My Porch

Bits and Roberts

2013-05-24T14:21:00.000-04:00

[Editor's note: Since a few of the bobs this week are a bit lengthy, the Editorial Board decided that this week's Bits and Bobs could not be accurately named so. Not wanting to break from the Bits and Bobs format, the Board determined by majority vote to temporarily modify the title of the series for this, and any, occasion when a Bob is long enough as to constitute being a Robert.]

Classic Club Spin 2
At the last minute I decided to take part in the Classic Club Spin 2. The number spun was 6 and so the classic that I must read by July 1st is The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Field. I am a little disappointed in the spin. Not because I don't want to read TLAB, but rather because I was hoping the spin would force me to read something I was less keen to read, like Little Dorritt or Vanity Fair. Still, the spin did its job because the Field is a book that I probably would not have gotten around to for some time. I have half a mind to use the rest of my Spin list as some kind of crazy reading guide for the second half of 2013. As if finishing my Century of Books list isn't enough.

Letting go of Bowen
Speaking of A Century of Books, one thing the process has forced me to face is that some authors may not be for me. Since I finished the majority of my ACOB list, I decided to read the remaining titles in chronological order. And let me tell you, when I am faced with a book I must read before I can go on to the next year on the list, I really start to get honest with myself about what I think of an author or book. You may remember me jettisoning Virginia Woolf earlier this year. I have read a few of her books, but after really, really struggling to finish the short Mrs. Dalloway, I decided there would be very little Woolf in my future. (I'm still going to try Leonard.)

So I made my way to 1929 and Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September. In 1999 I read my first Bowen, The Death of the Heart and I remember finding it a little slow but overall liking it. A few years later I read To the North and had a similar experience. When I read The House in Paris in 2007 I quite liked it, giving it 8 out of 10. So I had high hopes for The Last September. But I struggled. I think I reread the first three pages three or four times with nothing sinking in. As I pushed myself forward to about page 60, all I could think was how much I wasn't enjoying it and how I really couldn't wait for it to be over. I know I am not supposed to think that way about the great Bowen, but boy it didn't work for me.

I know very little about formal literary criticism or what constitutes what in terms of literary periods. But, having recently read and hated the "modern" (so I'm told) Some Do Not, the first of the Parade's End books by Ford Madox Ford, I began to pay more attention to the notion of modernist novels and the fact that I think I may have a tendency to a universal dislike of the style/period. Isn't Woolf considered modern? And while I wouldn't lump The Last September in with Parade's End, it did seem to have a whiff of the modern about it. And because all I could do was think how much I didn't care about the characters and the fact that I didn't like the writing itself, I decided it was time to let the Bowen go. Maybe another time and maybe another Bowen.

(If the Studs Lonigan trilogy is modern, I am in trouble since they are coming up on my list.)

Passing by Nella Larsen
Since I eighty-sixed the Bowen I needed to come up with a book from 1929 to fill the gap. Consulting all the relevant lists online and elsewhere, I began to despair. Not only did I not seem to have anything in my library from 1929 but all the titles were totally obscure or weren't really tripping my trigger. The only title I saw that interested me was the great Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis. But I read that ages ago. I even began to consider reading some non-fiction. (gasp)

So I left Lucy to chase chipmunks in the backyard so I could consult my shelves. I first went to my tower of unread Viragos. Out of about 40 of them I finally found one from 1929. The Laquer Lady by the oddly named F. Tennyson Jesse, it appeared to be a bit of historical fiction, which I thought kind of defeated the purpose of reading something from 1929. Moving through my unread hardcover collection I found nothing from 1929. Moving yet again over to my unread paperback shelves I came across Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves. Ostensibly a memoir, this also didn't seem to really capture 1929 in the way I was hoping for. Plus non-fiction would never be my first choice (unless it was 84, Charing Cross Road).

Then I spotted a title that I had seen on the wikipedia list of novels from 1929. Passing by Nella Larsen. I had no idea I owned the book, but once I looked at it I realized I bought it fairly recently. It is one of those pale blue-spined Penguin Modern Classics that have such wonderful covers. I often buy lovely Penguin books at used book sales just because I like their covers. I am sure I picked this one up initially for that reason but I am also sure that I bought it because the subject was fascinating. It actually turned out to be way better than the Bowen in terms of capturing the spirit of 1929. No doubt The Last September is very much about its time, but it also smacks of earlier decades as the characters hold on dearly to the life of tennis parties at a big country estate despite. But in Passing, the 1920s are split open. It captures the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, paints a picture 1920s Chicago and New York, and vividly describes race relations in middle and upper class society at the time.

The novel focuses on Clare, a light skinned African American woman who "passes" for white and is married to a racist white man who doesn't know her true racial identity and Irene who can pass for white but doesn't try to. The two were childhood friends but haven't seen each other since Clare went off to live her white life. After bumping into each other in a whites only rooftop restaurant in Chicago, their two lives become linked in a way that leads to tragedy. This was a fascinating book for so many reasons. I am so glad the Bowen didn't work out.

Some progress
Although I am quite enjoying A Suitable Boy, and find it to be a bit of a page turner, I still find myself needing to accomplish something in my reading. Meaning I have an overwhelming need to finish books more quickly so I have been reading shorter works while I work my way through ASB.

Ready to trip the light Pymtastic?
As most of you are aware by now, Barbara Pym Reading Week is just around the bend. Excitement has been picking up in the blogging world, on Facebook, and on Twitter (#PymReadingWeek). It was even featured in the latest issue of Green Leaves, the newsletter of the Barbara Pym Society. For more information on the upcoming reading week just scroll down to the previous post.

Barbara Pym Reading Week is almost here

2013-05-19T17:22:00.000-04:00

We are less than two weeks away from Barbara Pym Reading Week in honor of the centenary of Pym's birth. Every day from June 1st to the 8th, Amanda at Fig and Thistle and I will be posting Pym-related features on our blogs. We will also be linking to other bloggers around the world who will also post Pym-related items that week. There will be GIVEAWAYS and even a CONTEST that we will announce on opening day of the reading week.

Don't have a blog but love Barbara Pym?
No problem. You will have lots of fun things to look at that week and will be eligible for the giveaways and the contest. And all of us bloggers love getting comments. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Have a blog but don't know Barbara Pym?
No problem. This is your chance to be introduced to one of the 20th century's wittiest novelists. If you want to participate use one of the banners below on your blog to let people know you are taking part and let us know back on our blogs so we can link to your Pym-related post.

Don't have a blog AND don't know Barbara Pym?
No problem. Come back here or go to Fig and Thistle on June 1st and see what all the fuss is about. You can also go to your library and check out a Pym novel, go to Open Road Media to download an electronic version.

On Facebook?
Blogger Heaven Ali is hosting a Virtual Tea Party on June 2nd in honor of Pym's 100th birthday.

On Twitter?
Amanda (@nerdybookgirl) and I (@Thomasatmyporch) and many others will be tweeting about all things Pym using #PymReadingWeek and #BarbaraPym100. In fact the tweeting has already begun. (Some of us have already been called #PymPimps or #Pymps.)

