As noted previously, I’ve decided to pursue A Century of Books based on Stuck in a Book’s plan to read the century 1919-2018 rather than 1900-1999. As I went through my giant TBR re-sort recently, it became clear that this was a good idea. I would have had a hard (and boring) time filling those years from 1900-1919.

The only weird thing about this shifted century is that I have this one year is a bit of an orphan and doesn’t have any decade pals. So it stands here on its own.

As you can see below the year 1919 is pretty darn compelling. I’ve only ever read (and loved) Canfield’s The Homemaker, so I am curious about that one. I really love Hermann Hesse and I really want to read this one, but there is more Hesse coming up so I thought I would give this one a pass for now. I’ve read a lot of Lewis and this one looks interesting. For some reason the May Sinclair novel doesn’t speak to me at the moment. And then there is the Morley. I know there is lots of blogger/reader chatter about him, but I really know nothing about him or his work. With a title like that, however, I decided to give it a go and am actually already about 10 pages in.

With a great selection like this for 1919 (and even better ones in other years as you will soon see), it makes me want to read everything I have for that year. Like maybe I change my ACOB approach to reading every book that I already own from each year. With 725 books on my TBR that would take about 7 years. Hmm…

1919

The Brimming Cup – Dorothy Canfield
Strange News From Another Star – Hermann Hesse
Free Air – Sinclair Lewis
The Haunted Bookshop – Christopher Morley
Mary Oliver: A Life – May Sinclair

For those of you participating in ACOB and needing ideas for your list I thought I would post the whole list at once rather than make you wait for my blog posts about each decade. Also helpful because it has all of my TBR books published prior to 1919 as well.

TBR Chron

For those of you NOT doing ACOB, you just might be curious to see whats on my TBR.

TBR Alpha

 

The other night I was picking a selection of books off of my shelves in order to decide what to read next. While doing so, I was cognizant of my decision to take part in A Century of Books and thought I should start keeping track of the years in which each of them was published.  I made a checklist to make sure I didn’t duplicate years.

After I had pulled together an interesting looking pile of almost 30 books to take up to my nightstand…I had a mental breakdown brilliant idea. Wouldn’t it be great to have a full list of all the books I own but haven’t read organized by year published so that I could make my ACOB choices from all that was available to me?

Here is what I did:

1. Took every book I haven’t read yet off of my shelves.
2. Moved all of the books I have read to one side of my bookcase and kept them alphabetical by author. It turned out that out of 30 shelves of fiction, the ones I have read only took up 10 shelves.
3. Opened up every single unread book to check the publishing date and put it on a shelf corresponding to a decade. (See picture below for what that looked like.)
4. Went by decade and created a spreadsheet with year published, title, and author for every book, then stacked the books according to the corresponding year of that decade.
5. Once I finished a decade I would sort the spreadsheet so I could put the books on the shelf in order without having to alphabetize in my head.

 

Let me say I was astounded by how many unread books I own. I was even more astounded by how inter-shelving read and unread books kept me from understanding how much variety I had to choose from. Once they were all sorted and put in order–all 726 of them–it became clear that I would be able to satisfy 99 out of the 100 years of books for ACOB. 2018 is the only year for which I don’t already own a book. Most years I have at least four or five books to choose from. I think there is only one year for which I only have one book.

In the coming weeks I am not only going to make my full TBR list available, but I am going to be breaking it down by year. In the meantime you can look at the organized shelves. Also check out the video at the end of the post.

I’ve pared my books down to the bone. And still there are books stacked in places my husband would rather not see them. The result is that I get to have more shelves built. In our basement rec room there is a bookshelf built as part of a radiator enclosure that was here when we bought the house. So we are going have some shelves built on top of that.  It should net me about 23 more linear feet of shelf space. I can’t wait.

I said I would never do this again. Simon Thomas at Stuck in a Book has reissued his dastardly A Century of Books challenge. The first time (has he done it more than once?) the century was 1900 to 1999 and participants were to read 100 years of books in a year, one from each year. I made the stupid mistake last time of trying to read them in chronological order which really hindered my progress. And, as much as I read old books, getting through the first 20 years of the century was way more painful than I had thought prior to starting. This time around Simon has proposed that the century consist of 1919 through 2018. This twenty-year shift is just enough for me to make this a much attractive (and doable) challenge.

