I've just finished "Little Heathens: Hard Times and High spirits on an Iowa Farm during the Great Depression" by Mildred Armostrong Kalish. I really loved this book! Great descriptions of how farm folk lived, under great duress, and the old fashioned way of keeping house. Lots of older recipes are included, as well. This book would fit in perfectly with our thread on the old fashioned ways of doing the wash, keeping a garden, etc.

Along with that, just finished up "Peter Pan" by J. M. Barrie... Weirdness and very very dark. Here is what I put on my blog about it:

Having grown up (along with thousands of others) on the Disney version, I was surprised by how dark and violent the original story really was. It's still classified as children's literature, but wow - it's a bit rough around the edges.

Some of the new information for me that differed from the Disney version:

� Captain Hook was "black"
� The crocodile who bit off Cap'n Hook's hand (and thus gave him the moniker) was a female and had eaten a clock. So long as Captain Hook could hear the ticking of the clock, he would know where this murderous crocodile was, but the minute it stopped ticking... "Ay! That's the fear that haunts me!"
� Peter was the cause of Captain Hook's hook hand and it was he (Peter) who gave the bitten-off hand to the crocodile. (Not sure why it was bitten off in the first place though...)
� Tinker Bell is actually really mean, jealous and spiteful - none of this little gentle flickering light fluttering around!
� The "Pan" mentioned in the title refers (I think) to the Pan, the god of Nature etc., he who played the pipes and danced around. This god was a common image in lit for about the fifty years between late 1800's and early 1900's. In fact, one of the chapter titles in "The Wind in the Willows" is called something to do with Pan.

Assuming you know the basic story, I was really intrigued by all the details of the story and how the characters behaved. The group of Lost Boys who follow (and worship) Peter Pan have some serious psychological issues with regard to mothers (and thus Wendy), and the boys rely far too much on Peter's direction when it is actually a case of "the blind leading the blind". They are all a case of extremely arrested development, and can only remember snippets of their lives before Neverland, so using this spotty knowledge only gets them into more trouble.

There is a lot of violent murder on the island: at least a murder a day (done by the Lost Boys or the Indian tribe on the island, the pirates or maybe a mermaid or two), but the population doesn't seem to shrink -- ever. They never seem to run out of people to kill.

The fairies are over-indulgent and greedy, limping home after having an orgy (presumably with the definition of "eating/drinking too much" as opposed to otherwise, although who knows with this book?). Mermaids, who had always before had a pretty benign reputation with me, were actually rude and bullies, especially for poor old Wendy. (Wendy regretted that she "had never had a civil word from one of them" the entire time she was on the island.)

And speaking of Wendy, I had no idea that the English phrase "Wendy House" (referring to a child's play house) was related to this (although it seems obvious in hindsight). The Lost Boys built a house around Wendy when she arrived and was unconscious, so it was a Wendy House. I even think the play school my siblings and I attended was called the Wendy House, but that might be wrong.

And the misery doesn't even end when the Darling/human children return home to their parents. Mother agrees to let Wendy go back with Peter for one week a year to do his Spring Cleaning. (Yeah for parenting skills!) And then, years later, when Peter comes back, un-aged as he is, he sweeps up Wendy's kids and future kids "as long as children are gay and innocent and heartless"! And apparently this is ok with everyone.

Hmm.

So -- the author J. M. Barrie (Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet). Who was the guy with this twisted imagination? (Or is it me looking with unreasonable 21st century eyes?) He lived from 1860-1937 and was a playwright and author. He wrote Peter Pan, Or the Boy who Wouldn't Grow Up in 1904, calling it a "fairy play" and although he had other work, this was the play that made him famous. (It also popularized the name Wendy as that was unusual before this play was published.)

Barrie's childhood was not an easy one, being the ninth of ten children, and on the accidental death of his next oldest brother, Barrie tried to help his mother's grief by wearing the dead brother's clothing and whistling like he used to. (Psychological problem #1.) Along with this came the idea of a boy who would never get old (a la Peter Pan) as the brother who died was only 14 when the accident occurred. (Psychological problem #2.) This big dead brother's influence would continue on for years, even affecting the career choice his parents wanted for Barrie. He wanted to be a writer, but his parents told him that his dead brother would have been a minister and so that's what he should do as well. They eventually reached a compromise.(Psychological problem #3.)

