What are you reading in November, 2012?

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What are you reading in November, 2012?

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1Citizenjoyce
Nov 2, 2012, 2:58 am

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. I loved Home and rated it 4.5 stars, but this book is kind of like a beginning for another book. The characterization is good, the setting very detailed, but there's no plot.

2Nickelini
Nov 2, 2012, 10:37 am

I'm listening to The Thirteenth Tale on audiobook. This is my bookclub's choice for November.

3Citizenjoyce
Nov 2, 2012, 2:05 pm

I loved The Thirteenth Tale, and audiobook was the way I experienced it too. I hope you like it.

47sistersapphist
Nov 2, 2012, 9:52 pm

Started a biography of Daphne du Maurier.

5Cancellato
Nov 5, 2012, 9:36 am

Finished Death Comes to Pemberley and enjoyed it more than most on here did. Now on Assassination Vacation, which is both informative and funny.

6SaraHope
Nov 5, 2012, 9:58 am

Finished The Innocent, the second thriller in Taylor Stevens' Vanessa Michael Munroe series, then moved onto something completely different with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

7LyzzyBee
Nov 5, 2012, 10:43 am

Georgette Heyer's Bath Tangle - marvellous stuff!

8Citizenjoyce
Modificato: Nov 10, 2012, 7:36 pm

I finished Housekeeping. It's one of those books that kind of haunts you. Strange, strange people. Next up is a free Nook book I downloaded, Lillian's Story: One Woman's Journey through the 20th Century by Sally Patricia Gardner. All I know is that it starts with the main character stating she is 12 years old. I hope there will be much of interest.

9wandering_star
Nov 5, 2012, 7:05 pm

I have the slightly odd contrast of A Homemade Life, a memoir about food and cooking, and Daughters Of The North, set in a commune of women who are planning resistance to a repressive state.

10Citizenjoyce
Nov 6, 2012, 12:41 am

I'm about 1/4 of the way through an audiobook of Team of Rivals which is just as wonderful as all the hype has made it out to be. If anyone is interested, there's a group read here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/143910

There's a big discussion of the plagiarism scandal that Doris Kearns Goodwin was involved in a few years ago. Some are more forgiving than others. I'm on the side of redemption (a strange word for an atheist), but I can't believe that a person's whole life should be ruined because she commits a crime. Evidently all her work will be under severe scrutiny from now on, so we can be sure anything she writes will be her own.

11Booksloth
Nov 6, 2012, 7:01 am

As recommended in the latest edition of 1001 Books, I'm reading Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante.

12rebeccanyc
Nov 10, 2012, 1:40 pm

I've just finished and reviewed two fascinating novels by the wonderful Beryl Bainbridge: Master Georgie and An Awfully Big Adventure.

13Cancellato
Nov 10, 2012, 5:17 pm

Loved Assassination Vacation, a kind of extended riff on history, geography, and art. Nobody makes Americans look nuttier than Vowell. Well, H.S. Thompson did, too, but in a whole other, and more splenetic way.

14Citizenjoyce
Nov 10, 2012, 5:38 pm

I'm about 1/3 of the way into The Garden of Evening Mists and loving the style. It's about a Malayan woman who survived a WWII Japanese slave labor camp. The reader knows from the outset that her hand (s?) have been mutilated, and she hasn't gone into detail about what happened. I'm rather hoping she won't. The idea of healing by gardening is going to grow on me, I think.

15Citizenjoyce
Nov 12, 2012, 4:14 pm

I'm almost finished with The Garden of Evening Mists and realized that Tan Twan Eng is a man, not a woman. Oh, well, it's about a woman, and very good. On audio I've just started The Orchardist which is by a woman but read by a man. Sounds good so far, of course I'd like anything that had starving pregnant teenagers in it.

16Nickelini
Nov 12, 2012, 10:33 pm

of course I'd like anything that had starving pregnant teenagers in it.

OtherJoyce, I didn't realize that starving pregnant teenager literature was one of your favourites. I'll have to think if I have any recommendations for you. ;-)

I'm still listening to--and enjoying--The Thirteenth Tale, and I'm also about to start Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor.

17Sakerfalcon
Nov 13, 2012, 7:43 am

>16 Nickelini:: I just finished Mrs Palfrey and loved it. Another great book with an older protagonist to add to those I've read this year (The stone angel, The hearing trumpet and The best-looking women in Bondi Junction). It may be my favourite of the Elizabeth Taylor's that I've read.

18Citizenjoyce
Nov 13, 2012, 1:47 pm

Why oh why does my library not have any Elizabeth Taylors except the diamonds and Richard Burton kind?

19Nickelini
Nov 13, 2012, 2:09 pm

OtherJoyce - The Book Depository is my friend. Or how about interlibrary loans?

20Citizenjoyce
Nov 14, 2012, 1:14 am

My library system loans books throughout all the libraries in the county, and evidently none sees the need for another Elizabeth Taylor. I'll check out the Book Depository.

21sweetiegherkin
Nov 14, 2012, 8:39 am

I recently started reading The Darcys Give a Ball by Elizabeth Newark, which is a fluffy Pride & Prejudice sequel. I'm also still working my way through re-reading Cranford, which is sadder than I had recalled.

22SaraHope
Nov 14, 2012, 9:36 am

This morning started Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, who I think has been published more widely in the UK than in the US. Enjoying it so far.

23Nickelini
Nov 14, 2012, 10:17 am

and evidently none sees the need for another Elizabeth Taylor

That's sad! My two libraries have a "request purchase" system where I've asked them to buy something and I've been fairly successful with that. Budgets are tight though, so I understand when they say no.

24Cancellato
Nov 14, 2012, 6:01 pm

I'm racking up to-be-reads for winter break, so what's the BEST Elizabeth Taylor for someone who hasn't read her.

25Sakerfalcon
Nov 15, 2012, 5:15 am

>24 nohrt4me2:: My two favourites of the novels that I've read are In a summer season and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. But there are a couple of her others that are highly rated which I haven't yet read, so maybe others would recommend them instead of my choices. Whatever you choose, I hope you enjoy discovering this great writer.

267sistersapphist
Nov 15, 2012, 9:30 am

>24 nohrt4me2:: Angel is my favorite Taylor, although I've only read 3 or 4 of hers. Love, love that book.

27sweetiegherkin
Nov 15, 2012, 12:17 pm

> 26 I saw the movie based on this book, just couldn't get into it or the characters. Really didn't know what to make it, actually. What was the book like?

287sistersapphist
Nov 15, 2012, 3:54 pm

> 27: I didn't know someone had made a film, so looked it up, and... oh, dear. It sounds as if they turned the novel into a period romance, albeit with an obnoxious main character. Gah! There oughta be a law!

The book is hilarious if you like your humor dark. It's the life of Angel Deverell, an outrageous narcissist and the writer-- she would say "authoress"-- of cringe-worthy popular novels. (I think I've read that Taylor based her character on Marie Corelli.) Insulated by wealth and her public, she's able to force her bizarre version of reality upon everyone around her. She's monstrous, a little pathetic, but a terrific read.

29Cancellato
Nov 15, 2012, 6:30 pm

Thanks! "Angel" sounds like my cuppa. I saw "Mrs. Palfrey etc." in the movies. Joan Plowright was in it, as I recall. I liked it OK.

30sweetiegherkin
Nov 16, 2012, 1:58 pm

> 28 That sounds a bit like the movie, although while the movie's description included the bit about her living in her own reality, I didn't really see any of it. Some people referred to the movie as a satire, but again, I didn't really see that. If it was supposed to be funny, it didn't come across that way. I was very puzzled by it.

31Citizenjoyce
Nov 19, 2012, 6:11 pm

I just started We Band of Angels and was surprised in the introduction that Elizabeth Norman said that none of the 77 imprisoned nurses sickened or died during their ordeal, unlike other prisoners. Let's hear it for the nurses!

32Nickelini
Nov 22, 2012, 1:41 pm

I just finished Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and loved it. Will definitely be adding it to my best of 2012 list! And now I'm off to look for more Elizabeth Taylor novels . . . .

33Cancellato
Nov 22, 2012, 6:23 pm

I'm about halfway through Angel by Elizabeth Taylor, which was very funny at first, but now getting tedious.

You can only stretch a completely humorless and selfish character so far before she becomes banal, and the reactions to her by other characters predictable.

But, since my first book by Taylor, will see how it develops.

Not sure why women writers with an arch and breezy style are inevitably compared to Austen. Probably b/c publishers know it sells books. I see more similarities between Taylor and Anita Loos.

34Nickelini
Nov 22, 2012, 8:47 pm

Not sure why women writers with an arch and breezy style are inevitably compared to Austen.

Personally I compare Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont as being Austenesque because under a guise of social propriety, it's really biting social commentary, and quite funny too.

35Cancellato
Nov 23, 2012, 10:30 am

Nickelini, I see your point.

But, just my opinion, I find Angel more Trollope-y than Austen-y. The title character is a lot like Lizzy in The Eustace Diamonds, and the backdrop is not the law but the publishing industry.

Austen's POV is always limited to that of her main and most sympathetic character, and we might cotton on that the main character is a little muddled (Emma or Catherine Moreland), but we only know what they do.

In "Angel," the POV shifts as it does in a Trollope novel; we see everyone's motivaton ... which throws Angel's limited perceptions into higher relief.

Austen also restricts her books to the neighbors and family. It's not like she doesn't know anything else--it's clear she has fairly wide knowledge of how the world works--but she prefers to pull out those exquisite tensions that made daily life boring, uncomfortable, sometimes even cruel.

Austen would never take up someone like Angel as a main character; she might shine an oblique light on a someone like Mrs. Clay in Persuasion or Lydia. But she prefers the virtuous (if sometimes naive).

Moreover, Austen would never enter the connubial chamber (though I think she implies plenty about Mr. and Mrs. Benett's sexual history). Taylor occasionally parts those curtains to show you some horror. Plus Taylor sometimes jars you with fleeting mentions of things you would never find in Austen (e.g., Taylor comments about a statue of a lion known chiefly for the size of its testicles).

36rebeccanyc
Nov 24, 2012, 11:49 am

I've just finished and reviewed Anne Applebaum's fascinating and important new book, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956.

37Sakerfalcon
Nov 26, 2012, 7:51 am

nohrt4me2 and nickelini - you might like to look in the Virago group at the threads dedicated to each of Taylor's novels that we've read this year. There will be spoilers, but it might be interesting for you to see the discussions and reactions to the books, and to see how many people shared your opinions - or not! In general, most of us preferred Mrs Palfrey to Angel, finding it more nuanced.

38sweetiegherkin
Nov 26, 2012, 12:04 pm

I'm still working my way through re-reading Cranford, almost done now.

I'm also almost done with Kristin Chenoweth's autobiography/memoir A Little Bit Wicked. I'm not usually a celebrity biography person, but I found this one on sale and it seemed like it might be funny, which it is. It's also an interesting behind-the-scenes look at theater, TV, and movies on a number of levels. For instance, at times Chenoweth mentions things like her housekeeper, assistant/manager, or getting hair and makeup done by professionals. Sometimes it's nice to have these little reminders -- even though I know this all is true of celebrity culture, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by one's own personal life and wonder why you can't have it all together (i.e., all the household chores done, getting to work, and still looking presentable after all that). It's good to have the reminder that the people who seem to have it the most together on some levels (i.e., celebrities in terms of output of work and how they look) don't get there on their own but have tons of professional help.

Not sure if that rambling made sense outside of my head ...

39Cancellato
Nov 26, 2012, 7:33 pm

#37, thanks for the referral! I might go over there now that I've finished Angel.

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