Although the first 20 years from the last time around had a few books that I truly enjoyed (and one that is an all time favorite), the overall memory of those 20 years still makes my stomach churn six years later.

1900 – Claudine at School by Collette (so boring)
1901 – Claudine in Paris by Collette (so boring)
1902 – The Immoralist by Andre Gide (kind of enjoyed)
1903 – The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (really needed to be 100 pages shorter)
1904 – Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse (loved)
1905 – The Duel by Aleksandr Kuprin (kind of okay)
1906 – Young Torless by Robert Musil (really disliked)
1907 – The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad (why is he so hard to read?)
1908 – Love’s Shadow by Ada Leverson (enjoyed)
1909 – Martin Eden by Jack London (all-time favorite)
1910 – Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett (snooze)
1911 – Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm (man, I hated this book)
1912 – The Charwoman’s Daughter by James Stephens (fine)
1913 – T. Tembarom by Frances Hodgson Burnett (enjoyed)
1914 – Penrod by Booth Tarkington (snooze)
1915 – The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela (boring)
1916 – Under Fire by Henri Barbusse (unpleasant writing style)
1917 – Gone to Earth by Mary Webb (kind of liked)
1918 – Patricia Brent-Spinster by Herbert George Jenkins (loved)

I guess that only half the list makes me shudder in recollection.  But then there were 4 more that I only kind of enjoyed. I think the problem was that there are too many “esteemed” books on the list that I should have chucked instead of finished. This time I plan to set books aside and find something more enjoyable.

Like last time I am going to try and read mainly from my TBR pile, but the shift in dates, and the fact that my TBR is much bigger and more diverse this time around means, I hope, that I won’t run into so many problems finding enjoyable books. Last night I stayed up way too late combing the shelves to fill in my century. So far I like the way that list is shaping up and will post about it in the coming days.

In the meantime, I think this one challenge may encompass every urge I have this year for reading resolutions. Anyone who listened to the year end recap that Simon Savidge and I did on The Readers will know that I am anti-resolution this year, but my resolution to not have resolutions seems to be wavering. By participating in this one challenge, I think I can manage to

1. Read at least 100 books.
2. Greatly reducing my TBR pile.
3. Pick up the pace on my Brookner re-read–If I wanted to, all 12 of the remaining Brookners I have to re-read could be put on the list.
4. Follow whims–the addition of 2000-2018 really allows for room to read recent and diverse novels.
5. Get a complete accounting of my TBR–I’m going to make a list by year so that I know what I have to choose from, and if I have more than one book for a given year I can choose the most enjoyable one.

I do know this. I will fail. My hope is that this time I don’t let that keep me from reading or ruining my year. If it does…well, I can always blame Simon Thomas.

LOS ANGELES – The awards for best reads of 2017 were awarded last night by the Academy of Reading Arts and Sciences during a live telecast from Dorothy Chandler pavilion in Los Angeles. The third annual Hoggie Awards were held earlier than usual this year out of fear the planet would be uninhabitable by mid-January. Academy president Thomas Otto was caught earlier this year at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC on a live mic saying “Atwood couldn’t make this sh*t up. The smell of sulfur coming from 1600 is overwhelming.”

As usual, this year’s ceremony brought out the usual mix of gowns and glamour as the world’s literati arrived to recognize the achievement of the books that most moved, enthralled, and entertained over the past year.