What (my) readers like

2013-05-19T07:38:00.001-04:00

I was trying to think of a clever hook for the pictures I am about to post when I began thinking about why I was posting them in the first place--other than John urging me that is. What occurred to me was that readers, and certainly my readers, like this kind of thing. Then I began thinking of all the affinities beyond books that we readers seem to share. And although each of these items is not universal to all readers, or even to all readers of My Porch, I think if we were all in a room together these are the things we would end up talking about.

Lists
Libraries (natch)
Hot beverages (tea, the coffee family, cocoa)
Baking
Book shops (see Libraries)
Travel (actual or vicarious)
Helene Hanff
Twitter (a very book-friendly place)
Pets (Lucy, Deacon, Sherpa, Odie, Jasper, Ritchey, Hops, etc.)
CSAs, Farmers Markets, and fresh vegetables in general
Typewriters
Knitting (not something I am interested in, but I know you are legion)
Gardens

Ah yes, gardens, the reason for this post, phtots of John's efforts in the garden paying off...

While I am at it, here are some photos from our recent road trip to Ithaca to go to a book sale.

Proof of the Canadian invasion of the border states.
If it weren't for Tim Hortons, I would say that it is time to build that wall.

One of the great things about a road trip to central New York from DC is that you can avoid the I-95 corridor entirely. Thirty minutes or so on I-270 and then you can jump onto U.S. 15 all the way trhough Pennsylvania, which is in surpisingly good repair, scenic, and low on traffic.

With lumberjacks like this...

On the way home we stopped by Whitmore Farm which is owned and farmed by friends of ours.

I don't know which of the next three photos came first. ;-)

Can't forget about little Lucy.

Letting someone else choose your book

2013-05-16T07:11:00.000-04:00

Not only do I have a really hard time allowing someone to choose a book for me to read, but I am so much of a contrarian I tend to rebel against reading lists of my own creation even before the digital ink is even dry. Yet I am oddly drawn to something Amanda, my co-host for the upcoming Barbara Pym Reading Week, blogged about yeterday. She is participating in the Classics Club Spin #2 in which participants make a list of 20 classics they are dying to read, dreading to read, or some combination thereof. Then on May 20th, the good people at the Classics Club choose a random number between 1 and 20 and then you go off and read the classic on your list that corresponds with the chosen number by July 1st.

I couldn't resist. Here is my list. I have peppered it with things I am dying to read, some that I am less interested in reading but are part of finishing off my Century of Books list, and some are weighty classics that have been gathering dust in my library. In all cases I own all of the books listed, so I will have no excuses.

1. The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
2. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

3. Jessie Philips by Fanny Trollope
4. The Old Man and Me by Elaine Dundy
5. Young Lonigan by James T. Farrell
6. The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac by Eugene Field
7. Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
8. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
9. The Well by Sinclair Ross
10. Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
11. Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
12. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
13. Pamela by Samuel Richardson
14. Vanity Fair by Thackery
15. Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
16. An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
17. Summer Will Show by Sylvia Warner Townsend
18. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
19. Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell
20. Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley

Reading Update

2013-05-15T10:15:00.000-04:00

The recent weekend road trip means that I haven't had much time read. Still happily working away at A Suitable Boy. To recap my recent reads, I will start with the one I wanted to hurl across the room because it was so bad...

Constance Harding's (Rather) Startling Year (US)
A Surrey State of Affairs (UK) by Ceri Radford
Let me try and make a few comparisons to help explain this piece of derivative dreck: The cluelessness of Hyacinth Bucket was only marginally funny when the show was new 23 years ago. Radford seems to think that putting Hyacinth (Constance) on the Internet is a sure fire way to make this book hilarious. It isn't. Bridget Jones all grown up at 53 but without any of Helen Fielding's wit. But Constance is so much cooler than Bridget because she has a blog rather than a diary. What innovation. It's as if Radford took every one-dimensional starchy British character she had ever seen in American film and TV and decided that was going to be her heroine. This is 30-year old Radford (she was only ten when Hyacinth was cutting edge) trying to get into the brain of a 53-year old and failing miserably. There are ways to portray out of touch housewives that are much funnier and less insulting to the intelligence of readers (and housewives).

Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells
I read this one to cover 1992 on my A Century of Books list. And it certainly had all of the hallmarks of books of that period: drunken, abusive parents (oh, look that pregnant woman is smoking), satirical look at the Catholic church, sassy southern women just begging to be adapted to the Hollywood screen. This prequel to the Ya-Ya sisterhood is a poor man's Steel Magnolias.

Surprising Myself by Christopher Bram
The 1987 debut novel of Gods and Monsters (Father of Frankenstein) author Christopher Bram. I read this one right after high school and loved it. Twenty-six years later the landscape for young gays is so, so different, so this reads a bit like historical fiction, but it still managed to charm me a second time.

Quartet by Jean Rhys
The only "serious" book I have read lately. Enjoyable in that tragic French life kind of way. Woman's husband ends up in prison, she becomes a mistress to survive...angst, jealousy, more angst. I actually quite liked it. Makes me wish I had gotten my hands on the two Jean Rhys Penguins before Frances found them.

Book Sale Finds (with a helping of Farmer's Market)

2013-05-14T14:15:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we headed up to Ithaca, New York so that I could go to the gigantic Tompkins County Friends of the Library book sale. They have the sale twice a year in October and May. The sale goes for three successive weekends with the prices getting cheaper each day. On the first day of the sale hardcover books are all $4.50. By the 4th day (the day we were there) hardcover prices are down to $2.50 a title. And by the final day of the sale you can get all you can fit in a bag for just $1.

We probably wouldn't have driven six hours one way for just a sale, but since we have friends in Ithaca we hadn't seen in a while, we decided to make a weekend of it. JoAnn at Lakeside Musings was at the sale about six hours after I was. It looks like she had good luck with trade paperbacks which I skipped entirely. Too many people in my way. Plus I was looking for older things that couldn't possibly interest anyone but me.

Now, the books.

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
I have heard this one is a bit of a depressing snooze. But it is seminal work of early LGBT fiction, so I thought I would give it a go.

An Unsuitable Attachment and A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym
I am trying to get all of Pym's books in these hardcover Dutton editions. I have five of them now. But this Green Leaves turns out to be a dupe of something I already have. I am going to send it to JoAnn to thank her for sending me an Angela Thirkell novel.

The Glory of the Conquered by Susan Glaspell
I keep collecting the works of this author, I think she has been reissued by Persephone, but I haven't read any of them yet. I hope I like her work or I will have a lot of duds on my shelf.

The Railway Police and The Last Trolley Ride by Hortense Calisher
I know nothing about this book, but I like the fact that both novellas are train related. And the author's name is Hortense. It must be fantastic.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
There were several copies of this on the shelf each with a different pattern on the cover. Seemed like it was worth a go.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope
I collect these little Oxford World Classic hardcovers so I don't always need to like the actual work. I am ambivalent about Dickens but love Trollope. Only it turns out I already had both of these at home.

