February Scurrying: E.M. Almedingen & Books in Progress

Falling behind with my reading again, I'm sorry to say.

My whimsy of the moment: I'm tracking down E. M. Almedingen's entire ouevre. Do any of you remember or recall this author? Most of her books were written for children, but she wrote a number of memoirs related to her extraordinary life. Although as a teen and very young woman she lived in Russia during the revolution and civil war, she spent most of her mature adult years in Shropshire, England. Nearly all of her books were also published in the U.S. The book I own is Katia (UK title is Little Katia), a library discard bought at a book sale decades ago. I read it first as a very young teen and loved it, so when it appeared beneath my browsing fingers in the early 1980s, I grabbed it. I read it then again, and loved it again, when I was once more swept up in the luxurious everyday world of the nobility of the Ukraine in the mid-19th century. Premise: Katia's mother has died in childbirth in St. Petersburg, and because her father has no idea what to do with her, she is sent to live with her cousins in the Ukraine, where she is loved, doted on, and has the time of her life. Yes, life for the nobility was the stuff of fantasy, alas. An adult reader can't help but wonder about all the poor peasants who make the life of Katia's family possible. But, I must tell you, although I've been grimly aware, I've never let that fact spoil my enjoyment of the intricate details of the pleasures Katia experienced. Do look up this book! It's a treasure--out of print, of course, but not unavailable. Libraries still have copies. If you find yourself peaking at your library's holdings of Almedingen's work, I'd be very interested in knowing what you find. I'm hoping to collect many of her other titles.

Today's title reference to "February scurrying" refers to my rush to finish The Flowers of War. I've got just a week left to finish and write about my thoughts for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong. (See previous entry for link.)

And because I've desperately felt the need for a brainless, fun read, I bought the newly published Indiscretion by Charles Dubow, which one of my favorite bloggers referred to fondly as a "beach read." Just $9.99 on the Nook, but a bit cheaper for the Kindle, ($8.89, if you're interested). Because it's a new book, it was clear from my online prowl of  libraries, that I'd have a long wait if I were to borrow. So I'm off to New York City and, for those long summer weekends, the Hamptons on Long Island. I've never been to the Hamptons, but I enjoy visiting just the same.

A Literary February!

My laptop is back, as good as new, thank goodness. Ken's fear of its demise was a worry misspent. I've had the Dell laptop since 2003--it's gone through all sorts of Windows upgrades over the past decade, now humming along on Windows 7, with all sorts of fixes and remedies over the years as well as a totally new keyboard recently, and still, it keeps kicking back! No need to retire it yet--the problem was minor. Phew! This Dell supports the reasoning behind NOT going with the cheapest laptop on the market. I admit, it's tempting to choose a low price, but I bow to Ken's professional wisdom on the matter. Forevermore, Ken!

About that "Literary February" header. All week I've consoled myself with long visits to my favorite book blogs thanks to the Nook. Yet, due to the Nook's terrible texting capabilities, I've not been able to submit even a semi-legible comment to anyone. And how I longed to respond! The posts for all the blogs on my "Blogs of Substance" blogroll this past week have been so rich and rewarding. If you haven't had a chance, by all means catch up with them all this weekend.

About Susanna Moore's The Life of Objects: I'm afraid my review will sound harsh. I did not like the novel, and I kept reading it because I had purchased it and kept hoping it would improve. To her credit, Moore certainly did her research about the lives of Germans during the war years and during the aftermath of war. Evidently she had the good fortune to spend a great deal of time in Germany researching the period, particularly reading war diaries and narratives. To be sure, the novel is full of intricate details about everything concerning setting. I ordinarily love extraordinary efforts at setting. But when coupled with what's missing, those details become meaningless. What's lacking in this novel is its heart: characterization, character development, character motivation, character reflection--all of which incapacitates any attempt to make an absorbing plot!
I was overjoyed to reach the final page.

So onward to The Flowers of War by Geling Yan for discussion on February 28 at Caroline's (of Beauty is a Sleeping Cat fame) Literature and War Readalong February selection.   Please join us! I always enjoy participating.

The novel I hope to read soon is one that has received excellent reviews, has been on the New York Times Bestsellers' List for weeks, and on The Boston Globe's Bestsellers' List for months. When I was browsing the bestseller lists last November, I was overwhelmed with delight to discover that the novel everyone was talking about was written by my good friend and colleague from Boston, Barbara Shapiro. Her book is The Art Forger, which is loosely based on the infamous, unsolved theft of priceless masterpieces (including several Rembrandts)  from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  I want to blog about this book and about Barbara in much more detail in future posts.

fumbling post

my beloved laptop isin the klink, so i'm trying to post a word or two using the Nook. Basically,  i'm trying to say that I'll be posting soon, although there are two computers ahead of mine. I finished The LIFE OF OBJECTS by Susanna Moore, and I was terribly disappointed by it, which I hope to explain soon.
tothink of the wasted time!  Back soon. I,m enjoying your reading selections!

