Austen at Sea, Island Queen

Happy September--commence the Pumpkin Spice season. 

I have never had a pumpkin spice latte (does not appeal) but I love pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, butternut squash soup, etc. Anything to which I can add liberal doses of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.

Garden Notes

I've been making tomato soup, green chili (my latest was with poblano peppers, chicken, and cannelloni beans--very yum!), and I'm hoping to have enough ripe tomatoes to make a batch of tomato sauce for the freezer before I head up to Washington state on Wednesday. Yes, that is only two days away, but I can dream!

The asters and goldenrod are blooming, and the butterfly weed is still going strong. We have had rain almost daily for about 10 days, which has been lovely although the hot, dry days are back. 

Book Notes

I read two books for the JASNA Denver/Boulder book club's September meeting. 

Austen at Sea by Natalie Jenner was a disappointing three-star book with some terrifically good parts but infused with nails-on-chalkboard weirdness that I just can't get over. Here's most of the GoodReads blurb:

In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.

In Philadelphia, Nicholas & Haslett Nelson—bachelor brothers, veterans of the recent Civil War, and rare book dealers—are also in correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, who lures them, too, to England, with the promise of a never-before-seen, rare Austen artifact to be evaluated.

The Stevenson sisters sneak away without a chaperone to sail to England. On their ship are the Nelson brothers, writer Louisa May Alcott, Sara-Beth Gleason—wealthy daughter of a Pennsylvania state senator with her eye on the Nelsons—and, a would-be last-minute chaperone to the Stevenson sisters, Justice Thomas Nash.

It's a voyage and trip that will dramatically change each of their lives in ways that are unforeseen, with the transformative spirit of the love of literature and that of Jane Austen herself.

Great premise and some meaty, interesting subjects. I loved reading about women's rights, suffragettes, and the legal stuff (i.e., when an American woman marries a British man in Britain at this time, she forfeits her American citizenship and all her property becomes her husband's), but the plot that Jenner came up with for this premise was weak. I simply didn't buy the idea that Frank Austen had a letter written by Jane to her good friend and his second wife, Martha, in which she reveals something that I just couldn't swallow. I won't share it so as not spoil the story if anyone is planning to read this book.

I did think it sort of cute that Frank was cast as an Emma-esque matchmaker, but even that defied believability. This was an aged admiral of the fleet for crying out loud, not a bored Regency rich girl.

My favorite parts were the scenes on the ship over to England with Louisa May Alcott (aka Lou) directing an amateur production of A Tale of Two Cities. Personally, I think the story would have worked so much better if Jenner hadn’t hijacked Austen and just told a story without the Austen connection. Granted, she needed something of incredible value that the American woman who married the British man would have lost control over after they married, but I just didn't like what Jenner came up with.

And, the ending was so contrived that my ability to suspend disbelief simply gave up.

Island Queen by Valeria Riley was a solid four stars, verging on five. Again, here is the GoodReads blurb:

A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies. 

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.

Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.

From the bustling port cities of the West Indies to the forbidding drawing rooms of London’s elite, Island Queen is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid eighteenth-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color. It is an unforgettable portrait of a true larger-than-life woman who made her mark on history.

Vanessa Riley is one of the plenary speakers at the upcoming JASNA annual general meeting in Baltimore, and so I wanted to have read one of her books before the event. 

Not only did I learn about Dolly (aka Dorothy and Doll), who is truly remarkable, but I learned about the West Indies and South America during the Georgian/Regency years. The map of the islands at the front of the book was so useful as I charted Dolly's movements from Montserrat, where she was born, to Demerara, on the northeast coast of South America (now part of Guyana), to Granada, Barbados, Dominica, and other islands. 

I learned about the dynamics between the colonists and the countries who fought over the colonies (Britain, France, the Netherlands), and, of course, slavery and the road to abolition that was marked by rebellions, martial law, retribution, brutality, and courage.

I loved reading about Dolly's dedication to not only making her dreams a reality but her absolutely fierce protection of her extended family. She has 10 children (mostly daughters), a mother, a sister, grandchildren, and nieces who all need to be protected from being abducted back into slavery. Being a free woman meant being ever vigilant.

I read that Island Queen has been optioned for adaptation. I think it would make a terrific mini-series, if put in the right hands. 

As a lifelong reader of Jane Austen, reading Island Queen has definitely enriched my understanding of the world of Austen.

At a whopping 592 pages, this closes out the Big Book Summer challenge for me!

Civil War - Chain of Thunder: Siege of Vicksburg, Battle for the Mississippi

 

Another chunkster from Jeff Shaara as part of the great American Civil War deep dive, A Chain of Thunder details the siege of Vicksburg and the overall U.S. Grant campaign to gain full access of the Mississippi River for the Union.

As with his other war novels, Shaara's narrative shifts among various players on both sides, generals and other officers (of course) Grant and Sherman for the North and Pemberton for the South, as well as a Union soldier from Wisconsin (Fritz aka Dutchie Bauer) whom I met in the previous novel, A Blaze of Glory, about Shiloh, and several civilians from Vicksburg who remained until the final surrender of the fort by the Confederates. 

The main civilian given voice in this novel is Lucy Spence, a young woman, only 18 years old, who is on her own after her mother dies (her father had already abandoned the family). She is taken in by neighbors when the town's residents move into caves to shelter from the constant shelling by the Union Army, but she volunteers as a nurse and so through her eyes we see first-hand the horror and pain of the battlefield survivors.

All of the military personnel featured in the novel as well as Dutchie and Lucy and her neighbors were real people, and at the end of the book, as always, the author provides a glimpse into their lives post-war.