Additionally, Barrie was exceptionally small in stature for his family reaching only about five feet tall at adulthood. This led to other problems for him. However, as an adult and writer, he moved in elite literary circles: Robert Louis Stephenson, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Hardy, Jerome K. Jerome... He told stories to the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. Barrie also made friends with Antarctica explorer Robert Falcon Scott, and Scott, when his expedition was falling apart, wrote one of his last letters to Barrie asking him to look after his wife and son if he could not get home...

Linked with friendship is the fact that in 1897, Barrie was in London's Kensington Gardens when he came across five young boys, all brothers and called the Llewelyn Davies family. "Uncle Jim" (as Barrie became known to the family) was a frequent visitor to the boys' home and would entertain them with stories during his visits, and it is thought that he based the story of Peter Pan on these young boys. The boys' father died in 1907 and their mother in 1910, Barrie (in a somewhat bizarre manner) ended up being the boys' guardian for the rest of their lives (though most of them wouldn't live too long). It's all rather strange and Wiki has the details here (as true as Wiki can be). See link below.

Before Barrie's death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, the children's hospital, which, if you saw the London Olympic Games opening ceremony the other day, was referenced frequently (sometimes as GOSH). This was the first hospital in the English-speaking world to provide in-patient beds for children and was supported by several royals, including Queen Victoria and Princess Diana (who acted as President for a while) - obviously not at the same time. :-)
It seems that Barrie was basically a good guy, but any good psychologist would have had a field day with him. (But then who is to say who is normal and who is not? :-)

Just picked up 3 books I have been waiting for from the library - The Innocent by Baldacci; Stay Close by Harlan Coben and The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva-what a problem to have!
I plan to get off the computer and start reading the Silva book.

Pat

I've always known it was a 'dark' book. It always made me feel uneasy, even as a child. I think quite a bit of children's literature is like this: 'Alice' is quite frightening and threatening in parts. And I remember, as a child, being fascinated but uneased by 'The Princess and Curdie' by Macdonald and others by him.

Liz, I also recommend Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendall. One of her best was, I think, "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy".

As for the aforementioned lighter fare, I have 2 1/2 books left of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. This is a seriously addictive paranormal romance series that one does definitely not read for the language or quality of writing but more for the plotting, the action and the huge WTF! factor.

Rosefolly

Vee, one of the police officers is named Clough. How would you pronounce that?

I recently finished an upcoming book from Linwood Barclay called Trust Your Eyes. If you like a good thriller, take note of the title - it was very good.

Next up will be Stay Close by Harlan Coben.

I am also reading Hawk on my kindle since I prefer to take it with me to appointments rather than haul around a heavy book.

Pat

Interesting information about her...thanks

I am enjoying immensely Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery, although I do have a bit confusion about the characters and how they are related sometimes. Still, a fun read and I think it will be very interesting to dissect it once it's finished.

To balance VF, I am browsing through a photo-heavy book of The Human Body: Up Close by John Clancy. This book is packed with large detailed micrographs (photos taken with a microscope) of various bits and pieces of the human. Very fascinating to see all the intricate details of how things work... Learning a lot as well, and it's been fun to talk with DH about some of the cell pics as he is a former microbiologist.

And then, a freelance editing job came up unexpectedly and so I will more than likely be spending the weekend reading about renewable energy and its relations. It's written by two faculty so hopefully it won't be too painful (grammar-wise) to edit.

:-)

Glad to see you're reading Lolita. Wasn't there some discussion here about creating a specific thread on this one?

I just now finished Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

I have relatives in the Piedmont area of NC yet I never heard about these actual events. I found the novel fascinating, and could scarcely put it down. I will look for Humphreys' other books.

I have agreed to help edit a novel my nephew wrote, which is taking up a lot of time. Unfortunately it is dreadful and the work is somewhat beyond me. It doesn't need an editor, it needs a chainsaw. I have suggested he read Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Just removing the adverbs will reduce the size of the book by 1/3.

But I soldier on. I am very happy he wrote it and it is, after all, a first effort.

lemonhead, I read Peter Pan in my childhood but know nothing about the Disney version. I enjoyed the book and can't recall being troubled by it. I should try it again as I don't remember it well at all now. I can remember the parts when the kids are at home with their dog but not the parts in Neverland, apparently.

