Jane Austen Novels for August and September--Join James!

James of "James Reads Books"(see sidebar) is hosting a month-by-month read-a-long of all of Jane Austen's novels. He began the program in July, when he sponsored  Sense and Sensibility. Follow the preceding link to see his introductory post to the read-a-long.

In August, the chosen title is Pride and Prejudice, and I have decided to re-read it. (Yes, still in tune with my goal to return to favorite authors.) My last reading of P and P was junior year in (gasp!) high school, 48 years ago--can it be that long ago? Ouch! A Penguin edition arrived today and I'm already onto reading Chapter 7. I find the films of Austen's novels, as entertaining as they've been, to be very distracting to Austen's intentions, her language, her themes, everything. So Colin Firth and all the rest are absolutely banished from this house until later in 2018! 

In September, James is hosting Mansfield Park,  the Jane Austen novel that I have never read, the book she believed was her best, the most complex thematically, and in honor of that, I cashed in a gift card to order the Harvard University Press hardcover edition of Mansfield Park: The Annotated Edition, edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, which was published late in 2016. It is a colorful coffee-table book and it arrived today. It's not only a beautiful book, but for a coffee-table book it's extraordinarily readable, unlike some overly florid annotated editions. A regular paperback copy of the novel arrived today as well so I can read it alongside the annotated edition. (Sometimes, at least for me, beautiful annotated editions with gorgeous photographs and sidebar criticisms are apt to distract me from a work of art, so I plan to read several chapters of the paperback and then go over the annotations afterwards.) I'm very enthused about this. 

August is the month of Doldrums or the "Dog Days," so I'm hoping someone out there might enjoy reading along with us.

A Seismic Shift in My Reading Direction and Selections

For the past 3-4 months, dating back to April, I've noticed that I haven't been enjoying the books I've chosen as much as I would like to. Most have been somewhat amusing or interesting, but I realize that for months I haven't been enamored of the books I've chosen to spend time with.

This state of affairs is neither the books' faults nor my fault. My problem is in my selection of books to read.

It's been hard to handle my "reading blahs" because I so thoroughly enjoyed almost all of my reading in  2016, and in early 2017, so much so that a mere glimpse at my 2016 book list fills me with longing for the golden past. (See Sidebar.)

In short,  I realized I must take a different tack to save my reading life.

I've decided to return to authors whose books I've loved in the past. I'll try to carefully choose some  of their other books and see where this experiment takes me.

For example, I was so swept away by Devices and Desires by P.D. James, which I read in early July. She is one of my penultimate authors. Reading D&D was such a wonderful experience--it made me remember why I love to read. (See previous posts.)

Right now I'm reading A Misalliance by Anita Brookner, whose novel Hotel du Lac is one of my all-time favorite books. I'm really enjoying  A Misalliance--the character of Blanche Vernon is a rewarding challenge-- she is a very lonely character who is not easy to fathom, yet who is worth the time it takes to get to know better. Lots of depth here.

Blanche Vernon reminds me of the main character in the Barbara Pym novel I read much earlier this year, A Quartet in Autumn. This book was a stellar ***** read, so more of Barbara Pym's novels are on my TBR list. Yet!! Those of you who have read Brookner and Pym know that a steady diet of these two authors can be wearying. The challenge is to sprinkle their books in among the rest.

One of  Danielle's recent posts in her blog "A Work in Progress" (see Blogs sidebar)  reminded me that I loved the depth and sincerity and drama of the first Maisie Dobbs novel, Maisie Dobbs. Though I read  it years ago, and vowed to read another, I haven't yet.  So now I have Birds of a Feather  (the second Maisie Dobbs novel) at my fingertips.

And so on to Elizabeth George! I have read three of Elizabeth George's Lynley novels. There are so many more, and I never read the first few that won her loads of awards. The very first of her Lynley novels, A Great Deliverance, should arrive in Wednesday's UPS delivery. UPS is the only company  that will actually deliver to the door of our wilderness abode. (The UPS driver is our good friend Carson, who arrives with a peanut-butter dog biscuit for Sasha!)