These novels are really such an excellent way to learn about not only the details of the campaigns and the military strategy, which I do find fascinating, but also how the people actually lived through the experience, including the politics, the rumors, and the hopes and fears that are not tempered by hindsight. For example, I have read several non-fiction accounts of the Vicksburg campaign, and they all rather glibly mention how the town's residents lived in caves, but reading a fictional account of how the residents actually had to live (i.e., digging out the caves, putting up supporting timbers, figuring out how cook and what to cook as food stores ran out and starvation set in, how to clean themselves, etc.) brings home so much more powerfully what was endured and what was sacrificed.

I also really enjoyed reading about the role that the engineers played on both sides in devising ingenious solutions to tough military problems. In particular, the "Coonskins Tower," constructed by a lieutenant out of discarded railroad ties and that enabled Union sharpshooters to have a clear shot at the Confederate ramparts is a great example. Another is the second earthen wall constructed overnight by the Confederate soldiers under the direction of their chief engineer after the Union artillery blasted through one of the outer walls late one afternoon in preparation for a massive assault the next morning.

As you can tell, I'm not nearly through with my deep dive, and this book was another exceptional piece of balanced writing by a wonderful historical fiction author who respects his source material.

And yes, at 562 pages, this book most definitely is part of the #BigBookSummer of 2024.

Table for Two: Fictions - Amor Towles

Table for Two: Fictions, the latest book from the wonderful Amor Towles, is divided into two parts, New York and Los Angeles. The New York section consists of six short stories, five of which are definitely NYC stories. The sixth, which also happens to be the first in the book, is mostly set in Russia in 1917 as the country convulses into a communist state. The Los Angeles section is actually a novella, featuring Eve Ross from The Rules of Civility, which I haven't yet read. That fact didn't stand in the way of my enjoying the LA story immensely.

In fact, I enjoyed every single one of the fictions. Towles is just such a remarkable writer--not only is his prose elegant, but he writes such interesting stories. How he can know so much about the music world, the art world, the inner workings of Hollywood in 1939, and all the other arcane stuff that give such meat to his stories never fails to amaze me.

The first story, "The Line," is the one mostly set in Russia, and the premise actually made me laugh out loud. I loved how Towles was able to use the setting to tell a wonderful story about what motivates people, regardless of the political ideology under which they are living.

All of the short stories do a fine job of providing a wonderful ironic twist to complete the story, which is a hallmark of great short stories.

The weakest story was "The Bootlegger" because the main character was unbelievably clueless and the resolution was fairly predictable. Not bad, but not up to the standard of the rest of the stories.

After reading "The Didomenico Fragment," which is the last of the New York stories, I want to return to NYC and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio. In the story, the protagonist, a former art dealer with Sotheby's, takes a young relative to the Met and I fell in love with his description of this studiolo.

The walls of the studiolo are inlaid wood, which creates an illusion of 3D objects.

The "Eve in Hollywood" novella that comprises the Los Angeles section of the book was so good, and I got completely caught up in the setting (1930s Hollywood), and the characters, from a fading matinee idol, to a retired cop, to a plucky bellboy who is an aspiring stunt man, to Eve's best friend, Olivia de Havilland, who happens to be starring in Gone With the Wind at the time. Eve is a larger-than-life character, the type that myths are built around. Beautiful but scarred, self-assured and fierce. I can see why Towles wanted to write more of her story. I can see a whole series of books based on Eve.

I also loved Eve's list of 20 things to do in Los Angeles. Now, I want to go to LA and do them! Although that was a list from 1939. I wonder how many things on the list are still a thing?

And this is yet one more chunkster for the Big Book Summer Challenge 2024, clocking in at 464 pages. It is turning out to be a great summer for big books. That's what retiring will do for your reading life!

Update from the Civil War Deep Dive

Erik Larson is one of my favorite non-fiction authors. When I heard that he had a new book out on the Civil War, I knew I had to read it. That put the worm in my brain to finally read James MacPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, and then that made me want to read some fiction. The best Civil War fiction writer around is Jeff Shaara, son of Michael Shaara, whose Killer Angels is one of my favorite books. You see how this goes. One minute I am planning on reading one tome on the Civil War, and pretty soon I'm down the rabbit hole and getting lost in the warren.

So, let's start with the Erik Larson book, which I finished last weekend. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War is a painstaking, slow crawl from November 1860 to the firing on Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor in April 1861. It may be a slow crawl, but Larson is an incredible storyteller whose writing is sharp and incisive. 

I particularly liked learning about the so-called Southern Fire-Eaters, who preached secession for decades before 1861 and were instrumental in rousing sectional violence through their rhetoric. Most of the history books I've read on the Civil War mention the Fire-Eaters as a collective but don't provide particulars as to who they were and what they even said or did. Not so with Larson--one of the Fire-Eaters, Edmund Ruffin, is a major character in Demon of Unrest. Same with Mary Chestnut whose diary is quoted frequently but not much of her backstory is provided to put the quoted parts in context.

Larson used the Southern version of the ancient Code Duello has a framework for exploring and attempting to understand the irreconcilable chasm between the North and South that made the Civil War inevitable. I don't believe in single causes, but I did find this framework to be a useful way of corralling the many perspectives on why and how Americans came to such savagery 163 years ago.

This was a 5-star book for me--compelling, structured, meticulous, insightful.

Before reading Demon of Unrest, I spent a couple of months slowly reading James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. First published in 1988 and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1989, it is an absolutely superb cover-to-cover book on the war. Not only are the major battles and major military leaders covered in detail, but McPherson dives into the politics, the economies of both North and South, the international factors, and the role of the navy, the industrial revolution, and the western frontier in how the war was waged. I absolutely loved reading this book, and interestingly, I found it familiar in that the lecture series I listened to from the Teaching Company seemed to come straight from this book, not only in the outline but in anecdotes and references. 

