BAD GIRLS don’t die

Thoughts    Bad Girls Don’t Die  by Katie Alender, Hyperion Books 2009, 346 pages

FIRST SENTENCE:  I stood perfectly still, looking up at the house and the dark sky beyond it.

MOTIVATION:   It’s Halloween! Needed a ghost story. Not sure where I got this ARC…

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  Alexis is a loner high school kid with pink hair who lives in creepy old house that has a doll-obsessed spook. Alexis’ little sister becomes possessed. Other people notice, but Alexis (aka Lexi aka PINK) tells everyone to ‘leave us alone’. With help from the most popular cheerleader, ‘Pink’ finally wises up, makes new friends, saves the town, falls in love.

WHAT’s GOOD:  I liked the protagonist quite a bit.  She had some teenage angst crap and suffered locked-in stereotypical thinking but she was strong.  The story was fun, the evil spirit was mean as they come, and fortunately the love interest angle was not a prevalent distraction.

WHAT’s NOT so good:   The sister was supposed to be in 8th grade and she was drawn SO much YOUNGER!  and that was even brought up in the plot but I still couldn’t believe how childish she was. I could tell the story plot WAAAAY before our Pink hero so no surprises except for how long it took her to figure it out.  And there was one aside in a library scene about how to pronounce the word ‘microfiche’ which was amusing to me but not in a good way.

But still, I liked it and can certainly recommend it.

RATING:  Three slices of pie of pumpkin pie.  (Click here to see Write Meg! ‘s  post on how to make one!)

Other REVIEWS:   Again, I refer you to Fyrefly’s awesome book blogger review search.

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Holiday Persephone Exchange

Persephone Secret Santa is coming!  Persephone Secret Santa is coming!!

Last year, I decided to join this Holiday Exchange that is so popular even tho or maybe BECAUSE I had never read a Persephone* published work.  I knew many bloggers were enthusiastic about these grey covered books and I wanted to find out why.

(clicking on the button above or this line will tell you all about how to join the fun this year.)

I joined a tad late or *cough* forgot to actually ORDER the book for my Santee so I thought I had better send some clues to ensure the book blogger didn’t feel forlorn and lonely and unloved and sad. I risked that she wouldn’t get the book until the new year! To keep her in the excitement of it all, I sent a few postcards with hints about me.

In the process, I caused a mild sensation. Karen, of the blog Karen’s Books and Chocolate, was in a tizzy trying to figure out WHO her Santa was, her ‘in real life’ friend Amanda helped me and egged it on some more, and Claire, the exchange coordinator, delighted in the mystery and the hoopla. We all had fun. Most important, I made new friends.

I, in turn, received my very first Persephone from Nat of In Spring It Is the Dawn and I couldn’t have been more happy with the title she chose for me.  Click here for my review of Someone At a Distance by Dorothy Whipple; about love and marriage and family, featuring deliciously drawn characters, I had even more fun sharing this book with my friend Madeline and then sending on to another friend after that.

I can’t wait to join the fun again and make new friends.

JOIN!  Give a book, get a book, make a friend or two.

a

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*  Persephone Books is a UK publisher that brings attention to classic and often forgotten novels by women.

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

People of the Book

Thoughts   People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, Penguin Books 2008, 372 pages

MOTIVATION:  I loved her novel Year of Wonders and heard good things about this one.  I don’t have notes on how I came to this copy; I had added it to my goodreads to-be-read in Dec 2009.

FIRST SENTENCE:  ”I might as well say, right from the jump: it wasn’t my usual kind of job.”

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  Brooks took a known ancient book, the Sarajevo Haggadah, a few known facts, and her fantastic imagination to weave together a fictional but possible historical account of the people who all played a part in the life of the book. Farflung places, religion, feminist rants, class issues, war, love, sex, hate, powerful people and slaves all are explored and tossed in for flavor and a thrill of a ride.

To READ more about the ‘real’ illustrated manuscript, here’s the WIKI link…

This was about a Jewish book that is odd for its age because it has beautiful paintings of a style not usually in this kind of book. It survives centuries and situations when many other books were found and burned.  The readers are introduced to many characters as Brooks creates a series of stories to explain how it may have come to be, how it traveled, and how it became a unifying symbol for Sarajevo.

