2013 Challenge Wrap-Up

image via The British Library
on Flickr (amazing resource!)

2013 held a lot of reading challenges for me. I've always enjoyed taking these on even if I don't get close to finishing, although in 2014 I'll be limiting the number of challenges simply because of the scope of the Century of Books!

I didn't do too badly this year, though -- I read quite a lot. Actually I am surprised by how many of these I completed! Here is how I've done with my challenges.

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Canadian Book Challenge -- ongoing, as it runs from July 1 to July 1 (hosted by John at Book Mine Set)

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Colourful Reading Challenge -- hosted by Becca at Lost in Books
I finished this one! The challenge was to read nine books with a colour, any colour, in the title -- and I did it, just squeaking in with my last pick this week. My final list of colour books

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What's In A Name -- hosted by Beth Fish Reads
I've been doing this one for a few years now. I like the random categories and the varied reading they lead to. I finished this one, and much more quickly than usual! Here are the categories and my reads for each.

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Tea and Books Challenge -- hosted by Birgit at The Book Garden
The challenge here was to read massive chunksters. I read one supermassive tome with counted toward my goal of 2 books, Sir Charles Grandison (1600+ pages)

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RIP VIII Challenge -- hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, running Sept 1- Oct 31
This seasonal challenge is always a delight. I chose to participate at the level of 4 books, but ended up reading 6. Here's the original challenge, and the books I ended up reading, plus a couple that I simply did not finish.

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The TBR Pile Challenge -- hosted by Roof Beam Reader

This one challenged you to read 12 books that you've had on the shelves for more than one year. I have plenty of those, so signed up and actually completed the challenge :) I even read the 2 alternate titles on my list, though didn't make it to the full 20 I'd suggested I would. All the titles are listed and linked on the original post.

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Science Book Challenge -- hosted by Jeff at Scienticity

Wow, I failed miserably on this one. I need to focus on more good science reading! Lots of ideas for where to start at Jeff's website, too, so no excuses!

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To finish up, I mustn't forget my very own challenge, the first I've hosted -- the Postal Reading Challenge! I finished up 15 epistolary books, and sent plenty of mail this year. I hope you'll consider joining in for 2014, too. You can get to all the reviews for books read by participants by following the links at the 'gateway post' (including my own). Or see the full run of my own postal reading and comments on the post here.

Rose Cottage

Rose Cottage / Mary Stewart
London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1997
234 p.

This was a very enjoyable, light holiday read. I do like Mary Stewart and writers of the same ilk (ie: Susanna Kearsley, Carol Goodman, Simone St James, Barbara Michaels) So I was surprised to realize that I hadn't yet read this one, but also pleased to find that it was just the thing for my mood.

It's set in England and Scotland in 1947, where our heroine Kathy (or Kate, depending on who's asking) is a recent war widow, left rather well off financially if not emotionally. She's been living a subdued life in London, working at a plant nursery, trying to forge onwards, when her Gran gets sick and calls her to Scotland.

But while Gran is now in Scotland with The Family (she's a cook), Kathy grew up with her Gran in Rose Cottage, on the Family's estate in England. Gran wants Kathy to return to Rose Cottage and pack up her belongings to send on to Scotland, since she'll be staying there permanently. Kathy, having no other real ties, agrees, and the adventure begins.

Like many other Mary Stewart novels, there is a touch of the supernatural -- in this case, neighbour Miss Linsey who is "of middle height, middle age, medium build, but nothing else about her was medium, except perhaps in the professional sense of the word." There is mystery -- Gran's hidden safe has been broken into. There is romantic possibility, as Kathy reacquaints herself with childhood friend Davey Pascoe. There was rather more humour in this one than in many others; the final scenes made me laugh with the growing cast of characters. But it was also interesting how Stewart was able to create a suspenseful, emotional read with a plot full of ominous mystery that turns out in each case to be something very different than either Kathy or other characters had perceived it to be. It all makes sense but you simply have to trust the story.

Stewart opens strong, switching narrative focus between third person and first person in the opening pages, a clever trick that I enjoyed. She also finishes strong, with an ending that could have become unbearably treacly but wasn't at all. In between, there's friendship, beautiful scenery, nostalgia, the practicalities of living in a postwar world, humour, tea, and questions of morality and memory. As Kathy says at one point:

Why was it that one always regretted change? Things were not made to stay fixed, preserved in amber. Perhaps the only acceptable amber was memory.

This was a very solid book, and it's going to be a comfort read, I can tell that already. Thank goodness for Mary Stewart!

Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo

Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo / Ntozake Shange
New York: St Martins Griffin, 2010, c1976.
242 p.

This was a strange read for me: it felt very distant from my experience, either my real life or my reading life experiences. Its perspective was just so different. Set in the US in the 60's and 70's, with a burgeoning feminist movement underway, and rooted in Black experience, these girls live lives so very far from my own.

But this is a good thing. It stretches the mind when you encounter something that feels so different -- but it does make it hard to talk about the story! The plot can indeed be summarized, but I'm still not certain of my response to it.

It's about the three sisters named in the title, and their mother, Hilda Effania, and follows each of these girls as they move through their lives. It starts focused mostly on Indigo, the youngest, then follows eldest daughter Sassafras as she moves to California and lives with a musician, a rather abusive one, who keeps her from her own artistic dreams. Meanwhile middle child Cypress heads to New York to follow her passion for dance, and discovers other passions while she is making her life there.

Hilda Effania is the central point holding these far flung stories together. Like any family, the children's lives can spread out in very different directions, but they still maintain a connection to their upbringing in South Carolina. I felt that the lives of the girls were a bit unevenly matched, with lots about Indigo at first, and then her later years very quickly sketched. Cypress was the focus for a lot of the middle bit, and I enjoyed her story. Sassafras was a bit disturbing to read about, as her romantic choices limited much of her potential. Shange focuses mainly on one stage in each of the girls' lives, which does make this feel a bit unbalanced at times, but the other option was to write a gigantic saga, so I can understand the choice of limited focus.

