Book Concierge’s Comments (group member since Feb 12, 2016)

Book Concierge’s comments from the Who Doesn't Love a Classic? group.

Friend of My Springtime – Willa Cather
3***

Subtitle: A Classic Story of Friendship

This is a short story that I found when cleaning out my basement. Apparently, I bought it when I was shortly out of college and my mother had it in a box of stuff with my name on it, I never went through. I wonder if I gave it to her, thinking she would enjoy it, but I doubt it. It’s not the kind of work she’d like. I wonder if someone gave it to me and I just left it at my parents’ house. I’ll never know.

It's a lovely little story, but not particularly memorable. A mature woman writes about the residents of their “terrace,” particularly the Professor and the Woman Nobody Called On. They are all somewhat dismayed to notice a hobby horse coming off the moving van when new tenants move in. They aren’t particularly fond of children. But Jack-A-Boy, with his gentle sweetness and genuine concern for everyone wins them over.

It's rather sweet but predictable. Not her best effort.


LINK to my review

The Invisible Man – H G Wells
Book on CD read by Scott Brick
3***

This is a classic of science fiction / horror. It begins when a man appears at a small English village and takes a room. His face is bandaged, and he always wears a hat, a coat with turned-up collar and gloves. He demands privacy and takes his meals in his room. Once his boxes / crates of belongings arrive he takes over a parlor, unpacks multitudes of bottles and equipment, and begins working in what appears to be a laboratory. Once his secret is revealed, however, he goes on a rampage through multiple villages trying desperately to find a way to fix the self-imposed condition.

Griffin (the reader learns him name about 70% through the book) had a promising career as a physician, but became fascinated by physics and chose to abandon medicine for the study of this pure science, particularly the properties of light. Of course, he saw the advantages of being invisible, but never reckoned on the disadvantages. There are a few rather humorous scenes caused by his predicament but on the whole the atmosphere is one of anger and frustration and madness.

Scott Brick does a great job of narrating the audiobook. He has a deeply sonorous voice that lends itself to this type of gothic horror / science fiction.



LINK to my review

Candide – Voltaire
Audiobook performed by Tom Whitworth / Digital audio narrated by Jack Davenport
4****

This is perhaps Voltaire’s best-known work. The novella follows the callow Candide as he travels the world searching for his true love, Cunégonde, accompanied by his faithful servant / companion Cacambo.

It opens with an idyllic situation, where Cunégonde, the daughter of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, and Candide, a ward with uncertain parentage, are raised together on the castle grounds, and educated by tutor Pangloss. But a war results in the death of the Baron, his wife and son, and with Cunégonde raped and captured and sold into slavery. Candide sets out to find and rescue her.

Among his adventures across the globe, he comes across Jesuits, the Inquisition, cannibals, El Dorado, pirates, an old woman, healers, merchants, etc. He frequently relies on the teachings of Pangloss to see him through, maintaining optimism in the face of adversity.

Voltaire managed to skewer virtually all “important” institutions of the day in this satirical fable. I had seen the operetta (music by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by a group of uber-talented writers including Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Steven Sondheim) before, so was somewhat familiar with the plot. I have to admit I kept picturing the most recent production I saw (about two years ago) as I listened to the audio.

I had two versions of the audiobook, a CD in my car and a digital audio on my MP3 player. The CD was performed by Tom Whitworth, while the digital audio was narrated by Jack Davenport. Both were wonderful, but I think I prefer Whitworth’s interpretation.

I also had a text copy which included “philosophical letters” after the novella. (Candide and Philosophical Letters) They range in subject matter but mostly include his thoughts, observations, and conclusions about a variety of topics, from religion (Quakers, Church of England, Presbyterians, etc) to government, and science (smallpox inoculation and Newton). I read a few of them and found them slightly amusing. They certainly give the modern-day reader a view of 18th-century issues.



LINK to my review

I agree, Megan!

Rilla Of Ingleside – L M Montgomery
Digital audiobook narrated by Emily Durante.
4****

Book eight in the “Anne of Green Gables” series focuses on Anne’s youngest child. Rilla is fifteen, starting to get interested in boys and dances, but needing to worry about her brothers and friends now that World War I has started.

