Book Club

Tonight is the first meeting of my book club post-summer and the theme is to come, meet new members, and discuss the kinds of books we want to read this year. The kind of books we like to read.

I found myself at a bit of a loss. I'm sitting here in my office, in my small but chock-filled library, and I am having trouble deciding what to say.

You'd think it would be easier. I've been around books all my life--my first "library" was an ancient wardrobe with an old fashioned key that I locked my books away in as a child and would get right inside with a flashlight to see all the titles; I don't recall a time when I wasn't reading something; I studied books in university; I edit books for heaven's sake! I should be able to come up with something concrete about the books I like to read.

But it thwarts me, this narrowing down of genre. I'm sitting on the literary fence and I don't want to leave any books out.

I discussed this dilemma with a friend of mine over strawberry dacquiri's last night. She used to work in marketing at chapters (dream job, anyone?) and part of her role was to co-ordinate book clubs. There was the mystery book club, the romance book club, the sci-fi book club...every kind of book club was available, but I can't see myself ever limiting myself to one kind of book. At the two ends of the scale were the following: the serious book club where serious literary adults discussed serious literary works, and the Martini book club, where the focus was only marginally on books at all.

What I suppose I'd like, ideally, is to fall somewhere in the middle. A book club that is sociable and fun, relaxing yet insightful. And I think, for the most part, we've achieved that at my current book club. We don't read much "serious" literature, but we do like our books to have some meat to them. You can mock Oprah all you want (and I frequently do) but her book club titles are usually quite well chosen in terms of a rewarding but not too analytical read.

Because in the end, reading should be fun. And a book club--for me at least--should not be work.

Are you in a book club? What kinds of books do you like to read? And how do you format your meetings - structured or free-for-all? Chime in below.

Friday Reads: Mid Summer Summary

I have a problem.

I take the kids to the library on Tuesday's and I always end up getting books out for myself. This is in addition to all the books I ordered from my summer reading list that I wasn't yet prepared to buy. In fact, last week, I had to renew the books I had taken out because I haven't had time to read them all, but do you think that stopped me taking out a pile more?

Of course not.

So now I have the original books I decided to read this summer, plus a long list of others to get through.

I have been reading though.

I read The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein. It was one of the books I ordered from the library that was on my original summer reads list. I picked it up one morning in the kitchen to take a quick look while I made toast. Two hours later, I still stood there, finishing the book, still standing because I didn't want to take the time to go and sit down. It's crazy good, and I don't usually go for books that are a) written by dogs or b) full of heart-tugging sentiment. But this one really pulled me in.

I'm reading The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, and although it is nice and the premise is one I should like, it is not grabbing me like I had hoped it would.

I read a youth fiction two nights ago. 13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison about a girl caught in the faery world. I liked the world building and the fact that the fairies were not all cute but had malevolence written all over them, but found it a bit predictable and overblown. Probably because it is meant for a 9 year old, only we've all been spoiled with the quality of kids lit these days.

I was half way through Persuasion by Jane Austen when my Kobo gave up the ghost. Huge kudos to the kobo customer service team though who are sending me a new one with no hassles. As soon as I get it, I'll finish up with Miss Austen. Anyone seen the movie, Persuasion? Is it worth it?

Probably because of Persuasion, I picked up Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict at the library. It's by Laurie Viera Rigler, and I just started it with no expectations at all.

With the kids, I am reading Pirates! by Celia Rose and Erik's new series, The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan. He loves it and knowing my book problem, I am convincing him to order them through the library rather than buying. Otherwise he will need a very, very large house. He is resistant, but it will be good for him.

Not that I can talk. I picked up a few more books at the Williamstown Fair last weekend. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Suite Francais (because I liked the title) by Irene Nemirovsky, and--joy of joys--Children of the New Forest by Captain Maryat, a children's classic I have never read. I saw the mini series as a child and have vague visions that come to me every once in a while. Now I can find out what they are about.

So that's it. The summary so far. Only a few short weeks to go, so we'll see just how much ground I cover between then and now.

The beauty of books is that there are always more to read.

Alike

This post is part of Capital Mom's Monday Moments series. It also follows along quite nicely from my posts about Harry Potter.

In late spring, we had a Harry Potter themed dinner, rustling up recipes from the countless websites dedicated to this kind of thing. While Erik and I were out cutting stalks of rhubarb to make a lovely rhubarb apple crumble, he said to me, Mom, you're just like Mrs. Weasley.

