Constant Reader discussion

A new thread for March!

I recently finished The Art of Fielding, which I enjoyed very much (four stars) and am planning to start soon on The Marriage Plot, the Eugenides book for that we are scheduled to begin discussing in two weeks (March 15).

I just finished Escape from the World Trade Center. At times the writing in her short chapters is riveting and my heart goes out to the author for the unimaginable horror in what should have been an ordinary workday. However,I found the frequent, lenghthy scripture quotations and Christian testimony to be distracting and I skimmed quite a bit of that.

I've returned to listening to The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (middle section, arrival and adjustment in the north), and must say I think the best format for this one would be as an ebook. The print book would be rather bulky, while the audio feels l-o-n-g with three parallel stories going on; Robin Miles is a kickass narratress though!

Just now starting Saturday Comes: A Novel of Love and Vodou which was a firstreads win :)

Polished offThe House in Good Taste much faster than I'd thought I would due to a sleepless night. Now taking up a second Marilyn French book, In the Name of Friendship: A Novel. I leafed through Meditations on Mary also just looking at the various artworks used in the illustration of the book -- some great pieces and artists utilized in this -- will start it today as well.

Philip wrote: "A new thread for March!

I recently finished The Art of Fielding, which I enjoyed very much (four stars) and am planning to start soon on The Marriage Plot, the Eu..."

I didn't like it Phillip.(Art of Fielding) It was okay for me , but not outstanding. For some reason all I could think of was Edgar Sawtelle.

That's interesting, Kitty, because I saw some similarities to the Edgar Sawtelle book too. I found most of the characters in Art of Fielding to be exaggerated stereotypes, but liked the father-daughter story line. I also enjoyed the small-town eastern Wisconsin angle, and the small liberal arts college life, since that is part of what I grew up with.

That I didn't mind,Phillip, I liked that also, but to be fair I hated Sawtelle, so right a way there was a black mark.


I am enjoying The Shipping News, almost done and I am finding it well written.

Odd, I didn't think of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle when reading The Art of Fielding and still can't see any similarities now that it's been mentioned. What brought the connection to mind? That said, I did think of The Art of Fielding when reading Michael Cunningham's By Nightfall this past week and was pleasantly surprised. I'll have to read reviews of the book to see why it seems to get such lukewarm reactions.

Just started Family Matters on MAP's recommendation and am pulled into it.

For me, Yulia, a large part of the comparison was the way the landscapes were described - I thought both books were quite good on the visuals.

Yulia -- I was part of a similar extended Indian family for a while, and completely related to the story.

Before starting on The Marriage Plot I decided to read the graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel for my in-person group Directed reading. This is my first graphic novel (aside from boyhood comic books?) The book has grabbed me pretty hard, and I find the drawings quite compelling as accompaniment to the text.

Working on A Dance with Dragons and Catherine.

Finally committing myself to read Freedom at Midnight. I added it late last year on someones recommendation.

Great, Yulia. Another recruit!

I just finished The Drop. I love Michael Connelly.

I'm going to start The Big Sleep. I know, I know...I'm late for the discussion.

Just finished The Rules of Civility, about which I had mixed feelings, and Alan Bennett's book, A Life Like Other People's, a memoir like no memoir I've ever read. His writing is amazing. Am now reading Plainsong which I think is also beautifully written.

Jane -- have you watched, or listened to, Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" monologues?

John wrote: "Jane -- have you watched, or listened to, Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" monologues?"

No, I haven't, John. I'll google them to see where I can find them. There is so much to like about Bennett. One of my favorite sentences in A Life Like Other People's: Bennett's Aunt Myra has died and he is talking to an older relative, Florence. Florence had recently written a two page letter sharing her news with the Bennetts. "Halfway down the page came the sentence, 'Frank died last week, haven't we been having some weather?' Seldom can a comma have borne such a burden." The book is filled with this kind of humor, and also the heartbreak of his parents' goodness, reticence and inability to bear the world. I love Bennett's writing.

The Rules of Civility got mixed reviews from Goodreads readers. Some included it on their favorite books of the year lists. Others gave up mid-way. I began to skim because I just didn't care enough, but I wanted to see what others found so compelling. Comparing it to Plainsong, which I was reading at the same time, it fell short in so many ways. If the characters in Plainsong are "salt of the earth" kinds of people; the characters in The Rules of Civility strike me as "froth of the earth." The sentences are less beautifully written, less beautifully cadenced as well. I want to know what people loved about The Rules...It evokes upper-class Manhattan as World War II draws close. It begins with Walker Evans photos. The title is taken from what I assume are actual "rules of civility" written by George Washington, and taken to heart by Tinker Grey, one of the main characters. Every sentence leaves me caring less, where exactly the opposite happens as I read Plainsong.