Nonetheless, a picture of the strength of sisterhood emerges. Hilda Effania is a wonderful character, and many of her practical, loving letters to her daughters are included in the text. I really enjoyed these letters. Shange also adds poetry, recipes,journal entries, etc. to fill out the narrative. It made for a very interesting read, feeling like I was getting glimpses at these characters from many different angles. The focus of the book was on female experience, in many different aspects, and Shange illuminated a wide variety of lifestyles through the structure of the story.

I guess my final word on this would be that I found it illuminating, and intriguing, and slightly dreamy too, with touches of magic realism. I can't make any critical judgement on it as I don't have enough knowledge to compare it with anything -- but then I don't often talk from a critical perspective here on this blog, preferring to share my reader's experience of a book. If you've read this, please feel free to share your take in the comments, or a link if you've reviewed it too. I'd love to hear from others about this novel.

Black Narcissus

Black Narcissus / Rumer Godden
Hammondsworth, England: Penguin, 1987, c1939.
224 p.

Black Narcissus was Rumer Godden's first big hit. She wrote it while living in India with her daughters, and was shocked to see all the banners and advertising for it when she was finally in England again after its publication. It tells a story that she returned to again and again, focusing on the lives of nuns in extremis.

A small group of nuns from the Order of the Servants of Mary has been invited to establish a presence in an old palace in the Darjeeling hills. The small group of nuns are supposed to run a dispensary and school, and educate local girls in useful things like lace making.

But the former harem palace has a strange atmosphere, high up in the hills, and it begins to change all of them. From Sister Clodagh, the abbess, to the sturdy gardener Sister Phillippa, to the already unstable Sister Ruth, each feels the effect of the isolation and the indifference of local people. They all rely on Mr. Dean, a rather louche Englishman who lives nearby and takes care of practical matters. He's also youngish and very manly, a bad combination for the obsessive nature of Sister Ruth. The Sisters are faced with the reality that their work doesn't seem to be making much of a dent in the native population, and that they can either stick to their traditions and be largely ignored, or absorb the culture and be changed themselves.

This is an interesting study of the internal lives of women who have committed themselves to serving a larger purpose, and in the process thwarted many of their natural impulses. Sister Honey begins to wish for her own child, Sister Ruth for power and love, Sister Clodagh for peace and order. All that occurs, however, is highly dramatic and emotional, forcing them all to look deeply at themselves, and try to maintain their grip on reason and acceptable behaviour.

The story is definitely coloured by the time at which it was written, of course, but it is still a fascinating read about ideals clashing with reality. The dramatic nature of the story resulted in a 1947 film starring Deborah Kerr, which stuck fairly closely to the book, so if you're interested you may want to try both.

While this is not Godden's strongest book, in my opinion, I still found it a good read. I have a weakness for these kind of midcentury books, and Godden in particular. While another of her novels, In This House of Brede, deals more effectively with a closed community of nuns, this novel reflects the strong influence of India on all of her life and work. It's still worth exploring.

A Few Green Leaves

A Few Green Leaves / Barbara Pym
London: HarperCollins, c1980.
220 p.

This is one of Pym's later works and feels a little bit darker, or more melancholy than previous books I've read. The story follows Emma Howick, an anthropologist in her 30s (again, an observer) who moves to a small English town for the summer, taking over her mother's cottage. Emma immediately gets involved in the local community, the first few pages taking place on her first weekend there, when she decides to join a group setting out for a walk on the lands belonging to the manor -- and open to the public by custom on the Sunday following Easter.

She thus gets to meet a handful of local eccentrics, including of course the vicar, and his spinster sister Daphne. While Emma thinks that as an anthropologist she can simply observe, she finds herself drawn into the intertwining lives of all these villagers, complicated by the appearance of an old flame, an historian who turns up on her doorstep. Pym says of this meeting,"She had never before experienced the curious awkwardness of meeting somebody you had once loved and now no longer thought about."

There is not a great deal of plot in this story, rather it's about the people -- Pym is excellent at catching every little nuance of individuality and interaction, and she has such an understated way of writing about it that it becomes very enjoyable just to follow along. This story isn't quite as lighthearted as some of the earlier books, though. It reminds me in a way of Penelope Lively's Spiderweb, another novel about an anthropologist who moves to a small village and is quite shocked by the insular and violent happenings she sees there. Lively's novel is darker, with much less humour, but there are still similarities in tone, somehow.

Pym allows for some possibility of happiness and change, though, and the ending of this novel is only a little bit melancholy. The characters and their competing desires will continue to compete, and we can only hope that Emma has decided to enter into life rather than only watching. She's made a start by deciding that she will be staying on in this cottage and becoming a true resident of the village, and this seems to hint that she will be experiencing, as she hopes, a love affair that is not entirely unhappy.

I really liked this book, despite it's more somber tone in comparison to her earlier books. There is still the precise observation, the wry humour, the oddity of her characters (reliably the same kinds as always -- vicars, anthropologists, excellent women -- even some of the exact same characters from earlier books), to enjoy. Emma appears to be a sensible academic, but Pym allows us to see beyond outer appearances, and we get a feeling for Emma's interior life. Pym is good at doing this with many of her characters, with a single sentence that can illuminate a life. Emma, however, as the main character, gets much of our attention, and I found her to be an utterly engaging heroine, the perfect still point at the centre of this novel. Another winner for Pym!

Brown Girl in the Ring

Brown Girl in the Ring / Nalo Hopkinson
New York: Grand Central, c1998.
250 p.

This is the second book I've read by Nalo Hopkinson, but it was her first novel. I've read them both as part of Aarti's More Diverse Universe challenge, the first one, The New Moon's Arms, just last year. I enjoyed that one a lot and kept meaning to get to this one next, but have finally just picked it up. And it's great timing for it, too.

It's set in Toronto, at a time in which the economy and social structure has pretty much collapsed, with everyone affluent moving out to the burbs -- and erecting barriers so those left can't overrun the much more stable and economically viable communities there. Inner Toronto is now a mass of poor survivors of many races, survivalists who squat in old hotels or flats, grow food or barter for it, or belong to gangs like The Posse, the ruling gang whose overlord Rudy is an arrogant, power-hungry drug lord. This is dystopian fiction... or is it? I think Hopkinson may have some of the power of second sight that she's given to the main characters of this novel!