I have to be honest, my first thought wasn't all that charitable. I mean look at the way Molly dresses! But Erik expanded on his statement: how we live in an old rambling house and there are always good smells in the kitchen and lots of food to eat. He mad especial mention of the pies (Erik really likes pies). And somehow in his 11 year old mind, he equated the homemade pies I make for him, the cobblers and crisps and the sausages and mashed potatoes, lasagne and roast chickens with the comfortable hominess of Molly Weasely, mother to (among others) Ron and Ginny and Fred and George.

I saw it for the compliment it was. And since then I've reflected on and off about how, actually, being like Molly is a good thing.

She's protective of her family, but not overbearing. She puts her foot down, but lets them go and do what needs to be done. She keeps her children on their toes and holds them accountable (We tried to shut him in a pyramid but Mum spotted us - Fred and George) without holding them back.

Molly doles out love and discipline and caution and support in good measure. Her children think she worries too much but they also respect her, and want to stay on her good side. She in turn respects each of her children and their friends and appreciates their individual gifts. Even when Fred and George drop out of school to start a joke shop, Molly gives them grief and then, having done so, stands behind them.

And when it matters most, she is not afraid to stand up for those she loves. Witness the cheering that went on in the theatres during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 when Molly stares down Bellatrix...she is a force to be reckoned with at that moment.

So am I like Molly Weasley? To be honest, I hope so.

This Owl Just In...The Harry Potter Posts (#3: And Onward)

Today
The one thing Erik missed out on is the whole Harry experience. Because he came to the books over a three week period, there was none of the anticipation, the lining up at midnight at Chapters for a new release (and, yes, for the record I'd have taken him), the building excitement over a new movie. He just read and watched and read and watched...

Until now.

The final Harry Potter release today. If this is news to you, you might want to get out more. It's huge. It's a phenomenon. It has gripped an entire generation, more than one actually. And finally, Erik gets it. He is excited. He is anxious. He has re-read the books. He has watched all the movies. He has seen the preview for Deathly Hallows so often he can quote it. He is ready for the final movie.

And I'm glad I finally get to share that with him.

This Owl Just In...The Harry Potter Posts (#2: Fast Forward)

Fast Forward to 2008
I had all the Harry Potter books, standing stalwart on the shelves waiting for children to become as enthralled as I was. It didn't happen. My eldest - he for whom I bought the first Harry Potter, back before he was even born - read The Hobbit, Bone, and Scooby Doo. He was 8 - surely a wonderful time to start on the Hogwarts journey. But no. He wanted nothing to do with the books or the movies.

I had seen the first two movies, maybe the third, but then stopped. I had envisioned taking Erik to them, but he wasn't interested. And so I didn't see them either. To be honest, the movies never grabbed me the way the books did, although I give credit to the actors who all do a phenomenal job (full disclosure: HUGE Alan Rickman fan anyway - I swear I liked Snape because he played the part). I still wanted to see them, just not alone. Andrew had no interest either and Erik's younger sisters still were not quite ready for the books, and I reluctantly admitted defeat, enjoyed re-reading them myself, and put them on a shelf in the library.

Fast Forward to May 2011
I have nothing to read.

We've all heard that from time to time. Erik is almost 11 now. He's an avid reader and like me, a re-reader: Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Redwall, Star Wars. But he wanted something new.

Try Harry Potter, I said. I was working in the library. I handed him The Goblet of Fire, thinking the size of it would entice him.

Mom, he said, brushing it away, if I am going to read Harry Potter, I am going to start with the first one.

And he did. He finished it that day. I had lent out The Chamber of Secrets years ago and it was never returned, so I made a frantic call to a friend whose daughter is in Erik's class. He read it the next day. By the end of the week he was on The Goblet of Fire and we had watched a couple of the movies (1, 3 and 4 which were all we had). Within three weeks, he'd finished all of the books.

And was starting again.

I guess Pottermania finally caught up with him.

(to be continued)

This Owl Just In...The Harry Potter Posts (#1: Flashback)

Flashback:
I can still picture the bookstore. The kind you don't see so much anymore. Someone with thoughtful and discerning tastes stocked it with a wide selection of books so that even though it was small and local, there was always something to intrigue me. I was six months pregnant with my firstborn, and while shopping invariably found myself scanning the kids shelves thinking about the wonderful world of books my children would have. I must have passed over Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone a hundred times without a glance when suddenly the world around me went haywire. Harry Potter was being made into a movie. Everywhere people were talking about Harry Potter and I distinctly remember having two cohesive thoughts:

1. That Harry Potter sounded like a stupid name for a kid's hero; and
2. That if the books were this important (because even then it was obvious they were achieving market saturation) then I had better read them to stay informed for my kids. Yeah, that kid still firmly in utero.

