rainpebble reads in 2017

READING WHERE MY MIND TAKES ME IN 2017.



MY 2017 PERSONAL CHALLENGE: A YEAR WITH ELIZABETH GOUDGE AND MARY HOCKING.

Hi Belva! Happy New Year and happy reading in 2017!

1. Lady: A Novel by Thomas Tryon; January
2. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West; January
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; January
4. Family Circle by Mary Hocking; January
5. The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge; February
6. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne; February
7. Awakenings by Oliver Sacks; February
8. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman; March
9. Looking for Alaska by John Green; March
10. Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones; March
11. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; March
12. Good Daughters by Mary Hocking; March
13. The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell; March
14. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; March
15. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; March
16. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge; April

Happy new year.
I hope you enjoys some great books in 2017

Happy 2017 Belva !

GROUP READS:

Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau; (3*); Virago Group Read

JANUARY READS:
1. Lady by Thomas Tryon; (5*); on Kindle; coming of age; middle America
2. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West; (5*); hardcopy; VMC; Virago Monthly Author Read;
3. Still With Me by Thierry Cohen; (3 1/2*); Kindle; suicide; paranormal;
4. The Boston Girl: A Novel by Anita Diamant; (4 1/2*); hardcopy; family saga; Jewish immigration to America;
5. Unpunished by Lisa Black; (3 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; police procedural; on Kindle
6. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir by Paul Monette; (4*); Kindle; memoir;
7. Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau; (3*); Virago Group Read; VMC; Kindle;
8. The Patriots: A Novel by Sana Krasikov; (4 1/2*); Kindle; ARC/ER, NetGalley; historical fact based fiction
9. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart; (4*); Kindle; vintage mystery; gothic lit; crime fiction
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; (5*); on Kindle; VMC; January Monthly Author Read;
11. Family Circle by Mary Hocking; (5*); on Kindle; (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;
12. The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge; (3 1/2*); on Kindle; (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;

MONTHLY AUTHOR READS:

https://www.librarything.com/groups/monthlyauthorreads
____________________________________________

MONTHLY AUTHOR READS FOR 2017:

January: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice; on Kindle; (5*)
February: George Eliot: The Lifted Veil; (4 1/2*)
March: Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera;
(1 1/2*); Latin American lit;
April: Tom Robbins: Tom Robbins: The Kindle Singles Interview by Mara Altman; on Kindle

May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:

________________________________________________________

MONTHLY AUTHOR READS FOR THE VIRAGO GROUP:

January: Vita Sackville-West: All Passion Spent; (5*); on Kindle
February: Rebecca West: Harriet Hume; (2*); on Kindle
March: Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence; (4 1/2*); on Kindle
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:
______________________________________________________

PERSONAL READING CHALLENGE WITH ELIZABETH GOUDGE & MARY HOCKING:

January:
Goudge: The Scent of Water; (3 1/2*)
Hocking: Family Circle (no touchstone); (5*)

February:
Goudge: The Bird in the Tree; (5*)
Hocking: The Very Dead of Winter; (4*)

March:
Goudge:
Hocking: Good Daughters; (5*)

April:
Goudge:
Hocking:

May:
Goudge:
Hocking:

June:
Goudge:
Hocking:

July:
Goudge:
Hocking:

August:
Goudge:
Hocking:

September:
Goudge:
Hocking:

October:
Goudge:
Hocking:

November:
Goudge:
Hocking:

December:
Goudge:
Hocking:

Looking forward to seeing your reads this year! And a reminder that I need to read some more George Eliot.

Our tastes in Elizabeth Goudge and fantasy certainly align, Belva. Happy 2017 and good reading.