I never read this series as a child or young adult, so am slowly working my way through them now. It’s hard to believe that this book is one hundred years old! Despite what TODAY is an historical setting, when written it was contemporary and it has that feel to it. There are young women today, going through many of the issues that Rilla experiences: first love, worry about a brother sent to fight overseas, grief over friends or relatives who’ve died too young. There are also the day-to-day relationships within a family: child to parent, or between siblings. These ring true today as they did when Montgomery wrote the story.

I love how Rilla rises to the challenges imposed by the war; she takes on leadership of a committee, and the raising of a war-orphaned child. I loved, too, how she put together a wedding on short notice for her friend. I see a lot of the young Anne in Rilla.

This is the last in the series, and I’m sorry it’s over. There is a collection of short stories ( The Blythes Are Quoted ), as well as a prequel authorized by Montgomery’s estate (and written by Budge Wilson) that I may yet read.

Emily Durante does a wonderful job performing the audio version. She sets a good pace and I loved the way she interpreted Rilla.



LINK to my review

Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Digital audiobook performed by Ralph Cosham.
3.5***

A classic coming-of-age adventure tale set in the 18th century. Jim Hawkins is witness to some strange goings on in his parents’ inn. After his father dies, Jim and his mother escape the inn with a packet that once belonged to Captain Bones; the package includes a treasure map. Jim shows the map to physician Dr Livesey and squire John Trelawney, and they decide to go in search of the treasure aboard Trelawney’s vessel, the Hispaniola. On board ship, Jim meets various crew members, including the cook, a one-legged man named Long John Silver.

Shiver me timbers, but this was good! There are intrigues, dangers, plots, mutinies, battles, and double-crosses galore to keep the reader engaged and turning pages. And if danger isn’t enough, there are the added lures of the tropics and of treasure. If the story line is somewhat farfetched, well, who cares. It’s fun and exciting. And Stevenson gave birth to the quintessential pirate – a man with one wooden pegleg and with a parrot on his shoulder.

Ralph Cosham does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. I’d probably give him 5***** for his performance.

I also had the Scribner illustration edition handy to refer to. I’m so glad this is the edition I got from my library. It has 13 full-color plates of illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. A treasure, indeed!


LINK to my review

Gaudy Night – Dorothy L Sayers
Book on CD read by Ian Carmichael
2.5***

Book # 10 in the Lord Peter Wimsey series focuses not on Peter, but on Harriet Vane.

Harriet arrives at Shrewsbury College, Oxford, for the annual celebration known as Gaudy Night. She is one of the alumnae, though hardly typical, remaining single and earning her living as a mystery writer, while keeping company with Lord Peter Wimsey, whose proposals of marriage she keeps declining. But what promised to be a pleasant, if sometimes awkward, homecoming, turns decidedly ominous with a series of destructive “pranks” and malicious, vile graffiti.

This seemed very slow and plodding for a mystery, and I wasn’t terribly interested in much of it. Lord Peter is off on some secret assignment, and difficult to reach, though Harriet does manage to get him to come to her aid when she’s unable to capture the “poltergeist” on her own.

There were times when I was ready to applaud Sayers’ efforts at focusing the story on the women – not just the students and staff of Shrewsbury, but the alumnae who were also present. There certainly were plenty of suspects and the perpetrator seemed able to vanish without a trace. But the series is focused on Lord Peter Wimsey, after all, so he had to make an appearance. Still, I was irritated that it was HE who finally solved the case. And the speech the culprit gave once caught, a diatribe on “women’s place at home, caring for her man and not taking jobs as should be his,” just set my teeth on edge.

Ian Carmichael is a talented actor, and he plays Lord Peter in the BBC series based on these books. But with the focus on Harriet and the women of Shrewsbury, I think the audiobook would have been better if narrated by a woman.

Letters From Father Christmas – J R R Tolkien
4****

This lovely volume – I had the centenary edition – duplicates the letters from Father Christmas which were sent to Tolkien’s children beginning in 1920 and continuing for the next twenty-three years. The letters relate the many adventures Father Christmas and his helpers – The North Polar Bear, elves, etc – have both in preparation for the big day and throughout the year.

