Back in September I pulled all of the new(ish) hardcovers I hadn’t read yet off my bookshelves. For the most part they were unknown quantities that were taking up too much of my limited shelf real estate. I decided to see if I could read, or at least try to read, all 26 books in the pile before the end of the year. And now that the end of the year is upon us, it’s time to reveal how I did.

Pretty darn good, as long as you accept that deciding not to continue with a book is as virtuous as finishing a book. The whole experience proved to me yet again that I need to take praise of new books with a grain of salt. Or at least do a better job of filtering the praise through my particular set of likes and dislikes.

It is also interesting to see what I decided to keep and what I decided not to keep. It doesn’t always correlate to what I liked best.

(DNF = did not finish)

In descending photo order:

At Last by Edward St. Aubyn: KIND OF ENJOYED / DONATING
Although I enjoyed it, it was a little too arch to keep around (or read the others in the series).

Hotels of North America by Rick Moody: ENJOYED / KEEPING
A man’s story told through his online hotel reviews. Clever, funny, and I want to read it again some day.

The Last First Day by Carrie Brown: ENJOYED / KEEPING
Comforting in a melancholy way.

Euphoria by Lily King: REALLY ENJOYED / KEEPING
Love me some anthropologically based fiction. (See also many of Barbara Pym’s characters and Satin Island found below.)

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift: REALLY ENJOYED / KEEPING
The upstairs/downstairs tale told in a unique, beautiful way.

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes: KIND OF ENJOYED / KEEPING
I wasn’t a huge fan of this because it wasn’t what I expected, but I am keeping it because now that I know that, I think I would enjoy it more. Plus there just aren’t enough novels about classical music.

Mr. Mac and Me by Esther Freud: ENJOYED / KEEPING
I’m actually not sure I will read this again, but I am not sure enough to risk chucking it.

Sweet Caress by William Boyd: JUST SHORT OF LOVED / KEEPING (I THINK)
I think Any Human Heart is superior to Sweet Caress so I may not keep it.

The Dubious Salvation of Jack V. by Jacques Strauss: REALLY ENJOYED / KEEPING
Gay coming of age in South Africa, those are too rare to not keep.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal: HATED & DNF / DONATING
I really love to hate this book, but no enough to keep it on my shelves.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: TEDIOUS & DNF / DONATING
I think everyone has a position on this one. Mine is pretty clear.

The Blue Guitar by John Banville: ENJOYED / KEEPING
Banville’s books are beautifully written and beg to be re-read.

The Girls by Emma Cline: REALLY BORING / DONATING
I liked the set-up of the young girl looking for something in her life. But once she met the other girls I thought it got really boring really fast.

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy: AMBIVALENT & DNF / DONATING
Bad timing. I think I would enjoy reading it under the right circumstances, but not so much so that I want to keep it on my shelves.

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy: REALLY ENJOYED / KEEPING
I love books that deal with academic endeavors (although this book does not have an academic setting. There is much in this that I would like to read again.

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell: I KNOW I WILL LOVE IT BUT HAVEN’T STARTED IT YET / KEEPING

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild: REALLY ENJOYED / MIGHT DONATE
I found this clever in a superficial way and really enjoyed reading it, but I think it might do more good being circulated than sitting on my shelves.

Ruby by Cynthia Bond: AMBIVALENT & DNF / DONATING
I think this was a case of just not being in the mood.

And Sons by David Gilbert: ENJOYED / DONATING
I totally enjoyed this, but I don’t think I will read it again.

The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan: AMBIVALENT & DNF / DONATING
At first I was really into this story, but then it got complicated in a way that didn’t interest me much.

Zero K by Don DeLillo: HATED / DONATING
Holy shit, how can a book this short be so painful and take so long to read?

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: AMBIVALENT & DNF / DONATING
This might be a great book, but I couldn’t get past the fact that all of the action seemed to be predicated on actions taken due to superstition/religion. I am guessing that is part of a commentary, but I find it tedious.

The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney: DIDN’T LIKE & DNF / DONATING
So rubbed me the wrong way in the early pages and I knew it wouldn’t change enough to make it worth my while to continue.

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee: HATED IT & DNF / DONATING
The snotty review says it all. (Click on title if you missed it the first time around.)

