One of the things I am loving about doing this Shelf by Shelf series is the fact that I am getting so many interesting comments from all of you. Makes me want to have all of you over for some book gazing. One comment Liz Dexter made about liking Brookner in her 20s but being less interested in her novels in middle age made me chuckle. It also made me ponder how much my shelves may change in the coming years. I know 10 years ago I wouldn’t have contemplated getting rid of any of my Atwoods, but here I am with the collection whittled down to those I liked the most. My Brookner affair on the other hand has gotten stronger over the past 20 years so I feel they probably have staying power.

One of the other things I love about Shelf by Shelf is that I am getting to know my books much better than I would by simply staring at them. Especially with so many recent additions over the past year. It’s also made me realize how homogeneous my top row is. With this installment I finish the top row of my shelves and I must admit I’m a bit glad. Lower shelves seem much more diverse, not just in the number of authors represented but also in points of view. This top row has been decidedly well-heeled.

SHELF FIVE: 31 books, 18 unread, 13 read, 42% completed.

Brookner, Anita – Making Things Better (completed)
Brookner, Anita – The Rules of Engagement (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Leaving Home (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Strangers (completed)

Brown, Carrie – The Last First Day

Burnett, Frances Hodgson – T. Tembarom (completed)
Burnett, Frances Hodgson – Through One Administration
Burnett, Frances Hodgson – The Dawn of Tomorrow / A Fair Barbarian
Burnett, Frances Hodgson – Louisiana / The Pretty Sister of Jose
Burnett, Frances Hodgson – The Methods of Lady Walderhurst
I didn’t read Burnett’s The Secret Garden until I was in my late 20s/early 30s. I was at a bookstore in Cambridge, England and saw both it and Heidi (not by Burnett) on a table of inexpensive reissues and thought it might be time to read those two classics. I ended up loving both of them and made The Shuttle and The Making of a Marchioness two of my first Persephone purchases. I loved the latter more than the former and decided to buy her work whenever I stumbled across it. Of this stack of old, somewhat crumbly Burnett’s the only one I have read is T. Tembarom. I enjoyed the rags to riches story (and another one where an American makes it big in the British aristocracy) but I thought it could have used some editing for sure. Not sure what the rest of these hold in store for me. Until I find out, I’ve stopped buying her books. There are a lot of them and they are pretty easy to find.

Tom Brown at Oxford
Nowhere in this 1897 edition does it mention who wrote it so I put it in the Bs when I was organizing shelves. I see now, after Googling it, that it was written by Thomas Hughes. Doesn’t belong in the Bs at all.

Brown, Charles Brockden – Edgar Huntly (completed)
I read this novel for a class for my first Master’s degree. It was part of a three semester class on the American Experience and the professor’s background was in literature so all we read for three semesters was fiction. Written in 1799 it is one of the earlier examples of an American novel. When I read this I didn’t have the same appreciation I have now for older lit so I am very interested to see what I think of it now.

Burney, Frances – Camilla
This really is the ye olde shelf. This one written in 1796.

Burt, Katherine Newlin – Strong Citadel
Published in 1949, Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Kirkus Reviews said: “Feminine fiction, with more animation than most, by an experienced editor and practitioner in the field.” Sounds right up my alley.

Calisher, Hortense – The Railway Police and The Last Trolley Ride
Railway and trolley. How could I pass up these novellas?

Cambridge, Ada – The Three Miss Kings

Cameron, Peter – Andorra (completed)
Cameron, Peter – The Weekend (completed)
Cameron, Peter – Coral Glynn (completed)
Loved Andorra when I stumbled across it a few years ago. Found the used book somewhere for free I think. Now I buy whatever I can find by Cameron. Coral Glynn came second and I liked it but not as much as Andorra. It wasn’t until a few months ago when reading The Weekend that Cameron is gay and sometimes writes gay novels.

Canfield, Dorothy – The Deepening Stream
Canfield, Dorothy – Seasoned Timber
Canfield, Dorothy – The Brimming Cup
Canfield, Dorothy – Bonfire
Canfield, Dorothy – Her Son’s Wife
I absolutely loved Persephone’s reissue of Canfield’s The Home-Maker. I had trouble with The Deepening Stream and set it aside after about 60 pages. Now I am not sure how I feel about her in general. I’m guessing I will like her, but more evidence that I shouldn’t start wildly collecting authors until I am more sure of my overall fondness for them.

