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It's Monday....what am I reading?
Dropped:
Curiosity by Joan Thomas
I read and reviewed Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier a couple of weeks ago, a novel based on the same historical figure. I started this one, but decided that I wanted to give it more time as the subject matter was too familiar.
Completed:
Girl Crazy by Russell Smith
Back in the day when I read The Globe and Mail (Canada's other national newspaper), I enjoyed Russell Smith's columns on dressing for men. I've also readhis book on the same topic (and recommend it for the style-challenged.) This is the first fiction I've read by him and my mini-review is here.
In progress:
Think of a Number by John Verdon
This is an absolutely stunning first novel. The main character in this thriller is a retired police detective who is approached by an old school friend about some threatening letters he's been receiving. The characters are very well developed, and the story moves forward quickly, with growing suspense. I'm about three-quarters of the way through and will be hard-pressed to put this down and get some work done around the house. One of the highlights of the summer so far!
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (audiobook)
I'm about halfway through the audiobook edition of this am am loving it! The narrator, Humphrey Bower, is terrific. The novel has two main narrators, the French Olivier and the English Parrot, and he captures them both with aplomb, as well as various other characters. A terrific read for anyone who likes historical novels.
Still working on this extremely interesting book. Many counter-intuitive results from his studies and it kind of blows out some of the underpinnings of economic theory.
For the Win by Cory Doctorow
Still plugging away on this. I want Michael to read it.
Next up:
blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris
The Parabolist by Nicholas Ruddock
It's Monday...what am I reading? August 9th edition.
Completed over the last week:
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
Interesting take on shortening attention spans due to extensive use of online media. I expected to get some info on how to prevent this from happening. Instead, I came away thinking that perhaps there is a fundamental change happening that is equivalent to the move from oral history to written. Very thought-provoking.
The Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller
I haven't read anything by Sue Miller since The Good Mother (15 years ago). This story is about a playwright's use of events around 9/11 in her work and how it affects those closest to her. The structure is somewhat novel as she shifts the narrator in each chapter. The characters were interesting and unusual: for example, a brother and sister who are separated by fourteen years in age, leading to more of a mother-son relationship.
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart (for Wordshakers over at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books)
A lovely, short memoir written by a woman who spent a wonderful summer in 1945 working at Tiffany's New York with her best friend. It nicely evokes the tenor of the times, the club scene, clothing, dating life, and the end of the war. More detailed review to follow. A fun, summer read.
In progress:
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (audiobook)
Have just started this latest novel from Peter Carey. I've been listening to it on my dog-walks and have found myself flopping down when I get home for "just another chapter." I've only met Olivier so far, the son of a French aristocrat, and we're still in France. It's set in the 19th century and extremely enjoyable, particularly the French accent of the reader.
I've read quite a number of books on decision-making lately and this one has really captured my attention. I'm only about a quarter of the way in, but Ariely is knocking holes in basic economic theory around supply and demand based on his experimental discoveries about how people make purchase decisions. Very compelling (so far)!
For the Win by Cory Doctorow
A young adult (I think) novel about the gaming world, I"m having a little bit of trouble getting in to this as it's not my usual genre. But the characters are interesting and I'm going to plug along.
Next up:
Girl Crazy by Russell Smith
Back in the day when I read The Globe and Mail (Canada's other national newspaper), I enjoyed Russell Smith's columns on dressing for men. I've also read his book on the same topic (and recommend it for the style-challenged.) This is the first fiction I've read by him and am looking forward to it.
Curiosity by Joan Thomas
This appears to be another novel about 19th century fossil hunter Mary Anning. I read and reviewed Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier a couple of weeks ago, a novel based on the same historical figure. It will be interesting to compare their treatments of this subject matter.
"The Truth About Delilah Blue" by Tish Cohen: Review
This is the third novel by Tish Cohen that I have gobbled up: I loved Town House and The Inside Out Girl and so put The Truth About Delilah Blue on my library hold list as soon as I knew it was to be released.
Lila Mack has lived with her over-protective father since she was eight, believing that her mother no longer wanted to be in her life. Now at age twenty, she is trying to pursue art with no funding from her father. Deciding to work as a life model seems to be a great way to get some free art lessons, as she can listen in to the instructor while she poses. Her mother, who has been searching for her for years, reconnects with her and some pieces fall in to place for Lila. But it's not a straightforward happy reunion/ending, and Lila/Delilah finds herself having to take on the role of parent to her parents much sooner than she expected.
