Challenge Roundup for January

I didn't write up a post for my December challenge books since I only read 3 Canadian books, bringing me to 6/13 books read for The Canadian Books Challenge. 

January wasn't a great month for challenges. I'm stuck at the same number for Canadian books. I'm 0 for Gender in SFF but I have big plans for next month.

However, I did cross off 2/12 off my audiobooks for the Audio Book Challenge: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and A Far Cry from Kensington. 

And just because I don't have enough to do (ha!) I created a personal challenge for myself. I was browsing through some public domain titles and found a few with a similar theme that I'd like to read. The Genteel Ladies in Foreign Lands Challenge. I plan on reading these memoirs written by women about their travels beyond their own backyards. I don't have a particular order but I hope to read them all by the end of the year.

*Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie (1852): Moodie wrote of her experiences as an immigrant in Canada. Yes, Canada is not a foreign land to me, but it was to Moodie.

*A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird (1873): Published letters to her sisters back in England, Isabella travelled on horseback through the Rocky Mountains.

*Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley (1893): In a time when spinster ladies did not travel unaccompanied to foreign countries,  Mary did.

*In Morocco by Edith Wharton (1920): When Edith Wharton wasn't destroying New York society with her pen, she was travelling. 

This is a personal challenge but if you'd like to join me in reading any or all of them, you're welcome to play along! Let me know and maybe we can read them together.

(The photo is of my Grandmother on a road trip. My challenge, my Granny.)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson: Review

Stodgy, old school, snooty, stick in the mud, set in his ways. All ways to describe Major Pettigrew. Where have manners and propriety gone? He doesn't like what the world has become, with its fixation on acquiring material things, his son Roger included. Roger's is too busy getting ahead. He barely has time to attend his uncle's funeral, and now that he has a glamorous American girlfriend, Major Pettigrew expects to see him even less.

The shock of his younger brother's death leaves the Major shaken. So much so, that the lovely Mrs Ali, the local grocer, offers her help when she comes for the newspaper money. Having broken the ice, the Major and Mrs Ali strike up a friendship which grows into something neither of them expected. But what seems perfectly natural to the both of them is looked upon with suspicion and ridicule by family and friends. 

For some reason I had to talk myself into reading, or listening actually, to Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. I'm not sure why. I'm not even sure I knew what it was about before I downloaded it. I had a few issues with it but it's a pleasant enough story.

The Major is a man with high expectations. He knows what people should or shouldn't do and mostly they disappoint him. The exception to this rule appears to be with the women he's attracted to, in fact they seem to be the opposite of himself. There's not much they can do that he doesn't approve of. His wife, who died some years ago, was a bit of a firecracker. Mrs Ali is a widow herself, that bonds them, but she's also warm and well read. She's a refined lady, in his eyes, despite being a grocer's widow. The problem is not just of class but one of race because she is of Pakistani heritage. She has a nephew (and family elsewhere) who doesn't approve of her new friend. The Major has his country club laughing behind his back. Their romance has to navigate faux pas and downright racism from all corners.

I loved that this is a romance where the couple involved aren't young, this is a golden years romance. Both of them had previous marriages. At first, the Major rubbed me the wrong way. He doesn't make allowances for anyone. Soon I warmed up to him, mostly because of how sweet on Mrs Ali he is. They are adorable. There is a scene at a cabin that had me grinning. Mrs Ali too made the story delightful. However, I had an issue with some of the secondary characters. They don't have much depth and are nearly stock characters. It's as if the stepped out of a Monty Python skit, "Hello, we're the racists. We'll be over here doing racist things. Carry on." Then there is Roger. While I know Roger is supposed to be shallow, I found him beyond belief. Could anyone be that clueless? Get an emotion, pal.

In addition to romantic entanglements, there are plots involving a pair of guns, land development, and an unwed mother. It gets complicated. There are some silly antics from the locals and the end is a little contrived but it's still one to read.

Recommended for romantics.

About the Audio: The narrator is Peter Altschuler who did an excellent job. I usually have a problem with male narrators trying to do female voices but I enjoyed how his voice went a little softer for the women. Nicely done.

Ratings:

Lazy Sunday Thoughts: Scattered Thoughts

Goose Lane Books, the publisher of The Town That Drowned by Riel Nason, a book I enjoyed, contacted me with this news:

[Fredericton, NB] In 1994, still in the birthing years of the Internet, Goose Lane Editions, Canada’s oldest independent book publisher, made history by becoming one of the first publishing houses in the world to launch their own website.