I haven't read Elizabeth George in years. Even though she is still writing and publishing, her books do not sell as well as they did during the 1990s and the 2000s. But I am going back to this writer I love.

May I end by saying that I've been disappointed by the recently published books I've chosen to read and that have been so highly acclaimed this year? I assume it must be me.

I'm eager to see where this experiment takes me.

Brookner and The Last Laugh Dropping By

Thank goodness, I got my wish and Anita Brookner's Misalliance dropped in--what a relief to see a compact book of 208 pages on my table! I can't wait to get back to Brookner's voice. I'm so glad all of her books are still in print (or have been reprinted).

I listened to Maureen Corrigan's stellar NPR review of Lynn Freed's latest novel The Last Laugh,  about a group of women, all 60-something, and their sincere attempts to have a "getaway from it all" vacation in Greece. As you might imagine, when most women are 60-something or other, there are still plenty of family obligations--parents, children, husbands and lovers (both current and former), bound to encroach on even the most finely-tuned escape plans. This is high comedy, Corrigan says, and I'm looking forward to it. With bells on. (To listen to the six-minute review, follow the link and, as surprising as this is, click the arrow in  the upper left-hand corner.)

These are my new books for the weekend. I'm finishing up the last 65 pages of A Gentleman from Moscow by Amor Towles and am still reading The Windfall, the contemporary Indian novel by Diksha Basu, which I'm thoroughly enjoying.

A Book Blog Discovery

I stumbled upon a fascinating book blog today and couldn't wait to share it with you. I was commenting on James's (of "James Reads Books"--see sidebar for hyperlink) most recent post, when I saw an unfamiliar commenter.

Round and about I discovered that the commenter is the author of a fascinating book blog, "The Booksmith: Mrs. Smith Reads Books." Insightful, informative, and interesting entries led to my rather long visit there. She is a resident of Capetown, in South Africa, which is an intriguing fact all on its own.

Enjoy!

Too Many Chunksters and The Alice Network

I've been wondering why my list of books read has not been growing, especially because I've been reading a great deal since the second week of June. What's going on?

Then I checked back. The books I've been reading, most of them, have been over 400 pages long. No wonder my progress has been so slow! My reading palette welcomes the reading of long books, but I like to have somewhat shorter reads in between the huge turkey-dinner-chunksters. It's getting to the point where a book of 300 pages seems a short read.

Oh, how I hated finishing P.D. James's Devices and Desires today. (423 pages). It was superb, but I always become so mournful at the end of her books because I can't bear leaving the experience of reading them and leaving the entire world that has been created. Crash and Boom. Deflating.

Started a new book to console myself. (Oh, yes, still avidly reading A Gentleman in Moscow and The Windfall (see previous posts for details.)

The recently published The Alice Network by Kate Quinn has received excellent reviews. It's set in France in 1947, but the novel flashes back to the all-woman spy network in France during World War I, known as the Alice Network. Yet the novel also deals with the disappearance of  a woman who was in the French resistance during World War II. I read the first several chapters this morning on my Kindle and wasn't convinced, but visiting all the reviews convinced me that I should continue reading. (It's over 500 pages--why did I have to choose this one now?) No matter, all will be fine, but I'm going to stack up a few somewhat shorter reads on my table.

Discovering The Windfall by Diksha Basu

This is an episode of "Too Many Books." I was on hold via Cloud Library at the New York Public Library for The Windfall by Diksha Basu, a woman who has been hailed as an "ex-Bollywood actress" turned writer.  It is the story of an ordinary middle-class East Delhi family, whose patriarch unexpectedly sells his website for untold riches after five years. As a result, he moves quickly to relocate his family from an apartment in a downward-turning middle-class apartment building to a wealthy area of Delhi. They now will have a two-story "bungalow," with a front yard and a backyard, a kitchen with every modern amenity, room for several servants, and plenty of space to garage a classy automobile. This is a class-move of tsunami proportions for the family, as Basu so humorously depicts in this novel. I've read the first few chapters and it's a charmer. Very different!