Riches: A New Library (to Me) and a Must-Have Book for Literature Lovers

We've a bit of a snowstorm moving in for Friday and Saturday, but nothing like the blizzard that will strike New England. Our frigid temperatures have held on tight. I keep reminding complainers that this cold is a good thing--it's especially deadly to some of the destructive invasive insects that have moved north into our area due to the warming climate.

I'm so thrilled that I can post pictures again, thanks to Blogger fixing the problem.

My literary achievement of the week was the discovery that I can borrow up to 10 books at a time from the Lucy Scribner Library at Skidmore College. Who would've thunk? The Scribner Library is a treasure trove, an outstanding academic library that has been building a strong, solid collection since the 1800s. It's beautiful as well, with hundreds of comfortable upholstered chairs and luxurious places to study with natural light and views of the verdant campus out floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Sigh. And it's so much closer and more convenient than the State University of New York's University at Albany libraries. It's also just a ten-minute drive from where I'm teaching this semester. Not since we lived in Boston have I had such a stellar library to visit. They've been enormously helpful with research for my book project.

Calling all fiction lovers, writers, and teachers: My most cherished book find of the week was from my college library, from the "new book shelf." I can't wait to purchase a copy for my personal library because it will be indispensable to me as a reader, teacher of literature, and a wannabe novelist. (I have numerous novels and short stories locked up in my file cabinet, where they should stay aside from the times I gaze fondly upon them.) Shelly Lowenkopf's The Fiction Writer's Handbook:The Definitive Guide to McGuffins, Red Herrings, Shaggy Dogs, and Other Literary Revelations by a Master is a deceptive title. First of all, it is not a guide, as other books about writing are guides. It is an exhaustive, alphabetically organized work that lists, defines, and explains, in writerly terms, the multitudes of literary elements that are in common use today. It is published by WhiteWhiskerBooks (2011). It is available for the Nook and Kindle for just 99 cents, but I want a hardbound copy. I'd like to add a bit more, but Ken is telling me it's time to leave.

Weekend Edition: Bookshop Mountain

The past week has smiled down upon me, giving me opportunities to continue reading The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano. A strange, twisted novel that has perplexed me--I still have no idea what will happen.

Susanna Moore's A Life of Objects is constantly within my grasp as well, and it is an intriguing historical novel. Moore is a new writer for me: She was profiled on the cover of The Writer magazine this month. Her tale of an Irish girl--an enterprising, self-taught lace-maker who is determined not to rot away in her remote village--ventures to Germany to live with a (formerly) high-society Jewish couple. What is so interesting about this story is that the lace maker understands nothing of the politics involved, yet it is the late 1930s. Things are happening to her employers, and she tries desperately to interpret them, though she has no clues, really. This makes for an intensely enjoyable read.

Caroline's Literature and War Readalong for February 28: The Flowers of War by Geling Yan.
I was head over heels delighted to discover that this title is available to me via the Nook for only $2.99, which is much less than everyone in Europe is paying. I feel guilty about it, I do! I can't explain it either, although it does seem from the movie tie-in book cover that SOMEONE is promoting the movie in the U.S., and hence, the cheap price for the e-book. Oh, publishing is so strange these days.

Nonfiction Read:
Keith Lowe's Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II.
I borrowed this from the library and realized immediately that given my current full-throttle exploration of Europe in the immediate post-war period, 1945-1948, that this is a key title in that understanding. I ordered it pronto, and am now delighting in reading it, my comments and notes in the margins all over every page.  A superb history of a neglected period in European history. And it's incredibly readable. Yes, loads of research, notes, a good-sized bibliography, but readable. Of course, I feel everyone needs to read this book, given the fact that it's my current academic focus. Got those blinders on!

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

(This is the January 2013 selection for the Literature and War Readalong, hosted by Caroline at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat, where you will find Caroline's review, links to other participants' reviews, and other reader comments.)

First off, I must say I know absolutely nothing about The Yellow Birds other than what I've read between its covers. I know nothing about Kevin Powers, aside from the brief author blurb on the inner dustcover sleeve. I have read no reviews, have heard no buzz, although I know it was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2012 (only because a silver medallion on the front cover told me so). And who was deemed to have written a better novel? I must check that out.

That said, I do believe it is an inspired work of art by a writer who is on the cusp of grasping the breadth of his considerable writing powers. Aside from some forcing of metaphors very early in the novel, which drove me to distraction, every word and emotion and image after that felt true to me; and in the clearest sense, resoundingly true.

Let me tell you, I am no one to judge a former soldier's novel about war, but I felt the book came alive in the midst of the section "August 2005--Richmond, Virginia," when Bartle leaves home and is wandering along the banks of the river, images of Murph in his head pressing down from all sides. He starts one huge run-on sentence and the emotions run raw, deep, visceral. The effect on me? I felt like cheering, because finally, Bartle was feeling something true.