BEST NOVEL – FEMALE 
Judgment Day by Penelope Lively

BEST NOVEL – MALE
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker

BEST AUDIO RECORDING
Nutshell by Ian McEwan

BEST RE-READ
Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing

TROLLOPE OF THE YEAR
Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope

BEST EPIC BOOKER SHORTLISTED BOOK THAT WAS UNFAIRLY PREJUDGED
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster

BEST THOUGHTFUL, INTERESTINGLY TOLD, SLIGHTLY ANITA BROOKNERISH NOVEL
Asa, As I Knew Him by Susanna Kaysen

BEST WORK OF NON-FICTION BY NOW DISGRACED POLITICAL HERO
Giant of the Senate by Al Franken

BEST THRILLER IN WHICH TYPEWRITERS PLAY AN INTEGRAL ROLE
The Intercom Conspiracy by Eric Ambler

 

BEST NOVEL ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth

BEST NOVELS BY NEW-TO-THE-ACADEMY AUTHORS
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
Atlantic Hotel by João Gilberto Noll
Ties by Domenico Starnone
Bitter Almonds by Laurence Cosse
Capital by John Lanchester

THE E.F. BENSON LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR BEING E.F. BENSON
Mrs Ames by E.F. Benson

I know I’m not the only one who has bookmark preferences and proclivities. Mine have certainly evolved over the years. From where are sit today, these are my general rules.

1. They must by paper
2. They must have no metal, fabric, string, yarn, or any other 3D embellishment
3. The thinner the paper the better–without being too thin
4. Shorter is better
5. Free is better
6. I prefer location-specific bookmarks that remind me of a place or bookshop I’ve been to
7. I like finding ones that someone else has used, rather than using brand new one

 

And for a clearer look at how size matters when it comes to bookmarks, check out this video.

I was in Boston last week for about 24 hour for work and I had enough time to get my butt over to Brattle Book Shop and do some serious damage. Before I even started to look at their extensive outdoor book selection (yes, outdoors in Boston on a cold December day with an unignorable wind) I went inside and asked them if they shipped. Since I had less than zero room left in my luggage, this was a crucial question. Thankfully the answer came back in the affirmative.

I’ve received and read my second Year in Books delivery from Heywood Hill, and their bespoke service is growing in my esteem. This on top of an already great first delivery. The logical part of me realizes that they have competent booksellers who read my detailed consultation information and are pulling books for me that they think I might like. But then another part of me is convinced that one of them is living inside my brain sending radio signals back to Mayfair telling them what to wrap up and send my direction. Of course, ever the doubting Thomas, another part of me is convinced they have made two lucky guesses and next month it will all crash and burn when they send me Eat, Pray, Love. But I kind of doubt that third scenario.

This time around was Vikram Seth’s 1999 novel An Equal Music. I’ve read Seth’s doorstopper A Suitable Boy which I enjoyed but perhaps not enough to look at what else he has written. And clearly I must have said something on my consultation form about liking novels about classical music. But on that point I was still a bit trepidatious. So many books with classical music as a subject, or even background, can really come off as forced, self-conscious, exercises in name dropping (cf., both of Alexander Chee’s novels).

Although my intention with my Heywood Hill subscription is to read each novel the month it arrives, I was a bit surprised how quickly I picked this one up. One night before bed I was between books and, as I sometimes do, I gathered 5 or 6 titles I was considering reading and read the first three or four lines out loud to my husband and then had him tell me which one sounded the most interesting to him. There were a lot of really good options, and An Equal Music wasn’t the one John picked, but before putting it down to start on the book I thought I was going to read, I read a few more lines of the Seth, and then a few more, and before I knew it I was all in.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It was smart without being too smart, I was easily swept up in the characters and the story, and the musical details were expertly woven into the book without ever feeling obvious. And for me, it was unputdownable. The kind of book that made me turn off the TV, had me staying up far too late, had me reading at 6:00 in the morning before I went to work, had me trying to juggle a Ruben sandwich and the book at the same time, and was engrossing enough to allow me to ignore airport chaos. An utter freaking delight.

Having said all that, it is possible that this book might not work if you aren’t a music nerd–or perhaps if you are too much of a music nerd. I think I am probably at the right level of musical nerd-dom. Too little and you might find the discussions of musical keys and time signatures confusing. Too much and you might find those same discussions laughably unrealistic. But on the latter end of the spectrum I don’t know. I wonder what a real musician would think of this novel. And I love a novel that provides its own soundtrack that one can look up online and listen to immediately, as one reads. An Opus 1 Beethoven trio that gets turned into a quintet later in Beethoven’s life as Opus 104, yards of Schubert, heaps of Hayden, glances of Brahms and Mozart and Vivaldi.

