RIP VII - the scary fun begins!!

   Oh, it's my favourite time of the year!  Autumn, glorious leaves and colours, the tinge of sadness and decay in the air as the growing year ends, the smell of wood fires, the last of the fall flowers......Thanksgiving Turkey and pumpkin pie.....and the best of all, Hallowe'en. I can't think of a better way to slip into autumn and the ending of the year than by participating in Carl's RIP 7 challenge.  Readers Imbibing Peril. As Carl explains it on his site (go here to sign up):

The purpose of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII is to enjoy books and movies/television that could be classified (by you) as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.
Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

There are two simple goals for R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII

1. Have fun reading.
2. Share that fun with others.

  R.I.P. VII officially runs from September 1st through October 31st. But lets go ahead and break the rules. Lets start today!!!

I'm glad he wrote the above, because I did!  I have already read two short stories and two books for this challenge!

Before anyone says how, I confess I am still on my holidays  - which end today, with Labour Day Monday.  Tomorrow I am back at work.  Summer is over, and although the calendar year says there are still two weeks left before the equinox and the seasonal change, I know in my heart that autumn is here.  So I celebrated by reading as soon as Carl put his post up, Wildwood Road by Christopher Golden, Find Me by Carol O'Connell, and two short stories from The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories.            
                                          
I am doing Peril the First, which is reading 4 books in any of the categories above.  I will also be participating in Peril the Short Story, and Peril the Screen. 

So, for the first time ever, I'm starting with two book reviews: 
                                               
 Wildwood Road - Christopher Golden
   - a ghost story.  It has some very creepy moments, some chills, and is very sad, too.  Here is the Amazon book description:
 Michael and Jillian Dansky seemed to have it all–a happy marriage, two successful careers, a bright future. But late one October evening, all that changed. Driving home from a Halloween masquerade, Michael momentarily nods off behind the wheel–and wakes to find nothing is the same.

Standing by his car is the little girl he came within a breath of running down. She leads Michael to her “home,” an empty house haunted by whispers, and sends him away with a haunting whisper of her own: “come find me.” But in the weeks to follow, it’s clear that someone–or some thing–doesn’t want Michael to find her: ominous figures in grey coats with misshapen faces are following him everywhere. And then Jillian wakes one morning replaced by a cold, cruel, vindictive woman Michael hardly recognizes as his wife. Michael must now search not only for the lost girl, but for a way to find the Jillian he's always loved, and to do so he must return to where the nightmare began. Down an isolated lane where he’ll find them, or die trying.

It was very well written, and contains an idea about ghosts and essences that I found intriguing.  A very good ghost story. 4/5

Find Me - Carol O'Connell.  A Kathy Mallory mystery, and one of the best.  At it's heart, a serial killer has been working old Route 66, killing children and burying their bodies over a large span of time, along the roadside.  Due to the nature of city and state police forces, no one is alerted for many years that these cases are related.  Not until Mallory starts to ride down the old route 66 because she has discovered that her father drove this very route when he was young.  He was before now almost a mystery to her, and when she obtains a series of letters that he wrote, she decides to follow his route to try to learn more about him.  As she starts out, a grisly discovery is made: a body of a man is discovered at the start of route 66 in Chicago, only he has one hand chopped off, and the bones of a small child's hand point up the road, the same route Mallory is taking.  The killer wants his victims found, so that he will be known for how many he killed.  Along the way, there is a caravan of parents who are being guided by a online psychiatrist, all of whom are parents of missing or dead children.  And the killer starts to pick off parents, one by one.....
                                                
This was a fabulous, gritty mystery, filled with police force/state/FBI politics, Kathy discovering more about her father, and Riker and Charles Butler, her partner and her friend respectively, chasing her as they think she is falling apart.  How the New York police intervene and figure what is going on is nothing short of brilliant.  How Kathy discovers that all is not lost for her, is a grand moment in this series, for up until now, she has been alone except for her foster parents, who gave her a home, loyalty and love when she needed it most as a child.  This is one of my favourite mystery series, not the least of which no one is perfect - all the characters are slowly being changed by their proximity to Mallory, who is brilliant if amoral as a detective.  The hardest part is the number of children who have been killed, and how the killer finds them, and the way the FBI have treated the parents in this novel - or rather, one officer in particular.   A gripping mystery, one of the best. 5/5

I will review the short stories another time, this post is long already!