Cohen writes with great sympathy for each of the three main characters in this novel, drawing us into their lives as they try to make sense of shifting roles. She is able to write about this dysfunctional family with an eye to all sides of the story, to parents who both feel they need(ed) to protect their child from the other, and from the child/woman who has to redefine her relationships with parents who are not who she thought they were.
The Truth About Delilah Blue is a funny and poignant novel, but not depressing. The past is what it is, and Cohen writes honestly about the way forward for Lila who has difficult choices to make as she learns the truth about the present.
Highly recommended!
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett: A review of the audiobook
I saw Bennett's play The Habit of Art a few months ago and have been picking up his writing ever since. I found this audiobook of The Uncommon Reader
Bennett himself reads the story and it's wonderful. A novella that comes in at under 2.5 hours listening time, this hilarious tale depicts what might happen were the Queen to pick up reading as a habit. After chasing her dogs around back of the Palace, the Queen wanders into the local library's bookmobile and ends up leaving with a novel and promoting a kitchen servant (who was borrowing books at the same time she was) to be her reading assistant. As she becomes more and more of a reader, her behaviour around and outside the palace changes, much to the consternation of her staff, family, and the general public (who are now being asked what they are reading as the Queen does her walk-bys.)
This novel speaks to the power of reading in a gentle and humorous way. The story is quite believable, in a sort of incredulous way, and the reading itself is wonderful, with Bennett voicing the various characters with much aplomb.
Highly Recommended!
Dianne Warren's Cool Water: A review
The National Post put me on to Cool Water by Dianne Warren in their review by Kathleen Govier. It's a novel, but with a lyrical structure of intertwined short stories. Set in a small Saskatchewan town, it follows the lives of individuals and families over the period of a few days. As in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, these stories intersect. The reader is able to look down on the town and watch as the stories overlap and interconnect. We read of a mother struggling to cope with her children as the family farm is in the process of being repossessed; the bank manager who knows too much about too many people in the town; a young man, adopted by Norwegian immigrants, who has inherited their farm and is anxious about his ability to manage it; a woman passing through town who loses a horse, inadvertently causing a rift between the owner of a diner and her husband; and a man and the widow of his brother who share a home and run the town's drive-in.
While it is true to say that many of these tales are of loneliness, it's not a depressing book. Rather, we watch how people cope with being alone, with striving to make a life in a small town where possibilities of social intercourse are perhaps limited. The setting is rural, but the emotions of living with others but still feeling alone, or of living alone and dwelling in the past could really take place anywhere. Warren's characters are incredibly rich and well-drawn and I felt drawn into their lives. She has created a world that, as the reader, you fell you inhabit. The dryness of blowing sand, the heat off the sidewalk, the sweat under a saddle all jump off the page. An ideal summer read.
Recommended!
Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier: Review
Tracey Chevalier and Sandra Gulland introduced me to historical fiction five or so years ago and I have enjoyed everything I've read by them (and branched out as well!). So I was very predisposed to enjoy Chevalier's latest, Remarkable Creatures. And I did. Very much so.
There appear to be two books out this year on the same subject. Curiosity by Joan Thomas is also about Mary Anning, a twelve-year-old English girl and daughter of a cabinet-maker, who discovers the first intact skeleton of a prehistoric creature on the seashore near her home. An uneducated, illiterate young person with an uncanny eye for finding fossils of all kinds, Chevalier's tale recounts Mary's friendship with a middle class spinster Elizabeth Philpot. Because of their sex, they were barred from the scientific community, but Philpot's persistence and (small) investment coupled with Anning's skill at fossil-hunting yields a scientific partnership that is perhaps unique in the history of this discipline.
Chevalier alternates the voices of Mary and Elizabeth chapter by chapter, giving us a sense of what their friendship may have been like from both points of view. We get a wonderful picture of life in a small English town in the 19th century, and a contrasting view of the excitement of London. The moral codes around being a woman alone on the street, on the beaches, and out in public are interesting to read about, particularly as both women struggle against the restrictions imposed on them by society. An extremely engaging work, this was a difficult novel to put down.
Recommended!