Although I only recognized Penelope Lively's name, I thought this look interesting and whould go well with my Anglo-iana collection. But now looking at the cover, I realize I also know Helen Cresswell. She wrote a series of juvenile books that were favorites of mine gorwing up even though I only understood about half of the English (vs American) vocabulary.

Too many people thing I am an a-hole for not liking du Maurier. So I am going to give this one a go. Many tell me this is their favorite. Hopefully third time will be the charm for me with this author.

Another little Trollope in an Oxford World Classic edition. A lovely edition of Margery Sharp's The Foolish Gentlewoman which I was so happy to find. Turns out I also have that one at home. Sheesh. And then a gigantic bio of ICB.

While in Ithaca, we also stopped by the fantastic farmer's market. One of the best I have ever been to. It has its own purpose built pavilion right near the foot of Cayuga Lake.

Bits and Bobs (the progress edition)

2013-05-04T10:20:00.000-04:00

Not resting on my laurels
My friend Roz and I are in a competition to see which of us can read a 100 books first. Earlier in the year she had expressed a desire to read at least a hundred books in 2013. Knowing what a competitive person she is, I thought a little rivalry was all she needed to achieve her goal. Last time we checked-in with each other she was at 36 books and I was at 41. I think both of these totals are pretty impressive with only four months of the year gone. But all Roz could see was that she wasn't in the lead. I think she is a little hard on herself. She will clearly meet her goal for the year and she is a much, much busier person than I am. If she isn't running half marathons she is running all over DC doing more things in a year than I have done in a decade.

So the other day when I was at the fantastic Politics and Prose not far from my house I spotted the enormous Vikram Seth novel A Suitable Boy. I have always been curious about this book. I even think Roz mentioned that she was thinking of reading. And it was just one of those moments when one knows the time is right. Plus I thought with 41 (now 42) books completed for the year already I certainly had the breathing room and it might give Roz the chance to keeping running half marathons and to take the lead in our reading competition.

Like I did with War and Peace, I have decided to keep a counter of my progress. Unlike War and Peace, A Suitable Boy is several degrees more enjoyable to read and I find the Indian names easier to follow than Russian ones.

Spring has sprung like crazy
After some weird, freakishly warm weather in early April, temperatures here in DC have settled into a very nice, coolish, largely, sunny spring. The early warmth seems to have really encouraged everything to grow and bloom at once. This is in crazy contrast to the snow that continues to dog the midwest.

And speaking of weather
The film adaptation of Julia Strachey's Cheerful Weather for the Wedding arrived from Netflix on Friday. I found it thoroughly enjoyable. I think the fact that I had read the book a few years ago helped put me in the right frame of mind for watching it. I wonder what I would have thought if I hadn't known what to expect. Although it had been a while since I read the book, I was pretty sure that liberties had been taken. Nothing jarring, just different. So when I finished the film I pulled the book off the shelf and read it in one sitting. Both book and film benefited from the reread.

The book takes place in March, the film takes place at Christmas. My guess is so that they could dress the set
to make it clear that it was a cold time of the year even if the landscape didn't indicate so. For those of you interested in architecture, note the way they did the (what appears to be lead?) flashing above the door.
Usually, at least in DC, it would be done with a simple, but less elegant stepped pattern.

Flashback to sunnier times.

You can't tell in this photo, but there were a couple of scenes in the film when actress Zoe Tapper looked a bit...plump.
I thought she might have been pregnant during filming. Turns out she had a child in 2011,
the film came out in 2012, so I may be correct.

The wonderful Barbara Flynn played Aunt Bella. She also played Mrs. Jamieson in Cranford.

I am annoyed that this picture loaded fine as a thumbnail on Google, but the original image refuses to load. But Kitty was my favorite character in the film, so I decided to include it anyway.

That's Gareth from The Office on the left and the wonderful Fenella Woolgar on the right.

Barbara Pym week is less than a month a way
Barbara Pym week begins on June 1st. Have you decided how you are going to celebrate Pym's centenary? Amanda and I will have a week's worth of Pym related posts and links. And lots of prizes. Books, bags, teabag holders...

Have you ever had to create an index?
The history of St. Elizabeths Hospital that I have spent a year writing for my job is so close to done I can taste it. I decided that it couldn't be worth its weight in digital 0s and 1s if it didn't have an index. Not only does it behoove a work of non-fiction to have one, but I like the thought of putting some obscure names that I plucked out of millions of pages of archival material out into the cybersphere. Who knows who might find that useful. Maybe someone searching for their ancestors will stumble upon the fact that they were once fired from St. Es, or led a staff rebellion there, or ran the prosthetic limb shop. You just don't know. At any rate, creating an index is kind of fun and plenty tedious. Still, it almost done and should be online around mid-month.

Lucy's version of TV
There is a hole in the fence between our yard and the neighbor's yard. Sometimes Lucy gets transfixed with whatever she sees on the other side and will sit for an hour just staring.

Reading Rundown

2013-04-26T13:51:00.001-04:00

Another rapid-fire round of the briefest of thoughts on my recent reads.

Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
Loved, loved, loved this book. Macaulay follows the women in a family over the course of a summer in 1920, each one of them representing a different age/generation. It was beautiful, thoughtful, sad and overall really wonderful. A must for the Persephone crowd.

Final Payments by Mary Gordon
After taking care of her invalid father for eleven years (since she was 19!) Isabel finds herself without a life when he passes away. (Imagine missing your 20s.) When she gets into the work world the descriptions of sexual harassment would seem totally overdrawn if it hadn't been written in 1978. Parts of the book reminded me a bit of Mary McCarthy's The Group.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
I really liked this novel and can understand why it won the Booker. Such an interesting take on memory and regret. I could empathize with protagonist Tony Webster when he receives a letter that he had written decades before. What seemed so justifiable and clever in his early 20s was in reality cruel and over the top and mean. Fascinating stuff. The friend who gave it to me said it reminded him a bit of Anita Brookner. Kind of made sense, but too much happens to be truly like Brookner.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
When I realized I would never make it through Mrs. Dalloway, my Century of Books choice for 1925, I had to find a replacement. (I thought I would be okay with Mrs. D given that I have seen the film version twice and The Hours twice. Didn't work.) The reason Gatsby didn't make my Century of Books list in the first place is that I had read it before and I was trying to keep re-reads off that list as much as possible. And then trying to find a copy that didn't have Leo DiCaprio on the cover was not an easy task, but I managed it. As it turns out I might as well never have read Gatsby for all I remembered about it. So what did I think? Does it matter? Everyone and their dog have analyzed this one. I will say that it's wonderfully evocative and provides a disporportionate number of things one could discuss for its slim 180 pages. I particularly liked one description. At one of Gatsby's parties the bar was "stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another." Imagine a cordial that was so old fashion that it was already forgotten in 1925. And what could the flavors have been?

