Happy New Year!

Photo Credit

Wishing you all a very happy 2012, filled with everything you hope for and plenty of good books. Also: this. See you in the New Year!

Read More......

Reading Goals for 2012

As I was saying yesterday, 2011 was a bit of an odd year for me. My reading was pretty erratic, and as a result I really didn’t do well in the few challenges I joined. My plan for 2012 is to take a break from them altogether – I’ll even temporary hide the “Challenges” tab at the top of my blog. I still thinking reading challenges are great, especially as opportunities for reading socially, but after so many years of joining them compulsively a break will probably do me good.

I’ll continue to work on my long-term reading projects (which include reading through the winners of the Carnegie Medal and of the Printz Award), but I’ll do that slowly and leisurely and without having to think about self-imposed deadlines. Another thing I did in 2011 was swap reading lists with several blogging friends, but I’m afraid the results were a complete failure. I still want to read the books in question, though, and I’m sure my friends will understand if I take more time to get to them. The same goes for my Children’s Classics Challenge (which I’m renaming “Project” to trick myself into thinking of it differently).

Another thing that will continue in 2012 is my policy of accepting very few review copies and thus avoiding the stress involved in the whole process. I may make the occasional exception for favourite authors or books I’m very excited about, and I’ll continue to request the odd comic or non-fiction from academic presses from NetGalley (these are books I wouldn’t otherwise be able to have access to, and I appreciate having the opportunity to read and review them), but that will pretty much be it. In 2011, review copies were only 4% of my reading, and I don’t imagine that will change in the New Year (this is of course a personal choice, and not a judgement on bloggers who do accept them).

The rest of my goals directly follow from the reading stats I published yesterday. I loved the comment Kiirstin left me: she said that if nothing else, stats make her a better librarian because they make her aware of her own reading gaps and biases. I’m not a real librarian yet (I’ll only consider myself one when/if I start working as one), but this is certainly something I always want to keep in mind. So, my reading goals for the New Year are the following:

• Read fewer new to me authors: I know there’s much to be said for branching out and trying new things, but I keep saving books by authors I already know I love for… when? The zombie apocalypse? It’s silly to continuously put off reading them, and I want this habit of mine to stop. However, non-fiction will not be included in this resolution, as I’m much more likely to pick it by topic than by author.
  
  
• Climb Mount TBR: I hereby declare my intention of joining C.B. James’ TBR Double Dare, which invites readers to focus on their to be read piles for the first three months of the year. However, as I’ll explain in the following point, I’m tweaking the rules a little bit. I’m also excluding the two highly anticipated 2012 releases I’ve pre-ordered (the new John Green and the new Margo Lanagan).
  
  
• Read more diversely: I’d like to read more glbtq literature and more books by authors of colour in 2012. But this goal stands in direct opposition to the goal of focusing on my TBR pile – Jodie was saying recently that she notices a bias towards white authors in her book buying habits, and it’s much the same with me. I could go on and on about how it’s not a level playing field out there, but this is something I want to act on rather than talk about endlessly (I’ve done too much of that in the past). So, my strategy for the first three months of the year (partially inspired by Renay's soon to be revealed project) will be: for every 4 books knocked out of my TBR pile, I’ll earn a library book or an e-book download, and I’ll make these predominantly books that also count towards my diversity goals. Sounds simple enough, right?
  
  
• Try to read five poetry books: I know, I know – that sounds suspiciously like a challenge. But hey, I’m adding “try”, so it’s pretty pressure free. I actually used to read a decent amount of poetry, but I’ve completely lost the habit in recent years. This is something I want to do for myself, so I can reconnect with something I know I’ll really enjoy if I only make the time for it. It’s also an excuse to read all those Anne Carson books I keep hearing wonderful things about. And Charlotte Mew.
  
  
• Read and review more comics aka graphic novels: During my first few years of blogging I was a bit of a champion for the medium, but comics were largely absent from my blog in 2011. I didn’t intend for this to happen and plan to rectify it in the new year. I particularly want to read more comics by women, since they are still underrepresented in the industry.
  
  
• Finally, I want to read a reasonable amount of classics: this is a goal my shiny new e-reader will surely make easier.