Bruce Catton is one of the giants of Civil War non-fiction, with in-depth treatments of various battles, generals, and phases of the war, I decided to start with his survey book, titled simply The Civil War. It was outstanding. At 400 pages, it is less than half as long as McPherson's 867-page tome. They cover the same ground and with much the same analyses regarding the causes, the resources, and the impacts of various decisions along the way. I must say, though, that Catton's final chapters in which he talks about how the effects of the conflict are still being played out today (i.e., 1960 was when this was first published) and today (2024) are chilling and sobering, but his writing is beautiful and memorable.

If there is only one book you read on the Civil War, I would recommend this one. Truly a classic.

Now for the fiction. Michael Shaara wrote the fabulous The Killer Angels, about the battle of Gettysburg. After he passed away, his son Jeff took up the mantle and has written two trilogies about the Civil War, one focused on the eastern theatre and one on the west (meaning west of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland). Gods and Generals is the first in the eastern series. It is a prequel to The Killer Angels and ends with the battle of Chancellorsville. A Blaze of Glory is the first in the western trilogy and includes the battle of Shiloh.

I decided to read all six books, including a reread of The Killer Angels. While I love to read the non-fiction, I also love stories and both Shaaras do an excellent job of portraying the players (military officers, politicians, regular soldiers, and even civilians) with credibility and empathy. The real people only say things they are documented as saying, and I know it's cliche to say, but these novels are really meticulously researched. I trust their history!

I'm currently reading A Chain of Thunder, book two in the western theatre series, which focuses on the seige of Vicksburg on the Mississippi.

I'm also haunting Jeff Shaara's events page to see if/when he might be speaking on the Civil War. He has an October lecture in PA, but it is focused on WWII. He also has series of novels about WWI and WWII, which I will likely read at some point.

Simon the Fiddler is another novel, this time set in the immediate aftermath of the war and in the far west, Texas. in fact. The author is Paulette Jiles, author of the wonderful News of the World, and Captain Kidd from News does make a cameo appearance in this novel near the end, which was a real treat. Simon is a reluctant soldier who survived the war by playing his fiddle in the regimental band. After the fighting ceases, he teams up with three other fellow musicians and they make their way as a band playing in bars and saloons and occasionally for weddings and other social events when they can find respectable clothes. Simon falls in love with an Irish immigrant girl who is an indentured servant to one of the army officers, and the bulk of the novel is about him working towards winning her heart and her freedom so that they can start their own life together. As might be expected, there are loads of challenges along the way.

This was a really interesting novel in terms of showing the struggles of the common soldier as he was turned loose from the confines of military life and left to figure out how to survive in a hostile environment.  Simon is a wonderful character, full of grit and honor, passionate about his music, introspective, and always searching to understand who he is and how he fits into the world.

Not quite as good as News of the World, but still a very enjoyable story told in a compelling way.

Big Book Summer Challenge 

Now for the tally. Simon the Fiddler was under 400, and I started both Battle Cry of Freedom and Blaze of Glory before Memorial Day.

Demon of Unrest, 565 pages read in July 

The Civil War, 400 pages read in July

Gods and Generals, 498 pages read in mostly June and a bit of July

So, three books to add to my Big Book Summer Challenge 2024.

Shakespeare and Judi Dench

I absolutely loved listening to Judi Dench and fellow Shakespearean actor Brendan O'Hea chat about their work, their industry, their colleagues and friends, and the man himself in Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent.

On GoodReads, both are listed as authors of the book, though O'Hea did the lion's share of the work in converting 90 hours of discussion into book form. Dench suffers from macular degeneration, so reading and, I assume, writing and revision are now not possible.

The book's title is what Judi and her husband, Michael Williams, said about Shakespeare. Both were members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, aka RSC, and acting, mostly in Shakespeare's plays, was their job. They often acted together and lived outside Stratford-upon-Avon.  But I digress.

As Brendan says, Judi has an incredible memory regarding the productions she has been in, and I relished not only hearing about the director's vision and coaching, but the costuming, the set designs, the backstage chatter, the audiences, the pranks, the reviews and reviewers.

I appreciated Judi's and Brendan's discussions, at times contentious, about the various characters and especially how Judi's understanding of them changed as she changed and matured. The book is primarily a deep dive into each of the characters Judi played, not necessarily in chronological order, in each of the plays she was in. It starts with Macbeth--I loved hearing about her playing Lady Macbeth with Ian McKellan as Macbeth. I've seen the video of this production, and it is haunting and incredible and the best Macbeth I've ever seen.

I was gratified to learn that Judi dislikes Merchant of Venice and Portia for all the reasons that I do. She was in several productions of Midsummer's Night Dream, playing Titania, of course, but earlier she was one of the fairies when she was just out of acting school. She was Maria as well as Viola in Twelfth Night, Juliet as well as Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Isabella in Measure for Measure, Hermione and Perdita in the same production of Winter's Tale as well as Paulina later on, Katherine in Henry V, and the list goes on and on. Oh, I forgot, what a Cleopatra she was--I would love to have seen that production on the stage!

As Titania

In addition to remembering loads of specific details about the various productions, her ability to quote passages and not just from characters she played was outstanding.

However, three things really shine through and define Judi for me:

• Her reverence for her job--as an actress, she saw her job as telling the story as Shakespeare wrote it. That's not to say she had a problem with modern settings/costumes, she didn't--but she believed that the words told the story and she never wanted to deviate from the words. She respected the audiences she played to and felt an obligation to tell the story to them as well as she could.
• Her love of Shakespeare's genius--his words, his poetry, his understanding of the human condition in all its contradictions and complexity. She loves iambic pentameter and says its rhythm is the same as the human heartbeat. I loved her asides the passion or poetry or insight contained in a line would give her chills.
• Her joie de vivre is intoxicating. 

Truly a 5-star listen. And truly, this is a book that needs to be listened to--just to hear Shakespeare's words said aloud!

Oh, and the hardcover is exactly 400 pages, so this counts as one of my Big Book Summer Challenge books.