I think the third book had just been released and there was talk of number four. I marched in and bought the first of the series. I took it home to read....and couldn't stop. I read it in one day. Devoured it. Dreamed colourfully of Hogwarts, so vivid were the pictures Rowling painted for me in my mind. And rushed out to buy number two.

I wasn't one of those lining up to buy the books at midight as they came out, but I certainly wasn't waiting for the paperback either.

And so my love affair for Harry Potter novels began.

(to be continued)

Friday Reads: Cottage Reads

The beautiful thing about a week at the cottage is the time it affords me to read.

On Tuesday, I read To Defy A King, a historical novel by Elizabeth Chadwick about the daughter of one of my favourite all time knights....William Marshall. I know so much about Marshall, about his contribution to the reign of Henry II and his sons, including the Lionheart and King John, but did not even know he had a daughter until I picked up this book of my mother-in-laws that was lying around the cottage.
 It makes me think...so many of the historical novels I read are about the women, the women about whom we really know so little. Their fathers and husbands, brothers and sovereigns, we know plenty about them. But with the exception of great queens, the women of the centuries are harder to find. And yet, and yet...they make the stories richer, they give depth to the past, and they add a real solid dimension to history. I admire writers such as Chadwick who bring these forgotten women so marvellously, so richly to life.

On Wednesday I read Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and The Castle of Adventure, an old children's favourite of mine by Enid Blyton that Anna had brought with her this week. A serious book club classic and a light lakeside read. I so loved Enid Blyton as a kid, and even now, when I see the similarities in all the plots and the rather old fashioned style of them, I enjoy them, probably harking back to my old memories of time curled up on a battered couch or in a tent by flashlight. I've always enjoyed the classics too, but it has been so long since I read Jude that the ending took me by surprise and I hated it, perhaps because of my own three children happily sleeping next door as I got to that bit. But the themes I thought were of interest. Hardy's views of marriage though causing apoplectic uproar at the time seem quaintly familiar today, but it was the themes of recurring patterns and the value of education that intrigued me most this reading.

And today, I read another Agatha Christie. Murder in the Vicarage. Another oldie but goodie. And have started reading Persuasion by Jane Austen, another book not on my summer list, but conveniently on my kobo.

I was supposed to be reading The Great Gastby this week, but rushing out of the house on Monday morning, do you think I could find it? Not a chance.

Friday Reads: The Secret Adversary

One of the things I thought would be fun for my summer reads was to choose the next book on my list by some inspirational moment or thought or passing fancy in the current book. I thought it might be very cool to harness the power of serendipity and see if the Fates could lead me forward.

(No, this has nothing to do with my abysmal indecision: though my dear husband claims if I were stranded on a dessert island and had to choose between chicken and fish I'd starve to death, it's not true. Or is it? Can't decide.)

I thought this in an offhand way as I was starting the first of my reading list books, but lo and behold, 150 pages in, I found my moment.

P141 The Eight
"The road curved slightly away from the sea. On either side manicured hedges, ten feet high, enclosed large estates. From time to time I caught moonlit glimpses of huge manor houses set back on sweeping snow-covered lawns. I had never seen anything like it near New York. It reminded me of Scott Fitzgerald."

Does it need to be any clearer? Scott Fitgerald was on my list. Obviously the next book had to be The Great Gatsby.

Of course, Fate has a way of playing tricks and though I started Gatsby, I got sidetracked during a long wait in a car when I got out my trusty Kobo and, flipping through the classics it came with, discovered an Agatha Christie novel I had never read. That seemed pretty serendipitous too, and since it was handy and short, I actually finished The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence's first adventure) before getting any further into Fitzgerald.

And that's ok, because Agatha Christie is also on my list this summer. I've read so many of them, but oddly, always stuck to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot stories. I really enjoyed this one too, though it was more espionage than mystery.

So that's Friday Reads for this week. My friend Leanne is blogging about books too at My Window On The Journey, and there's a few on her list that I want to add to mine (Left Neglected, Her Fearful Symmetry, The Red Queen), but really, Summer just isn't long enough.