Tolkien seriously disguised his handwriting / printing, using a very shaky hand that is quite difficult for these old eyes, so I’m grateful for the printed text accompanying the photos of each letter. If I were a young person I would probably try to memorize Polar Bear’s unique alphabet and use that to write notes to my friends (something I did with Tolkien’s Elven runes back in the day after reading The Hobbit ). I much enjoyed the inventiveness of these missives and loved the hand-drawn illustrations of the Northern Lights, or a Goblin War, or a flood caused by … well, I won’t spoil it for you.

My only disappointment is that we don’t see any of the letters Tolkien’s children wrote back to Father Christmas.

Still, it’s a treasure to be enjoyed by more generations of both children and adults.



LINK to my review

Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
3***

I’ve read two of Jackson’s classic “horror” tales previously: The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived In the Castle . So, I knew she was a talented writer. But I had no idea she had such a wicked sense of humor!

This collection of essays / vignettes is about Jackson and her family’s move to a small town in Vermont, where she and her husband settled into a large house and proceeded to fill it with children and books, a dog, two cats and “literally thousands of socks.”

It takes place in the early to mid 1950s, when women were typically homemakers, juggling all the aspects of running the household and raising the children, while their husbands went to work, read the newspaper, and occasionally played catch with their sons. The episodes includes a furnace on the blink, a rodent in the house, shopping for children’s clothes and shoes, everyone having the grippe, PTA meetings, shopping for and making family meals (not to mention LOTS of chocolate pudding) and learning to drive. Fueled by little more than coffee, cigarettes and a cocktail before dinner, Jackson dealt with it all with humor and a somewhat detached manner that preserved her sanity.



LINK to my review

Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Digital audiobook narrated by Johanna Ward
4****

Miss Fanny Price is taken in by her rich relation, Sir Thomas Bertram, and his wife as an act of charity. Her family is poor and with seven children, resources are simply stretched too thin. Fanny is a quiet, sensible, obedient little thing, and grows into a quiet, sensible, graceful young woman. Her two cousins, Sir Thomas’s daughters Maria and Julia treat her well, but are far more interested in their own prospects. And there are several eligible, if not completely suitable, young men in the neighborhood.

Ah, but I love spending time with Austen. Fanny is perhaps the ideal heroine, and reportedly Austen’s own favorite among her heroines. She is intelligent and thoughtful, pretty and graceful, keeps her own counsel, is modest and principled, and still has a loving heart.

A couple of the gentlemen in the area seem interested in Fanny – she is very pretty, after all, and Sir Thomas is bound to leave her some money. But Fanny would rather be alone than marry a man she cannot love and respect.

There is a certain predictable pattern to Austen’s novels, and this one is no exception. Our heroine will remain true to herself, and love will triumph.

Johanna Ward does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. She brings Austen’s witty dialogue to life.



LINK to my full review

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
Book on CD performed by Christian Rummel
5*****

NOTE I first listened to the audio performed by Kevin Foley in July 2012. This is an update of that review with added comments regarding Mr Rummel’s audio performance.

Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway are neighbors, best friends, and born just minutes apart. The 13-year-old boys live in the small town of Green Town, Illinois and are looking forward to Halloween. But this year, Halloween will come early, because on Oct 24, just after midnight, Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show will come to town with its carnival rides, mirror maze, sideshow freaks, and a carousel that can change your life.

Bradbury was a master of suspense and sci-fi. Here he turns his imagination loose on every child’s dream – and nightmare. Clowns and fortune tellers are both fascinating and frightening. A trip inside the funhouse mirror maze elicits feelings of adventure and claustrophobia. And who doesn’t love to be scared on a carnival ride – whipped around on the Tilt-a-Whirl, feeling your heart drop as you round the top of the Ferris wheel, made dizzy as the carousel spins round and round? Parents are old and useless, except when they are inventive and heroic.