But to be serious -- this is a wonderful read. The Toronto setting is continually evoked: Ti-Jeanne, the main character, lives with her Mami in the Simpson house at what used to be Riverdale Farm. Mami is a healer, growing plants and dispensing stockpiled medications, but she is also an obeah woman, speaking to the spirits in a very literal sense. She calls the spirits and we see them as they appear as characters themselves (you can see two of them on this fantastic cover). Ti-Jeanne is a young woman, with a new baby, who has left her boyfriend Tony because of his drug habit and involvement with the Posse. She's learning that she has the gift of seeing and hearing the spirits, despite not wanting to, and Mami is trying to get her to own up to it and train her in the proper ways to deal with it, so that she doesn't go mad from it. But all Ti-Jeanne can think about is Tony.

But when Tony comes back into their lives, things do not go at all well.

It's hard to summarize the book, as I don't want to spoil the joy of discovery for any new reader. But there is family drama, street kids who live in the former subways, a very villainous villain, thwarted love, spirits both good and bad, a showdown in the CN Tower, and an amazing sense of the Caribbean culture that Mami and Ti-Jeanne are rooted in. Even the rhythms of language reflect that, and it was wonderful to read. It immersed me in this story, making it hard to put down. The incipient violence on every page drove the tension of the story, and the unexpected twists and events continually surprised me. It was shocking, and funny, and horrible, and sad, and utterly fascinating.


The combination of Caribbean mysteries and urban, dystopian Toronto was pitch perfect. It's hard to say whether place or character is stronger in the story -- they were both so well developed. It's a very good read, and if you've never read Hopkinson before, this would be a wonderful introduction to her work.

Riders of the Purple Sage

Riders of the Purple Sage / Zane Grey
Sanbornville, N.H. :, Large Print Book Co., 2008, c1912.
361 p.

On my Western kick after reading The Cowboy & The Cossack, I decided to read one of the most famous Westerns of all, by an author I have read other titles from previously. My library has it in large print, newly reprinted in an "American Classics" series. This was written in 1912, but set in 1871, taking place in the canyons and highlands of Southwest Utah.

It's a complicated plot, centering around a gunman, Lassiter, a Mormon woman, Jane Withersteen, one of her riders, Bern Venters, and Bess, the woman he rescues from rustlers. It focuses on Mormon settlement in Utah, and takes the position that the Mormon men use their religion for purposes of power and lust, for women and for land. Lassiter, the archetypal gunman, is known as the "killer of Mormons", and yet acknowledges to Jane Withersteen that he has met many decent Mormons, though he believes their creed leads to corruption and evil.

When I first started reading, I wondered whether "Riders of the Purple Prose" might be a more accurate title! Grey describes the settings extensively; it's one of his hallmarks that he makes the landscape as much a part of the story as the plot. In his hands, the land itself is a symbol and a reflection of his themes of independence, morality, honour, and the vitality of isolation. I found the storyline a bit tedious and overblown, with Jane's stubborn refusal to admit that the Mormon men she knows are acting against her openly and secretly. The themes of honour and love and so forth are a bit heavy-handed, and of course this book is dated according to our modern eyes. But I did enjoy parts -- the sections with Venters and Bess living in their isolated Surprise Valley in the canyons were interesting, mainly for the description! These two characters felt fresher and more alive than Jane and Lassiter, although they are all linked, in more ways than we first realize.

Jane finally admits she must leave her ranch, and she and Lassiter flee to Surprise Valley. Along the way they encounter Venters and Bess, who are leaving Utah altogether, and since only two people can outrun the Mormons on the good horses, Venters and Bess take the horses and Jane and Lassiter take the burros and continue on to Surprise Valley. They rescue Fay, a small girl that Jane had adopted, and end up permanentlyshutting themselves into Surprise Valley when they start a landslide to avoid pursuit (an occurrence that has been heavily foreshadowed for most of the book).

This is a complicated, Western melodrama (for full exposition of the plot, you can check out the Wikipedia article -- and who knew that there have been 5 movie/tv versions?) I found it denser and more portentous than some of Grey's later work, but in any case, this novel was extremely successful, and led to a sequel just a few years later, giving us the story of what happened to Jane, Lassiter and Fay.


Rainbow Trail, or The Desert Crucible

The sequel was published in 1915 as The Rainbow Trail, but has been released more recently with the full original manuscript as The Desert Crucible. I read it in this recent paperback. It follows the themes of the original novel, but is set ten years later.

Although Venters and Bess, at the end of Riders of the Purple Sage had mentioned returning to Utah to rescue Jane and Lassiter, they never did. It's been ten years that they've been stuck in the valley. As this book opens, Shefford rides into Utah. He's a former preacher who has left the church, and is following the romantic tale of Fay Larkin and her parents, told to him by a friend, who happens to be Bern Venters. His goal is to find Surprise Valley and release all three captives.

Of course, it doesn't go as smoothly as planned. Shefford connects with a trader named Withers, who he begins working for, and through him develops an important friendship with Nas-Te-Bega, a Navajo. In working for Withers, Shefford comes to awareness of a secret settlement of Mormon wives. At the time of the story, polygamy was being persecuted in Utah, so the older Mormons have created a small town of sorts just barely across the border in Arizona where they keep all their superfluous wives. Shefford takes supplies in, and of course falls in love with the youngest, quietest and most beautiful of the wives.

At some point he realizes who this young woman is, and with the assistance of Nas-Te-Bega they escape from the town, ride to Surprise Valley to rescue Jane and Lassiter, and flee down the canyons to ride the rapids to freedom.

I thought that this book was much better than the first. Less philosophizing, more action, and a great escape. The travails of Shefford and company after they leave the Mormon settlement and head down into the wilderness are described thoroughly. The mystical nature of the landscape is there, along with the practical experience -- the pebbles underfoot, the silence, scorching heat, roaring river and the terrifying ride down the rapids in all its watery violence. The ending is also satisfying, as the four characters from the first novel meet up again in peace and friendship, "back East" in Illinois.

