Thoughts about choosing a book for next year's book club list

I should look again at Clara by Janice Galloway. It's a beautiful book about Clara Schumann, her artistry, her relationship with her father, with Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

Alice in Wonderland, along with Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin, with a tie-in to the movie about Alice coming out this year.

Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill.

Updated: June 2, 2010. I'm recommending Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Last Night In Twisted River by John Irving.✔✔

For some unknown reason, I think it's important to read John Irving. Maybe it's because his Prayer For Owen Meany is one of my all-time favorite books, and I enjoyed The Cider House Rules, too. Last year, I read part of A Widow For One Year and gave up on it, so this year when Last Night In Twisted River was published, I thought: what the heck, I'll try again.

I actually thought for 200 pages that it was going to happen. The incidents in the town of Twisted River are colorfully described, the characters are interesting, and even though the subject of log-jamming doesn't appeal to me, I liked that Dominic, or Cookie, was an excellent cook. But then I began to notice things like an annoying predilection for capital letters- names of towns in the various areas where Dominic and his son Danny lived, names of rifles ( like , who cares?), names of famous authors- all scrunched together in paragraphs, as if he was trying to impress us with his wide knowledge. Then there were the women: Carmella, Rosie, Six -Pack Pam, Injun Jane, Katie, Lady Sky- all of whom seemed to have no other purpose in life than to screw Dominic, Ketchum, or Danny. And Danny! Well, he becomes a famous author, and when Irving goes way, way too deeply into his various successes as a writer, who he knows ( see capital letters above), where he writes, what inspires him, ad nauseum, you can't help but be convinced that Irving is writing about himself, whether to prove to himself that he actually exists, or that he is a good writer, or a famous one - which in this case is not one and the same thing- when I think about setting this novel down and turning to the next one in my list - I don't!! I kept on reading! He does tell a good story, but all this other "stuff" around it makes it more of a chore than a reading experience. I also found myself wondering how a female writer would have handled the same story, then that led me to wonder what it is about many male writers that they write way too much- this novel would have been better if it had been about 200 pages shorter.

But, I think I've finished with this notion that you "have" to read John Irving. You don't....

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.✔✔✔

I first came across this book in the Cobalt Book Store some fifteen years ago. I didn't purchase it then, but I was intrigued enough to add the title to my list of books to read. I learned recently that it had been re-released and was to be a motion picture, so when I found the book last week in Sundog Books at Seaside, FL, I bought it, and began to read it immediately.

Pope Joan almost certainly existed, despite the efforts of the RC Church to erase any record of her reign. She moved through the church rankings as a man, John Anglicus - she took the name from her brother who was killed in a Norse raid, and her father, who was English. Her story is well-told, historical fiction at its very best, and a quick read besides. I loved the fact that she valued reason above all else, and often expressed - to herself, at least -doubt that God actually existed.

Just today I was at the library, picking up the next wonderful book on my list, and saw that Pope Joan is the Library Book Club's choice for February 2011, so I must remember to attend that meeting! I wonder how both RCs and Baptists will react to this story: the Catholics for the fact that Joan existed at all, and the Baptists for her doubts. Worth finding out!!

Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos.✔✔✔

Broken For You is all about a collection of porcelain- a very special collection, as we find out almost immediately:

" While the woman sleeps and dreams of all that breaks, come into this house of many rooms. Once your eyes adjust to the darkness, beginning to take in what is visible, you may notice a silence that is not quite silent. There is another language being spoken here, a tongue that emanates from white clay, fire, the oils of many skins, the fusion of rent spirits and matter".....

Margaret, at age 75, lives alone in a 15,000sq.ft. mansion, with only this massive collection of antiques for company. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, Margaret decides to take in a boarder, Wanda Schulz, and eventually a few more boarders are accepted, all of whom form a kind of surrogate family, and all of whom become involved with this collection of antiques. The significance of the antiques only becomes clear as the novel progresses, and along the way we ponder the connection between these pieces and the occupants of the house.

The writing reminds me of Anne Tyler, whose books I have read for many years. I especially liked the happy ending !

Princess:A True Story of Life Behind The Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson. ✔✔✔

Denise loaned this book when I arrived, and since I had so many others on my "Must Read" list, I decided to read this at those times during the day when a book comes in handy as a diversion, so it's taken me a few weeks to complete it. Actually, it would probably be too much to read it continuously, because there are some harrowing moments in this book, so, for me at least, a little space to think about these events and reflect on the freedoms I enjoy in this society was needed.

The book evoked a few memories for me as well of women I knew or came in contact with and how their lives were changed by the attitudes towards women in Muslim countries. Joanne Slaughter- my friend from UWO- the Pakistani fellow she met in Montreal during Expo 67, their daughter Farah, and then moving to Pakistan, after which I never heard from her again. The beautiful young doctor in Iroquois Falls - I don't know which country she was from- who left her husband ( also a doctor) to visit a sister in Montreal who had arrived from their home country, and also was never heard from again.

