Tuesday's Three

I was thinking last night that I'd make a point of bringing back 3 books a day, as I start to empty my apartment, but I'm not even sure that would take care of all of the previously-read library books I have scattered around... However, the three I brought in this morning are:

A Lesson in Secrets, Jacqueline Winspear (Harper, 2011) - this is another Maisie Dobbs mystery. Don't remember what it's about, except she finally has a nice man (I think, and I even think I know which one, although I don't want to say here), but it really is getting to the point where even if they're decently written, with well-rounded and appealing characters, if you've read one, you've kind of read them all...

The Abyssinian Proof, Jenny White (W.W. Norton, 2008) - sequel to The Sultan's Seal, so another Kamil Pasha mystery. Which is funny, because I totally just picked three books that were roughly the same size, I didn't bother to check and see what they were, or if there was a theme. Well, I did check to see what they were just to make sure there was nothing really awesome that would deserve more time. Anyhow, more Istanbul shenanigans in the 1880s. Well-written, and Kamil is a really strong main character, and a good anchor for the series, but damn was this one predictable. Like, I totally forgot what it was about (honestly, the title itself didn't even ring a bell, I just knew Jenny White does the Kamil Pasha series), then I opened it just now, read the first lines, and thought "oh right - THIS book" and remembered that I had anticipated everything that happened. But I enjoyed being along for the ride, as I recall.

The Twelfth Enchantment, David Liss (Random House, 2011) - so, all I can think about right now is how weird the word "twelfth" looks. But, we press on: I had to skim the first page to remember what this book is about, which is a young girl in early industrial England who has to...do magic to save the world? basically? And I also then immediately remembered that when I started reading it I was kind of upset because the book was not at all what I expected. I had gotten it thinking it would be one of his "economics/business + mystery in the past" books (like the Conspiracy of Paper series or The Whiskey Rebels), which I've either read one of or wanted to read (now that I'm looking it up, I think I read a book by another author along those lines, and that's why I wanted to move to Liss), and then I find freaking  evil fairies and stuff. NOT PLEASED. I don't even know that the book was so bad, it's just a) not really my thing, and b) not at all what I was anticipating/looking for.

Cleaning house

The library needs three books back AND I need to get them out of my apartment so there's less stuff to drag to the new one in 3.5 weeks (and let the countdown begin!). So:

Equal of the Sun, Anita Amirrezvani (Scribner, 2012) - Good

The Orphanmaster, Jean Zimmerman (Viking, 2012) - Okay

The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker (Random House, 2012) - Fantastic

I've got to run some errands and get some lunch; hopefully more later, otherwise at least these are now listed...

Maybe?

 I vaguely remember reading a review of Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead when it came out (in the Times?) and thinking "maybe" - it's about a wedding on a Maine island, both things I find interesting - and then I think never doing anything about it, probably because I was thinking unless I am really excited about something, I need to stop growing my list of books to read. However, I just read a New York Times op-ed ["The Wedding Effect" - What is it about friends getting hitched that leaves us so unhinged?] of hers that I don't think is incredibly original or insightful (or, honestly, fairly original or insightful - or at all) but was well-written, more like an essay than an op-ed, so now I kind of want to read the book. Both copies at Harvard have wait-lists, though, and I don't want to request to be added to the list.  I might already on it, for one thing, and I am too lazy to log into my account and look. Also because I really need to chill on ordering books for a bit: I've got a stack to be read at home (not to mention several stacks to "review") and I'm moving in a month, so probably the fewer books I have to drag around the better...  Still, at some point I think I'd like to give Ms. Shipstead's work a shot.

Fforde!

So, something made me think about Shades of Grey, and how I am so annoyed that the next one doesn't seem to be in the pipeline yet, so I went to the Jasper Fforde website to check if there was any news, and there's a new Thursday Next out! Whoop! This one is called The Woman Who Died A Lot which I think is typically, Fforde-ianly funny. It's out in the UK already, but not available in the US until October, so I've requested the library order the English edition - fingers crossed.

AND apparently he will be reading in Boston somewhere on October 4 - needless to say, the date is going in my calendar now.

Not-Meh

Returned Pure by Andrew Miller yesterday; I forget when I read it, but I liked it. I had read a review somewhere, I think, and ordered it from the library, and read it quite quickly, and with a good deal of enjoyment, when I got it. It's about a young engineer who gets as his first real job the unenviable task of digging up a centuries-old graveyard in the middle of pre-revolutionary Paris that is overflowing with bodies (and emitting noxious air). While some of the events were fairly predictable, overall the plot was interesting and imaginative and Miller did a good job limning day-to-day life in the city, in working-class & middle-class neighborhoods and Versailles, especially the dirt, grime, and smells of Enlightenment era cities. It also has a great cover (see the picture in the Telegraph article on Pure winning the Costa prize)

Meh

Brought The Pleasures of Men (Kate Williams) to the beach on Friday (birthday beach day!) but never got around to reading it - too busy chatting with T and zoning out in the sun with some Collie Buddz on, lol. And it's a pretty heavy book for a paperback, so I wish I hadn't been lugging it around.

Especially since when I finally started reading it on Saturday it was pretty bad. The plot (serial killer in early Victorian London) was predictable but confusing at the same time, if that makes any sense, and mostly - sweet baby Jesus, the editing was TERRIBLE. Apparently it's a Penguin branch - they should be ASHAMED of themselves. Just awful typos everywhere. I wouldn't turn in a term paper that bad, so for it to be a published book??

I had been saving it for the beach because I thought, as soon as I saw the cover (I had requested it from the library based on some review somewhere) that it was going to be an easy, trashy read, and, well, it was that...

Read:

Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale (UK printing)

Very easy-to-read non-fiction piece about a notorious divorce case (one of the earliest after a civil divorce was made accessible to the general public in England in 1858), in which a woman's diary, containing either her feverish fantasies or the (semi-)details of an actual affair were the cornerstone of the case.

Nice look at both the people and events (leading up to, during, and after the trial) and also at the wider context. I think in part this was necessary to make up for a limited field of action and evidence, but extended sections on other cases, in particular, do not feel out of place or like interruptions and they add to the overall impact of the book. I also appreciated, and I think non-specialist audiences would, too, that there are no footnotes, and simply un-numbered endnotes at the back.

It's not a great work of scholarship, but it's fun and easy.

I'd like to check out her other books at some point - The Queen of Whale Cay and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (fiction and nonfiction, respectively, I think?).

Obviously my apartment is not getting any cleaner

Since I haven't been returning tons of books to the library. But one more today - baby steps. The daily catch for July 3 is Arcadia Falls, by Carol Goodman. It's...well, it's a Carol Goodman. That is to say, the writing's totally fine, maybe better than fine, but it feels totally familiar, and like all of her other books (set in a prep school, in remote-ish upstate New York, women - past and present - at the forefront, story that spans generations, deep-dark-emotionally-loaded secrets, etc.). But I enjoyed it. It would be a good rainy fall day read, curled up with tea or cider or something. And I will say for Goodman, her books always make me want to go out and learn more about the artists/time periods she invokes in the novels. And trees and the natural setting always play a prominent role, and while it sounds weird to say she has a knack for writing about trees, she does. However, D*MN was the big reveal obvious. Unless we, the audience, were meant to see it all along and be completely frustrated with the characters for missing the obvious - even when they were privy to all the same information we were?

I could probably say more, but basically it's a good read. Crazy busy with work, though, so not a lot of time to write, yet I need to get SOMETHING down "on paper," because when I need to run around and do errands at lunch (might have found a new apartment for the fall!) and I don't want to have to deal with taking the book out through security if I can just return if before I leave the library...