For the past three years or so, I’ve been making lists of classics I hope to get to in the new year. In 2010 I did pretty well and got through almost the entire list; this year I only read about five titles. I don’t mind this very much, since the goal was never really to read them all, but rather to have fun putting the list together and to remind myself that these are books I’d like to read. So, with this in mind, here’s my list for 2012. We’ll see how many I actually manage to get to.

1. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
   
2. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
   
3. Quicksand by Nella Larson
   
4. Armadale by Wilkie Collins
   
5. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
   
6. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
   
7. Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
   
8. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
   
9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
   
10. Indiana by George Sand
    
11. Tess of the d’Ubbervilles by Thomas Hardy
    
12. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
    
13. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
    
14. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
    
15. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
    
16. The Doctor’s Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
    
17. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
    
18. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
    
19. The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
    
20. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
    
21. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
    
22. Maurice by E.M. Forster
    
23. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
    
24. Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith
    
25. East Lynne by Ellen Wood

What about you? Any reading goals for 2012?

Read More......

2011: The Year in Review

2011 was not a great reading year for me. Last year, not only was I able to easily come up with a list of 26 favourites, but I even had an alternate list to spare. This year, not so much – I read fewer books overall, and fewer still that really impressed me. I have no doubt that much of this has to do with the fact that this was a difficult and exhausting year for me on a personal level. It takes both the book and the reader, after all, for that special click to happen.

Having said that, I’m still very grateful to have discovered the following books, all of which will undoubtedly stay with me for a very long time. Without further ado, here are my favourite reads of the year, in no particular order (as usual, this is a list of books I read this year, rather than a list of 2011 releases).

Fiction

• The 10PM Question by Kate De Goldi — A subtle and layered story about a family dealing with mental illness, making the best of their circumstances, and realising there is more than one way to be happy.
  
  
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness — This take on grief, loss, and the importance of the narratives we build for ourselves is absolutely brilliant. I strongly suspect this will be next year’s Carnegie Medal winner.
  
  
• Temeraire series by Naomi Novik — I read this whole series in a little over a month, so it has kind of become a single entity in my mind. No other books brought me as much joy as these this year. Who knew adding dragons to Regency England could result in something so rich in accurate historical detail?
  
  
• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides — Young twenty-somethings trying to find their place in the world, plenty of literary theory, a heroine obsessed with Victorian novels, and heaps of intertextual references. The ingredients alone make this sound like something I’d love, and fortunately the execution did not disappoint in the least.
  
  
• Kraken by China Miéville — It might sound overdramatic to say that Kraken restored by faith in reading when I thought I’d lost it, but that’s what it felt like at the time. This novel of giant squids, secret cults and fiery apocalypses is one of the strangest I’ve ever read, but also one of the most fun.
  
  
• To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf — Possibly my favourite of the Woolf novels I’ve read to date. I loved To The Lighthouse for many reasons, but was particularly impressed by its take on the obstacles to real intimacy put up by Victorian gender roles.
  
  
• Ragnarök by A.S. Byatt — A tender, dark and memorable take on the Norse myths and the apocalypse by one of my favourite writers. The writing in particular is Byatt at its best – elegant and full of descriptive detail, but never excessive.
  
  
• Among Others by Jo Walton — There are many reasons to love this subtle fantasy novel, but my main one was its realistic and very sensitive portrayal of a young girl’s intellectual development, and of the effect that constant engagement with ideas, fictional people and imaginary worlds has on her mind. This is certainly a book for book lovers.

• Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson — I could have listed any of the Ibbotson novels I read this year, but this is perhaps my favourite. I’m sure it helps that it was my first, but also that it ties in with so many of my interests – the Edwardian era, the Amazon, women naturalists, exciting voyages. This is a fairy tale without magic, and an absolutely perfect comfort read.
  
  
• Westwood by Stella Gibbons — While Nightingale Wood remains my favourite Gibbons novel, this is now a close second. A hilarious, gentle novel about a bookish and awkward heroine, with an ending that subverts the stories about women that remain dominant to this day.
  
  
• Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield— An unwavering look at the emotional and psychological consequences of the marriage market. While novels that focus on women’s enforced economic dependence often seem to invite a sigh of relief from contemporary readers, this one will very much not.
  