And from this book, the story of Sameera, who was put into a dark, soundless hidden room at the age of 24 to spend the rest of her life there because she had disobeyed her guardian's rules will stay with me forever. That woman must still be alive, existing like an animal in that padded cell.

I have no idea whether this story is completely and utterly true or not - the events and such do raise the question in your mind, but the absolute truth doesn't really matter: I certainly got the picture. The book was written in 1991, and I've read many others on this subject, like "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and "Infidel", but this was a much more personal story somehow, and not as political as those two were.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King.✔✔

We saw the movie "Sherlock Holmes" a few weeks ago; actually my introduction to Sherlock Holmes, because I have never read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, although I'm familiar with the various characters. This book presents Holmes as the mentor for a young woman, Mary Russell, who meets Holmes when she is barely 15. Holmes is impressed with her intellect, plus her capacity for minute detail, and so she becomes his apprentice, and together they solve some interesting cases. The book didn't hold me much beyond that, and when the library called today with a couple more from my ever-expanding list of books to read, I quickly skimmed it through to the end so I can start enjoying these two books.

I must say, though, that this period interests me far more when it comes to mysteries. Today's mysteries - or detective thrillers, probably - are rather lurid, have too many guns and body sheets lying around, and are largely occupied by computers, high-tech devices, fast cars, and rough language. I like murders to have a genteel air about them, and I prefer detectives like Holmes, who employ everyday techniques like disguises and such to solve their cases.

There is a sequel to this novel, wherein I expect the apprentice and the teacher form more of a bond, and I'm sure the author will handle that transition well, too. If my list is even near empty, I'll consider reading it!

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. ✔✔✔✓

In post-war Warwickshire, young Dr. Faraday is called to the mansion Hundreds Hall to treat a 14-year old maid for illness. Faraday visited the mansion as a young boy, when his parents worked as servants at the Hall, and this visit renews his interest in the mansion, now decaying even as the remaining occupants, the Ayres, struggle to maintain it with limited funds and limited help. There is Mrs. Ayres, whose first child died before either of her two remaining children were born, Roderick, who came home injured from the War, and Caroline, who has taken on much of the physical work needed to maintain the house and grounds. Faraday becomes a regular visitor to the mansion and soon becomes entwined in the mystery surrounding the house. Is the house haunted? By whom? As narrator, Faraday is- to me, at least- impossibly dull, but his thick-headedness only adds to the mystery. There were moments when I could not for the life of me understand why the characters couldn't accept what was so obvious to the reader, but then I realized that's what the author wanted. Either that, or that old-world class-consciousness rendered these people incapable of accepting the changes taking place around them.

This was a good old-fashioned read, almost like reading Daphne du Maurier, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I even read it more slowly than I read a lot of books, savoring the mystery and the excellent writing.

And those two questions I posed earlier? They're not quite answered! Well-done!

FAVORITES OF 2009

My list this year is arranged by my favorite book from each month of the year, plus an extra one which I just couldn't leave out!

January When Will There Be Good News? Kate Atkinson

February The Story of Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski

March Rebecca Daphne du Maurier

April Middlesex Jeremy Euginides

May Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout

June Fifth Business Robertson Davies

July The Bible:A Biography Karen Armstrong

August The Angel's Game Carlos Ruiz de Zafon

September Full Tilt: From Dublin to Delhi by Bicycle Dervla Murphy

October Sacred Hearts Sarah Dunant

November The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson

December Little Giant of Aberdeen County Tiffany Baker

December South of Broad Pat Conroy

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil by John Berendt. ✔✔✔

This is a book I've wanted to read for a long time, and I don't even remember why! I know I've always been intrigued by the city of Savannah, Georgia: I see live oaks and huge mansions with lace curtains when I see the name of the city. However often I saw the book and remembered I wanted to read it, I would pass it by, knowing that the right time would come, and that time is now, because I'm hoping we can stop there on our way back to Canada in April.

While the book is framed around a murder, and the 10-year court case surrounding it, Savannah's colorful citizens are the stars of the show: the well-bred society ladies and their various social rituals, Chablis, the drag queen, Minerva the sorceress, the con artist- piano player who hosts tours of his homes in which he is merely a squatter, the young blacks dancing the minuet at the debutants ball, the redneck, fast-driving young man who ends up the murder victim, and the antique dealer whose four - yes, four- separate trials finally ended in his acquittal.

One of our Book Club themes two Christmases ago was "memoirs of a celebrity", and Helga chose the story of Chablis, whose story takes up one whole chapter in this book, so I must read that book, too.