Capote, Truman – In Cold Blood (completed)
A brilliant book of fiction / non-fiction and the only Capote I’ve liked.

Carpenter, Don – Hard Rain Falling

Carr, John Dickson – Fire, burn!

Carr, J.L. – A Month in the Country (completed)
One of the best books ever written.

Carey, Edward – Alva & Irva (completed)
Carey, Edward – Observatory Mansions (completed)
Carey writes some odd and delightful fiction. Don’t get him confused with Peter Carey. I really need to reread these, especially OM.

Carswell, Catherine – The Camomile

NEXT TIME: Cather to Collins

I was intrigued to join in the fun of the 1938 Club that Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon of Stuck in a Book are hosting. The interwar years are chock-a-block with books and writers that I love. It would be easy to find a novel published in 1938. Even just choosing from my massive TBR pile was bound to yield a nice choice. Problem is, I kept coming across books I wanted to read from 1937 and not much from 1938. Out of the hundreds of books I have unread at home, The Squire by Enid Bagnold and Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler were the only two I could find that fit the brief. I’m a huge fan of Ambler and have loved everything of his that I have read. Bagnold on the other hand was a total unknown despite having two Virago reissues of her novels on my shelf for years.

The Squire by Enid Bagnold
I’m a little disappointed that I chose Bagnold over Ambler. Not that I won’t get to the Ambler, I just wanted something more interesting to write about for the 1938 Club. I think perhaps the little bit of reading I did about The Squire is what set me up for disappointment. The Squire is a woman–yes–whose husband is absent while she is in the final throes of her fourth (or was it fifth?) pregnancy. What I had read about it suggested it was a feminist take on motherhood and the first novel to really deal with pregnancy and childbirth from the mother’s perspective. I don’t know if all of that is true, and parts of it did seem very progressive for 1938, but I found the Squire way too privileged and invested in the system to be much of a feminist. Even though the Squire has to endure the physical pain of birth she also has servants, a mid-wife, and a doctor in attendance. And she doesn’t seem to be rebelling against any sort of expectations or mores that might suggest Bagnold had a bigger story to tell. As for the rest of it, I quickly got bored with her existing children and her never ending challenges with servants. I could see that it was well written and had a charm and wit to it, but I just didn’t care. Thankfully it was shortish and had really big margins.

I’ve read other great 1938 books like Rebecca (yes Simon Savidge, I said great) and Kindling and What Happened to the Corbetts by Nevil Shute–each of which I have read twice. All three feel more modern than The Squire felt. Rightly or wrongly, I kept picturing all of Enid’s characters dressed as the cast of Howards End.

I also have Bagnold’s novel The Loved and Envied on my TBR. I’m still going to give it a go at some point, but since it won’t be for any sort of online club or challenge, I may end up giving up on it if I find it as boring a subject matter as The Squire.

Mary Hocking reading week hosted by Heavenali officially ended on the 9th, but I didn’t finish my first Hocking until the 10th. I came close I guess. Several weeks ago I caught Ali’s enthusiasm for Hocking and ordered all 12 of Bello’s recent reprints of her work. With 12 more set to release in July, my book-collecting gene kicked in and I felt I needed all these matching novels despite never having read anything that she had written.

How do I feel now that I have read one? I feel like I am going to enjoy discovering what’s in the other 11, and may, possibly, order the next 12 when they become available.

The Winter City by Mary Hocking
Since I had 12 to choose from, and three of her later novels are part of a series, I thought I should start at the beginning. Published in 1961, The Winter City was Hocking’s first novel and it was happily part of Bello’s initial offerings. Set in an unnamed country behind the Iron Curtain, the action follows four British ex-pats living in the unnamed capital of that unnamed country. Roommates Helen and Kate work at the British embassy and Paul and Doyle are journalists and friends of Helen and Kate. Living largely in an ex-pat bubble the four witness, and in some ways, participate in the beginnings of some political unrest/popular uprising. Not surprisingly for a novel, there are also some emotional entanglements among the four.