Greek Myths Retold and Retooled: Mythos, Medusa's Sisters, Galatea

I have always loved the stories of the Greek myths, having read the children's versions as a kid, then some Ovid and Homer, and now the reimaginings.

I just finished listening to Stephen Fry read his Mythos, the first of three books in which he tells the stories of Greek mythology. He makes a point of saying that he is retelling the stories, not interpreting or analyzing them but simply passing them along. I like to think that his reading them and me listening is part of the Homeric tradition.

I enjoyed the book immensely--he begins with Chaos and works his way through the creation, the Titans, the Olympians, and the several eras of mortals. He divides the stories into themes--transformations of gods and mortals into animals, plants, rivers, springs, etc--lovers, mostly doomed but a few successful couples--punishments of mortals and gods, particularly for hubris but also for other transgressions, notably lack of hospitality, which was so important to the Greeks. I loved some of the explanation stories--how the honeybee (Melissa) got a stinger was my personal favorite. And, of course, I absolutely loved how Fry would list all the various words that we use today that are derived from the names and stories.

Fry retells the age-old stories, some of which were new to me, with wry humor and some modern sensibilities, but not so much as to be annoying. I am planning on listening to Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures next, followed by Troy, which is the book my daughter Sarah read and recommended to me. I decided to start with Mythos so as to have a good grounding.

At 416 pages, Mythos is my first book that qualifies for the Big Book Summer Challenge.

Medusa's Sisters, by Lauren J.A. Bear, is in the reimaging camp. This was a 5-star novel for me, and it was absolutely riveting. In Bear's story, the Gorgons started out as beautiful triplets. The first and second born, Stheno and Euryale, are immortal, but Medusa is mortal. Despite being triplets, Stheno is a stereotypical oldest sibling, Euryale is the Jan Brady figure, and Medusa is the petted, spoiled baby. How they become monsters is a classic case of two powerful beings squabbling over glory and not caring who gets hurt as a consequence of their petty rivalry. 

Despite the tragedy of Medusa--and her story is a tragedy--the really lovely aspect of this reimagining is how these Gorgons wrestle with the consequences of their power to kill--it comes down to not judging the worth of a being by their physical appearance...even when looks can kill! They may have ended up as monsters externally, but the gorgeous gods who callously destroyed their happiness are the real villains in this story.

Bear has another book coming out in January 2025, Mother of Rome, which looks very promising and is already on my TBR list.

Galatea, by Madeline Miller, author of the fabulous Song of Achilles and Circe, is a slender book. Only 27 pages, this reimagining tells the myth of Pygmalion from the point of view of Galatea, the woman the sculptor created out of marble, fell in love with, and begged Aphrodite to bring to life. It reads like a parable, a warning, rather than a myth. It is a feminist take on what happens when a someone believes they own not only the body but the soul of another. Not a particularly fun book to read--a tragedy without the lovely and life-affirming aspects of Medusa's Sisters. Glad I read it but not sure I have the heart to reread it.

Big Book Summer Challenge

It's that time of year again--time to break out the big books for reading during the hot days of summer. I am not a beach or pool gal, but I do love to read on our covered back deck when it's too hot to garden.

Once again, Sue from Book by Book is hosting the Big Book Summer Challenge--her 12th year! All you have to do is read at least one book over 400 pages between Memorial Day and Labor, and you've completed the challenge.

I am definitely planning on reading Drood, a 775-page whopper by Dan Simmons, after I finish Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which I am reading with the Victorians on GoodReads.

I would also like to read some more of Jeff and Michael Shaara's Civil War novels, all of them are 400+ pages. I read A Blaze of Glory, about Shiloh, in May and am eager to read more of the Western Theatre novels as well as all the others.

My brother Mark told me about a series of books by Alice Roberts, non-fiction on British history. The first, Ancestors: A History of Britain in Seven Burials, clocks in at 400 pages, so it is also a definite possibility for this challenge.

Happy Summer Reading! What's on your shelf?

Mysteries -- Quebec, Dublin, and London

The Paston Treasure, circa 1670 - featured in A World of Curiosities

I do love a good mystery and a good mystery series and a good mystery-series author. In the midst of a couple of super long books, I managed to fit in a few that meet all three criteria to add extra zest to my summer reading.

A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny is book 18 in Penny's fabulous Armand Gamache series, set in Quebec. I absolutely loved this mystery and think it among the best of the series. It hits all the right notes for me--mostly taking place in the wonderful village of Three Pines and featuring Armand, his family, his neighbors, his dogs, it tells the backstory of Armand and his second-in-command and son-in-law Jean Guy. It features art (i.e., The Paston Treasure), the struggle between good and evil, DNA, puzzles, witches, and traditions.  The mystery was absolutely first-rate and kept me guessing as to how it would all work out until the end. Clocking in at exactly 400 pages, it counts as my 3rd book in the Big Book Summer Challenge 2023.

A Man With One of Those Faces, Caimh McDonnell - this is a new series for me, book 1 of the author's Dublin Trilogy. McDonnell was apparently a stand-up comedian before becoming an author, and the book is very funny as well as a great mystery chock full of interesting, quirky characters. I loved the setting and the main character and the overall premise (i.e., the fact that Paul Mulchrone has one of those faces and keeps on being mistaken for someone else...with dire consequences).

The White Lady, by Jacqueline Winspear - as a devoted fan of the author's Maisie Dobbs series, I was eager to read this new book in what I expect will be a new series. It was quite good, but the main character, Elinor White, is an awful lot like Maisie. Both survived WWI, with Elinor being slightly younger than Maisie was during that war, but with significant emotional scarring. Both are mentored by strong individuals who recognize their innate abilities, and both work in clandestine roles during WWII. Both school themselves to be steady, strong, capable, and moral. Both love suppers of soup and bread and cheese. I'm not sure if Winspear felt that Maisie's story was winding up, and Elinor was a way she could move into the post-war world. I guess I'm okay with that since I enjoy reading Winspear's novels.