This book scared the beejesus out of me – and I was listening ONLY in broad daylight, during my daily commute. Like the best roller coaster, Bradbury S-L-O-W-L-Y drew me up the incline of suspense, dropped me into terror, and then evened out to let me catch my breath, only to realize there was another, steeper, incline ahead. When, finally, the ride was over I was giddy with relief … and wanted to “go again!”

Kevin Foley’s performance on the audio was magnificent. His youthful enthusiasm for Jim and Will made me willing to go along on this adventure that I would NEVER attempt in real life. Just remembering his oily voice for Mr Dark gives me the shivers.

Update 30Oct2022 Ten years later I decided to re-read (or re-listen) to this classic – a perfect Halloween book!. I searched all the libraries in the county for Foley’s performance, because it was so memorable, but it was no longer available. Well, Christopher Rummel was more than up to the task. He is a talented voice artist. His Dust Witch and Mr Dark are perhaps even more frighteningly evil than Foley’s! As I did before, I listened ONLY during broad daylight. Still scared the beejesus out of me. Bravo!




LINK to my review

Poirot Investigates – Agatha Christie
Book on CD narrated by David Suchet
3***

From the book jacket: What do a movie star, an archaeologist, a French maid, a prime minister, a wealthy dowager, and an Italian count have in common? Half of them have fallen victim to a terrible crime. The others have fallen under suspicion. Leave the deductions to Hercule Poirot.

My reactions
This was the first collection of short stories featuring the little Belgian and his “little grey cells” that Christie compiled. I love Poirot and I really appreciate the friendship and banter between him and Captain Hastings.

Of course, I am also a huge fan of the PBS series, starring David Suchet as Poirot, and recently I re-watched a number of episodes. As a result several of these stories were somewhat anticlimactic for me, because I knew the culprit from the beginning.

I do cringe at the way Christie characterizes certain characters who are not white men. But these are a product of the time and there was, unfortunately, little sensitivity to or tolerance of “others.” The short stories, also, do little to give the reader many of the clues which Poirot spends time thinking about, and rely heavily on his explanations to Hastings at the end of each episode outlining his “methodical thinking.” The full-length novels are much better at giving the reader more of a chance to match wits with Poirot.

Even so, he is still among my favorite detectives, and I enjoyed these stories very much.

The audiobook is marvelously performed by David Suchet. He is such a talented actor and well able to give the many characters unique voices, even doing a passable job with the women. However, the audio did not contain all the stories that were in the print version, so I read four of them in text version.




LINK to my review

Pied Piper –Nevil Shute
4****

This work of fiction was written in 1942, and set in 1940, so the events portrayed were contemporary. The basic story line involves an elderly British man, John Howard, who goes on holiday to France’s Jural Mountains, near the border with Switzerland in April, planning to stay three months. But the Germans begin to cross into France while he is on holiday, and he must make the decision to return to England. A British woman staying at the same small inn with her two children, asks him to please take the boy and girl with him to their aunt in England. He agrees, expecting a non-eventful journey of two days. But …

This is a road trip and a suspense thriller with an undercurrent of family relationships and love. Mr Howard is a marvelous character. He’s unaccustomed to children but does his best; the boy and girl are only eight and five, after all. They don’t know to be frightened of German soldiers or tanks or airplanes. They’re excited by the adventure. They also need to be fed and clothed and bathed and given shelter. Sometimes they need to be entertained or to play. Sometimes they just don’t want to walk any more, or eat dry bread, or speak French. Along the way Mr Howard encounters other refugee children. He can’t very well leave them alone, so he takes them along as well.

There are several people who help Mr Howard – a ride here, a place to sleep there. I really liked the subplot of Nicole, a young French woman whose father once befriended Mr Howard and who agrees to help him. Their conversations help to uncover the hurt and pain each has suffered and that they share. And the reader witnesses how they open up to one another and begin to heal from past hurts.

Courage does not always involve fighting the enemy. Mr Howard and Nicole display the kind of quiet courage that comes from a deep conviction that what they are doing is correct, and a strong faith that somehow, they will prevail.