Hocking’s writing is cool and precise and somewhat detached. It certainly seems more disciplined than most first novels written these days. Not that writing needs to be disciplined, and it does come at a cost–I’m not sure any of these characters engender any warm feelings toward them. It’s not that one doesn’t like the characters, they just don’t really let you get close to them. Even in the face of tragedy, it was a little hard to actually feel the tragedy. But I am a bit of a fan of the detached, so none of this is terribly off putting to me.

There were times when The Winter City put me in mind of Muriel Spark’s novel The Mandelbaum Gate. Although published in 1965, Spark’s novel also takes place in 1961 and involves British personal and official involvement in the post-WWII political landscape outside of Britain. There were also hints of Brookner in the measured language and a bit of Pym’s career woman observational abilities. Although, these latter two comparisons may be too generic and broadly applied to be of much use.

The net of my experience is that I don’t know what the future holds for me and Hocking. I’m intrigued enough that I am looking forward to reading more–especially the Good Daughter series, if that is what it is officially called. We will see if our relationship becomes something more.

In the last installment of Shelf by Shelf I talked about owning all of an author’s work and how much room that can take up. When it comes to this week’s shelf I have 20 of Anita Brookner’s 24 novels (the other four will appear in the next installment). Unlike the indecision I wrote about last time, there is no indecision when it comes to Brookner’s novels. I know I will continue to reread them for many years to come. I suppose I can imagine some sort of life changing thing that might make me shy away from them in the future. Will I want to read them when I am closing in on death? I’m not sure, but until then, I know I want access to them.

Speaking of Anita Brookner (as I often do) I was happy to be asked to offer a personal tribute to Brookner in the latest edition of Shiny New Books.

But let’s move on to the latest shelf.

SHELF FOUR: 36 books, 10 unread, 26 read, 72% completed.

Bowen, Elizabeth – The Little Girls (completed)
Bowen, Elizabeth – The House in Paris (completed)
These are the two Bowens that make me feel like I am a Bowen fan. Other’s of hers make me wonder.

Bowles, Jane – Two Serious Ladies

Boyd, William – The Destiny of Nathalie X
Boyd, William – Fascination
Boyd, William – Any Human Heart (completed)
Loved Michael’s Booktopia choice of Any Human Heart so much that I have buying his other books whenever I see them.

Bradbury, Malcolm – Eating People is Wrong
I was amused by the title and liked the nice old vintage cover, but I must admit I thought this was by Ray Bradbury. The internets tell me it is a university novel which I should like, but I hope the comparisons to Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim are unfounded.

Braddon, Mary – John Marchmont’s Legacy
Braddon, Mary – The Doctor’s Wife
I enjoyed Lady Audley’s Secret (not as much as Wilkie Collins, however). Just writing this entry puts me into the mood for a sensation novel.

Bram, Christopher – Surprising Myself (completed)
Bram, Christopher – Hold Tight (completed)
I first read Bram’s gay coming of age novel Surprising Myself when I was gay and coming of age. Also enjoyed Hold Tight but I haven’t reread it so I don’t remember what it was about. For those of you who don’t know, Bram wrote the book that was turned into the film Gods and Monsters starring Brendan Fraser and Ian McKellan.

Brand, Millen – Albert Sears
I bought this purely for the cover and the vintage of the book. Turns out that another of his novels The Outward Room, has been reissued by NYRB Classics

Brennan, Maeve – The Rose Garden (completed)
I remember liking this book, but I don’t remember a thing about it.

van den Brink, H.M. – On the Water (completed)

Bronte, Charlotte – Shirley
Bronte, Charlotte – Villette

Brookner, Anita – The Debut (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Providence (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Look at Me (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Hotel du Lac (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Family and Friends (completed)
Brookner, Anita – The Misalliance (completed)
Brookner, Anita – A Friend from England (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Latecomers (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Brief Lives (completed)
Brookner, Anita – A Closed Eye (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Fraud (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Dolly (completed)
Brookner, Anita – A Private View (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Incidents in the Rue Laugier (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Altered States (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Visitors (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Falling Slowly (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Falling Slowly (completed)
Brookner, Anita – Undue Influence (completed)
Brookner, Anita – The Bay of Angels (completed)
It wasn’t until I typed this out that I realized I have two copies of Falling Slowly.

NEXT TIME: Brookner to Carswell

 

I feel like I am close to getting some reading done. I haven’t finished anything since March 24th. But this weekend, it’s all going to happen this weekend. I have four books I want to finish. Three of them are over halfway completed and one is pretty short. No problems, right?