 Now to the best part:
my pool of books (and this is by no means final, if I find something  catching my eye):

Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel (currently reading)
Underground - Kat Richardson (book 3 in the series)
Deadline - Mira Grant  (book 2 in the trilogy)
The Silent Land - Graham Joyce
Raising Stony Mayhall - Daryl Gregory
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
Hell Train - Christopher Fowler
Wolf - Gillian Cross
Graveminder - Melissa Marr
The Vampire Tapestry - Suzy Mckee Charnas
Alice Hearts Welsh Zombies - Victoria Dunn (local Ottawa author)
The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler
Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner *thanks to Geranium Cat over at Geranium Cat's Musings for putting this on her list!
The Moon of Gomrath - Alan Garner **and the final sequel Boneland if it comes out here
Stephen King: either The Shining, or 11//22/63
The Hallowe'en Tree - Ray Bradbury

and assorted short stories in various collections:
Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories  - ed Michael Cox and R.A Gilbert
Hallowe'en  - ed Paula Guran
The Best Horror of the Year, Vol 1 - ed Ellen Datlow
The Dark - ed Ellen Datlow
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010 - ed Paula Guran
Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead - ed Stephen Jones
Ghosts by Gaslight - ed Jack Dann and Nick Gevers

 Yaaaay!  I love this challenge reading experience.  I wonder if I can fit some poetry in there too?

Now to come see your lists and see what you are reading, my dear blogging friends.

Dark Matter: A Ghost Story - a review, a little late

      I read Dark Matter by Michelle Paver way back last January.  I sadly did not review it then, and please believe me, it's not because it wasn't a good book!  On the contrary, it is a very good ghost story.  Now it's time for Carl's RIP ghost story reading challenge,  RIP 7, and so I thought I would review Dark Matter now, because really, this is a an excellent chilling ghost story, and in case anyone is looking for something really good to read for the challenge.

                                     

Dark Matter: A Ghost Story is set in the far Arctic north of Norway, in 1937.  It's written in journal form, a highly respectable way to write a ghost story.  Why is that some of the best are written in journal form, or in first person?  I think it has to do with the first-person narrative and how it always leaves an impression that it's only one view, and so it could be unreliable. There is certainly the sense in Dark Matter that the narrator, Jack Miller, is sensitive - the sight of a suicide being fished out of the Thames is what convinces him that he has to go on the expedition, even though he is the poorest, the grammar school boy to the 4 others university-educated men putting the expedition together.  He is hired as the wireless man, who will relay the three meteorological readings a day to the government, as well as maintain radio contact for the group - the communications man.  The site they have chosen, Gruhuken, is two days away from the nearest settlement, Longyearbyen.  And of course, shortly after they arrive and get settled, the camp leader Gus falls ill with appendicitis and has to be rushed to Longyearben, leaving Jack behind to monitor the weather so the survey expedition isn't a failure.  To quote so many horror movies, 'all alone, in  the dark."   The expedition is from July through the winter, only Jack only makes it as far as November.

Read what happens to him.  There is a terrible history at Gruhuken camp, a dark presence, a nameless dread that creeps into the camp after they get settled.  Watching Jack fall apart as the light leaves the sky and darkness settles in, and the increasing storms that cut him off from the world, is like watching a mind break apart - what would happen to most of us if we were thrust into this story.  It's chilling and makes for a story that simply can't be put down.

What haunts Gruhuken?  What makes everyone there feel ill at ease? No matter the light, the science, the routines, how can you cope with a creeping sense of dread?

It's similar to The Terror by Dan Simmons in that it is set in the north. I read The Terror several years ago in 2008, and it was on my list for favourite books of the year that year.  Here is my post for The Terror. It was so good that I didn't think anything could be as good set in the arctic, and then I discover this book, and yes indeed, Dark Matter is just as good as The Terror. It's shorter, and the effect of the terror is the same.  Awesome in both books.  I think that there is something about being in the far north, where the light disappears for months at a time, that makes it a perfect setting for ghost stories. Humans need the light to banish the dark.  Because in the dark, we never know for sure if it is real, or our minds playing tricks on us, which Jack struggles with and tries to reason with.   Read Dark Matter, and see what you think:  did Jack Miller break down, or was there something in the camp with him?  I think there was something with him.  I think once the light goes away, our natural tendency to believe in the unseen comes forth, and that's why we still need ghost stories, and enjoy them so much: because in our secret space within us, we know that the dark is still out there, and it is filled with what we won't let exist in the daylight.  I did enjoy the contrast of the science nature of the group, and how each tried to cope with that unscientific, unmeasurable feeling of dread.

Dark Matter is a wonderful scary ghost story, that gets at our deepest fears - fear of the dark, and what might be out there.  It is one of the best ghost stories I have read. 5/5

So if you are looking for something for Carl's challenge.........