I won't be seeing the movie. The trailer pisses me off.

And if you have ever wondered how movie tie-in covers sell compared to other covers, check out this article in the New York Times about the Gatsby covers.

Most Talkative by Andy Cohen
The autobiography one of the mastermind behind Bravo's reality empire. Love his live nightly show and I loved parts of this book. Made me laugh out loud. But it got a bit boring when he got into what turned out to be the not very tell all part of this tell all.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
I think I would have liked this better 39 years ago. Charming and all that but so tedious to read with no child around.

Under Fire by Henri Barbusse
A story of life in the trenches during World War I, written while the war was still going on. Very interesting (and gruesome) to read a treatment of the war written before the author knew how it ended. Not unlike the war, it felt like a slog. (How's that for trivializing war?)

The Judge by Rebecca West
I have liked (and loved) other books by Rebecca West, but The Judge will never join that list. Man, I disliked this one. Might have been much more compelling if it had been half as long. West's editor must have been on vacation.

Bits and Bobs (the new books edition)

2013-04-16T15:34:00.001-04:00

(photo credit: Christopher L. Smith)

One of my favorite bookstore in Manhattan
There are many amazing bookstores in NYC, but I think Three Lives & Co. is one of the best. A gorgeous little gem on west 10th Street in Greenwich Village, Three Lives is particularly good for literary fiction. It is one of those bookshops that seems curated rather than stocked. The resulting table displays and staff picks are too exuberant to be elitist. This is a store that makes readers want to pick up books by the armful. I am not prone to buy new books, but Three Lives always makes me do just that. Even when my luggage is too full.

I ran into a few other wonderful shops on our recent trip to New York, most of them secondhand stores (my preference) and I did find one or two other items, but alas I failed to even note the names of the other stores. I have also decided once and for all that The Strand is for chumps, tourists, and wannabes. Now before you take me to task for such a leap of hyperbole, I realize that it can be just the ticket for finding any number of treasures, but god almighty the weekend crowds are annoying as all get out. They make me want to stay up front to buy bags and t-shirts and not even try and squeeze down the narrow aisles and find an actual book. If you do go, at least do it during the week. Might not be as insane.

The books

The Gardam is the third in the Old Filth trilogy. The Barnes and the Jekyll were gifts from my friend Ron who was with me.

The Potato Peel Pie Award for Precious Title goes to...

The cover covers up for this hokey title. I have a sneaking feeling I won't actually like the book. Stay tuned.

I am on the Supreme Court of judging books by their covers
We all do it. I just wish I could get paid to do it. In addition to the Ellis above, these two and the Swift jumped into my hands thanks to their alluring covers.

My friend Ron pointed this one out and bought it for me. I am just waiting for my OCD to kick in which will require me buying the whole series.

I would buy a new Lively no matter what, but this beautiful cover made it truly irresistable.

Although the Lively cover shows a Tulip Magnolia (of which we have a lot in DC), it reminded me of these cherry blossoms I put in our living room a few weeks ago. They had fallen off a neighbor's tree after our late March snow so I brought them inside where they continued to bloom and even to sprout leaves.

What would Anita think?

I know Brookner wouldn't mind a drink, but what would she think of my friend enjoying a Cosmo while reading
Look at Me? I picture her drinking tumblers of brown liquor.

The Real Housewives of Oxford Street

2013-04-01T13:19:00.002-04:00

Even the publicity photo looks like one for a Real Housewives show.

I watched the first two hours of Mr. Selfridge last night. Overall an amusing period diversion, but has the potential to be as shallow and laughable as Downton Abbey.

Just like when I watch any of the Real Housewives shows, all I could think was "can't everyone just get along?"

In particular, poor Agnes Towler. Already within the first two hours she has the following to worry about:

A supervisor who has it in for her from day one
Trashy co-workers who also have it in for her and make fun of her
A developmentally disabled brother who is unknowingly getting caught up in a theft scheme
A father who is a mean drunk and embarrasses her at work
A chief of staff who thinks she is trying to blackmail him
A soon to be boyfriend who almost became a high class hooker

As for Mr. Selfridge, he is doing himself no favors by:

Embarking on an affair with a mercenary actress
Becoming beholden to Lady May who will, no doubt, ask for more than a pound of proverbial flesh at some point
Alienating his wife who is probably going to embark on an affair with a hottie artist
Taking advice from his Machiavellian mother who will probably just enable his bad behavior but could also cause him trouble in other ways

Other observations:

The opening scene where Mr. Selfridge interacts with the floor walker at Gamages. I have had similar customer service experiences in England.
Jeremy Piven seems unable to act preferring to utter every line as a proclamation. But he looks sexy as all get out with his beard.
The scene where Mrs. Selfridge meets the hottie artist at the National Gallery would have been much more believable if they had written the scene so that the artist was sketching/painting in the gallery and the greenhorn from America struck up a conversation with him in her enthusiasm for his work. As it was written the way the artist approached her, and her non-reaction was totally unbelievable.
I keep waiting for Mrs. Slocombe to make a pussy joke.

Last day of the TBR Double Dog Dare

2013-03-31T10:19:00.000-04:00

Today is the last day of the TBR Double Dog Dare hosted by CB James. For the past three months I have limited myself to reading only those books that were already in my possession (on my To Be Read pile) at midnight on December 31, 2012.

Thoughts:

Despite buying quite a few books during the Dare, I didn't really have any issues sticking to the challenge. That doesn't mean, however, that I am not glad it is almost over. I may have held up well over the past three months, but enough is enough. Can't wait to be a free range reader again.
Last year just to make it more challenging, I limited myself to the sixty or so books that were in my nightstand. This year I decided to try and focus on those books still remaining on my Century of Books list. I made some really good progess on that front. I now only have twenty-four books on that list to go.
This year I managed to finish thirty-one books during the dare compared to last year's sixteen.
The thing I like most about this challenge is that it always manages to surprise me. I always end up discovering some real gems in my TBR pile.
Because I was focusing on my Century of Books list this year, I read fewer books that had been sitting on my shelf for years and years. Most of them had been chosen and purchased only last year when I filled out my ACOB list.

Top three books read during the Dare:
1. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
2. Martin Eden by Jack London
3. Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse

I have a theory as to why there are no women in my top three--something that is quite unusual for me. When I was creating my list of 100 books for the Century of Books challenge I was using various "best of" lists and online resources for books published in certain years. Nor surprisingly those resources, because they focus on the supposed "greats" or best sellers are short of works by women. If the books of Persephone and Virago had been listed by year, I might have had more women on my list. I did include some from those publishers, but they were limited to those I already owned and could easily check out the year they were published. I also decided not to include any of the three Barbara Pym books I re-read during the Dare. Those could have easily filled the top spots.

Bottom three books read during the Dare:
28. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
29. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
30. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers

In order to come up with the bottom three I asked myself which books would I be least likely to want to read again. In the right mood I could see myself re-reading Zuleika Dobson, but only in comparison to the two that I liked even less. Although I ultimately found Catch-22 tedious, I can appreciate its merits and would prefer it to the tedium of the Childers.