2017 ARC & ER editions read & reviewed:

1. Unpunished by Lisa Black; (3 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; police procedural;
2. The Patriots: A Novel by Sana Krasikov; (4 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; Kindle; historical fact based fiction
3. Who Is to Blame?: A Russian Riddle by Jane Marlow; (2 1/2*); historical fiction; ARC/ER, NetGalley; Kindle
4. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson; (3*); NetGalley; Kindle
5. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden; (4 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; fantasy; fairy tale; of Russia
6. Sorrows & Songs by Janice Wood Wetzel; (2*); NetGalley; memoir
________________________________________________________

ARC/ERs:

Don't Tell a Soul by M. William Phelps; NetGalley; on Kindle; true crime
28 Feb 2017 01 Feb 2017

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova; NetGalley; on Kindle;
11 Apr 2017 23 Jan 2017

The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart; NetGalley; on Kindle;
12 Apr 2017 11 Mar 2017

>11 rainpebble: My parochial school had a copy of her The Little White Horse in the school library, so I first encountered her in sixth grade. I personally read that copy to pieces. I wasn't able to find anything else by her until I was in college in the used book stores, and then in the 70s I read everything I could find. Somewhere I lent out my Henrietta trilogy and still haven't found replacements for them, although my public library has them right now. I have 18 of her books in my own library.

1. Lady by Thomas Tryon; (5*); Kindle; coming of age; middle America

In Thomas Tryon we were blessed with a marvelous story teller, the likes of which a reader does not often come across. His writing is like a warm fleece blanket unless you are reading one of his 'horror' stories. Then this reader finds his writing to be terrifying.
With Lady, even though there are mysterious aspects to the tale, I found myself wrapped up in a Southern Comfort story. It is the coming of age story of our young protagonist, Woody, who lives across the town 'green' from a widowed woman known to all the community as simply Lady, short for Adelaide. She is beautiful, smart, sophisticated, and sometimes both fun and funny but always mysterious about certain areas of her life. She lives in a large, beautiful and magnificent house and keeps largely to herself and her servants, a houseman and his wife, her housekeeper.
Our lad watches the goings on across the green and is fascinated and curious about Lady. He is just one member of a family consisting of a widowed mother and several children. The story becomes even more interesting when Woody and Lady meet, befriend one another and carry the story on to new levels for the better Woody comes to know Lady and the closer they become, the more curious he gets about her life and her past. Over time she reveals more to him than she ever has to anyone excepting perhaps her servants who have been with her for many years. She takes his family under her wing, so to speak, and they attempt to watch out over her. That is, when she is not suffering from one of her spells for our Lady has frequent spells brought on by memories of unhappy times and/or relationships gone by and is brought quite low by them. Often she remains reclusive for lengthy periods of time. During these times she sees and speaks with no one but her servants.
I have heard this book compared with To Kill a Mockingbird many times and yet I fail to see or to feel the comparison unless one is only comparing the writing which is marvelous in both. I have always loved TKaM but I find Lady to be superior to the former.
I loved reading this story and also loved the way Tryon grows his characters, even the minor ones, into fully rounded and fleshed out roles in his novel. It is sad that we do not have a larger body of work from him to appreciate.

2. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West; (5*); Kindle; VMC; Virago Monthly Author Read

(a re-read for me; this novel was my first encounter with V.S.-W)

What a beautifully written novel this is. All Passion Spent is about a woman in her late eighties whose husband has just passed away and who finds herself suddenly with the freedom to do as she likes with the remainder of her life. Up until now, she has lived for her husband and her six children.
The children expect her to sell her home, which she does, and share the remaining years she has with them; rotating months between their homes. But Lady Slane has a very different idea for the years she has left. She wants to live very privately in the countryside with her one devoted servant and far from all of her family. She yearns for peace and quiet. So ignoring all of their demands upon her, she does exactly that.
Not a lot happens in this novel, but it is not what happens that invades the mind and spirit of the one reading it. It is the getting there, the prose, the language of the book that is taken into one's heart, treasured and held there that matters. This is simply a beautiful story and one I won't forget for a long time.

3. Still with Me by Thierry Cohen; (3 1/2*)

I found this book to be uniquely & hauntingly eerie.
It is the story of a young man who commits or attempts (?) to commit suicide upon being spurned by his one & only love. But he awakens to find himself married to the young woman and also the father of a new baby boy. Needless to say he is in shock. At the end of the day he finds himself falling back into the labyrinth from whence he had awakened that morning.
Through the remaining years of his life (?) time he will occasionally awaken on his birthday to find that years have passed, he is much older and his life is irrevocably changed and not for the better. For with each awakening he learns that during the span of time between, he has lived a life that has had a great negative effect on his family and friends. He comes to realize that he is not a good man. His family & friends have come to fear him. So he attempts to find a way to protect them from himself.
The concept of this book is HUGE! I found it to be fascinating and think that in the hands of a more experienced writer, Still with Me could have been an absolutely brilliant book. As it is, I found it to be very good and the reading of it has left me with much to ponder.
I do recommend it to a certain breed of reader but definitely not for all.

Still With Me does sound like a concept with a great deal of possibility. Probably not the book for me, but I'll keep it in mind to point out to others.

4. The Boston Girl: A Novel by Anita Diamant; (4 1/2*); hardcopy; family saga; Jewish immigration to America

Anita Diamant never disappoints whether you are reading her works of fiction or non-fiction. She is an amazingly good writer who draws the reader into the world she is writing of. When I read her, everything around me simply ceases to be.
Her characters are of the greatest interest regardless of their placement within the story; whether they are a major or a minor player. And no matter the happy or the sad of the world of which she is chronicling, I always find myself wanting to live within the framework of her story lines.
The Boston Girl is about the daughter of Jewish immigrants, born and bred in Boston from her childhood into her eighties. The story is told in an unusual manner, in that our protagonist is telling the entire tale in the first person, to
her granddaughter. We live through her unhappy and stifled childhood, through her difficult coming of age years, her school years, her two unhappy endeavors at creating romantic relationships, her working years and all the while wonderful and crazy back burner stories are carrying on about her two sisters, her parents, along with her friends and colleagues.

Favorite quotes from the book:

Describing to her granddaughter the circumstances of a young friend who gave herself an abortion and nearly died: A helping friend speaking to the girl: "I figure God created Margaret Sanger too."

To her granddaughter: "You know, Ava, it's good to be smart, but kindness is more important. Oh dear, another old-lady chestnut to stitch on a sampler."

There was nothing that I did not love about this book. I am so bummed that it has ended. I highly recommend it.

Great review of The Boston Girl. I went to put it on my to-read list only to find it already there.

>18 mabith:
Thank you, sweet girl. I think that you will find that you enjoy it, when you get around to it.
hugs,

5. Unpunished (A Gardiner and Renner Novel) by Lisa Black; (3 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; police procedural;

In Unpunished (A Gardiner and Renner Novel) , Lisa Black brings back the crime fighting duo of Maggie Gardiner, a police forensic pathologist, and Jack Renner, a homicide detective. They are working to solve the murders of the employees of The Cleveland Herald, Cleveland's last remaining daily newspaper.
With this story, we get a lot of background information about the newspaper business which adds depth to the characters of the victims, the protagonists, and to the plot-lines. Plus there is also the little issue of the secret that Maggie and Jack share and the fact that Maggie's husband is also a homicide detective who is looking into the incidents which created the secret that our crime fighting duo share.
Although this is the second of a series, Unpunished works fine as a stand-alone read. I enjoyed it and it fed the guilty pleasure that I have for police procedurals, which I have neglected for a bit.

My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Looks like some great reading happening here, as usual. :)

>21 wookiebender:
Thanks, wookie. So nice to 'see' you. :-)
I need to check out all of the other threads and see what you all are reading as well.
hugs,

6. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir by Paul Monette; (4*); Kindle; memoir;

It was really difficult to pull my head out of this memoir. I took my time reading it and found myself very caught up in the lives of Monette and the people he wrote about. I also found myself much more sympathetic with Paul's lover, Roger, than with Paul himself.
These are Paul's memories of the days of HIV, Aids and those who lived with it before it was even admitted that there was such a disease. In those years, the 80s, contracting this disease was a death sentence. Paul's lover died in 1986 and when Paul began this beautiful memoir, he had no assurance that he would live long enough to complete it. He passed away in 1995. I am thankful that he was able to complete his memoir for this is his very beautiful legacy.
Now before you think that I found this book to be perfect, I did not. I found Paul Monette to be a bit full of himself and to be self important. He was also quite the name dropper of those of the Hollywood and L.A. scene in those days. But the book IS wonderfully written and so much of it is heart rending.
I took the extended families of these men and also their friends quite to heart and found myself loving the character of many of them. I remember thinking as I read this that I would so have appreciated knowing a great many of the people who fill this memoir.
All in all, a lovely memoir and tribute to the thousands of gay men who fought this dread disease and sadly lost.

7. Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau; (2*); Virago Group Read; VMC; Kindle;

As I read Deerbrook I found the book read more like a study on certain social mores for the women of the day rather than as a novel. That was my take on it, at least. It was pretty dry reading for me.
The three women of the novel, Hester, Margaret and Maria, and their life choices, or the lack thereof, are described as they go through their lives. For these three, their choices are few: to marry, become a governess or to live life out as a spinster.
The change in Hester after she wed was a but difficult for me to understand but I was not walking in her shoes. The wickedly evil & ugly gossip within the community after Hester & Edmund wed and Margaret moved in with them practically destroys all relationships in the household.
While I cannot say that I enjoyed this novel I did appreciate it for the writing, the research & the obvious passion with which Martineau wrote.

8. The Patriots: A Novel by Sana Krasikov; (4 1/2*); Kindle; ARC/ER, NetGalley; historical fact based fiction

The Patriots is the fictional account of a young American Jewish woman who is lured to the Soviet Union by her curiosity, and and her optimism of living a communistic life.
Florence is the daughter of atheist Jewish parents. She grew up during the depression years in Brooklyn. After college Florence goes to work at the Soviet Trade Delegation where she is sent to Cleveland to help in the negotiations between U.S. Steel and the Soviets for the sale of equipment needed for a steel mill in Russia.
While there she falls in love with a young engineer from the U.S.S.R. She becomes convinced that her happiness lies in following him home to Mother Russia and changing her political views to match his.
The story is told in the third person, that person being Florence's son, Julian, and throughout the story Julian weaves of his mother, is co-mingled his own story and also that of his own son, Lenny.
Americans living in the Soviet Union during those years had little or no hope of getting out and getting back to the United States. What Mother Russia had, Mother Russia wanted to keep.
The book is fiction but is based on actual life events, real organizations, real trade deals, Golda Meir's 1948 visit to Moscow, the antisemitic purge of the 1950s, etc.
The author's background and the length at which this book was researched lend to the fascination of the narrative. The novel is so informative but it is also one that left this reader hungering for more. I have to say that it does give us a wonderful history of the Soviet Union. An amazing first novel for this author.
Read and enjoy. I highly recommend it.

9. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart; (4*); Kindle; vintage mystery; gothic lit; crime fiction

It has been many years since my last Rinehart read and in reading The Circular Staircase, I was reminded anew how well respected and beloved Mary Roberts Rinehart was & perhaps still is in this style of the genre. Quite a remarkable read, this little book has several different, but still associated, mysteries going on at once. There is the theft of all the local Bank's securities, a couple of good & ghoulish murders to be reconciled, a kidnapping, a mysterious disappearance, a mansion that tends to be broken into nightly upsetting the entire household, among other little mysteries.
Our protagonist & heroine is the spinster auntie of a young man & his sister. She has rented the manse for the season whilst her home is being remodeled & updated. Those whom the mysteries effect and those who are causing are in great part affiliated with the home owner of the house she has taken. And of course she, her niece & her nephew are affected by all of the goings on and are in the midst of the solving of the mysteries.
I do enjoy a cosy mystery and I loved this one. It is a terrific book with which to cuddle into your favorite chair and spend an afternoon reading. I highly recommend it for those of you inclined to this genre.