Big Book Summer Challenge 2023

It's time once again for Sue's (Book by Book) annual Big Book Summer Challenge and I am all in. Just read 1 or more books of more than 400 pages between May 25 (beginning of Memorial Day weekend) and September 4 (Labor Day).

I just started John Irving's The Last Chairlift, which clocks in at over 800 pages, so that will probably take me all summer. I'm also super interested in reading Dickens's Great Expecations as Adam, the 1st person narrator in The Last Chairlift, mentions it quite a bit in the first part of the book and I've only listened to an abridged version (shameful, I know!).

I also want to read War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk's sequel to The Winds of War, which I read last year.

And then there's SPQR, Mary Beard's history of ancient Rome, that I received for Xmas in 2021 and still haven't read. Another non-fiction that I have been wanting to read for years is Black Diamonds, by Catherine Bailey, that my sister Frances and brother Mark, who share my taste in non-fiction, have raved about for years.

That's a lot on my plate, so I need to stop writing and start reading!

Hope you all have a wonderful reading summer (or winter if you are down under) in store, and thank goodness for big books and Sue's annual challenge!

Mid-August Roundup - Reading, Walking, Learning

Dog days of summer--lots of rain in Colorado (hurrah!), a bit cooler weather, still no tomatoes. What's up with that? But don't you love my sunflower garden? The teddy bear sunflowers are finally coming out, and they are adorable!

Lots of walking. I've been closing my circles on my Apple Watch every day since Jan 1, and accomplished the July challenge (average 60 minutes of exercise per day), and I 'm track to do the August challenge (average burn 668 calories from exercise per day). Am I proud of this? You bet!

In addition to reading, I've been listening to Great Courses on Audible. Here's what I've listened to so far:

• The Vikings, by Kenneth Harl - a 36-lecture course on the history and impact of the Vikings in medieval Europe. Absolutely, wonderful. The net-net is that Harl believes that the Viking raids, settlements, and assumption of power in certain areas was a major force in shaping Christian Europe. The Normans who invaded England in 1066 were essentially Vikings who had settled in Normandy and took control of the area. I did not realize that!
• A History of Hilter's Empire, by Thomas Childers - a 12-lecture course that outlined the development of the Nazi party, its rise and fall. Again, incredibly interesting.
• World War II: A Military and Social History, by Thomas Childers - I am just over half-way through this 30 lecture course. While I am getting more comfortable with the chronology and key points of the war in Europe, I am getting information that is largely new to me about the war in the Pacific and North Africa and the southern Mediterranean.

So why all this learning about WWII? My daughter and I are planning a trip to Germany in March/April. Because we are both interested in WWII, we want to visit a lot of the museums and historical sites from that time and the Cold War, so I wanted to do some pre-trip learning. I am also learning some German via Duolingo.

Now on to what I've been reading. 

The Midcoast, by Adam White - we're headed back to Maine for 10 days in September, so I wanted to read another novel set in Maine, and I saw this on a few blogs and thought I would give it a try. It was a solid 4-star novel, a debut novel, set in a very small town in Maine with an interesting story. Basically, the main character, Andrew, is a lot like Nick in The Great Gatsby in that he observes the rise and shattering fall of a family and how the facade of money and power can crumble when pushed even a little. The main character is an observer, not a player, without having much of a storyline himself. Not sure how this novel is doing overall in the market, but I think it could definitely use a better title, which I found dull and not enticing at all.

City of Vengeance, by D.V. Bishop - this is the first in a mystery series set in 16th century Florence and featuring Cesare Aldo, an officer working for the criminal courts in Florence, which bascially makes this a cop mystery. Absolutely loved the setting and Cesare is a great character with lots of potential for future stories. The writing was good and the mystery was interesting. Will definitely read the second in the series. Interestingly, I thought at the beginning of the book that it was going to be a take on The Merchant of Venice, as the first section deals with a gruff Jewish moneylender and his wayward daughter. The story didn't end up paralleling Merchant at all, but I was afraid we were straying into stereotypical grounds. Glad the author pulled back and told his own story without riding on Shakespeare's coattails. At 416 pages, this books squeaks under the wire to qualify for the Big Book Summer challenge.

The Diamond Eye, by Kate Quinn - WOW! I loved this book about a female, Russian sharpshooter during WWII. Not quite as good as The Rose Code, but wonderful nevertheless. I especially enjoyed the first part of the book, where Mila (aka Lady Death) is learning to be a soldier and developing her leadership skills (she eventually commands a platoon). The second part of the book deals with her visit to the US, Canada, and Great Britiain to drum up support for the US to aid the Allies and fight the Nazis. Mila Pavlichenko was a real person who wrote a memoir about her time in the Red Army and her trip to the US. The Author's Notes at the end is critical to enjoying/understanding the book, in my opinion, as she explains that 90% of the characters in the book are real people, and the only parts that she really fabricated were the larger story of Mila's estranged husband and the stalker who is trying to kill Roosevelt while she is visiting the White House. I particularly loved Mila's relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, of whom I am a big fan! Reading this book while listening to the WWII Great Courses lectures was a perfect pairing.

Clocking in at 435 pages, this book also qualifies for the Big Book Summer challenge. 

Hope everyone has a good rest-of-August and happy reading, walking, and learning!

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

My first big book of the summer, qualifying for the Big Book Summer Challenge, is a reread of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire aka The Duchess, by Amanda Foreman. I loved it as much the second time around as I did the first time when I read it 15-20 years ago (in my pre-GoodReads days when I didn't keep track of when I read what).