Other books I have finished recently (in one sentence)

Crampton Hodnet, Jane and Prudence, and A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
Loved re-reading these three gems in preparation for the Barbara Pym Society Conference.

The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman
I am beginning to think that Lipman's wonderful The Inn at Lake Devine does not make up for the rest of her rather boring, albeit kind of fun, novels.

Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
Way too whimsical tale of a pretty woman who casts a spell over the undergradates at Oxford.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Although still impressed with Atwood's skill at drawing me in and recognizing the merits of this book, I was glad when this re-read was over.

Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather
Cather can do no wrong and this tale of slavery and family in the hills of western Virginia is a delight to read.

Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
I far preferred The Pursuit of Love, the prequel to this one.

Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett
In the right mood I could appreciate the mini-series like quality of this tale of the life in the pottery towns of northern England.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Parts of this book I found extremely moving and other parts extremely clever, but over all I felt like Atkinson tried to throw in everything and the kitchen sink.

Penrod by Booth Tarkington
I tend to like Tarkington but this episodic tale was like a cross between the Lil' Rascals, Dennis the Menace and Leave it to Beaver.

It is a little disappointing how few of these books I actually enjoyed. I must be in a bit of a funk. Several of them I know I would have enjoyed more if I had been in a different mood.

Weekend ennui

2013-03-27T08:04:00.002-04:00

I was a little bored this weekend yet couldn't be enticed to do much of anything. I did get a lot of reading done, but something was missing. At one point I realized what the problem was and said to John "I miss my Pym friends". It was so much fun being around 99 other like minded readers. An interesting conversation could be had with anyone in the room. And everyone was so friendly.

And on top of all the great Pym time, my weekend in Boston was chock-a-block with other fun stuff. Perhaps the most fun of all was meeting, for the very first time, a pen pal I have had for 28 years. We started writing in high school, kept that up for about seven years, lost touch at some point, and were "reunited" by Facebook a year or two ago. But through all of that we had never actually met. We used to talk on the phone in college when one of us could afford the long distance charges. But other than that, we were friends who had never met--at least until now. It was a lot of fun catching up with him and there was, at least from my perspective, not an awkward moment. We both had a lot of blanks to fill in, but it wasn't by any means just a walk down memory lane. We had plenty of things to chat about. As I am not much a fan of Dickens we didn't talk about his current read (Nicholas Nickleby, I think), but I did give him a copy of Some Tame Gazelle. I felt it only proper to proselytize about Barbara Pym.

While in Boston I also went to Brattle Book Shop. Which was a lot of fun, but I actually ended up buying nothing. I should have checked my coat at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum because I was a bit hot and perhaps didn't take as much time in that amazing building as I would have otherwise. The Museum of Fine Arts was amazing and could have kept me busy all weekend. Unfortunately, two of the more interesting temporary exhibits (New Blue and White and Mario Testino Royal Portraits) not only didn't allow photography, but they had no catalogs or even any postcards.

I thought for sure that the outdoor sales floor wouldn't be open in such cold weather. I was wrong.

Have you ever been to a secondhand book shop where the books are double up on the shelf making it really hard to see what is there. At Brattle they have this double shelf system where the back row is about four inches higher than the front row making it very easy to see everything.

Sculpture over the parking lot entrance at the Museum of Fine Arts
Walking Man, 2000
Jonathan Borofsky

Beautiful Dale Chihuly scupture at MFA.

This could be called a self portrait of me. But it isn't. This is a giant cube with a similar view on each side.
Endlessly Repeating Twentieth-Century Modernism, 2007
Josiah McElheny
The colorful painting reflected in the glass is a Gerhard Richter. One of my favorite living painters.

Detail of Endlessly Repeating Twentieth-Century Modernism, 2007
Josiah McElheny

What a difference a day makes

2013-03-25T09:25:00.001-04:00

Yesterday.

On Saturday John and the yard service guys were out cleaning things up and mulching all the beds.
He took this picture yesterday.

Today.

Today that is all covered in snow.

40 Years Ago.

Coincidentally, when John was out working on Saturday a man who lived in our house from 1954 to 1967 stopped by and then emailed us this photo from when he lived here.

I painted our red front door blue earlier this month. Since this door will be replaced next year as part of our renovation, but needed paint, we decided to experiment with a different color.
This is Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue. The surround is Wimborne White.

This door will disappear as well so I decided to give Farrow & Ball's Cooking Apple Green a try.

Looks a little different this morning.

A Pymtastic Weekend

2013-03-20T14:59:00.002-04:00

Last year when Amanda at Fig and Thistle suggested we join together to co-host a Barbara Pym reading week I took to the interwebs to look for more information about Pym. The top result Google returned was for the Barbara Pym Society of North America which in turn led me to a link for their annual conference. The thought of spending a weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts talking about Pym was too good to pass up. Little did I know how much fun I was going to have.

The weekend started off in high style with evensong on Friday night at the Church of the Advent on Beacon Hill in Boston. In addition to including one of my favorite hymn arrangements (Ralph Vaughan Williams's version of Old 100th "All people that on earth do dwell") the service also featured an anthem that was commissioned by the Pym Society to mark Pym's centenary. The anthem was one of Barbara's favorite hymns "God Moves In A Mysterious Way" set to music by composer Rodney Lister. The evensong service itself was more Anglo-Catholic than the typical Anglican service one usually encounters in England. Although there is some disagreement as to just how high a service Pym preferred, her characters tend to prefer an incense laden version that reminded me quite a lot of my Roman Catholic childhood.

After the service we all headed down to the church basement for dinner. On the way there, I stumbled across a sign on a door that had me kicking myself for not having a camera with me. It was something about not letting Simon the church cat outside as he was still too young. Anyone who reads or knows Simon at Stuck in a Book will understand me when I say that I took the sign as a good omen for the weekend. The food at dinner was quite delicious. Perhaps the highlight for me was finally tasting cauliflower cheese (a kind of cheesy cauliflower au gratin) that featured so memorably in Some Tame Gazelle. This cauliflower cheese was garnished with a worm made of green grapes in further homage to STG.

It was clear from this first encounter with the die hard Pym fans in attendance that the weekend was going to be lots of fun. Oh to be in a room full of like-minded readers. The papers presented over the course of the weekend where plenty academic but did not diminish the warmth and fellowship that pervaded the conference.

There is much more I could say, but I save it for Barbara Pym Reading Week which is June 1st to 8th. Until then, here are some pictures.

The conference was held at the Barker Center at Harvard.

Hot off the presses. Ms. Cocking gave a presentation about the poetry by Pym and her friends that is sprinkled throughout Pym's papers at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. She even had wonderful readers who recited excerpts of the poetry.

I counted three knitters, a quilter, a crocheter (shown above) and an embroiderer.

There was a birthday party to celebrate Pym's centenary as well as the release of Cocking's book.

