Constant Reader discussion

I'm halfway through Anthony Doerr's Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. He recounts spending a year in Rome with his wife and his two young twins. Good writing. Makes me want to be in Rome and the other places he visits in Italy.

One more short story to go in my one story a day reading of Rose Tremain's The American Lover which I have been posting on my blog about and via the CR Short Story thread. Definitely recommended.

I have also started two books for my in person book group which I would not normally have picked up.

Having failed at every attempt I have ever made to read any Jane Austen but having a huge fan in our bookgroup we are reading Persuasion. I've decided to listen to it on audio and got to chapter 6 last weekend, but have hit the wall again and haven't touched it for a week! I realise I am in a minority but to me her woman heroines are only strong because the other women are so weak. Whinning women like the Miss Musgroves just drive me mad!

The second book is one suggested for my in person bookgroup but which failed to be chosen by the group. It is Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont which I decided to pick up on the basis that this English novelist was well respected and highly regarded in her day but has gone out of fashion and because another member recommended the film version to me which stars Joan Plowright, which can't be a bad recommendation. Having also heard her described as Jane Austen meets Philip Roth I was intrigued. I am making much better progress with this one, a beautifully described character piece, about an elderly lady who takes up residence in the mid 70s in one of the reputable but less well known, cheaper, London hotels. About half way through I can see the Austen in it and see why Austen lovers might like her, but for me I can definitely connect more with Mrs Palfrey than with Anne Elliot, Elizabeth Bennet or Elinor Dashwood.

Sheila wrote: "Having failed at every attempt I have ever made to read any Jane Austen but having a huge fan in our bookgroup we are reading Persuasion. I've decided to listen to it on audio and got to chapter 6 last weekend, but have hit the wall again and haven't touched it for a week! I realise I am in a minority but to me her woman heroines are only strong because the other women are so weak. ..."

Sheila, I am waiting for the attacks to come your way, but I understand what you are saying ... even though I like Jane Austen a lot. I sometimes wonder how much of what we like is JUST our own tastes. We often argue about the literary merit of particular works and some works really do last a long time ... while others don't for various reasons, including a lack of any obvious literary merit. But there are many acclaimed works that don't appeal to me for various reason, while there are some books that I enjoy a lot that could hardly be held up as an example of a work with great literary merit.

In any case, Sheila, I get a lot out your comments on what you are reading. The people who make comments that I don't really get much out of are people who seem to like everything they read or who seem to like nothing that they read (maybe they should stop reading and listen to music, go to a movie, or hit a tennis ball against a wall ... like is too short not to seek out and read great books or enjoyable books or sometimes books that are both great and enjoyable.)

Sheila,
I think its the romance in Austen that appeals to most people. I loved Persuasion, but I didn't come to it until after I saw the movie with Ciarin Hinds and Amanda Peet. The other Austen books I read when I was much younger. I have to admit that I loved them.

I agree with Larry, I'm glad you express your opinion. I also like that you recommend good books that I wouldn't have found on my onw.

Larry, thank you for your thoughtful comment. One of the things I find unsettling and sometimes distressing is when people get jumped in for liking something considered to be of no literary merit or criticized for not liking something considered to have great value.

Larry, Tx for your comments you had me with "Sheila, I am waiting for the attacks to come your way..." which made me smile :) We can't all like the same things, and I never have liked just going with the crowd :) I know from an academic standpoint that literary critics have changed their tune about Austen, but in this respect I suppose I am old school.

Ann, I agree it is the romance that people love and that's how the film and dramatisations of her works have been shaped and played, just look at the furore over Colin Firth's Mr Darcy! I've seen dramatisation versions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and have enjoyed them as light entertainment but have just never managed to finish reading one!

I have promised my in person book group to try! But for now I'm stuck on Chapter 6, other reads being very distracting!