It’s a fascinating ride involving art, religion (oh yea – I mentioned that), interesting careers like LIBRARIANS!  and art historians and even surgeons. The details are rich and lively. We get to know to the main characters and feel what they feel. It has action and intrigue, double-crossings and  even a bit of romance.  All the pieces and parts fall together when I wondered if they would, my questions got answered, I was entertained.

I had expected to really enjoy this and it did not disappoint.  I will most definitely look forward to reading March as well as Brooks’ latest Caleb’s Crossing.

RATING:  Four slices of pie with extra whipped cream. 

Other REVIEWS:  See Fyrefly’s Awesome Book Blogger Search results.

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Just Kids

Thoughts  Just Kids  by Patti Smith, Ecco (imprint of HarperCollins ) 2010, 306 pages

Interviewer:   Care, how did you hear about this book?

Care:  I think I first learned of it from Amazon; in one of those emails they regularly send to tempt me to purchase books.

Interviewer:  And then you researched it or did you instantly know you wanted to read it?

Care: I saw that it was Rock Star Patti Smith’s memoir about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, the famous photographer. It’s a National Book Award winner.

Interviewer:  Are you a Patti Smith fan or a Mapplethorpe fan, or both?

Care:  Actually, all I knew about Mapplethorpe was when his controversial photographs of nude males caused such a hullabaloo a few years ago. I’m dating myself, because the controversary about whether or not his work was pornography or ‘art’ had to have been before he died in 1989 which seems a very long time ago already, but I don’t really recall when I first heard about the artist. What I admit now, is that I had no idea that he was friends with Patti Smith. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you much about Ms. Smith except that she was grunge rock & roll. I’m still not sure if that description is accurate. To me, the image of Patti Smith that popped into my head was the parody of her on SNL by Gilda Radner! That was hardly flattering. I think…  I THINK, I was both shocked that Patti Smith would write a book AND that she knew Robert Mapplethorpe AND that I was obviously ignorant about a whole slice of cutting edge culture that I now want to know more about.

Interviewer:  So you bought the book.

Care:  Not at that time. I bought it at one of the GOOB sales at Borders.

Interviewer:  And now, you have added ‘Attend a Patti Smith concert” to your Bucket List on Pinterest.

Care:  Yes. I’m fascinated by her. I admire her. I think she is incredible. She has endeared herself to me and I think experiencing her art would be a tremendous thrill. I will probably buy her Horses CD and give it to myself for Christmas.

Interviewer:  So why did you give this book only 3 stars?

Care:  Oh. You saw that, did you?  Yes, well, I don’t really recall exactly and I was hoping you wouldn’t bring that up. Let me please reiterate that a three star rating is GOOD. That I liked it. A three star rating is not something to be sorry for. Why do I have to justify this? OK, I’ll try anyway. If I had a rating scale for various categories of things I like/love/hate etc about a book, then this book hits many HIGHs and a few lows and so in average, three stars. I liked it.  (My ratings are for me.)

What I liked most was how it was a glimpse into a life I will never see. How courageous and independent and soulful Patti is. How she had fears and doubts but living true to her ideals was her utmost priority.

Current photo of Patti Smith found here on her website.

What I liked least was the ‘lack’. And even in that, I have to admire it as artistic story telling.  Most of the lacks I cite are mine which made me frustrated with myself, I suppose, but also good in that I now have lots more things to learn.  A lack of knowing a ton of names!  A lack of going in a direction I wanted to know more about.  A lack of my knowledge of New York City.  A lack of photos online when I googled ‘how did such&such hotel look then and now’, etc.

Interviewer:  and did you run to google a lot to look up stuff you didn’t know?

Care:  Yes. A LOT. I was very fascinated. I spent almost as much time online looking stuff up than I did reading this book!  And so this book could deserve 5 stars for provoking intense curiosity. Crazy things; she had an affair with Sam Shepard! the actor guy who plays admirable men in movies and is married to Jessica Lange?! WHAT?! and she bumped into Jimi Hendrix – HUH?!?!  and Grace Slick!  just amazing. The whole Warhol thing. That she bought and sold rare editions of classic books and sometimes it was lucky she found such so she could buy food to eat.

Interviewer:  But what about Mapplethorpe?