In the meantime, here is some ham.

 

I have no shelf that is made up of just one author. With each shelf holding somewhere upwards of 30 books, I doubt I will ever achieve that particular kind of monoculture. Although I probably could with DE Stevenson if I end up collecting all of her novels. (Even in that case I would have to arrange them so that they all fall on one shelf–but of course I can see myself doing just that if the time ever comes.)

The problems of monoculture overtake me whenever I take some time to organize my shelves, or weed, or just gaze at them. For those authors I love (Ambler, Atwood, Brookner, Just, Pym, Shute, Stevenson, Trollope, etc.) what happens when (if) I collect all of their work? Kind of satisfying as an activity and also nice for re-reading old favorites. But collecting prolific writers can mean a lack of diversity if one has limited shelf space. In some cases (e.g., Atwood), I no longer feel the need to keep everything an author has written. In other cases, I think at some point, favorite authors might be relegated to special shelves elsewhere in the house. But since those shelves don’t yet exist I’ve started to wonder whether or not I want to keep every novel.

Issues of relative scarcity in the marketplace for some author’s work mean that I am also more inclined to keep all of their books regardless of how much I like a particular volume. Which brings me to this week’s shelf. E.F. Benson is a delightful author best known for his Lucia series, but is he worth all this shelf space? I’ve only read one of his non-Lucia books. Do I like him that much? I don’t know. But I do know I have found lots of copies of his other work at a charity shop here in DC and haven’t been able to resist getting them. I guess I will find out at some point. In the meantime, I’ve put my boxed Folio Society set of the Lucia books elsewhere as they take up a fair amount of shelf space. This allows me a bit more room for his other works which may or may not get weeded out over time.

This week also marks the first example of the horizontal stack. When one can save an inch or two my going up instead of side to side. I think it also adds a nice visual break .

SHELF THREE: 36 books, 31 unread, 5 read, 14% completed.

Bates, H.E. – A Bit of French Air
Bates, H.E. – The Purple Plain
When I was at Powell’s last summer I found this beautiful copy of A Bit of French Air. One of Bates’ Pop Larkin books, I have no idea whether I will like them. I also have a Pop Larkin omnibus that I don’t have on this shelf. If I read that and end up not liking them, I probably will keep this one because the edition is so cool.

Bechdel, Alison – Are You My Mother?
Bechdel, Alison – Fun Home (completed)
When I was in college I loved reading Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in Equal Time, one of the gay newspapers in the Twin Cities. I even went approached her one year at the Pride Festival to tell her what a fan I was. I loved Fun Home but haven’t read the companion Are You My Mother? yet.

Bedford, Sybille – A Legacy
Bedford, Sybille – Jigsaw

Benary-Isbert, Margot – The Ark (completed)
Benary-Isbet, Margot – Rowan Farm
I’ve written before about how much I loved The Ark as a kid and the incredible tale of how I came to own this copy and its sequel.

Bennett, Alan – The Uncommon Reader (completed)
One of the best books ever written. If you haven’t read it, I’m just not sure we can be friends. Well, yes we can, but you need to read it.

Benson, E.F. – Rex
Benson, E.F. – Portrait of an English Nobleman – Georgian 
Benson, E.F. – Janet – Victorian
Benson, E.F. – Friend of the Rich – Mid-Victorian (completed)
Benson, E.F. – The Unwanted – Edwardian (completed)
Benson, E.F. – Mother
Benson, E.F. – Colin
Benson, E.F. – The Climber
Benson, E.F. – Arundel
Benson, E.F. – An Autumn Sowing
Benson, E.F. – David Blaize
Benson, E.F. – Paying Guests
Benson, E.F. – Secret Lives
Benson, E.F. – Mrs Ames
Benson, E.F. – Dodo 
Benson, E.F. – Desirable Residences and Other Stories

Berry, Wendell – A Place on Earth

Binet, Laurence – HHhH (completed)

Bjorn, Thrya Ferre – Dear Papa

de Blasi, Marlena – A Thousand Days in Venice

Bliss, Eliot – Saraband

Böll, Heinrich – A Soldier’s Legacy
Böll, Heinrich – The Safety Net
Böll, Heinrich – Adam and the Train
Böll, Heinrich – Children are Civilians Too
I don’t own my favorite novel by Böll, The Lost Honor of Katerina Blum. I’ve read one or two others and I’m not sure I like him as much as owning four of his books would have you believe. But I need to read more to find out.