Knowing the arc of Georgiana's story as well as her weaknesses, strengths, frustrations, and ambitions, I was more understanding of the predicaments she got herself into but no less frustrated. Without giving too many spoilers, she was a compulsive gambler and wasted so much time, money, and energy throwing away her husband's money, dodging creditors, and lying and scheming to get out from under the pressing weight of her debts, that it is a wonder she had time to do all that she was able to do in the political world of George III, William Pitt the Younger, and Charles James Fox.

I loved reading about her early days when she was the fashion leader of the ton. I was pleasantly surprised to read about her fascination and study of chemistry and mineralogy during her later years--I had completely forgotten that aspect of her story--she preferred going to lectures rather than socializing in her 40's and even had her own chemistry lab.  I also hadn't recalled all the writing Georgiana had done, poetry as well as fiction and plays, and how respected it was by the readers of her day. I felt the same level of frustration as before when I read about her adulterous husband preventing her from seeing her children when it turns out she had an affair of her own. 

During this reading I also really noticed how Foreman depicted Bess (i.e., Lady Elizabeth Foster) as the villain in Georgiana's life, painting her as an insincere, conniving friend who everyone but the Duchess and her Duke could easily see through. It might actually be interesting to read a biography of Bess. Every narrative needs a villain, of course, and not many in Georgiana's circle truly liked her, but I do wonder how fair Foreman was with this portrayal. Georgiana loved her and confided in her until she died, which counts for a lot in the final reckoning.

This is an incredibly readable bio with just enough detail to make the Georgian world come alive but not mind-numbing with extraneous minutia. I felt that this time I was able to follow the political story much better than the first time around when I was more interested in finding out how Georgiana's life turned out than whether the Whigs or the Tories were in power. I also hadn't recalled what a scoundrel Sheridan was. Makes me think twice about liking his School for Scandal, in which he used Georgiana as a model for Lady Teazle to her absolute delight, without considering what else he was up to beyond writing plays.

As always, I enjoyed reading about Georgiana's travels throughout Europe, particularly her time in France before and during the Revolution. I find Georgiana to be a fascinating historical person--charming, intelligent, democratic, and brimming with life and wit.

Here are my thoughts (from 2009) about the movie The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as Georgiana.

Finally, I found myself thinking a fair amount about Princess Diana while reading this bio. There have been many articles noting the parallels between the lives of Diana and Georgiana, who was her great-aunt many times over (Georgiana was a Spencer too). Here is a pretty good NYT article on the topic.

Big Book Summer Challenge

 

Once again I am signing up for the Big Book Summer Challenge, hosted by Sue at Book by Book. I honestly have no idea what I will be reading as this year is turning out to be something of a freeform, reading wise. I have read a few books on the Back to the Classics challenge, but am letting whimsey rule and am following white rabbits down various literary holes.

Sue keeps her Big Book Summer Challenge pretty chill. Just read one or more books of 400 or more pages and you're in! I love historical fiction that runs to well over 400 pages, so likely that is where I'll be delving, but who knows! It runs Memorial Day (today) to Labor Day (Sept 5). This is the 10th anniversary of the challenge, and there is a GoodReads group where you can post about your progress and check out what others are reading for the challenge.

See you in the Big Books section of the bookstore or library :)

Big Book Summer Challenge - The Winter King, Perdita, and Lionheart

I am happy to report that I have three books finished that qualify for the Big Book Summer Challenge, hosted by Sue of Book by Book.

The Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England, by Thomas Penn. I've read a fair amount about Henry VIII and his children, but I knew very little about his father, Henry VII. 

This was a great book, chock full of interesting aspects of Renaissance Europe, English/Scottish history, and very readable. It was also a real treat to read about Catherine of Aragon while watching The Spanish Princess, which is based on a Philippa Gregory novel, who plays fast and loose with history, but it was still fun to watch the show while reading the history.

Henry VII, his mother Margaret Beaufort, and young Henry VIII, as portrayed in The Spanish Princess

The Winter King gets its title from the idea that Henry VIII as a young man represented such promise for England--young, handsome, personable, educated, devout, athletic--in other words, he was the Spring of a new dynasty that would bring peace and prosperity to a country that had been consumed by civil wars (the War of the Roses) for generations. Winter comes before Spring, hence HVII was the Winter king, older, less handsome, not personable but crafty and cunning, not athletic--he usurped the thone and was never beloved, though he was feared and grudingly respected. 

Perdita: The Literary, Theatrical, Scandalous Life of Mary Robinson, by Paula Byrne, was absolutely wonderful. Another non-fiction, it was the JASNA Denver/Boulder bookclub selection for our July meeting, and it was great fun to discuss it with other Janeites who enjoy learning about Georgian and Regency history. 

Mary was a Bristol-born beauty who was married at age 15, became an actress mentored and trained by the great David Garrick, captured the attention of the teenaged Prince of Wales (later George IV) and became his mistress, left the stage, had affairs with a variety of men, and became a fashion icon until her mid-twenties. It was then that she contracted rhuematic fever, which made her lame for the rest of her life. She then embarked on a literary career, wrote poetry, essays, gothic novels, was close friends with William Godwin (Mary Wollstonecraft's widowed husband) and Coleridge, and wrote her memoirs in which she told her side of the story and which her daughter finished after her death at the young age of 43.

Mary was a fascinating person and every bit as much of a celebrity in her day as Princess Diana was in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly, her literary efforts sunk to oblivion during the Victorian era and only resurfaced in the 1990s. Now scholars give Mary credit for her contributions to poetry, particularly in the innovative use of metre that influenced her contempories such as Coleridge and his ilk.

There's an absolutely great lecture on YouTube in which the presenter discusses Mary Robinson in detail, covering much of the same material in the biography, though not to the same depth.

My third big book is a novel, Lionheart, by Sharon Kay Penman, who passed away in January of this year. Lionheart is the fourth in Penman's chronicles of the early Plantagent kings, this one focused on Richard I, son of Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine. It takes place mostly in Otremer, or the Holy Land, and recounts Richard's role in the Third Crusade in which European Christian forces tried to recapture Jerusalem from Saladin.