Although I do think many people enjoy the romance in Jane Austen, in her own time she was something of an anti-romantic. She was writing against the conventions of popular novels by Sir Walter Scott, where heroes performed super-human feats and declared their love in long, flowery speeches. Jane Austen portrayed men who were taciturn and more concerned with their estate business than with derring-do.

Speaking as an Austen fan, I'm in it for far, far more than the romance. But that doesn't mean I think everyone should like her. I agree with Larry and others that tastes differ.

I just finished Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It is such an excellent and timely book that I wish all doctors (plus other people!) would read. It has me actively wanting to do something to create a wonderful large household of older people to eventually live in myself, where a homelike environment and as much independent choice as possible can be had by the elderly residents, and to stay there to the end if they desire. The author identifies really well why nursing homes are places that people would rather die than be in, and how the changes needed for people to feel some sense of choice, dignity and connection as their bodies slowly fail them are really fairly simple to enact; the problem has been that doctors and our culture have not looked at what people want most out of the last parts of their lives.

Lyn wrote: "I just finished Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It is such an excellent and timely book that I wish all doctors (plus other people!) would read. It has me active..."

I agree.

Lyn wrote: "I just finished Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It is such an excellent and timely book that I wish all doctors (plus other people!) would read. It has me active..."

Lyn,

You may want to give Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right a try. Less philosophical than the BEING MORTAL book, but just as important. And great writing, in any case.

Larry, how are you liking Four Seasons in Rome? I read it during a trip to Rome which made it even better but I loved it. His descriptions are so evocative. He also wrote a bit about Orvieto, Italy which is one of my favorite places in the world. After I read it, I sent him a message here on goodreads (he's a gr author) and he sent back a very gracious teply.

Sheila, I wouldn't read Austen when I was younger. The women all seemed too subservient to me. But, reading Emma with the Classics people here hooked me. I think what I like most is the dry wit.
I was glad to see your comments about Elizabeth Taylor's book. I was interested in reading something by her before and forgot about it.

Lyn wrote: "I just finished Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It is such an excellent and timely book that I wish all doctors (plus other people!) would read. It has me active..."

Thanks for this review and recommendation, Lyn. I want to read this very soon, because I'm almost seventy and I want to rock the nursing home community on its head - horrible industrial food and all.

Barbara wrote: "Larry, how are you liking Four Seasons in Rome? I read it during a trip to Rome which made it even better but I loved it. His descriptions are so evocative. He also wrote a bit about Orvieto, Ita..."

Barbara, I'm still slowly working my way through the book and savoring every page of it. I noticed that he was living in Idaho again and I just wondered how many things about Rome that he and his and wife missed. Rome is such chaos ... just beautiful, beautiful chaos.

I have particularly enjoyed the many passages where he relates Italians' loving reactions to his twin baby boys.

Kat wrote: "Speaking as an Austen fan, I'm in it for far, far more than the romance."

Me, too.

I think the romances serve a structural function which organize the novels (ends in a happy marriage, everybody goes home), but I think she has mostly other concerns when writing. She has such a great eye for the ways, large and small, that people are kind and unkind to one another, and for how people in circumstances that limit them in various ways can and should act. I think she's a profoundly moral writer--not moralistic, but moral in the best possible sense of the word. Her scope is limited to upper class people of her period, but within these limits she is both strict and also inclined, I think, to explore.

Plus, she's often super funny. You can miss it, but it's definitely there.

Lyn wrote: "I just finished Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It is such an excellent and timely book that I wish all doctors (plus other people!) would read. It has me active..."

I'm glad that Galwande made a point of mentioning the residence that brought in animals for the residents to care for. Having something beyond ourselves to care about and, if we are fortunate, to care for, definitely enriches the lives of many of us. His mother-in-law's situation seemed ideal but, although there was plenty to do, there was nothing to care about.

I have been looking into "after here" places and Galwande's book has given me much to consider.

Nicole wrote: "Kat wrote: "Speaking as an Austen fan, I'm in it for far, far more than the romance."