I will be doing my post tomorrow - I'm busy putting my list together of books I have piled up over the year to read, and I am a little stunned to realize I have 18 novels so far!  and a ton of ghost/horror short story collections!

****Added a short time later:
Other reviews: 
 Bride of the Book God
I first read a review of this over at Bride of the Book God, and I've finally found her review to link to, here.  It was Bride's review, along with reviews in Entertainment Weekly, that brought this book to my attention.  Bride's review is excellent, too!

If you've read this, let me know, and I'll link to your review also.  The more the merrier!
added Sept 3/12***Geranium Cat left a comment that she read this for RIP V, so I went looking, and sure enough, she left a lovely review, here.  
Somehow I missed it then, for which I feel very sorry, as Geranium Cat and I have very similar taste in books. 

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

                                              

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is a classic English novel about class, love, and work.  It was written in 1855, with an eye to the change in life up north with the industrial revolution - specifically, the cotton mills in Milton, in the north.  I have seen the BBC production and love it - Richard Armitage as John Thornton, mill owner, and Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale, southern daughter of a minister who leaves the church after a collapse of faith.  They move up north where he takes up a post teaching the classics as a private tutor, going to Milton because Mr Hale has a friend from his Oxford education days who owns property up there, and offers to help get him settled. Mr Thornton owns his mill, but leases the property from Mr Bell, Mr Hale's friend. 

What's fun is that Margaret and John dislike each other on meeting.  She thinks he is a boor, and rough, and a tradesman, and he thinks she is proud, and haughty, and knows nothing.  If you think Pride and Prejudice, you are right, as Gaskell wrote this with that novel in mind.  She has changed the setting, and added a great deal about English mill-towns and working-class life that make this novel so interesting to read now, but the real story is always Margaret and John, and how they learn to really see one another beyond their initial prejudices and beliefs.

I could hardly put this book down, which enormously thrilled me.  I was hoping for a deeper understanding of John and Margaret, as the tv show shows their change of feelings, but not enough to satisfy me as to their thoughts.  North and South thrilled me with showing me the workings of John's mind. He is a great character, stern, intelligent, and self-made - the modern English man, shaped by the freeing of the Industrial Revolution, wanting their freedom from the political decisions from London.  Fiercely independent as well, he also has a conscience, and as he discovers, an ability to love deeply, hopelessly, kind of like Anne Eliot in Persuasion.  Even though the novel is mostly from Margaret's perspective, John is a stand-out figure, marching across the page, intensely alive and stealing every scene, just as he does in the tv show. 

I have spent the day pondering why I like his character so much, and why I have difficulty warming up to Margaret. At first I thought it was how she was portrayed in the series, but as I read the novel, I realized that the character of Margaret is difficult to write.  She is one of those good heroines who take in the suffering of others and often exist in relation to others.  The most interesting part of her, the revelation that she loves John, is withheld from us, in the novel - we have to read between the lines, and I dislike this.  If we get to feel her shame at the lie she tells to protect her brother, and the despair that John knows about the lie, which leads her to realize she can only care so much about his good opinion because she cares about him, it would have been good to have that clear statement of her feelings for him in the novel.  We certainly get John's!  There is no doubt that she does love him, it's just that the final chapter has a rushed feeling, when so long of the novel is the set-up and building to her realizing that she has changed - she comes to love Milton, and the man who lives there.

That aside, and that's just me, I wanted to share in Margaret's understanding of her own heart, and the joy that she loves, as well as the sorrow because she thinks he no longer does - to have that emotional depth shown from her too, clearly.  This is a small quibble though, because this is a wonderful lively novel about life in mid-century England.  I was fascinated to read about the poverty, the change of circumstance the Hales find themselves in when they leave their comfortable Rectory for the cold life of the north.  The characters are all exquisitely drawn, the Hales, the Thorntons, and the Higgins, the three families that chiefly star in the different levels of society in mid-century Victorian England.  In the midst of this, we see the dark skies above the mill towns, the heavy dark fog, the bad air caused by the machines, and the difficulties faced between those men who have achieved ownership of their mills, and those who work underneath them.  Gaskell was well aware of the working-class in England as her husband's work as a minister took him among the lower classes of Manchester, one of the great manufacturing towns of England. She could see the changes for the women who could work, the struggles of families to earn enough to live on, and the working class fear that the rich were getting rich and not paying the workers their fair share.  So in North and South, there is a strike by the workers, that draw Margaret and Mr Hale to learn about the working class needs, versus the views spoused by John Thornton.  It's interesting to read now, especially as strikes still happen, with much the same causes and beliefs as back then. Not much has changed.