I loved Alice in Wonderland and was never bothered by any of it, but then I also loved the unabridged Grimm's Fairy Tales except for a couple of stories that were a bit too grisly even for me.

After that, I have Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balson for my September bookgroup meeting.

Rosefolly

I'm also going to try to go through the rest of the Nero Wolfe mysteries that I've somehow managed to miss.

I've also just finished Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Lyndsay Faye (another Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper book). Overall, not a bad effort.

On the adventure front, I finally picked up Alistair MacLean's Where Eagles Dare. The book is quite good and it actually stacks up quite well to the movie. The movie has a young Clint Eastwood and a dashing Richard Burton paired up as almost an odd couple-type pairing in the middle of a secret mission. No, it's not a comedy but the odd coupling of the two was actually played up quite a bit in the book.

(And .... I can't remember how to do the italics stuff on this board!)

Before the text to be italicized:

open angle bracket, then the letter i, then close angle bracket

At the end of the text to be italicized:

open angle bracket, then this slash / , then the letter i, then close angle bracket

You do Bold the same way, except the letter b in both places instead of the letter i.

The open angle bracket is this character <
And the close angle bracket is this character >

Have fun!

Rosefolly

And then, for my NF read and in prep for our trip to Chicago in September, I am reading Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott... Another book with a host of different characters, but so far not too confusing. It's about the history of one of the more popular and successful brothels on the South Side of Chicago...

Well, I sprained my wrist and had to give it a nice long rest. It was so sad. (Insert smiley face.)

I'm tottering off to read magazines for a few days ...

Dynomutt, good to see you back!

Thanks! Glad to be back.... I kind of forgot the URL for this website and I rediscovered it a few days ago.

Still reading Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks. It's a very interesting if alarming read. According to the book, the whole Iraq mess is a case of "if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail". In case you're interested in what happened behind the scenes in Iraq, this makes for a good companion piece to Bob Woodward's series of books on the Bush administration. Woodward's books (his Bush At War series including State of Denial and The War Within) offer a revealing if not alarming glimpse into the Bush White House.

I'd also highly recommend Woodward's last book, Obama's Wars to contrast what went on in the Obama White House with the Bush White House.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of Presidents .... this year's an election year! A scary book about the 2008 election is Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. The portrayal of Palin is quite .... well, you have to read it for yourself. A movie was made based on the book and, actually, it was the movie that pushed me to seek out the book!

After spending a good deal of my reading time watching the Olympics I picked up an old favorite and was immediately drawn into the world of Attolia. I have just finished re-reading The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. This has become one of my all-time favorite books (among a dozen or so others) .

Today I'm reading The First Wave by James R. Benn. It's the second of the Billy Boyle WWII mystery series. I thoroughly enjoyed the first one. Billy is a young Boston Irish cop, from a family of Boston policemen, at the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He has no desire to enlist but soon gets his draft notice, prompting his mother to write a relative, Uncle Ike, who has a posh job at the Pentagon. They think this will keep Billy from being sent overseas to fight with the not-too-well-liked English, but, of course, Uncle Ike is General Eisenhower who is sent to London as the general in charge of U.S. troops. Because of Billy's police knowledge, he gets assigned to murder cases that are not part of the war effort. The books are a little amusing as he tries to keep himself safe, but the stories are quite good. In this one, he is among the first into Algeria.

So - finished up Vanity Fair and had a few thoughts about it...

What a journey this book was. I would liken it to other epic books (length-wise) such as Don Quixote and perhaps The Count of Monte Cristo, except this time with a female anti-hero.

Becky Crawden (nee Sharp) is a stereotypical "bad" Victorian woman: out for money even if it means losing scruples (and other things along the way) although there is a suitable come-uppance at the end (although not full redemption as mentioned later.)

Becky is actually, despite being quite despicable at times, rather to be admired in some ways. She certainly doesn't follow the rules of the time (when it was fatal to your society role if you didn't), she did what she wanted to do and she focused on that. I think in today's society, there were definitely parts of Becky that would be admired: the ambition, the tenacity, the focus... However, I thoroughly doubt that other wives would be as understanding if she swiped their hubbies/partners, even if it is the twenty-first century. (And yes, I recognize that multiple parties are guilty in such an incident and it's not just the femme fatale's fault.)

