Marking the Day

Mark Twain was born November 30th, 1835. 

I love his writing, and I love that he was also a cat lover.

Teaser Tuesdays: Little Women

This week my teaser lines come from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.  I'm not actually reading it at the moment, although I've read it several times over the years, since I first discovered it at about age 8 or 9.  I always think of it as a Christmas book (even though it's not) because I received it as a Christmas gift back then.  And, of course, it has that famous opening at Christmastime, with the March sisters gathered together, discussing what they won't be getting for Christmas:

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

"It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

 "We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner.

I've read that first chapter so many times, I've almost got it memorized. I always admired Jo (Alcott's alter ego), but as a youngster I really wanted to be Amy, the pet and the "star" of the family.  And although I was always sorry for tragic Beth, she was always much too perfect for me -- I would have strangled her long before the fever carried her off (oops -- guess I should have put up a SPOILER alert there!).

The old Whitman edition I had as a child

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Let the Holidays Begin!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Teaser Tuesdays: The Heat of the Sun

This week my teaser lines come from David Rain's new novel, The Heat of the Sun. The book was released just this month, and I haven't actually started it yet, but it's next on my list -- another Early Reviewer book from Library Thing (I'm woefully behind on my reading lately).  This conversation comes from page 16 of the ARC, and seems somehow appropriate for this week, with Thanksgiving coming up here in the U.S. --

"You've no family at all?"
"Just my aunt. She's all that's left."
"You're lucky. Family's a terrible thing."
"Only people who have families say that."

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Bartender's Tale

This week my teaser lines come from The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig.  I received my copy through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program, a couple months back, but I'm just now getting around to it -- I really need to get my reading back on track.  At this rate, I'll never make my goal of fifty books for the year. Shameful.

But I digress. As usual.

Anyway, the book has been getting really great reviews and I'm enjoying it a lot so far.  This quote is from the early pages and gives a little taste of the lovely writing Doig is capable of:

People come and go in our lives; that's as old a story as there is. But some of them the heart cries out to keep forever, and that is a fresh saga every time. (p.86)

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Reading Report: Skios

Written by Michael Frayn
Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt & Company, 2012
272 pages

Description from the publisher:

On the private Greek island of Skios, the high-paying guests of a world-renowned foundation prepare for the annual keynote address, to be given this year by Dr. Norman Wilfred, an eminent authority on the scientific organization of science. He turns out to be surprisingly youthful, handsome, and charming—quite unlike his reputation as dry and intimidating. Everyone is soon eating out of his hands. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the foundation's attractive and efficient organizer. 

Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki's old friend Georgie has rashly agreed to spend a furtive horizontal weekend with a notorious schemer, who has characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped there with her instead is a pompous, balding individual called Dr. Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper, and increasingly all sense of reality—indeed, everything he possesses other than the text of a well-traveled lecture on the scientific organization of science. 

In a spiraling farce about upright academics, gilded captains of industry, ambitious climbers, and dotty philanthropists, Michael Frayn...tells a story of personal and professional disintegration, probing his eternal theme of how we know what we know even as he delivers us to the outer limits of hilarity. 

My Thoughts:

Delicious British farce by one of the masters of the genre. I think Frayn is probably one of those writers you either thoroughly love or thoroughly can't take -- I've loved everything by him that I've read (or seen). As other reviewers have already pointed out, Skios reads like the screenplay it most likely is destined to become. Very funny and enjoyable if you don't mind suspending all your disbelief and just going with the flow. I had fun with this one.

Rating: 4 marks out of 5

Note: My copy of this book was provided by the publisher, free of charge, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer Program. No other compensation was received, and no one attempted to influence my opinion.

Reading Report: Murder in Mount Holly

Written by Paul Theroux
Mysterious Press, 2011 (written, 1969); 176 pages

Description (from GoodReads):

During the time of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, Herbie Gneiss is forced to leave college to get a job. His income from the Kant-Brake toy factory, which manufactures military toys for children, keeps his chocolate-loving mother from starvation. Mr. Gibbon, a patriotic veteran of three wars, also works at Kant-Brake. When Herbie is drafted, Mr. Gibbon falls in love with Herbie’s mother and they move in together at Miss Ball’s rooming house. Since Herbie is fighting for his country, Mr. Gibbon feels that he, too, should do something for his country and convinces Miss Ball and Mrs. Gneiss to join him in the venture. They decide to rob the Mount Holly Trust Company because it is managed by a small dark man who is probably a communist. There are some complications. 