Bowen, Elizabeth – Eva Trout
Bowen, Elizabeth – Collected Stories

Back in October of 2015 Frances of Nonsuch Book and I met up at Politics and Prose. In addition to having a bookish gossip in the cafe, I was really in the mood for some new fiction. I remember very clearly. It was like I had a fever. I buy and read so many older, used books that I found myself absolutely craving new fiction. So much so that I even bought a stack of hardcovers even though I had no assurances I would like any of them.

So what ever happened to all those books? I just finished one from that trip that Frances recommended and it made me think about how long some books stay in our TBR even when they are recommended. In the case of The Infatuations almost 2.5 years. Happily, thanks to an earlier blog post, I have proof of what I bought that day so I can do a little recap of their disposition.

I’m kind of proud of myself. I’ve read 11 of the 16, didn’t finish two of them (but I tried), and didn’t read three of them.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
I bought this one because it is one of the two books discussed on the recent inaugural episode of the podcast Hear…Read This. Although I didn’t think this was high art, I really enjoyed reading this lighthearted library mystery. Unlike Simon and Gavin who hated it on Hear…Read This.

The Bookstore by Deborah Merler
I was about to say that I haven’t read this one yet. Then I couldn’t even find it on my shelves and was surprised that I would get rid of a book with that enticing title without reading it. Turns out I actually read it. British grad student at Columbia works in a bookstore, gets pregnant, relationship woes, etc. It had its issues but was an enjoyable read.

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Haven’t read it.

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
Really

annoyed me.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Should have loved it: “…rocky patch of Italian coastline…” but really didn’t. Ended up not even finishing it.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Haven’t read it.

The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt
Two couples wait in Lisbon in 1940 for a ship to take them back to the U.S. I should have loved this book based on the premise, but I found it boring, forced, and full of moments and scenes that didn’t feel authentic to me. It is possible that this was a case of me wanting it to be something it wasn’t meant to be.

HHhH by Laurent Binet
Also on the first episode of Hear…Read This. Pretty much loved it.

The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon
Haven’t read it yet.

The Good House by Ann Leary
I really enjoyed this novel. An alcoholic real estate agent in New England.

Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem
Gave up way before 50 pages. Tedious.

The Bottom of Everything by Ben Polnick
Takes place in Washington DC. Readable but rather amateurish.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Aichie
Loved it.

The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble
LOVED it. Probably my favorite Drabble now.

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Holmes
Really liked it.

The Infatuations by Javier Marais
Every day a single woman has her morning coffee at a cafe in Madrid and everyday she sees the same happy couple. After not seeing the couple for some time she discovers that the man has been murdered by a homeless person. Our narrator, Maria, gets to know the widow and the dead man’s best friend. And then she finds out something shocking and creepy. Kind of hard to say much more about the plot without giving too much away.  I enjoyed many things about this book, but I think I would have liked it more if I had been under pressure to read it in time for a discussion I was set to have with my friend Pamela who was visiting from California.

For all its twists and turns, the novel is more of a character study. I found a certain rhythm to the chapters. They usually started with some plot point or notion related to the plot and then the rest of the chapter is Maria speculating and/or reflecting on that. She spends a lot of time in her head. I felt some of her habit of observation reminded me of Mildred in Pym’s Excellent Women which I was re-reading at the time. And all of Maria’s internal musings felt like Brookner to her. Something I wouldn’t have thought, but it does make sense to me. One thing I didn’t like was the ongoing references to a story by Balzac. I don’t always do well with this kind of intertexuality. Although, now that I think about it, I liked it in Providence by Anita Brookner. Maybe there is more connection between Brookner and Marias after all. I also felt like there were shades of Herman Koch in how it revealed a pretty depressing view of human nature. Overall I enjoyed it, but I don’t necessarily feel the need to go find Marias’s other books.