One of the things that is interesting about Margaret is that she does not really have any wants or desires of her own.  She doesn't have any intellectual leanings, doesn't study on her own, doesn't want  to be a teacher or do anything.  She doesn't even want to get married, particularly, and ignores most men .  There is no primping, no fashion talk except through her cousin Edith, who is rich, bubbly, empty-headed, and beautiful, everything Margaret is not. There is no jealousy, no wanting, nothing.  They love each other and are close, but Margaret doesn't want anything for herself.  She believes in fairness, and justice, but doesn't know what they mean until she goes to Milton and finds out that she has courage and cowardice in equal measure.  So despite her not wanting to do anything but be a support to her parents, she is an interesting character as she discovers who she is as a person.  This has to be one of the first novels that didn't have a female character constantly wondering if she would marry, worried about her prospects - which I think might have made a powerful novel if Gaskell had made her penniless and family-less when her parents die, instead of having her rich aunt whisk her away to London again, and then conveniently she is left money to become an heiress.  I think if Margaret had been forced to make her way in the world, that would have been an illuminating novel, but Gaskell had already gone there with Mary Barton, so she backed down a little with this novel. Margaret Hale is a good woman, a good character, virtuous and kind and intelligent, strong and considerate. 

I am so happy I finally read this novel.  As always,  the book is better than the tv series, at least for me.   We get to see the inner thoughts of the characters, their motivations, and know everything in greater detail.  The tv series is true to the book, and the characters, and the differences are minor tweaks, except the ending, which is better in the book, I think. She would never kiss him in public as they do in the tv series at the ending!  Even though it is very romantic and I love it, on tv, I prefer  how they come together in the book - very similar, but privately.  Much more in tune with their characters.  All in all, an excellent novel.

Olympics, new Rebus, and In the Garden with Jane Austen - book review

The Olympics are taking up much of my attention this past week.  I'm getting a little reading done, though only because we had a long weekend so I was able to read in the evening the past few days and finish a book. Darkfire by CJ Sansom, to be reviewed shortly..  I love the Olympics, I enjoy how the athletes try their best.  It's exciting and thrilling and sometimes heartbreaking to watch. 

At the same time, I had to share with you my excitement when I found on Amazon today that a NEW REBUS mystery is coming out!    
 

Yes indeed, John Rebus is back!  He is teaming up with Malcolm Fox, or rather, he and Malcolm cross paths.....all the old favourites are there, Siobhan Clarke, Big Ger Rafferty, and most of all, Rebus.  Still retired, and still pushing buttons and going where no one else wants to go.  Standing In Another Man's Grave isn't released here yet, there is no date out, and I'm still ecstatic.  NEW REBUS MYSTERY!!!! 

I thought for a change of pace that I would actually review a book today.   Some of the high heat and humidity  we have been suffering under have died away today, so that I feel energized and can think straight.  I'm posting while I can.....

In the Garden With Jane Austen by Kim Wilson

This was such a beautiful book.  Gardening and Jane Austen, what could be better? Well, this book takes bits and pieces of letters Jane, her mother, and her sister Casexened to the gardens in her various homes after her death.  It even shows some of the stunning gardens and settings she would have seen in her travels around south England, and wrote about, either to her family, or used as a basis in her books.        
                                           
I learned two big things reading this book:
1) Jane loved to garden and discussed flowers, fruits and vegetables and took an interest in raising the animals that were being raised for food by her family  She learned to raise animals and grow vegetables and fruit while growing up at the parsonage in Steventon, where her father was the rector. She and Cassandra looked after the animals, the chickens and the bees, and they often had what the house gardens and land offered as their main source of food.

2) that walking paths, garden paths, were used extensively in 18th century England.  Ladies didn't run, they didn't work out!  So to keep healthy, walking paths were built into gardens - thus, the ladies could go for several miles of walking if they walked around the gardens several times, depending on where they were living and the kinds of gardens around.  It makes me feel much better about my walking and less guilty that I hate working out (so I don't). Walking is good exercise,! 

I did not know that her brother Francis was wealthy enough to manage a country estate, which they did at Goodnestone Park.  This was the same brother who she visited for a short time in London, and who supported her and her mother after their father died. Goodnestone Park has several gardens,  and Jane visited her brother and sister-in-law frequently there.