After 18 years, the site has gone through numerous transformations, changing to suit our evolving culture as technology improved and users became more computer-savvy. Now, we are proud to announce the newest iteration of www.gooselane.com, with new features, new content, and a new promotion to kick off the launch.


In addition to a complete visual redesign, we have added new website elements such as twitter feeds and ongoing blog posts by our many employees. Sample chapters are available for many books, and an ongoing stream of events and notices is added to the
main page every day.


To celebrate our launch, we’d like to extend a special offer. For every day the week of January 30, we will be offering one book a day at a special highly-discounted price. Roadsworth, YOU comma Idiot, The Famished Lover, Miller Brittain, The Black Watch, Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, and Ganong: A Sweet History of Chocolate will each take over one day of the week with a drastically discounted price to help celebrate our new look and attitude. All this, in addition to our regular feature of free shipping on orders of $60 or more. To take advantage of these offers, simply create an account with Goose Lane. By doing so, you’ll also ensure that you are regularly updated on upcoming special offers.


We’ve been around a long time, both physically and electronically. Here’s to many more years together.

Mmmm...chocolate.

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I continue on with the Fitness Challenge. I'm getting along quite well. I'm taking classes I enjoy which I think is a big reason I'm sticking to it this time. Have you ever been to the blog Skinnytaste? I've just discovered it, thanks to Pinterest. The author makes regular recipes healthier. She includes Weight Watcher points and calorie count. This week I tried the Chicken Tikka (I threw it all in the slow cooker) and it turned out really nice. I'll add a bit more spice next time than I did this first time. I was a bit scared. Last week I made Poulet au Vinaigre and it was so good! It tastes rich even though it's only 242 calories.

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I may have come out of my reading rut. I finished a book on Friday, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim. I'll post my thoughts on that later in the week.

I didn't buy, borrow, or get any new books this week. I did get the new Nimbus Publishing catalogue. Lots of Titanic books are coming, it being the 100th anniversary of the sinking in April.

Today I have to "Rescue" a couple of books for Goodreads or I'm going to lose them. I had an email from them last night.

That's about it for my reading week. How was yours?

Friday Bookish Buzz: Reading Rut

I think I'm in a reading rut. I haven't finished a book since last week and that was an audiobook. It's not that I'm not reading good books, it's just that I can't concentrate. Ever have that happen?

Hopefully I'll get a lot read this weekend. We're getting a mix of snow and rain tonight. Not a nice weekend to leave the house.

So what's new out there?


*Big news: Book bloggers count for 12.1% of the ways people find out about books they buy.

*Trish (Hey Lady!) and Michelle (Galleysmith) founders of the Book Bloggers Convention have sold it to BEA. I wonder if that will change much about BBC, not that I've ever gone to know...

*Vladimir Putin tents fingers and gives a Mr Burns glare, also he wants to make Russians read 100 books of his choosing.

*Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert face off on The Colbert Report. Aw, he's so grumpy.

*Now you can pretend to be a librarian with all the right tools!

*As of January 30, Goodreads will no longer use Amazon's data. The reason is terms are too restrictive.

*Amanda Hocking gets herself a book deal and it's not with Amazon. I'm impressed at how business-like she is. Good for her!

*Okay, so there was bad news about OverDrive the last couple of weeks, now here's some good news!

*Want to put words on your feet? Reading material for the shy? See Kate Sew shows you how.

*Etsy Love: You got words on your feet, how about your ears? Whisky Girl earrings from A Spectacular Mess.

Have a good one!

Surely It's a Review...and Don't Call Me Shirley*

A review: what is it? Who can claim the title of "reviewer"? It's the latest book blogging discussion, so it seems. Maggie Stiefvater gave her two cents this week. That's her opinion. Also this is not a new discussion. I'm pretty sure I wrote about this in response to some other kerfuffle years ago.

I've always used the word "review" in my blog titles because, back in the day, I read some blogging advice that this would help people find my blog. Of course, these are not reviews in the sense that she would like. I'm not an academic in any way shape or form. This is not the NYT (duh). Reader or consumer reviews are  just a different animal from those type. Sort of like meningitis, there's viral and bacterial. Bacterial is super serious, not like viral. My reviews are viral meningitis. I will continue to use review in my titles. Other people use Thoughts, or Opinion, and perhaps "Response to" could be used. It's all the same. As Raych pointed out "I am here to lol and get shouty about things." Yes, I am. Perhaps, like those late night TV psychics (do they still exist?), I should have a disclaimer: "For entertainment purposes only." I will tell you what lotto numbers to play but what you do with them is your own business.