Canada by Richard Ford: REALLY ENJOYED / MIGHT KEEP
I’d never read anything by Richard Ford and may have only purchased it because it was on the remainder rack and one of my best friends in the world is Canadian. I really liked this book on many levels, yet I’m not sure I want to keep it. I don’t think I would re-read it.

Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe: DIDN’T LIKE / DONATING
I’ve been a big fan of Wolfe’s past fiction (Bonfire, Right Stuff, Charlotte Simmons, etc., but this one didn’t work for me at all. Didn’t even give it 50 pages before I quit.)

It’s 16 hours (local time) to the end of 2016. I had a goal of reading 104 books this year (equivalent of two per week), and as of five minutes ago, I achieved my goal. I was doubtful earlier in the week as I got quite busy and time seemed to compress. I was four books shy of getting there and I just didn’t see how it was going to happen.

I had some short books lined up to make it happen (although that felt like cheating), but in the end it was a clerical oversight earlier in the year that saved the day. For some reason I forgot to log the fact that I had read Richard Ford’s excellent novel Canada. So at the last minute I went from needing to read two books in 1.5 days to only having to read one.  And thankfully, I chose my 104th book well. A gossipy, classical music memoir/bio was just the thing to occupy me on a 5-hour flight. Perhaps A Genius in the Family by Hilary du Pré and Piers du Pré (on which the movie Hilary and Jackie was based) is more than a gossipy, classical music bio, but it was details about performers, pieces, concerts, recordings and such that made it easy for me to fly through the book. Incidentally, I had a similar experience recently with Marilyn Horne’s memoir which was much more gossipy and a super quick read. Another nice thing about those kinds of books is that they contain an endless stream of ideas for one’s Spotify listening.

I toying around with some reading resolutions for 2017, but I haven’t figured out exactly what those might be. Part of me wants to plan something really crazy and part of me wants to plan nothing. More anon.

Here are my 2016 goals as posted on January 4th.

Get back to 100
I think it has been a couple of years now since I made it to a 100 books in a year. Last year was a respectable 81, but 2014 was a measly 63. I need to up my  game. The only way this is going to be possible is if I read really short books watch less TV. And here it is January 4th and I still haven’t finished a book. I am already behind. But let’s make this more interesting. Instead of 100 books, how about the equivalent of two books a week and make it 104 books for the year? Sounds good, 104 it is. Now I am even further behind. ACHIEVED

Come to terms with platform confusion
I keep track of books I read in at least four ways: 1.) A handwritten list in a notebook that I started keeping in 1994; 2.) An Excel spreadsheet; 3.) Goodreads; and 4.) This blog has tabs for books for recent years and then alpha lists by author. This is going to take some thinking. There are redundancies and things that are annoying and time consuming and there are also new possibilities afforded by my conversion to WordPress. Not sure how this will resolve itself, but I have resolved to resolve it. TOTALLY NOT ACHIEVED – I didn’t even think about this much over 2016, let alone try and do something about it. I’m thinking I might get to doing something about early in 2017 given that I am running out of space at the top of my blog to keep adding tabs for each year.

Limit book purchases to newly published books
I bought a LOT of books last year and most of them used. When Simon Savidge was here in September I vowed that my resolution for 2016 would be to only buy books published in 2015 or later. I still want to do this, but I’ve also resolved that I am going to break this resolution whenever I want. This may seem like no resolution at all, but there is a nuance in it that oddly makes sense to me. Besides, NW DC is getting a new used bookstore and I consider it my civic duty to support that venture. NOT ONLY NOT ACHIEVED, BUT A DUMB IDEA – Given that my success rate with new (and expensive) books was about 50%, there is no way that I am going to do this again. I will have more about this particular failure in the coming days.

Spend some time in my library
I’m not talking about the public library, I’m talking about the beautiful room in my house that was completed over a year ago, is chock full of books, but almost never gets used. In fact, I have really only used it to store books. Lucy often curls up on the chair, but due to less than adequate seating and lighting, I haven’t spent one minute (seriously, not one) in there reading. This means I really only read in bed. How have I gone so long without a reading spot? Must make seating and lighting for that room a priority. GREAT STRIDES WERE MADE – We really need additional/different seating in the library for this to be totally successful, but I did increase use of my library in a meaningful way. Not just for reading, but also just to poke around, and even blogging in the library helped me get joy out of using the room. Hopefully the furniture issue will be sorted out in the first quarter of 2017.