The hopping back and forth in time, the images kaleidoscoping here and there and scrambled and all out of order did not bother me because that's how the memory of severe trauma goes, I know. Survivor's guilt, I know. Promises left broken, in shards of fragmented glass, I know. I've never been a soldier, but I know that much, that little bit.

I felt a special kinship with Bartle once he began to "come clean," as he himself would have described it. I was so present, in those moments, I could have wept.

That's all I have to say for the moment.

I don't know if Kevin Powers has other books in him, but I hope so. I know he's a poet (the book blurb again), but I hope he'll write more fiction.

The Mountain: Books at My Feet

A long week of frigid temperatures. It's 6pm and 8 degrees, and we'll dip well below zero tonight as we have every night since last Sunday. Our daytime high is finally higher at 14 degrees, which it's been the last few days, but I'm beginning to be bothered by my face freezing every time I go snowshoeing. Sasha is having a terrible time with her feet freezing on our treks. I'd keep her at home, but, golden retriever that she is, she howls like an unholy bloodhound if not allowed to accompany me. Warming temps are coming, they say.

Thanks to the blog "Stuck in A Book," I've purchased House of Silence by Linda Gillard for the Kindle. The book seems to be available only via Kindle. I was captivated by several key themes and ideas central to the book. 1) It's a gothic; sort of a "Rebecca meets Cold Comfort Farm," supposedly, if you can imagine. This is hype, but it led me to investigate the book further. 2) It's set during Christmas and the winter season. 3) For the rest of my inspiration, please visit Stuck in a Book's description. 4) The download only cost me $3.50. 5) I can't resist gothic romance. It's a weakness I've had since I was age 15.

A library treasure is Ich blieb in Konigsberg, which, miraculously, I was able to borrow on Inter-Library Loan from another New York State college. I have it for less than a month, so this time only gives me the chance to read a dozen entries and realize I must purchase a copy. As it turns out, I must order from Germany. In any case, because I'm relentlessly studying Europe 1945-1948, and because the book is a personal journal of a young woman living in the "former" East Prussia [then Poland] during these years, I'm keen to read it. As I've mentioned before, my German reading knowledge is much better than my speaking, but not by that much. The diary is clearly simple and easy to read, I can see, but I'll still be tied to a dictionary.

And another fiction title that I'll get to as soon as I finish Third Reich by Bolano:
The Life of Objects by Susanna Moore, published last September. Do follow the link to a Studio 360 retrospective and discussion with Moore about the novel. 

I'm on Fire with Reading: What a Relief

I'm at the tail (tale?) end of The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, which was a finalist for the National Book Award  in 2012.  Okay, I'm in awe now. I have so many thoughts about this novel, I'm not sure how I'll ever begin writing about it. My entry will be posted on Sunday night, the 27th, so it will be available for the scheduled discussion date of  Monday, January 28--all thanks to Caroline's Literature and War Readalong.. I couldn't turn the final page this afternoon. I'm left with about 25 pages or so. When I finish this particular book, I must be in a hushed house with no possibility of interruption. While immersed late this afternoon, the telephone jangled and I literally jumped six inches off the couch . I was at a climactic moment, so deeply enthralled, when that phone jolted me sky-high.

The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano is excellent, and I'm enjoying it even though I don't have a complete picture of where it's going. A young German gaming champion and gaming writer, in relatively modern times, is vacationing in a Spanish seaside resort with his girlfriend, who, as it turns out, he doesn't know as well as might be comfortable. They meet another German couple and can't seem to get away from them. The gamer feels lured in, though he sees danger and wants to get away. He seems to feel helpless, powerless even, to distance himself and his partner from the world this other couple inhabits. Written in first-person, as journal entries. Very interesting.

  

When Work Brings You Too Close to Bookstores: Kate Morton & Mark Helprin

Dear Readers,
This is my dilemma this semester. I'm teaching my courses at a "satellite campus," which is perilously close to a Barnes and Noble, the only bookstore within 60 miles of my home. "Go for it!" my inner reader says. Ah, yes, I'm afraid I have already.

I have an extra-long commute now, so on Monday, as my next semester began, I traipsed into Barnes & Noble and purchased The Secret Keepers by Kate Morton, in audiobook. I've listened to 2 of the 17 discs thus far, and I am so hooked, I've slowed my speed on the highway to 60 mph. Everyone zooms by me, but the book and the reduced speed are exquisite for relieving stress. I need that after last semester. I also bought the American Mark Helprin's latest novel, In Sunlight and In Shadow, at a deep discount. Oh, yes, how I've tried borrowing audiobooks from the library, but I'm so tired of getting super-absorbed in a novel or biography or memoir, and then Disc 5 or Disc 7 is so scratched, it's unreadable. I've decided I need and deserve better for these hours and hours spent in the auto.