 

Based on your comments, I would say that shelf by shelf is going to be a popular feature. I was surprised to see at least four people commented that they don’t keep their shelves in alphabetical order. That surprises me more than a little. Are they just all higgedly piggedly? Is it because I have mild OCD that I put mine in alpha order? Is it because I worked at a library in my formative years? I was actually kind of embarrassed about my shelves because they may be in alpha order by author, but they are not in alpha order by title by the same author. Thus my Atwoods, as you are about to see, are not in alpha order. Prior to moving out for our house renovation I always kept them in title order within author. Somehow I just haven’t gotten around to it since we moved back in. The other challenge I face is that when I own the entire output of a single author, my temptation is to put them in chronological order. You will see what that looks like in the coming months.

I don’t want to give away too much of what is to come, there are some anomalies for sure. But I will answer Liz Dexter’s questions: 1. In general my fiction is separate from my non-fiction. About 7 of the 35 shelves will be non-fiction. 2. Of course I keep some of my TBR books in various places in the library and next to my bed. But, most of them are intershelved with their brethren and sistren (I don’t think that is a word) that have already been read.

SHELF TWO : 34 books, 18, unread, 16 read, 47% completed

Atwood, Margaret – Bodily Harm (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – The Robber Bride (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – The Blind Assassin (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – The Handmaid’s Tale (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – Stone Mattress 
Atwood, Margaret – The Penelopiad (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – Moral Disorder (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – Murder in the Dark (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – The Tent (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – Bluebeard’s Egg (completed)
(I realize that not all of these are fiction.) For a long time The Robber Bride was my favorite Atwood, now supplanted by the MaddAddam trilogy. Very different books indeed. Now that I have a bit of a penchant for vintage sci-fi, I am quite curious to re-read The Blind Assassin for it’s sci-fi novel within a novel. Handmaid’s Tale will be considered a classic until the end of human life. A few of you mentioned loving Alias Grace. My best friend would agree with you, but it is actually my least favorite–and I have read it twice. And, in case you don’t see them here or in the previous shelf by shelf, I have read all of Atwood’s fiction, I just don’t own them.

Auchincloss, Louis – Tales of Manhattan
Auchincloss, Louis – The Rector of Justin
Auchincloss, Louis – The Book Class (completed)
Auchincloss, Louis – The Embezzler
Auchincloss come from old New York money. I loved The Book Class and look forward to reading the others.

Austen, Jane – Northanger Abbey (completed)
As a loose rule I don’t keep easily obtainable classics, not enough space in my library for that. The only reason I keep this great old Signet edition is that I love the cover.

Auster, Paul – The Book of Illusions
Auster, Paul – Winter Journal
Auster, Paul – Timbuktu
Auster, Paul – In the Country of Last Things
Auster, Paul – Sunset Park (completed)
Auster, Paul – Oracle Night
I’ve read far more of Auster’s work then the one you see in the list above. Sunset Park and The Brooklyn Follies (which I loved), fall into the straightforward, easy-to-read Auster. Others of his, like Man in the Dark, while enjoyable, take a bit more effort.

Bagnold, Enid – The Loved and Envied
Bagnold, Enid – The Squire

Bainbridge, Beryl – The Dressmaker
Bainbridge, Beryl – An Awfully Big Adventure
Bainbridge, Beryl – Watson’s Apology
Bainbridge, Beryl – The Girl in the Polka-dot Dress
For some reason I think I like Beryl Bainbridge yet I’ve yet to read anything by her. I think I have a few more of her books floating around the house somewhere.

Baird, Irene – John
I bought this one solely for the title. I have since learned that Baird was born in England but emigrated to Canada in 1919 and wrote a seminal novel about Canada in the Depression (but this one ain’t it).

Baldwin, James – Go Tell it on the Mountain (completed)
Baldwin, James – Giovanni’s Room (completed)
I’ve read these at least twice each. Baldwin is a master that deserves even more praise than he gets.

Barnes, Julian – The Sense of an Ending (completed)
I’m not a universal fan of Julian Barnes’s work, but I really did love this novel. Brilliant, sad, and deep.

Barbary, Muriel – The Elegance of the Hedgehog (completed)
I’ve read Gourmet Rhapsody and it didn’t bowl me over so much that I immediately went and picked this one up. I think I also got tired of seeing its ubiquity in the blogosphere a few years ago. I guess I am waiting until it is vintage.

Barr, Damian – Maggie and Me
Got this as a gift from some UK friends. It seems to be a sort of coming of age memoir/novel with Maggie Thatcher somewhere in the background.