Me, too.

I think the romances serve a structural function which organize the novels (ends in a happy marriag..."

So well expressed, Nicole!

I too was much impressed with ON BEING MORTAL. I read it last month but have not yet posted a comment. It should be required reading for all ages.
Speaking as a 72 year old, I think it is an important book. His honesty and compassion as he looks at the current state of care for elderly is reassuring, and his common sense in discussing more appropriate alternatives for end stage care is much appreciated.
Finally his clarification of the fundamental choices that we mortals, at some point, must make is practical and very helpful. The fact that he included the story of his own father's surgery for a rare spinal tumor, the radiation, chemo therapy, and finally his decline and death are described with compassion and restraint giving personal credibility to a splendid book.

Katy wrote: "I too was much impressed with ON BEING MORTAL. I read it last month but have not yet posted a comment. It should be required reading for all ages.
Speaking as a 72 year old, I think it i..."

Well said, Katy. And it made me realize how lucky I am in my choice of my primary care doctor.

Ruth wrote: "Katy wrote: "I too was much impressed with ON BEING MORTAL. I read it last month but have not yet posted a comment. It should be required reading for all ages.
Speaking as a 72 year old,..."

Ruth, that's so true. You have to be on the same wave length with your primary doctor, in fact with all of your doctors. I've "fired" a couple who definitely weren't on the same one with me. Since I don't have children, I have to be sure that my doctors know what I want (and those nieces and nephews I'm close to).

Good New Yorker article pertinent to the discussion on Jane Austen that deals with cult following of Austen and other authors.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...

"At the time, I found this off-putting. But—as Austen could tell you—first impressions are often simplistic. Soon enough, I learned that all sorts of people are obsessed with Austen. (The philosopher Gilbert Ryle, asked if he read novels, replied, “Yes—all six, every year.”) I also discovered that almost every truly famous writer has his or her own cult of personality. Austen’s cult has been rivalled by the cults of Dickens, Tolstoy, Eliot, Joyce, Hemingway, Lawrence, and Fitzgerald, among others. Today, readers worship Karl Ove Knausgaard or Elena Ferrante. Janeites may be the Trekkies of the literary world, but their passion is really just a more intensified version of ordinary bookishness."

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – 4****
This is a classic tale of resurrection and redemption set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. It wouldn’t be Dickens without a huge cast of supporting characters, several twists in the plot, secret identities, unexpected connections, and long discourses wherein the characters expound on various issues, while the reader is anxious for the action to continue. But don’t let that dissuade you. It’s a marvelous story and the last hundred pages just flew by for me. Frank Muller does a wonderful job performing the audio book.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Larry wrote: "Good New Yorker article pertinent to the discussion on Jane Austen that deals with cult following of Austen and other authors.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cult......"

The last paragraph of the article sounds like a thread just waiting to be opened.

Can I love Jane Austen's novels but distance myself from the Janeites? :)

Kat wrote: "Can I love Jane Austen's novels but distance myself from the Janeites? :)"

And the Jane Austen fan fiction industry?

Absolutely agree, Kat and Nicole, the Austen fan fiction industry is particularly not for me.

I'm almost throughTestament of Youth by Vera Brittain. It's been a struggle. I'm even considering throwing in the towel, but who quits on page 565 of a 671 page book.

Threw in the towel. You can see my review here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished Janet Frame's Living In The Maniototo. Very post-modern, very metafictional, with extraordinary prose and surprising metaphors. The product of an original mind, dense with ideas and meaning. Not much of a through-line, which means that I always had to push myself to pick it up, but it was certainly an interesting novel of ideas.

The overlapping extended conversations between Jane Austen and Being Mortal became hilarious when reading them as they were posted: Death/Romance, back and forth!