  
• Chime by Franny Billingsley — An unreliable narrator, an atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and a close look at the clash between modernity and an older way of life; at gender and creativity; and at life in small communities. What’s not to love?
  
  
• Caddy’s World by Hilary McKay— Oh Casson Family books, how do I love thee? I finished this series last year and didn’t know there was a prequel on the way, so finding Caddy’s World was like receiving a gift from the universe. Anyway: if you like smart and funny stories with brilliant characterisation and the ability to move you when you least expect it, please read these.
  
  
• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson — A character-oriented mystery that I particularly loved for its examination of the idea of the “perfect victim”. My fellow bloggers keep telling me I’ll love Atkinson’s non-mysteries even more, so I can’t wait to read them.
  
  
• Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman — An absolute gem of a book, and a strong contender for the title of Short Book Most Likely to Make You Run Out of Tears (watch out, A Monster Calls). Gleitzman’s theme – a young boy’s loss of faith in adult infallibility – is by no means new, but he gets it absolutely right.
  
  
• There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff — Last but not least, we have another winner by Meg Rosoff. The concept of this novel (what if god was a teenage boy?) seems to draw the most attention, but it’s really the thoughtful, hilarious and generous execution that sets it apart.

Non-Fiction

• Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine — My urge to stand on a street corner handing out copies of this book to random passer-bys remains every bit as strong as when I first professed it, almost a year ago. Delusions of Gender is both one of the best feminist books I’ve ever read and one of the best science books. Fine demolishes dangerous and prevailing myths about gender and biological determinism with elegance and wit.
  
  
• The Brontë Myth by Lucasta Miller — A must-read for any Brontë fans, but also for anyone interested in the complexities and dangers of idealising others, in feminism and literary history, and in our changing perception of historical figures over time.
  
  
• The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal — This memoir/family history/art history book was to me more than deserving of all the accolades it’s been getting. De Waal tells his family’s story with amazing sensitivity and insight.
  
  
• Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson — Another fascinating piece of feminist social history from Virginia Nicholson, this time focusing on British women’s lives during WW2: What were they doing? What did it feel like? How did their experiences change them?
  
  
• Letters from a Lost Generation edited by Alan Bishop and Mark Bostridge — The collected WW1 letters of Vera Brittain and four men who did not survive the war – her fiancé, her brother, and two close friends. A harrowing read, but impossible to put down.

Honourable mentions: Fly By Night, Anya’s Ghost, Ship Breaker, Anna and the French Kiss, A String in the Harp, The Essex County Trilogy, A Doll’s House, Henry Dunbar, Walk Two Moons, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland on a Ship of Her Own Making, The Monstrumologist.

Statistics
I must begin the stats section with the usual disclaimer. I was disappointed not to have reached 200 books for the first time in a few years – but I do of course realise that complaining about the number of books you’ve read, especially when it’s still a fairly high number by most people’s standards, has the potential to make you sound insufferably smug, like you’re fishing for compliments, or, worst of all, completely blind to your own privilege.

So let me get this out of the way: I feel blessed to have been able to read as much as I did, even if it wasn’t as much as in previous years, and I absolutely don’t see reading as a competitive sport. I publish these stats because I find other readers’ interesting, and therefore hope they may be of similar interest to others. But I absolutely don’t think how much you read say anything at all about you, other than perhaps how quickly you read or how much time you’re lucky enough to be able to devote to a favourite hobby.

Before I go on, I should also clarify that these percentages don’t add up to 100 because some of the categories overlap.