Bassani, Giorgio – The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
I watched the film version of this novel in my college Italian class and I think it may be in that giant 1001 Books You Must Read Books Before You Die book. When I saw this somewhat beat up copy I had a very strong desire to reacquaint myself with the story of the family of Jews in Italy during World War II. At least that is what I remember.

NEXT TIME: Bates through Bowen

The Goddess of Small Victories by Yannick Grannec
Let me quickly dispense with the plot premise so I can talk about what I liked about this book. In 1980 research librarian Anna is asked by her boss at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study to befriend Adele Gödel, the widow of math genius Kurt Gödel, so the Institute can get their hands on his papers for their collection. What follows is the alternating tale of Anna and Adele’s relationship in 1980 and the story of Adele and Kurt. Through the pages walk Einstein, Oppenheimer and a few other Nobel winners or two. At its base, the story is about Adele’s feelings that she wasted her life babysitting a genius and Anna’s potential to waste her own life. I enjoyed the roughly true, but fictionalized, story of the Gödel’s, but more than that, I found some of the end of life musings and issues facing Adele to be rather sad and profound. If you stripped out all of the specifics and about 200 pages you could have an Anita Brookner novel. Hmm. No wonder I liked it.

Time Stops Today by John Wyndham
A 51-minute audiobook of what must have been a short story. John Wyndham does not disappoint, but I do wish he had turned this into a novel, or at least a novella. Too many interesting points were elided and foreshortened. Four people find themselves caught in a sort of time interruption and are visited by a group of men from the future.

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
Although this was a pity purchase at a newly opened used bookstore that I was trying to support, I found myself really liking it after about 14 pages. I tweeted as much and heard quickly from two bookish friends on Twitter that my appreciation of it wouldn’t last and that it was a poor sort of book. Well, I think my lack of literary background may make me just middle of the road enough to have really enjoyed reading The Casual Vacancy from cover to cover. Was it high art? No. Were there things that I wanted to tweak? Yes. But I tells you, I enjoyed reading it and I think if it had been written by someone other than JK Rowling, it would probably have been shortlisted for something.

The Colombian Mule by Massimo Carlotto
My second Massimo Carlotto “Alligator” hardboiled detective novel. Crime fiction is usually not my thing, but for some reason I love these books. So much so, that I have been buying used Europa Editions World Noir books just because. The main character is a reformed convict who still breaks the law plenty but seems to only do it for the right reasons. In this case a Columbian drug mule is arrested and the police use the opportunity to use extralegal means to right all sorts of wrongs until our hero gets the case.

Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford
I really liked Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love. I liked Love in a Cold Climate less. I found Don’t Tell Alfred tedious and Wigs on the Green falls into that category. Based on my early experience with Mitford and the milieu from which she issues, I always assumed I would love her to pieces. But after buying lots of pretty editions of her novels, I am now at a place where I just don’t care about her anymore. With some validation from Desperate Reader for feeling this way, I gave some Capuchin editions to Nonsuch Book and the rest went to the Friends of the Library. No more Mitford fiction for me. The letters and bios on the other hand still fascinate me.

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud
The Stranger by Camus
This was my second time reading The Stranger. I don’t remember what I thought of it the first time I read it. It’s very French and very, well I’m not sure what it is. A Frenchman, Meursault kills an Algerian on the beach. Just because he can, apparently. The only reason I picked it up again was because I wanted to read The Meursault Investigation, which picks the story some years later told from the point of view of the dead Algerian’s brother. I really liked the righteous anger in Daoud’s story.

Hollow Heart by Viola di Grado
I was really excited to see what this book was all about. The premise is that it’s the story of a woman who commits suicide, told from her point of view, after she is already dead. It was such an inventive idea, I was a little disappointed that one of the early (perhaps the main) things we learn is that she is upset over a break-up. What follows is a rather odd tale of what the dead do after they die, rather ghost-like behavior in this case. Di Grado also describes what happens to her physical body as it rots underground. I actually found that part the most interesting thing about the book. But if that is what you are interested in, better to read Stiff by Mary Roach.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Wow. I’ve tried to read this doorstop about three or four times in the past. I had totally written it off as something I would never read. Then a bookish bloke on Twitter tweeted that 2016 was going to be the year he finally killed that white whale. Suddenly inspired to join him, I thought that an audio version might help me get into the book. And it worked. At least to a degree. I liked the opening couple of hundred pages, but once the ship goat underway I started to lose interest. I was also fascinated by the bits later on where Melville describes the many different kinds of whales. But overall I found the book more tedious than anything. I’m glad it’s over. Every time Melville erroneously referred to whales as fish (many, many, many times) all I could think of was the Seinfeld episode called Marine Biologist where George keeps calling a whale a fish. And every time he does so, Jerry or someone else says “mammal”. I kept saying mammal back to the recording.