Figuring out the ineffable
There is something else I want to achieve in 2016 relative to reading, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. As I sit here thinking about it, I think it may boil down to feeling like I frittered away far too much time that could have been used for reading. There were many times during the year when I wanted to go read and then an hour or more later I would still be futzing around not doing much of anything. So I think carving out longer spans of time to read it definitely part of it. And I think maybe I just need to shut-up and read. SUCCESS-ADJACENT – I can’t say I was totally successful on this count, but I definitely was better about going off and reading a book. I think part of the reason is that John has discovered the joy of Spotify and will spend hours with his headphones on listening to song after song. Because of this, I feel freed up to turn off the TV and go to another part of the house and read. For some reason, I have a hard time being in another part of the house from John. In my twisted control freak mind I think I feel like I need to program his time.

I saw Lapham’s Quarterly a few weeks ago in the check-out lane at Whole Foods and had to have it. I find it absolutely charming and interesting and have decided it is my new favorite thing. Each issue focuses on a specific issue and is filled with shortish bits and bobs from all over.  The journal’s website explains it better than I can.

Lapham’s Quarterly embodies the belief that history is the root of all education, scientific and literary as well as political and economic. Each issue addresses a topic of current interest and concern—war, religion, money, medicine, nature, crime—by bringing up to the microphone of the present the advice and counsel of the past.

The texts are drawn from authors on the order of Aristotle, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Thucydides, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Edward Gibbon, Mahatma Gandhi, Confucius, Honoré de Balzac, Jane Austen, Jorge Luis Borges, Matsuo Bashō, Henry David Thoreau, and Joan Didion. Abridged rather than paraphrased, none of the text in the Quarterly runs to a length longer than six pages, others no more than six paragraphs. Together with passages from the world’s great literature, each issue offers full-color reproductions of paintings and sculpture by the world’s great artists. The connecting of the then with the now is further augmented with the testimony found in the letters, speeches, diaries, and photographs, in five-act plays and three-part songs.

The website is very cool and has lots of content, but I must say, I love the printed version. The art is cool, it’s beautifully designed, and I love it as an object as much as I love the content.

I got a little cranberry happy on Christmas Day, although you can’t tell from this first picture. Might only be interesting to bakers in the crowd.

December has been so busy work wise I haven’t had much brain capacity for blogging. I have a few ideas I hope to execute before the new year, but in the mean time here is something delicious to look at.

The batter certainly tasted yummy, but frankly I made this cake just because I thought it was picturesque and it reminded me of something Mrs. Bridges might have made or something the Schlegels may have had when Leonard Bast showed up to tea unexpectedly. Or just about any other cosy tea in English fiction you can think of.

And for something even more seasonal, you can head over to Lucy’s Forever Home, and see the house dressed for Christmas (and Lucy).

I find this shelf deeply satisfying, but alas, there isn’t much variety so I’m guessing some of you may get a little bored.

Having said that, I will also note that May Sarton is one of the delights of my life. She wrote beautiful journals; warm, introspective novels; essays; and poetry. I think she is one of the most underrated authors. Her book are also pretty easy to find in used bookshops, at least in the U.S. So why haven’t you read her? If you need more convincing, you can read about my love for Sarton here, here, here, and here.

SHELF TWENTY-TWO: 39 books, 20 unread, 19 read, 49% complete

Ross, Sinclair – The Lamp at Noon and other stories 
Ross, Sinclair – Sawbones Memorial (completed)
Ross, Sinclair – As For Me and My House (completed)
Ross, Sinclair – The Well
I think the only way you would have read Sinclair Ross is if: A) You are Canadian; or B) Someone who already read him told you/inspired you/forced you to read him. And this is a damn shame. You will see I have only read half of my small Ross collection, but I have read As For Me and My House twice and think it is one of the more brilliant books of all time. When I re-read it in 2011 I described it thus: “Imagine On Chesil Beach meets The Grapes of Wrath meets Main Street meets Anita Brookner.” Re-reading my 2011 review makes me want to read the book again soon.