Total books read: 174 (23% down from last year.)
Novels: 107 (61.5%)
Short Story Collections and Anthologies: 4 (2.3%: mission Read More Short Fiction was a failure yet again this year.)
Comics aka Graphic Novels: 28 (16%)
Non-Fiction: 50 (29% — this number is a little inflated by all my dissertation-related reading.)
Poetry: 1 (0.6%. Eep.)
Plays: 2 (1.2% — better than last year’s zero, I suppose.)
In translation: 5 (A dismal 2.9%.)
Classics: 25 (14.4% — certainly down from last year’s 22%.)
By Women: 103 (59%)
By Men: 69 (39.8%)
By Men and Women: 2 (1.2%)
By People of Colour: 17 (9.7% )
glbtq: 16 (9.2%. Diversity roll call is about the same as last year, which is to say, still not great. More on this tomorrow.)
Re-reads: 1 (0.6%. I guess this year I have the excuse of having been separated from most of my books all year.)
By new to me authors: 98 (56% — though again the number is inflated by research-related non-fiction.)
Favourite authors discovered this year: Eva Ibbotson, Kate Atkinson.
Least favourite book of the year: The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison – apologies to any fans, but it really wasn’t for me.
Best reading month: January (26 books, or 15% of my yearly reading. I was ill for much of the month and took refuge in books.)
Worst reading month: September (8 books, or 4.6% of my reading. The month when I finished my dissertation – enough said.)

I’ll be back tomorrow with one last post about my reading plans for 2012, but I wanted to wish you all the best for the New Year anyway. May it be full of wonderful bookish discoveries for all of us.

Read More......

Gifts!

First of all, I hope those of you who celebrate it had a very wonderful Christmas. Mine was lovely – the fact that my nearest and dearest were incredibly generous to me this year was only one of the reasons why. My partner in particular wasn’t supposed to get me much in the way of gifts after our trip to Germany, but he blatantly cheated and spoiled me anyway – not that I’m complaining, of course. Here’s what I found under my tree:


Why yes, that is the I Capture the Castle tote bag – and as you can see below, it was full of treats:


As you probably can’t read the titles, the books I got were:

• Farthing by Jo Walton – Finally! Hopefully I’ll be able to get the rest of the trilogy soon with one of my birthday gift cards.

• Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out — A McSweeney’s short story anthology that includes Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby and Jonathan Safran Foer. I didn’t remember this existed, so it was a wonderful surprise.

• Global Women edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild – A collection of essays on women and economic inequality that I had been coveting for ages.

• The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson – More Eva Ibbotson for me! And according to Fiona, this is a particularly good one.

• No Surrender by Constance Maud – This suffragette novel is one of the most recent Persephone publication, and it was a particularly special gift. It was given to me by Claire, one of my favourite of the many lovely people I’ve met through blogging, and one of the hosts of Persephone Secret Santa. Being jobless at the moment I couldn’t afford to join any Secret Santa swaps this year, but Claire sent me a Persephone anyway. Isn’t that lovely of her? And it’s of course a perfect choice, as this is a novel I’ve been dying to read.

• Wildwood by Roger Deakin – I love getting non-fiction for Christmas, and this one seems especially interesting.

• Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Khalil, Wandering Son Vol 1 by Shimura Takako and The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone – all of these are comics I’ve been coveting all year.

Last but certainly not least, that thing you see at the top is indeed an e-reader (!). It was a completely unexpected gift, and one that will surely influence my reading in the future. Project Gutenberg and Girl Ebooks, here I come! If you have any other sites with free and/or inexpensive classics to recommend, I’m all ears.

I also really loved the dress and shawl you can see hanging from the chair behind the other gifts, the lovely cat bookmark and ornament, the Lush bath bombs - everything, really. What about you? Any particularly coveted books or other great gifts under your tree?

I’ll leave you with a few holidays pictures, including, of course, gratuitous cat ones:


I finally tried the German chocolate I had been saving for Christmas and can officially announce that cardamom chocolate is the best thing ever.

Mmm.

Brigadeiros.


You can't go to Germany at Christmas and not get a nutcracker.

The gifts waiting to be opened.

Read More......

Ho Ho Ho

Photo Credit

I hope those of you who celebrate it have a very wonderful Christmas/Yule/Samhain/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Hogswatch/etc. May you have a lovely and relaxing time and find plenty of books or bookish goodies under your tree. If you don't celebrate a winter holiday, have a wonderful weekend anyway. I'll be back sometime next week for my last few posts of the year: a picture of my Christmas book loot as per usual, and of course, my top reads of the year.

Now, off to watch part two of the Hogfather TV adaptation (I'm quite impressed so far) and to bake spiced apple cookies. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Read More......