I love studying pictures of bookshelves when people post them on their blog or Facebook or Twitter. I love being able to zoom in and see what is lurking in the shadows. Recently former blogger Polly posted a picture of her shelves on Facebook and I was excited to see that she and I have the same Faber edition of the Alexandria Quartet. Savidge Reads has his series Other People’s Bookshelves which is up into the 70s at this point. And then Stuck in a Book and I bonded over Phyllis Rose’s book The Shelf–although my initial enthusiasm waned while Simon’s waxed.

So today, I start a new series in which I am going to post each of my bookshelves, one at a time, and largely in alphabetical order. If I’ve done my sums correctly there should be 35 installments.

SHELF ONE: 37 books, 24 unread, 13 read, 35% completed

Abbot, Jane D. – Happy House

Acevedo, Chantel – The Distant Marvels

Ackerly, J. R. – My Dog Tulip

Ackroyd, Peter – English Music
I have not had very good luck with Peter Ackroyd, but I am always on the lookout for novels with a classical music theme.

Adams, Ruth – I’m Not Complaining
I pretty much buy any Virago/Dial paperback.

Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi – Half of a Yellow Sun (completed)
Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi – Americanah (completed)
Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi – The Thing Around Your Neck
Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi – Purple Hibiscus
I absolutely loved the first two Adiche’s I read. Half a Yellow Sun is devastating.

Agee, James – A Death in the Family
I’m not sure I will like this book. The prose poem, Knoxville Summer of 1915 with which the book opens is the source/inspiration for my original blog My Porch.

Alcott, Louisa May – Behind A Mask
I think this are some of her ghost stories. I’ve never read any of her work.

Allen, Walter – All in a Lifetime
Don’t know anything about this one. For some reason I have been buying pretty much any used book I come across from the Hogarth Press.

Ambler, Eric – Dirty Story
Ambler, Eric – The Schirmer Inheritance 
Ambler, Eric – Doctor Frigo
Ambler, Eric – A Kind of Anger (completed)
Ambler, Eric – The Nightcomers / State of Siege (completed)
Ambler, Eric – The Light of Day
Ambler, Eric – The Dark Frontier
Ambler, Eric – The Levanter (completed)
Ambler, Eric – A Coffin for Dimitrios (completed)
Ambler, Eric – Cause for Alarm
Ambler, Eric – Judgment on Deltchev
As you can see, I am an Ambler fan. Bookseller John in Houston turned me onto Ambler’s books, and as you can see, I’ve become a fan. Of those I have read so far, State of Siege and A Kind of Anger are my favorites.

Anand, Mulk Raj – Untouchable

Appelfeld, Aharon – To the Land of the Cattails

von Arnim, Elizabeth – Love (completed)
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Enchanted April (completed)
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Pastor’s Wife
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen 
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Mr. Skeffington
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Vera
It is possible that von Arnim is one of those authors where the first book I read I loved and subsequent novels, not so much. The Enchanted April is wonderful. Love was good, but not a delight. The Caravaners (not pictured) was a DNF and Elizabeth and Her German Garden (not pictured) was a little tedious when not talking about the garden.

Ashworth, Jenn – A Kind of Intimacy (completed)
A fantastic read and a little crazy.

Atherton, Gertrude – American Wives and English Husbands
The title of this caught my eye but I knew nothing about the book or author. Her Wikipedia entry is fascinating. And she was prolific. I could be on to something good.

Atwood, Margaret – Oryx and Crake (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – The Year of the Flood (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – MaddAddam (completed)
Atwood, Margaret – Cat’s Eye (completed)
There will be more Atwood in the next installment. The first three listed here, however, are my absolute favorites. You can read them separately, but even better to read them in order and in succession.

NEXT TIME: Atwood through Bassani