Rowland, Amy – The Transcriptionist (completed)
I just read this novel this past summer and really liked it.

Sackville-West, Edward – Simpson

Sackville-West, Vita – The Easter Party
Sackville-West, Vita – The Edwardians
Sackville-West, Vita – Heritage
Sackville-West, Vita – No Signposts on the Sea (completed)
Sackville-West, Vita – Seducers in Ecuador and The Heir
What is missing here is All Passions Spent. Not only my first VSW novel, but also the first Virago I ever bought. I got it in 1992 from a used bookshop on Charing Cross Road. I guess somewhere along the way I got rid of it. I wish I hadn’t.

St. Aubyn, Edward – At Last (completed)
Since I took this picture, I’ve read At Last and put it on my donate pile. I didn’t dislike it, I just can’t imagine ever wanting to read it again.

Salih, Tayeb – Season of Migration to the North

Sarton, May – Selected Letters, 1916-1954
Sarton, May – Faithful are the Wounds
Sarton, May – A Reckoning
Sarton, May – The Magnificent Spinster (completed)
One of my favorite novels of all time. From my 2011 review: “The Magnificent Spinster is cozy, cozy, cozy, but with feminist, political twists and some somber earnestness that elevates it to something more profound. Parts of it reminded me of Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but it also had a Pepysian quality as WWI, the Spanish Civil War, WWII, the McCarthy Communist witch hunts and Vietnam all scroll through proceedings.”

Sarton, May – As We Are Now (completed)(two editions)
Another one of my favorite novels of all time, but for every different reasons. A tale of an elderly woman confined to a nursing home.

Sarton, Mary – Crucial Conversations (completed)
Sarton, May – Joanna and Ulysses
Sarton, May – Halfway to Silence (poetry)
Sarton, May – The Bridge of Years
Sarton, May – The Birth of a Grandfather (completed)
Sarton, May – Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing (completed)
Perhaps Sarton’s most (in)famous novel, but perhaps my least favorite.

Sarton, May – Faithful Are the Wounds
Sarton, May – Shadow of a Man
Sarton, May – The House by the Sea (journal)(completed)
Sarton, May – Journal of Solitude (journal)(completed)
Sarton, May – I Knew a Phoenix (journal)
Sarton, May – A Shower of Summer Days (completed)
Sarton, May – Kinds of Love (completed)
Sarton, May – The Small Room (completed)
Sarton, May – The Poet and the Donkey
Sarton, May – Anger
Sarton, May – At Seventy (journal)
Sarton, May – Recovering (journal)
Sarton, May – Plant Dreaming Deep (journal)(completed)
Sarton, May – The Single Hound
Sarton, May – A World of Light (biographical essays)

One novel I can’t believe I don’t own is The Education of Harriet Hatfield. I must have loaned or given it to someone. I hope they are enjoying it because I sure did. I’m going to have to buy the next copy I see.

NEXT TIME: Schine to Shute

I was shocked to see on my Books Read 2016 list, how many I have yet to post about. For some reason I thought I was caught up. I wasn’t. But this post will help close the gap.

Euphoria by Lily King
I think I bought this one for the cover but I really enjoyed it. A fascinating look at a young couple who are anthropologists in New Guinea. Great combination of anthropology related drama and personal dynamics.

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
A novel about a classical composer I quite like, Dmitri Shostakovich, should have been a slam dunk for me, but it was just so-so. I found the story about the composer trying to stay clear of the vagaries of the ruling Communist party interesting, but overall the book seemed a little emotionless and left me cold.

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
A 1971 thriller about a professional assassin who has been hired to kill Charles de Gualle. This book is interesting on a few different levels. I didn’t realize how fragile France’s government was in the 1960s. Nor did I understand much about France’s departure from Algeria. But the aspect of this book that I just loved was the description of all the steps the Jackal took in planning the assassination attempt. Visits to public records offices, trains, passports, cafe tipples, top-secret multinational briefings. I love that kind of stuff. I’m not even sure I would need a plot–although there is plenty of plot here.

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
A lovely, beautiful book about a servant and her romance with the heir of a neighboring country estate. Luminous is a word I want to use. It has depth and subtlety that is too often absent from the upstairs/downstairs genre.

Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud
A young boy becomes friends with the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife during World War I. Freud uses actual correspondence between the couple in a way that isn’t gimmicky. This is a great example of historical fiction that works for me. I never got the feeling that the author was trying to write historical fiction.

The Girls by Emma Cline
So much hullabaloo about such a boring book. I was kind of liking it until Evie hooked up with the cult, then it just got really boring and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
This is an odd, fascinating, enjoyable, little book. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, it’s narrated by “U”, a corporate anthropologist who takes us on a wild, somewhat depressing, ride through the many ways in which we create and consume information. It also shows how we are leaving trails of information that allow markets and governments lots of room for manipulation.

And Sons by David Gilbert
The narration seems to be first person omniscient. The story starts off using “I” and goes back to it with some regularity, but we know what everyone else is up to and what they are thinking. In some cases you can see how the narrator was a fly on the wall, but there are other times when there is no way he could have been a fly on the wall. The action focuses on a reclusive, national treasure type author and his family and social circle. Enjoyable for sure.

Hotels of North America by Rick Moody
This book is essentially one man’s story as told through his online hotel reviews. I wasn’t sure if this would work for me, but I found it witty and biting (in a good way) and more than a little quirky. I can imagine re-reading this one.

Books and You by W. Somerset Maugham
A collection of three essays about what to read. Fun in the way those kinds of essays are always fun, but not much in the way of surprising choices, or even authors who were new to me.

The Last First Day by Carrie Brown
A woman reflects on her life as the wife of a headmaster of a boys school in Maine as they experience their last first day of school. Interesting, engaging, a little sad. Nicely done.

At Last by Edward St. Aubyn
The fact that this is the last in a series almost kept me from reading it. There were moments I loved the cast of characters, but overall I found it a little too arch to like all that much. I think I could enjoy St. Aubyn in the future, but this wasn’t compelling enough to get me to try.

The weather has turned properly crisp, the sky is a brilliant blue, and my library is cosy and smells like old books. Perfect day to sit staring at them, doing a little reading, and posting another Shelf by Shelf. I must admit, as much I as I love Persephone Books, doing the Persephone shelf last time was kind of tedious. It’s nice to have an eclectic shelf this time around.

SHELF TWENTY-ONE: 34 books, 20 unread, 14 read 41% complete

O’Grady, Rohan – Let’s Kill Uncle
I only bought this because The Bloomsbury Group reissues stuff that I tend to like. Although TBG gets lots of exposure in my corner of the book blogging world, I don’t think I have ever come across anyone else blog about this title.

O’Hara, John – Appointment in Samarra (completed)
I read this 15 years ago and I have no recollection of it whatsoever. It is one of the Modern Library’s top 100 novels of the 20th century which is why I read it. I’m kind of curious to read it again but I only gave it 6 out 10 the first time around so maybe that would be a waste of time. And I am beginning to think it may be a waste of space on my shelves.

Oliphant, Mrs – The Rector and The Doctor’s Family
Oliphant, Mrs – Hester
Oliphant, Mrs – Phoebe Junior
Active from 1849 to 1897, Mrs (Margaret) Oliphant published about 120 books. The only titles of hers that I have read are the ones reissued by Persephone. One day I will get to these.

Oliver, Edith – The Love Child

Orwell, George – Burmese Days (completed)
George Orwell is so much more than 1984 and Animal Farm. Burmese Days is one of my favorites. A novel of a very small British ex-pat community at a remote station in Burma in the waning days of the empire. Flory, our tragic hero despairs of his life in Burma but realizes that after ten years he can’t imagine living back in England. He hopes to marry the newly arrived niece of another ex-pat but then the realities of life in Burma set in and the divide between the two becomes too wide to brook. An enjoyable read despite a surfeit of tragedy. There are so many victims of circumstance it is hard not to feel sorry for them all.

