin what the whole quilt looks like. You might be told to make a certain number of 4-patches in black and red and then a different number of half-square-triangles in red and white which are a larger size than the 4-patches, and so on until you have several piles of apparently unrelated pieces. The final steps in the mystery directions bring all the bits together into a coherent, interconnected design. This novel was structured that way: a bunch of narrative pieces that seemed not to go together, though there were some connections (like the red fabrics in various quilt blocks), until you saw the whole beautiful pattern pulled together at the end. 

There was also a fascinating theory--fully explained in the novel--about Agatha Christie's work:

"The only modern genre that plays on the same high moral register as the Gospels is the lowly regarded murder mystery. If we set the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie atop the Gospels and shine a light through, we see correspondence and congruence, agreement and equivalence." p. 164

I enjoyed this book very much, it had lots of details about things mixed into it, the structure was compelling, and the characters were appealing. It did drag a bit too much in places and I didn't really need to know that many details about how an autopsy is performed. I read Life of Pi many years ago and liked it. I plan to seek out more of Martel's novels. 

This book counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge because the author lives in Canada and part of the book is set in Canada.  This was the book that came up in my unreadshelf spin.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread 

by E.M. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.”

I enjoyed this short novel. It is definitely a story where "fools rush in," but it is also a meditation on why people make the choices they do and how the relationships within a family dictate some of those choices. The story is about a young widow, but the focus is on four people who are compelled to rush in and "fix" the mistakes they think she has made. The consequences are tragic. 

This was Forster's first novel and there are definitely themes and ideas here that are expanded on in A Room with a View (published 3 years later). 

“You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish—not sit intending on a chair.”

“The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say "yesterday I was happy, today I am not.”

This book is on my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a 20th century classic); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

Uread Shelf Project Update

Unread Shelves, 3/16/22

When I went through my books in 2021 (and gave away a LOT of them) I had 101 books identified as "owned, but not read." On March 15th my Unread Shelf was at 131 books. That means that if I don't obtain any more books and could read one book each month off my own shelves--which history indicates is unlikely--it would take me 11 years to read them all. Almost half of these books are also over 400 pages which doesn't help. My number of unread books is going in the wrong direction! 

I went through my books again and identified 6 titles (by reading the blurbs and the beginning of each one I wasn't sure about) that no longer appeal. Those went in the "donate to the library" box. Unfortunately I also found one that wasn't in my list yet. My current number is 126, eleven of which are digital audiobooks. Unread books on the shelf is like savings set aside for a rainy day, but I think the total has gotten out of hand. I need some strategies to get through more of my owned-but-not-read titles. 

My various reading challenges, including my planned reading for classics club, should lead to at least 12 books from my shelves getting read in 2022. 

I may set aside a month during 2022 in which I will commit to only reading books from my shelves--no library books. I'm thinking that June might be a good time for that.

There will be a Classics Club spin number drawn on Sunday and I am going to piggy-back on that project with an Unread Shelf Spin. Below is a list of twenty books from my shelves and whichever number is drawn for Classics Club I will commit to starting that title before the finish date for the spin. 

1. The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
2. Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
3. What Would Audrey Do? by Pamela Keogh
4. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
5. Lost by Gregory Maguire
6. Michael Tolliver Lives by Amistead Maupin
7. The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
8. Ninety-nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
9. No Hard Feelings by Liz Fosslien and Molly West Duffy
10. So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan
11. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
12. Matrimony, Inc. by Francesca Beauman
13. Eleanor Roosevelt, vol. 3 by Blanche Wiesen Cook
14. For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose
15. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
16. Fluke by Christopher Moore
17. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
18. The Russia House by John Le Carre
19. Come and Get It by Edna Ferber
20. On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

I feel like 50-60 unread books on hand would be a good number to get to and try to maintain at. 

The Grand Sophy

The Grand Sophy 

by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel was silly and predictable. It was also thoroughly delightful. Sophy is a fabulous character who causes trouble everywhere she goes but truly has the best of intentions. Her relatives are fun and interesting characters and the whole complicated mess of their lives is taken in hand by "the Grand Sophy" and sorted out to a happy conclusion. The process of getting there may terrify them more than a little; but it is great fun for the reader.

I had not read any of Heyer's romances before (some credit her with basically creating the Regency Romance genre). I did read (and enjoyed) Why Shoot a Butler? which is one of her mystery novels. Heyer's work in both genres will definitely be on my reading list in the future. 