With a capacity of 100 for the conference, there was a waiting list. I am glad I registered early.

When I was looking for a place to stay I came across The College Club which has a B&B. It seemed a fitting place to stay while attending a Barbara Pym conference.

Rather than get a double room with an en suite bath, it seemed more Pymsian to get a single with a shared bath. Unfortunately, the one person I shared the bath with was not particularly considerate. But I loved my cosy little room.

Weekend Checklist

2013-03-14T16:56:00.003-04:00

1. Fly to Boston

2. Go to Brattle Book Shop (thanks to Joan K.)

I'm not sure this outdoor part of Brattle Book Shop is open in March.

3. 2-hour massage

4. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

5. Museum of Fine Arts

6. Solemn Evensong at the Church of the Advent

7. Barbara Pym Society Annual Conference (my first time attending)

8. Boston Symphony Orchestra with Olivier Latry on the organ playing Saint-Saens Third Symphony

9. Meet a penpal I have had for 28 years for the first time.

10. Test Liz Lemon's theory that all the women at the St. Patrick's Day parade are called Meagan

11. Fly home

Want to go to a book sale?

2013-03-10T10:38:00.001-04:00

Scene from the Tompkins County Friends of the Library book sale in Ithaca, NY.
(copyright Eric Stewart Photography)

Yesterday I was really in the mood to go to a book sale. Not a bookstore, but a book sale. One of those events where there are just tables and tables of books for sale. I knew there were a few coming up in the DC area but I didn't know when or even where. And then I stumbled on Book Sale Finder. I can't believe I didn't know about this website. If you live in the US or Canada, you really need to check it out. It really makes me want to gas up the car and travel around doing nothing but going to book sales. There was nothing of interest for me yesterday but I marked my calendar for a few upcoming sales. Unfortunately, there are three pretty big ones next weekend here in DC but I will be at the Barbara Pym Society conference in Boston. Oh well, when it rains it pours.

So how does it work?

First, choose your location.

Then you can browse by date and link to sales that catch your interest. I've circled the big book sale that goes on twice a year in Ithaca, New York sponsored by the Friends of the Tompkins County Library. When I lived in Ithaca for grad school I couldn't really spend much money on books so I have never really gotten to go hog wild at this mammoth sale.

Then when you click through to the link, it gives you more details on the sale.

When you click through to the sale website you can take a look at a map of the sales floor.

Maybe JoAnn from Lakeside Musing and I need to meet up for the sale in May?

Shiny Happy Volunteers.
(Photo from the Friends of the Tompkins County Library Facebook Page)

The Barbara Pym buttons are here!

2013-03-02T13:34:00.001-05:00

When Amanda (@nerdybookgirl) and I announced back in December that we were going to host a reading week to honor the centenary of the birth of Barbara Pym, all I could think was that I hadn't made an official button/banner/badge yet. I was in the throes of finishing a really big project and Amanda was busy getting ready to have her daughter Persephone. My really big project was for work so I couldn't very well set it aside in favor of playing around with a Barbara Pym button.

When I finally decided to give it a go last week I have to admit that I was stumped for ideas. In the past I have used collages of book covers and author photos, but neither of those were really speaking to me this time. Then, as I stared at my collection of Pym's work I realized my inspiration was staring right back at me. All of the Dutton editions feature very distinctive patterns that I have always found rather Pymsian and I thouhght they would make a great background.

The reading week itself should be tons of fun. Not sure yet if we will have an official sign-up or not, but I can tell you that there will a week full of Pym-related posts, links to all of you who are taking part, giveaways, and perhaps even a contest (most Pymsian cardigan perhaps?).

I was tempted not to include the multi-color version, but then I thought some of you may want to see the orginal color schemes. So here they are are. Use them in good health!

Here are some of my past efforts. The first three I did for myself, the Virago, Daphne, and Muriel Spark buttons were done for other bloggers.

I think I need to resurrect this feature.

An early effort of mine. So bush league that I didn't crop it properly on the left so there is extra white space.

A slight variation of this is the one that was chosen by the hosts.

Rejected design.

Rejected design.
I was kind of trying to make this look like a 1950s/1960s album cover. The way Spark is posed (in her sweater set) made me think of a young woman of that era writing in her diary while she listens to the hi-fi.

Rejected design.
Going for something that suggested Sparks darker, more gothic side.

The chosen design.

Rejected design.
This one is kind of boring. With the font and the quality of the photo I was going for a New York Times feature kind of vibe. I am pretty sure that is the font they use, or close to it.

Rejected design.
I can see now this one is kind of weak. The typewriter in the photo suggested this font.

Three fantastic books and one dud

2013-02-28T11:33:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since I got lost in a page-turner. I read plenty of enjoyable books but not many of them reach true page-turner status. Recently I came across three of them almost in a row. I will start with the dud.

Young Torless by Robert Musil
This slender book filled a niche in my Century of Reading list, and let me just say, if it were not for that list, I would not have finished it. Violent and surprisingly homoerotic for 1906, Young Torless is schoolboy bullying, torture, and rape masquerading as philosophical exegesis. I found it tedious and disturbing.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
I have avoided this book since it was published in 1999 because of both its size and a feeling that it might be too mathematical for me. I probably made the right decision fourteen years ago, but the older, more mature Thomas can handle, even appreciate, a little math and science in his fiction. It is a truly fascinating book from so many perspectives. Many characters, one storyline in WWII and one in the tech frenzy of the late 1990s. (From today's vantage point the bits from the 1990s feel just as much like historical fiction as the WWII parts.) I thought this was a great mix of detail, character, and plot and it achieved page-turner status, something, given the aforementioned biases, I didn't expect. Definitely worth a go. I think if you apply the Nancy Pearl 50-page rule, you aren't likely to set it aside. I would even hazard to say that you could apply a 25-page rule with the same result.

Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
This one comes close to Miss Buncle status for me. An absolutely delightful idea for a book that reminded me in a tiny way of the George Glass episode of The Brady Bunch where Jan is tired of everyone thinking she is a lonely loser so she makes up a boyfriend. That is exactly what Patricia Brent does, except it is 1918 London, not 1970s California. And like Frank Baker's Miss Hargreaves, Patricia's lie becomes real--although without the supernatural elements of the Baker--and many complications ensue. This out of print (I think) gem has Persephone written all over it. If you find a copy snap it up. I was lucky enough to get mine from British expat Roz who some of you know.

Martin Eden by Jack London
This is not your grandfather's Jack London. No hints of White Fang or To Build a Fire in this one. This might be my favorite book so far for 2013. I loved it, couldn't put it down, and continue to think of it. Our hero Martin Eden is a rough and tumble working class sailor from the San Francisco Bay area who is introduced into a middle class family and falls in love with books and middle class daughter Ruth. It is a bit of a literary Pygmalion story. Bibliophiles will love watching Martin discover the world of reading and learning in general, and his efforts to become a writer. Published in 1909, it is also a fascinating look at the publishing trade around that time.