Apparently someone in my face to face book group, while discussing Plainsong, said it felt claustrophobic. Small town life probably can. Rules of Civility feels rudderless, washed in alcohol and empty witticisms. Many of the characters seem to have a great deal of money and very little internal life.

Well, I stuck it out, although I kept skimming on occasion. I think that I was having conversations with those who loved the book (the other Jane and Yulia, for example) and with Ruth who abandoned it. Began to see it as a book about place (New York) and about literature itself (both of the main characters are dedicated readers and it is one of the things that connects them). Ruth, I did find many very brief sections that allude to Katey's background. By many, I mean "eight to ten passages." I know I was looking for them after your comment. The issue of class is huge in the book. What will people do to achieve wealth and a particular kind of life style? What will they refuse? Tinker, Katey and her friend Eve all struggle with that. There are parts that are quite wonderful even though I wouldn't put it on a favorites list.

Speaking of the way books show up throughout the novel, in this scene, Katey is reading aloud to Eve. She begins with To the Lighthouse, which Eve pronounces, "Dreadful," and then picks up Hemingway. Eve asks her to begin "Anywhere but the beginning" and Katey skips ahead to page 104.

"Starting on page 104 made Hemingway's prose even more energetic than usual. Without the early chapter, all the incidents became sketches and all the dialogue innuendo. Bit characters stood on equal footing with the central subjects and positively bludgeoned them with disinterested common sense. The protagonists didn't fight back. They seemed relieved to be freed from the tyranny of their tale. It made me want to read all of Hemingway's books this way.

I wondered at this point whether these might be the author's instructions (unconscious, perhaps) for how to read "The Rules of Civility."

Read as two characters' relationship to literature, the book has definite charm.

Jane, I probably appreciated the book more because I wasn't looking for or expecting brilliance, but simply allowed myself to enjoy the experience. I went to private school on scholarship and identified with the experiences of an outsider looking into the privileged world of Manhattan. It's a lopsided world I still inhabit with ambivalence. So though I found Katey to be rather flat, I appreciated her journey into a supposedly more comfortable life she nonetheless remained uncomfortable in. Perhaps it also enabled me not to feel ashamed about the more superficial (and arguably less enlightened) part of myself that loves beautiful clothing.

I'm about 85 pgs into JG Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, the second volume in Empire Trilogy. I read first volume, Troubles, about 10 years ago, and enjoyed it immensely. SoK is decent so far, not as good as Troubles; characters are less nuanced, more stereotypical, as Farrell appears more intent on satirizing everyone -- Brits and Indians -- than in Vol 1. Nonetheless, the satire is well-done, but not over-the-top. I'm interested enough to keep going.

Reading 3 books at a time is provinding a difficult task to me, since college loves to leave us assignments and no room for free time. Nevertheless, granted that I have some time on my way to school and returning home, I'm reading The Norse Myths, Inferno and The Black Prism, the former going very, very slow...

Also, I'm hopping to begin readingAmerican Gods as soon as I find it in a bookstore in my city.

The Small Woman - Alan Burgess
4****

What an extraordinary woman Gladys Aylward was. In 1930 she left England for China entirely on her own volition. She had quit school at age 14, having never passed a single examination (per her own recollection), and had worked as a parlourmaid. But she felt called by God to become a missionary in China, and even though no established organization would consider her application she was determined to fulfill God’s wish. She heard of a lone woman, Mrs Lawson, working in a remote area of China who hoped to be able to pass along her work to a younger woman. So Gladys saved the fare for a third-class passage on the Trans-Siberia Express, and set out for China trusting that God would show her the way.

This biography was first published in 1957, and the edition I read had an epilogue, added in 1969. The book had by then been made into the popular movie Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman. Gladys, herself, never saw the film and didn’t understand why anyone would be interested in her life. I’m just glad she agreed to tell her story.

NOTE re Book title / edition The GoodReads database doesn't have the book listed under this title w/ any cover art. So I chose the alternate title (taken from the movie) of The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness to put on my shelf.

Murder at the Vicarage – Agatha Christie
Audio book performed by James Saxon
3.5***

This charming cozy introduced Miss Jane Marple, unflappable, curious and observant resident of St. Mary Mead. When Colonel Lucius Protheroe is found in the vicar’s study with a bullet in his head there are plenty of suspects. Still, Inspector Slack is at a loss – there do not appear to be any clues, almost everyone has an airtight alibi, and no one heard the shot. But Miss Marple has been reading some of those American detective novels and she has a few ideas.

Her role in this, her debut, is really rather small. Most of the detecting and investigating seems to be done by Mr. Clement, the vicar. Miss Marple just volunteers a few choice observations, and, of course, the final explanation. Christie really knew how to craft a good mystery. The plot moves along briskly, there are sufficient red herrings to keep the reader guessing, and the final reveal makes perfect sense (even if it is a surprise).