Friday Reads: The Eight

My summer reading list kicked off with The Eight by Katherine Neville. As I mentioned last week, I have read it before, and it's one of those books that surprises you the first time you read it, and so subsequently, the reading experience can never be as good. (Atonement springs immediately to mind, as do any number of mysteries where the ending is something you ddin't see coming.)

Having said all that, later readings of The Eight did impress me with other aspects. I think this was my fourth read of it over two decades, and each time different nuances of the novel made themselves felt. This time around, it was mostly the relationship between the 18th century nun, Mireille and the modern day Cat, and how their resepctive worlds unfolded as they chase (wittingly or not) the legendary pieces of the Montglane Chess Service  that once belonged to Charlemagne.

Because I now know the underlying secret of the book, I found focusing on character more rewarding, though the twists and turns of the plot were still of interest, particularly how Neville weaves all those threads into one, giving us so many clues we don't even know we have until they all come together.

A couple of things imprinted themselves on me this read. The first is that the surprise of the ending is not really a surprise at all. Oh, it was to me twenty years ago, but to a more mature reader, the ending is almost obvious, and I don't think I'd like the book as much if I read it for the first time today.

(It's the funny thing about books - our reviews so often depend on where we are in life, and how we remember them. Try reading any beloved children's book and see what I mean. It's difficult to be obective because the memory of the book is so powerful.)

Secondly, much as I enjoy history, I found the large cast of historical figures annoying even as they intrigued me. Part of what I loved about the book years ago was that I felt I had touched upon understanding some of the great figures of our past: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Napoleon and Catherine the Great, Robespierre and Benedict Arnold,Voltaire and Newton, Bach and Rousseau and Charelmagne....and if this list sounds long it's because it is and this time, I found my credibility stretched, my  patience thin. Some of the characters were one dimensional, and I wanted to know more about them (the fictional Solarin for example); many were just cameos- sort of a historical name dropping.

At the same time, I was impressed with how Neville wove other historical figures into the plot. The Bishop of Autun, for example: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. His rise to power, influence during the French revolution, relationship with the young Napoleon, years in the US, years in Britain, and marriage to Catherine Grand are all detailed in The Eight with plausible explanations for his role in the plot of the novel.

I still enjoyed it. The twisting narrative, the chess game and the endlessly fascinating Montglane Chess set, the secret codes and mathematical equations all continued to compel me to read and the plot still held together for me. It's a quest, a conspiracy theory, and a legend all rolled into one.

Summer Reads

I'm going to try (try, I said) to post about books on Fridays in honour of #FridayReads (if you are not familiar with this, go here). I'm not promising erudite discussion. If you want that, you need to check out An Attitude Adjustment's Maladjusted Book Club, the always insightful Pickle Me This, or the lovely Dove Grey Reader, just a few of the amazing book bloggers out there. (On top of finding time to read books, I have to find time to read book clogs - it's a terrible addiction).

To kick things off, I have made myself a Summer Reading List. As I look over the mix of new and familiar books, I think it may be overly ambitious. But it's summer, and I want to kick back with some good reads both here and at the cottage (and how awesomely I am looking forward to my first ever vacation with my Kobo - no more lugging an extra 20lb bag of books everywhere.)

So here's my list, in no particular order:

 The Postmistress by Sarah Blake has been highly recommended and in light of the Ethics course I am teaching this fall, I am interested in some of the issues it examines. The book tells ther story of a postmistress' decision not to deliver a letter on the eve of World War II, and the repercussions from that decision.

 The Eight by Katherine Neville is one I have read a number of times before and love. It was one of the first books I remember reading that told parallel stories in two different times, and the first book that I ever read about the Philosopher's stone (now so famous, thanks Harry Potter). It is intricate and historical and long (800 pages) and I look forward to reading it again.

 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - YA and, according to one friend, "Intense, gripping, and overwhelming." (Thanks, Christine). Set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany, Liesel shares stolen books with her neighbours and a Jewish man hiding in the basement.

 The Bruce Trilogy by Nigel Trantner. Whew! After all that heavy reading, how about something light. Well - sort of. The historical tale of Robert the Bruce (this is a trilogy) has been sitting on my shelf for years after a rescue from a library purge, and this is the year I am going to read it.

 Agatha Christie - There is a Christie read-a-thon going on which is what prompted me to add some of these to my list. It's been decades - yes, really - since I first discovered my mother's collection of mysteries and fell in love with these fun, quick reads, and I am going to reacquaint myself with some of my favourites: The Murder at the Vicarage, 4:50 from Paddington, The Mirror Crack'd, Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None. Not sure yet. I'll probably spread them out through the summer...

