Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction
by Neal Wyatt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am continuing my readers' advisory reading project (see genre fiction, historical fiction, and mystery fiction). This was a really interesting volume in this series as nonfiction needs to be viewed through different frames than fiction for the purpose of providing readers' advisory services.  It seems obvious (at least it did to me) that subject matter would drive a readers' choices in nonfiction, but there is a lot more too it than that.

"The four intertwined aspects of nonfiction should be considered as individual elements that work collectively to determine the experience of reading. None of these elements stays neatly in a box all its own. Subject and type work in unison. Appeal wanders all over a book. The appeal elements blend into one another, affect one another, and affect narrative nature as well." (p. 22)

Here is my list of potential reading from this book:

• Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss [sports- bio & memoir]
• A Year at the Races by Jane Smiley [sports-essays & musings]
• Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule [true crime- reporting]
• Blue Blood by Edward Conlon [true crime- bio, memoir & personal accounts]
• The Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater [travel - memoir & personal accounts]
• An Embarrassment of Mangos by Ann Vanderhoof [travel - memoir & personal accounts]
• Theatre of Fish: Travels Through Newfoundland and Labrador by John Gimlette [travel - history, land & place]
• The 8:55 to Baghdad by Andrew Eames [travel - journeys, escapes & adventures]
• Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee [travel - journeys, escapes & adventures]
• Imagined London by Anna Quindlen [travel - journeys, escapes & adventures]
• Big Weather by Mark Svenvold [true adventure - - bio & memoir]
• Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917 by Laura M. MacDonald [history - disasters]
• 1968: The Year that Rocked the World by Mark Kurlansky [history - pivot points]
  
• The Eloquent Essay edited by John Loughery [general NF- essays]
• Best American Essays of the Century edited by Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan [general NF- essays]
• The Fourth Genre edited by Robert L. Root and Michael Steinberg [general NF- essays]
• The Barn at the End of the World by Mary Rose O'Reilley [general NF- religion & spirituality]
•  Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert [general NF- social sciences]

Readers' Advisory Guide to Mystery

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Mystery 

by John Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am continuing my readers' advisory reading project (see genre fiction, and historical fiction) and thought this book would be an interesting read that, because I have read a lot of mysteries, wouldn't add too much to by TBR. It was super interesting but I still ended up with a lot of new titles to read.

There are a LOT of resources packed into this short (168 pages) book. Lists of movies, tv-shows, books for discussion, resources to read more about mysteries, as well as numerous titles and read-similars for various sub-genres. There are also sections on collection development and marketing your library's mystery collection that were full of good ideas and an extensive resource list of organizations (like Mystery Readers International), and awards (like the Nero Wolfe Award). 

My main quibble with the book is that they described Ngaio Marsh (more than once) as a British writer. She is a New Zealander and a major mystery writer of the golden age. That error raised concerns for me about the overall accuracy of the book. 

Here is my list of potential reading from this book:

• The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (the first Spencer novel)
• Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler 
• Unexpected Night by Elizabeth Daly (author is recommended for Christie fans and this is the first in the series)
• Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart (starts a cozy series set in a bookstore)
• The Body in the Bellfry by Katherine Hall Page (starts a cozy series set in a small New England town)
• Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (this has been on my TBR list, but I was reminded that I need to get to this one)
• The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman (I suspect this book won't be to my taste, but it is a style of mystery I haven't read (Western) and should check out)
• Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb (set in Italy and a read-similar for the Donna Leon novels)
• Dashiell Hammett: A Life by Diane Johnson
• Agatha Christie: A Biography by Janet Morgan
• Black Beech and Honeydew: An Autobiography by Ngaio Marsh
• Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel by Julian Symons (1993 edition)
• A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie by Robert Barnard

I am only planning to read one more of these Readers' Advisory Guides which is a good thing because my TBR list is getting out of control! If only it were true that librarians just sit around all day reading.

Readers' Advisory Guide to Historical Fiction

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Historical Fiction 

by Jennifer S. Baker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As I mentioned in my sign-up post for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge I am not a big reader of this genre. I have been working on my readers' advisory skills recently for work and I read this book as part of that project. I found it very interesting -- particularly the definitions of sub-genres and what seemed to be a tremendous struggle to get these massive tomes to fit into any kind of classification structure. Ultimately I'm not sure they do. I was somewhat reassured by the numerous books discussed in this volume that I have read. 

One of the key pieces of advice in this book is that to get to know this genre (or any other) you need to read in it. A reading plan is provided at the end of the book, but as I was reading I kept notes of titles that appealed to me so have constructed my own Historical Fiction reading plan. This list constitutes thousands of pages of reading, even if I don't continue with any of these series,  so I am not setting any time-frame for completing it, but am compiling a list of potential reading for future reference.