I'm currently over halfway through Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival. I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so it's really interesting. I'm at the point now where the land journeyers are stuck starving with their useless canoes (above an impassible Snake river rapids/waterfalls section) facing Hell's Canyon in November.

For fans of "books about books", I'm about halfway through The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life. I'm pleased he read Anna Karenina and The Master and Margarita, so I don't have to. Author becomes a bit side-tracked in places, but overall I can definitely recommend the book.

The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepulveda – 4****
This is a story of the jungle, green hell and Eden; of the Shuar Indians, who know how to live in harmony with it; of the machines and settlers and gold prospectors and gringos who have invaded it. Nature, out of balance, becomes vengeful and violent. The writing is poetic and atmospheric, with a great sense of place. I couldn’t help but think of my father – the way he knew the land and respected the animals who made it their home.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. I gave it a "5". Pancake built up the suspense so well that I would get tense reading. I looked up what else she has written and found a book of short stories, plus a book being released this February.

This book is set in present day West Virginia and tells the story of a coal mining family— a couple and their four children— living through the latest mining boom and dealing with the mountaintop removal and strip mining that is ruining what is left of their mountain life. As the mine turns the mountains to slag and wastewater, workers struggle with layoffs and children find adventure in the blasted moonscape craters.

It follows several members of the family, with a particular focus on fifteen-year-old Bant and her mother, Lace. Working at a “scab” motel, Bant becomes involved with a young miner while her mother contemplates joining the fight against the mining companies. As domestic conflicts escalate at home, the children are pushed more and more outside among junk from the floods and felled trees in the hollows— the only nature they have ever known. But Bant has other memories and is as curious and strong-willed as her mother, and ultimately comes to discover the very real threat of destruction that looms as much in the landscape as it does at home.

Larry wrote: "Good New Yorker article pertinent to the discussion on Jane Austen that deals with cult following of Austen and other authors.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cult......"

I never fail to be amazed when I read that people read Jane Austen when they were 10, or more commonly in England "I read her at school". I certainly wasn't up to reading her at 10 and definitely did not read her at school. I try to recall what I was reading at 10 and fail miserably to recall reading anything much other than non-fiction (which I hardly ever read now) between the Ladybird books of my very young years to Laurie Lee, DH Lawrence, John Steinbeck, etc of my mid teens schooling. Perhaps I was just a late developer as a reader and certainly a non-starter as a commercial devotee - no tote bags with any writers on them for me, ever!

In the article Larry posted, Rothman writes "Some readers read because they want to know about the here and now" and quotes Lynch as saying "readers of “The Great Gatsby” or “Jane Eyre,”" are “striving to bridge the distance between self and other and now and then.” This made me think more about my own reading.....I think I am less interested in reading about the "here" either now or then - and more interested in reading about the "there" both now and then if my immediate and current reading has anything to go by - I just finished Jamal Ahmad's The Wandering Falcon which was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize. But if I look at my last 6 books then they are split 50/50 between the "here" and "there" and 50/50 between the "now" and "then". If however I look at my ratings for these, then the 2 "here and now" books are amongst the lowest and the highest of my rankings - and the highest actually being a collection of short stories. Perhaps this warrants a more in -depth analysis :)

It's been a nice distraction from book worship, Larry! tx for the link.

Thanks, John, for recommending The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life. This definitely goes on my list.

I have never lied about reading books, but almost 20 years ago, here on Classics Corner, I did set about reading all those classics I had somehow avoided in my misspent reading youth. It sounds like a fun book.

So far, my favorite part, Ann, has been his re-creating the dishes from The Sea, the Sea, a book I'd never heard of previously, though it's famous (more in Britain I suppose).

As an aside to the Austen conversation, in going through boxes that we brought over from my mother's house before we sold that house last year, I found an essay that I had written on Austen's Pride and Prejudice for senior English in 1967. I really had an attitude about that book. I certainly think that Austen is just lost on 18-year old boys. My English teacher was tolerant, probably too tolerant, of my snarky attitude, but then she was a great teacher and taught us a lot not just about English but also about life ... which was important with Vietnam hanging over the heads of many of the boys in my class.

