What Are We Reading, Page 2

I hope that worked. I've heard other people have had trouble continuing on another page.

I just finished a charming historical romance of the Regency Era, Lady Fortescue Steps Out which I loved even more than I normally would have because of Liz's Jane Austin tutorials. The book, the first of the Poor Relations series tells of a group of upper class people who have good blood lines and little money. I say it's charming only because the tragedies alluded to by the author, of genteel people freezing or starving to death because of lack of work or finance, are avoided using reasonable solutions that appeal to the modern reader and might not have occurred to a Regency Era author. Because Marion Chesney is writing in the 21st century she can point out the social restrictions of the era without making them feel oppressive to the reader. One woman not only washes her hair with water, she takes a bath with all her clothes off, horrors. I think I going to have to continue with this delightful series.

>1 Citizenjoyce:. It worked.

I finished reading Swamplandia! which was just okay. I am still working on the audiobook The Daring Ladies of Lowell which is so-so. I guess it is time for some non-fiction, so I started Falling Leaves, and it seems promising thus far.

Almost done with The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, the story of a grandmother and her six-year-old granddaughter on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. It's straightforward, charming, and kind of magical, not to mention a quick breezy summer read.

Though not technically a book by women I feel that The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013 edited by Rich Horton deserves a mention on this thread as two-thirds of the contributors are women, which, for anyone who regularly reads SF anthologies, is an astonishing number - usually the proportions are the other way round!

I love Mary Roach, and am currently swallowing Gulp whole (pun intended).

I've just finished The beauties and furies by Christina Stead, and am starting The dud avocado.

>6 Sakerfalcon: Hey, let me know how you like "The Dud Avocado." That's been on my list for years.

>6 Sakerfalcon: >7 nohrt4me2: I loved The Dud Avocado which I read when NYRB first brought out its edition, probably about seven or eight years ago now.

Currently listening to The American Plague, which is a really interesting history of a Yellow Fever epidemic in Memphis and covers much more than just the disease, but unfortunately suffers from a poor choice of narrator. While the narrator is not actually bad, she has a high pitched voice and a cheerful tone that makes her sound almost gleeful as she reads reports of suffering and death. One gets used to it, but it's still off-putting, which is too bad, because the content is really good.

The Romances of George Sand, an Early Review book, which is the only reason I'm continuing to read it. I feel an obligation to read any ER book in its entirety before writing my review, and I would otherwise have junked this junker by now. Poorly written — the author needs to read up on the concept of linguistic "register" (Wikipedia) — and also replete not just with typos but with consistent errors in vocabulary (e.g., confusion of the verb "alter" with the noun "altar"), this thing is so bad that it's shocking its author could have a doctoral degree in English along with three years of college-level teaching experience! An excellent proof of the perils of self-publication. Several other already-posted reviews share my low opinion.

>10 CurrerBell: Wow, I wonder what could have happened, a doctorate in English and it's that bad? Since one would have to write a great deal to get that degree, I can't understand how she could have got things so wrong.

I just finished The Soldier's Wife which was another view of Guernsey which I appreciated after reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The only problem was that the book was a great set up of all the problems that would occur in an occupied country, then she just fast forwarded to the end without saying how she resolved the myriad problems she prepared the heroine to face. What she has is very powerful, but the lack is blatant.

>10 CurrerBell: Thanks for the ammo re self-publishing. I recently had an unpleasant discussion with someone about this, who was all for self-publishing, citizen journalists, and down with the "filter" of professional editors and journos.

I have few illusions that the publishing industry, literary or journalistic, exists to produce ever-greater literature and reportage instead of ever-greater profits. But STILL there is some gatekeeping and analysis going on.

What Is Visible, a life of Laura Bridgman. Can't say that Samuel Howe and wife Julia Ward come off too well so far, but very interesting period piece.

starting letters never sent for lesbian book group. this one won awards so i'm trying to temper my expectations or i know i'll be disappointed...

"this one won awards so i'm trying to temper my expectations"

LOL, but hope it lives up to the hype.

I've had my eye on this one, so let us know what you think.

>14 overlycriticalelisa: I'd be interested in knowing how you like it as well. First I've heard of it!

>15 nohrt4me2:, >16 lemontwist:

it's alright so far. about a quarter of the way in and i'm interested enough in the story, but it's not as good as i first heard it was. shrugs. decently written but not free of problems. a few people from the book group have told me various things that make me wonder what will happen, although she's foreshadowing some possibilities...

I've been reading Tracey Thorn's excellent autobiography, Bedsit Disco Queen and am on my third Angela Thirkell of the month - two reviews here http://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/book-reviews-wild-strawberries-and...

>17 overlycriticalelisa: I think I can guess where this story goes just from reading the blurbs.

But maybe it's important that some stories get told, enter the narrative pool, even if they're not told all that well on the first go-around.

I thought the gay experience ascribed to the real Laura Bridgman in What Is Visible was very sensitively and poignantly done. While it was the most speculative part of the book, Elkins didn't make it up out of whole cloth, but after carefully considering some of the details of Bridgman's life.

While her speculative lesbianism was as integral to the book as her factual handicaps, Bridgman's evolving views on religion, slavery, politics, feminism, friendship were all there to ensure that Bridgman was presented as a whole person and not a "poster child" for any of these things.

>19 nohrt4me2:

seems there is some twist or twists that aren't as predictable from the very little i've read about it, so maybe there's more to the story than i thought. we'll see soon.

but yes, i agree about the importance of telling the stories. i just wish - that's not nearly a strong enough word; my entire being thrusts toward the possibility - that they were told better. i've been hosting this lesbian book group for about a year now and we meet monthly so we haven't read a ton yet or anything but of all the books we've read, i think my favorite is one written by a straight woman. (well, except for written on the body, which is hardly a traditionally written novel.) i have no problem with straight people or having them write lgbtq stories but i sure would like to read something written by an actual gay person that makes my body sing like so many of the straight books i read. sigh.

eta, i'll look into what is visible; thanks for that.

How's this for weird, the only copy my library has of Written on the Body is in Russian? I'm going to have to ask someone about that one.
Recently finished books by women: Phantom Instinct - perfect for anyone who appreciates a movie featuring two hours of car chases.
Still Midnight, my first Denise Mina I think I'm going to like her the characterization is great, there's a unique look at Muslims in Scotland and a realistic look at a lower class woman who becomes a police detective and is trying to do her job while working through a personal tragedy.
I'm still reading The Oldest Living Things in the World which took Rachel Sussman ten years of travel, photography and writing to produce. This is a beautiful book.
I'm just about to start Girl Meets Boy: The Myth of Iphis by Ali Smith. I'm not familiar with the myth, so I guess I should check it out before I read the book.

ETA I just read part of the Wikipedia article about Iphis but didn't want to finish it because I thought it would spoil the book. It looks to be mighty interesting.

>21 Citizenjoyce: I became a Denise Mina fan last year. I liked her other series better than the one with Still Midnight.

>21 Citizenjoyce:

(very weird indeed)

i was recently told about denise mina and since then have had her name come up many many times. i think she must be someone i should read...

Just finished Sleep Donation, it was about a not too distant future where people are losing their ability to sleep but others can donate their sleep.

I really enjoyed it. I'd much rather donate my blood then sleep though!

I just started The Unit on my morning commute. It was recommended by someone here, and it sounded intriguing enough that I broke my rules and purchased it, albeit used, online. Was it you, nohrt4me2? In any event, just 30 pages in and the hairs have risen on the back of my neck more than once.

>25 vwinsloe: Yes, indeedy, that was me. I have been hawking this novel all over the place for its beautifully spare style, deft use of symbol, and themes about old age and loneliness.

Just finished Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong by Joyce Carol Oates. The horror, the delicious horror!

>26 nohrt4me2:. Well, thanks! I have a feeling that I will be hawking it all over the place when I finish, too.

another one that might be worth hawking - the enchanted by rene denfeld. saw her last night for a (brief) reading and (longer) discussion and it has gotten pretty incredible reviews. it's about (among other things) finding joy and light in the darkest of circumstances - on death row.

>25 vwinsloe: I read that one a while back and enjoyed it as well. I tend to find most dystopias a little too predictable, but that one was pretty interesting nonetheless.