Unlike Philippa Gregory, Penman exhibits a slavish devotion to historical accuracy and this book reflects that devotion in that there are a lot of characters and a lot of relationships, feuds, and ambitions to keep straight, but I loved it!

I especially loved reading about Joanna, Richard's youngest sister and Queen of Sicily, as well as Berengaria of Navarre, whom Richard married enroute to the Holy Land. Both women accompany him and the Crusaders and seeing the world through their eyes was a nice contrast to the seemingly endless battles.

I also absolutely loved two of Richard's kinsmen, Morgan (Welsh cousin and son of the marvelous Ranulf of the earlier books) and Henri, son of Richard's sister Marie. They were personable, interesting, and charming.

I learned so much about medieval warfare, the politics of the Crusades, Saladin and his army, the geography and landscape of Otremer. Penman is such an excellent storyteller, giving her characters such authentic voices without imbuing them with modern sensibilities.

Next up in the series is A King's Ransom, which presumbably is about Richard's capture and imprisonment on his way home from the Crusade.

I have a couple more big books on the horizon, so I might get a couple more under my belt before Labor Day.

Happy reading.

Wrapping Up: Big Book Summer Challenge

Hosted by Sue at Book by Book, this has become one of my favorite challenges.

 I did pretty well on the Big Book Summer Challenge--all you have to do is read a book over 400 pages.

Here's what I planned and how I did - 3 out of 5 completed by Labor Day!

1. Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens - loved rereading this wonderful early Dickens novel. 

2. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck - still reading this, just over half done, and enjoying it so much more than when I was in high school. Definitely a masterpiece and clearly a contender for The Great American novel, and so sadly still pertinent today.

3. Men to Match My Mountains, by Irving Stone - non-fiction, exceptionally interesting, very detailed.

4. Devil's Brood, by Sharon K. Penman - loved this book so much. Historical fiction is my favorite genre, Medieval history is one of my favorite periods to read about, and Penman is the queen of her craft. Immensely satisfying novel about Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, RIchard I, John and so many others.

5. A Dance to the Music of Time, 1st Movement, by Anthony Powell - didn't even attempt it. Maybe next year.

I do like big books, and since I tend to read books in parallel rather than serially, I can spend weeks or months on a book and really feel like I've experienced the book and it will stick with me.

The Devil's Brood

 

I love Sharon Kay Penman's historical novels, but they are long and so I usually can only fit in one a year. However, it's been since January 2017 since I've indulged so it was a real treat to dive into The Devil's Brood, referring to the warring, scheming, selfish sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As Henry muses at one point, everyone wants a son and heir but daughters are much easier!

During most of the novel, Eleanor is Henry's prisoner, which is pretty horrible in and of itself, but she did betray him and plotted with her sons against him and while Henry was able to forgive them, he could never forgive her. For only a few years was she in discomfort, but her real misery (apart from freedom to travel and reign) was that she was kept in rainy, dismal England and was so homesick for lovely, warm, sun-splashed south of France.

Having visited Normandy, Brittany, and Paris in 2018, I felt so much more comfortable with the geography of the book than when I read Time and Chance, which chronicles the early years of HII and Eleanor's marriage -- up to when Becket was murdered in the cathedral. And most of this book does take place in France rather than England. I actually did visit some of the places mentioned--Mont St Michel, Rouen, Rennes, Bayeaux, Caen, and, of course, Paris. 

Penman did a particularly good job of bringing into focus Hal, the Young King, the oldest son to survive into adulthood and whom HII foolishly crowned, so there were actually two Kings of England at one time. Why he thought this would make for a happy home life remains a mystery! Hal reminded me so much of Shakespeare's Prince Hal before he became Henry V. 

I also enjoyed reading about Geoffrey -- the son after Richard and before John. He was the Duke of Brittany, and actually seems the most able ruler of all the sons. He wasn't necessarily a nice guy, but he was smart and capable.

Both Richard and John almost seemed a bit cardboard compared to the richness in character Penman gave to Hal and Geoffrey. But then, Richard is center stage for the next two books in the series so I think I'll get to know him pretty well in time.

Clocking in at 730 pages, I felt like one of the family, with ample time to get to know all the main characters as well as the extensive cast of servants, knights, confidants, and relatives. Yes, this book is chock full of history and details about life in Medieval Europe, but at its heart it is the story of a dysfunctional family led by two people who are soulmates and yet find ways to tear each other apart year after year. 

Now, I'm eager to read Lionheart, next in the Plantagenet series, about Richard I and the Third Crusade.

And you guessed it, this book qualifies for the Big Book Summer reading challenge.

2020 Big Book Summer

Nothing is the same this summer...except signing up for Suzan's Big Book Summer Challenge at Book by Book.

The challenge is incredibly easy...just read a book, or more, of at least 400 pages.

Here's my list of certain, probable, possible, and maybe candidates.

Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens - I started it and am on track to finish mid-summer. Goodreads Victorians group is also reading it this summer, which I am excited about because I can post thoughts there as I read.

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck - I have been wanting to reread this book since high school, and this summer is the summer I make good on that wish.

Men to Match My Mountains, by Irving Stone - I always enjoy Stone's books, and this one about the opening of the American West has sat on my TBR shelf for way too long.

Devil's Brood, by Sharon K. Penman - the second half of the Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry II story in Penman's march through English history; their sons are all grown up and ready to battle their father on the side of their mother, or is it the other way around? Putting the fun in family dysfunction. I love Penman's historical novels, and it's been way too long since I read one.

A Dance to the Music of Time, 1st Movement, by Anthony Powell - I have heard such good things about this series.

That should keep me busy while I watch the flowers grow on my back deck this summer!