The character of Becky was supposedly based on Thackeray's maternal grandmother who abandoned her husband and children for an army officer, and who, when he died, went on to marry another army officer. Thackeray lived with her at various points in his life.

This is rather a dark satire of the grubby materialism that was prominent during the mid-1800's in England (and elsewhere). It's comparable, I think, in some ways to the shallowness of the later Gilded Age in the U.S., when money was everything, the be-all and end-all, especially what it bought you in terms of power and prestige. Quite fascinating if you think about it and compare it to some of the crass reality shows of today where they showcase idle rich people doing idle rich things. (The more things change...) However, I am not one to judge and who is to say that I wouldn't have ended up in the same way if I had been in that family dynamic(although I would hope not)?

So -- the title Vanity Fair is taken from Pilgrim's Progress, a huge long allegorical story written by religious writer John Bunyan (who grew up very close to where l was born and lived in Bedford and was put into jail where he wrote this story). Now, even though I lived a large part of my life in Bedford and walked over the plaque on the pavement which marks the Very Spot where Bunyan's cell was located, I have never quite got around to reading Pilgrim's Progress (mainly because it looks very boring and preachy and bossy.) So -- I don't actually know if this link to PP is actually there as I am not familiar with any of it. (I could show you the cell plaque though if you happen to be in Bedford one day.)

According to Wiki (I know...),Vanity Fair is a stop along the pilgrim's progress, a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity which is meant to represent all humans' "sinful attachment" to worldly things. This theme is obvious throughout as Thackeray is not light-handed about this at all. However, as satire, this works assuredly well and just adds to the overall sumptuous over-the-top feel to everything.

It also stands out from other Victorian novels of the time in that there is no redemption for the characters. Yes, they make poor choices but they have to live with those for the remainder of their lives. There is no "learning from mistakes and getting a good life after all". No one is really suffering at the end, but it's a middling sort of misery for all. No one is really that happy.

Since it was published in a long series over a year or two, it was released every month or so with a bright yellow cover so readers would know when there was a new edition out. (Apparently, Dickens did the same thing with his serialized novels but had a green cover.) This ongoing publication schedule is also reflected in the long, rambling and sometimes confusing plot. I am not 100% convinced that Thackeray knew where he was going for quite a few chapters and just wrote to publish and make his rent. This was his first success after having written for some years under various pseudonyms so I imagine that he was under some pressure here.

The book is about five million pages which would usually freak me out somewhat (being as gun-shy as I am of long books). However, I read it mostly on Project Gutenberg (thanks to someone who typed it) and so I didn't have to realize how reaaaaally long it was in real life. However, as mentioned above, this book didn't seem that long for the majority of the reading. Yes, there were some parts that went on and on and on, but generally speaking, the story carried itself. (Besides, it was Victorian times. They were not known for brevity.)

The plot follows several families but mainly the Segleys and the Crawleys who start off being friends and end up being a bit like the Hatfields and the McCoys due to financial mismanagement and unapproved marital choices. It's clear that Thackeray is being a bit heavy handed here in his imagery: yes, money doesn't always lead to happiness; yes, being selfish is a bad life for you; being a good person is good. However, if you keep in mind that this is satire (and Victorian satire at that), then it works.

The book is set during the Industrial Revolution in England, a lot of money being made by quite a few people and a transition in society from the old influential families (due to lineage) to the new rich industrialist. Money was everywhere, it was quite easy to get (if you worked hard and had some luck) and you wouldn't run out unless you were immoral and/or stupid. (Sort of idea.)

Not only was the plot intricate in and of itself, but there were loads of characters who kept intermingling so I had to take notes to keep it all straight at first. But once I settled into the book, I could keep who was who straight. This is not a book I recommend to pick up and put down. Sink into it. Embrace its complexity and enjoy the ride.

Overall, a good read that pulled me in as a reader. Glad I have read it. Not sure that I would read it again.

I just started a Regency romance by Jude Morgan, An Accomplished Woman, which is OK, but certainly not up to the Georgette Heyer standard, IMO. It's a light, easy read, and though it's rather similar to GH's Bath Tangle.

I've just requested the audiobook from my library. That is slower, but sometimes it can kickstart a book I'm having trouble diving into. Once I am engaged, I can switch back to the written word if listening is too slow.