James Saxon is excellent as the performer of this audio book. Christie’s works have large casts, and Saxon is up to the task of voicing the many characters in this book. I appreciate that he reads at a fairly brisk pace, too.

I enjoyed The Art of Fielding but was ultimately quite disappointed with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

I'm reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking and so far, being an introvert is a lot more interesting than a book about them!

I just finished Rules of Civility and I loved it! It is bright, intelligent, well crafted, and beautifully written. It gives us a rather sophisticated segment of New York society just as the Great Depression is winding down, and World War II is looming on the horizon. It looks back to the old New York of Edith Wharton and forward to the brash city of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It reveals what lies under the social veneer. Those who survive in this hard edged and competitive place have to be tough. Still, I liked the characters; I found the plot credible; and the direct dialogue, entertaining. For me it was a refreshing and enjoyable read.

I'm reading a very good book by Jack London, THE VALLEY OF THE MOON, and loving it. I believe it's semi-autobiographical about a young couple in 1907 Oakland, CA. who meet and decide to escape the unions' strikes and class stuggle of the city to find a home in the country. Very different book from what you usually think of London's writing. I'd not heard of this book until I recently visited Jack London's lovely estate in northern California, now a state park. Sad that he died so young.

Lyn wrote: "I enjoyed The Art of Fielding but was ultimately quite disappointed with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

I'm reading [book:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World T..."

Lynn I just saw a Ted Talk about introverts. Must have been by this author since she just wrote a book. It challenged me about "group work." Really fascinating.

The Circuit: Stories From the life of a Migrant Child – Francisco Jimenez
5*****

This slim volume packs an extraordinary emotional punch. The stories Jimenez relates are autobiographical, depicting the life he and his family led as migrant workers in 1940s California. Told from the perspective of the second son in a strong, loving family, the stories carry the reader through about eight years of working “the circuit.”

What I particularly like about the book is that while Jimenez doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties of this life, he doesn’t dwell on the negatives, either. Yes, we suffer with the family when they cannot afford medical care for a seriously ill child, the father is injured on the job, or people take advantage of their circumstances. But what is more memorable to me is the enjoyment in reading about the pleasure of exploring a new setting, of inventing games to play, of laughing with your friends or family, of learning new skills, of achieving goals. I think it is an accurate depiction of how children see the world and their place in it. Jimenez was wise to choose this voice for his stories. I could not help but think of my father, or of cousins who “picked cherries every summer.” I cried, I laughed; I loved this family.

The ending is a kick to the stomach and I sat stunned for a few moments … looking at the last two blank pages and the back cover in disbelief that the book had ended. I know there is a sequel and I will definitely read it.

Hunh, never heard of that one, Marjorie. Wonder if it's in the 2nd Lib of America volume of London's works, the one I don't have? Anyway, sounds interesting.

Marjorie wrote: "I'm reading a very good book by Jack London, THE VALLEY OF THE MOON, and loving it. I believe it's semi-autobiographical about a young couple in 1907 Oakland, CA. who meet and decide to escape the..."

Katy wrote: "I just finished Rules of Civility and I loved it! It is bright, intelligent, well crafted, and beautifully written. It gives us a rather sophisticated segment of New York society just as the Great ..."

I,too, loved this book and placed it as my top faavorite of last year

I finished Jurassic Park on Saturday and am starting The Lost World. So far I really like it. My husband has been pestering for months to read them. Hopefully, I get caught up in time to read the Marriage Plot soon!

Finished Dzanc Books's 30 Under 30 anthology. Meh.

The Lacuna
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
Audio book performed by the author.
4****

I had a difficult time with this novel. I did not like Kingsolver’s voice as narrator at the outset, which made my mind wander as I “listened.” Then the first disc got caught in the CD player (it’s on the way to the factory to be retrieved, one hopes, without damage). I finally got going and then had an auto accident that left me without the car for a couple of days (and the book left in the vehicle). All that has nothing to do with the novel, except that it is possibly part of the reason I don’t give it that final 5th star, because, ultimately, I loved this book.

Kingsolver tells the story of William Harrison Shepherd, a young man caught in the gaps (the lacunae) between two countries, two parents, two cultures, two lives (public and private). The novel unfolds as a series of diary entries, letters, and newspaper clippings, spanning the period from 1929 to 1954. Never quite at ease with his place in the world, Shepherd is an astute observer, who carefully considers what he witnesses and forms his own opinions. But he is not a man of action; he goes along for the ride, letting history unfold around him and never quite understanding how it has derailed his meager hopes. When he fails to play the media’s game, he finds himself the object of increasingly outlandish stories; and, eventually, accusations taken as truths will destroy him. The lacuna that is most important here is the space between truth and a falsehood perceived as truth.