Owens, Iris – After Claude (completed)
Published in 1973, After Claude is still a little shocking. Bitchy, funny, off-balance, and a little dark. Harriet goes back to New York after five years living in Paris. She crashes with one friend until that friend boots her out. Lives for another six months with Claude, the frenchman who rescues her from the  friend who just kicked her out. Then she ends up at the Chelsea Hotel where she hooks up with some sort of sex-guru cult figure. Much in the book is hilarious. But you have to be ready for more than a few jarring moments

Panter-Downes, Mollie – One Fine Day

Patchett, Ann – Bel Canto (completed)
Patchett, Ann – Run (completed)
Patchett, Ann – State of Wonder (completed)
Patchett, Ann – The Patron Saint of Liars (completed)
Patchett, Ann – Taft (completed)
As you can see, I like Ann Patchett. I think her writing is very easy and smart and her storytelling capabilities are wonderful. Seeing which of her books I have on my shelf, I realize I should have purchased that copy The Magician’s Assistant I saw at the Friends of the Library sale last week. I knew I had read it, but wasn’t sure if I owned it. I have her latest novel, Commonwealth, on my nightstand, but haven’t started it yet.

Pennell, Joseph Stanley – The History of Nora Beckham: A Museum of Home Life
I bought this one for its cover. I’ve just noticed that the cover flaps and back of the jacket are focused on JSP’s previous novel The History of Rome Hanks so I have no idea what this one might be about.

Piercy, Marge and Ira Wood – Storm Tide
Piercy, Marge – The High Cost of Living
Piercy, Marge – The Longings of Women (completed)
Although the title made for a few self-conscious Metro rides, I thoroughly enjoyed The Longings of Women by Marge Piercy. This is the fourth Piercy book I have read and I have liked all of them (this one probably the least so). They all have multiple women, usually in the Boston area, who are building their lives after some sort of male perpetrated malfeasance. They are warm, smart, realistic but ultimately uplifting, and never feel like male bashing. One of the characters in this one gives a very believable account of what it would be like to be homeless after a long marriage ends in divorce. More of you should be reading her. Try Three Women, The Third Child, Fly Away Home, or The Longings of Women.

Platonov, Andrey – The Foundation Pit

Porter, Katherine Anne – Ship of Fools (completed)
I loved this book and recommend it often. A German passenger ship in the 1930s on its way from Veracruz to Bremen. Fascinating study of characters in a time of rising racism.

Powell, Dawn – Turn, Magic Wheel
Powell, Dawn – The Bride’s House
Powell, Dawn – A Time to Be Born
Powell, Dawn – The Locusts Have No King
Powell, Dawn – The Wicked Pavilion
I bought all of these years ago because they were remainders and I liked the look of them (and their uniformity). Many have told me that they love her writing, but I still have yet to read even one of them. I almost got rid of them all during a recent book cull, but decided I should at least try one before giving up.

Powers, J.F. – Morte D’Urban

Priestley, J.B. – Angel Pavement (completed)
Priestley, J.B. – Bright Day
I  loved Angel Pavement. I bought this just because it had such a great cover and was about London. Had no idea if it would actually be enjoyable to read. It was. It painted such an interesting picture of life in a London office in the late 1920s. It could be a Persephone for boys. There is a lot of dry, subtle humor as well.

Reid, John – The Best Little Boy in the World (completed)
A wonderful, evocative, gay coming of age story published in 1973.

Renault, Mary – The Friendly Young Ladies

von Rezzori, Gregor – Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

Rhys, Jean – Quartet (completed)
I’m not sure I like Jean Rhys’ style, but I enjoyed this one enough that I wanted to keep it and read it again one day.

Richardson, Henry Handel – Maurice Guest

Roberts, Cecil – Victoria 4:30 (completed)
You can read all about my love for this novel here.

NEXT TIME: Ross to Sarton

I don’t know how Netflix spent $100 million on a 10-part drama about Queen Elizabeth II without me knowing about it until it became available. But they did, and they did a magnificent job.

Everything that Downton wasn’t

Intelligent
Insightful
Well-written
Well-paced

I know I am in the minority when I say that I hated Downton Abbey. I found it poorly written, dumbed-down, and derivative of much better earlier TV dramas, and perhaps worst of all, it tried to pack in so many historical events and soap opera twists that it just felt like a joke. The Crown on the other hand took about a decade of the Queen’s life (with flashbacks to earlier periods) and took its time telling the story of her ascension to the throne and her early years as queen. As much as I know about the Royal Family, I’m not entirely sure how much liberty they took with the facts, but they did it so well that I don’t really care so much. It is amazing how good TV can be when it is allowed to breathe.