I'm just starting The Stone Boy, which I won on Early Review. It's so much better than my other recent ER, The Romances of George Sand (see my ½-star review). I'm heading up to Maine some time next week for the Ellsworth meet-up, so I'm clearing up my Early Reviews in advance.

Also, in prep for the Ellsworth meet-up and to help get in the mood, I've just started Mary Ellen Chase's Windswept, one of her major novels that I haven't read yet (and I just finished her The Story of Lighthouses and, not too long ago, her Jonathan Fisher: Maine Parson, neither of which were particularly memorable but both were worthwhile for the sake of completeness and I do plan to visit the Jonathan Fisher House when I'm up that way).

Also, in the Maine spirit, I have Thoreau's The Maine Woods sitting on a table but I don't know if I'll get to it before I leave.

>31 CurrerBell: I've never been to Maine and will probably never get there, but it seems to me to be the ideal place to visit. Hope you have a great time.

I just finished Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs. Between that and Iron Kissed there's a very perceptive discussion of rape and its aftermath. My sister doesn't like to read fiction because she says she wants to read about real things, but this book about vampires and werewolves has the best analysis of rape I've read. Charlaine Harris, in her Shakespeare series works through her own rape in a fictional manner, and it's more the kind of rape we've been told is "real": the character is violently raped by strangers and almost killed. In Briggs's book the discussion is about date rape and how the woman can be tormented by guilt over her own perceived complicity. I'd recommend all these books for people who aren't bothered by triggers.

I've always wanted to go to Maine, sit on the beach and read The Country of the Pointed Firs. Probably cliche, but I love that book so much. It's as close to visiting my grammas, who lived in northern Michigan and made trout dinners, as I'll get in this life.

>32 Citizenjoyce:

I completely agree with you that Briggs has hit rape and its long term consequences right on the nose. That is one of the things I love about her work. I hate books in which the main character is almost raped. 1 in 5 women in the USA report having been raped, and those who had experiences like Mercy's are not always able to report it to anyone. We need strong female characters that are touched by and changed by rape because it is all to often something we can personally identify with.

>33 nohrt4me2: Oh! If you love The Country of the Pointed Firs, give a try to The Edge of Darkness by Mary Ellen Chase. Like Pointed Firs it's a collection of short stories and character vignettes united around a single character — in the case of E of D, an elderly woman who just died and who's going to be buried later in the day. Olive Kitteridge follows in this genre.

And if you're interested in Michigan, check out Constance Fenimore Woolson's Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, an anthology of somewhat Gothic stories set in the vicinity of Mackinac Island. Woolson was the woman who jumped out a window in Venice to her death, thus forever traumatizing poor dear Henry James. She does deserve a better literary memory than having forever traumatized dear old Henry.

>19 nohrt4me2:

overall letters never sent sits positively with me but...well i suspect it won't after book group next week. not nearly as good as it should be, not as problematic as it could be.

my review here (if i did it right): https://www.librarything.com/work/14215239/reviews/111909534

>35 CurrerBell: Thanks for those recommendations. Loved Olive Kitteridge. Several friends have told me I AM Olive, except for the homemade dresses. Not sure how to take that.

I've lived in Michigan all my life. Mackinac Island is a big tourist trap, and I prefer the areas of the Upper Peninsula that are still fairly wild. But will check out Woolson.

>36 overlycriticalelisa: Thanks for the review. I surmise from the book blurbs on Amazon (so hope this isn't a spoiler) that this is a book in which a daughter learns about her mother's secret sexual identity.

I remember long ago reading Vyvyan Holland's memoir about his father, Son of Oscar Wilde, whom he saw for the last time when he was about 10. The impression of the book has faded a lot from my memory, but it was clear Vyvyan had very ambivalent feelings about his father that seemed to have less to do with Oscar's homosexuality and more to do with what Vyvyan felt was Oscar's indifference and abandonment. His mother was also in difficult financial straits and poor health, and, as the custodial parent, his sympathies were more with her.

I think Merlin Holland, Oscar's grandson, updated Vyvyan's memoir, and I'd like to get hold of that.

>38 nohrt4me2:

that part is revealed pretty early on in the book, although i guess is written in a way that is supposed to make it a surprise to both the reader and the character of the daughter (who clearly is surprised). but when the book is in the lgbtq section of the shop and is being read for lesbian book group, well, it's not so surprising to the reader. =)

I finished Charlaine Harris's new book, and first of a series, Midnight Crossroad. I liked the characters and will no doubt read the rest of the series as it comes out. I think Harris's viewpoint as the victim of assault comes out surprisingly clearly. It's been at least 20 or 30 years since she was raped, but I think some feelings must stay with a woman forever.

Another reason to love Harry Potter

>39 overlycriticalelisa: I'm not in a lesbian book group, and it didn't surprise me. It seems to me that this is a very human issue that deserves literary treatment, and not just in the LGBT community.

Even plain old hetero parents and kids who have very open communications about sex generally tend not to want to know the specifics of each other's preferences.

What happens when you're faced with the surprisingly intimate details of a parent's love life?

>41 Citizenjoyce:. I'm not a huge Potter fan, but I get that. I read something recently that talked about readers of fiction being more empathetic with others as a whole, because in reading fiction the reader adopts so many different POVs. I'm sure that it depends on the fiction. ;>)

And on that same subject, I finished The Unit and commented on it in the sci-fi group where the resident know-it-all said that he found it "unconvincing." Like most science fiction is totally plausible, right?

I read the second half of The Unit with a lump in my throat. I am sure that the book is far more appreciated by women, since it really seems to tease out the feelings of women who have had children against those who have not and vice versa. As someone in a LT review said (I'm paraphrasing), it examines motherhood through a magnifying glass filtered by Second Wave Feminism. I gave it 5 stars.

>43 vwinsloe: I'm so glad you liked The Unit. The business with the dog, which prefigures separations to come, about broke my heart.

Many of us will be going into late middle age single, divorced or widowed. I think it's a good idea to think about the loneliness and marginalization that book reflects and to think of ways to develop networks to fight it.

I agree. The descriptions of her feelings upon losing the dog were devastating. I do think we need to maintain relationships; the novel certainly illustrated their power. What did give me concern was the similarity of the reserve bank unit to a retirement/ continuing care community in which my mother resided for a few years. She made wonderful friends and had a busy life--but it was somehow creepy as folks went off to the nursing care building and didn't return.

>42 nohrt4me2:

i remember taking a class in college - a psych class? sociology class? don't even remember - that addressed sex and nudity in different cultures and how/if it was even discussed. norway was the leader (at the time, a billion years ago when i was in college) in having open discussions between parents and children about sex and it really made a difference in so many ways.

this book has a number of ideas that totally deserve literary treatment, and she didn't do a terrible job at all. just not all that good of one either. still, not a bad book.

you said you weren't surprised - did you start reading already? or do you mean just from the blurbs?

>43 vwinsloe: No just figured out the set-up from the blurbs.

>47 nohrt4me2:
it's not a spoiler that would affect much of your reading as it's revealed quite early on.

>43 vwinsloe: You might want to check out the Feminist Science Fiction group
instead Sometimes men just don't get it.

>49 Citizenjoyce:. I am a member of that group, but I never see any activity there? I just went and starred a couple of threads, so we'll see. I guess I should be more proactive in my participation. Thanks for reminding me!

I'm a member too and seldom remember to post. I'll have to rectify that.

>30 lemontwist:, >49 Citizenjoyce:. I was going to try to start a discussion of The Unit over on the Feminist Science Fiction group, but nohrt4me2 beat me to it here on Girlybooks.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/179870

I have just started reading The Awakening for the first time. Every few books, I am trying to go back and read a classic that I somehow missed.

>52 vwinsloe:

if your copy has some of her short stories in it, also read the story of an hour which is like 3 pages so won't take long. one of my favorite short stories on my first read of it, not quite as powerful on a reread a few months ago, but still great, and worth the 5 min it takes.

>53 overlycriticalelisa:. Unfortunately, no, it doesn't. But I will keep an eye out for it. Thanks.

I'm reading A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel, which is illustrated by Hope Larson. I'm excited to be re-reading one of my favorite books from childhood, and since I love graphic novels so much, I'm excited about this one!

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan. Engaging but a little hard going in the first few chapters as you get your bearings.

How did this happen? I'm reading all guy books right now, but I'm about to start Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton.

I'm beginning Jane Eyre for a Coursera class, The Fiction of Relationships. I've been wanting to re-read it for a long time so it is good to have the kick in the pants to do it.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

>58 nancyewhite: used to love love love that book. did a reread recently and still really enjoyed it. i hope you still like it, too!

reading amy tan's the opposite of fate. she is *such* a good writer. it's making me want to reread everything else of hers, and get to the ones i haven't read yet...

Just started Tana French's latest, The Secret Place. I'm only one chapter in, but I don't feel the "I've been grabbed" feeling that her other books achieved very quickly. Probably it's just too early -- she has has a great track record with me, and I just need to trust it!

Tampa by Alissa Nutting

>63 MsNick: I just saw Tampa listed on Book Bub and almost got it but didn't. Let us know what you think.

>29 overlycriticalelisa: I just finished The Enchanted and have to add my voice to those who think it was incredible. The author, Rene Denfeld truly was a death penalty investigator. This is her first novel after having written only non fiction, and she does a superb job. The setting is a very old, outdated and nearly uninhabitable prison. I did have a bit of difficulty believing such a place could exist. Since I think the setting is the Portland area, I wonder if you could verify the possibility. Magical Realism is one of the tags for the book, and I have a hard time with it. To me magical realism means that the author presents a magical reality that the reader is supposed to engage with and to some extent commit to. In the novel the magic: little men with hammers, golden horses, flibber gibbers are real only in the mind of the narrator who is obviously mentally ill. The reader knows he believes them to be true, but we don't. However, huddled on his cot with a blanket over his head, he does know things about people that he would have no way of knowing in reality. A main character in the book, The Lady, investigates the lives of some of the men on death row, those who can afford to pay what she indicates is a exorbitant salary. In the cases mentioned in the book, her salary and that of her aggressive lawyer overlords is paid by groups opposing the death penalty. She devotes her life to finding mitigating circumstances for the horrific crimes these men have committed. She never questions that the men have committed the crimes. Her job is to find what abuse in their pasts might have turned them into the monsters they and the outer world perceive them to be. And unthinkable abuses she certainly does find.
Hope and realistic adjustment to prison life is found and destroyed, and destroyed and destroyed. Then hope or love of life is found again. This is a powerful, beautifully written book that I would recommend to anyone. And short to. Well worth the time invested in it.

>65 Citizenjoyce:

yes, she said got the first push to write the book after leaving a place similar to the one described in the book. she still is a death penalty investigator, so the character of the lady is drawn from some personal experience. when i heard her speak and read, she only read a very small portion of the book but it seemed to be quite well written. all of the audience questions were about her work vs her writing, which is pretty unusual. but then, so is her work.

i'm trying to remember but i don't feel like, as a reader, i've particularly engaged with the magical realism in any of the books i've read that have that element maybe it depends on what you mean by "engage with."

> 64 Citizenjoyce: I enjoyed Tampa. Of course, pedophilia is a disturbing subject matter, and I was aware of the fact that the novel is explicit. Alissa Nutting created a deplorable and unapologetic character in Celeste Price. She was never, in my opinion, meant to be likable, and she was consistently vile from beginning to end of the book. Tampa is well written; I can understand its critical praise.

>67 MsNick: Well, shoot. Now I feel bad I didn't get it.
>66 overlycriticalelisa: I'm thinking of book such as Like Water for Chocolate in which the main character cooks emotions into food so that she effects everyone who eats it. She doesn't just hallucinate that people are feeling her emotions, they really do, and the reader, with a little suspension of disbelief, believes they do to. We don't think she is hallucinating. I think that's much different from the creatures the narrator sees in The Enchanted. By the way, since reading Denfeld's work I'm having a very hard time falling under the spell of anything else I'm reading. Everything pales in comparison.

> 68 Citizenjoyce: I bought my copy from biblio.com for $6.95 and free shipping! :)

>69 MsNick: Thanks for the info.
I had to take Hard Choices back to the library with only 1/3 done. With all the holds on it, it'll probably be a month or two until I can finish.
I finished and reviewed an audiobook of The Arsonist read superbly by the author. She has kind of a soft, non intrusive voice for a soft book about the uncertainties of life. A perfect fit.
Now, after having wishlisted it for 3 months, I've started The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. I keep hearing how wonderful it is, now I'll know.
I had a hard time reading anything after The Enchanted because it wouldn't let go of my brain, so I kind of had to give myself a book shock treatment by reading Geek Love. Such a good, strange and wild book. I feel that I've been knocked around enough that I'm back to my reading mojo.

Now that I'm hooked on that PBS series about the Roosevelt's, can anyone recommend a good book about Eleanor Roosevelt or Ethel Roosevelt Derby (TR's daughter)?

Ethel trained as a nurse, was active in the Red Cross, and felt so strongly about civil rights that she integrated her community in Oyster Bay.

>71 nohrt4me2:. There is a definitive biography (2 volumes) of Eleanor Roosevelt written by Blanche Wiesen Cook. I remember giving it as a gift to a friend who was interested in her many years ago. My friend really enjoyed it; but I never read it.

>71 nohrt4me2:

i think this is the book that i recently read about that sounded so interesting:
Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters Of Eleanor Roosevelt And Lorena Hickok
by Rodger Streitmatter

>72 vwinsloe: Thanks. Wiesen Cook is one of the commentators on the PBS program.

>73 overlycriticalelisa: I think I read a collection of Eleanor/Hick letters some years ago. The intensity of relationships between women in my grandmother's generation has always interested me. Whether there was a sapphic angle or not, there was certainly an intimacy among women that seemed lost in later generations.

> 70 Citizenjoyce: Let us know about Fiery - it's in my TBR pile. And I've been dying to read Geek Love!

I started The Burgess Boys on the train this morning.

Just started A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn. Absorbing historical mystery set in South Africa.

>75 MsNick: I'm a little over half way done with The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. At first I thought, "Yeah, a modern retelling of Silas Marner. OK, but I don't know that it needed to be done" but it gets better. There's lots of discussion of books, interesting looks at authors, a precocious and not nasty young girl (refreshing to leave out the snarkiness) and coments on relationships. I'm assuming drama will be coming, but for now I'm enjoying it very much.
I read Cry Wolf not knoing whether or not I could like the submissive female plot, but I found it very interesting to show that there's more than one way to have power. I know churches have kind of ruined that idea by pushing the notion that even though women aren't supposed to engage in worldly power, and even though they're supposed to submit to their husbands, they have a more feminine, undercover kind of power. That's not what's going on here. The submissive wolf that Briggs portrays finds a great deal of power, just not the competitive kind. I think it's well worth reading.
Now I'm also about 3/4 of the way through Tana French's The Secret Place one of her best books so far. After Faithful Place I almost gave up on her, but she came back strong with Broken Harbor, and this one is even more engaging. I'm glad she just had a little glitch in her output and not a total fall from grace.

>78 Citizenjoyce:. I've got The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry sitting on my TBR pile. I'm unlikely to get to it soon, but do let tell us how you liked it at the end.

A lovely relative of mine (no sarcasm intended) just posted the SIECUS Guidelines for Comprehensive Sex Education http://www.siecus.org/_data/global/images/guidelines.pdf
because her boys are in third and fourth grades and she does not want them exposed to this. After reading it, it's only 112 pages, I think it looks lovely and wish everyone had had the education.

I just finished Fangirl and I'm still working through Emotionally Weird. The strange part is that both of these books have a main female character, majoring in literature, and have books within the books! The latter is significantly more adult. And confusing.

I just finished The Burgess Boys, and although I enjoyed it overall, I was bored by the topical refugee part of the story, which took up almost 2/3 of the book. I was happy when the gears switched and Strout got into the psychological family drama that, in my opinion, redeemed the book.

This morning I finally started The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, got into it right away, and it is moving right along.

>81 fikustree: I loved both of those books!

I just finished Night film which I really enjoyed, and am now half way through The round house.

Finished Call the Midwife, which I enjoyed. I think this might be one of a series of memoirs by Jennifer Worth.

Also, continuing in my nurse vein, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. Mary Seacole was a Jamaican nurse who traveled the world offering nursing and hospitality services, contemporary of Florence Nightingale, who did not have room for her in the Crimea, so Seacole set up an establishment at Sebastapol, closer to the front. Her writing style is clear, direct, and reveals an engaging touch of vanity. She liked a smart outfit and was proud of her large figure.