I finished George Pelecanos's The Martini Shot: A Novella and Stories. I love Pelecanos's crime novels about DC. This book has one novella set in Hollywood, one short story set in Brazil, and several other short stories set in DC. I found the DC-based short stories to be the weakest of the bunch. Pelecanos seems to need the length of a novel to hit his stride in story-telling. The Hollywood based novella is good, but it's the Brazil-based short story that's a surprise. It's really good, but with a brutal shock ... enough said.

I just started John Gribbin's Before the Big Bang. It's a 41-page short work on Amazon as a Kindle Single that deals with what what we know (and what we can know) about the state of the universe was in the fraction of a second before the Big Bang happened. By one of my favorite science writers.

Sheila wrote:I never fail to be amazed when I read that people read Jane Austen when they were 10, or more commonly in England "I read her at school". I certainly wasn't up to reading her at 10 and definitely did not read her at school.... Perhaps I was just a late developer as a reader "

I was definitely a late developer as a reader of adult literature. When I hit high school and had to take tests on what things "meant" in the adult novels I was introduced to for the first time, I felt like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Reading had always been a huge pleasure for me, never a "should," but I'd had no experience of digging for hidden meanings. It took me about five years to become comfortable reading literary novels meant for an adult audience. Now I love to dig out the possible significance of what I read, but then I've been at it for decades.

Gina wrote: "I just finished Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. I gave it a "5". Pancake built up the suspense so well that I would get tense reading. I looked u..."

This sounds very interesting. Thanks for the review.

Larry wrote: "My English teacher was tolerant, probably too tolerant, of my snarky attitude, but then she was a great teacher and taught us a lot not just about English but also about life ... which was important with ..."

Nicely put ... what a great influence a good teacher can be ... sometimes in ways s/he did not expect.

The House Girl by Tara Conklin – 3***
In contemporary New York City, attorney Carolina Sparrow is working on an historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves. In 1852, Josephine is a house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco plantation; her mistress is the artist Lu Anne Bell. I loved the sections of the book dealing with Josephine and her struggles. But Conklin alternates chapters and I thought the present-day story weakened the impact of Josephine’s story. Bahni Turpin does a fine job narrating the audio book.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Book Concierge wrote: "Larry wrote: "My English teacher was tolerant, probably too tolerant, of my snarky attitude, but then she was a great teacher and taught us a lot not just about English but also about life ... whic..."

Teachers! I recall two English teachers from secondary school Mrs Dorwood and Mrs Mackay, both made huge impressions on me, and were pivotal persons changing my writing and reading habits respectively.

Finally! I got Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland from the library

I finished The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller last night. I really wanted to like it. Goodreads rated it 4 stars, but I was disappointed. The story was a good (and true) tragedy, and it's the old case of evil oil companies in Wyoming who greedily talk safety but never truly support it. I felt the story could be told in far fewer words, much was repeated several times and I came away knowing this young man was a good person, but I didn't need it hammered into my head. I think I'm at odds with all the other readers who reviewed this book.

I just started another Alice Thomas Ellis book. I've come to really like her books. I'm fairly sure it's Kat's fault.

Nicole and Kat, which Alice Thomas Ellis books do you particularly recommend? I haven't read any of them.

Ann and Nicole,
About twenty years ago I went on an Alice Thomas Ellis jag. Here are a few of the titles I read: SERPENT ON THE ROCK, THE BIRDS OF THE AIR, THE SIN EATER, THE INN AT THE END OF THE WORLD, and THE SUMMER HOUSE: A TRILOGY. The one I liked best was THE SIN EATER, a very acerbic novel. Don't expect me to be able to comment on them. If it weren't for the reading list I began in 1996, I would not have been able to come up with these titles.