But I will exercise my right as an English speaking person to commandeer the word review (because now sick means awesome?). Surely if bloggers can review ice cream or pretzels, I can review books. Granted reviewing books is not quite like reviewing food. ("To Kill a Mockingbird was delicious. Pairs well with a nice Pinot Grigio.") Surely if the English language is flexible enough to use tear as a word to describe both eye juice and what happens when you get your heel caught in your skirt, I can use review for my own purposes. Wording is the personal choice of the blogger. It's not my place to tell you how to run your blog. I'm not going to sweat over review unless the book blog police show up. Surely we all have bigger fish to fry. Carry on...

And don't call me Shirley.

*My Dad always thought that joke was hilarious. He says it all the time. I'm afraid. I'm using his jokes now.

Literary Introverts and Extroverts

I've been reading Quiet by Susan Cain, a very thought provoking book on personality. I'm fascinated with it so far because I consider myself (and have all the hallmarks of) an introvert. I've come to the conclusion that it's just how I am. Cain claims that the world today, in particular Americans, have come to see extroversion as a virtue and introversion as a fault.

Early in the book, she says that during the first part of the 20th Century there was a shift from a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality. The Culture of Character was one in which the ideal person was "serious, disciplined and honorable," whereas in the Culture of Personality boldness is the ideal, and that's why people are obsessed with celebrities today.

I've read my fair share of pre-20th Century lit and couldn't help but think of the introverts and extroverts of those books and whether they were heroes or villains. Here's a look at the ones that popped in my head:

Fanny Price, Mansfield Park (introvert): Fanny was the very first person I thought of. She is the epitome of the Culture of Character. She's all character and not much else. When she stands next to Mary Crawford, she practically disappears. In the end, Fanny gets her man because she's such a good person while the vivacious Mary is run out of town. Some modern readers admire Mary more than Fanny.

Jane Eyre (introvert): Another quiet soul but at least she has some gumption. She shines in one-on-one situations like verbal sparring with Mr Rochester. Her competition for Rochester's affection is Blanche Ingram, a social butterfly. Jane saves the day and wins her guy. Blanche gets a one way ticket to Scramsville. 

Becky Sharp, Vanity Fair (extrovert): Vanity Fair is a novel without a hero (at least that's what Thackeray said) but the most memorable character is Becky Sharp. She's quick and bold, but also without morals. She doesn't do so well at the end but the quieter characters find love and happiness.

Emma Woodhouse, Emma (extrovert): "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," so said Jane Austen. Yet, people do like Emma. She is bright and outgoing, also spoiled and gossipy. It takes a quieter person, Mr Knightley, to show her the error of her ways.

The Bennet Family, Pride and Prejudice (extroverts): This is a tough one because Mr Darcy's extreme introversion is seen as pride, not a good thing. However, the Bennet family, with the exception of Jane, are extroverts whose behaviour often ends in embarrassment for Lizzie and Jane. Even Lizzie, who has a smart mouth, isn't appreciated. Jane is their little star. It doesn't hurt that she's pretty either. Jane and Lizzie get married to the partner of their choosing, Lydia has an uncertain future, and Mrs Bennet still has to find husbands for the remaining two girls.

Pip, Great Expectations (introvert): Pip gets bullied by the stronger characters and jerked around by Estella. Pip does end up content by the end while the bolder characters end up...er, dead.

During the 20th Century, things start to change, the chatty heroine Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables is an extrovert who develops character with the help of two introverts. She might gain control of that temper but she stays her outgoing self. She'll never be serious or quiet. However, she doesn't end up dead or shunned at the end of her story. She gets a happily ever after and is universally admired.

So, were these authors reflecting the societal ideals of the time or were they acting out an introvert's fantasy? (Not sure if they were all introverts but Charlotte Bronte certainly was.) Are introverts heroes in modern literature or was that their moment in the sun?

A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark: Review

Despite having a couple of Muriel Spark's books on my shelves, I've never read any of her books. Seeing that the library had A Far Cry from Kensington available as an audiobook, I thought maybe that was the way to ease into them.