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis

Connie Willis’ Miracle and Other Christmas Stories is a collection of eight seasonal short stories that cover a variety of genres – from a country house murder mystery in “Cat’s Paws” to a bittersweet family story featuring Christmas spirits in “Adaptation”; from a reworking of the nativity story in “Inn” to a sci-fi alien invasion in “Newsletter”. These eight stories are perhaps not quite as successful as Connie Willis’ longer works, but everything I love about her writing can still be found here: there’s humour, thoughtfulness, strong characterisation, moving moments, complicated but successful plots, and plenty of intertextuality.

Like the best Christmas stories, the ones in this collection are both familiar and new. Many of them, in fact, include twists on well-known plot arcs or reworkings of recognizable tropes. For example, in “Miracle” the characters often discuss the movies It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, and the aggravating environmental guerilla fighter of a Christmas spirit Lauren is sent for Christmas has a Kris Kringle-ish trick of his very own up his sleeve. In “Adaptation”, there are allusions to not only A Christmas Carol but also A Little Princess, and Christmas spirits share the spotlight with figs and frosted cakes. In “Cat’s Paw” (my favourite in the collection), the assistant to the greatest detective in the world tells us how his companion solved a murder mystery at a country house slash research institute on primate intelligence – or did he?

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories is also a celebration of everything there is no love about Christmas that doesn’t once stray into sentimentality. Many of these stories pay tribute to connection and empathy, but they do so without ever becoming saccharine. Like “Newsletter” tells us, if everyone suddenly started being nothing but thoughtful and nice at Christmas, we should probably worry. People don’t change suddenly and miraculously (the Scrooge-like character in “Adaptation” certainly doesn’t); Christmas doesn’t make problems go away. Things will carry on being difficult; people will be busier and crankier than ever. But as these stories acknowledge, there’s plenty to celebrate in spite of all this. (This is also why, Connie Willis tells us in the introduction, she much prefers Miracle on 34th Street to It’s a Wonderful Life).

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories includes an introduction and a final word, both about Christmas stories; and also a list of twelve Christmas stories and twelve Christmas movies Connie Willis recommends. I appreciated these lists almost as much as the stories themselves. Willis explains that she wants sharing these stories to be like giving a gift to her readers, just like Robert A. Heinlein leading her to Jerome K. Jerome, for example, was like a gift to her. Many of the books or films she listed were new to me, so it felt like a gift indeed.

So: eight stories that make you see some of the oldest Christmas tales around with new eyes; humour, compassion, and excellent writing; and a gift included at the end. What’s not to love? Miracle and Other Christmas Stories was a perfect seasonal read.

They read it too: Shelf Love, Aneca’s World, Lesa’s Book Critiques, sprite writes

(You?)

Affiliates disclosure: if you buy a book through one of my affiliates links I will get 5%.

Read More......

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is a collection of sixteen short stories originally published in several different magazines and now reprinted together. Contrary to what I expected, only one of the stories is set at Cold Comfort Farm, and only three altogether are set at Christmas. I didn’t mind this very much in itself – they’re still Stella Gibbons short stories, after all – but perhaps adding “and other stories” to the title would have been useful to avoid disappointing readers.

The story that gives the collection its title was everything I expected – we revisit Cold Comfort Farm one Christmas a few years before Flora Poste’s arrival, and find Adam Lambsbreath, Elfine, Seth, Judith and Amos and Aunt Ada Doom at their hilarious best. There’s also “The Little Christmas Tree”, a seasonal story that opens Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm and which charmed me from the very first paragraph:

Because she was tired of living in London among clever people, Miss Rhoda Harting, a reserved yet moderately successful novelist in the thirty-third year of her age, retired during one November to a cottage in Buckinghamshire. Nor did she wish to marry.
‘I dislike fuss, noise, worry, and all the other accidents, which, so many friends tell me, attend the married state,’ she said. ‘I like being alone. I like my work. Why should I marry?’
‘You are unnatural, Rhoda,’ protested her friends.
‘Possibly, but at least I am cheerful,’ retorted Miss Harting. ‘Which,’ she added (but this was to herself), ‘is more than can be said of most of you.’