 The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein. Told from the point of view of a dog, c'mon, what's not to love? Have not read it, but have heard good things about how this book gives great insight into the human condition. Well, dogs are good for that. The human condition. (Leans down to scratch labrador's ears).

 Paradise Lost by Milton. I might regret this. I am not as into classsic poetry today as I was when I first looked at this epic piece of literature. But I am more interested in the period, so we will see.

 Sweetness In The Belly by Camilla Gibb. Another book that has been on my "to read" list for a very, very long time.

 Room by Emma Donoghue. I must read this book. I must. I must. But somehow despite knowing this, I keep putting it off, knowing that once I pick it up I will be simultaneously horrified and uplifted.

 The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. The second Flavia de Luce book, and the first one (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) just captivated me after a dry reading spell. I am excited to pick up this, and see it whiling away a rainy afternoon up by the lake.

 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. I've read this before, of course, but when I taught short stories last semester at the college, we had an animated discussion on Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams and I sold the students on this book. Sold myself too. Am going to pick it up again. While playing Count Basie. Loudly.

 To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Another book I have read. But I feel I have never really got it. It's like I almost get it, but then it slips away from me. I think it's a book best read in solitude, and I always have interruptions. My plan is to try again the week of July 16-23. Why that week? Because my three adorable kids will be away at cub camp. All week. Yes, that sigh you hear is anticipation. Me and the dog and the rose bushes. And Virginia. If I don't "get it" then, I never will.

I am also re-reading Jude the Obscure for Jana's Madadjusted Book Club, and either Crow Lake or The Other Side of the Bridge (can't recall which) by Mary Lawson for my Red Tent book club. And some books I have edited are being released over the summer - I'll be reading them. And subs. Got three to read right now.

What are YOU reading this summer? Do share.

Friday Reads

In honour of Friday Reads, I went around the house snapping a few pictures of the books we are reading right now.

Me and Grace

Andrew

Andrew and Erik

The Girls - Grandma bought this back from Down Under

 

Books in my office waiting to be next...

These came out of the car...

Happy Reading!

On My Own

What does a Saturday on your own look like? Here's mine:

• Drink coffee, kiss husband and kids goodbye and watch them drive away to camp.
• Check emails, twitter, facebook
• Drink more coffee
• Tidy kitchen, throw in laundry, load dishwasher
• Morning run, followed by hot shower and more coffee, on back steps, facing the warm morning sun
• Figure out what to wear to a writer's conference on a day that is neither cool enough for pants or warm enough for bare legs
• Writer's Conference, hang out at library
• Treat myself to a Cafe Latte and lunch, read a book on my kobo at the coffee shop before heading home
• Hang laundry, do a garden reconaissance, figure out what needs to be done, make a list
• Read on the deck in a lawnchair for a blissful, precious hour.
• Write
• Decide some work is in order so head back to garden to rake away some of last year's foliage and reveal new shoots :)
• Walk the dog through the fields, shout back at the nosiy snow geese, wish I had my camera
• Read
• Write
• Open Wine
• Listen to opera. Loudly. While having a long lesisurely bubble bath
• Eat scrambled eggs
• Blog
• Watch a chick flick - Eat Pray Love tonight. Will it hold up to the book (which I quite enjoyed)?

The End

(my plans to have dinner with a friend and then head to the arts evening fizzled after I raked my gardens and realized that what I really wanted was some down time. So lovely.)

Ticket to Adventure

As a child I wished my parents had a big musty library. Perhaps I read too many gothic novels, but I had the idea that such a library would contain secrets and mysteries and adventures. Maybe even treasure maps falling from the pages of a long forgotten book.

I had my own library - a wooden wardrobe, long out of use, that I stuffed with my own books and locked with an old fashioned key. Sadly, when we moved to Canada, the books came, but not the solid, stolid wardrobe.

I can't tell you - but some of you will be nodding in recognition - the number of times I have lugged heavy boxes of books to a new dorm, new flat, new house because if I had to spend any time there, I needed my books around me. Put it this way - my friends never wanted to help me move.

A few years back I turned my little used dining room into a libary. Yes, my desk is there too, but it's mainly for all our books. Wall to wall bookcases, and shelves of novels and non-fiction and text books and picture books all jammed merrily together.