There was also more openness to the Mormon settlers in this book. Grey, through his characters Shefford and Withers, allows that the older, fundamentalist Mormons are still set on empire and polygamy, but the younger Mormon men and women are less likely to believe in or support things like multiple wives. They are also less antagonistic to "Gentiles" (non-Mormons). I do find it a bit amusing that someone like Zane Grey, who was married but had multiple, continual affairs, is so insistent on the issue of polygamy in both these books. While I didn't think that either novel was utterly without fault, Grey can certainly evoke a place, and create drama, even if does devolve into melodrama now and again.

After reading these novels, I have found that I'm very interested in Grey's own life. His relationship with this wife, who acted as his editor and business manager, is particularly intriguing, so thank goodness there is a published collection of their letters, Dolly & Zane Grey: Letters from a Marriage. It's on my reading list now.

Crome Yellow

Crome Yellow / Aldous Huxley
London: Penguin, 1960, c1921.
174 p.

I felt it was time for a classic read, of which many live unread upon my shelves. So I chose this slim volume. This is an odd little read, a British amusement of sorts. Most of the action takes place at a literary house party at Crome, home of the Wimbush family.

Our main protagonist, young poet Denis Stone, is madly in love with Anne Wimbush. She isn't particularly in love with anyone. Other members of the party include Jenny, deaf and scathingly honest in her sketching; Mary, looking for a man to claim as her own; the Wimbush elders; Mr. Scogan, an older and extremely talkative cynic; curmudgeonly artist Gombauld; and popular writer Mr. Barbecue-Smith, who channels his best-selling aphorisms in a trance.

It is quite amusing in parts, with much wry humour and satire of the literary mores of the day. Denis is young and idealistic, and announces that he is working on a novel. Mr. Scogan breaks in with his comments:

Mr. Scogan groaned. "I'll describe the plot for you. Little Percy, the hero, was never good at games, but he was always clever. He passes through the usual public school and the usual university and comes to London, where he lives among the artists. He is bowed down with melancholy thought; he carries the whole weight of the universe upon his shoulders. He writes a novel of dazzling brilliance, he dabbles delicately in Amour and disappears, at the end of the book, into the luminous Future."

Denis blushed scarlet. Mr. Scogan had described the plan of his novel with an accuracy that was appalling. He made an effort to laugh. "You're entirely wrong." he said. "My novel  is not in the least like that." It was an heroic lie. 

Many things occur during this holiday. Love is fermenting, virginity being lost, poems unwritten, paintings painted, vicars fulminating, histories of the Wimbush family read out in evenings, a country fair is hosted at Crome for the locals (at which all house guests help out, though Denis seems to be able to absent himself rather skillfully). There is humour both gentle and cutting, there is also a bit of social commentary thrown in via different characters suddenly speechifying. At one point, Mr. Scogan's prediction of the future -- "In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires..." -- foreshadows Brave New World.

It was a light read, pointed in some elements and sure to appeal to those who enjoy reading about this era, certainly. I was a bit disappointed in the sudden ending, the unfulfilled denouement, but that is rather the point, considering what Denis was intending for his own novel. In sum, this was a lot lighter fare than I expected from Huxley, and I enjoyed it.

The Blue Guitar

The Blue Guitar / Ann Ireland
Toronto: Dundurn, c2013.
254 p.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who like a Canadian setting, those who revel in the details of music performance (in this case, guitar), those who find intrigue in the interpersonal machinations of closed groups -- whether in offices or in guitar competitions.

It's a short but fascinating novel about the goings-on at the International Classical Guitar Competition, held in Montreal, and the lives of a few of the competitors and judges. The main character is Toby Hausner, a performer who was full of youthful promise but who had a meltdown on stage in Paris over 10 years ago, and disappeared from the performance world. He's decided to try to make a comeback this year, something his older lover Jasper, a counsellor, deems unhealthy and dangerous. Still, Toby is off, leaving Toronto in the midst of a Flu epidemic, heading to Montreal (which later becomes an issue in the plot, leading Jasper to follow Toby, with depressing results).

Other competitors include middle-aged Lucy, who's decided to challenge herself, having never played in this kind of competition before -- and you can see why, when you read about the backstage wrangling of the judges, who argue that she's way too old to consider, even though her playing was fantastic.

There's also Trace, an unschooled young woman from a remote island in B.C., who appears as if from nowhere with amazing talent to show off. Here, sadly, one of the elements I've seen before in Ireland's writing reappears; the tendency for young, young girls to sleep with much, much older musicians who are in a position of authority. Still just as unpleasant to read about.

This older man is one of the judges, a Cuban with marriage troubles, who had a very hard time getting Cuban authorities to permit his visit to Montreal. These are the characters we follow through the book, with the pressure of performance intensifying personalities, and stirring up unlikely behaviour.

I thought that the story was pretty interesting -- great capturing of the minutiae of performance, from the chance of disaster coming from the tiniest thing like a torn fingernail, to the larger question of self-worth, talent and judgement.

But there a few elements that threw me. The over-involvement of Jasper in Toby's life, and the way that his character is built up, is reversed in the last chapters. Jasper's actions and motives in his rapid flight to make it to Montreal in time for Toby's performance changed him from a character I was actually quite involved in to a selfish, unpleasant creature I cringed from. The softness in his character turned to selfish weakness aimed right at the weak spots in his lover.

And the winner of the competition was a conclusion I hadn't really wanted to see, making the case that quid pro quo and backroom dealings are always the winners in these kind of things. I was disappointed that the conclusion felt so cynical, to me, anyhow.

But, this was still a book that explored different ground than most I've read lately, and was definitely researched extensively and written from the vantage point of all the senses. Sweat and exhaustion, food and sleep, love and despair, and music itself are all enlivened in this writing. Both Toronto and Montreal are great settings, drawn with care, and add a lot to the story. Music lovers will be intrigued.

Unusual Uses for Olive Oil

Unusual Uses for Olive Oil / Alexander McCall Smith
Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2013, c2011.
203 p.