It's difficult to explain the plot to anyone. It's all over the place and I wondered how things were going to come together by the end.

In the 1950s, Mrs Hawkins lived in a rooming house in Kensington with a variety of characters. She worked for a shady publishing house (her boss would be convicted of forgery) and she was obese. She noticed that being a large woman meant people thought of her as matronly and reliable, even though she was a 28 year old widow. This caused them to ask for her advice. Eventually, she would tire of the burden of their problems and shed her extra pounds. (Remember this, it's important.)

Anyway, Mrs Hawkins has a nemesis, Hector Barlett, a guy she calls a pisseur de copie. He's an ass kisser extraordinaire with anyone involved in publishing, including Mrs Hawkins. When she insults him, he works hard to make her life miserable. Meanwhile, the rooming house is involved in a mystery. One of the tenants is getting threatening letters and phone calls. Plus another tenant's father keeps asking Mrs Hawkins to find the young lady a job in publishing. So, she has her full at home and work.

These events push Mrs Hawkins to make some life changing decisions. Ones that will take her far from Kensington.

I enjoyed so much about A Far Cry from Kensington: the quirky characters, the setting, even the plot though I wondered where it was going. Mrs Hawkins is a sensible woman, most of the time. She can't help herself around Hector Barlett, however. He brings out the worst in her and keeps costing her jobs. He himself is a character you have to hate. Everything about him is hateful. Even though I cringed every time Mrs Hawkins called him a pisseur de copie, I couldn't help admiring her tell-it-like-it-is attitude. She won't compromise her morals for a job.

It was interesting that the publishing industry at that time is portrayed as a being peopled with well intentioned yet incompetent fools. They are a cast of forgers and upper class twits, yet everyone wants to be in publishing. Even Mrs Hawkins can't seem to break herself out of the business. Perhaps because although it's a trade, it's a high class one, perceived as being full of a better class of people.

Even though the mystery is a big part of the plot, it's always in the background. It isn't until the end that we see just how big a part it has been playing. It was there all the time. Quite sneaky.

Mrs Hawkins isn't a character I will forget soon.

Recommended.

About the Audio: I was convinced that the narrator, Pamela Garelick, was Mrs Hawkins. Her voice encapsulates her. She's very good with other characters' voices and accents as well. In one case, there is a very minor character with just a few lines of dialogue. This woman is a Polish immigrant living in Scotland. She gives her a Polish accent with a hint of a Scottish brogue. It was perfect. Great attention to detail.

Ratings:

Lazy Sunday Thoughts: We Just Want to Read

It's hard to be a reader these days. Well, if you've got the money to buy all the books you want, it's probably easier, but a two book a week habit is an expensive one. As Karen from Sassymonkey Reads pointed out earlier this week, her library enables hers. Her library saved her nearly $1400 last year. If it wasn't for her library would she have spend $1400 on books? I don't know about Karen but I wouldn't. I buy books, yes, but I wouldn't spend that amount on books every year. That's a mortgage payment.

Every week, I hear depressing news about reading. Library funds being cut, books being banned, publishers making it more difficult to borrow and share ebooks, changing public domain laws, book stores shrinking floor space for books. These last two weeks I read 2 pieces of news about publishers pulling audiobooks from Overdrive, the online library service. I use Overdrive for audiobooks a lot. I use audiobooks to expand my mind while doing mindless tasks. There's nothing intellectually stimulating about cleaning a toilet.

I can see why the publishers think this is a good idea. It's too easy to borrow now. We have the technology. We made it better. But, hear me out, is this a good idea? If the thinking is borrowers will convert to buyers, I think they are wrong. Not if the reader can't afford it. Not now anyway. If I could afford it, I would buy all the time. And maybe someday I will (after that mortgage is paid). But...by borrowing audio or paper books, I get to try out authors I wouldn't give a second glance. I might find a few I'm willing to buy when I have the money. I'm careful with my money. I don't throw it around willy-nilly. I don't take chances on authors whose work I'm unsure of. And...libraries buy books. They kinda need to.

A business should cultivate a culture where its customers will remain customers. If the alternative to borrowing means buying, there will be people who just won't read. They can't afford it. Take from someone who knows, once you get out of the habit of reading, it's hard to get back into it. You wouldn't think it now, but I went years without reading a book. I was "too busy." I got back into to it slowly. My library really helped me find authors I liked and whose books I ended up buying. 

