I didn’t read any books in December last year! This was my best month in 2007, primarily because I wanted to complete some remaining challenges and reach 100 books. My favorites of this month’s titles are The Wreath and Suite Francaise.
My title A-Z List:
A. Angle of Repose - Stegner – Rating: 4 B. The Birds - Aristophanes Rating: 2.5
C. Coraline by Neil Gaiman Rating: 4.5
D. The Door in the Wall – de Angeli Rating: 4
E. The Echo Maker – Powers Rating: 4 F. Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury Rating: 4.5 G. Gathering Blue - Lowry Rating: 4.5 H. The Handmaid’s Tale – Atwood Rating: 4.5
I. The Inheritance of Loss – Desai Rating: 3.5
J. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Clarke Rating: 4.5
K. The Kite Runner – Hosseini Rating: 4
L. The Little Prince - Saint-Exupery Rating: 4.5
M. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Edwards Rating: 4.5
N. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Smith – Rating: 4.5
O. O Pioneers! – Willa Cather Rating: 4
P. The Princess and the Goblin – MacDonald Rating: 4.5
Q. Queen of the Tambourine – Jane Gardam Rating: 3.5
R. The Road- McCarthy Rating: 4.5
S. Silas Marner – Eliot – Rating: 4.5
T. To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee – Rating: 5
U. The Uncommon Reader – Bennett Rating: 4
V. Veronika Decides to Die – Coelho Rating: 4.5
W. The Woman in White - Collins Rating: 4.5
X. The Xanadu Adventure – Alexander Rating: 3.5
Y. Year of Wonders – Brooks Rating: 4
Z. Zia – O’Dell Rating: 4
Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam is an epistolary novel about 51 year old Eliza Peabody. All the letters are from Eliza to Joan, a woman from across the street who has disappeared. She writes to Joan just telling her the ordinary things going on about her days. No one will talk to Eliza about Joan, though, and it seems everyone is worried about Eliza. Her husband Henry has just left her, and she’s having a difficult time dealing with it.
This novel explores one woman’s condition when she’s on the edge of madness. The beginning and the ending were strong, but I had a difficult time knowing what was going on in the middle of the book until it became clearer in the end. There were many funny parts to it, too, but overall it was just an okay read.
Reading Across Borders Challenge
My original goal was to have at least 10 books in translation in 10 different original languages, which I did meet. I then expanded it to include works published in English with a foreign setting and author. For additional reference, but not really included in this challenge, I listed books with foreign settings by American authors. I’m kind of unsure about Neil Gaiman and Geraldine Brooks. Do they have dual citizenship or just live in the U.S.? I think Brooks may have US citizenship because she won the Pulitzer for March. I didn’t include that book on this list, but I did include Year of Wonders. I may get to add Queen of the Tambourine to this list, we’ll see if I can finish it today. I did finish it, so I added it below.
So the total comes to:
14 works in translation
33 works by foreign authors with foreign settings (in addition to those above)
8 works with foreign settings by American authors
As I see those statistics, I’m very pleased. I’m sure I may have made some mistakes somewhere, but no one’s perfect. It was a good year for reading, and I’m looking forward to even more ‘reading across borders’ in 2008.
This was Geraldine Brooks’ first novel. She is the also the author of the Pulitzer winner March, a fictional account of Mr. March from Little Women. I read March earlier this year, and while I believe Brooks to be a good writer, I had some issues with her portrayal of the Marches in her book. I feel much the same in this book. It has very good writing, but once again, I have issues. This time it is in matters of faith and religion.
Year of Wonders is the story of a village that is ravaged by The Plague in 1666. Anna is a widow who is a servant for the rector in her village. She becomes very close to Mr. Mompellion and his wife, Elinor. When The Plague hits and they quarantine the village, the three of them are the mainstays who help and comfort the sick and dying. It is a terrible year, and Brooks’ descriptions of The Plague were painful to read. At the close of the year, some are strengthened by their trials and others are utterly devastated by them. What makes this book so special is that it is based on a true story of the village of Eyam, Derbyshire. They voluntarily quarantined their village when the disease hit, and it would become known as The Plague Village. They are remembered as having attempted to stop the spread of disease by this action.
It’s too difficult to go into my issues with the book on matters of faith without divulging too much of the storyline, so I won’t do so. I am still glad I read the novel as it is a fascinating period in history, and it is all the more interesting for having been based on Eyam. I plan on reading her novel People of the Book when it comes out next month.
Why not do a ‘twin’ review since I read them relatively close together? I had seen both of these movies before I read the books, and I recently re-watched The Hours because it was available for online viewing through Netflix. I’d like to watch Mrs. Dalloway again as well. The movie of the The Hours follows the book very closely-there are a few minor changes. Nicole Kidman does an outstanding job in this film. I was most interested in the Virginia Woolf storyline, so I was happy she was so well portrayed. It’s funny that Meryl Streep ended up playing Clarissa when she (Meryl Streep) is actually talked about in The Hours (the book). I don’t remember the movie Mrs. Dalloway much at all, hence the reason I wish to re-view it.
Well, on to the books. The Hours won the Pulitzer in 1999. It’s a cleverly told story that intersects the 3 women’s lives very well. However, it does change the story of Mrs. Dalloway into homos*xual relationships. It was interesting to see the twist in the storyline, particularly if you know the real one, but I couldn’t help thinking, “Doesn’t Clarissa (in The Hours) know that her life is too coincidental with the characters’ names from Mrs. Dalloway?” To me, it would have been a better story if Cunningham had left out all the references to the actual book itself. The reader knows that’s what it’s about, so why keep referring to it? It makes The Hours too unbelievable. It’s an interesting book, and I’m glad I read it, but I can’t help having mixed feelings about it.
Mrs. Dalloway. I must be too dense in the literary sense, because I just don’t get this book at all. I had to stop reading it every half hour because it was just too much otherwise. I felt a similar way this year when I read Inheritance of Loss. I just don’t enjoy a book when I have to read it that way. I don’t get into planning parties or the minute details of such. In fact, I avoid that like the plague. I’m not into social scenes, either. In this book, everyone loves Clarissa, but isn’t she the most shallow character in it? I don’t get it. I would like to re-read it again in a few years to see if I feel any differently. At least I feel more enlightened that I have finally read Woolf. I’d actually like to read more about her than by her.
For The Hours: 1998, 226 pp.
Rating: 3.5
Pulitzer, 1999
I’ve really enjoyed participating in John’s Short Story Mondays over at the Book Mine Set, so this challenge is perfect for nudging me into a short story every week. Kate from Kate’s Book Blog is the host, and she has several options you can choose from to tailor this challenge to your needs. I’m going for Option #5, which is do whatever you want to, basically. And this is what I want to do ended up doing:
Read ? stories in Collected Stories of Carol Shields
Read 2-3 stories from Carol Shields’ Collected Stories every week starting in January so that I can finish the book before July 1 for the Canadian Challenge. This book contains over 50 stories and is almost 600 pages long, so I feel it’s a worthy goal. 6 month timeframe. Update: I still plan on finishing this; it just won’t get done until the end of the year, and I’ll use it for Canadian Challenge #2.
Read 1 story per week from The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol Vol. 2 to coincide with the Russian Reading Challenge hosted by Ex Libris. There are 8 stories, so that should take about 2 months.
Read some of the stories from Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman to coincide with the R.I.P. 3 challenge hosted by Carl. That will take another 2 months. (I’ll try to read them all, but I’m not going to commit to it.)Update: I’m not going to do this one as I won’t have time. I plan on reading one of Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collections instead.
That leaves 2 months open. I already have The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards, so I’d like to finish that story collection in this time frame.
Whew, I think that covers it. Looking forward to this challenge. Thanks, Kate!
The New Testament***** was of course my top read of the year.
Not counting that, though, I finally have my Top 20. Of note, look at all the dystopian novels! I guess I like that genre. There is only 1 non-fiction title, which is not that surprising given the few titles I read. Two children’s titles made the list. I had a separate children’s book list in rank order as well. I also think it’s interesting to note that 8 out of the Top 20 were pre-1961, and 12 out of the 20 were female authors. Although it’s sooooo tough to do, I have them ranked in order of preference with ties noted.
Wendy was the wonderful hostess for this challenge. Thanks so much, and I’m looking forward to more notables in 2008!
I committed to reading ten and finished ten, though I did switch out some titles. I loved the top three, which were truly outstanding books. I’m really glad I read the middle of the pack, and I could have done without the last two.
Suite Françaiseis the incredible incomplete set of novels by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian Jew who had been living in Paris for 10 years before ultimately dying in Auschwitz. The preface to the French edition states that:
She dreamed of a book of a thousand pages, constructed like a symphony, but in five sections, according to rhythm and tone. She took Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as a model.
Sadly, only two of the planned five were completed. In these stories, she creates such vivid characters and situations that it is a shame we never get to find out what happened to them. She was a fine writer. Her characters were so well-defined; I cared about the worthy ones and loathed the loathsome ones. Even in her description of the latter, there was humor to be found. Both good and bad die, and of course the question is always, “Why?” The accounts of the flight from Paris as the Germans descended on them during 1940 were chilling and frighteningly relevant to what could happen today. Then, during the section depicting the occupation of France, I was most surprised at her portrayal of the German soldiers, in which some could be seen as sympathetic.
Her two daughters had kept these stories in a suitcase for years, not even looking at them as it was too painful. When one of her daughters did finally take out the papers to type them, she found this wonderful, incomplete novel and it was published in France in 2004, sixty-two years after her death in 1942.
Highly recommended.
2006 for the English translation, 367 pp.
Rating: 4.5
“[Love for Enemies] "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam is an epistolary novel about 51 year old Eliza Peabody. All the letters are from Eliza to Joan, a woman from across the street who has disappeared. She writes to Joan just telling her the ordinary things going on about her days. No one will talk to Eliza about Joan, though, and it seems everyone is worried about Eliza. Her husband Henry has just left her, and she’s having a difficult time dealing with it.
This was Geraldine Brooks’ first novel. She is the also the author of the Pulitzer winner 
Suite Française is the incredible incomplete set of novels by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian Jew who had been living in Paris for 10 years before ultimately dying in Auschwitz. The preface to the French edition states that:
