Books and stuff

I have been meaning to write a book post for a while and this seemed like a good month to choose since November was the Chester Literature Festival. I have attended several booky events at Storyhouse, our local library/cinema//theatre, where an archway made of books greeted visitors. The highlight for me was An Evening With Monty Don. The rest of the family like to tease me as I have a bit of a crush on Monty - I never miss Gardeners’ World. So I jumped at the chance to see him at Storyhouse.  The meet and greet was a bit rushed though so I never got the chance to tell him about how I follow all his advice in my own garden. As you can see below, there’s still a bit of colour in the garden though the acer has lost its leaves now.

 

I wrote most of this post last weekend, then got distracted and didn’t finish it. In the meantime winter has arrived. The garden now looks like this. 

And now for  a round up of recent reading - my last book post was December last year.  I am not terribly good at recording what I read  - these are the ones I remember.  

I’ve been teaching a Literature course focusing on novels set in New York.  So quite a lot of my reading has been in preparation for this.  My favourite of the books I chose was ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton.  Very readable with some great characters.  There’s a film made in the 90s with Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer which I enjoyed too.  I also read Wharton’s novel ‘House of Mirth’, set in New York in the early 1900s.  This is the period I am writing about in my own story set partly in New York so it is useful research.  The other main text on the course was ‘Washington Square’ by Henry James.  In all my years of studying and teaching English Literature, I have managed to avoid reading Henry James.  His prose is notoriously difficult to read.  ‘Washington Square’ is one of his earlier novels and is not too challenging.  I also read ‘Daisy Miller’, ‘The Aspern Papers’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw’.  And I am halfway through ‘Portrait of a Lady’.  So it’s been classic literature for most of the year. On the New York Literature course we also looked at some shorter stories which portrayed the lives of Irish emigrants at the time these novels about the rich were set.  Joseph O’Connor wrote a story called ‘Orchard Street, Dawn’ which was inspired by a real family living in what is now the Tenement Museum in New York.  And we read Stephen Crane’s ‘Maggie: a Girl of the Streets’, a very sad tale of life in the tenements in the 19th century. 

Another memorable book this year was ‘Demon Copperhead’, the prize-winning modern take on ‘David Copperfield’ by Barbara Kingsolver.  It was easy to read and I got through the 600+ pages fairly quickly. I admired the way she played with the plot of the original and how she tackled issues like addiction to opioids but I didn’t love it. 

In fact, I haven’t read a book I really loved for ages.  A friend recommended ‘The Romantic’ by William Boyd earlier in the summer - the life story of a young Irish man who encounters the poet Shelley among other adventures. I persevered - it was also very long - and it was mildly entertaining.  I also had high hopes for ‘Absolutely and Forever’ by Rose Tremain.  This was, by contrast, very short and though it described London in the early 60’s very well, it was a bit disappointing overall.  The book I enjoyed most recently was a reread ‘A God in Ruins’ by Kate Atkinson, a follow up to ‘Life after Life’,which focuses on Teddy Todd, a WW2 bomber pilot and brother of Ursula from ‘Life after Life’.  This is a great book with an interest twist at the end.  I also read another war book set during the blitz in London, ‘Dear Mrs Bird’.  The plot is a bit silly. What I enjoyed most was the language.  Lots of expressions which reflect the attitudes of the time and the middle class backgrounds of the characters such as ‘pass muster’,  ‘tiptop’ and ‘What rot!’ One of the characters is called Bunty, not a name you hear much these days. 

I am now in the middle of another war book, a well-chosen bookclub read, ‘Mornings in Jenin’, described as a kind of Palestinian ‘Kite Runner’.  It is giving me an insight into the background of current conflict in Gaza.  And I am looking forward to reading ‘The Whalebone Theatre’ by Joanna Quinn which has been compared to ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ my favourite family saga series.  Kate has read this and thinks I’ll like it. Finally I’ve got Paul Murray’s ‘The Bee Sting’ on my ‘to read’ pile. I loved his ‘Skippy Dies’ so I’m looking forward to this one. It was tipped to win the Booker but in the end it was another Irish writer called Paul who won.  That book sounds interesting too. 

That’s it for now.  Thinking about getting out the Christmas lights now it’s December.