And yesterday, while I was at my desk marking papers, my son, 10, was browsing around beind me. His fingers trailed without purpose across the spines of books from shiny Harry Potter books to my ancient Dickens collection. Then without preamble, he pulled out a tattered paperback from where it was sitting between a Tom Clancy novel of my husband's and My Darling Dead Ones: it was one of the Redwall novels, one he had not read before.

His eyes lit up and the excitement was palpable. Not just because of the book, which he will enjoy, but at the unexpected discovery. At finding just the right book at just the right time.

It's exactly what I wanted when I was a child, and I realized that I was right all along. A library does contain secrets and mysteries and adventure.

Between every page.

End Note: This is the last day of NaBloPoMo, and I'd like to thank all those of you who visited, commented, motivated, and encouraged whether here, on Facebook, or on Twitter. It's been a great experience.

The house is quiet. Too quiet. Big old farmhouse, the furnace creaking away in the basement next to the root cellar. The kids and I made chocolate chip cookies and read books all evening while Andrew went out to a cub planning meeting. Did I mention it's at a pub? Figured he'd be out for the night. And once they went to bed, the quietness became more noticable.

Didn't help that I was reading this.

Atmospheric, a bit chilling. Medieval and gothic and mysterious and pagan - even if the protagonist is a Church of England minister.

I finished a chapter. Realized I was cold. The rumble of a train and a dog barking in the distance brought me back and I was suddenly aware that I was alone. With unsettled thoughts and a rather vivid imagination. And the wind rattling a back window that doesn't quite shut in the mud room.

Wrapped in my plaid, I made my way out of the stove-warmed kitchen, adjusting to the cold of the unheated mud-room, slamming the window down hard. Telling myself I need to replace the naked light bulb that lights the room in an eerie yellow glow. Turning it off and opening the back door to stand on the steps and whistle for the dog. My eyes adjusting to the darkness, the moon casting a grey sheen over the world, and clouds scurrying past, just like I imagine they must have for Merrily Watkins. In the book.

Book Nerd

I am shamelessly stealing this from Finola. In the past week, it's been making the rounds on Facebook and apparently all of my friends think I am a Book Nerd because I have been tagged a half dozen times or more already. According to the BBC, most people will only have read 6 of the 100 books listed here. I find that hard to believe because my kids have read 6: Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, Winnie the Pooh, A Christmas Carol, Charlotte's Web, The Faraway Tree, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Make that 11 - my kids have read 11.

You are supposed to bold the ones you have read and italicize ones you never finished. So on the one hand I feel smug because I have read 75 of these (76 if you count the sneaky one I added for one that was missing at # 26). On the other hand I am scratching my head a bit:

• Why are Hamlet and the Complete Works of Shakespeare both listed? Ditto for The Lion, the Wich and the Wardrobe and the Narnia chronicles.
• How did the slightly obscure Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton make the list when there are so many great books for children that are more relevant. (I personally own and like this book, but am puzzled at its inclusion on the top 100).
• What's with Bridget Jones? Top 1oo? Seriously? And ahead of Oliver Twist?
• How come Lord of the Rings, Shakespeare, Harry Potter etc only count as one book?
• What happened to number 26? I added a book - a perennial favourite of mine, Howard's End by EM Forster. There were others I could have added instead, but I Forster was unrepresentated and he is British (and it's a British list)

One of my earliest posts was on book lists, so if you read that you know I am not a huge fan of them. But I did enjoy reading down this list, and reliving the memories some of the books conjured up.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (always a good one)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (kids love this, I didn't - preferred movie and I don't say that often)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (coming out this sprint as a movie. I own 5 copies of this book)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (Love this - my kids don't. Weirdly)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1st book I downloaded to my Ipod - because it was cheap)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (Andrew's Favourite book - right up there with The Road)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (rushed out and bought these when the church kicked up a fuss. OTherwise probably would not have bothered. They're ok.)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (I'm a huge Dickens fan)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (Ug. I can't re-read this now. The March girls drive me crazy!)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Especially the histories and MacBeth)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (I read Du Maurier when I want chilling atmosphere)
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (a boyfriend bought me this for Christmas when I wanted jewellry. Sigh. I was young and shallow then)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (Read this so I could get my husband's jokes and obscure references. Same reason I saw Star Wars)
26. Howard's End - E.M. Forster  
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I just remember Stu-Bob's philosophy class)
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (I was on a Russian kick for a while. Read everything - in translation)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (I prefer Return of the Native. Must re-read)
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (this kept me up all night when I was about 13)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (I am Elinor, according to this. And then there's Brandon!)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Literary Crushes

Oh, come on. You've had them too. A huge crush on a fictional character, whether he (or she) be in a book or a movie.