My Thoughts: 

In the past I've read several books by Paul Theroux and really enjoyed them, but hadn't tried any of his more recent work. So when I saw that he'd published a mystery novel, I was intrigued. As it turns out, this isn't really a new book -- it was written in 1969, but never published until last year. Also, it isn't really a mystery novel, although it does involve a bank robbery and several murders. It's been called a dark comedy and a satire of Vietnam era social upheavals; and I suppose both those labels fit. But the whole thing is so weird, it's really hard to decide exactly what to call it. I'm not sure why he even allowed it to be published. About the only positive thing I can say about it is that it's short -- I read it in just a couple of hours, and even that feels like a waste of time.

Rating: 0 marks out of 5

Reading Report: Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale

Written by Lynda Rutledge
G.P. Putnam's Sons / Amy Einhorn Books, 2012
292 pages (ARC)

Description from the publisher:

On the last day of the Millennium, sassy chain-smoking, 70 year old Faith Bass Darling is selling the precious antiques of five generations of Faith's founding family at a garage sale on the lawn of her historic Bass, Texas mansion. Why? God told her to. 

As the townspeople grab up the family's heirlooms—a Civil War dragoon, a wedding ring, a French-relic clock, a family bible, a roll top desk, a n entire room of Tiffany lamps–reveal their own secret roles in the family saga, inspiring life's most imponderable questions: Do our possessions possess us? What are we without our memories? Is there life after death? Or second chances here on earth? And is Faith Darling REALLY selling that 1917 Louis Comfort Tiffany lamp for $1...? 

My Thoughts: 

At first, I was a little disappointed by this book. The story seemed far-fetched and yet, at the same time, formulaic. But as I read on, I found myself becoming more and more drawn into Faith's story -- while she never became really likable, her descent into dementia was a moving and frightening tale. Probably not a book I'd recommend to everyone, but it was well written and a fast read. I'd definitely like to see more by this author.

Rating: 3 marks out of 5

Note: My copy of this book was provided by the publisher, free of charge, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer Program. No other compensation was received, and no one attempted to influence my opinion.

Reading Report: The Solitary House

Written by Lynn Shepherd

Random House, 2012; 352 pages

Description (from the publisher's website):

London, 1850. Charles Maddox had been an up-and-coming officer for the Metropolitan police until a charge of insubordination abruptly ended his career. Now he works alone, struggling to eke out a living by tracking down criminals. Whenever he needs it, he has the help of his great-uncle Maddox, a legendary “thief taker,” a detective as brilliant and intuitive as they come. 

On Charles’s latest case, he’ll need all the assistance he can get. To his shock, Charles has been approached by Edward Tulkinghorn, the shadowy and feared attorney, who offers him a handsome price to do some sleuthing for a client. Powerful financier Sir Julius Cremorne has been receiving threatening letters, and Tulkinghorn wants Charles to—discreetly—find and stop whoever is responsible. But what starts as a simple, open-and-shut case swiftly escalates into something bigger and much darker. As he cascades toward a collision with an unspeakable truth, Charles can only be aided so far by Maddox. The old man shows signs of forgetfulness and anger, symptoms of an age-related ailment that has yet to be named. 

Intricately plotted and intellectually ambitious, The Solitary House is an ingenious novel that does more than spin an enthralling tale: it plumbs the mysteries of the human mind.

My Thoughts:

The Solitary House was really not at all what I expected. Lynn Shepherd has borrowed characters and bits of story lines from Dickens' Bleak House and Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, and mixed them all into this fast-paced, intricate mystery set in Victorian London. I have to admit that at first I was a little put off by the idea of a writer using so much of another author's creation (when does homage become rip-off?). But as I got deeper and deeper into the narrative, I forgot all that and just let the story-telling take over. Glad I did -- Shepherd tells a great tale. I'd recommend this one to anyone who loves historical fiction, whether or not they're familiar with the works that it references.

Rating:  3 marks out of 5

Note: My copy of this book was provided by the publisher, free of charge, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer Program. No other compensation was received, and no one attempted to influence my opinion.