Beyond the music, if that is possible, is the lovely, sometimes heartbreaking story of violinist Michael Holme who walked away from Julia, his piano trio and his piano-trio partner and piano-playing girlfriend 10 years earlier because of what he perceived as an incompatibility with his mentor. Finding the teacher/student relationship overwhelming and fraught with unpleasantness Michael flees from Vienna and waits too long to get back in touch with Julia. In the intervening decade no one in Julia’s life will tell him where she is, and this being the gloriously old fashioned days before the internet juggernaut we know and love today, he is unable to track her down. Until one day he sees her on a bus headed the opposite direction. The two do meet again and, well, I’m not sure I am allowed to tell you what happens next.

Beyond the relationship angle, if that is possible, Seth creates completely compelling back stories and numerous subplots that definitely provide the complete package. Michael’s family, his violin, his musical upbringing, the relationship within his string quartet, programming concerts, deals with agents and managers and record companies, looking for gigantic violas, bidding on violins…all of this appeals not just to my love of details but all those gossipy behind the scenes things that happen in the world of classical music. I’m not sure how this would play (no pun intended) for those who don’t know or care about such details. For me it was like being dropped into a pool full of hot cocoa and floating around on a toasty marshmallow. That’s how much I love that kind of stuff.

And then there is Venice. This is another point where I am certain the Heywood Hill team is living in my brain. We are headed to Venice in June and I relished the scenes that took place there. Like his writing about music, Seth includes lots of details without making you feel like he is trying too hard. And again, the internet brings it all to life as image search after image search provided a brilliant background to the text–not that one needs it, the imagination, etc., but it is quite fun.

So there we are. Another successful pick from Heywood Hill. They are 2 for 2. Two very different books about very different things. I love the variety. Have they peaked too early? Stay tuned.

” . . . strange, daring, and very moving. . . . The book is a rare and dazzling feat of art.” —George Saunders, The Paris Review Daily

“Disturbing, one-of-a-kind . . . “ —Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

“Unforgettable. . . . An ambitious tour de force that demands the reader’s attention; those willing to follow along will be rewarded with a singular and haunting story.” —Publishers Weekly 

If I had read Reservoir 13 without having heard anything about it, I would have loved it.  I would have appreciated the details of daily life in a small village in the Peak District. I would have enjoyed the way the novel tantalized me into thinking I was about get a clue about who abducted 13-year old Rebecca Shaw only to have my hopes dashed and later built back  up again. I would have relished the way McGregor gradually reveal the layers personality/foible/secrets of the numerous characters that move in and out to the story.

I think most of all, I would have appreciated the yearly, cyclical, rhythm of the book. I liked hearing about the condition of the cow parsley in the hedgerows, or the quality of the chestnut mast. I liked how McGregor repeated certain phrases each year–particularly his yearly observance of Mischief Night, Bonfire Night, and New Year’s Eve.

In fact, I don’t have any issue with the high praise the book received, I think that is probably deserved. What I do have a problem with is the praise that made me think that something unbelievable was going to happen. The George Saunders’ excerpt above may have been taken out of context, but I saw a lot of similar blurbs. That this was the book about an abduction that was going to surprise and amaze me. Well it didn’t. I feel like this book was click-baited to death. I’m a fan of Anita Brookner–I can handle slow. I like repetition in books. I don’t need a plot. I like authors who twist things on their sides. But McGregor’s twists are extremely subtle, and anyone who was led to believe they were going to be blown away are left wondering what the fuss was all about.

Dazzling, haunting, chilling, disturbing, one-of-a-kind? No. Just stop. I’m not going to click on you. Stop talking. Shut down the blurb factory.

 

It has been a really long time since I have done a Bits and Bobs episode. But I wanted to be in touch without having to come up with a real blog post, so here it is.

Veteran’s Day

As I have been working on my ancestry (mainly at Ancestry.com) it is interesting to see how many of my relatives and ancestors served in the military. My dad, many uncles, and it turns out my 5th great grandfather, Joseph Waters, was a sergeant with the Connecticut militia in the Revolutionary War. Yes, that’s right, I’m a Daughter of the American Revolution. When I was poking around on Fold3.com for records related to his service I discovered paperwork filed by his son in the 1850s to get the pension funds that were owing to his mother (Jospeh’s widow). Not only were those documents fascinating to read, many of them being affidavits by octogenarians who had known Joseph and could vouch for his service and his offspring. Anyhoo, as I was reading them I realized that the son filing the petition was not on my tree. His siblings (like Erastus, Ozias, and Russell) were, but there was no Epaphras G. Waters on my tree After verifying that he was indeed Joseph’s son and brother to my 4th great grandfather Russell, I searched for records related to Epaphras.

Not surprisingly there are not a lot of Epaphras Waters out there so it was easy to find some things. What I discovered was that Ep (as I call him) served with the New York militia in the War of 1812. At first I was dubious because the name was slightly off and his date of birth meant he could only have been about 13 at the time of his service. But there was no way it could have been anyone else. Then I found a payroll card that showed his rank as “Drumm’r”. Off to Google I went, sure enough some Drummer Boys were as young as seven although most were in their late teens. They helped send signals and communicate information to the troops. And my 4th great uncle happened to be one of them. How seriously cool is that? I think I find that more interesting than if he had been a general. It makes me want to write a novel about him.

Apple Paltrow has nothing on my ancestors

As I have been doing my ancestry research I have come across some really interesting names. It is a good thing my childbearing years are over or I would have progeny getting beat up in school left and right. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order (although Roxy Miles is John’s favorite).

Roxy Miles (1789-1873)
Temperance Waters (1739-1804)
Eliphalet Ball (1680-1686)
Rejoice Plaise (1616-1677)
Elizabeth Wapples (1618-1669)
Habiathia Pye (1578-1681)

I’m not a total fraud

One of the reasons I didn’t have the mental energy to do a real post was that I squeezed my brain really hard to come up with a ‘review’ of Anita Brookner’s Fraud that wouldn’t make me look totally stupid. I also updated my guide to Brookner’s London where I’m creating a gazetteer of all the London place’s that appear in her 24 novels. The problem is that I’m only halfway through my chronological re-read of her books and at the rate I am re-reading them (1 to 2 a year), it is going to take me about six more years to finish the gazetteer. I really need to speed that up. I also realize that I need to have not just a list by location but also one by book. I’m also getting distracted by the fact that I want to actually put the plot all the locations on a map.

Delicious?

Like me, if you are a fan of Ruth Reichl’s wonderful, foodie, memoirs Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples, you have been afraid to pick up Reichl’s first novel Delicious!. Well, I finally picked it up last week and was quickly drawn in. At first I found some of the writing too similar to her memoirs–which works very well in her memoirs–and it made me cringe a bit. But then I kind of let go and started to enjoy it. A young woman moves to NYC to be an assistant to the editor of magazine Delicious! magazine (No doubt somewhat modeled on the fabulous, but defunct Gourmet magazine of which Reichl was the editor). I start to love her new foodie friends as much as she does. And then Delicious! closes down but our heroine, Billie, is kept on to keep providing ombudsman services for the magazine’s recipe guarantee.

But then, get this, she finds herself alone in the mostly empty old mansion that was the magazine’s headquarters and ends up discovering the library that had been locked up for years and includes a secret room full of correspondence from the 1940s. I could have peed my pants. CAN YOU IMAGINE? A neglected, old, private, food library, with a card catalog, and files of letters, and did I mention she had the place to herself all day and got paid for it?! I mean hello.

But then again, about half way through it began to get less and less joyous as my willingness to suspend disbelief was overcome by one too many crimes against plausibility, believeability, and reasonable plotting. IF, you can overlook these things you might want to read it. If you are more like me, you could stop at about 150 pages and be as happy as you could ever be with this book.

I still love Ruth Reichl to bits. But you should read her memoirs if you have never read her before.