Just a few short chapters left in Devices and Desires by P.D. James. Such a master! She'll keep you guessing to the very end.

Continuing with A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Very good!

Time Out: Wimbledon Inspiration! Champagne, Anyone?

Not a bookish topic today. 
Wimbledon, or the All-England Club Championships is the absolute pinnacle of the tennis year. After watching the 12-month progression of the tennis year go by for many, many years, I feel strongly that all the champions who are lucky enough to play at Wimbledon manage to present their "A" game and do their ultimate utmost to win at Wimbledon, grasping for a level of play that is even higher than they play at any of the other three Grand Slams.

I think it's the all-grass surface that keeps every player on edge. The grass surface's relative unpredictability in the way of ball bounce (as compared to hard courts and clay courts) is what makes players reach and push forward their very best game. The necessity of being always on-alert and on-edge brings forth some of the most incredible tennis games and matches.

Victories are so much bigger, because the winner bested their opponent and THE GRASS.

The other great thing about Wimbledon is that there are always so many UPSETS and SURPRISES.

I am extremely eager to see Johanna Konta (from the UK) play in the semi-finals against Venus Williams. Konta has been playing brilliantly. What a match that will be on Thursday. Venus has come so far. At 37, she is playing as well as she has ever played, and with a tricky auto-immune disorder. Konta is such a likeable, strong player from the UK--I'm rooting for both of them.

Reading about Boris Pasternak and Lara

Postscript: July 13, 2017
It turns out that Anna Pasternak is the grand-daughter of Josephine, Boris Pasternak's youngest sister. I discovered this after listening to the first chapter of the book. The Wikipedia article was misleading in this regard. Yes, Lydia is the name of Anna Pasternak's mother, but she married into the Pasternak family. Sorry for the error!
Original Post:
I  have decided that I won't re-read Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak this summer. It was on my mind, but I feel swamped by books. For one thing, I can't get over how many new books about Russia there are to read for the first time, let alone a second time.

I have started listening to an audiobook entitled  Lara: The Untold  Love Story and The Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago by Anna Pasternak.  Boris Pasternak was Anna Pasternak's uncle, and Anna is the daughter of Boris's youngest sister, Lydia. Anna is an academic in  the UK and published the book in 2016 or 2017. According to Anna, Lara was badmouthed by all the Pasternaks, which, according to Anna, was completely unwarranted.

Just a short post tonight.

Russia in Books: 1917 and 1922 (A Gentleman in Moscow)

I have but one chapter to go in Caught in the Revolution by Helen Rappaport. So interesting to read a collection of foreign observers' views of 1917 in Petrograd. I'll be sorry to finish this nonfiction book, and I'll be left wondering--what did foreign observers' see in 1918 and during the war between the Reds and the Whites? Makes me so curious.

So I ended up finally downloading the novel A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, published last year to much acclaim. I've read only about four chapters so far, but I will say, as delightful a read as the novel is, and as droll a character the Count is while incarcerated at the Hotel Metropole in Moscow, I have no idea what the author is intending, which is very much okay, because I'm enjoying the ride. Though I do wonder.

By the way, In imperial  Russia, the title "Count" was not a title of long-inherited nobility. It was an inherited title, but the original "Counts" were those who had the honor bestowed upon them.

My biggest question, while I'm so enjoying the Count and the novel overall, is the research that the British writer Towles did before writing the novel. This particular Count Rostov did not try to escape as so many of the aristocracy did, but seems to have spent his time before his arrest in 1922, walking around "St. Petersburg" visiting the patisserie, his bank, etc., which would have been impossible in 1922. His dreams of the imperial city seem odd as does his Moscow hotel exile.

So all I can ask, "Is this a fantasy?" I think there are many fantastical elements in the book, absolutely. But it's so charming, so much fun, and the Count is a character with endless possibilities.

I hope to post again about this book. Have you read it? Please share your thoughts.

And yes, I'm still waist-deep in P.D. James's Devices and Desires. There is no way to tell who the killer is, though clues are dropped everywhere, adding to the conundrum. Challenging, exciting read.