This is the fourth book featuring the hapless Professor Dr Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. (the first three, from some years ago, can now be found in omnibus format as The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom)

Not much has changed for poor von Igelfeld -- he still has monstrous bad luck and always does the wrong thing. Yet he always comes out of his disasters unscathed. Perhaps that's because he doesn't seem to have the self-awareness to be crushed by the huge gaffes he makes, rather, he is focused on maintaining his touchy position in regards to his co-professor and rival, Professor Unterholzer. He is very sensitive about his level of scholarship as opposed to Unterholzer, and that sometimes leads him to overreact. But, as stated early on in this book, after his suspicions of Unterholzer have been proven false:

There was no doubt that Unterholzer was telling the truth, decided von Igelfeld, as he looked down into his cup of coffee. How complex this world is, he thought; how easily may things appear to be one thing and then prove to be another. And how easy it was to see the worst in humanity when what we should really be looking for is the best.

This book is made up of five chapters, each a tale of von Igelfeld's adventures. From a nascent romance, to a marvellously risqué reading party at a mountain villa, to an awkward dinner with his coworkers Prinzel, Unterholzer and wives (in which poor Walter the dachshund reappears), to a brief moment in the spotlight as an 'inspirational speaker', von Igelfeld reigns as the awkward, unfortunate man he doesn't even realize he is.

McCall Smith terms these books "entertainments", and they are awfully funny, even while they are much sharper and less gentle in tone than his other series. These characters are skewered and I begin to feel sorry for the constant bad luck and disharmony in poor von Igelfeld's life. (that, and the Institute librarian, Herr Huber, does come in for some rather ignominious portraiture as well... which, as a librarian reader, can be a bit much!) I do find these lighter in the sense that there is not much internal deliberation in these characters, as found in his other books. Also, these stories are much more comedic in their reliance on appearances and misunderstandings. Character flaws lead to truly ridiculous situations, which are all too easy to laugh at, under the auspices of the expression "better to laugh than cry".

I do enjoy the shenanigans of these professors, and the idiocy of the infighting is tempered somewhat by the presence of the relatively normal Prinzel, head of the Institute, and his charming wife Ophelia who is very hopeful and sees the best in everyone, even von Igelfeld. If only poor Walter hadn't suffered from von Igelfeld's pride, I'd be more likely to forgive him his flaws... but otherwise, this book is another entertaining foray into the particular German scholarly world that these odd professors inhabit. A fun, light, amusing read with which to start off my reading year!

Challenges Ahead, 2013 Edition

Flaking out on this year's Challenges does not mean I won't be signing up for any more in 2013. But I think I'll be a little more circumspect this time around! There are a few stalwarts that I join religiously, and then a few new ones I'm going to try out. One of the ways I'm going to challenge myself a little more is to try to create all my possible booklists from the variety of titles I already have on my own shelves.

Still going on: the Canadian Book Challenge, which I have 3 books left to read in order to officially complete. And of course the seasonal challenges like the RIP which I will sign up for again.

But as for the year-long challenges starting January 1st --

Definitely signing up for What's In a Name 6, hosted by Beth Fish Reads once again. This has always been one of my favourites -- I love the random nature of book selection and the wide variety of titles it turns up. It runs all year, and the 'rules' are very broad. This year's categories, and my possible options for each are:

  

1. A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title:
        Up, Up, Up / Julie Booker
        The Underpainter / Jane Urquhart
        Break it down / Lydia Davis
        Read: Comfort Foods for Breakups / Marusya Bociurkiw

2. A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title:
       Read:  Unusual Uses for Olive Oil / Alexander McCall Smith
        Honey and Ashes / Janice Kulyk Keefer
        Liquid Jade / Beatrice Hohenegger

3. A book with a party or celebration in the title:
        Party Going / Henry Green
        Read: Larry's Party / Carol Shields
        Read: John Saturnall's Feast / Lawrence Norfolk

4. A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title:
        Read: Embers / Sandor Marai
        Fire in the Blood / Irene Nemirovsky
        Pale Fire / Nabokov  
        Read: The Firebird / Susanna Kearsley
      
5. A book with an emotion in the title:
        Read: A Little Love, A Little Learning / Nina Bawden
       Where Angels Fear to Tread / E.M. Forster
       Ardor / Lily Prior

6. A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title:
        The Lost Dog / Michelle de Kretser
        Read: The Disapparition of James / Anne Ursu
        Read: The 100 Year Old Man who climbed out a window and disappeared / Jonas Jonasson

I'm going to try the Colourful Reading Challenge 2013 again since Lost in Books has revived it. This is another random selection kind of challenge which I find fun to do. The challenge is to read 9 books that have a colour in the title. Any book you like, any colour you like. Fun! Some possibilities from my shelves may include:

• The Blue Flower / Penelope Fitzgerald
• Crome Yellow / Aldous Huxley (read)
• A Few Green Leaves / Barbara Pym (read)
• Black Elk in Paris / Kate Horsley
• Heart so White / Javier Marias
• The Golden Arrow / Mary Webb
• Liquid Jade / Beatrice Hohenegger
• Plum Bun / Jessie Redmon Fauset
• Crimson Petal and the White / Michel Faber

Also read: 

• Unusual Uses for Olive Oil / Alexander McCall Smith
• The Blue Guitar / Ann Ireland 
• Riders of the Purple Sage / Zane Grey
• Brown Girl in the Ring / Nalo Hopkinson
• Black Narcissus / Rumer Godden
• Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo / Ntozake Shange
• Rose Cottage / Mary Stewart

And I'm going to try, once more, to read a chunkster within the outlines of the Tea & Books Challenge! I completely flunked out in 2012, so am going to be cautious and simply sign up hoping to read 2 chunksters over 650 pages in 2013. That will put me at the Chamomile Lover level, and while I am not a huge fan of chamomile in everyday life it is what I am striving for here ;)

Some of the giant books that have been patiently awaiting my attention on my overflowing shelves, those that I may pick up for this one are:

• Bleak House / Dickens
• Moby Dick / Melville
• Sir Charles Grandison / Samuel Richardson  -- over 1300 pages, so counts as TWO books ;)
• Crimson Petal and the White / Michel Faber

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So I am going to limit myself to these ones for the present, perhaps one or two may may pique my interest later on but I'm signing up for simply these ones for now. Are you signing up for challenges? Do you like them, find they spur on your reading, or find them too constraining? I love making up lists and so I keep signing up each year!

The Woman in White

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins

Markham, ON: Penguin Canada, 1984, c1859-60.