There are a few authors that I want to read something by, but don't have a specific title in mind:

• Howard Fast (I remember my Mom reading his books when I was a kid)
• Jean Plaidy 
• Mazo de la Roche (the Whiteoaks of Jalna series--set in Canada)

Then there are specific books that looked interesting to me:

• Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell (set in pre-history)
• I, Claudius by Robert Graves (set in the ancient world)
• A Sudden Country by Susan Fisher (the Oregon Trail -19th century)
• Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres (fall of the Ottoman Empire -20th century)
• The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan (set in Canada -early 20th century)
• Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman (biographical fiction, historical figure)
• The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey (biographical fiction, artist)
• The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (from section on Latino fiction)
• The Outlander by Gil Adamson (set in the Canadian West)
• And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander (a mystery series for Amelia Peabody fans) 
• Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali (first book in a time-sweep series about a Muslim family in Granada in 1492)

There were also some titles that were already on my TBR list that I am even more excited about now:

• Lust for Life by Irving Stone
• Passing by Nella Larsen
• New York by Edward Rutherford

Buttered Side Down

Buttered Side Down 

by Edna Ferber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This collection of short stories was first published in 1912 and I picked it up because I had never read any Edna Ferber and thought I should and because I needed a book from 1912 for my Century of Books project. The copy I borrowed from the library was published in 1912 which I thought was kind of cool. (It isn't the one pictured, GoodReads didn't have the edition I got). 

I really liked these stories. They are about the part of life that is typified by the expression that "toast always falls buttered side down." The voice of the author is very much present in the stories and I found that entertaining. Most of them start off telling you what kind of a story it will be and often commenting about the likely-hood of publishers accepting or rejecting it. Ferber begins the book by explaining that she knows nothing about New York, but knows that stories are always set there and that she is telling us this to save editors the trouble of continuing to read as the stories are about Chicago. The final story in the collection, "Where the Car Turns at 18th" was sad, but all the others were wry and witty and felt true. 

"I've found out one thing, and it's a great little lesson when you get it learned. Most of us are where we are because we belong there, and if we didn't we wouldn't be." (from "That Home-town Feeling."

I will definitely read more by Edna Ferber. This book counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a classic book of short stories).

Esau and Jacob

Esau and Jacob 

by Machado de Assis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the third novel I have read by Machado de Assis. In college I read The Posthumous Memories of Bras Cubas (Epitaph of a Small Winner is the English title) and Quincas Borba (which was called Philosopher or Dog? in English) and really enjoyed both. I liked the style of this novel which is one of his later novels (it was published in 1904). I felt like this story dragged a bit though. My recollection is that the earlier books had a similar style; the author jumps in regularly to comment on the story he is telling. A few quotes illustrate the style:

"They might not have the same opinions, and they might have the same likes ... From that to saying that both loved her was a comma; Pedro placed the period on the sentence." (p. 114)

"They had been to the theater with Aires one evening, killing time. You know this dragon. Everyone has given him the hardest blows they can; he kicks, expires, and revives. So it went, that night. I don't know which theater it was, nor which play, nor which genre. Whatever it was, the purpose was to kill time, and the three left him stretched out on the floor." (p. 192)

Dom Casmuro (published 1899) is the other major novel by this author and is on my TBR list.

On What Grounds

On What Grounds 

by Cleo Coyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A perky main character.
An "accident" that just doesn't seem right.
An attractive police officer.
An ex with whom things aren't entirely over.
All the boxes are checked in this cozy coffee-themed mystery.

I have added the next installment in this series (Through the Grinder) to my TBR list. Cleo Coyle is a pen name of Alice Alfonsi whose Haunted Bookshop series (written with her husband Marc Cerasini as Alice Kimberly) also looks interesting. It begins with The Ghost and Mrs. McClure. 

This book counts toward the Cruising Through the Cozies challenge as a "culinary mystery."

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 Sentence

The Sentence 

by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Perhaps it is a foreshadowing of things to come that my first book of the year was so wonderful! I have read several of Erdrich's novels over the years and have liked some more than others. This one was outstanding. It is the story of Tookie whose life has been difficult but who finds herself when this story begins in a place from which she can hold things together. There are lots of threads to this story, including the Covid pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, identity, the power of literature, and what it means to love.

"For a while in my life I'd lived with the certainty that I would be held in love, and now I was sleeping in a parking lot." 

"Walking is a feat of controlled falling. Like life, I guess."