Care:  A beautiful tragic love story? They were friends — true friends and that is quite beautiful. I can’t say I am any more interested in him than I was before.  I was much more enthralled with the Patti Smith personality.

Interviewer:  Who would you recommend this book to?

Care:  Anyone who loves art and poetry. Anyone who appreciates true love stories and realizes that life sometimes sucks. Anyone who has interest in the history of rock and roll music.  Anyone who enjoys memoirs/biographies of extraordinary people.  And NewYorkCity-ophiles.

Interviewer:   In five words, describe this book.

Care:  Fascinating, passionate, endearing, heavy, surprising.

Interviewer:   Do you have any reviews elsewhere in blogland to point to?

Care:  Yes, I recommend a wonderful review by Beth Fish Reads as well as Books are My Boyfriends’ enthusiastic take on it. And there’s always Fyrefly’s awesome search engine for book bloggers reviews.

Interviewer:  Anything else you want to share?

Care:  Nope. Thank you for helping me with this post. Oh! I am counting this for a challenge; it fits the LIFE STAGE category for What’s in a Name 4.

Interviewer:  You’re most welcome. Have a nice day.

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

thoughts   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Crown Publishers 2010, 358 pages (incldg notes)

Loaned to me by good friend Marsha, who will ever be my write-in candidate for president.

The goodreads.com blurb:

Who, you might ask, is Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951) and why is she the subject of a book? On the surface, this short-lived African American Virginian seems an unlikely candidate for immortality. In truth, we all owe Ms. Lacks a great debt and some of us owe her our lives. As Rebecca Skloot tells us in this riveting human story, Henrietta was the involuntary donor of cells from her cancerous tumors that have been cultured to create an immortal cell line for medical research. These so-called HeLa cells have not only generated billions of dollars for the medical industry; they have helped uncover secrets of cancers, viruses, fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping. A vivid, exciting story; a 2010 Discover Great New Books finalist.

Other reviews:   Dawn:  She is Too Fond of Books, Sheila’s Book Journey, and, of course, the results of Fyrefly’s awesome book blogger search.

FIVE slices of pie.          

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Thoughts on the ‘Thon

Quick off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts on the latest Read-A-Thon to share…   Opinions are my own.

Click on this to go to Cheer HQ

1.   I love TWITTER for these kinds of events and I thank our Cheerios Trish and Erin for running with my idea to create squad cohesion with assigned hashtags.

aaaaaa a.  LOVE it when I can quickly tweet at someone from their blog!   I actually need to add the button myself (link is on my About page…) Something for me to do at the next Bloggiesta.

bbbbbb b.  If a reader isn’t going to use their blog BUT only use Twitter or FB, they should update somewhere to say such.  or ARE NOT PARTICIPATING at all?!    I like the suggestion that we have people check in again the day before…

2.   Word verification!  Turn it off. Thanks. You only need to turn it off for the 24 hours. Also, if you have a platform that makes it difficult to comment on, you will likely NOT get any cheers.  Just sayin’.

3.  I appreciate twitterers who cheered for any lonely readers that I found and thought they needed extra attention!  Maree – thank you.  ♥

4.  Twitter aside, I was a lousy participant. I didn’t track time spent on task. I didn’t read a word of any book. I didn’t complete any mini-challenges. I even got a full night’s sleep.  I blame it all on the fact that I had company. Next time, I hope I can get away and find a buddy and hide in a cocoon.

5.  I did, however, work my way through ALL the R – Z names on the reader list at the Cheer Site.  I almost made it through the list twice! Unfortunately, I probably skipped anyone that made it difficult to comment.  Sorry.

6. I hope to create a space/page for cheers – if you penned one or received one, please let me know.   IN PROGRESS

“Books are read, Violets are blue, To all the #readathon -ers still awake! We’re so proud of YOU!” – #CheerTRIX

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Cheering on Team Trix

Hello! My name is Care.

I read books. But during Read-A-Thons?  I cheer.

and tweet. Find me in Twitter as @BkClubCare.

I will be bebopping around the internet at various times throughout the event.  Happy Reading!!

To get to the readathon site, click –> here <–.   To find out about why we honor our friend Dewey who was the original founder of the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon and community builder extraordinaire for  book blogging, I suggest you read about it on the Read-A-Thon site or you may read my short sweet tribute post –> here <– or my thank you for Weekly Geeks (12/8/08) –> here <–.