A feast for the eyes

They really didn’t spare expense when it came to costumes, locations, and sets. They were so clever with establishing shots that there were times I wondered if they actually got permission to film at Buckingham Palace. Knowing that that was an impossibility, I started to look for clues or things that were out of place–there were a few, but still so well done that none of it bothered me. Her wedding to Philip, her coronation, foreign trips, vintage aircraft…it was all so nicely, and grandly done. And did I mention the jewels?

A story of real people

Although some of the story lines and characterizations were well known to me, others were either new, or so intimately told that I really felt like I was getting a peek behind the curtain. There are moments when the characters feel more like real people than royalty. This also means that there were liberties taken with personalities and behaviors which might rankle some. The Queen Mum probably fares the worst, Princess Margaret probably fares the best. But neither of them were one dimensional. And then there is a saucy moment or two…like Philip telling HM to, um, well, you’ll just have to watch it.

The acting was generally superb. John Lithgow’s Churchill was great even if he was too tall. Eileen Atkins as Queen Mary was fantastic. Matt Smith’s portrayal of Prince Philip makes one see where Prince Harry gets his devilish side. Claire Foy as HM is pretty brilliant. Vanessa Kirby was perhaps too tall to be Margaret, but the eyes and face were spot on. Not all characters were look-a-likes but since this isn’t a gimmicky production, that part doesn’t matter.

So worth watching. I’m hoping they make 10 more to take us into the 1960s and beyond.

In 2009, after about three years of blogging, I discovered a whole world of (mainly British) book bloggers. As I poked around on those blogs and linked to other blogs that they recommended, I kept coming across posts about Persephone Books. I was intrigued by the almost universal, gushing praise they received as well as the publisher’s unique and largely uniform style. Regardless of content, these seemed like books I needed to possess. I soon began to understand why people loved them so much. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but I was delighted by the books they published: mainly middle brow, domestic fiction written by female British authors in the first half of the 20th century. There are exceptions to each of these characteristics, but I don’t think I’m too far off the mark in my generalization.

SHELF TWENTY: 34 books, 21 read, 13 unread, 62% completed

Bonham, Margaret – The Casino
Wasn’t a big fan of these stories.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson – The Shuttle (completed)
Who doesn’t love Hodgson’s The Secret Garden? And I certainly loved an old copy of T. Tembarom I found and of course the Persephone edition of The Making of a Marchioness, but something about The Shuttle made me like it a lot less than those other two FHB novels. Basically, The Shuttle is a fictional account of the rich American heiress marrying a penniless British aristocrat. And of course he is a spendthrift asshole. It was fun enough to read a bit shallow and not all that compelling.

Cambridge, Elizabeth – Hostages to Fortune

Cannon, Joanna – Princes in the Land (completed)
We follow Patricia Lindsay as she gets a lesson in marrying beneath her. She sacrifices much for her insecure husband and her ungrateful children. In a town and gown story as old as the academy itself, Patricia’s eldest gets the newsagent’s daughter preggers and marries her, much to his mother’s horror. The second son falls in love with his friend Peter–I mean with his friend Peter’s love of the Oxford Movement. This makes his high church, only on Sundays mother openly hostile. And then the daughter…what does she do that is so wrong…I don’t remember. Was it that she loved cars more than horses?

Cooper, Lettice – The New House (completed)
The whole action of the book takes place over the course of just one day as thirty-something Rhoda Powell and her widowed mother who are moving to a more modest house to conserve their limited financial resources. Although the surface action is all about the move, we learn so much more about all the characters through both their current thoughts and their memories of the past. Our heroine Rhoda is in a  bit of a rut, one that threatens to last the rest of her life. Having not yet married or gone into any career, everyone, including Rhoda herself, assumes that she will continue to live quietly and take care of her mother. But things start to rattle around in Rhoda’s mind and we begin to see a glimmer of hope that Rhoda may rebel against her fate. More here.