This is a free Kindle download, FYI.

>84nohrt4me2 I love the BBC show of Call the Midwife, it's really well done.

> 71 I really enjoyed Our Eleanor, Candace Fleming's biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. It's technically a children's book, but it's so well done that I'd recommend it for adults also.

I can't recommend them because I haven't read them yet, but I'd like to read Eleanor Roosevelt's autobiography (aptly named The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt) as well as My Day, a collection of newspaper columns she wrote.

Haven't been reading any books by female authors lately. Today I did finish up The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith, who seems to write exclusively from a female perspective (i.e., his main characters are always women). This book is the 13th title in McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, a series I've enjoyed for many reasons, including that discussions of gender come up often. This one started out well in that respect, with there being an incident in which Grace Makutsi, one of the female characters who happens to be a newlywed, is planning on a building a new house. She discovers that the building contractor is a sexist who absolutely refuses to listen to her, choosing to accept advice only from her husband while pretending like she doesn't exist. She later discusses this with her female boss and the two note that he is acting this way out of insecurities and that men like this are so little. This is in the vein of other comments about gender in the series. Later, however, there's a scene I found troubling (as well as frankly unnecessary to anything else that happens in the book). The main character's husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, is a mechanic with two apprentices. One of the apprentices begins petitioning him to add a mirror in to the shop's bathroom. Matekoni is insistent that is unnecessary because 'it's a bathroom for men. Men don't need mirrors.' The apprentice counters that 'modern men' do need to look at themselves in a mirror to get tidied up before leaving work and ends up buying the mirror himself, putting up the note 'for use by modern men' next to it. The note is later vandalized to say 'not for use by modest men.' I found this a rather frustrating exchange ... is McCall Smith really trying to say that only women need mirrors and we need them because we're vain ?

finished annie on my mind a few hours ago and will start light on snow later today, after getting some sleep.

>88 overlycriticalelisa: I met Nancy Garden years ago at a library convention. Utterly lovely person. She has been with her high school sweetheart for many decades.

>89 nohrt4me2:

i've heard very nice things about her as a person. she died suddenly this june, just before she would have received a big award at a convention for lesbian writing that i went to. lee lynch's partner read the draft of her acceptance speech, which spoke a bit about annie on my mind. it was a really moving piece of writing.

it's our pick for this month's lesbian book group, i'm interested in what people have to say about it. (as i always am.)

>90 overlycriticalelisa: Didn't know that she'd died. Thanks for mentioning this.

Started Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella. Didn't finish. Let's just say it is not my thing and leave it at that.

Now reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. So far I am loving it.

>92 krazy4katz:

i enjoyed the secret life of bees quite a bit, much more than i expected to.

have started light on snow but haven't gotten a good enough feel about it to say anything yet.

I finished the brief and charming The Topless Tower by Silvina Ocampo.

Just started In the Woods by Tana French.

Wow, I didn't know Nancy Garden had died.

In the address I heard, she touched on growing up in the 1950s and finding in literature only The Well of Loneliness, which would be utterly depressing to a gay teenager.

At one point in high school, she and her girlfriend thought about running their car into a tree. Thank heavens they found the strength to resist that urge and she lived try to give more positive fictional characters to young gay people.

Garden also talked about writing The Year They Burned the Books in part in response to those who had burned Annie On My Mind.

Here's the obit from the NYT. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/books/nancy-garden-dies-at-76-wrote-young-adul...

Sad, I know, but I'm just about to start reading The Bell Jar for the first time.

>96 nohrt4me2:

thanks for the link.

she mentions both of those things (the literature that she had as a teen and why she wanted there to be something more, and the almost-suicidal car accident) in the interview that's after the text of the novel in the edition that i read. by kathleen t horning. couldn't find a link to it for you...

I've started The Vanishing of Esme Lennox and am enjoying it very much, but alas, life keeps getting in the way of my reading time. Maybe today I'll go hide with it.

just starting west of then by tara bray smith. it's a memoir and i think the story of this woman's life (and her mother's, and their relationship) is one tailor made for writing a memoir. so far i don't like her writing, though.

I recently read Where'd you go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple and really enjoyed it! I thought it would be more chicklit-y than it actually was. I found it witty and smart and much more enjoyable than The Hive by Gill Hornby which was likened to it. Both were easy, relatively light reads though!

I'm currently reading One Million Lovely Letters by Jodi Ann Bickley which is a bit simperingly 'nice' so far but I like the premise behind it so I'm going to finish it and see how it unfolds. It's a memoir based on her project to send letters to strangers, after she had a stroke at 23.

Enjoy! It's really good.

I am a huge fan of Rainbow Rowell!

>97 MsNick: Took me a while to get around to that one too. I really ought to re-read this one of these days... even though the odds of me re-reading anything when my to-be-read pile is as large as it is are rather small...

>101 readingrid: I also really enjoyed Where'd you go, Bernadette?, more-so than I thought I would. I'm usually not that into fiction, especially the super popular stuff in the "must read for summer" sections of bookstores, but for some reason that one just grabbed me, and I'm glad I read it.

>101 readingrid: I thought Where'd You Go, Bernadette was better that I expected only because it rose above the chicklit formula. Bernadette was extremely flawed, but there were some awfully good secondary characters, and the level of spleen was refreshing and sometimes very funny.

>97 MsNick: I read The Bell Jar decades ago, and gave up reading Plath without regrets. I am coming to that point with Virginia Woolf.

>105 nohrt4me2:

i still have regrets about virginia woolf, but no real plans to read more. i want to like her, i feel like i should like her, but i just haven't so far. so i want to keep trying, but i also don't...

I'm so sad to hear about Nancy Garden. When my partner and I first visited NYC together 17 years ago for my 30th birthday, the first place we went was The Cloisters because of Annie on My Mind.

I'm reading The Secret Place by Tana French. I've enjoyed all of the others in the series and that is holding true for this one. Beautifully written, engaging characters, decent mystery.

I just started reading The Last Nude by Ellis Avery. I'm not really sure how the book landed on my to-read pile, but there it is. I'm only a few pages in so far, not enough to form any opinions yet.

>107 nancyewhite:

i think that she could have been satisfied that her book did what she intended it to do - provide a story (and an ending) that touched so many people, and showed people (especially young people) that they were ok. and she did it at a time that there wasn't much else on the bookshelves out there for people to reach for.

>104 lemontwist: lemontwist, I always keep the books I love, telling myself that they will be revisited, as if the TBR pile ever diminishes! ;)

>105 nohrt4me2: nohrt4me2, I discovered Plath's poetry in the dark ages (my high school years) and have always enjoyed most of her work that I've read. I liked The Bell Jar as well.

I liked The Bell Jar very much, but it's been years since I read it. I just finished The Hours and thought that suicide was rather romanticized there. Plath made depression look like the hell that it is, which I very much appreciated.
I've started The Minotaur which is only my third Barbara Vine mystery and looks like another good one. It's about a Swedish woman who has been hired by an upper class (and quite snooty) English woman to care for her adult son who is schizophrenic and OCD. I'm sure mysterious things are going to happen.
On iPad I'm listening to Bitter Greens which is kind of a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale with historical fiction about the woman who popularized it. It just gets better as I go along, I'm in 16th century Venice and the plague right now. Lots about convents and evil nuns but also about other ways women were oppressed in 16th and 17th century Italy and France.
On paper I've just started the new Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests. I've liked everything thing she's written except The Little Stranger. How I hope this won't be another disappointment. I'd hate to think that as her writing approaches the modern age it gets worse.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you what I thought about The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. If you're looking for a book about books, it's great. If you're just in the mood for a great read, it's not exactly that. It's good and interesting but rather simplistic, in spite of a very flawed character, and rather blatantly manipulating in my opinion. Maybe I had just heard too much good about it for it to live up to the hype.

>111 Citizenjoyce: I thought the same thing when I read The Hours. I don't think anybody who hasn't been horribly depressed can understand how awful it is to be there. There's nothing romantic about it.

>111 Citizenjoyce:. Thanks for the info on The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. It sounds a bit like what Jo Walton did in Among Others, that is, reference other books to give the reader the thrill of recognition and the feeling of someone "in the know" at the expense of character and plot. Fun, but not a 5 star read.

I have always enjoyed Ruth Rendell books when she is writing as Barbara Vine; although I think that she has dropped the use of the pseudonym now, I'm not sure. I don't particularly care for her Inspector Wexford series, but I am not a mystery genre reader. The Barbara Vine books are a lot quirkier than that. Have you read Grasshopper? That one really stuck with me. I liked No Night Is Too Long and The Chimney Sweeper's Boy too.

For those reading Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth has a Pinterest board of all Titian's paintings of the red haired woman. (You can Google it.) I so love when I can see the paintings described in a book.

I finished Bitter Greens, and it was wonderful. However, when I try to touchstone Rapunzel the closest to the one published by Charlotte-Rose Caumont de La Force is the original Italian one by Giambatista Basile. If you like historical fiction about 16th century Italy and 17th century France, you'll like this one.
Now I'm on to What Is Visible about the education of a blind and deaf woman.

ETA Oh, I think I'm going to like this book. It begins with the 58 year old Laura Bridgman, who also cannot taste or smell, the former star of the Perkins Institute meeting the upcoming star, 9 year old Helen Keller.

>115 Citizenjoyce: I loved What Is Visible took many interesting turns.

>111 Citizenjoyce: I just finished The Paying Guests and gave it a 3-star. It wasn't my favourite of hers but not bad. I just found that the characters got rather annoying by the end.

>117 Yells: there was an abundance of second guessing, but I ended up loving it.

>118 Citizenjoyce: The one thing it did do was get me thinking about how gay people found each other back throughout history. I can't imagine it's all that easy today but we have clubs, on-line dating sites etc. which should help. But what did people do back then? Hit on the wrong person and it could get you killed.

Maybe word of mouth for restaurants and bars. I remember an experience - maybe 10 years ago? My husband and I were traveling (we are straight) and stopped at a lovely restaurant. After ordering, I slowly began to notice that most of the booths contained 2 people of the same gender. While to my old fashioned mind this might be common among straight women, it was not so common among straight men. I realized that we had stumbled onto a local hangout for gay people. We had a lovely meal and it was interesting how everyone there (except us out of town people) knew where to go to be safe and comfortable. Everyone was so relaxed and cheerful. A very pleasant atmosphere.

I finished and reviewed What Is Visible. When I told my sister about the narcissistic Samuel Howe and his treatment of the women in his life including Laura Bridgman and Julia Ward Howe she was so upset she said, "Why didn't someone shoot him?" That's kind of the question that's always asked of the artist, politician or innovator who makes great achievements for the world but is a complete disaster in his personal life. He did indeed help Laura, just as he held her back from perhaps wonderful achievements of her own.

As to the question of where did gay people find each other before Facebook and gay bars, wow, I don't know. It seems it was a dangerous step.

>121 Citizenjoyce: My parents were Unitarians and the perfectionist strain in Samuel Howe was certainly struck chords with me. I've had several lively conversations about him with other Unitarians, current and lapsed.

That Unitarian perfectionism is a reason I resisted Little Women when I was a child; the martyrdom of Beth, which I felt Marmee encouraged, was just too much to take.

It wasn't until I had more distance from that tradition, in my 30s, that I went back to LW and could enjoy it for itself.

As to the question of where did gay people find each other before Facebook and gay bars, wow, I don't know. It seems it was a dangerous step.

Or IS a dangerous step, depending where you live. There was a Jon Stewart Daily Show sometime in the past week that promoted an HBO documentary called Hunted: the War Against Gays in Russia, and it was absolutely chilling. There are organized groups that entrap gay people and then beat them, and it's government sanctioned. You may be able to find out more here: http://www.advocate.com/tv/2014/10/06/watch-jon-stewart-and-documentary-filmmake...

While I was watching the interview I too wondered how gay people find each other. What a horrible environment to find yourself in.

I read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and I loved it, it's been a long time since I read a children's book and this one was just fantastic. Highly recommended!

For some time, I've been reading In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means, edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky, and I've finally finished and reviewed it. I've long been interested in translation, and this provided much food for thought. Many of the contributors to this anthology are women as well, of course, as the editors.

I just finished up Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, and I have to say I'm glad I keep trying her novels because I think she's getting better over time. I really liked the beginning of Prep, but found the ending so awkward that I couldn't enjoy it. I couldn't put down American Wife at first but then it fizzled out. Sisterland really grew on me and even though I thought it started out a bit slow, I enjoyed it. Not my favorite, but worth my time for sure!

I'm still reading Sarah Grand's The Heavenly Twins, getting on better with it now I've downloaded a Kindle version from manybooks.net as the paperback is REALLY large!

I just finished How the Light Gets In which is the 9th in the wonderful Three Pines series that Louise Penny writes. Yesterday evening I began Talking to the Dead which is nonfiction about the Fox sisters and the rise of Spiritualism. My partner and I visited Lily Dale which is a Spiritualist village so I'm particularly interested in the topic. It was a fascinating place that I became interested in when I read Lily Dale: The Town That Talks to the Dead.

I came out in 1982 at 17 years old. There was no internet and it was not particularly safe to be a young lesbian in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I started by spending a LOT of time in the HQ section of the local library. In my reading there I found some things that people wore or said to indicate that they were gay (pinky rings, rainbow things, pink triangles, absence of gender when discussing their social life, frequent mentions of softball (smile)). Also, some local organizations would leave brochures there. I'd imagine that was done to reach folks like me.

Ultimately, gaydar exists and was more finely honed at that pre-internet time. There was a way that people looked a question at one another. If you made eye contact and held it, you were likely a friend. You then confirmed with coded language. Being spotted by someone and approached in that manner I made a friend. They knew a bar or two. Once contact was made, there was a snowball effect and before long I was part of the community and found the places where I fit best. You absolutely had to take what felt like terrifying risk to make connections until you worked your way into the subculture. Once you had though, it was like coming home. We took care of one another and stood together - as evidenced by the activism of the AIDS crisis era.

In yet another way of finding folks, a friend of mine would ask a cop where the local gay bar was when visiting other towns and cities. Ballsy but effective.

>128 nancyewhite:

thanks for that, nancy. i know i've had it easy, in more ways than this, but this is definitely one of them. so thanks for sharing, and for making it easier for me.

I've heard how hard it is (or was) for men because they had to do the "asking" in a dating relationship. I can only imagine how much more difficult it would be for homosexual people to indicate interest in someone who may end up beating them to a pulp.
>123 Nickelini: I was so suprpirsed to hear all the talk of Russia's homophobia, but I guess I shouldn't have been. An oppressive government does better if it can give its people a group to hate and gays and jews are always there for the killing.

I started Ape House this morning. I was immediately intrigued by the bonobos' matriarchal society and how they differ from chimpanzees.

I started Prime by Poppy Z. Brite the other day. One of my best friends loves her books, so I snapped this one up when I saw it at a used book sale.

just started the haunting of hill house and 5 pages in am already completely loving it. i'm so excited about this one!

>133 overlycriticalelisa:. Looks like the perfect Halloween read!

>133 overlycriticalelisa: That is one of my all-time favorite books. If you like it, can I recommend We Have Always Lived in the Castle? It's not as well known but absolutely wonderful.

I am about halfway through Americanah, a really interesting book.

>133 overlycriticalelisa: Yes to Haunting of Hill House. Yes, yes, yes to We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I read both a few Halloweens ago and was deleriously happy.

>135 sturlington: I petered out quickly on Americanah although I've loved everything else I've read by Adichie. Likely wrong book at the wrong time. I'm likely to love it the next time I pick it up. Maybe I'll do that soon.

>136 nancyewhite: I just read The Sundial earlier this year. Also had to give it 5 stars. Very funny, in a dark way.

>134 vwinsloe:, >135 sturlington:, >136 nancyewhite:

it's our october book club read because of halloween. after all the suggestions by you all before, i had voted for we have always lived in the castle but am equally happy to be reading this one. i have to keep stopping myself from gobbling it up. i want to read it slowly. it's seriously so f'ing good already. so thank you everyone; i think i just might end up absolutely loving this one.

Rereading Wuthering Heights in the just-published Harvard/Belknap Press edition. I stumbled across it at B&N and it was irresistible.