Rosefolly

Sorry I have been MIA for a little while. New job... then the roof and heat pump both needed to be replaced simultaneously, school is about to start but it seems that baseball season JUST ended. And my reading? Oh, sorry state indeed... not enough time for reading!

I just started a brand new book entitled City of Women by David R. Gillham. It is set in Berlin during WW2, and Berlin, with most of the men away fighting, has become a city of women. The main character is Sigrid, a married women who lives in a flat with her mother-in-law and whose husband is fighting at the front. She takes a lover who is Jewish, huddles in the subways with her neighbors while the British bomb Berlin, makes the best with her rations, is a model employee. But the book is taking me into the lives of these people, into their thoughts, their dreams, their fears. I am on page 63 so not far enough into it to set firm opinions, but so far, whenever I open the book, I seem to fall right into Berlin. Today is Sunday... to heck with the laundry... I am going to read.

PAM

Now on to a *much* more interesting book called The Power of Habit, a new NF release by Charles Duhigg. Good so far. I also picked up Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (good so far), and then as a bubblegum read, another Ruth Rendell called The Lake of Darkness. I did have another Rendell going on, but it was an older book and someone at some time had left a burning ciggie on its pages and have created a 3-D sculpture with how many pages it had burned through. So - bit difficult to read as I had to guess which words were there... I wonder if cigarettes are still a wide-spread issue for libraries like they were...

So - good reading all around.

For my book groups: #1 - already finished "Molokai" by Alan Brennert, which was an interesting read. I learned some things about leprosy and about that time period in Hawaii's history. #2 - A book called "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter," a myster by Tom Franklin.

Interesting comments about Shadow of the Night. While I really enjoyed Discovery of Witches, book #2 just didn't meet my expectations. I thought it went on forever and also jumped over parts of the story which needed to be explained. At the same time, I was finishing up #6 in the young adult series The Alchemyst in which two teens satisfy the ancient prophecy, battle after battle for the missing pages, John Dee, Nicholas Flamel, QEI, etc. so maybe it was too much of the same for me.

Two of my favorite books this past month have been Peter Carey's The Chemistry of Tears and Niceville by Carsten Stroud. Carey's book is about a grieving museum curator restoring an antique robotic duck, complete with old diaries. It is both clever and thoughtful. I could not put down Niceville over the weekend--if Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy collaborated, this book would be the result.

A Civil War setting novel that involves the beginning of military medical care, and women's entry into medical care that kept me reading when I had quilting to do! The language and descriptions are way above most currently written novels. This is one of my top ten for this year. I borrowed it from the library and am looking for a half.com copy to purchase for the re-read and notation.

Maybe if I promise myself to read 100 pages each night it won't seem so formidable a task.

Rosefolly

I just finished The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf. Apparently it's not one of her more admired works, and I can see why. I didn't like it much at all. It seemed carelessly constructed and loaded with entirely too many characters, most of whom seemed more like cardboard figures than real people.

I'm glad I'd already read To the Lighthouse. If I'd started with The Voyage Out, I don't think I'd ever want to read anything else by Virginia Woolf.

I am going to take a break right now and read a couple of adult novels - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach (now a film) and more Proust.

She is from Louisville, and I have heard her speak a couple of times. She is hysterically funny.

I have just finished up Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy which I enjoyed. I do think I had had been asked to read this during school days, but tbh, I remembered nothing about it except countryside descriptions. Was good though.

And then, for my NF read, I whizzed through a new release called The Power of Habit by NYT writer Charles Duhigg. An interesting science-based book about why we have the habits we have, what they look like from micro- to macro-scale (organizational habits etc.) and then how to break them. Not a self-help book, but more along the lines of a Malcom Gladwell type. Good and fast read for me.

And then, I am reading an African feminist coming-of-age book which has been recommended by a friend who works in an NGO in Ghana. It's called Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga and a first-person narrative of growing up African in 1960's Rhodesia. Fascinating and the author has an extremely wicked sense of humor. :-)

Rosefolly

My interest Straub came about indirectly, mostly through my interest in the music of Stephin Merritt, a longtime friend of Straub and his family. (Straub's daughter, Emma Straub, and her husband, Michael Fusco, design and sell the merchandise at concerts of Merritt's famous group "The Magnetic Fields".) Lost Boy Lost Girl Girl contained several references to this band, which I found to be an amusing, if slightly gimmicky touch.