However, in what proved to be a trend in the collection, the story sets out to prove its protagonist wrong (or at least to change her mind). As charming as “The Little Christmas Tree” is, it’s also the kind of story I can’t help but imagine other possibilities for: how would E.M. Delafield have written it, for example? I can’t say enough times that there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with love stories, or that I don’t believe that romance weakens or compromises the integrity of female characters. But because I can’t think of a single story that does feature a thirty-something single woman enjoying Christmas on her own, being contended, and not secretly feeling lonely and empty and dead inside, I can’t help but wish “The Little Christmas Tree” had been that kind of story.

This brings me to why the general tone of Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm surprised me: compared to Stella Gibbons’ novels, these stories are much more conventional, less generous, and leave far less room for subversive readings. Some of them are also quite dark and cynical in tone – Gibbons is less kind to her characters here than I’ve seen her be before. Take “Sisters”, for example, which was probably my favourite story in the collection – it’s a wonderfully written story about an older single woman, Miss Garfield, who goes out of her way to help an unmarried young mother, Ivy Banks, by offering her kindness and compassion and giving her a chance when nobody else in the village where they live will. But the story eventually takes a heartbreaking turn when the social censure Miss Garfield was trying to spare Ivy turns against herself.

Then there are stories like “The Walled Garden”, “The Friend of Man”, “Cake” and “More Than Kind”, which are very socially conservative – they affirm traditional values against what Gibbons clearly considers bohemian folly. “More Than Kind” in particular conjures a very interesting situation: Lillian Wardell is at her wit’s end because Sophie, the first Mrs Wardell, is coming to stay to visit her children. Everyone among the Wardell’s friends considers the couple’s intimacy with Ian Wardell’s first wife the proper, kind, modern and open-minded thing to do; but Lillian can’t stand her and her visits make her extremely uncomfortable. It’s obvious from the beginning that the situation is all wrong – forcing someone to endure something that causes them so much misery for the sake of being modern is every bit as bad as doing so for the sake of being traditional. And yet I can’t help but cringe when I read something like this:

‘Yes, I do hate you,’ said Lillian. ‘But I don’t hate you because I’m jealous of you. I hate you because you used to be Ian’s wife. Even if you were the sort of woman I could like, I should still hate you, and detest you coming to stay here, because you used to be Ian’s wife.’ (…)
‘You and your friends try to pretend everything’s simple and easy on the surface when really they’re all violent and bitter. It isn’t natural for you to be here, that’s why I hate it so.’

I dearly wish “More Than Kind” had gone for some kind of middle ground rather than such a prescriptive solution. There are couples out there who get along perfectly well with ex-partners without anyone suffering discomfort or awkwardness, and this broad brush approach confines them all to the realm of “unnaturalness”.

If I’m focusing so much on the social points these stories make, it’s because making such points is very clearly just what they set out to do. However, I don’t consider this so much a literary flaw as the mark of a different mode of storytelling that has now gone somewhat out of fashion, as Alexander McCall Smith so well says in his introduction. And despite the fact that they come to conclusions or make generalisations I disagree with more often than not, I found much of interest in these stories: the writing is as wonderful as always, and there’s Stella Gibbons’ customary humour, compassion, and excellent dialogue and characterisation.

In short, these are stories that very often made me want to argue, but there’s something valuable and very stimulating in engaging with a writer whose mind is not a perfect fit with my own. Reading Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm reminded me of reading Dorothy Sayers’ essays: I agree with her passionately except when I disagree with her vehemently. Disagreeing with Stella Gibbons didn’t take away her place among my favourite writers; it was interesting to discover another side to an author I’ve grown to love, and to see that in the first half of the twentieth century, she was contributing to debates that remain current to this day. We may be on opposite sides of them, but I am nevertheless interested in her take.

They read it too: Cardigan Girl Verity, Desperate Reader, 20th Century Vox, I Prefer Reading

(You?)

Affiliates disclosure: if you buy a book through one of my affiliates links I will get 5%.

Read More......