LINK to my review

The Nursing Home Murder – Ngaio Marsh
2**

Book number three in the Roderick Alleyn mystery series by renowned New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh. This time Inspector Detective Alleyn is called to investigate the death of a Britain’s Home Secretary. Sir Derek O’Callahan had been complaining of abdominal pain for some days, but it wasn’t until he collapsed that he went to hospital. By then his abscessed appendix had burst and emergency surgery was needed. The operation was a success but Sir Derek died shortly thereafter. His wife insisted on an inquest and the results showed an overdose of a particular drug. But who administered it?

As is typical of Marsh’s writing there is little exposition or description and a lot of dialogue and repetition. There are plenty of suspects – including a vengeful surgeon, a nurse (whose a former lover), an unhappy wife, and a host of political foes - and more than few red herrings. There’s also a subplot involving Bolsheviks that clearly places the reader in the timeframe.

Marsh is frequently compared to the other “Queens of Crime” of the early 20th century (Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers for example). Her work has endured for nearly a century, but I am not much of a fan. This is the third of her books I’ve read and the third time I’m giving one of her books two stars.


LINK to my review

Can't believe this is 50 years old!


The Winds of War – Herman Wouk
5*****

Book # 1 in the Henry Family saga introduces us to Commander Victor Henry, his wife Rhoda, and their children: Warren, Byron and Madeline. Victor wants a battleship, but he’s been selected to serve as Naval attache in Berlin. It’s 1937 and he’ll have a front-row seat to history.

This is a larger than life story to tell, and Wouk could not manage to finish it in just one volume (even though this book is nearly 900 pages long in original hardcover). It ends just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Henry family is facing not only a world war but considerable personal upheaval. Both sons are naval officers serving in the Pacific, while daughter Madeline remains at her job in New York (and the subject of a scandal that will surely ruin her reputation). Victor’s Jewish daughter-in-law remains trapped in Europe, having delayed her return to the US in deference to her aged (and improbably naïve) uncle. And both Pug and Rhoda are questioning whether they want to continue their marriage, or find more suitable partners.

The soap opera drama of the family’s story pulls the reader through, but Wouk includes much history. There are occasional interruptions in the family saga to report on the historical events, including examinations of each side’s military readiness and strategy.

I first read this book sometime in the mid to late 1970s; it was originally published in 1971. Recently my husband found a hardcover copy in our local Little Free Library. He’d never read it before and was so enthusiastic about it that I decided to re-read it. I’m glad I did. He has already read the sequel, War and Remembrance , but I think I’ll hold off on re-reading that one for a while.




LINK to my review

Okay ... this isn't a classic, but it IS based on classic mythology.


Circe – Madeline Miller
Audiobook performed by Perdita Weeks
5*****

In this marvelous work of literary fiction, Miller, tells us the story of Circe, daughter of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, and possibly best known for turning Odysseus’s men into swine.

I studied the classics in high school so was familiar with the basic story line, and some of the family connections, but Miller gives me so much more detail and really fleshes out these characters. With the possible exception of Scylla, no one is all good or all evil. Whether mere mortals, or exalted gods, they succumb to jealousy, ambition, greed, lust, and pride. They exhibit compassion, tenderness, loyalty and love.

This is the stuff of myths, so there are fantastical elements. I kept wondering where Circe got all her stores of provisions – seemingly endless supplies of wine, cheese, fruit, bread, not to mention the many herbs she used for her potions. But I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, and gave myself up to Miller’s excellent and gripping story-telling.

Miller’s writing wove a spell that completely enthralled me. I was so beguiled that a part of me wished the novel itself were immortal, and that I could keep reading forever.

I listened to the audiobook, marvelously performed by Perdita Weeks. She has many characters to handle and she has the skill to do it well.

I was glad to have a copy of the text handy, as well, because it includes a cast of characters which explains the various relationships between gods, mortals and monsters.


LINK to my review

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Digital audiobook narrated by Kate Reading
4****

One of the best opening lines of literature: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

I thought it was okay when I read it in high school. I re-read it shortly after the BBC mini-series came out and really appreciated it. I’ve seen several film adaptations. And now I’ve listened to the audio version.