Mine tend to be literary in nature. So here are my top 5:

#5: Colonel Brandon from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I know Mr D'Arcy always seems to get top billing, but I always kind of liked Brandon better. He's a bit more subtle than D'Arcy, the silent but decisive hero who worships from afar and always comes through in a crunch. The kind of guy you can count on, and who has a depth of personality only hinted at on the surface.

(Photo from movie Sense & Sensibility starring Alan Rickman)

#4: Lancelot. Arthur's favourite Knight and mine too. I've had crush on Lancelot longer than anyone, longer even than I have known what a crush was! His bravery, chivalry, heroism, and splendour all fuse together, and really, who can resist the knight in shining armour on his valiant steed?

#3: Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Siegfried is generous, witty, amusing, unpredictable, charming (oh so charming) and strings together words effortlessly (ie: "We're up against boneheaded bureaucracy. Complete ossification").  A literate literary character.

(Photo from TV Drama of All Creatures starring Robert Hardy)

#2: King Richard III. Yes technically he is historic, not a literary character, but it is only through literature that I fell for him. First in Josephine Tey's The Daughter of TIme which I read when I was about 13, and then later in Sharon Kaye Penmen's fabulous The Sunne In Splendour. And yes, I think he probably killed his nephews,but I like him anyway. They were complicated times for this last English monarch to die in battle.

(Statue of King Richard III)

#1: Jamie. Or more properly James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. Yeah, I know, me and every other hot-blooded woman on the planet. If you like stubborn, heroic, fierce, passionate, intelligent, posessive, manly warrior-poets, get thee to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I've written about Jamie before here and here.

(Sketch one of the many many sketches,composites, computer generated pictures of Jamie made and disseminated by countless adoring fans)

So who are YOUR literary crushes?

Flambards

One of the first "real" books I remember reading when I was about 7 or 8 was Flambards by K.M. Peyton. The book is the first of a trilogy, and I read it because 1) it was about horses and I was horse-mad; and 2) it had been made into a UK mini series and my parents had let me watch it. Thirteen half-hour episodes of absolute delight. As for the books, I love them still, though my copies are stained, dog earred and falling apart. I adore them all: Christina, her cousins WIll and Mark, her crusty uncle and sweet Dick (who actually rather annoys me a bit now). I love the horses and Will's flying machines, and Dorothy and Sandy. And while everyone I knew cried buckets over Black Beauty, my tears were all for Sweetbriar. I still skip that chapter sometimes.

Somehow, and I can't explain it other than to say in that weird way connections are somehow forged, I forever associate the books with a certain smell, and the smell with a certain feeling. On cool fall or spring mornings when the ground is wet and the air is still, the country gets that aroma. If you've experienced it you'll know what I mean. It's wet leaves and rich earth, new life and decaying vegetation, mellowed aromas and sharp pungency all mixed together in an intoxicating brew. It reminds me of stables and sawdust and barns and gorse bushes. Of horse sweat, and horse hair, and the damp tendrils of hair that tumble down your back when you take off your bowler. It's oak and meadows and the silence in between hoof beats, and the dew on the grass and the glistening cobwebs along the fencerows. It's sodden leaves sticking to your boots, and the smell of leather reins and saddle polish, and lamb roasting in the kitchen.

Yes, somehow mine and Christina's Flambards life got all mixed up and to this day I can go outside, get a whiff of that smell and think to myself, It's a Flambards Day.

Reader's Block Remedy

Shocking Admission: I have not read a complete novel for fun ALL SUMMER.

No - that's not true - I read one my mother-in-law lent me at the cottage because it was a library book and I had to finish it.

I've been slowly plodding through The Mists Of Avalon most of the past two months, without any real impetus to finish it. After all I've read it many times before. The first time I read this huge tome of a novel I stayed up all night locked into the story.

Friends recommend books and I think: That's on my shelf. Or Sounds good! Sometimes I even purchase them and they sit unread on a shelf that is too full already.

I made a list of books to re-read - books I know I have loved before. But I haven't got to them.

Heck, I saw the Giller Short List and recognized none of the books. I didn't even know Jane Urquhart had a new book out!

It's a sad, sad thing.