I downloaded some Shirley Jackson short stories for Halloween season, too!

I'm reading Jane Slayre which is pretty fun. Finally we realize why Jane was rejected by her aunt and cousins, they were vampires and she was a mere clumsy, mortal human; but she does find she has a talent with stakes, daggers and swords. I don't want to give anything away, but some scenes in the orphanage are much more satisfying written this way.

omg, you guys! how in the world did the haunting of hill house and everything else she ever wrote fly under my radar for so long? i freaking *loved* this book and can't wait for book club (except that we're too small a group to have decent discussion) to talk about it at length. holy crap what a good book!!!!!

I LOVED We Have Always Lived in the Castle and although I have since read almost everything by Jackson that's in print, it remains my favorite.

And Jackson wasn't just a "horror" writer. My favorite story — not my favorite Jackson story, but my favorite story PERIOD — is "Afternoon in Linen" (which does have a certain horrific feeling as to what is done to little Harriet, but it's not a "horror" story by any means).

Jackson wrote a good bit of "suburban comedy." I've read several of these stories (and "Afternoon in Linen," though not a comedy, does have a suburban setting), which were anthologized in Life Among the Savages (which I've never read cover-to-cover).

I've started reading Outlander. I've been warned, but with the advent of the television series, so many people are talking about it, I have to see for myself what it is about.

>143 rebeccanyc:, >144 CurrerBell:

i had actually voted for we have always lived in the castle based on people's recs here, but was happy with either that or hill house for the group and am so glad we read this. (i'll still read the other. i'll read everything she wrote now.)

i wouldn't call hill house horror at all, personally. i didn't find any of it particularly scary, even, unless you count just the general idea of going mad and what that looks like, and what questions that raises when the one descending into madness is the narrator. more interesting to me, and *such* great writing.

poorly timed on my part because book group isn't for 5 more days and i want to talk about this book right now right now right now. at length.

I'm reading the new Monica Nolan book Dolly Dingle, Lesbian Landlady. I can't get enough of her hilariously over-the-top campy novels. I just cracked it open a few hours ago and for sure will be finished by bedtime. So good.

Just started Lauren Beukes' Broken Monsters and have a horrible feeling it's just going to be an unpleasnat serial-killer thing like The Shining Girls, which I didn't much care for. I've not read any reviews so hoping to be proved wrong.

I've been reading a biography of Margaret Fuller, about whom I knew very little, and found her to be a fascinating subject. Now I need to read the biographer's first book, The Peabody sisters.

I finished emotionally weird which I wasn't a fan of, it was just too disjointed for me and I didn't pick up the humor. I loved behind the scenes at the museum so I think I'll still give Kate Atkinson another shot.

On the other hand I read we were liars for my bookclub, it's not one I would have picked up and I absolutely loved it. It was pitched as a YA about rich kids on their summer island which sounds like something I read a dozen times when I was a kid but it was a lot more than that. The writing was sparse and lyrical and the mystery was well handled and moving.

Reading Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. 2 chapters in and I am really enjoying it!

started carry the sky when up at 2 this morning. have been really excited about this one; so far it's definitely well written. we'll see if it holds up.

>150 fikustree: We were liars surprised me too with how far it exceeded my expectations. One of the better YA novels I've read recently.

I'm currently reading a Virago classic, On the side of the angels by Betty Miller. It's set during WWII and we see the emotional effects of the war at home in England through the eyes of two sisters.

Enjoying The Woman in Black, which I started the day before Halloween.

finished carry the sky last night and am starting the mistress of spices today. my first chitra banerjee divakaruni although i have a handful of her books on my shelf.

I just finished two interesting books. First was Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, who likes to show the inside of Renaissance convents. She says that by 1600, with the price of dowries risen so high, half of the women of Ferrera Italy were consigned to convents which, alas, by that time were becoming more and more restrictive. The book follows the lives of some of the nuns, most of whom have not chosen to be there. It could have been very depressing, but was instead a clever tale of women figuring out how to work within limitations. The second book, Deathless is just as depressing as it sounds. Catherynne Valente's stories are always convoluted, as this one is in spades. Beautiful as it is, it is Russian to the core, thus full of torment. A bit much for my American taste.
I also finished Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham, most of which was depressing as the first season of Girls. Dunham recounts a time when she was 5 years old and accompanied by her little 4 year old friend at one of her father's art exhibits. An older woman asks them what their parents do to punish them if they're bad. The friend says that she's given a time out. Dunham says, "my father sticks a fork in my vagina." If you find that humorous, you'll really like the book. Dunham's parents are artists, and I looked up their work. Her father paints mostly pictures of big pink vaginas, most of them not in anatomically correct positions, some hanging down like penises. She says her mother took lots of nude selfies and turned them into art, but the ones I saw were of naked legs with objects instead of bodies. Not quite the same thing. Anyway, perhaps with this kind of background one would expect Dunham to have an accepting view of her body, which she does show in her nonchalance about nudity in movies. However, when it comes to enjoying reciprocal sexual relations she seems every bit as uptight as a teenage fundamentalist getting a purity ring from her daddy at a virginity ball. The reason I finally started liking Girls in the third season, and the reason the book finally became a good read, is that she talks about making it in her work. She is a big success and has finally developed quite a work ethic, but boy, she is not cut out to be anyone's employee. Artist to the core, I'm glad she's finally getting the sex part right.
Now I'm about to start Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib by (Ret.), Deanna Germain Lt. Col. USAR. I love real books about nursing, and this one looks fascinating.

>156 Citizenjoyce: I think I found your review of Dunham's book more entertaining than I would the book itself.

>157 sturlington: I'm hoping the next one will be better.

Just started Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Having a hard time putting it down.

I just finished the most delightful YA book, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. It has all the themes that usually don't interest me: football, life on a farm, a gruff father, a child who just plods along under his stern direction - but puts them together in a unique way that fleshes out a very satisfying coming of age story. I'm going to have to check out more of her work.

On to Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright Sided. Despite the overstated subtitle, it's quite a good take-down of how "positive thinking" has been used against people, making it seem that if they get cancer or lose their jobs, it's their own damn fault for being negative thinkers.

>161 nohrt4me2: I loved that one. It always bothered me that when people have to deal with life's disasters they're told not only that cheering up is the only way to solve them, but that if they were more cheery in the first place it never would have happened. That's like being kicked twice when you're down.

>161 nohrt4me2: & >162 Citizenjoyce: I also really enjoyed that book.

Well, Citizenjoyce, I think that I disliked Outlander even more than you did. I knew that it was a romance novel, but it was LITERALLY a bodice ripper. I expected the spousal abuse, but I did not expect the homophobia. There are two gay men in the book, one is a sadistic rapist and the other is lecher, mocked as a fool.

In the beginning, I thought that it had promise. I am usually quite forgiving of historically accurate, but unpleasant plot devices or depictions of evil done by characters who are supposed to be evil. I thought that the premise of a WWII nurse being transported to mid-eighteenth century Scotland had a lot of promise, and where the author imagined the juxtaposition of those details, it was interesting reading. I almost abandoned it when the gay lecher showed up, but I read it until the bitter end, hoping that something would redeem it. Instead, it got worse, by adding a strong dose of religion and providing a happy ending in the form of an unexpected pregnancy. Ugh.

So I've just started The Signature of All Things. I had my reservations about this one because the end of Eat, Pray, Love really disappointed me. But Citizenjoyce liked it, and I am going to listen to her more closely now!

>164 vwinsloe:
:(. I just started Outlander and haven't gotten to this yet. It saddens me. Is it possible Gabaldon's other books are better, or that her work taken as whole does not have these problems? I do know she has another series that stars a closeted homosexual, but I cannot say how positively homosexuality is portrayed because I have not read the books.

Outlander has been a bit of a disappointment because I found the first couple pages more intelligently written than the rest. Perhaps the author worked harder on them? This led me to expect things from it that it doesn't have to offer. Besides that, it's good mindless entertainment. I read some reviews that said it's primarily a historical fiction and the romance is secondary. So far I think these people are kidding themselves.

>165 Settings:. Sorry about the spoiler! Somehow I have forgotten how to close out the hidden text, so I left it visible thinking that I was possibly the only person left alive who hadn't read Outlander. Somewhere on another site someone said that they thought that the books got "better" after the first one, but since the person didn't describe what made it "better," I am very skeptical. The writing was fine, the basic plot was fine. But personally, I found it sexist and homophobic, and if that mirrors the author's beliefs, then I doubt that the rest of the series got "better."

vwinsloe -- I tried to read Outlander many years ago and just found it boring. You make me glad I didn't continue! I used to feel that I probably missed something by not reading those books, but I don't believe that anymore. Great comments, thanks for sharing.

>167 Nickelini:. I find it a little shocking that it is SO popular! I was surprised to learn that my 85 year old mother has read the entire series (I really had a hard time reading the graphic sex cum violence, and I am not a squeamish person!)

>168 vwinsloe: Outlander was highly recommended to me but I had to pearl rule it. Aside from all the other issues mentioned, I didn't think the writing was very good.

>166 vwinsloe:
No need to apologize! It was very clear from the beginning of your post you'd be giving plot details. If I wanted to avoid such I wouldn't have read it.

>169 sturlington:. I'd never heard of the Pearl Rule. I had to google it. This is it, right? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/nancy-pearls-rule-of-50-for-... I love it!! Now if only I can force myself to obey it!!! Thank you for mentioning it.

>171 vwinsloe: Yes, that's exactly it. It is very freeing if you can get over the compulsion to finish what you start. (I'll admit that took me many years and many, many bad books.)

As others have said, I thought the premise of Outlander had great potential. I like historical fiction and I loved the herbology. Many of the sex scenes were good, there were just way, way, way too many of them. When I react against misogyny in books I'm told that's the way things were and I should just get over it, but when women are written as accepting of the situation, I can't. The AA prayer says, help me to accept the things I cannot change, which is good advice, but I like to see women at least trying to change their situation. To the author's credit, she does have the woman character make changes in the way she's treated. I guess it wasn't enough for me considering the book as a whole. As for the homophobia, that surprised me too. I wouldn't have expected an enlightened person to write such a thing. I told my daughter, who has now read 4 or 5 of the books, that it didn't seem necessary to the plot, and she said that it becomes more necessary as the books progress. Hm. Perhaps so, but why?
As for Pearl ruling - I am doing more the older I get, but when I encounter an author or an idea that seems to have potential, I hesitate to do it. I finished the whole book, but will never go on to the others.
>164 vwinsloe: Well, I don't know if anyone should pay too close attention to my opinions, but I'll bet you'll like The Signature of All Things. Eat, Pray, Love was a commercial success, and maybe that's the reason she wrote it, but Signature is a truly engaging book.

>173 Citizenjoyce:. You point out one of the things that really got to me. Since the protagonist of Outlander is from 1943 would she really have forgiven (and not been afraid or traumatized) her husband for beating her with a belt so hard that she could barely walk? I'm not buying it. She may have gone along to get along in those circumstances, but to have brushed it off and still felt like the sun shone out of his arse? I don't think so.

>174 vwinsloe: Hey, the Republicans just took over the senate. People are very forgiving.

>175 Citizenjoyce:. or something!!

Almost done with Margaret Atwood's Stone Mattress - lots of stories, some interconnected, about aging. I have to say the stories are delightful and horrible though I'm on the last one and men have not come off too well.

For some reason Talking to the Dead became a slog for me even though I also enjoyed learning more about the rise of Spiritualism generally and the Fox Sisters specifically. I wanted to know more about the history of the movement after my partner and I visited Lily Dale this summer. They have the largest collection of Susan B. Anthony objects in the world. She spoke there a bunch of times and visited even more. They hosted Women's Suffrage summits for many years and well before women were able to vote. They have a good deal of ephemera from those events - buttons, photographs, letters, yearbooks. The connection between the early women's movement and Spiritualism fascinated me. While this book didn't discuss that in too much detail, it described the circumstances of Spiritualism's early days in ways that helped me see how the two things were linked. It also fascinates me how that little part of New York became a hotbed of new religious movements - Spiritualism, Mormonism, the Oenida movement and others I'm forgetting all had their genesis there in a relatively short time period.

Nonetheless, it took me a couple of weeks to read so I'm following it with The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black which is a YA Vampire Dystopia. It was recommended somewhere or another on LT. I've enjoyed the first few chapters.

I'm not quite half way through The Signature of All Things and I am interested to see where the author is going. It is a very different sort of read.

On another note, has anyone watched the HBO mini-series of Olive Kitteridge? It is probably for the best that I have a hard time remembering the details of the novel, but I think that Frances Dormand is just fabulous as Olive. The mini-series seems to be staying true to the idea of the novel, to me anyway.

It was on for the first time last week, and I recorded it when they repeated it this week (I had forgotten I was on a free HBO trial.) I am sure that they will repeat it several times if anyone hasn't seen it yet.

I finished Station Eleven too quickly, I wish it wasn't over! Pondering art, memory, and the meaning of life after the apocalypse was surprisingly hopeful.

>179 vwinsloe: Frances McDormand did a great job. She's not physically the way I imagined Olive Kitteridge, but she has her psychology down pat. I heard that she optioned the book before it became a big hit. Way to pick 'em. Richard Jenkins was even more lovable as Henry than the character in the book, and tiny little Denise was just perfect.

>181 Citizenjoyce:. I agree that the casting was probably the best thing about it. And the locations, since it was filmed in my area. ;-)

I just finished Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib by Deanna Germain with Connie Lounsbury. Germain was 53 years old and an army reservist when she was deployed to Iraq for what she thought would be a 6 month stay that turned into 18 months. She shows daily life at the prison (this was after the breaking of the story about torture, so none of that was going on any more, that she knew). Life was dirty, dusty, hot, demanding and dangerous. She grew very close to the translators who were making more money at these new jobs than at their old ones of teaching, engineering or farming, but who faced serious reprisals if people outside the prison knew of their jobs. She was very unsure of whether or not she'd be able to treat detainees who might be innocent or might also be killers of her comrades, but as a health professional, of course she could. After her months of being there a new arrival said to her, "How can you do this? You live like dogs." And she had become so inured to her surroundings she said, "But, we even have mats on the floor."
It's a good view of the daily life of the soldier and of the difficult adjustment to civilian life when she got back.

>8 rebeccanyc: Going way back to a previous recommendation, and am about a third of the way through The Dud Avocado. I think there might be hidden depths beneath the breezy style and accounts of all that drinking, dancing, and bed-hopping.

So far, I like that this is the story of a self-directed young woman in Paris in the 1950s BY a woman author whose own experiences inspired the book.

I also like her ability to spot phonies (though she's slow to cotton on to their machinations sometimes), and her self-consternation about her inability to dress suitably for any particular event.

As a "woman of a certain age" myself, it reminds me of a time when, even in grade school, the fine distinctions of appropriate dressing was impressed on girls from an early age, and it all mattered a lot more than today (when I see my female students schlepping through the grocery story in flannel pants and Ugg boots). I had forgotten the fuss over what age was appropriate for my cousin and me to "graduate" from frilly white socks and maryjanes to stockings and pumps (and how high the heels should be).

It's a long time since I read The Dud Avocado, and maybe it wouldn't appeal to me as much now, but I thought it was fun and I loved the protagonist's voice.

I enjoyed Avocado when I read it this summer and I agree that Sally Jay's voice is delightful. However one of my fellow Virago group members didn't like it or her at all.

>186 Sakerfalcon: Saker, just curious about why your group member didn't like Sally Jay.

FWIW, I generally see a tendency (certainly in myself) to be unsympathetic with my mother's generation of 1940s and 1950s housewives. I deeply envy the fact that they had husbands who shielded them from financial stress and left them a comfortable old age. I resent their helplessness and sense of entitlement to be taken care of.

At the same time, I feel that their lack of empathy for my generation's stresses comes from the fact that many of them were stuck in the kind of conventionality Sally Jay is trying (and not always succeeding) in breaking out of.

My mother worked outside the home all her life and was rather resentful of all those 1940's and 1950's women who got to stay home and be supported by their husbands. My father worked too, driving a truck, and I thought we were doing fine though didn't have as much as many of the people around us. Somehow, though no one kinows how, my mother managed to save a great deal of money which none of us knew about until after she died. I thought she was a pretty admirable person, though my brother, until the day he died, thought a women's place was in the home and regretted that she wasn't Margaret Anderson,

>187 nohrt4me2: She wasn't very specific; I've just looked at her review and I think the comparison to Breakfast at Tiffanys set her expectations too high. She loved Holly Golightly and disagreed that Sally Jay was a similar character. She did admit that it might have been that her mood at the time wasn't suited to that particular book.

My current "girlybook" is Seating arrangements, which seems to have had lukewarm reviews but I saw it at the library and I like upper crust New England family settings so thought I'd give it a try.

Now I'm reading Eleanor and Park which I'm enjoying but I'm also listening to the Podcast serial which is about a high school couple where the girl is murdered and the boy is sent to prison and I think I'm starting to confuse the two worlds.

I finished the overwhelming The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg about women in the oppressive country viewed through the lens of daughters who are raised as sons, because only sons matter. Whether the country was under the communist rule of Russia or the democratic one of the US didn't seem to matter. Both were good for women because there was a system of laws in place. It's the lawlessness of tribal conflict that leads to the total suppression of the women, so there's not much good to look for there in the coming years. Nordberg refers often to Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson to examine how the treatment of women effects politics around the world. She states that the way women in a country are treated determines how violent and warlike a country is with more oppression leading to more over all violence. I had a lovely coupon to get any e-book from Barnes and Nobel for $6.99, so I snapped that one right up.

I've started Maddadam. It seems to be more satirical than the other two books in the series. I know that there is a spoiler thread somewhere here in the Girlybooks group, and I will seek it out when I have finished the book.

I'm about a third of the way through The Little Stranger and liking it immensely.

I just finished The Children Act which is (by a man, Ian McEwan) about a family court judge and some of the cases she's involved in. There's much to think about here, and he is especially perceptive in the case of the 17 year old Jehovah's Witness boy with leukemia who wants to refuse blood transfusions that are necessary for the adequate treatment of his disease. However all the rape cases that are mentioned are brought by malicious women against innocent men. I didn't see the movie Atonement or read the book, but I believe that is the same premise. How do men not only get away with writing such stuff but get acclaim for it?

>194 Citizenjoyce:. Ian McEwan has become something of a topical writer, I think. (Like Tom Perrotta, maybe.) I really liked his books On Chesil Beach and Atonement, but the tone of his later works seems unnecessarily provocative and his characters are very disagreeable. Atonement was not so much about a woman bringing charges maliciously against a man, but more about the jealous act of a little sister that had unfortunate life consequences for both her sister and her sister's lover. But I haven't liked anything since, and won't seek out anything by him to read again.

I've went off Ian McEwan after Atonement, which I liked. I also found Amsterdam provocative and quite funny if you like black humor (that book supports vwinslow's notion that McEwan seems to be turning toward topical fiction.

Reading Julie Schumacher's Dear Committee Members, which is very funny, though it seems to reflect life in the academy prior to the "adjunctification" of the humanities. Things in academe are actually much grimmer than Schumacher makes out.

I just finished Amy Poehler's Yes Please. This is a woman you'd want on your team. She loves her family, her friends, her career, her boyfriend and sex. She's a teacher, a bad sleeper and a good waitress. She's "not as nice as you think" she is. She has a bit of social phobia and isn't fond of strangers, so don't ambush her with your screen play in hopes of a hand up. She's known her whole life that she wanted to do comedy, and has made a very successful job of it, but in her forties has come up with some ideas about career and healthy detachment:
Too often we are told to visualize what we want and cut out pictures of it... Late-night commercials remind us that 'anything is possible.' Positive affirmations are written on our tea bags. I am introducing a new idea. Try to care less. Practice ambivalence. Learn to let go of wanting it. Treat your career like a bad boyfriend.
Here's the thing. Your career won't take care of you. It wont call you back or introduce you to its parents. Your career will openly flirt with other people while you are around. It will forget your birthday and wreck your career. Your career will blow you off if you call it too much. Its never going to leave its wife. Your career is fucking other people and everyone knows but you.
Your career will never marry you.
Now before I extend this metaphor, let me make a distinction between career and creativity. Creativity is connected to your passion, that light inside you that drives you. That joy that comes when you do something your love.... That is the juicy stuff that lubricates our lives and helps us feel less alone in the world...
Career is different. Career is the stringing together of opportunities and jobs. Mix in public opinion and past regrets. Add a dash of future panic and a whole lot of financial uncertainty. Career is something that fools you into thinking you are in control and then takes pleasure in reminding you that you aren't.
Pretty good advice from a well written book.

I just finished Maddadam and made a few comments on the spoiler thread.

I started Me Before You which seems like it will be a quick, light read.

>198 Citizenjoyce: I'm, like, 10,000th in line at my library to read that one. Really looking forward to it!

Not a book, but am really enjoying the essays and short fiction in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2014 (Women Destroy Science Fiction special issue): 49.
Thoroughly recommended for anyone with SFnal tendencies.

I finished Me Before You and I liked it much more than I anticipated. For a light, romantic novel, it was refreshingly honest about a difficult subject. Well done.

I'm about to start The Interestings.

>202 vwinsloe: The Interestings has been on my stack of unread books for about a year now.... One of these days I'll get to it!

>203 lemontwist:. I'll let you know what I think. A colleague of mine just read it and passed it on to me. She wants it back, so I've got to read it right away.

About halfway through M.E. Braddon's The Doctor's Wife. I need to do some reading to see what, if any, connection there is between her and Flaubert. This is sounding a lot like "Madame Bovary."

I'm just starting Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves. It looks intriguing (and a very strong NYT book review), and all I've ever else read by Carolyn Chute is The Beans of Egypt, Maine (in both the original as well as the revised editions), though I started LeTourneau's Used Auto Parts some years ago but got distracted and never got into it – my fault, not the book's. Treat Us Like Dogs is part of Chute's School on Heart's Content Road "four-ojilly" and the books can be read in any order, so I'll have to get to the other books in the near future considering my special interest in Maine literature.

Incidentally, the Amazon page for Treat Us Like Dogs shows the book at 304 pages. No way! The Grove Press hardcover is 691 pages, so be prepared for a bit of a read.

>206 CurrerBell: Please consider starting a spoiler thread on the Chute. I have that on my wish list and might read it over the winter break. Looks very interesting!

Wondering if it might make a good companion read with Stephen King's Revival? Reviews I've read indicate they might have similar, at least superficially, similar themes.

Just started Men We Reaped and finding it very hard to put down.

Laziness has prevented my listing recent reads. Let's see if I can remember them.
Well, I remember the book I'm listening to now, The Quick by Lauren Owen a literally literary vampire novel.
I just finished Falling Free by Louis McMaster Bujold written in the same time period of Ethan of Athos, but he's not there; however she has the same interest in "disabilities" and whether or not they disable a person.
Listened to Jane Smiley's latest, Some Luck. She's back on a farm with all its joys and heart and backbreaking twists and turns. Be warned, the first 20 pages or so are the world as seen through the eyes of a baby. If it hadn't been by Jane Smiley I would have Pearl ruled it, but it was well worth continuing for her characterization.
I read my first ever Georgette Heyer, Footsteps in the Dark. All I can say is, if you're planning to give her a try, don't start with this one. She didn't even particularly like it since she wrote it while she was pregnant and her husband and brother's had too much in put. If I ever revisit her it will be for her Regency Romances for which she did so much research.
Let's see, did I mention earlier that I read A Woman of Independent Meansby Elizabeth Forsyth Hailey? That one was well worth it following a woman from childhood through becoming a great grandmother. I think she got every age right in this financially and intellectually independent woman.
Alice Hoffman's book of short stories, The Red Garden, has some delightful ones all about different aspects of aging.

>206 CurrerBell: Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves is a title that's hard to pass up, but there's a waiting list at the library, and if it's over 600 pages I doubt I could read it in the allotted time. I'll have to get to it when it's less in demand.

Around 200 messages is usually the time a list gets too long to navigate easily, so I started a new page here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/183611

>203 lemontwist:. I just finished The Interestings. It was very good, although it felt a little long about 2/3 of the way through. I think the book would appeal to many people who are in the 50-60 age range, since it references so many events from 1974 through the present. It would also appeal to those who have belonged to a group of friends from their teenaged years through adulthood.

The book examined subjects like the disparity in friends' wealth and talent and how that disparity both alienated them and drew them together. I recommend it if any of this seems like it would be of interest to you.