This book is from my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a classic by a woman author); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

New Grub Street

New Grub Street 

by George Gissing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel was written in 1890 and is set in the world in which Gissing was living and working. It considers numerous moral and philosophical questions about art, marriage, and money. It is such a well-told tale, however, that the higher considerations add to the enjoyment of the story rather than feeling added-on. It is not an entirely happy story, but the characters are complex and well drawn and I was pulled into their lives and their concerns. I was reading this as my chapter-a-day book and finished early because I wanted to find out how things turned out. (This seems to be becoming a pattern with me!)

In the "Introduction" to the Oxford World Classic's edition (which should under no circumstances be read before the novel as it is full of spoilers) the strengths of the book are well described:

"New Grub Street's account of the writing life draws upon irs author's own experiences, but Gissing offers no straightforward portrait of the artist. Instead, he offers a fragmented and multiple meditation, diffusing elements of his own autobiography through different characters. ... The distribution of personal experience accords with a wider scattering of narrative sympathy, helping to create the novel's striking moral ambivalence." (p. xiii)

This book is from my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a 19th century classic); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.

The Stone Diaries

The Stone Diaries 

by Carol Shields
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“There are chapters in every life which are seldom read, and certainly not aloud.”

In 2004 I read Unless by Carol Shields and really disliked it. I'm glad I gave Sheilds the benefit of the doubt and read more of her work because some of it is really wonderful. This book--which was on my #unreadshelf even though when I opened it I realized it belongs to my sister--was amazing.

It is the story of Daisy Flett and takes you through her long life, as well as the lives of her family and friends from numerous perspectives in a mere 269 pages. Shields tells the story using a variety of narrative techniques, including several letters, and I couldn't put it down. Not a word was wasted.

In the introduction (read it after you read the story--it is full of spoilers) Penelope Lively says that this novel is "a virtuoso discussion of the nature of evidence itself, of the ways in which it is unreliable and conflicting." That is exactly right. 

Shields lived in Canada most of her life and much of this novel is set there. I am counting it toward the 15th Canadian Reading Challenge. 

The Second Sex

The Second Sex 

by Simone de Beauvoir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was first published in France in 1948 and is viewed as "confirming Simone de Beauvoir's stature as one of the most significant thinkers of the twentieth century." (according to the jacket copy).

I read the 732-page English translation published in 1952 by H. M. Parshley which apparently left out a huge amount of the original book. 

The introduction (in the Vintage Edition) gives an overview of the books publication history and how it was received. Quoted from that introduction I think this is an excellent summary:

"British scholar Terry Keefe ... called it 'one of the most important and far-reaching books on women ever published,' but [he] also noted that 'this highly ambitious project leaves a good deal to be desired, for the book cannot be said to be very carefully composed, or even, on the whole, particularly well-written ... while almost every section contains some fertile ideas and valuable insights, argument of the highest quality is rarely sustained for long." (p. xiii)

I was struck by a few things as I read this:

1- it was written in a world VERY different from the one I live in

2- de Beauvoir often writes about women as if they are a species separate from herself

3- women have had a raw deal all around from the very beginning

The book ends with a call to arms:

"What is certain is that hitherto woman's possibilities have been suppressed and lost to humanity, and that it is high time she be permitted to take her chances in her own interest and in the interest of all." (p. 715)

Overall I wouldn't recommend this book, it is tremendously dated and a bit of a narrative mess. It is, however, an important foundation of feminist thought and as I have owned it since I was in college I am glad I finally read it. 

This book is from my Classics Club list and it counts towards the Back to the Classics Challenge as a classic in translation.

O Pioneers!

O Pioneers! 

by Willa Cather
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here. When I come back to it, I never have to remind it of anything; I begin just where I left off." (p. 59)

This is such a beautiful book! Cather captures the beauty and the sadness of the prairie through both descriptions of the land and the thoughts and feelings of her characters. Alexandra Bergson, who is the center of the novel, is a wise, stoic woman who accepts the heavy responsibilities handed to her with grace and good sense. 

This book was originally published in 1913 and is set in Nebraska 30 years earlier. The (fictitious) French settlement of Sainte-Agnes plays a large part in the story. There is an interesting article, by Kathleen Danker, on the influence on Cather of her French neighbors which describes the French-Canadian town of Campbell, Nebraska. My great-grandparents, who were French-Canadian immigrants, lived in Campbell at the time this novel is set which added to my enjoyment of it. 

Unread Shelf Project

My Unread Shelves, 8/28/21

I haven't posted an update on the #unreadshelfproject for a while, but I have been chipping away at it. Back in March my my owned-but-not-read (OBNR) number was 101. Since then I have read 6 books from my OBNR list, discarded a couple that I decided were not for me, and added some new books (mostly used, except for this brand new release) to my shelves. As of today my OBNR number is 117. Even though it is higher than it was I still feel like I am making progress.