It's not that I haven't been reading. As a fiction editor, I've been reading lots of books. But picking up a new book and devouring it the way I always have in the past...it has evaded me of late.

Until today. Today I have found the remedy:

If a new Jamie Fraser book can't pull me out of my reading doldrums, then nothing can.

The Exile is the graphic novel version of Outlander, told from Jamie's perspective.

Graphic novel.

I think I can manage that.

I'm pretty sure I can manage anything with Jamie in it.

Wha To Read (aka: Summertime Blues)

I love reading. Love it. Which is why it's odd that I haven't been doing very much of it recently. Recently being - oh the last six months or so.

When I ask myself why, there is no good answer. I have been spending a lot of energy writing this past year and maybe that's where the book mojo has gone. But there is more to it than that. I find more and more that though I still buy new books that I absolutely MUST READ (The Bishop's Man; Devil's Brood;  Nikoloski; New York) they sit unopened on my shelf because I am not quite prepared to crack open something new.

Am I getting conservative in my advancing age? Perish the thought!

I used to read everything and anything. In my mind I'm still up for it, but the reality is proving different. I'm half-hearted when it comes to new books, don't give them a chance and if they don't grab me in the first 50 pages, I read on with reluctance.

When I do sit down to read, I want to know it's a good book, and often end up re-reading favourites. This fascinates me because I often have a different perpective upon re-reading books. But it's not exactly open-minded, is it?

Making my reading list for the summer, I was consious that the only "new" book for me was Dan Brown's latest - and even that is at the bottom of the pile. I did just read Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed for my book club, which provoked some excellent discussion last night over fresh fruit and wine, but I'm left trying to  figure out if it is me or if there is just nothing out there to inspire me right now.

What books inspire you? How do you pick them? Have you ever picked a book by its cover alone and loved it? (I have).

Dish the dirt, I want to know.

Fairy Tales

Do you tell your kids fairy tales? The real ones I mean. Not the ones where the three little pigs and the big bad wolf make friends and go on a picnic with Little Red Riding Hood, but the ones where bad stuff happens, where evil lurks, where loss and heartbreak and death and dismemberment exist side-by-side with courage, pluck, resourcefulness, kindness, helpful woodland creatures, and yes, happy endings.

I have never shied away from these tales – we tell them to each other in the car on long trips, at bedtime, whenever a story is needed but no book is present. We mix the Brothers Grimm with Hans Christian Anderson and throw in Greek mythology or Aesop for good measure. And what I only half recall, I make up, but always remembering what I think are the big important must-haves of fairy tales:

• They must be entertaining
• They must include unpleasantness
• They must have happy endings

There’s a lot I have to say about this. But I’ll stick to a few key points.

• The wolf is the Big Bad Wolf, not the poor misunderstood wolf whom, in the name of inclusiveness, we must rehabilitate
• The evil witch is truly evil. She really wants to eat Hansel and Gretel and it is their ingenuity that saves the day, not her latent morality kicking in repentantly
• Death is often final. And ugly. And children are not immune to tragedy just because they are children.

It strikes me that we water down these stories (c’mon, you know it happens) at our peril. To me, fairy tales are an important rite of passage for kids. They snuggle up safely with Mom or Dad and experience the thrills and chills of these age-old stories. Through them they are exposed to a world that isn’t all pleasant, that is full of obstacles to overcome and hardships that need to be faced. They are able to put a face on evil, to personify it and understand that it exists in the world, that it’s real, and most importantly of all, to believe that we all have within us the power to defeat it and triumph.

We sugar coat so much of our children’s experiences. And then one day they learn to read and pick up a paper and learn the hard way just how scary the real world can be. Fairy tales can be a bridge between innocence and reality, allowing safe exploration of the good and bad that makes up human existence in all corners of the world. We often make up our own endings now – Little Red might use a well timed karate kada to help the woodman take down the wolf – because the kids have internalized an important truth: that they if they know their own strengths, they can succeed.

Little Red sorted out the wolf, learned a valuable lesson in who to trust along the way, and lived happily ever after.

Hansel and Gretel stood up for themselves, teamed up to outwit the witch, showed great resilience, and lived happily ever after.

Snow White broke free of the evil queen, let go of the issues holding her back, and lived happily ever after (well, apart from her prince’s predilection for singing which, though charming at first, got really annoying in later years).

Fairy Tales aren’t perfect. Life isn’t perfect. But both are adventures. That’s a message I can live with.