There are already so many people yelling that no one reads any more and that the book is dead. Why pull the plug on readers?

Anyway enough cranky.

Speaking of audiobooks, I listened to A Far Cry from Kensington this week. It was interesting. I'll have to gather my thoughts on that one. I also started Quiet by Susan Cain and it's giving me a lot to think about. I also won Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor by Rosina Harrison on Twitter. Should be interesting.

Did everyone hear about the SOPA blackout this week? Here's Salty Ink's take on it and pretty much how I feel too.

Friday Bookish Buzz: Sunny Days & Edgar Allen Poe

How very romantic! A fat cat on a rock. Oh well, he's an improvement over Fabio.

It's such a nice sunny day- cold, but sunny. The days are getting a bit longer again. I know there is a long wait until spring but that really helps improve my mood. Hope you're getting some good weather where you are.

What is going on in the book world this week?

*Are books bad friends?

*Downton Abbey fans. Publishers have some books for you.

*The Guardian has something to say about the YA authors vs reviewers brouhaha.

*The latest funny caption meme: Sexy CanLit.

*Ugh! Not again. Another publisher pulls it's audiobooks from libraries.

*Beth Kephart recounts her positive experiences with book bloggers. Yay!

*Edgar Allen Poe lost his secret admirer. Poor guy.

*Etsy Love: Since yesterday was Edgar Allen Poe's birthday, how about a poster of The Raven by The Gorgonist. Wow!

Have a great reading weekend!

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman: Review

Reading The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is a bit like seeing Titanic for the first time. There's no getting around the ship is going down, but who, if anyone, is going to survive? History tells us that Masada is a done deal. Rather than be enslaved by the Romans, the inhabitants of this Jewish fortress in the desert committed mass suicide. Fun times.

Hoffman never lets us forget that bad things are a-coming. There is no dancing in steerage for our heroines. It's suffering right from the get go. Yael has a hateful neglectful father, who never misses an opportunity to remind her that she murdered her mother- by being born. She's got all the confidence of a beaten down dog. If you've murdered your Mom, where do you go from there? When they have to leave Jerusalem in a hurry, they end up hiding in the desert before making their way to Masada. 

Yael is assigned a job in the dovecotes with a group of women: Revka, caregiver to her daughter's two boys; Shirah, the Witch of Moab, and her two daughters Aziza and Nahara. She thinks her secrets are the Worst Things Ever but as we find out, these woman all have their own, some heartbreaking, some surprising. As they recount their terrible histories, they experience the events leading up to the fall of Masada. 

I didn't think much of Yael at the beginning, and she's my least favorite of the women in The Dovekeepers. Yes, she's had a tough life and her father isn't going to win Father of the Year but her rationalizing drove me nuts. She has a friend, her only friend, but she sleeps with this friend's husband (this isn't too spoilery since it happens in the first 50 pages). She feels guilty about it, yet she does it anyway. It was her destiny or written in the stars or whatever. This is the excuse of a lot of the things the women do: God put me on this path, who am I to change it? Yael thinks everything is a bad omen. Even if other people see something as a good omen, she's right there to say, "I knew it was a bad omen." Maybe you make your own bad luck, yes?

Then there's Shirah, the woman everyone believes is a witch because she follows the tenets of a now outlawed branch of Judaism. She does practice a kind of magic, spells, cures, etc. Sometimes it's very woo-woo and at one point, Shirah is trying to exorcise a demon, which should have been Serious Business but I thought it funny. She pretty much just bullied a women into a Law & Order-esque confession. She also suffers from "it was written in the stars" syndrome when it comes to men. 

Aziza is the most fascinating character, which was surprising. I can't say much about because the surprise is the best part. I will say that I enjoyed her story because it is so different from the other women. I found it sad, however. Since she is the child of Shirah, her fate is in her mother's hands and lives at her whim. If given the choice, would she have had a different life? I didn't want Aziza's story to end when it did.

There were things that bothered me but loved the historical aspect of the story. Even though it's over 500 pages, I read it in a couple of days. It's so compelling. For the most part I loved the writing. There were times when I thought it was a bit much. It is a brutal story. Awful things happen and those Romans are not even human. I can't imagine the brutality. I came away thinking of the waste of it all.

So, it's not a happy book but it is fascinating. If you don't love all the characters, you'll at least love a couple. Even though it wasn't always easy to read these terrible things, I'm glad to have read The Dovekeepers.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for the review copy.

Ratings: