Nickelini Reads Her Books 2017

I usually read about 50 TBR books a year, but this month I'm going back to work full time for the first time in 20 years, so I have no idea what my reading life is going to look like. I'll pick a modest goal of 20 books.

1. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
2. China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Dwan
3. The Countess, Tim Clarke
4. The Blue Fox, Sjon
5. The Vanishing Act, Mette Jakobsen
6. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson
7. I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, Nujood Ali
8. Reasons She Goes to the Woods, Deborah Kay Davie
9. Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in the Piazza Vittorio, Amara Lakhous
10. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, Yukio Mishima
11. The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett
12. The Behaviour of Moths, Poppy Adams
13. How It All Began, Penelope Lively
14. A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro
15. Outline, Rachel Cusk
16. Cooking With Fernet Branca, James Hamilton-Paterson
17. The Sleeping Beauty, Elizabeth Taylor
18. Sweetness in the Bottom of the Pie
19. The Followers, Rebecca Wait
20. My Perfect Silence, Penelope Evans
21. Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
21. In the Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware
23. Mr Darcy's Guide to Courtship, Emily Brand
24. Daydreams of Angels, Heather O'Neill
25. Hausfrau, Jill Alexander Essbaum

Welcome back and good luck with your goal!

Welcome back and Happy ROOTing, Joyce.

I can't find your ticker in the ticker thread. Did you post it there too?

Good luck with your goal, and with the new job!

>1 Nickelini: a writing job? Looking forward to your ROOTing.

>5 detailmuse: No, back to the corporate world of insurance. There is a large component of research in the job, which I will like, and the pay is very good. And there will be opportunities in the future to transfer in to the communications area of the company.

1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813, reread


Cover comments: I find this Knickerbocker Classics cover lovely.

Comments: I thought the effervescent wit of Elizabeth Bennett would be like a champagne treat over Christmas, but I forgot that I get very little reading time over the last weeks of December. Hence it became my first book of 2017.

Still my favourite novel, and I found much to delight in it again. At one time I thought that it was a flawless book, down to the level of each sentence. But on further study and rereading, I have found that it has one fault, or plot hole: Elizabeth wonders who told Lady Catherine that Darcy wanted to marry her, later Mr Bennett says that Mr Collins told her, and he heard from the Lucases. But how could anyone in the Hertfordshire Lucas family know this? And even if they did, would Lady Catherine believe such important news coming from such a source? If she gave it any weight at all, wouldn't she inquire before storming all the way from Kent to talk to Elizabeth? Further, Darcy doesn't know he's going to propose until after Lady Catherine's visit, so there is no way that the Lucases could have had any information at all. The only person who knew was Darcy, and he was playing his cards close to his chest. If only Austen were around to explain herself.

For more on my thoughts on the world's best novel ever, see my reviews from 2013: https://www.librarything.com/topic/160946#4387996, and https://www.librarything.com/topic/160946#4419667, and my original review from 2010: https://www.librarything.com/topic/79448#2394735

>3 connie53: I totally forgot that was a thing. I'll copy it there.

>2 MissWatson:, >4 Jackie_K: Thanks!

Welcome back & Happy 2017 ROOTing!

Welcome back and good luck with your goal and the new job!

>8 Nickelini: Found it! ;-))

P&P is a wonderful way to start off the reading year, I think. Good luck with your 2017 goal!

Best of luck with your new job. Enjoy your ROOTing!

Good luck with your 2017 rooting!

China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Kwan, 2015


Cover comments: Fun. The only fun thing about this book, incidentally.

Rating: 1 star. This book sucked.

Comments: Shallow. Boring. Badly written. Terrible dialogue. No plot. No ending. Too many characters. Too many tedious descriptions of the brands characters were using, wearing, living in. Too many pages (almost 500!). But I made myself finish this utter drek.

It's supposed to be satire, and the cover blurb says "Snarky . . . wicked . . . funny" (NYT). I could see the author attempting humour but it didn't even make me smile.

The most annoying thing was that every time I picked it up, I had to flip back a few pages because I could never remember what was going on and who these characters even were. There was a character list in the front of the book, but it only listed about half the characters in the novel. I had to keep checking it until the end.

A nice break with a fluffy novel can be therapeutic, but this one was just crap.

Why I Read This Now: Book club. I will be making my opinions known! I can't believe I spent over 2 weeks on this garbage.

Recommended for: creative writing teachers to use as an example of what not to write. Others looking to read some lifestyles of the rich and famous should just dig out a Jackie Collins novel from the 80s.

>15 Nickelini: Thanks for the warning. I think it's very heroic of you to stick with it to the end.

3. The Countess: the Scandalous Life of Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, Tim Clarke, 2016


Cover comments: What else are you going to put on a biography than a portrait of the subject.

Comments: The beautiful and charming Frances Twysden went from relative obscurity to marry the 4th Earl of Jersey, hang out with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and eventually have a long lasting affair with the Prince Regent (later George IV). For many years she was the "most vilified women" in England.

Lady Jersey was a renowned beauty and enchanted people with her manners. She loved her many children. But she was vicious to her enemies and in the end is a footnote in history with a big black mark next to her name.

I first learned of Lady Jersey last year from the delightful Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and the Secret Life of the Country House, so when this book all about her was published in autumn, I bought it right away.

I liked the book and it was often interesting, but it had flaws that prevented me from loving it. Perhaps my criticism isn't fair, as the book I wanted and the book the author set out to write are two different things. The Countess is academic scholarship and a piece of historical documentation. Every assertion is noted and there is a lengthy list of references in the back. The problem I had is that every detail was given equal weight -- what she wore to an event, and incidents that turned out to be just rumours were given the same tone and the same amount of weight as big events like deaths of important people. He talks about Lady Jersey's bad behaviour and that she had offended people, but doesn't say what she said or did. There is a murder buried in the middle of a paragraph. Her 28 year old daughter dies suddenly, but there is no mention of what she died from. I'm sure it's lost to history, but could we discuss the possibilities a bit before we move on? Her eleventh child, fathered by the Prince Regent, is born healthy but then dies six months later, but no mention why. Even weirder, this child had no name. How is it possible that the son of an Earl who is actually the son of the future king of England (this is acknowledged, not a secret), is alive for six months without a name? Again, no discussion of this strange thing.

We now have this thorough piece of research to document her life. Next up, Lady Jersey should be the subject of some historical fiction.

Why I Read This Now: as part of my Jane Austen addiction, I like to read about real people from the Georgian period. The aristocracy are interesting because they are so badly behaved. Lots of affairs, lots of children born from different fathers, no one trying to hide any of it. This was the era of Dangerous Liaisons after all.

One surprising thing that enjoyed was how many names of real life people in this book show up in Jane Austen, including Bennets, Fitzwilliams, Foster, and Wickham. Of course all these people were the subject of gossip in the tabloids, so Austen would have been well aware of them and their antics.

Recommended for: people looking for factual information on the aristocracy in the Georgian era.

Rating: Not as fun as Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and the Secret Life of the Country House.

4. The Blue Fox, Sjon, 2003, translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb


Cover comments: I love blue covers and this one is nice except the out of balance author's name that takes over the niceness. Also, my eye sees it as NOTS, which is just wrong.

Comments: A very short poetic book that covers two storylines. Difficult to summarize. Some really lovely writing. One to reread again someday.

Recommended for: people who like thoughtful, beautiful books with lots of feels.

Rating: 4 stars

Why I Read This Now: it was near the top of my winter-themed TBR pile, and was short. After the overly-long last two books I read, I needed something short and quick.

>18 Nickelini: my eye sees it as NOTS, which is just wrong.
True! You've intrigued me though, onto the wishlist.

5. The Vanishing Act, Mette Jakobsen, 2011


Cover comments: I love everything about this.

Rating: a generous 2 stars.

Comments: 12 year old Minou lives in a lighthouse on a small snowy island with her philosopher father and artist mother. Sharing the island with them is a priest, a retired circus magician, & a dog named No Name. Her mother disappears, the body of a drowned boy washes up on shore. There is no plot. There are philosophical musings. It snows. The priest makes pretzels that no one wants (the three bumps of the pretzel representing the Trinity, perhaps?). Why even is there a priest on an island with 3 or 4 people? This book didn't make a lot of sense, and I found it terribly boring.

Others loved it and it was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize.

Recommended for: The Vanishing Act sort of reminded me of The Elegance of the Hedgehog another book about a philosophical girl. I didn't like that book either. Maybe fans of EotH will like VA.

Why I Read This Now: the cover appealed to me on a snowy evening.

6. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson, 2010


Cover comments: perfectly nice for a super simple cover. There is a more popular cover that has a visual play on the plot and title and is much more clever.

Comments: The publisher sent me this ARC before the book was published and I never knew why. It's not the type of book I read often, so threw it into the abyss of my TBR pile. Life is such that at the moment I need a nice story with a linear plot and this fit the bill perfectly.

Do I have to give an overview? Hasn't everyone who will read this book read it already? Retired British major is living his sort of groundless life in a small Sussex village during the six years since his wife died. His remaining family is pretty dreadful, but mostly in a funny and annoying way. He meets a widow from the village and they hit it off, but she is Pakistani, so not everyone (or no one) is keen on their relationship.

Rating: I think this is a case of the right book at the right time. The writing was much better than I expected and there were many delightful sentences and images. I liked the characters and the setting, and this book was basically a soothing cup of tea in a hot bubble bath at the end of an exhausting day. 4.5 stars. Had I read it at another time of life, I might have been more critical.

Why I Read This Now: brain is way too full of other stuff going on to take on anything grim or artistic.

Recommended for: people wanting to read a cozy English book that is just lovely and not demanding. A little reading vacation.

I've enjoyed reading your reviews - you've inspired me to revisit Jane Austen and fill in the gaps in my reading of her work! I'm also intrigued by The Blue Fox - I love winter themed books for that time of year and am always on the lookout for recommendations.

>21 Nickelini: I also have that book in my TBR pile.

7 I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, Nujood Ali & Delphine Minoui, translated by Linda Coverdale, 2010.


Cover comments: Yes, this is the girl in the story and not just some random Muslim child. Who can look at this photo and not be appalled that she was married off? What else would anyone want on the cover? So not art or anything, but the right cover all the same.

Warning: maybe some spoilerish comments throughout.

Comments: Nujood was born in a remote village of Yemen to illiterate parents living in dire poverty. Something that is not explained happened when she was quite young that caused the family to flee in shame to the big city, where they were even worse off. Many more children were born. To reduce the number of mouths to feed, at age 9, her khat-chewing father sold her to a 30-something man who took her back to his village where he repeatedly raped and beat her. On a visit to her family several months later, they made it clear that they wouldn't help her, so she walked into the courthouse and asked for a divorce. She met a human rights lawyer who took on her cause, got her divorce, and ended up being one of Glamour magazine's women of the year in 2008 (along with Hillary Clinton, Nicole Kidman and Condoleezza Rice).

If one thing stands out about this story, it is Nujood's extreme courage in the face of hundreds (if not thousands) of years of tradition, and for that, it's worth reading.

In addition to the family's forced move to the city, two other stories were glossed over in I Am Nujood -- the first were the details of obtaining the divorce. "Insurmountable odds" went to "Check! Divorce granted" in a page or two. I'm good with this--don't need to know the details. It did come off as abrupt though. Second, bad things happened to her older sisters, but we never find out what went on. It's like we were hearing the story from a 10 year old's perspective . . .oh right. Anyway, I would have liked to know more on their stories. Were they kidnapped? Sold? Having affairs? (the last one hinted at, but I find bloody unlikely seeing they were like 14 years old.)

Nujood just wanted to be a child, and to get an education. Her experience made her want to grow up to be a human right's lawyer and help end child marriage. That's where the book ends. Sadly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, things didn't work out that way. Articles from various newspapers show a disappointing turn in her fortunes. Her case brought world attention to Yemen, and it was unwelcome. After her one trip to New York, her passport was confiscated and she wasn't allowed to leave the country to bring more shame on Yemen. Her family was resentful of the attention on her. The law prohibited her from payment for the book, so the publisher was forced to send her father monthly payments. Her father rarely gives her money. The publisher bought her a two-story house, but her father married some more women and moved wives 3 and 4 into one floor while renting out the other. Nujood was forced out of her house. Despite people from outside Yemen trying to help and guide her, Nujood's education was sporadic and current information shows that she is about age 19, remarried and with two children of her own. Really though, if she escaped the poverty, traditionalism and all the other oppressive factors in her life, it would have been a fairy tale.

Rating: 4 stars. I know this is a book that I will remember for years to come. Several readers give this two stars because they say it is poorly written and doesn't have an authentic voice-- the first person account being simultaneously too sophisticated and too simplistic. But I wouldn't expect grand writing from a book of a young Yemeni girl's story, written by a journalist in French and then translated again into English. Maybe this would have been better as a third person account, or maybe more in-depth if written as a literary novel that delved into the events and issues in more detail. Okay, maybe. But complaints that this book is shallow are, to me, shallow.

Why I Read This Now: I knew this would be a short and undemanding read, which it was, and so the right book at the right time.

Recommended for: Other than people who have read up on child marriage, I'd recommend this book to everyone with the maturity to handle the subject matter. It's written for a mass-market audience, which I actually think is the right approach, since it's more important to reach a broad audience than to satisfy the artistic requirements of a literary audience.

8. Reasons She Goes to the Woods, Deborah Kay Davies, 2014


Cover comments: When I got this book I thought this was a good cover, although I'd have liked more "woods" to fit the title. Having read the book now, I think it's pretty perfect.

Rating: oh, so close to 5 stars. The second half wasn't as good as the first, but if this hitches well in my memory I might upgrade it to full on 5 stars. Definitely the best book I've read in yonks.

Comments I could say lots, but I'll stick to the highlights, which are the lyrical writing, the dark content, and the unique structure. This 249 page novel has a short (usually one word) title on the left page, and then a one page (never more, never less) vignette involving a girl named Pearl. These snapshots start when she's very young--I'd say two or three-- and proceeds until she's about 18 yrs old. Pearl lives with the father she adores, the mother she . . . doesn't, and the younger brother who she calls The Blob but eventually bonds with. Slowly it's revealed that her mother struggles with mental illness, and certainly a child like Pearl doesn't help things. Not to mention that Pearl has an Electra complex that she doesn't grow out of, and which can make for some creepy reading. Pearl's escape, which both grounds her and feeds her wild child, is to go to the woods behind her house -- and is where I found some of the most poignant and evocative writing. Although I have to say, there is poignant and evocative writing in the other bits of the book too, especially in capturing the moments of childhood that we as adults have either erased or ignore. Jim on GoodReads said: "Children are creepy. They exist in a dimension we once lurked in but it’s been so long it’s hard to imagine it. We grew out of it. Most of us do. Reality forces its way into our lives and that’s that. " Anyone who has read about child development knows this--and this book made some dark memories of my childhood bubble up. Kids do some weird things. Most of us wipe it out of our memory, but clearly Deborah Kay Davies didn't. Unlike most of us though, Davie's character Pearl didn't grow out of it. And she's a bully and a sociopath. But sympathetic, and so interesting to read about.

Recommended for: Highly recommended when you're in the mood for dark with gorgeous writing. People who need young children to be angelic should stay away. I'm not sure I've ever steered anyone to GoodReads, but there are many glowing interesting reviews there, so if you want more convincing go look them up.

Why I Read This Now: Been at the top of Mnt TBR since I bought it in 2014 when the Bailey's Orange Prize came out and it was the only book that interested me (other than the Margaret Atwood).

Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, Amara Lakhous, 2006 (translator: Ann Goldstein/Italian)


Cover comments: I'm oddly drawn to Europa Editions, even though they have some of the ugliest covers around. I like the concept of linking the people, but the art and garish colours are a huge "NO!" to my eyes.

Rating: 4.5 stars

: I finished this yesterday and have sat down to post a couple of times, but haven't come up with what I want to say, other than "read it." So much is packed into 131 pages.

Summary: the structure of the novel is 10 different residents of an apartment building in Rome telling their story and how they relate to another resident, "the Gladiator," who was murdered in the elevator, and the chief suspect, Amedeo. Interspersed with these are a short bit with Amedeo's version of the events. Each of the stories centers on someone who is not Roman--whether they're from another part of Italy or another part of the world. There is a final part from the police inspector's POV.

The complication is that the Gladiator was a vile person disliked by all, and Amedeo was the one person liked by everyone. And he's only a suspect because he can't be located.

The vignettes are usually quite humorous, and illustrative of our modern life where many of us live in multicultural neighbourhoods (or as rightwing whites living in the rural US call where we live, "The Bubble." What nonsense that is--pot meet kettle--but I digress).

Recommended for: pretty much everyone who is astute, and has a sense of humour. I've spent too much time in my husband's aunt's apartment in Italy, which also has a contentious elevator, so I could relate to that aspect as well.

Why I Read This Now: checks off lots of my boxes. Someone on ClubRead gave it a rave review a year or so ago and sold me on it -- wanted to read it ever since.

>26 Nickelini: that's a BB for me! That sounds like the kind of thing I like, lots of glimpses into lots of ordinary lives. I think it's because deep-down I'm just so nosy :)

Hi Joyce, just stopping by to see what you have been reading and say Hi!

You have been reading a lot of books. Nice. I had to smile while reading your comment on the book in >15 Nickelini:. Loved it! (the comment that is)

>28 connie53: Hi, Connie - so many fewer books than other years, but I'm plugging along. I'm brain dead most nights after work.

>27 Jackie_K: Definitely get a copy -- it's a quick and fun read.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963, (translated fr. Japanese John Nathan)


Cover comments: one of the reasons I bought this book is because I love this cover so much. It's balanced, and interesting, and very attractive to me. Well done, Marc J Cohen. I won't reread this book so should pass it along, but I find it so gorgeous that I want to keep it. If you look at the other covers for this title, there are several that are just great.

Comments: In early 1960s Yokohama Japan, 13 year old Noboru lives with his widowed mother, who is now running his ;ate-father's retail store that sells high-end Western clothing. Because he has a fascination with seafaring, his mother arranges a tour of a freighter in port, and there they meet 2nd mate Ryuji, who immediately becomes a hero to the boy and then the love interest of his mother. But illusions are quickly dashed, and later when Ryuji leaves his life at sea to become a husband, Noboru and his gang of sociopaths feel it is their place to adminster justice.

The wikipedia page explains how all the characters and elements of the novel are symbolic of post-WWII Japan.

I liked this short novel but didn't love it.

Recommended for: lovers of symbolic Japanese literature? I was drawn in by the cover, and also the cryptic title. LTer Lilisin says it comes from the French translation, which makes sense to me. Translated titles are weird. The Japanese is "The Afternoon Towing". Anyway, as for the title The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea . . . the prepositions have always tripped me up here . . . first, I always thought it was:

"the sailor who fell with grace to the Sea", as in his fall was graceful, and then, splash! Nice picture.

Then I realize that was wrong and thought I read:
"the Sailor Who Fell from Grace to the Sea (fell from . . . to . . . , because that's usual English). As in, he was in a state of grace, but he fell and landed metaphorically in the sea.

But no, it's:
"The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea," which confuses me because 1. it's not the above, and 2. it's ambiguous.

Does it mean that he is a sailor who fell from grace, and at the same time the sea was also falling from grace. "With" meaning together?

Or does it mean that the sea has a sort of grace and he fell from it?

Either actually work with the story, but only a poet thinks that way.

Anyhoo, I think it's a pretty cool title. If weirdly constructed.

Recommended for, part II: If you're one of those people who can read about the Holocaust or slavery but just can't ever read about animal suffering, skip this one because there is one really bad scene involving a kitten. (Personally, I avoid the Holocaust, slavery, AND animal cruelty, but can read them if they are important to the story).

Rating: 3.5 stars. Not really what I needed at this time in my life, but it was interesting and feels like I'll remember it. I think this is one I'll like better in retrospect than in experience.

Why I Read This Now: I've been wanting to read more Japanese books. I've read several classics, and I'm finding them a bit .... removed. Maybe I should try more popular Japanese fiction? Time to find another Murikami, perhaps? Recommendations welcome for some engaging Japanese fiction with some warmth?

BTW: the author, Yukio Mishima is possibly the most interesting author ever. His life story is a novel in itself, and I'd love to tell you all about it, but my 16 yr old wants the computer. . . something about "physics" and "homework" or some such noise. So I'll leave you with this picture of him:

Recommendations welcome for some engaging Japanese fiction

Yes! I love recommending Japanese fiction!

with some warmth?

Crap. Not to say there isn't warmth in Japanese fiction but it's definitely not what I usually read and not what seems to be normally translated, is there? I think you'll have a better bet with contemporary fiction. Although even the contemporary fiction I've been reading in Japanese these days hasn't been super warm. Always some criticism on Japanese society within the pages.

Maybe you can try Yasushi Inoue's Shirobamba although I read that about 15 years ago and don't remember it's level of "heat".

However, I can highly recommend Alan Booth's nonfiction travelogue to Japan, The Roads to Sata. Excellent book with a lot of humor and insight into Japan.

>30 Nickelini: great review - and that is a lovely cover but it's a shame the book didn't match up. Among the LT Lists there's one for Japanese fiction which might be worth looking at but I hope someone can direct you to some good warm novels - I will be lurking here waiting for the BBs... :)

>31 lilisin: I'm quite drawn to aspects of Japanese culture - especially traditional gardens and modern architecture - and will add the travelogue to my wishlist. Thanks!

>31 lilisin: I'll make note of your suggestions, and I really appreciate your comments because I know this is your area. This is what I've tagged for Japanese books on LT:

Snow Country Kawabata, Yasunari
After the Quake: Stories Murakami, Haruki
A Riot of Goldfish Okamoto, Kanoko
Building Waves Tomioka, Taeko

And I studied Rashomon, Akutagawa, at university.

I liked all of those, but found them all a little distant. I'd like something that draws me in more (like British novels do)

I did a bit better with Japanese North American writers:
The Kappa Child, Hiromi Goto
A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

And as for European-Japanese books, I loved Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb but hated Silk by Alessandro Baricco.

Lilisin, does this help? Or do I just need to adjust to the Japanese chill?

>33 Nickelini:

You've definitely read a wide range of books in the Japanese lit spectrum but as you put it, it might take a little more to "adjust to the Japanese chill".

While looking through my books I realize that my expertise is really based on Japanese post-war lit which, while fascinating, might not be exactly what you are looking for. And as I read less and less every year, I have read nothing new and all my recommendations have probably been made countless times before. (I really wish I could get back into reading; I don't know what is holding back as I'm actually still very excited at the idea of reading books, just can't seem to sit down and read/finish them.)

However, from memory, I'm thinking you might like Fumiko Enchi's The Waiting Years and Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes if you haven't read that one already. Have you read The Makioka Sisters? This one in particular definitely draws you into the story, I think you'll very much like it.

Pushkin Press has released a few contemporary books lately which might also interest you. Although I haven't looked into them as I have been keeping away from books in translation now that my Japanese is strong enough to read the original.

Also if you'd like though you can browse through my Japan-related tagged books here.

>34 lilisin: Thanks for all your advice and recommendations. Despite the Japanese chill, something intrigues me and I plan to continue down this reading road.

Like you, lately I'm having trouble actually sitting down to read and it's like I like the idea of reading more than actually reading.

>35 Nickelini:

I like the idea of reading more than actually reading.

Exactly this. Perfectly stated.

The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett


Cover comments: not exciting, but appropriate for a novella with such a clever title.

Comments: This novella explores an imaginary world where Queen Elizabeth becomes book obsessed. How fun. Often described as "charmingly delightful," I found it slightly less so. Maybe it was the hype, maybe it was the fact that it took me over a week to read this 121 page book (due to my mental exhaustion probably, which may have also caused me to miss many a captivating nuance. The title does suggest great nuance). Overall, I found it pleasant though likely forgettable.

Recommended for: Fans of English lit, or maybe fans of the Queen. However, I much preferred the author's autobiographical movie "The Lady in the Van," starring Maggie Smith.

Rating: 3 stars

Why I Read This Now: I expected a light, fun and quick read after my last somewhat serious, thoughtful book. Sort of a sorbet course. Turns out, not so much. More of a cup of tepid Darjeeling. By that, I mean, there are some interesting things going on, but it's not really filling the need.

Note:: the Uncommon Reader raises the obvious question: "has the Queen herself read this?" Google says likely not, but she knows about it. My question is "Do we know that the Queen doesn't read?" I'd actually prefer to know the answer to that. I think this sort of lessened my appreciation for this work. The attitude was "what if the Queen read . . . Proust?" but that makes me question "how do you know the Queen hasn't read Proust?"

>37 Nickelini: Ahh, I read that book a few years ago and thought it was rather fun but not very special.

Just wanted to pop in and ask how you're doing with working full time? I'm impressed that you're reading as much as you are. And thank you for posting the biography about Frances Villiers (back in February) - I'd heard her referenced in a few other books, but I'd always wanted to read a book just about her. Ta-da!

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday!

. The Behaviour of Moths, Poppy Adams, 2008


Cover comments: When I actually stop and look at this, it's rather pleasing. However, my initial 30 reactions were, "hmmm, looks like a book I'll disparage."

Rating: 4.5 stars

Comments: Virginia "Ginny" Stone has lived her whole long life in the now-crumbling ancestral mansion in Dorset, about which her mother used to say "Either Victorians were vulgar, or we were very vulgar Victorians." Her only sibling, vivacious Vivian, comes home for the first time in almost 50 years and all the family skeletons fall out of the closet. The sisters were raised by the scientist father who dedicated his life to the study of moths, and the glamorous--then--alcoholic mother, Maud. It doesn't take long to figure out that something is off with the narrator, Ginny.

Every review of this book includes the words and phrases: secrets, moth science, Gothic, unreliable narrator, dysfunctional family.

I enjoyed this book very much and was always happy to pick it up, although, strangely, it took me three weeks to read a book just under 300 pages. But I blame that on my life and not the book.

The Behaviour of Moths was published by Virago Press and nominated for he Costa first book award. The author, Poppy Adams, hasn't published anything since, which is a shame, because I thought she showed great promise here.

My North American copy from another publisher is titled The Sister, which I thought was a terrible choice, but after reading it think it's fitting. But "The Sister" didn't intrigue me at all, so I think the original title was better. YMMV.

Recommended for: Based on reader reviews on LT and GR, most people were "disappointed" with this, or they found there were too many loose ends "not tied up," and finally "too much moth science." I disagree with all of this, but it does appear to be the prevailing opinion, and I did go into this with low expectations, so . . . I feel I'm the only person who thinks this was really good.

Why I Read This Now: it's been so long, I don't even remember. I think I pulled a stack from Mnt TBR, read the first page, and this one said "read me!" Right book, right time.

>40 Nickelini: you've made it sound interesting to me anyway - wishlisted!

>40 Nickelini: BB for me!

How It All Began, Penelope Lively, 2011


Cover comments: I fine cover, fits the time period and all. No involvement of the UK government, so while the pic is iconic London, lots of other pics would also have worked.

Rating: somewhere in the 4 - 4.5 star range.

Comments: Retiree Charlotte is mugged, and because of this events, others living in London who don't even know her have their lives affected. An interesting concept flung onto the novel form. I found this an enjoyable read with lovely writing and some interesting characters.

Recommended for: Readers who enjoy contemporary British novels. Most readers really like this one. People who disliked it thought her use of chaos theory (a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon and causes X to happen in Tokyo) to be heavy handed. There is an epilogue at the end that I enjoyed -- people who like to decide for themselves what happens didn't like that. And others found it lacking in event --which it was. She could have made much more dramatic reprecussions, but instead made it more relatable to every day possibilities. I preferred this to her Booker-winning Moon Tiger.

Why I Read This Now: I have several books by this author on my shelves and this was physically the largest. Make way for new books!

>39 LauraBrook: Just wanted to pop in and ask how you're doing with working full time? I'm impressed that you're reading as much as you are. And thank you for posting the biography about Frances Villiers (back in February) - I'd heard her referenced in a few other books, but I'd always wanted to read a book just about her. Ta-da!

Ack! I just realized I haven't answered your post from April 23. How incredibly rude of me. So sorry.* I am enjoying my job very much--it's so interesting. The getting up, getting dressed and going to work each day is a challenge. I miss my afternoon walks and living in yoga pants. But it was a good move. My reading is slow and painful.

*I just realized I must have been on vacation in Mexico when you posted, which is why I blipped on answering. Yes, vacation already. It fit into one of the weeks I work 4 days and my husband won the trip, so it was sort of a no-brainer.

A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro, 1982


Cover comments: Perfectly nice unassuming cover, which is exactly how I'll describe the novel.

Comments: Perfectly nice unassuming novel (told you I'd say that).

It's around 1982, and a Japanese woman who has lived in England for ... a while? ... looks back on a summer in Nagasaki several years after the war, and in particular, remembers a friendship with an odd woman who had an odd young daughter. Easy to read and interesting, but not a lot happens. Apparently readers get more out of it the second time around.

I was intrigued by all the reader raves, so read up on it a bit. It looks like there are two main readings and it's up to the reader to decide. I have problems with both readings.

Version 1. Take the novel at face value, except the friend is really her, and the daughter represents her adult daughter who recently committed suicide. Certainly there are umpteen parallels between the two women and their situations. I find this reading sort of lacking.

Version 2. She murdered her friend's daughter, and all the other murdered children. I guess I prefer this reading, but there is no motivation that I saw at all. Or maybe that's why we all seem to need the second reading.

I don't know, neither of those really works for me.

Rating: 3.5 stars. Nice to read, didn't stand out. On the sentence level the writing is good, and the atmosphere is very good, but it felt somewhat pointless.

Recommended for: people who have already read it once? Also people who like ambiguous, subtle novels; people who like novels set in Japan.

Why I Read This Now: it checked off my "Japan" category and my "1001 Books" category.

Note: If you read this, and your reaction to my post is: "OMG you are so dumb," please enlighten me on what I missed.

>45 Nickelini:

Nah, I didn't like that one either.

>45 Nickelini: I liked this one a lot - my reading wasn't so literal though - here's an excerpt from my review. But I think over all it was intended that the reader take from it what they want, so we're all 'correct'! :)


"Ishiguro very cleverly creates a tension around Mariko - she behaves erratically, often cannot be communicated with and is always running off. There has also been a spate of child murders in the city. Etsuko is often looking for the girl and making sure she is safe - it's easy to imagine she might find something awful.

As Sachiko's lover repeatedly fails to commit she becomes increasingly desperate but determined to leave Nagasaki. She drowns Mariko's kittens because they will be inconvenient when travelling. Mariko watches this reminder of her traumatic experience then runs off wildly - Etsuko follows, worried for her safety.

Etsuko, describing years later the moment she catches up with Mariko and tries to reason with her, suddenly changes possessive pronoun. Instead of talking about what Mariko and Sachiko will do, she talks to the child about what 'we' will do. This jolts the reader as it introduces the possibility/probability that Etsuko and Sachiko are the same person as are Mariko and Keiko the same child.

It becomes clear that the novel is really about being unreliable narrators of our own histories - how we tend to misrepresent what we don't like, or avoid accepting blame. In the difficult years after the war, Sachiko/Etsuko was forced to do things of which she was later ashamed. With Keiko/Mariko dead, there are no witnesses, no one to contradict her story.

It seemed in the end that Etsuko was telling her story to herself rather than to her younger daughter, and so it was to herself she was trying to mitigate guilt for her part in shaping Keiko's disposition and ultimately her suicide.

This was a tense, evocative story but, as it turned out, not necessarily to be taken literally....

>47 floremolla: I think I'd just like to HAVE a reading ;-) Anything other than "hmmm. Wonder what that was all about?"

>45 Nickelini: well that's interesting, I felt similarly about reading his An Artist of the Floating World and I did not finish it. An unreliable narrator in it, too, and you interest me in looking it up to see what I missed. I looked at your spoiler and admit to being intrigued by that version.

Oops, realised I hadn't copied over my spoiler properly, so I've edited it. Lots of interesting theories - I hadn't considered your spoiler's idea - it would make a good book group discussion!

Outline, Rachel Cusk, 2014


Cover comments: I'm undecided about this. It fits the novel, so that's good, I guess.

Comments: An English woman travels to Athens one summer to teach writing. She meets a bunch of people and has conversations, and people tell vignettes about their life. In between we get a lot of psychological and philosophical musings about what these little stories mean to the lives of the characters. I found most of the vignettes interesting and fun, and in places, Cusk's writing and skill of observation and description amazed me. I was bored with the philosophy and psychology -- always am in novels that do this because I just can't make myself care.

Outline made the shortlists for:
Goldsmiths Prize
Folio Prize
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction
Scotiabank Giller Prize
Governor General's Literary Award
and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Rating: People seem to either love or hate this one. I'm in the middle. Three stars.

Recommended for: Readers who like rambling novels that go places but don't get anywhere.

Why I Read This Now: It fits my "Bailey's" category and my "CanLit" category (although I think it's a bit of stretch to call it Canadian -- obvs I'm wrong there since the Giller & GG honoured the book.)

47.

I like the idea about unreliable narrators in our own history.

Cooking With Fernet Branca, James Hamilton-Paterson, 2004


Cover comments: Possibly the most hideous cover of any book I'll read this year. Making note of the book designer, Emanuele Ragnisco. Probably my least favourite shade of purple, and then with the contrasting French's mustard yellow, ugh. Can't decide if I want to barf or just go to bed with a cold cloth over my brow. I covet Europa Editions, but they have some of the fugliest covers around.

Comment: Gerald Sampler is an Englishman planing to hide in his quiet house in the NW corner of Tuscany to ghostwrite autobiographies of minor celebrities, mostly sports figures. Upon his arrival, he meets his newly arrived neighbour, Marta, who has escaped from "one of those vague ex-Soviet countries," where her family still lives and appear to be involved in organized crime. She composes film scores for a ....colourful .... Italian film director. Gerald and Marta clash. Gerry sings loud opera, badly, while creating outrageous recipes that involve something savoury, such as sardines, and something sweet, such as butterscotch. Endless combinations. Some of them include dubious and illegal ingredients, such as otter and Jack Russel terrier. And I learned early on the "Fernet Branca" is a disgusting herbal spirit (which I'm sure my Italian father-in-law made me sample once) that both characters drinking frequently. Silly me, on reading the title, I assumed Fernet Branca was a person.

Very clever satire, mocking the fantasy "memoirs" such as Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence, and pretentious books about gourmet cooking, and satirizing a zillion other things as well.

Way too many entertaining passages to quote, but if I have to pick one, I'll share his comment on Jane Austen: "Even the witty old fag-hag Jane Austen started one of her incomparable novels--was it Donna?--with the telling sentence 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a good man in possession of a wife must be in want of a tidy fortune.' And there you have it, memorably expressed."

Cooking With Fernet Branca was nominated for the 2004 Booker Prize. There are two sequels: Amazing Disgrace and Rancid Pansies, which I will eventually track down.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: People with a sense of humour and who know a lot of stuff. Hamilton-Paterson packs the narrative with obscure details and goes off on many a tangent. Lots were outside my scope of knowledge and didn't mean much, but all the ones I understood were hilarious. If you're one of those people who take pride in being outside everyday culture -- especially 2004 from a Brit male POV, this novel will be gibberish. Otherwise, if you like clever, fun books, I highly recommend it.

Why I Read This Now: checks these boxes: Europa Editions, Booker Prize, Italy. I was delighted to find that it was set in a part of Italy I know very well, which is the corner of Tuscany north of Lucca.

>53 Nickelini: hehe! I thought this was a cookery book at first - I like the sound of it from your review and am putting it on my wishlist (maybe Kindle version to avoid the lurid cover ;)) - thanks!

Hi Joyce, Just stopping by to read about your books. Your comments always make me smile.

17. The Sleeping Beauty, Elizabeth Taylor, 1953


Cover comments: I don't much like the covers Virago has decided upon for their Elizabeth Taylor series. There is a young woman on a beach in this novel, but she's described differently from this picture.

Comments: This novel doesn't really have a main character, although I can say with certainty it isn't the "sleeping beauty" figure of the title. As with other Elizabeth Taylor novels I've read, there are widows. And difficult sons. All meeting in a small English seaside town.

There were passages in this that were breathtakingly beautiful, and then sections that baffled me, where I couldn't form a picture of what the author was describing or what the characters were even talking about. Has the English language morphed so much that I don't understand some 1950s British? Or was the author still learning how to write?

Rating: Mixed thoughts leave this at 3.5 stars. I'll read it again someday because I might like it more on second reading. I much preferred Elizabeth Taylor's later novels Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont and Blaming.

Why I Read This Now: Needed a "fairy tale" book for that category. The allusions to Sleeping Beauty are brief.

Recommended for: people who like thoughtful books that don't have a lot of plot or any explosions.

18. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, 2009


Cover comments: I really like this -- stylish, simple, and relevant to the story. The whole series is similar and look nice together.

Comments: The first book in a mystery series that I believe all feature child sleuth Flavia de Luce. Eleven year old, youngest sister of three, lives in a big house near an English village in the 1950s, too smart for her own good, stumbles upon a murdered body . . . and off we go.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is award winning, wildly popular mystery, well-known for the above-mentioned and much loved Flavia. I expected this to be a fun, delightful, and quick read. In reality, I found it boring and annoying. Every time I started reading it, I had to back track because I didn't remember what was happening when I left off. I kept expecting it to get better. It continued to bore and annoy. Finally, on page 141 of 371 I skipped forward to the last two chapters to see who done it. I didn't recognize the culprit (he hadn't been introduced by page 141, or he was so forgettable that I didn't remember him. Don't know).

So although though this goes down as a did-not-finish, I'm counting it in my books read because I spent 2 weeks working on it.

Rating: so disappointed

Why I Read This Now: because I needed Delightful! Amusing! Fun!

Recommended for: Many readers loved this, a goodly number were of my opinion. If you think it sounds interesting, I encourage you to try it. I just wish I'd liked it.

Good reviews of both books, very useful pointers about what was and was not to like! I won't rush to seek out the Bradley, but Elizabeth Taylor is getting a lot of positive comments from readers just now and I just added Mrs Palfrey to my wishlist yesterday.

>59 connie53: I felt the same way about The Flavia books. Boring! Did not even finish it.

19. The Followers, Rebecca Wait, 2015


Cover comments: Pretty cheesy, actually. I see there is also a Europa Editions version of this book and it actually has a better cover (even though I don't normally like EE covers).

Comments: Definitely one of the better books I've read this year. Finally, a compelling read. Always happy to pick this one up.

Stephanie is struggling as a single mother living in Northern England with her 12 year old daughter Judith, when she meets the handsome and charismatic Nathaniel. She thinks she falls in love, and then yada yada yada, she's moved to his remote compound in the Yorkshire moors and has joined his small religious cult. Things quickly go bad, which we knew from time jumps into the future when Judith visits her mom in prison. We know something bad has happened, but not what or who it involves.

The book isn't perfect, but overall it was a great read. I think it would have been stronger had the author picked just one of two characters to follow, instead of at least five, and also if she'd decide whether Judith or Stephanie was the main character. I also think she needed a bit more about how Stephanie slipped so quickly into her new role in an extremest cult and how Nathaniel brain washed her. But this shouldn't stop anyone from reading this.

Recommended for: This isn't easy to find in North America -- I ordered it from England, but if you can get a copy, read it!

Why I Read This Now: I follow several internet blogs and support networks for survivors or religious abuse and so I guess this topic just fascinates me, so it fell out of my tbr pile into my hands.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you Ridgeway Girl for suggesting this book.

>60 Nickelini: "The Followers" sounds interesting. (Touchstone didn't work). Too bad about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I quite enjoy the Falvia de Luc books.

My Perfect Silence, Penelope Evans, 2006


Cover comments: okay I guess.

Comments: "I was four when I killed my baby brother, " begins this story of Rosie's life. Her family is devastated, with her family finally breaking up while she's away at boarding school. Her father off to Italy, her mother an alcoholic, and her older brother almost dying from a drug overdose. At 14, Rosie starts understanding what is going on in her family and becomes mute. And then the book makes a dramatic shift as her now adult brother finds Jesus and quickly becomes a cult leader, and one with a great deal of fame. He has an entourage and a glamorous fiance, who, like Rosie, never fall for his cult nonsense. There is a murder to solve, but there is more going on her than just murder mystery.

It's soon clear that there are only a few possible explanations for the murder, so most readers will have whittled down the answers well before the end of the story. So while you don't know exactly what happened, you have some good ideas. And it takes a bit too long to get there -- this would have been stronger had it been edited down to about 250 pages instead of 300. And the bizarre cult itself seemed a bit beyond realistic, but if you go with it, over all My Perfect Silence was a good read.

Why I Read This Now: I like to read books by authors named Penelope

Recommended for: I think this would have fairly wide appeal and I am surprised that Penelope Evans isn't a better known writer. I stumbled on her First Fruits a few years ago, and was very impressed. I guess Evans didn't have a good publicist, because she is an author many readers would enjoy.

Rating: 4 stars

Oddly enough, that makes two cult books in a row. Both set in England. Hmmm.

>62 Nickelini: I like to read books by authors named Penelope

Such a fun reason!

21 Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson, 1997


Cover comments: Like it! Anything tree-themed is usually good with me, and the layers of title fit the layers of story.

Rating: 4.5 stars. I seem to have liked this better than many readers.

Why I Read This Now: Simon from Savage Reads ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBWnfrLiYSQtfgRVhWxCQ8A ) recommended it as a great autumn read, and I had it in my TBR pile so pulled it out. The description from his edition is entirely different from the one on my book, and his is both more interesting and more accurate.

Comments: This book is very loose, definitely flawed, and sometimes confusing, but I absolutely loved it. The story was interesting, the characters were interesting, and the writing was delectable. I find it almost impossible for me to describe, unfortunately.

Set mainly in 1960, teenage Isobel Fairbax has lived in the same English village as Fairfaxes for hundreds of years. I like stories where places are characters, and events in the place in the past are echoed into the future. There's a suggestion of magic in the air, there are lots of family secrets, and mysteriously babies appearing on doorsteps.

I'm keeping this one to reread in the future.

Here's one passage that delighted me: "Marmalade,' Mrs Baster says, scumming honey-coloured froth off the sugary mess bubbling in her big copper pan. The marmalade's the colour of tawny amber and melted lions. 'The very last of the Sevilles,' she says sadly as if the Sevilles were some great aristocratic family whose fortunes had failed. " ....

I'm surprised that this book worked for me as life is requiring my reading to be rather linear at this time, but this one jumps all over the place and I still loved it.

Recommended for: based on all the negative reviews, I'm not sure.

>64 Nickelini: I remember liking this book too - sometimes it's just the right book at the right time and a little foray into loosely written fantasy lets us fill the gaps in our own way. Or something. I don't know, I just really liked it at the time and you've inspired me to wishlist it for rereading!

22. In a Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware, 2015


Cover comments: love it

Comments: Twenty-six year old Leonara gets an unexpected invitation her old friend Claire's hen weekend, even though she wasn't invited to the wedding, or even knew she was getting married, for that matter. The party takes place in a modernist glass house deep in the middle of a Northumbrian forest, in November, in the snow, and it's a good, unnerving setting for this sort of story. She meets up there with five other of Claire's friends, and no one really knows each other, nor do they particularly like each other. Early on you learn that someone has been murdered, and I had fun trying to figure out who the victim would be. As for the guilty party, I figured that out early on (when there are only a handful of characters, it's not that difficult).

If I wanted to, I could pick this book apart, as many other readers have done in the reviews. But I just went along for the ride and found it to be an enjoyable, quick read.

Recommended for: This is a great vacation book-- especially if you're staying in an isolated cabin in late autumn or winter. It's commonly compared to The Girl on the Train, and I'd say also Before I Go to Sleep, by SJ Watson and Disclaimer, by Renee Knight.