Hope all my book blogging buddies are stay safe and healthy.

What are you reading this summer?

Big Book Summer Challenge

Sue at Book by Book is hosting her annual Big Book Summer Challenge, and I am rising to the bait yet again. I love me a good big book.

I have a couple of classics that I need to read this year that meet the 400 page qualifier:
The Buccaneers, by Edith Wharton
Can You Forgive Her, by Anthony Trollope

And I've been meaning to read Irving Stone's Men to Match My Mountains: The Monumental Saga of the Winning of America's Far West, which also qualifies.

I'm also hoping to reread Ella Leffland's The Knight, Death, and the Devil, a chilling novel about Hermann Goring.

Who knows what I'll actually get to, but that's the tentative plan.

Sue has made her challenge wonderfully simple:

• Anything 400 pages or more qualifies as a big book.

• The challenge will run from Memorial Day weekend (starting May 24 this year) through Labor Day weekend (Labor Day is September 2 this year).

• Choose one or two or however many big books you want as your goal. Wait, did you get that?  You only need to read 1 book with 400+ pages this summer to participate! (though you are welcome to read more, if you want).

• Sign up on the first links list below if you have a blog (or in the comments below or on Goodreads if you don't have a blog).

• Write a post to kick things off - you can list the exact big books you plan to read or just publish your intent to participate, but be sure to include the Big Book Summer Challenge pic above, with a link back to this blog (no blog? No problem - see below).

• Write a post to wrap up at the end, listing the big books you read during the summer.

• You can write progress posts if you want to and/or reviews of the big books you've read...but you don't have to! There is a separate links list below for big book reviews or progress update posts.

Two big summer books: The Essex Serpent and World Without End

I participated again this year in the Big Book Summer Challenge, hosted by Sue at Book by Book.

Not only did I finish three marvelous big books as part of the challenge, but I also won the prize, a gift card at Amazon! Talk about the icing on the cake--and yes, I've already spent it on two books that I plan to read this fall: The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by M.R. James. Thanks, Sue!

So my three big books were Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens, The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry, and World Without End, by Ken Follett.

The Essex Serpent almost didn't make the cut to qualify as a big book, clocking in at 418 pages, but it did so I counted it. I picked up this book a year ago in the Manchester airport, waiting for my flight home after walking the Hadrian's Wall Path. I had heard about it and loved the cover and felt the premise had promise, and had a few extra pounds I needed to spend. So glad I picked it up as I really enjoyed it.

Here's part of the Amazon blurb:

When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at nineteen, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.

 While admiring the sites, Cora learns of an intriguing rumor that has arisen further up the estuary, of a fearsome creature said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. After nearly 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to have returned, taking the life of a young man on New Year’s Eve. A keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, Cora is immediately enthralled, and certain that what the local people think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to local vicar William Ransome. Will, too, is suspicious of the rumors. But unlike Cora, this man of faith is convinced the rumors are caused by moral panic, a flight from true belief.

 These seeming opposites who agree on nothing soon find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart—an intense relationship that will change both of their lives in ways entirely unexpected.

I loved so much about this novel--the weaving of science and folklore, the psychology of fear (not unlike the hysteria of Salem), and the interesting mix of characters. I particularly liked Stella Ransome, the wife of vicar William Ransome, and her yearning for blue things as she copes with the disease that is consuming her vitality. Once again, this book left me wanting to read about Charles Darwin--maybe next year!

World Without End by Ken Follett is the second in his Kingsbridge trilogy. I loved Pillars of the Earth, and World Without End picks up the story of Kingsbridge and its inhabitants 200 years later in the early 14th century, during the time of Edward III.

Whereas Pillars of the Earth focuses almost exclusively on the building of the cathedral, with some tangents into areas such as town building and the wool trade, World Without End has a variety of topics that are interrelated but fascinating in their own right. To name a few: the plague or Black Death, how the clergy and townspeople and villagers survived, and how it affected them (namely, more opportunities for people to rise socially, rid themselves of the yoke of serfdom, earn more and become more mobile); the interconnections of  European economy (i.e., the wool trade in England versus Florence); the beginning of the 100 Years War between France and England and how the tactics of the French were slow to adapt to developing warfare technology; and the always fascinating role of women and use of accusation of witchcraft as means of keeping smart women home and quiet.

All of that, plus a wonderful cast of characters and a tightly constructed plot that had political intrigue and that connected the main characters to each other throughout the long novel made for a wonderfully enjoyable historical romp in fictional Kingsbridge.

I will definitely finish the trilogy next year with Column of Fire, which takes place during Tudor times.

I've always really enjoyed Edward Rutherford's historical novels that track a few families in a specific location over the centuries. The criticism I and others have about these novels is that the stories of the individuals are really just short stories--you don't have time to really get to know and love them. Not so with this trilogy--you still get the family stories that span generations over the centuries, but at ~1000 pages each, you have ample time to get to know and love or loathe the characters.

Final note about World Without End--at times I did feel like Follett was recycling parts of Pillars of the Earth. For example, the main characters line up pretty well:
Pillars of Earth     World Without End     Trait
Lady Eliana           Caris Wooler               Strong, smart female with an incredible business saavy
Jack Builder          Merthin Fitzgerald      Wiry, smart male with an intuitive engineering sense
William Hamley    Ralph Fitzgerald         Thug of Shiring--given to rape, murder, vengeance, pride
Waleran Bigod      Godwyn/Philemon       Corrupted priest/prior/bishop - unscrupulous, thief

All that said, the story of Gwenda, Wilfric, and Annett was fresh and I was honestly and refreshingly surprised by how their story worked out at the end. Gwenda really was a great character and one of my favorites.

I'm not sure if I will watch the mini-series or not--I like faithful adaptations of books, and I've heard this one is not faithful. For one thing, it looks like they completely eliminated Philemon as a character.