It's no wonder this is a classic. Austen is simply the master of dialogue. The way in which the characters interact brings them to life. From Mrs Bennet’s hysterics, to Lydia’s self-centered teen-aged giddiness, to Mr Collins’ simpering diatribes, to Jane’s cautious and measured observations, to Elizabeth’s outrage and clever responses to Darcy and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the dialogue simply sparkles.

Kate Reading does a marvelous job narrating the audio book. Her pacing is good, moving the action forward at a satisfactory clip. She gives each of the girls a sufficiently distinct voice that I was never lost in dialogue between sisters. Of course, she has the advantage of Austen’s skill with writing each of these characters with a unique speech pattern.

Update:
Different audio version, this time narrated by Carolyn Seymour. I think I like Seymour's narration even better than Reading's, and that's saying a lot. Totally enjoyable experience, and I noticed things about the relationships and the way that Austen crafted the plot that I hadn't noticed before. Truly a work that has earned its place in the English canon.

The Yellow Wallpaper and Selected Writings – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4****

The title short story is Gilman’s classic story of a woman driven mad by her husband’s controlling “remedy” for her post-partum depression. Told in first person, the woman relates how her physician husband, John, has secured a colonial estate for their summer getaway. He is a very practical man and sure of his scientific facts. His prescription for his wife’s malaise is completely rest, and so she is locked in her attic bedroom, with its hideous yellow wallpaper and ordered to do NOTHING. No, not even a walk in the garden. And slowly she goes mad. Frankly, I was not a great fan of this story and dreaded reading the rest of the collection as a result, but I’m glad I persisted.

First published in 1892, Gilman’s story ignited some controversy, and she has been hailed as a feminist. She certainly is that. Among the stories in the collection is one involving a woman-developed pair of communities, where men take second place, and women run the show, and which prosper in a determined obscurity. Other stories show women stretching their wings and engaging in additional education or business pursuits despite their husband’s (or father’s or brother’s) objections, and succeeding, not just in their businesses but in life.

While the focus of virtually all these stories is the lives of women –how they are repressed, how they overcome, how they succeed – there is one notable story, Mr Peebles’s Heart, that shows the advantages to the man in the relationship from also spreading his wings and giving over some of the duties traditionally assigned to men to a woman in his life (wife, employee, sister, etc).



LINK to my review

Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier – 4****
What a wonderfully atmospheric, dark, sinister tale! I shivered with the damp, cold fog, strained to see by faint candle or lamp light, listened to the alternating whispers and shouts of a rabble of men up to no good. Mary Yellan is a marvelous heroine. Young and somewhat naïve, she is still a strong woman, resolute and determined to make the best of her situation. Du Maurier’s plot is intricate and complex and had several twists & turns in it. I wish there were a sequel so I could find out what Mary Yellen is like as an older woman!
My full review HERE

THIS is not a classic, but a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear


Even In Paradise – Elizabeth Nunez
4****

This is a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear set in the Caribbean. Peter Duckworth is a Trinidadian and proud of it, but after his wife dies he decides to move to Barbados where he builds a magnificent house, high on a hill, surrounded by considerable property and with stunning views of the sea. His youngest daughter, Corrine, continues to live with him, while his older daughters are at university and about to be married.

What a wonderful character study! Nunez had me on the edge of my seat a few times, even though I knew the basic story line already. I liked how she wove in current issues of race and class and history of colonialism (and slavery) in the Caribbean.

Her narrator is Emile, the son of a prominent black doctor who once saved Peter Duckworth’s life. He first meets Duckworth and Corrine at the racetrack stables in Trinidad, when Corrine is just a child, 9 or 10 years old. He later reconnects with the family when they’ve moved to Barbados and he is a university student. His best friend, Albert Glazal, has fallen in love with Glynnis and he’s invited Emile to come along when he’s to meet Mr Duckworth for the first time.

The tragic event is shrouded in further mystery, and I’m glad that Nunez leaves so much to the imagination. What IS clear is the motivation of Glynnis. Poor Albert. But I’m reminded of the parable of the little girl who picks up a half-dead rattlesnake …. He knew what he was getting into.

LINK to my review