At the end of the novel is a long list of books grouped under varios headings and related to the story in some way. (I love novels with bibliographies!) These are books from that list that I am considering adding to my TBR:

• poetry by Joy Harjo--not sure yet which book ("indigenous poetry")
• The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald ("short perfect novels")
• The Vixen by Francine Prose ("Books for banned love")
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro ("Sublime books")

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers 

by Alexandre Dumas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.”

I began reading this back in October as part of the chapter-a-day readalong at One Catholic Life. I should have finished this on the last day of the year, but when I got to within a few chapters of the end I had to keep going to see what was going to happen!

In her introduction (which, as is my habit, I read after finishing the novel) Barbara Cooper explains that this is the story of "D'Artagnan's transformation from an impetuous youth to a thoughtful, resolute adult." His path is far from straight and there are adventures, mistakes, and lessons along the way. I really enjoyed this novel and plan to read more of Dumas' work.

This title is from my Classics Club list.

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen 

by Rumer Godden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this biography for #RumerGoddenReadingWeek2021 

I knew nothing about Andersen's life before reading this book so I have no idea how accurate a depiction it is. I decided to read it because the library I work at owns it. It was a very charmingly written book and read more like a fairy tale than a biography. As she did in Black Narcissis, Godden included details of the settings in her tale:

"The clouds often floated below the house; there was stillness and rest in the dark pine trees standing round it, in the big forests that led away; there was beauty in the bright green grass and the juicy violet-colored crocus; there was peace in which to write his poem, the poem that haunted him and that he had begun in Paris." (p. 130)

There are numerous sections of Andersen's work quoted throughout to illustrate various points which was helpful as I was not that familiar with his writings. There are a lot of places where we are told very specifically what Andersen was thinking about a person or an experience. I presume there must have been letters and diaries, but this isn't stated in the book and some of them are from periods of Andersen's life before he went to school which seems odd. Godden maintains a distinct authorial voice throughout the book, she is clearly telling us about this man rather than immersing her readers in the episodes to see things for themselves. This is helpful to the reader as the significance of events to Andersen's later development is explicit. 

 

Overall I enjoyed this book and plan to read some more of Andersen's tales. Godden does offer some helpful advice regarding translations and suggests that the ones by R. P. Keigwin are the closest in style to the original Danish and that the style is an important part of what makes these stories special.

Black Narcissus

Black Narcissus 

by Rumer Godden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this novel for #RumerGoddenReadingWeek2021 

“You have to be very strong to live close to God or a mountain, or you'll turn a little mad.”

This novel is about a group of Catholic nuns who go to a remote house in the Himalayas to establish a convent for their order. They are already living close to God (they are nuns) and now they are also close to a mountain and the heart of this story is their struggle over whether it will turn each of them a little mad.

I found the style of this book very easy to read and it reminded me of Barbara Pym (whose work I love).  It was a old-fashioned in that anything racy happened off the page. We see the story through the eyes of multiple characters, but we never get very deep into what makes each of these people who they are. The Superior Sister is the only one we get any background about. The story is compelling though, and I kept turning pages to see what was going to happen to them all. Godden does a marvelous job of creating the place.

“Towards four o'clock the dew fell, and she smelled a gust of sweetness from the roses and a paleness showed in the sky to the East. It was cold; the wetness was cold on her hands and she felt her skirt dragging around her ankles... the light spread, there were long lines of cloud in the sky and presently above them the outline of the snow peaks appeared, cold and hard as if they were made of iron; they turned from black to grey to white while the hills were still in darkness.
Then the forest came, mysteriously out of the darkness, and the light moved down, turning the trees dark blue and green, and the terrace was full of a swimming light that was colourless and confusing... Then she looked up and saw that the Himalayas were showing in their full range, and were coloured in ash and orange and precious Chinese pink, deeper in the east, paler in the west.
The people called it 'the flowering of the snows”

Overall this was a very enjoyable novel and I look forward to reading more of Godden's work. 

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. 

The Republic of Love

The Republic of Love 

by Carol Shields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I realized about 3/4 of the way through this book that I had read it before, but since it was at least 20 years ago I am counting it as a newly-read book. 

I enjoyed this novel very much.  It is the stories of an interconnected group of people in Winnipeg who are each trying to figure out how to make a life for themselves and perhaps fit a romantic partner into that life. The characters are all in mid-life (or older) and the weight of their past connections makes things more challenging. I found all the characters appealing in their own quirky ways and especially liked Tom, who has been divorced three times and can't quite imagine how he came to be in this position.  

This is one of my #20booksofsummer2021 and my first finish for the 15th Canadian  book challenge. 

Under the Big Top

Under the Big Top 

by Bruce Feiler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second Bruce Fieler book I have read and while the topic was VERY different from the first one (Walking the Bible) the tone was similar and I plan to read more from this author. 