10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; (5*); VMC; January Monthly Author Read;

11. Family Circle by Mary Hocking; (5*); (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;

(no proper touchstones for the book)

I loved this story of a young woman who returns to a family of friends that she, as a child growing up, thought nearly perfect. As she spends more time with them and helps to bring comfort and stability to the daughter who had a nervous breakdown, she comes to realize that there is no such thing as familial perfection.
I didn't want this one to end. Very, very good. Don't you just love Mary Hocking?

12. The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge; (3 1/2*); (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;

While I love all of Goudge's works, this one leaves me a bit unsettled as it feels somewhat incomplete. Still it is beautifully written and all of the author's favorite themes are here. However I was unable to give this novel the 4 or 5 stars she usually gets from me.

FEBRUARY READS:

13. Who Is to Blame?: A Russian Riddle by Jane Marlow; (2 1/2*); historical fiction; ARC/ER, NetGalley
14. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson; (3*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; Kindle
15. The Very Dead of Winter by Mary Hocking; (4*); Virago fiction; hardcopy; (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;
16. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden; (4 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; fantasy; fairy tale; of Russia
17. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot; (4 1/2*); VMC; February Monthly Author Read;
18. The Tale of Mr. Peter Brown by Vita Sackville-West; (4*); short story;
19. The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge; (5*); (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking);

13. Who Is to Blame?: A Russian Riddle by Jane Marlow; (2 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; historical fiction; Kindle

I expected to like and appreciate this novel much more that I actually did. It is about the serfs and the nobility in the 1800s just prior to the ending of serfdom. The book seemed to be very well researched and covers a place in time that I am not very familiar with so I was looking forward to the read.
But the characters seemed flat and one dimensional to me and there wasn't much growth there. When one writes a novel that covers this many years one expects to comprehend that growth. That took some of my enjoyment away from the book. I do know that there are many of you out there in the reading world who will most likely love this novel but sadly..........I am not one of them.

My thanks to NetGalley and River Grove Books for allowing me to read and review Who is to Blame?

I take it you didn't care for A Bird in the Tree. I daresay it's a little quite dated now, but I always enjoy Elizabeth Goudge.

>32 ronincats:
No, no, Roni. I simply am still reading it and loving and savoring every moment. It doesn't seem dated to me at all, just written about an earlier era. I always love Elizabeth Goudge and find her writing pulls me right in to her stories, always. I wish I could find more writers that effect me like she does. The first of her books that I read was The Child From the Sea back in the early 60s and have read her ever since. Most of her works I have read multiple times and never tire of.
Thank you for popping over.

Oh, good! I love Elizabeth Goudge too, and deeply regret that I lent someone my Henrietta trilogy and never got it back (and can't remember who it was!). And in the USA, at least, it's pretty much irreplaceable. I misinterpreted and thought the lack of a rating meant you didn't like it. I had missed your personal challenge of a year with her. I must confess I am not as fond of her historicals as her other books, but I fell in love with The Little White Horse in sixth grade and have never looked back.

14. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson; (3*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; Kindle

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for kindly providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is about the trials & tribulations of children from their early school years through high school. More specifically it is about the trials & tribulations of students and teachers. And those are a great many. From crises causing life changing events to children whose parents are too busy with their own lives to parent those children to bullying in the school systems.
(We know these things happen every day within our school systems and many of our teachers are so burned out that they have long since given up attempting to help these children and their families and are just trying to make it through their days. The faults are many and the way to heal the problems is difficult to see. Parenting skills, on the whole, are sadly lacking for these children.)
On the whole, Johnson's premise is a very important one but when one gives critique I believe that it is important to try to find some fundamental ways of helping to find a cure for what ails, so to speak. Even though this book reads fairly well, I think that it could have been written much better. This was a large undertaking for a debut novel. I wish Ms. Johnson the best of luck in her future endeavors.

15. The Very Dead of Winter by Mary Hocking; (4*); Virago fiction; hardcopy; (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking;

(a re-read; somehow I end up reading this nearly annually & yes, it is that good)

A very appropriate title for this book; The Very Dead of Winter. Konrad is dying. His wife Florence wants to take him and have their two children, Nicholas & Anita, meet them at her sister, Sophia's home deep in the wood. The house belonged to the sisters' grandmother before them and they almost always spent the holidays there with all of the family. Sophia has never married and lives there with her nearly feral cat and a few neighbors scattered throughout the wood.
They all drive the dangerously icy roads to Aunt Sophia's and arrive safely except for Anita's boyfriend who comes on alone and is in an accident & taken to the nearest house with several bad breaks in his body. We don't see nor hear too much of him. But we do get to meet most of the neighbors as they are invited in supposedly to cheer up the younger siblings. It doesn't work. They remain grumpy throughout most of the time there.
Konrad is put to bed upstairs and is medicated and sleeps or drowses most of the time but there is always someone sitting with him for they know he is not going to get well and will most likely not live to return home. Sophie sees this before the others.
During their time there, the family comes to see that Konrad and Sophia know each other much better than was assumed. He is a painter and Florence has not appreciated his paintings. She thinks them too dark. So he went away much of the time to do his painting. She never asked him where he went. But while at Sophia's, she & the children soon realize that this is where he went to do his painting and that he and Sophia are indeed close.
This is called a "haunting novel" but I did not find it so. Neither did I find it to be mysterious. There is a lot of emotional interacting within the players in the story and I think it a marvelous story. It just wasn't what I was anticipating. I find Mary Hocking to be a lovely writer. She never disappoints.

16. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden; (4 1/2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; fantasy; fairy tale; of Russia

The Bear and the Nightingale is a wonderfully crafted story that crosses genres and will appeal to large audiences both outside and within the fantasy world of reading. It is so beautifully written and possesses a fairy tale / other worldly quality about it. I think this book will be very well received. The writing is gorgeous and I fell completely in love with the story and its characters.
The story takes place in the wintery midieval Russian wilderness where magic and folklore are a regular part of the life of the Russian peoples, where history and myth coexist.
Vasya never knew her mother as she died shortly after giving birth to the child. She did, however, inherit her mother’s gift of the seeing, or second sight as some call it. Being able to see and commune with the guardians of the houses and the forests, Vasya spends her child and teen years exploring and running wild through the forests of her father’s land. Nature is kept in balance and Vasya enjoys the company of the various guardians.
Then one day a stranger comes to the village and the changes he sets in place begin to tip the order of things. A beast known as the bringer of storms has awoken and with the unintentional help of this stranger has begun to slip the control which his brother, Morozko, Lord of Winter has over him. Soon a battle will take place between the two brothers and Vasya will be the key.
She finds herself at odds with her stepmother and with an ambitious priest who seek to rid the village of demons, just as Vasya tries to keep the old magical protections in place.
This debut novel has the heart of a beautiful fairy tale but it is darker and more lyrical. It is a simple tale but its characters and plot bring along a complexity which makes for a great read. The author explores what happens when fear and ignorance whip people into a frenzy and how society can be persuaded to act against its own best interests. I found this rather creepy in light of what is going on in America today but I loved this novel.

17. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot; (4 1/2*); VMC; February Monthly Author Read;

(a reread)

I did not find this to be a lovely book, but I do find that my opinion of this book remains drastically different from most L.T. readers of the book.
I thought The Lifted Veil to be quite brilliant. As I read, I felt myself looking into the man's mind and found myself to be momentarily taking on his mental persona as well. I was not bored. I was not piqued. I was not grossed out. The book did not depress me nor did it make me nervous or anxious. I was nothing but a person within another person's ill mind. There was very little within the book that was literal and not simply in his mind.
Yes, I thought it very different and as I said rather brilliant; much as I found Dracula when I read it.
Sorry ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I shall, most likely, be the only one here with this opinion. But then too, I am probably the only one here who has been on a psyche ward for depression, anxiety and panic attack as well. I cannot say if that colored my reading of this book.