648 p.

Yes, I freely admit, I hadn't read this book until just this fall! I love Wilkie Collins -- I've read many of his other works (Armadale is my favourite) but somehow I just hadn't gotten around to reading this specific one, the book that Collins himself preferred, so much so that he asked for "Author of The Woman in White" to be inscribed on his tombstone.

It was so worth it. I loved it. One of the things I really enjoy about Collins is his awareness of and focus on women's status in Victorian society. The Woman in White deals with the way in which women are reliant on men's money and men's wishes, both as a dependent daughter / niece / other female relative and even more so as a wife.

There are a few women who are vital in this story: Anne Catherick, the original 'woman in white' and Laura Fairlie and her half-sister Marian Halcombe. Ann is a mysterious wraith who first appears to Walter Hartwright when he is walking to London one night, and is the key to the entire mystery as the book goes along. Laura, who looks very much like Anne, ends up being married to Sir Percival Glyde on her dying father's wishes even though her personal preferences lead her more in the direction of Walter. And Marian is a fearless, staunch supporter of both Laura and Walter. Once Laura (a respectable heiress) becomes Lady Glyde, a new character is introduced to their lives... a shady Italian friend of Percival's, Count Fosco.

All these characters spin around each other in complex webs of deceit and desires. Marian's powerful personality is a more than a match for the excessively charismatic yet chilling Fosco. Laura herself is a little bland, but as the love interest I suppose she wasn't allowed to be too ornery or individualistic. The story is told in a series of discrete narratives -- Walter's experience, Marian's diary, letters and affidavits from varied bit players, and so on. This plethora of perspectives makes the story multifaceted and utterly absorbing. It remains an exciting thriller even today; and the treatment of the women involved and the lengths they have to go to in order to survive will make you livid.

Really, there is no need for me to describe the plot or the progress of the story. It is enough of a classic that most people likely have a vague idea of the outlines of the plot, and telling any more detail would ruin the thrill of the reading experience. What I want to share is simply that while long and involved, this is a great book with a sensational plot that will keep you turning pages, while also being full of social commentary and great characters. It's a classic that still has power to move us, to make us consider the plight of others and view our world differently.

Definitely recommended...an enjoyable, lengthy read, perfect for the holidays when you have more time available to read and are in the Victorian mood.

Mauve

Mauve / Simon Garfield
London: Faber & Faber, c2000.
224 p.

I've had this book for quite a while, having picked it up because of the topic -- it tells the story of William Perkin and his discovery in 1856 of the first successful aniline dye (made from coal tar derivatives) -- the colour 'mauve'. He made this discovery accidentally; what he was really trying to do was to create a synthetic form of quinine to treat the malaria that was still rampant across the British Empire. His willingness to experiment with the actual results lead to mauve.

I thought the science of this discovery would be interesting, plus a large part of his success was due to the fashion world taking up this colour, which sounded like it could be fun. I was correct, and was pleased to find that this was an easy, entertaining, and thorough book. It focuses on William Perkin, but goes beyond simply his life, his discoveries and his business to show how the new colours (and the new industry) shaped fashion, economies, and even wartime innovations, including explosives.

The writing is very clear and comprehensible, making the life of this young chemist fascinating and the world of academic vs. commercial chemistry actually quite intriguing. Garfield covers the specific science of the dyes, but also the relevance to society as a whole, in so many areas. He also shows how it was both Perkin's actual discovery and his willingness to risk a scientific career on making a commercial success of his colour that changed the way chemistry was perceived, making it a more obvious choice for students who wanted to make money at their work. (Perkin was 18 when he discovered mauve, and his father staked everything to create a factory in which William, his brother Thomas and their father all worked -- and they made a LOT of money.)

Garfield even talks about the environmental effects of this surge in dye-making. He records that the stream outside Perkin's factory would change colour every week, and that a factory in France was convicted of poisoning villagers downstream with arsenic. He follows the industry from the moment that mauve became a fashionable mania (shortly followed by another chemical dye from France called magenta) to our present day experience of taking multiple colours for granted. Influences such as war (the desire to dye uniforms surprised me), or fashion, or hard chemistry all have a place in this story, and keep it from being too narrow or dull.

I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone curious about how such aniline dyes came about, or how our need to colour our world in a multitude of hues has shaped so many areas of our societies. There is one section, in which Garfield is sharing a list of registered colours via the National Bureau of Standards, Washington DC, that sounds like poetry. A gorgeous and evocative list of names and sources of colour!

Extremely well-written, not obfuscating the story with overly scientific explanations and yet not minimizing the importance of the science, this is a great general read. Lots of great "dinner party tidbits" in this one -- I always love a science book that makes you sound smart in general conversation ;) I know that I am looking at all the colours in my environment a little differently now.

Green Dolphin Country

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975, c1944.
575 p.

I read this book in high school sometime; I can't quite remember when because all I recall about it is that I got about half way through and thought, what a dumb book! But, since I've been reading a lot of Elizabeth Goudge as an adult, and since I have (hopefully) a much wider viewpoint than I did at 14 or so, I tried again. This was partly inspired by the fact that I had bought a copy in a second-hand shop quite a long time ago, and thus added this title to my list of reading for Emily's TBR Challenge. I think I'm nearly halfway through my list of 20 reads from my own shelves, and it has certainly been a rewarding effort overall.

I still don't like this one as much as some of Goudge's other books though -- too much of a saga for me. And I had a few problems with the depiction of New Zealanders especially. The main characters are from the Channel Islands and they end up pioneering in New Zealand, where the Maori are depicted as bloodthirsty savages with superstitious traditions, and the missionaries trying to convert them are upright and holy. The missionaries are shown with a bit of complexity and she does have non-missionary characters who are more open minded, but the view of the natural superiority of the white, Christian way of life does colour the whole book. Of course, Goudge's Christian outlook flavours most of her work, but in her books with more modern settings it doesn't seem to jump out and whack you over the head quite so forcibly.

Anyhow -- here is the main storyline: Marianne and Marguerite Le Patourel are young sisters (16 and 11) on the tiny island of St. Pierre, when they meet the other main character, William Ozanne, age 13. He brings light into both their lives, with Marianne deciding that she will have him, while to William and Marguerite as well as to the reader, it is clear that they are the two who belong together.

Lots happens, they all grow to early adulthood, and William goes off in the Navy, and through a twisted but believable situation in China, misses his boat to accidentally go AWOL. This means he can never go home to his own country, so instead he heads off to New Zealand to homestead there. Eventually, once he's got on his feet a little, he writes home to ask Marguerite to join him. However, due to a bit of drink and the inherent lazy habits of thought he seems to possess, he writes "Marianne" instead, and changes the course of all three of their lives. This is the great sticking point of the book. Would someone REALLY make such an error? It feels like it is a forced moment, necessary to the rest of the story, but it certainly takes some suspension of disbelief. Goudge is at pains to explain in the introduction that this happening was inspired by the real life situation of one of her ancestors -- this really did happen, and just like in the book, her great-uncle kept quiet about his mistake and made the best of it. Nonetheless, because something is true in real life does not mean it works particularly well in fiction, and I felt like my whole reading was a bit flawed because of my lack of ability to feel that this was a natural event.

There is lots to enjoy in this book if you like Goudge's style of writing -- fairly old-fashioned with lots of descriptions of nature, of spiritual crises, of deep thoughts on various subjects. I do happen to like it, so persevered even though I was starting to feel the book was dragging on a bit. William and Marianne have to work out their troubles in New Zealand, while Marguerite, left behind in the Channel Islands, has to make some kind of life for herself, especially after her parents die. She becomes more and more religious, and her struggles provide Goudge with much opportunity for the kind of spiritual and faith-related writing she loves. There is one character in New Zealand, William's best friend and Marianne's frequent nemesis, who is a fascinating creation. I missed him once he left the story's inner circle.

Overall, if you like historical sagas and don't mind a bit of Christian content and can overlook the dated racial references, this one was okay. There is simply too much in the book to discuss all of its settings or even the different stages in the character's lives: it carries on from the girls' childhood to their old age and reunion of all three main characters in St. Pierre. As always, though, in reading Elizabeth Goudge, I found many quoteable selections. I'll share a couple of them, to give you a taste of her writing and her philosophical bent.

Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short.

I suppose it's always a mistake to hate, she said to herself, because when the people you hate suddenly turn around and do great things for you it puts you at such a ridiculous disadvantage.

...she knew also that what the world sees of the life of any human creature is not the real life; that life is lived in secret, a reality that moves behind the facade of appearance, like wind behind a painted curtain; only an occasional ripple of the surface, a smile, a sudden light or shadow passing on a face, surprising by its unexpectedness, gives news of something quite other than what is seen.

Lysenko's Yellow Boots

Yellow Boots / Vera Lysenko NeWest, 1992, c1954. 355 p. After all that list-making it is time to read a few of the books on the lists! I've begun with Yellow Boots, a classic of Ukrainian Canadian literature. This is the story of Lilli Landash, a young Ukrainian living in Manitoba in the 1930s. She has ten brothers and sisters, and is considered a 'gypsy' girl: born at twilight and looking a little different she is not nurtured by her parents, rather she is sent out to work in her aunt's home from the age of six. After five years of service she becomes ill, so ill that her death seems imminent, and that is where our story begins. Lilli is taken back to her parents home, and fights the odds, surviving and living with her parents from then on. However, she is still not a favoured child, and does much of the work around the house. She is known as Gypsy until her one year of schooling, where the Scottish teacher, overwhelmed by all the Ukrainian Marys in his class, renames them all for flowers, and Gypsy becomes Lily (or Lilli as she misspells it). Her special love is the prairies, though - she loves to be outside and is rapturous over the beauties of sky and birds and sounds. She is extremely musical and this is what leads her to her future. Each chapter describes a cultural event, as well as following Lilli's growth toward adulthood. For example, the first chapter when Lilli is so ill is also used as a way in which to explain traditional death rituals of the Bukovynian (Ukrainian) family. They have a Christmas in one chapter, a wedding in another, a funeral in a third. While this does feel a little forced, it is still full of fascinating information, revealed in a way that draws you in via all your senses. The book also has a proto-feminist feel, with Lilli knowing in her heart that she is meant to grow and succeed, not to follow her father's orders and marry an old and lascivious neighbour at the age of sixteen in order to secure more farmland. She flees the farm, moving to Winnipeg and making it as a singer, drawing together the opportunity that the new world offers with the love of tradition and her Bukovynian past, by singing traditional songs. She also learns the songs of other cultures she comes across in Winnipeg - a Yiddish tune, a Japanese lullaby. She is the example of the perfect multicultural immigrant, willing to meld her lifestyle with the dominant Anglo-Canadian culture while preserving the arts of her own. Other women's issues appear in the story - the plight of servant girls in the city, the status of a widow in the small town, and so on. The story is engrossing for all the detail of farming in those communities - the small mindedness and superstition as well as the generosity and the hard, hard work that was expected of all. However, it was written in the fifties, and the author's multicultural idealism does show through. The change in the communities as they become more "Canadian" is clear, but Lilli does her best to retain some of the tradition through her songs. When, as a successful adult, she returns to the farm, her mother is described as wearing a house dress from a department store, and the younger girls wished to prepare a meal for Lilli using canned food and store bought ingredients on the new stove - it was her mother who knew that Lilli would prefer a true Bukovynian meal made in the old fashioned way. Since Lilli has only been away from the farm for seven years, it does seem a bit odd that all the Ukrainian habits of her family have vanished so quickly. I wouldn't say that it is fantastically successful as a novel, but as a social document showing a possible life of that time it does prove intriguing. Lilli is a good character, full of self-analysis, ambition, talent and grit. Her absorption in beauty and in music are revealing, and her constant observation of everything around her from the point of view of the outsider creates a detailed look at a way of life which was already gone by the time this book was written. I found the first part of the book most interesting, with Lilli surrounded by her traditional family and all the habits they held. Once Lilli moves into Winnipeg, the interest shifts and we are seeing the integration of many different cultures into one big city. The role of women in this era is in evidence, across many social levels: the author was from a poor background and she held fairly socialist political views, which is apparent in the way she discusses issues from the viewpoint of the poor characters - the farm girls, the maids - as well as the matrons of the city. (She was also falsely accused of being a Communist during the Cold War Era when it was a real issue, and it stuck to her for quite a long time). There are a few elements of the book that I found uncomfortable from my modern perspective - including the idea that Lilli could only escape from her overbearing father through the intervention of other men, like her schoolteacher, or the choirmaster she meets in Winnipeg. And I wasn't too keen on the conclusion; it was as if Lysenko didn't know quite how to end it and married Lilli off because that is what a "happy ending" should look like. Nonetheless, this is a great piece of Canadiana that should be considered part of the historical record along with better known novels of that era.

Challenge List the First

Here are my Challenge lists for the Challenges I am going to undertake in 2010, not forgetting the ongoing Canadian Book Challenge which is still underway, of course. I'm a big one for creating book pools rather than strict lists - don't want to feel that my reading is a prescribed chore, and this way I just have more to choose from!


Science Book Challenge -- it's as easy as pi! (love the slogan)
(3 books)

One of my favourite challenges, for 2010 I have a number of science books around the house which I really want to get to. I had all these on my list for last year, but ended up reading three totally different titles. So I'll try again with these three:


Mauve / Simon Garfield
The story of William Perkin, a young inventor in the mid 1800s who discovered how to make dyes from coal tar, accidentally. He was really searching for a way to create artificial quinine.

The Arcanum / Janet Gleeson
About the Western discovery of how to make porcelain

Empire of the Stars / Arthur I. Miller
One of my favourite topics: astrophysics and how discoveries are made or affected by the personalities involved, with all their human failings.

I'd also like to get my hands on a biography recently voted top science book of 09 by physicsworld.com, the story of Paul Dirac. It's entitled The Strangest Man, written by Graham Farmelo. (there is also a lecture available by Farmelo on this topic) This era of physics is one of my favourite scientific subjects to read about, so will have to locate a copy of this one. All I know about Dirac presently is what I learned from one of my favourite nonfiction reads of last year, Gino Segre's Faust in Copenhagen.

**updated**

Healing Spaces / Esther Sternberg

Mauve / Simon Garfield

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Colourful Reading Challenge

This is going to be totally random, probably all books I read for other challenges or just pick up for fun. The Challenge is to read 9 books all with a different colour in the title throughout the year. I have my Science Book Challenge pick above, Mauve, and one I have TBR for the Canadian Book Challenge, Vera Lysenko's Yellow Boots, to begin.

Updates:

Yellow Boots / Vera Lysenko

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge

Mauve / Simon Garfield

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
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What's in a Name 3

I've done this challenge for the last two years (though this year I didn't quite keep up!) I love its random selections. These are some of the ideas for titles to choose from - they may still change throughout the year! This year the categories are:

A book with a food in the title

Honey and Ashes / Janice Kulyk Keefer (memoir)
Plum Bun / Jesse Redmon Fauset
Daalder's Chocolates / Philibert Schogt
Read: The Spice Necklace / Ann Vanderhoof

A book with a body of water in the title

The Waves / Virginia Woolf
By the Lake / John McGahern
The Seduction of Water / Carol Goodman
Read: Cool Water / Dianne Warren

A book with a title (queen, president) in the title

Sir Charles Grandison / Richardson (also for Chunkster)
The Case of the General's Thumb / Andrey Kurkov
Mrs. Dalloway / Virginia Woolf
Read: Queen of Hearts / Martha Brooks

A book with a plant in the title

The Blue Flower / Penelope Fitzgerald
Read: The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag / Alan Bradley
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily / Lauren Willig

A book with a place name (city, country) in the title

Read: The Road to Lichfield / Penelope Lively
The Enchantress of Florence / Salman Rushdie
Return to Paris / Colette Rossant (nonfiction- food writing)

A book with a music term in the title

The Ballad and the Source / Rosamond Lehmann
Music of a life / Andrei Makine
Song beneath the ice / Joe Fiorito
Read: Trumpets Sound no More / Jon Redfern

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Flashback Challenge

All about rereading. This one has different levels of reading to choose from, but I think I'll sign up at the Literati level, six or more books. This is because I want to follow their suggestion of rereading childhood, high school, and adult choices.

Childhood Selections: this year I want to reread the entire Anne series by L.M. Montgomery, since I just finished the new publication of the restored Blythes are Quoted.

High School level: There are a few books I may choose from -- I haven't reread To Kill a Mockingbird since high school and might like to try that. But there are non-school books I'd like to revisit, including Watership Down or maybe Elizabeth Goudge's Green Dolphin Street, of which I remember very little - I think I was too young when I first read it.

Adult choices: There are two books I'd particularly like to reread - Virginia Woolf's The Waves, and Gwethalyn Graham's Earth and High Heaven.

Updated: actually read

As for me and my house / Sinclair Ross

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge

Anne of Green Gables / LMMontgomery

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Chunkster Challenge

This was the first challenge I ever participated in, and I think it is time to give it another go. I'm only going to sign up for the Chubby Chunkster level, which is three books over 450 pages in 2010. I may read more but am just starting with this. Some ideas for the books I'm going to read are:


Middlemarch / George Eliot (880 p) [read]

The Terror / Dan Simmons (765 p)

Sir Charles Grandison / Richardson (1159 p)

Gold Bug Variations / Richard Power s (635 p)

Celestial Harmonies / Peter Esterhazy (841 p)

Ursula, Under / Ingrid Hill (476 p)

Updated: Actually read:

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge (575 p.)

Gaudy Night / Dorothy Sayers (557 p.)

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Our Mutual Read

I love the name of the Challenge, and its potential for spending lots of time with Victorian literature! I think I will sign up at



Level 2: 8 books, at least 4 written during 1837 - 1901. The other books may be Neo-Victorian or non-fiction

And here is my list which is only a starting point:

Middlemarch / George Eliot
[read]

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
[read]

The Way we live now / Anthony Trollope

Bleak House / Charles Dickens

News from Nowhere / William Morris

Sylvia's lovers / Elizabeth Gaskell

Two on a Tower / Thomas Hardy

Also read:
Trumpets Sound no More / Jon Redfern (NeoVictorian)