Delafield, E.M. – Consequences

English, Isobel – Every Eye

Ferguson, Rachel – Alas, Poor Lady

Ferguson, Ruby – Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary (completed)
The Queen Mum was said to have been a great admirer of this novel. I did wonder as I read Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary  if the QM suffered from a little cognitive dissonance when it comes to marrying for love. In Ferguson’s 1937 novel, the heroine marries for love and ends up old and impoverished. Now, the Queen Mum is said to have been a great admirer of this book. So why did she love this book? Was she clueless to the fact that her life-long grudge against the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson was similar to the class-induced opprobrium Lady Rose faced? Or, more sinisterly, did she relish the comeuppance Lady Rose got for marrying below her? If either of these is true I tend to think it is more the former than the latter. Or was she so caught up in this romantic paean to Scottish life that she couldn’t think clearly?

Fisher, Dorothy Canfield – The Home-maker (completed)
Really loved this book. Challenges traditional gender roles at a time when no one challenged them. More here.

Hart, Elizabeth Anna – The Runaway (completed)
This is a bit of children’s book and I must say I found it kind of boring, but I know others have found it charming. I hesitate getting rid of it because it has wonderful illustrations by Gwen Raverat.

Holme, Thea – The Carlyles at Home (completed)
There is lots of domestic minutiae for those of us that like that sort of thing. The Carlyles at Home is a primer on daily life in the mid-19th century. Almost a behind the scenes look at all those costume dramas we love to read and watch. Food (limited selection, always leading to indigestion), gardening (Jane liked flowers, Carlyle like fruits), home improvement (seemed to be constantly making changes to their home), finances (misers with unsteady but overall decent income), and servants (always hard to find and keep). More here.

Hughes, Mollie – A London Child of the 1870s

Laski, Marghanita – Little Boy Lost (completed)
Laski, Marghanita – To Bed with Grand Music
Laski, Marghanita – The Victorian Chaise-longue (completed)
I must say I find Laski a little overrated. I enjoyed reading Little Boy Lost, but didn’t think it was any great shakes. I had this to say about it in 2010: “I also found myself screaming (silently) at Hilary “For god sake man give the kid a sandwich–he can’t live on Raspberry soda thingies alone.” ”

I think need to re-read The Victorian Chaise-longue. It seems to get universal praise and is seen as a bit of a feminist classic. But I disagreed on both fronts in 2011. I wonder what I would think of it now.

Noble, Barbara – Doreen

Oliphant, Mrs. – The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow (completed)
Two enjoyable stories by an insanely prolific novelist.

Panter-Downes, Mollie – Minnie’s Room

Peck, Winifred – House-Bound (completed)
I had mixed feelings about this novel about a woman trying to keep her house going during WWII. More here.

Playfair, Jocelyn – A House in the Country (completed)
Based on my thoughts from 2011, I might think about getting rid of this one. “Parts of it were enjoyable, but overall I was bored and a little annoyed. I didn’t really care for the structure of the narrative and I had a hard time caring about any of the characters.”

Sherriff, R.C. – A Fortnight in September (completed)
Sherriff, R.C. – The Hopkins Manuscript (completed)
Two of my favorite Persephones and, in fact two of my favorite books of all time. The first is a gentle, insightful family drama, the second is cozy, apocalyptic, speculative fiction.

Todd, Barbara Euphan – Miss Ranskill Comes Home (completed)
I sound like a broken record this week, but I loved this book. Miss Ranskill is lost at sea  in 1939 and winds up on a deserted island being cared for by a working class carpenter who is also stranded. The book begins four years into Miss Ranskill’s ordeal and we find her digging a grave for the recently departed carpenter. Not long after this opening scene she is rescued by a British convoy headed back to England. While convalescing on a destroyer Miss Ranskill learns that England has been at war for four years but nothing she learns on board prepares her for what she will encounter when she gets back to England. More here.

Towers, Frances – Tea with Mr. Rochester

Whipple, Dorothy – The Closed Door and Other Stories (completed)
Whipple, Dorothy – The Priory (completed)
Whipple, Dorothy – High Wages (completed)
Whipple, Dorothy – They Knew Mr. Knight (completed) 
Whipple, Dorothy – They Were Sisters (completed)
Dorothy Whipple is the queen of the middlebrow. I love all of these in varying degrees. The only one I haven’t really loved was Someone at a Distance which I talked about last time. I might love The Closed Door and Other Stories the most. Our of the novels, They Were Sisters and The Priory are top faves.

Woolf, Leonard – The Wise Virgins

Woolf, Virginia – Flush: A Biography

NEXT TIME: O’Grady to Roberts