Looking ahead to what might yet get read this year, I am planning to read The Three Musketeers starting October 25th. I am also going to try to read a book for each of the monthly challenges:

• September - A book you want to learn from (there are several biographies and several nonfiction titles to choose from)

• October - A book you’re secretly afraid of (if I tell you which one I'm thinking about it won't be a secret!)

• November - A book published before 2000 (fewer than 30% of my books were published after 2000 so this should be an easy one)

• December - A book that reminds you of childhood (Mary Poppins; or maybe a book from my parents' collections)

• 
  

Unread Shelf Project 2021

April additions - batch 1

I didn't post a March update on this project because

April additions - batch 2

there was very little to report. I didn't complete either the actual challenge or any of the bonus challenges. 

The April Unread Shelf Challenge was to read a book you bought in a used book store. That is where many of the books on my shelves came from so that seemed do-able. I ended up visiting two new-to-me used bookstores during the month and added a stack of purchases to my shelves. Some of them are not owned-but-not-read as they are favorites I have read and wanted my own copies of. I finished reading two of these titles during the month (Break In by Dick Francis and a Martha Grimes mystery) so that challenge was met. 

The May challenge is to read a book you bought as a new release which I almost never do, so that one may be tough for me. 

Unread Shelf Project 2021

My UnRead Shelves, 3/1/2021

During February I finished sorting all my books and my owned-but-not-read (OBNR) number as of today is 101. I found some books in my shelves that are OBNR and I got rid of several that I no longer have any interest in reading. The repainting of my home office was also completed in February and I have moved all my OBNR books to a single bookcase in there. 

The February UnRead Shelf challenge was to read a book you got for free. I read two books that met this criteria: I finished Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum and am about half-way through Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. I didn't love Ozma, it is very a much a children's book and I found it dull but I have read it and it is now in the box of books to give away. I am enjoying Auntie Mame. 

The March Unread Shelf challenge is to read a book you bought on a trip. I have two of these, both bought on a trip to Quebec in 2018. They are both doorstops of literary fiction which is a category currently being filled in my reading life by Hilary Mantel's Cromwell novels. Besides the monthly challenges there is also a list of Bonus Challenges from The Unread Shelf and I may go with one of those this month. These are the bonus options:

• A book you bought because of a recommendation 
• A book given to you that you didn't ask for 
• A book with more than 500 pages 
• A book you got for a special occasion 
• A book from your favorite genre 
• A book bought because of the hype 
• A book from a Little Free Library 
• The unread book most recently acquired 
• A backlist title by an author with a newer release available

Unread Shelf Project February 2021

My Unread Shelf, Feb. 1, 2021

At the beginning of this year I had identified 43 books as owned-but-not-read (OBNR). Last month I went through most of my shelves and gathered 3 boxes of books to give away and sorted the rest into read and un-read. My OBNR number is, as of today, 95. I think as I go through the year this number will continue to move around. I may unearth more stashes of books that need to be included, and some will get read or given away (or both).

The January challenge for the UnRead Shelf project was to read a book with high expectations. I ended up reading 2 books that met this challenge: Plan B by Anne LaMott and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. Besides the challenge books I also finished Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively (for the December 2020 challenge) and Brooklyn by Thomas Campanella from my OBNR list.

The February UnRead Shelf challenge is to read a book you got for free. I pulled 17 books that fit that criteria and put them on a shelf together in my OBNR bookcase. A couple were publisher giveaways, some belonged to my parents and ended up on my shelves, and several were gifts. I'm not sure which will get read this month, but they are at hand when I'm ready for my next book. 

Unread Shelf Project January 2021

My UnRead Shelf, Jan 2021

I went through all my shelves in the last months of 2020 and identified 43 books as owned-but-not-read. I gathered most of these into a single bookcase. (Some are elsewhere because they are part of a project or collection that has its own home). During 2021 I am going to endeavor to read as many of these as I can. Or to decide I am not going to read some of these books and move them on to a new home. Most of these books have been in my house for many years and I have no idea exactly where they came from. As I get though these additional titles may be shifted to this collection so 43 is definitely not a firm number. 

  January challenge for the UnRead Shelf project is to read a book with high expectations. I considered several books for this designation: the 3rd and final volume of Blanche Weisen Cook's Eleanor Roosevelt biography (I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first 1300+ pages), an Anne LaMott book (Bird by Bird is an all-time favorite); The Moonstone (arguably the first mystery novel); and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (so much hype, so many awards!) I decided to go with Let the Great World Spin. Will see how that goes.

The December 2020 UnRead Shelf challenge was to read the shortest book on your shelf which for me was Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively at 199 pages. At this point it is still in progress, but I am moving through it, and for the most part enjoying it.