Rating: 4 stars, because this is the sort of book I need these days. As with most books described as psychological thrillers, it's not truly thrilling or psychological, but I liked it anyway.

Why I Read This Now: It seemed like a potential good autumn read, I love books set in forests, and it was a recommendation from Simon@SavidgeReads & The Readers podcast (we often have similar tastes).

Hi, Joyce. I read Bladeren van licht too and gave it 3,5 stars. I found it a bit confusing at times.

23. Mr Darcy's Guide to Courtship: the Secrets of Seduction from Jane Austen's Most Eligible Bachelor, Emily Brand, 2013


cover comments: a lovely cover for a book such as this

Comments: A 1812 self-help book written by Fitzwilliam Darcy, pre-Elizabeth Bennet, this is Darcy at his most snooty and clueless. Brand combines research on love and society from the Regency era, all of Jane Austen's novels, illustrations from Georgian England, and the occasional wink at Pride & Prejudice screen versions to create what Mr Darcy would have advised others in the pursuit of marital bliss. A quick and amusing read.

One note about the subtitle: there is absolutely zero seduction in this book. The concept of seduction does not exist in this Darcy's world.

Rating : 3.5 stars. Most readers like this better than I did -- it's often described as "hilarious." Readers who liked it less found Darcy too snobbish, negative, and misogynistic.

Why I Read This Now: in the last week, I've started a new book every single day, and nothing stuck until this one.

Recommended for: Jane Austen fans (it's not all Darcy Darcy Darcy--other Austen characters appear too. Except Elizabeth). Also, anyone interested in relationships from the Regency era (as I noted above, Brand did her research)

24. Daydreams of Angels, Heather O'Neill, 2015


cover comments: This is fine. I like that the artist included Red Riding Hood

Comments: This collection of twenty short stories was nominated for the Giller Prize and it deserved to win. Many of the stories have a fairy tale or fantastical element to them, or are based on earlier works such as The Story of Ferdinand or Pinocchio. Others are straight realism. O'Neill writes in a distinct voice of declarative sentences and imaginative metaphor. There are repeated themes -- children living in poverty, WWII France, sexually confident females, grandparent's stories, to name just a few. Although I adore the magical tales, two of my favourites in the book were the realistic stories "The Man Without a Heart" and "The Conference of Birds" which are both beautifully comic and absolutely heartbreaking all at the same time. O'Neill's description of poverty is so keen you just know she lived it, and there's not a manipulative stroke or that over-earnest tone that has ruined many books for me.

Of the magical stories, I loved "The Wolf-Boy of Northern Quebec" about a feral child who grows up to be a celebrity and "Swan Lake for Beginners" about a town that is filled with clones of Nureyev.

Rating: Somehow I just can't give books 5 stars anymore but this one deserves it.

Recommended for: everyone. Not saying everyone will like it, but I'll still recommend it to everyone.

Why I Read This Now: I don't remember, but it gives me a tick mark under "fairy tales" and "CanLit".

25. Hausfrau, Jill Alexander Essbaum, 2015


Cover comments: Not sure what I think of this cover. On one hand I like it, on the other I think it makes the book look like a bodice-ripper, which it's not.

Many readers know the book with this cover, and like it:

I don't like the colours of this, and I don't think it speaks to the book AT ALL.

Why I Read This Now: I was travelling in Switzerland and it was the only fiction book in my TBR pile that was set there. Bonus: it's set in Zurich, where I spent several days. (I only saw very specific areas of Switzerland, so this mattered to me).

Rating 4.5/5. I really liked it. This is one of those books that people either love or hate. I didn't love it, and in fact, several aspects of it I rather disliked. Still, a week later, I have pleasant memories of it and always enjoyed picking it up to read.

Comments: Anna is an ex-pat from the US who is married to a Swiss man and lives outside of Zurich with their 3 small children. After nine years, she hasn't yet made much of a life for herself, and is just now deciding to take a German language class. Anna struggles with depression and deals with it by falling into affairs. Hausfrau has been described as Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary meets 50 Shades of Grey, except not as fun as that sounds (? just going by what I've heard). Of those, I've only read Anna Karenina, and yes, this has aspects of a modern retelling of that novel.

People who dislike Hausfrau describe it as too depressing. I've known enough people who have lived the ex-pat life to recognize the very real depression that is often part of this life, no matter how great the circumstances, so I found that realistic and interesting. But if you don't want to read a book about a depressed character, then skip this one. Other complaints about it are that Anna is unlikable, and many people are frustrated in her passive-aggressive refusal to help herself or her tendencies of self-destruction. Fair enough criticism, I guess. Other people complain that the sex scenes (and there are only a few) are pornographic, which they aren't.

What I disliked was the Jungian psychotherapist that Anna saw throughout the novel. Talk about doing more harm than good. She badly needed a good behavioural psychologist, not this airy fairy no answers hog-wash spewer. I also thought the novel jumped around too much -- Essbaum did handle the jumps quite effectively, but there was too much of it for my tastes.

One thing I loved were all the comments about life in Switzerland, which I found incredibly apropos as I was in Switzerland witnessing the truth of them.

Recommended for: if you don't like reading about depressed characters or are bothered by sex scenes in fiction, don't bother. Otherwise, if it sounds interesting to you, give it a try.

-------

The day after I read this scene, I saw this statue at the Zurich train station:

"She paused beneath the station's guardian angel, that strange one-ton sculpture made from god knows what that pended from the ceiling beams. Christ, she's ugly, Anna thought. It was installed ten years ago. Anna and the angel had lived in Switzerland for almost the same amount of time. She was pinheaded and faceless and clothed in a painted-on pushup bra and minidress. Her wings had holes in them. Her patterns were mismatched. And she was fat. Anna had read that the artist intended the angel's lusty, robust form to evoke an equally full-bodied femininity, an attitude native to women who don't give damns what other think. Modern art for modern women. Little wonder Anna oduldn't stand her. "


I love this angel.

This year I read only 31 books (down from an average of 65-85). But 25 were from my TBR piles, so that was good. I can't imagine 2018 to be much different.

That's a good percentage of ROOT reading!

>70 Nickelini: Such a coincidence, reading about and seeing that statue!

>73 connie53: --- maybe not such a coincidence, since I purposefully try to read books set in the place I'm travelling. But very fun, which is why I do that.