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Persuasion tells the story of Anne Elliot, who at the ripe old age of twenty-seven remains unmarried and lives with her snobbish and indebted father and sister, Sir Walter and Elizabeth Elliot. Eight years previously, Anne was to be married to one Captain Wentworth, but was persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off the engagement. Sir Walter’s debts force the family to move away from their home, Kellynch Hall, and to let it to Admiral Croft and his wife. Mrs Croft turns out to be Captain Wentworth’s sister, which means that he is about to return to Anne’s social circle. And Anne can’t deny that her feelings haven’t changed very much at all in the past eight years.

Persuasion is a subtle, subdued and character-oriented novel that takes readers by surprise. The plot is fairly simple, but the satire, the love story, and above all the characterisation are all extremely satisfying. Anne Elliot is perhaps an unlikely heroine, but that’s one of the reasons why I loved her. She’s sensible, considerate, patient and gentle, but also quite resolute in her own way. As Tasha so well put it, “the way Austen starts off the book, almost hiding Anne, and then bringing her slowly to the forefront of the story and revealing her relationship with Wentworth, was masterfully done.” Anne’s personality slowly comes into focus and earns both the reader’s and the other characters’ deep appreciation.

Anne’s choice eight years prior to the novel’s beginning was the result of persuasion or influence, and as the title indicates this is one of the novel’s major themes. I was very interested in the fact that despite Anne’s mistake, her having been persuaded does not come across as weakness—not at all. Austen is very much aware that anyone living in a complex social world will sometimes have to give in, meet others halfway, balance conflicting interests and needs, and if possible find a way to do all this while without smothering their own desires.

Anne Elliot is not a heroine who breaks off with society to follow her own path, and Persuasion is in a way a very conciliatory novel. Breaking off with society is of course sometimes a necessary choice, or even the only choice; but this is a course of action we romanticise, while simultaneously we tend to despise more appeasing heroines whose lives are revolutionary in far quieter and less obvious ways. Anne, who can be quite sharp, observes the following about the exaltation of immunity to influence:

Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to [Captain Wentworth] now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether it might not strike him that, like all other qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits. She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

There isn’t enough appreciation for women like Anne; women who meet others halfway, who get what they want without giving up their social world, and who are nevertheless never portrayed as weak. Anne doesn’t want to go against society not because she lacks courage, but because she does value the opinion of people who matter to her, because if possible she wants to preserve these connections and find her way without giving up things that also matter to her.

Another thing I loved about Persuasion was its focus on female subjectivity and desire. At the centre of this novel is a woman (an older woman by Regency standards) who is deeply in love. The passion may be subtle, but it’s very much there. Every time I read Austen I’m reminded of what Virginia Woolf famously said about her – she is “a mistress of much deeper emotion than appears upon the surface. She stimulates us to supply what is not there.”

I also quite liked Anne’s conversation with Captain Harville towards the end of the novel, about men and women’s constancy in love. I was pleasantly surprised that Anne’s explanations for gender differences are all social – there’s no essentialism in what she says, only a keen awareness of the power of circumstances and how they mould people, as well as of women’s restricted roles and confined lives.

When it comes to social satire, Persuasion is full of tensions and pulls in opposite directions. On the one hand, Austen sharply denounces subservience to rank for its own sake – the scenes involving Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Lady Dalrymple are absolutely hilarious. There is also an appreciation for Captain Wentworth’s success in making something of himself despite a modest birth. But on the other hand, as Alex pointed out Mrs Clay’s similar ambition is dealt with mercilessly. I’m sure a lot has been said about the interaction between gender and social mobility in Persuasion by people far more knowledgeable than I am. To put it briefly, I was interested in the fact that although the novel is steeped in limited class ideals, there are also little cracks that signal social change.

Today is the 236th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth; the date, along with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility, was one of the motivators for Advent with Austen. It’s still not too late to join us for the celebrations. You can do so by reading and reviewing something Austenesque or by joining the fourth and final Twitter movie night this Sunday.

On a side note, as I found out recently thanks to Susan the cover of the Penguin Deluxe edition of Persuasion is by Audrey Niffenagger, who also did Sense and Sensibility. Aren’t her covers amazing?

Memorable bits:

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception, perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs Croft, who seemed particularly attached and happy, (Anne could allow no other exceptions even among the married couples), there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

When the evening was over, Anne could not but be amused at the idea of her coming to Lyme to preach patience and resignation to a young man whom she had never seen before; nor could she help fearing, on more serious reflection, that, like many other great moralists and preachers, she had been eloquent on a point in which her own conduct would ill bear examination.