There is alist at the back of the book, of the flowers grown in Jane's time. Unfortunately the original gardens at many of the places she lived are long gone now, however the head gardener at Chawton Cottage now (which is a trust historical estate) provided a list of the flowers grown now at the Cottage, with almost all the varieties used being available during the years Jane was alive.
-Hollyhock
-lady's mantle
star of Persia (allium)
basket of gold/gold alyssum
masterwort
sweet William
 dianthus superbe
bleeding heart
geranium Buxton Blue
dogtooth daisy
Little Maid daylily
Madonna lily
winter honeysuckle, Hall's Honeysuckle
moonwort/money plant
maltese cross
yellow daylily
evening primrose
Jacob's ladder
garden phlox
Rosa Alba Belle Amour
Rosa centifolia Shailerss White Moss
black-eyed Susan
satin flower
columbine

I was delighted to see that I have some already in my garden, sweet william, daylilies, phlox, of course roses, money plant, maltese cross (though I can't grow these, they keep dying), Jacob's ladder, black-eyed Susan, alysum, and I dearly want to try growing some Hollyhock next year.

There are many pictures in this book, of the gardens and great houses that Jane would have visited, and pictures of the gardens at Chawton Cottage, old sketches if the gardens or houses don't exist any more, and delightful descriptions from Jane's letters, as well as excerpts from her novels. There are excerpts from gardeners of the time, thoughts on gardens, how to design them, what a successful 19th century garden should contain, the various uses of the garden. 

I found this book to be a delight for the soul.  It is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, with a cup of tea,  reading about gardens and life in Jane Austen's time.  It gives a rare glimpse of how Jane used the landscape around her in her novels, and when I reread them, I know I will have a better understanding of how she used the garden settings in her books. I love that she loved her gardens and was happiest when she could have one to tend, a cottage with a garden.  She was a woman after my own heart, and since I already love her novels, this is such a deep pleasure to discover about her.

non-fiction buying frenzy

Ana made my day today.  I have been catching up with all of you lovely bloggers, and I found her post here on upcoming non-fiction books she is excited about.  She asked us if there were any upcoming releases we were excited about.  I decided that I would change the question to, "what books have you been buying that are unusual for you? " Because, dear Readers, tumbling into this house faster than I can read them, are an enormous amount of biographies and histories.  Ok, it won't be an enormous amount for many of you! but for me, it's not usual for me to read or even look at biographies more than once a year.  Here is what has come in over the past few months:

 
All Roads lead to Austen - Amy Elizabeth Smith.  She goes to Latin America for a year, taking her Jane Austen novels, and leading book clubs in different countries, to see if Jane Austen transfers into other cultures, and what their versions of Jane Austen (or recommended books) are.  It looks very interesting and very fun.  I love the idea of talking about and reading Jane Austen in different countries, and to see how she does cross cultures.  Plus it's about books and reading books, specifically Jane Austen, and a chance to learn about some of the best writers in Latin America from people who read.  It's like being part of book club on the road with her!

                                                        

The Civil War of 1812 - Alan Taylor.  It is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the war that defined Canada as a land that was not going to be part of the US. This book looks at the war from both sides of the border, and what it meant really - because even back then, families and towns straddled the border, and brothers and cousins fought for one side or the other, depending who they wanted to belong to.  This history looks at the war from the lives of the people who fought it, the soldiers, immigrants, settlers and Indians on both sides of the border.  It looks fascinating.

                                                 

God's Mercies - Douglas Hunter.   The story of the rivalry between Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson (for whom Hudson's Bay is named, as well as the Bay, one of  Canada's largest and oldest household good and fashion store).  They both raced to explore and map the northern half of North America, and find the route to the Far East, in the 17th century, and were to two principal explorers from the St Lawrence River up to Hudson's Bay.  Samuel Champlain came by the Ottawa River, and his sextant was found in a field further up the Ottawa Valley. A statue to him is on a cliff beside the National Gallery of Art here in Ottawa, across the Rideau Canal from Parliament Hill. Here is a link to a little historical view of these two.  One was French (Samuel de Champlain), one was English (Henry Hudson).  The Hudson River in New York is named for him.  Hudson died ingloriously after his crew mutinied while he tried to find the Northwest Passage, while Champlain had success after success in mapping the land through to Georgian Bay.  This  book won one of Canada's Non-fiction prizes in 2007, the Nereus Writer's Trust. As a companion to this I still need to pick up Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer.

                                                           
                                                            
A Train in Winter - Caroline Moorhead.  About the friendship between a group of  230 French women resistance fighters who were rounded up from Gestapo detention camps and sent to Auschwitz.  The only train to take women of the resistance to a death camp.  This book explores who they were, why they joined the Resistance, how they were captured and their life in the death camps.  49 women came back. Six of them were still alive in 2010, and were able to share their stories for this book.