I learned about this book on Strong Sense of Place (a podcast that you should definitely listen to if you can accept that your TBR list will grow with every episode). It was a fascinating, and very empathetic, inside look at a world I knew nothing about. Fieler joins the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus as a clown for the full run of the 1993 season. Mixed in with his experiences are stories about the people and animals he met and the history of the circus.

"When I decided to join a circus, I viewed it as a life on the road, as a way to discover the backyard of America from the back lot of a travelling neighborhood. After almost four months on the show I had begun to revise my view. While each stop along our nine-month route reflected the area around it, I found that I was encountering the true variety of American life not in the various communities that leavide near the tent, but in the one community that lived underneath it--the circus itself. With its two hundred employees from all corners of the globe, holding all manner of religious and political beliefs, the circus represented a true melting pot." (p.176)

If you want to learn about life in the circus at the end of the 20th century, this is your book. 

Love

Love 

by Roddy Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Things you make up bleed into things tha' definitely happened. Like describin' an event, an actual occasion. You add to it, you take things out. You forget exact details. I don't think it's dishonest.”

I'm not really sure how I felt about this book. It made me think. It made me sad. It seemed to want us to believe that love is a real thing. It couldn't really offer solid proof though. Played a lot with questions of memory. Is there a version of the past that "really happened" or is it all just the perception of the people who remember it, including those who weren't even there.

The Assassin's Song

The Assassin's Song 
by M.G. Vassanji
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Set against the backdrop of the violence and conflict of 20th century India this is the story of Karsan Dargawalla, a boy who want to be a professional cricket player but is expected to follow in his father's path and become lord of the shrine of a medieval sufi. 
Karsan's journey takes him to Cambridge in the 1960s and various Canadian provinces. Ultimately this novel, which is very well written and full of interesting historic tidbits, is about the search for individual identity. Is our identity predestined or can we make choices that will change who we become? Vassanji examines this question through the character of Karsan. 
The author lives in Toronto. I am counting this book toward the Canadian Book Challenge. 

Casino Royale

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like most people, the James Bond I was familiar with was the one from the movies. He is suave and imperturbable (and Pierce Brosnan was my favorite). This James Bond is quite different. He is a bundle of prejudices, fussy behaviors, and insecurities. Some terrible things happen to him in this book which is much darker than any of the films are. 

“Like all harsh, cold men, he was easily tipped over into sentiment.”

Stepping back from the comparison to the movies this is a good novel. The cars are fabulous and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the gambling. 

“Above all, he liked it that everything was one's own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared”

The writing style reminded me a bit of Dashiell Hammett who wrote about 20 years earlier.

This title is on my Classics Club list.

Lady Oracle

Lady Oracle
by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an early Atwood novel (1976) and it is the same mix of timelines that she uses in later novels. It is the story of Joan, a Canadian woman writer, and the various aspects of her life over the years. Because of the timeline shifting even though you are in Joan's head the whole time there is a good amount of suspense about what is going to happen to her. As in Blind Assassin there is another story, a 'costume gothic' Joan is writing mixed into the novel. The story is compelling and somewhat twisty, there are weird and intriguing characters, and astute observations about the world. A typically wonderful Atwood novel.
I loved this observation. The speaker is Polish and he is talking about English:

"I myself once wished to be a writer, I wished to be like Tolstoy, you understand; but now I am exiled from my own language, and this one is fit for nothing but to make hoardings with. It has no music, it does not sing, it is always trying to sell you something." (p. 147)

This is my first post for the 13th Canadian Book Challenge.

The Hanging Valley

The Hanging Valley by Peter Robinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the 4th installment in the Inspector Banks series by Toronto author Peter Robinson. Chief Inspector Alan Banks works in Yorkshire, England (where the author was raised) and in this novel is investigating the death of a man found in a remote area outside the village of Swainshead.
The mystery in this book was not as well constructed as the previous one I read, but the characters were interesting and Banks takes a trip to Toronto which gave Robinson an opportunity for both description and commentary on "modern" (ca. 1989) Canada.
I am counting this toward the Canadian Book Challenge.

The Big Wheel

The Big Wheel: Monte Carlo's Opulent Century
by George W. Herald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was published in 1963 and is the history of Monte Carlo and its famous casino. Aristotle Onassis ran the casino at that point, and was involved in a somewhat scandalous affair with opera singer Maria Callas. Primarily this book is a bit of political history mixed into a lot of colorful tabloid tales of the rich and famous. It was entertaining, though not particularly deep.
This book counts toward two of my 2018 reading challenges: the Nonfiction Reading Challenge and the European Reading Challenge (for Monaco).