18. The Tale of Mr. Peter Brown by Vita Sackville-West; (4*); short;

19. The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge; (5*); (for my personal challenge: A Year of Elizabeth Goudge & Mary Hocking);

MARCH READS:

20. Sorrows & Songs: One Lifetime-Many Lives by Janice Wood Wetzel; (2*); ARC/ER, NetGalley; memoir
21. The Hampton Affair by Vincent Lardo; (3 1/2*); mystery; hardcopy;
22. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne; (5*); gothic lit;

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse; currently reading

MY 2017 PERSONAL CHALLENGE: A YEAR WITH ELIZABETH GOUDGE AND MARY HOCKING.

Elizabeth Goudge:
Mary Hocking:

VIRAGO MONTHLY AUTHOR:
Edith Wharton

ARCs/ERs:
Don't Tell a Soul by M. William Phelps
28 Feb 2017; 01 Feb 2017

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova
11 Apr 2017; 23 Jan 2017

The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart
12 Apr 2017; 11 Mar 2017

>40 rainpebble: Ah, it's been years but I still remember "tie a knot in your handkerchief and move on" and the concept that confession might be soothing to one's own ego and damaging to everyone else. Such a good trilogy.

>42 ronincats:
Amazingly good, Roni. I savored every word & sentence. (That 'confession' thing reminded me of the doc telling Scarlet, when Mellie was dying, that there would be no death bed confessions.) And yes, that handkerchief line is a great one!

20. Sorrows & Songs: One Lifetime-Many Lives Sorrows & Songs by Janice Wood Wetzel; (2*); ARC/ET, NetGalley

Sorrows & Songs is a memoir of this child and young woman who suffered both physical, mental and emotional abuse at the hands of her parents. She went on to marry her college sweetheart who also dominated and controlled her. Somehow through all of the many trials in her life, including the death of her parents, a depressive breakdown and a divorce, her spirit continued to rise. She turned to education and feminism, becoming a social worker along the way. She helped break down the barriers of sexism and accomplished so much in her life of advocacy for women.
I found the book to be somewhat interesting but having lived through the same era as the author I also know a great many of us women of a certain age, suffered the same treatment growing up and in our marriages. The BIG difference is in how this author handled the 'trampling'. She turned to education and made a difference not only in her life but helped to make a difference in the lives of other women. We must give Wetzel kudos for that.
Other than that I found this read to be just okay.

I would like to thank Fullarton Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this memoir.

21. The Hampton Affair byVincent Lardo; (3 1/2*); mystery; hardcopy; book 1 of the Hampton series

22. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne; (5*); gothic lit;

This is the story of the Pyncheon family that is slowly becoming extinct. We meet Hepzibah Pyncheon, poor and old, who lives alone in the family mansion. This house was built with seven gables, thus the title. Without funds Hepzibah opens a penny shop to earn money to live on. Other characters in this tale are her brother Clifford, imprisoned because of the acts of Jaffrey Pyncheon, a wealthy judge who lives in his own country manor and is determined to find an ancient deed to other Pyncheon property.
When the penny shop seems to be failing the young Phoebe Pyncheon appears. She is a lovely, vivacious, and enthusiastic young woman who lives in the country and has come to visit her cousins. She enjoys running the penny store and brightens the gloomy atmosphere in the house. When Clifford returns from prison she entertains him with her charms. In addition she meets Holgrave, a young boarder in the house and romance blossoms.
This story is often considered a romance but I think it is more a story about the Pyncheon family and the curse it endured. Hawthorne sets the stage by giving us an overview of how the original Pyncheon obtained the property and built the house. His actions brought about a curse from the original land owner that is to last throughout the family's existence.
There are ghosts and strange occurrences in the house and we are exposed to the lives of former residents. But life improves for the current residents when another tragedy strikes the Pyncheon family, particularly the judge. Hepzibah and Clifford temporarily leave their ancestral home. It all comes to a climax as the author weaves the tale into an ending that is unexpected but makes the reader smile. Many like to look at the symbolism used to represent aspects of the human condition. I have never been certain that Hawthorne chose to approach the novel in this manner. Nevertheless I like this tale more each time I read it.

23. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; (1 1/2*); Author of the Month; Latin American lit; hardcopy

This is another beautifully written book that while reading, I just wanted to whisper to the author; "Come on, come on, get on with it!". I couldn't wait for this one to end. I found the repetitiveness boring and my favorite characters were often the ones down in the quagmire. But to each his own.
It came highly recommended---I simply didn't appreciate it. And though it's average rating is 4 stars, I was only able to bring myself to give it 1 1/2 stars.

BOOKS IN ORDER READ, 2017:

1. Lady by Thomas Tryon; (5*)
2. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West; (5*)
3. Still with Me by Thierry Cohen; (3 1/2*)
4. The Boston Girl: A Novel by Anita Diamant; (4 1/2*)
5. Unpunished by Lisa Black
6. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir by Paul Monette; (4*)
7. Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau; (2*)
8. The Patriots: A Novel by Sana Krasikov; (4 1/2*)
9. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart; (4*)
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; (5*)
11. Family Circle by Mary Hocking; (5*)
12. The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge; (3 1/2*)
13. Who Is to Blame?: A Russian Riddle by Jane Marlow; (2 1/2*)
14. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson; (3*)
15. The Very Dead of Winter by Mary Hocking; (4*)
16. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden; (4 1/2*)
17. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot; (4 1/2*)
18. The Tale of Mr. Peter Brown by Vita Sackville-West; (4*)
19. The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge; (5*)
20. Sorrows & Songs: One Lifetime-Many Lives Sorrows & Songs by Janice Wood Wetzel; (2*)

BOOKS IN ORDER READ, 2017:

21. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; (1 1/2*);
22. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman; (5*);
23. The Hampton Affair by Vincent Lardo; (3 1/2*);
24. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne; (5*);
25. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart; (4*);
26. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; (5*);
27. The Snow Child: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey; (4*);
28. The Pyramid: The First Wallander Cases by Henning Mankell; (3 1/2*);
29. Looking for Alaska by John Green; (5*);
30. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones; (5*);
31. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton; (5*);
32. Good Daughters by Mary Hocking; (5*);
33. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; (4 1/2*);
34. The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendell; (4*);
35. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell; (3 1/2*);
36. Secrets by Kristen Heitzmann; (3*);
37. The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell; (5*)
38. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; (5*)
39. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear; (4*)
40. Birds of a Feather by Maisie Dobbs; (4*)

Oooh, lots of Wallander there. I love those books. My favorite is Sidetracked, I think.

I did like that one a great deal, Dr. Jennifer. I am glad that I have a couple more on my shelves. :-)

BOOKS IN ORDER READ, 2017:

41. Birds of a Feather by Maisie Dobbs; (4*)
42. Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce; (4 1/2*)
43. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys; (4 1/2*)
44. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; (5*)
45. Harriet Hume by Rebecca West; (2*)
46. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge; (5*)
47. The Doll: The Lost Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier; (3 1/2*)
48. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audery Niffenegger; (3 1/2*)
49. Indifferent Heroes by Mary Hocking; (4 1/2*)
50. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott; (4 1/2*)
51. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley; (3 1/2*)
52. Tom Robbins: The Kindle Singles Interview by Mara Altman; (3 1/2*)
53. Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker; (5*)
54. The Ordeal of Elizabeth by Elizabeth von Arnim or Anonymous; (3*)
55. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; (5*)
56. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden; (5+*)
57.
58.
59.
60.

I need to reread The Little White Horse--I found that book in 5th grade and read it obsessively. It's been quite a while since my last reading. Also loved Ivanhoe a year or so later--another I've not revisited for years. And In This House of Brede is in my TBR pile. (Not neglecting A Wrinkle in Time, another favorite of those years.)