                                                  
The Occupied Garden - Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski.  A couple live in Holland when the Nazis march in.  Years later they move to Canada, and after their deaths, their granddaughters begin to piece together what happened during the war to their grandparents. They had never spoken of what happened to them in Holland, while alive.  A family memoir that is about life in wartime Holland, something that surprisingly there isn't alot of, in English.  My stepfather grew up in Holland during the war, so I've heard a few stories from him also, but it's not something people talk about often.


                                                         


The Years of the Sword: Wellington - Elizabeth Longford.  I blame the .99 price tag, and that it has illustrations.  Some day I will read this biography of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo.
                      
                                                        
The Hare with the Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal.  A family memoir of  a man who explores his family history while uncovering the history of 264 netsukes, Japanese wood carvings that he inherits.  Who handled them?  Where did they come from, what was their history? Along the way he discovers that his family were once a banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna in the 19th century, yet by the end of WW 2, all that remained of this dynasty were these netsukes. This was an award winner when it came out, winning the Costa Book Award for Biography, among others.

                                                           


The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy - William Gaunt. 1.99 price, long out of print, about the Pre-Raphaelites' lives - especially their daily lives, with anecdotes more than any long narrative -  biographical studies this kind of  biography is called.  It looks interesting and a good find for my growing Pre-Raphaelite library.  They are among my favourite artists.

                                         

Graven with Diamonds - Nicola Shulman.  The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt, Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy.  He is the author of one of my favourite poems, "Whoso List to Hunt, I know Where There is a Hind'.  There are not many biographies out on him.  This is was just published recently, and won the 2011 Best Non-Fiction of 2011 Writer's Guild Award.  I'm fascinated with the Tudor times, and the enormous changes that occurred then, and what life was like at the courts for Wyatt, who was both a courtier and a poet.  Poetry was held in much higher esteem than it currently is, and the best poets could be ironic, witty, and sarcastic, under the guise of poetry.  He avoided being beheaded even though he was thought to have had an affair with Anne Boleyn.  Here is a link to some of his poems online.

                                                            

John Donne: The Reformed Soul - John Stubbs. Published in 2006, now considered one of the best biographies on Donne.  I am fascinated with his life and how it informed his poetry.  No one could use words and twist them like he could, making one meaning from just the way the words are placed, from what you think they will be.  He struggled with his faith at a time when it was dangerous to have faith, in the Reformation.

                                                   


Mistress of  the Monarchy- Alison Weir - about Katherine Swynford,  the mistress of John of Gaunt, later to become his wife.  He was the Duke of Lancaster.  This was in medieval England, in the 14th century.  I want to read about how a woman went from being a mistress to the wife of a Duke, and how she survived court in a time when women were mostly used as property.  It looks very interesting.  She wss intelligent and considered one of the beauties of medieval England. 

                                                                        
Shakespeare's Wife - Germaine Greer.   Other than her name, not much is known about Ann Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare.  This is the first  major biography of Shakespeare's wife, the woman who bore his children and lived far from the London scene.  Who was she? How did she feel as Shakespeare gained so much acclaim, and she was never by his side?
                      

                                                  
Elizabeth's London - Everyday Life in Elizabethan England - Liza Picard.  This is part of a series of books Liza Picard has written, about daily life in London through the centuries.  This was published in 2003, so fairly new, and covers all the things you wanted to know about Elizabethan England: from House Moving, to Garden Design, to The Bills of Mortality, to The Markets, Cooking and Recipes, Sex Outside Marriage, The lottery, Education, Interiors and Furniture, Clothes and Beauty, Law.  These are chapter headings, and there are many more fun ones!  Just everything you would want to know about life in Elizabeth England.  I have Restoration London and Dr Johnson's London in this series.  Victorian London rounds out the titles.  So if you are looking for a good history of daily life in London in different centuries, this is an excellent series to start with. 

and lastly, bought today, just out in sofcover: 
                                                 

Effie - Suzanne Fagence Cooper.  About the live of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite painter.  She married John Ruskin first, who on their wedding night turned away from her saying she didn't inspire desire in him.  When Millais was hired  to paint Ruskin's portrait several years later, Millais and Effie fell in love.  She dared to leave Ruskin, and go to live with Millais. This makes it sound boring when it really looks very interesting and intriguing, a love triangle that involves one of England's greatest art critics and one of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. And the woman who caused Victorian England's most scandalous love triangle.  Passion, art, and real life - this is irresistible.

Now the challenge is to find time to read them all!   13 books, one per month, I could feel a challenge coming on. 

So, how about you?  Have you been buying any unusual for you books lately?  Is any non-fiction suddenly drawing your interest?

Divergent - really good teen dystopian novel

I have to thank CJ over at Years of Reading Seriously.  She left a comment on my post a few weeks ago about dystopian sf literature, and recommended Divergent by Veronica Roth.  So I started looking for it, along with many of the other books recommended by you lovely book blogging friends.  To my surprise, I discovered Divergent is a YA dystopian novel, and that it was published only last year. I tried to get it at my library and discovered 600 people were ahead of me!  Then, on Tuesday, I discovered it at Chapters.  I sat down to read a few chapters to see if I liked it.

I ended up buying it.  It's that good.  I couldn't put it down.  I read it late into the night, and then last night finished it.            

It's the story of a young girl, 16 year old Beatrice, who lives in what remains of Chicago after some unnamed world disaster. Humanity - at least in Chicago - have separated into 5 factions: Abnegation, where selflessness is the purpose, and serving others first; Amity, friendship and caring, peaceful and artistic aims with this faction; Candor, where honest is the name of the game always so they wear black and white and live as if the world is exactly that, right or wrong; Dauntless, the group that protects the other four factions, that values fearlessness in protecting others, and that facing your fears makes you stronger,; and Erudite, the last group, where learning, and knowledge are the route to power. 

The five factions are made up of people who show a natural tendency for the group, and who select them on their 16th birthday.  They are initiated into the group they have selected, and then must pass a series of initiation rigors before achieving acceptance and full membership.  Unfortunately it is more difficult to become a full member than some people have the capacity for, and they fail to become members, to pass the initiation tests, and leave their group. These are known as factionless people, and have no power, no say, no group, no place really in the world. It is considered the worst thing to fail to become a member of the group you have selected.

The heroine is Beatrice, who we follow from just before the testing for her natural aptitudes, through her choice - because even if they have an aptitude for one group, they don't have to choose it. This the monikor on the top of the front cover:  One Choice Can Transform You. Beatrice discovers that her test results are inconclusive.  She could be Abnegation, Erudite, or Dauntless.  Any faction.  This is an unusual result, called Divergent, and  Beatrice is warned that she can tell no one her results.  She makes her choice to become dauntless, the brave, fearless confident group that wear black clothes and have tattoos and earrings and piercings everywhere.    Much of the novel is taken up with her in the initiation and testing, which is a fascinating story about competition and winning, and bravery.  I loved this part.  It was like being at a school where you can't fail, because failure is to end up factionless, homeless, castout.

This is a fast-paced novel, the first in a trilogy.  Insurgent is book 2, out now in bookstores - I will be hastening to get my copy shortly!  Wonderful characters abound, from the group Beatrice (or Tris as she is known in Dauntless), is training with, Christina, Will, Al, Four, Max, to Tris's family, to the testing itself.  Tris is not perfect, she is small, and comes from Abnegation, so everyone makes fun of the fact that she has gone from the group serving others and not thinking of one's self, to learning how to give herself time and pleasure and to live for what she wants, which is why she left Abnegation. 

I was fascinated by the psychology behind these groupings, and how people fit themselves, in, and how each group worked.  There is even a quiz at the end which I did for fun, and - it was inconclusive.  I'm not sure if  that means I am divergent too!  or if they didn't have enough questions for an adult, as these were geared for teens.  I liked seeing how the factions worked, too, and most of all, I enjoyed getting to know Tris and what happens to her as she grows in skill and confidence during the rounds of testing.  She learns a lot about herself and others, and she fails sometimes too. 

This was a really enjoyable book.  I have already offered to lend it to one friend, I like it so much!  It's been reviewed as a book similar to The Hunger Games, which I have not read yet (though I do finally own a copy). Similar in that the world has changed, it's a teen book, and a contest is going on. So if you liked The Hunger Games, most assuredly you will like Divergent. It's a really good SF novel.

However, it is not a perfect book.  There is a lot of violence - the Dauntless are training to be the protectors of the city, thus they have to develop fighting skills and show bravery.  One of the best things about Tris is that she is brave and courageous naturally, which are not Abnegation skills, though as Four points out to her, she is brave when it comes to helping people - an Abnegation way of looking at the world, of putting others first.  Tris discovers that something is not perfect in this society, that however these groups were originally devised, something is changing in the power struggle.  Thus the name of the second book - Insurgent.  I won't say more so that you don't read any spoilers, I will say that the book ends in a shocking ending,one that I am still thinking over today.  It is gripping, exciting, an adventure novel that is difficult to put down.  I didn't like all the violence at the end, not because it wasn't necessary to the book, it was, and done in a very chilling way.  I just don't like alot of violence to begin with (and yes, I know, I read tons of mysteries!) and the book ended in a way that there wasn't time to feel the cathartic release as the killers (hopefully) feel their remorse. Yet it is an integral part of the story, so it belongs.  I say this as someone who hasn't read The Hunger Games because I know it involves killing your opponent.  That is something I have to be in the right frame of mind to read.

Divergent rates a 4/5 stars, mostly because there is one act in the middle of the book that didn't seem to fit, that was never dealt with by the leaders in the group, and I think normally would have been. So not a perfect novel, though certainly very interesting and enjoyable and thrilling to read.  I also really like that the idea of belonging to a group vs being on your own is what is in the background here.  How does a person fit in?  What do they have to do to succeed in this?  What happens when you don't fit in?  Which aren't just teen concerns,though this is when we first become aware of the group and the self and make our initial decisions on how we belong, and where.  I rather think I belong to divergent anyway, as there are very few groups that I fit into, naturally. I'm just odd. It's only now that I'm nearing 50 that I feel safe saying so!

If you have read it, did you take the quiz at the end?  Is anyone out there clearly belonging to a faction?

Batman:  I don't know about you, but I am so excited about The Dark Knight Rises  opening tomorrow!!!! I am hoping to go see it tomorrow night, though realistically it will be sometimes this weekend.

A Vintage Affair - Isabel Wolff - book review

I read this book a couple of weeks ago, when I needed a break from the dystopian books I've been devouring.  A Vintage Affair was light and sweet, exactly what I was looking for. Even if it made me cry!                                                 

A Vintage Affair stars Phoebe Swift as a just turned 30 woman who has opened her second-hand clothing store in September.  She doesn't buy just any second-hand clothing, she buys vintage clothing featuring top of the line designers.  I am not a clothes horse, and can't afford many any designer clothes - but like many of us, I suspect, I've drooled over pages of Vogue and Elle and I know the names of many of the designers today and yesterday.  Reading A Vintage Affair is like stepping into a salon where some of the most delightful, stylish and beautiful clothing is on display. In A Vintage Affair, Phoebe tries to match up the clothing to her clients - she is not interested in just selling the clothes, but in finding the right fit - the clothing that belongs to the person. The most special dresses are the cupcake dresses she sells, bright dresses from the 1950's, sent to her by a dealer in Texas. When the story opens, each of the dresses are hung up on the wall, and she says they are magical dresses - dresses where dreams can come true.  How the right people find the dresses, and what happens to each, is part of the magic of this story. Fairy-tale -that's what Phoebe calls the dresses, like the gowns the princesses wear in the Disney films, only these go just below the new.  I here confess that I loved the gowns in Disney, and spent many happy hours trying to decide which colours I would wear and when. This book is like an adult fairy tale. 

As with all fairy tales, there is some sadness, and darkness, and Phoebe can't outrun hers, as much as she tries.  Her best friend has died, and the reasons why she has died and why Phoebe blames herself, make up some of the dark part of the book.  The ending is a lovely surprise, as Phoebe learns how the shock of what happened to Emma has altered her memories surrounding the event. 

The other dark part is also a much darker story that evolves in the story of Mrs Bell, who is hiding a tragic story of her own in the history of a child's coat she hides in her wardrobe. WW 2 and France are involved here, so there is a real layer of history underlining this story, some tragic.  Just as there is in some of the clothing Phoebe buys from her various estate sales and sellers. Because this is a fairy tale, there are happy endings all around for those who deserve them, though there are many tears (at least from me) along the way.  As well, there is the discovery of love, and the things that love can bear. There is tragedy and farce in equal measure here, which makes what could have been a difficult story to read, a real pleasure.

All in all this is a charming story - I loved it, and it made me smile when I needed it.  I really enjoyed Phoebe and her mother, her  father, Annie who wanders in and ends up working at the store, Mrs Bell, and Dan and his dream of opening a theatre - quite a few of the characters have dreams of doing things and are pursuing them, which are part of fairy tales and magic and making dreams come true. I love all the clothing in her store.  I would love to find a store like that here!  Just to go in and gaze at the lovely vintage fashions from yesteryear, and hope the clothing finds a new life, just as Phoebe wants the clothes she buys for the shop to find a new owner as well.  Very sweet, and recommended for anyone who needs a lift on a down day.  Or some enjoyable reading for a summer's hot afternoon.


Here is a link to Isabel Wolff talking about the fashion research and  WW 2 and France research that went into her novel.