So often in books that chronicle young men making their way in the world they run to drink, gambling, loose women, or some combination of the three. And while those elements make for what many people consider a good story, I am someone who likes to read about people working hard, sticking to the straight and narrow, and avoiding bad things. The fantastic thing about this book is that although there are complications along the way, the crisis is left until very late in the book and is far more interesting than the more commonly depicted problems of drink and debt and such. London is definitely saying something about class in Martin Eden but it never feels heavy handed.

Other things to love about Martin Eden include the 1909 snapshot of the Bay area as well as Hawaii and other locales described, as well as the way that London is able to describe the erotic heat between Martin and Ruth without ever really writing anything erotic.

I loved, loved, loved this book. Not to compare everything to our beloved Persephone Books, but I feel like if they went back in time and asked Jack London to write something for them to publish, this is the book he would have written. Go find it!

Which living author would I love?

2013-02-26T07:38:00.001-05:00

Twitter gives and it takes. On the one hand it has connected me with some really interesting people, on the other hand it has the potential to take up time that I should use for reading. So far, I mainly tweet while watching TV so I guess that is good mutitasking.

Perhaps the best part is that bookish people seem to love Twitter. I am amazed at how quickly one can make "friends" using the platform, much faster than Facebook or blogging. Among those I have already "met" is a DC author who has her first novel coming out this spring from Penguin.

So this morning Melissa (@AvidReader12) posted a provocative line that drew me to her blog Avid Reader's Musings. She made a list of the top 10 living authors whose books she would buy without question and without fail. (I haven't used the word meme because I know it annoys many of you...but if it looks like a duck and quack likes a duck...)

I decided to compile my list. Not surprisingly, I had a bit of hard time. I read so many authors who are no longer with us that I have sorely neglected the century in which we live. Even my list of live authors is a bit long in the tooth.

After looking at my list, perhaps you could let me know who I should add. Which living author am I missing out on? I really feel the need for some new blood. Like a corporation doing succession planning, I need to build up a back bench who can fill in when some of my favorites stop writing.

1. Anita Brookner (I think she may have already stopped)

2. Ann Patchett

3. Maggie O'Farrell

4. Margaret Atwood

5. Ward Just

6. Joshua Ferris

7. Tom Wolfe

8.

9. Ruth Reichl

10. Norman Lebrecht

I would like to add an honorary 11th postion and give it to Carol Shields, an author I used to buy without fail. But then she passed away far too young from breast cancer.

So, whom do I need to discover? (or is it "who"? I have tried to understand this grammar rule but so far it hasn't sunk in.)

Also, in case you are so inclined you can follow me on Twitter @Thomasatmyporch . I really need to figure out how to add the buttons to my blog. So far I have been unsuccessful.

[UPDATE: Talk about poor proofreading, I listed Joshua Ferris twice. I have a group of others that could potentially make the list, but since I don't race out to get their latest, nor have I finished their backlists, I am going to leave them off and leave the spot blank.]

The Making of a Marchioness Spinoff

2013-02-24T10:08:00.000-05:00

On Friday I was doing a little shopping in Georgetown. Walking west on P Street with its lovely original cobblestones and street car tracks still in place, I stumbled across The Lantern bookshop. It is a non-profit used bookshop that raises money for scholarships for women going to Bryn Mawr. I had known about the shop for years but I had never been there. Oddly, I thought I had been to it, but it turns out the one I thought was the Bryn Mawr shop was not the Bryn Mawr shop. And good thing too, because The Lantern is way better than the other one.

I almost didn't go in because I was laden with shopping bags and it was raining and it just seemed like a bit of a hassle. But I was greatly rewarded. The two Bryn Mawr alums on duty were having tea and happy to keep an eye on my wettish bags while I went upstairs to check out the fiction section.

Let's just say I found a few things.

This little beauty from 1901 appears to be a spinoff of Burnett's wonderful The Making of a Marchioness.

Normally I would pick up any Burnett novel I came across, but when I realized its relationship to
The Making of a Marchioness, my enthusiasm went up a few degrees.

After reading Cluny Brown, I became a huge fan of Margery Sharp.

Charles Brockden Brown is often considered to be the father of American ficition. I read Edgar Huntly in 1996 when I was getting my Master's degree in American Studies, but I remember nothing about it. I didn't have much of a taste for early fiction (1799) back then but that has changed considerably so I look forward to reading this one again. (Don't you love the illustration?)

I couldn't remember which Pyms I had at home but since these were all hardcovers I thought I would just buy them and worry about duplicates later. Happily, it turns out that I have none of these in hardcover. I might give away the duplicate paperbacks during Barbara Pym Reading Week, June 1-8.

Bits and Bobs (the almost finished edition)

2013-02-17T08:46:00.001-05:00

My "book"
As I have mentioned previously, my job for 2012 was to write a book-length history of a 160-year old insane asylum. I had a great time playing history detective for many months at the National Archives and then a much less great time writing about what I found. The text was largely finished by the end of the year, but I am now in the process of finding photos to help tell the story.

I have long had access to over a thousand digitized historcial photographs of the hospital which were always fun to comb through as part of my research. But this week I had the chance to go through hundreds of photos at the archives that are not digitized. It was so much fun discovering the contents of those archive boxes. The images I had access to previously focused almost exclusively on pictures of buildings and landscapes that were useful in the master planning and design work for the redvelopment of the 174-acre campus. So it wonderful finding photos of people and other signs of life that are absent from the architecture photos.

The history will be finished by the end of this week. My boss will do one final copy edit and then it will be "published" as a pdf document and available on the project website. (Budgets are such that there is no money to have the book printed at the moment. In fact, if Congress fails to stop the budget sequestration, I will likely be out of work in about twelve days.)

In case any of you are interested, I will post a link to the history when it is finished.

Some of the staff being very chummy. Undated photo circa 1908.

Nurses in very poofy hats.

Sun porch. The hospital was extremely overcrowded so it is unlikely that this was a typical day at the hospital.

A nurse administering one type of hydrotherapy. The therapy was really just a means to calm patients down and is unlikely to have had any curative effect.

Patients swaddled after hydrotherapy.
They may have enjoyed their bath or shower, but these wraps suggest full body straitjackets to me.

An attendent stands in the industrial shop where patients made wooden toys.

Dining room in one of the wards for African American females. I am mesmerized by the patients looking directly into the camera. Especially the woman in the middle.

My challenges
About half way done with the TBR Double Dog Dare which ends on April 1st. For me, anything that is on the downward slope of halfway counts as almost done. With so many great "to be read" books on my shelves, this isn't much of a challenge for me. That is until I went to a secondhand bookshop yesterday. The result was that I came home with a grocery bag full of delights and I really wanted to sit down and read a few of them. In particular, there were three or four novellas that were really speaking to me given that I am working through a 900 pager at the moment (more on that below). But I had to stick to the TBR dare so I quickly shelved them in their proper alphabetical homes. Dispersing the haul lessened their collective power over me. No doubt in a week or so I will forget they are there.