Anne found Captain Benwick getting near her, as soon as they were all fairly in the street. Their conversation the preceding evening did not disincline him to seek her again; and they walked together some time, talking as before of Mr Scott and Lord Byron, and still as unable as before, and as unable as any other two readers, to think exactly alike of the merits of either, till something occasioned an almost general change amongst their party, and instead of Captain Benwick, she had Captain Harville by her side.

There, he had learnt to distinguish between the steadiness of principle and the obstinacy of self-will, between the darings of heedlessness and the resolution of a collected mind. There he had seen everything to exalt in his estimation the woman he had lost; and there begun to deplore the pride, the folly, the madness of resentment, which had kept him from trying to regain her when thrown in his way.

They read it too (many thanks to Alex for letting me borrow her formatted link list): The Sleepless Reader, Fyrefly’s Book Blog, The Blue Stocking Society, Dot Scribbles, The Literate Mother, Jayne’s Books, The Literary Stew, Open Mind, Insert Book, A Guy’s Moleskin Notebook, Just Books, Rebecca Reads, All Consuming Books, Fashion Piranha, Presenting Lenore, Alita Reads, Worthwhile Books, Lesley’s Book Nook, The Book Pirate, Fingers and Prose, Desperate Reader, You’ve GOTTA Read This, Adventures in Reading, MariReads, Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Books, Stella Matutina, Lost in Books, Reading Reflections, My Random Acts of Reading, Stacy’s Books, The Literary Omnivore, Books. Lists. Life., Tony’s Reading List, A Striped Armchair, Lit Endeavors, Aneca’s World, Bookworm Nation, Shelf Love, Diary of an Eccentric, The Bookworm Chronicles

(Have I missed yours?)

Affiliates disclosure: if you buy a book through one of my affiliates links I will get 5%.

Read More......

Germany Pictures

As promised, here are a few pictures from my trip to Munich and the Bavarian Alps. Unfortunately I didn’t get much snow, but the atmosphere was still very Christmas-y and I had a great time. First of all, this is Füssen, the lovely town where I stayed for a few days:



There was a lot of fog the day I went to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle, which made clear pictures pretty much impossible. It did make for amazing atmosphere, though.

A very foggy castle.

You are supposed to have a beautiful view of the castle from this bridge. Provided, of course, that there is no fog.
Castle in the air: what I got instead. Not that I'm complaining.

The scenery was often breathtaking. This is the Schwansee (Swan Lake) near Füssen.

Hohenschwangau Castle, which is a bit further down the mountain and therefore had no fog.
Bookshop sign in Füssen.


The best apple strudel I’ve ever had.
Christmas lights in Füssen.
One last shot of the scenery.

After two days in Füssen I went to Munich, where I got to see all the lovely Christmas markets.

Watching the sunrise on the train to Munich.
The Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) seen from the Peterskirche tower. Climbing all 306 steps almost killed me, but the view was worth it.
Munich with the Alps in the background.
The famous Glockenspiel. I was lucky enough to have been able to be there in time to see the clockwork figures move.
Entrance to the courtyard of the Neues Rathaus.

Detail of the Neues Rathaus.
Statue at the Viktualienmarkt, a large open air market where pretty much everything is sold.
Mmm.
These smelled amazing. Christmas in a bag, pretty much.

I could not resist one of these.
There were Christmas markets everywhere!
Decorated ceiling in a bookshop in central Munich.
Second floor of the Lentner bookshop in Munich, which, changes of premises aside, dates back to 1698.
Black Forest cuckoo clocks in a shop window.
Sadly I had to make my way to the airport just when it was starting to get dark, and so I missed the best of the Christmas lights. But the glimpses I got were very lovely indeed.





Bring back ALL THE GERMAN CHOCOLATE. (And some tea too.)
I’m afraid that after a few Internetless days, Google Reader will have to get the Mark All as Read treatment (you post a lot! And I mean that in the nicest way possible). But if there is anything you think I’d be particularly interested in, I’d be really thankful if you dropped me the link.

Read More......