I love how Kingsolver’s luscious writing paints the landscape and time period. I could just about taste the sugary pan dulce or savory chalupas; was nearly deafened by the howler monkeys, the din of the marketplace or the shouts of demonstrators and riot police; I relished in the colors of the tropics and felt subdued by the grey of a mountain winter.

I did eventually grow to appreciate the author’s narration, though I really had a difficult time with her performance at the outset. I thought she was too “careful” with her words; it lacked emotion and “life.” But she really shone, in my opinion, when she voiced Frida Kahlo and, especially later in the novel, Violet Brown. I think I am going to have to read this one again – this time in a text format.

Apart from the fact that I hope to start reading Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present as soon as I have finished some of the outstanding manuscripts, I came across this passage from Arnold Jansen op de Haar, a novelist & poet, who recently wrote this:

This reminds me of a question I was asked recently: ‘Why should I read your novel?’ ‘Because it’s interesting,’ I suggested. That wasn’t reason enough for the person asking the question. Later I thought of a better answer: ‘Because it may change your life.’

I thought I’d share it with you because it is an interesting question: how do we decide which novels to read?

BC,
I was so glad to see you mention THE CIRCUIT. I teach the title story in my ESL Reading class, and this year, in particular, my better readers really connected to it. They are not migrants themselves - one is from Hong Kong, one is from the Dominican Republic, and one is a Somali refugee- but they really empathized with Panchito who made a wonderful connection with a teacher, but was forced to move on with his family to yet another farm. They wanted to read the whole book and some of them went on to read the sequel - BREAKING THROUGH. That's quite an accomplishment for students who are reading in another language.

I put The Marriage Plot down after 75 pages. I'll leave it to its many fans. I've moved on to The Time In Between,
which looks very promising.

The Lost Boy, Replacement Child, Auschwitz, The Lovely Bones, Little Women, A beautiful Mind, Memory Keepers Daughter

I've just started A Mountain of Crumbs

I finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King this afternoon and it was brilliant! Now I've started reading Four to Score by Janet Evanovich.

Finished And Then There Were None -- probably one of my favorite Christies so far, which surprised me. Finished The Brass Verdict also - which since I unexpectedly find myself serving on a jury this week was kind of apropos. Ripping through The Affair: A Reacher Novel , The Kitchen Witch , and my pen-pal books for two of my groups: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ; and The Borgia Bride -- each fascinating in its own way and all very different reads.

Gary,
I loved MOUNTAIN OF CRUMBS. Tell us what you think.

Ann

May Day I downloaded this today by Beth's recommendation. It was free for the Kindle. I must say a surprising book. It is holding my interest. It starts out a little slow , but it picks up , and now I can't wait to see the outcome. The author used lovely descriptions of Springtime in Minnesota, you can almost smell the earth , grasses, and flowers. Except for the gratuitous sex in the beginning it is a nice read. I don't know how long it will be free.

I started The Secret History by Donna Tartt a couple of days ago - on a plane trip. I was really engrossed through many hours of plane & airports! The return trip is tomorrow, and hope to finish it then. The characters' affectations are beginning to wear on me a bit.

Kitty, Spring in Minnesota is beautiful but usually tardy and all too brief. With this year's laugher of a winter, things look rather different.

Philip wrote: "Kitty, Spring in Minnesota is beautiful but usually tardy and all too brief. With this year's laugher of a winter, things look rather different."

I thought of you as I was reading this book,it is a bit of fluff,but entertaining.

I read the Quiet: The Power of Introverts... book a few weeks ago and enjoyed it as it justified my enjoyment of just being alone. I also liked how it talked about the great introvert attributes that make a good leader. I don't feel obligated to be "out there" so much anymore. Quite a few of my friends and co-workers have read it too and we've had some really good discussions on it. I started reading another book similar to it, which I don't have here now, so don't recall the name of, but it actually points out that there are probaably significantly more introverts in this world than extroverts. I bet most of us here on CR are introverts, b/c introverts are much more likely to be deep thinkers and to enjoy the solitude of reading!

Philip wrote: "A new thread for March!

I recently finished The Art of Fielding, which I enjoyed very much (four stars) and am planning to start soon on The Marriage Plot, the Eu..."

Philip, I have begun The Art of Fielding. It's wonderful. Reminds me of John Irving, only I like the sentences more.

Sylvia, I hope introverts will be granted more respect and freedom to be themselves due to the attention given to their essential role in society. When I tell people I'm an introvert, they say, "No!" as if I were admitting something shameful they want to reassure me is untrue. One grad student I knew in college said, "But you don't hate people!" In fact, I don't :)

Sylvia wrote: "I read the Quiet: The Power of Introverts... book a few weeks ago and enjoyed it as it justified my enjoyment of just being alone. I also liked how it talked about the great introvert attributes t..."

I want to read this book. I keep hearing good things about it.