With only 35 books left to read on my A Century of Books list I am beginning to see the finish line fast approaching. I was hoping maybe to finish by the end of the TBR dare, but that is beginning to seem pretty close to impossible. No worries though, I've been reading a lot more this year than last and I think I will finish by the end of may for sure. And sooner if I stay away from Wilkie Collins.

My current read
Lately I have been working my way through the Century list in chronological order. But for some reason Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon all the way at the other end of the list (1999) was calling me like a siren. I was somewhat afraid of this book both because of its 909 pages and my notion that it might be too difficult for my relatively non-scientific mind to follow. But I have loved it almost from the get go. At page 550, as the right side of the book contines to get thinner and lighter, I can physically feel it heading into the home stretch. And I am even looking forward to writing a real review for this one.

Did Hermann Hesse invent bromance?

2013-02-10T07:59:00.000-05:00

Armadale by Wilkie Collins
I think Wilkie Collins should be the patron saint of the Royal Mail and postal services in general. If his characters didn't have use of the mail his whole oeuvre would be turned on its head and lots of villains would have gotten away with their crazy schemes. And it just so happens that all of the letter writing is one of my favorite things about Collins.

In Armadale there really isn't one big mystery, but several with lots of twists and turns along the way. Would Allen Armadale ever find out about Allen Armadale? Would Lydia's secret past come out? Would Lydia get away with her scheme? Would Miss Milroy be married before she graduates out of her training bra?

If you haven't read Collins yet, you really are missing out. Six hundred pages fly by pretty quickly. Out of the three of his that I have read I would still rank The Woman in White as my favorite, Armadale now comes in second and No Name is a somewhat distant third. Many people tell me Moonstone is their favorite so the next time I am in the mood for a little Wilkie and cookies I will give that one a go.

Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse
I loved this novel. It isn't necessarily a book that grabs one and says "I am great", but there was much about it that really connected with me emotionally. Basically the story of Peter C's childhood, university days, and career as writer/journalist. I was particularly struck by his university days. There was something about the way Hesse wrote about them that really transported me to my own undergraduate days. There was nothing superficially similar about our experiences, quite the opposite in fact. But there was a quality that deeply reminded me of something...something that I can't really put my finger on, but pretty fundamental to that period of my life.

Beyond the emotional connection to my youth I was also struck by a scene where Peter's attitude toward a disabled man was transformed and results in a deeply meaningful relationship between the two. It was unexpected and very touching.

When I was in high school I first stumbled across Hermann Hesse's name when I was reading some modern gay novel--I think it was Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story--in which is mentioned the sexually ambiguous quality of Hesse's books. As a young village gay (hat tip to Little Britain) in the mid-1980s I was always looking for reading material that spoke to my still secret identity. I ended up reading a lot of Hesse and he does provide a lot of (platonic) male friendships that gave comfort to a sixteen year old hoping to have that kind of connection with another male. Well, except for the platonic part--I wanted romance not bromance.

The fact that most of Hesse's protagonists are book-reading, school-loving, culture hounds also makes him a very attractive author for me. I really need to go back and re-read Narcissus and Goldmund which was a favorite of mine almost thirty years ago.

Overall, a fantastic way to cross 1904 off of my Century of Books list -- and so much more modern than the books that surround it on the list.

The Duel by Alexander Kuprin
For some reason this 300-something page book is part of Melville House Publishing's Art of the Novella series. Perhaps because the publishers think that if the novel had been edited properly it would have been at least a hundred pages shorter. That explanation seems highly unlikely, but it does begin to desceibe how I felt about this book. It really didn't need to be so long. But I guess in a world of Russian writing where the greats (like War and Peace) can clock in at 1,300 pages, maybe this does qualify as a novella. In any case, I was not a fan. It just seemed so of a piece. Soldier perpetually short of cash tries to continue to party and woo and control his temper. (And do married Russian women always act like they have no husband?) If it weren't for the fact that this one knocked out 1905 on my A Century of Books list, I am not sure I would have bothered finishing.

The Whipple Winners

2013-02-03T10:05:00.002-05:00

January 31, 2013 has come and gone and the winners have been picked for my Whipple giveaway.

Patty at Reflections from the Hinterland is the Whipple virgin who will recieve an old hardback copy of The Priory.

Danielle D. is a Whipple fan who will receive Because of the Lockwoods.

Ladies, email your mailing addresses to onmyporch [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Cruise Day 1: The Ship

2013-02-02T12:05:00.001-05:00

This was only our second cruise. Before we took our first one four years ago we really didn't think it would be for us. We are pretty independent travellers who like to get off the beaten path wherever we go. But we thought we would try it out for a week. We ended up liking it so much that decided that the next time we should go for two weeks. So this time we made good on that and went for 14 days.

When you tell people you are going on a cruise one of the first things they ask (not surprisingly) is "Where to?" If you find the right ship for your style, interest, pace, etc. it really doesn't matter where you cruise to especially when it is the Caribbean in January. No matter where you stop there will be sun, sand, and water.

We have only gone on Celebrity Solstice-class ships. They are big, and comfy, have remarkably tasteful interiors, tons to do, great food, great art, a fantastic spa and fitness center, and really, really great customer service. We have so enjoyed our two cruises on Celebrity that it is hard to imagine going on another line. Even when I look at higher end cruises they don't interest me much.

A vacation like this is so much about relaxing that we tend to forget to take pictures, but we did snap a few.

The Library. Purists like myself are not totally satisfied with this library. It is open to other decks and so isn't very quiet. The decorative books on the upper shelves are old law books and such and don't really make much sense on a ship even if they are just for decoration. As for the real books that people can take back to their cabins to read? Let's just say there were some very popular authors that I would never read. They did have an exhange shelf as well were I left about nine of the eleven books I read over the two weeks.

These people ordered a flight of martinis. The very talented bartender mixed up all six of them, then poured them into these glasses all at once from this stack of tumblers. It was like a colored waterfall of martini.

That's right, a vending machine for wine. There is a wine cellar lounge that is lined with bottles. All you need is your room key, put it in the slot then choose your 1 oz., 2.5 oz., or 5 oz. pour of your favorite.

Cruising does bring out the kid in me. I love all the big ships. That is a Holland America ship in the background.

The enormous, double wide Oasis of the Seas pulling out of Port Everglades. It carries about 6,000 passengers twice as many as our ship.

Pleasure boats taking the opportunity to cross the channel in between cruise ship departures.

I love watching the ships. That is a Princess ship in the background.

Cruise Days 2 & 3: At sea

2013-02-02T12:05:00.000-05:00

The first two full days were nothing but cruising the open seas on our way to Aruba. So relaxing. We read, napped, ate, read, worked out, got massages, read, listen to some live music, sat by pool, read, ate. You get it.

Reading Armadale on our verandah

We always forget to take a room picture before we mess it up.
That bed is more comfortable than almost any hotel bed I have ever slept in.

One of the works of art. Knitted balloons!

They had some ceramic pieces that reminded me of the V&A.

The view from our verandah.