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Read-A-Thon and Other Exciting Thoughts to Share

Hello Hello! It’s another TUESDAY TOPICALS post! And for those unfamiliar, these TT posts are for me to just ramble on about various and sundry topics that need to be talked about by me and hopefully need to be known to you. Or else why would I share them? In other words, I don’t want to write a book review but I want to post something. Here tis:

This weekend is the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon.  Where the world over, we attempt to read as much as we can!   Block off your schedule, assign chores to somebody else and just read. Well, and cheer, and give yourself breaks from reading but overall, just concentrate on turning pages.

You can click on the button above to go to the official website which will be ONE HOPPIN’ place this weekend, I assure you.

Or here =====>   www.24hourreadathon.com   <=====

Unfortunately for me?  I am a horrible READER during RATs.  I am much more enthusiastic about cheering.  That’s what I will concentrate on.  Also, my inlaws are here and they are not reader-kind of people.  So I feel really bad (and get the evil eye from hubby) when I sit around and read while I have his side of the family for company.  Now, when my parents were here, I got 8 books read that month!   So…   not that there’s anything wrong with being or not being reader-types…   (cough)  and that is why it might seem quiet here at COBC this weekend.    Sigh…

BUT – if you have SPAM catcher on for commenting:   TURN IT OFF if you are participating!!!! or you won’t likely get much encouragement. Just sayin’.

I am putting aside CRANFORD by Mrs. Gaskell and have decided to concentrate on reading PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks. Here’s why:   Cranford is the kind of book that requires me to really pay attention and is NOT the kind of book that you can pick up, start reading and know exactly what happened the sentence before.   Cranford, being a book written in the mid-1800s, has an 18th century style of language and thus requires too much focus for my life right now. (See paragraph above about having company.) So, I decided a book-related thriller that I’ve heard much good things about would be a better fit to my mood and any small snippets of reading time available.

I really don’t like to stop reading a book but I do want to read it *someday*. I think it would be terrific for a plane ride…

I found something last week; a little jewel of happy joy that is not relevant to much else – in other words, not quite sure what to DO with this knowledge, but the thought and the thinking of this thought makes me happy.   I found a bakery – a PIE bakery!! – in the Boston area…   that…   (are you ready?!)  –  is called:

CARE's BAKERY!!

CARE’s BAKERY!   I have yet to order any pies but I will.   I am happy to give her exposure.  The website – you can click on the button or the one below, to go see her pies and cookies and other baked goods – says she ships anywhere.  Except she can’t ship the Banana Cream (sorry Softdrink).  Anyhoo. You do get why I am so thrilled, yes?

If you don’t know…  I call myself ‘Care’ and I like to bake pie. It was a kind of deja vu feeling or something! Of course, this means, I can’t use this name for my pie company if I ever had an inkling to open such. Which I really don’t.  But the hub suggests it from time to time.  I wonder if she is hiring. The commute would suck.

Anyone else with a WP.com blog having trouble with the COPY-POST function?  I can’t get it to work. When I select it, all that happens is it opens a blank NEW-POST page.   *shoulder-shrug*

What else?   I am working on reviews of JUST KIDS by Patti Smith and owe you on on Henrietta Lacks which I read in September and loved LOVED LOVED.  Which is why I cant’ seem to write a review, I suppose.   And that distracts me with the reminder that I need to do a BAND update post!   BAND = Blogger’s Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees.  But the site doesn’t seem to be updated…

HAVE A HAPPY TUESDAY, EVERYONE!   Hope to chat with and CHEER for you this weekend sometime!!

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

One Day

Really Random Tid-bit Thoughts    One Day  by David Nicholls, Vintage Books Contemporaries Edition June 2010, (orig 2009), 438 pages?   (ebook page counts confuse the heck out of me!)

MOTIVATION for READING:    Our October book club selection.

ACTORS in my HEAD:  From the very first line of dialogue, I heard Anne Hathaway’s voice in my head for all the Em parts.  Of course I heard her American not English accent.  I will be curious how she sounds in the movie.    Seeing and hearing Jim Sturgess didn’t bother me as much;  I enjoyed him in 21 and Across the Universe.

THINGS FOUND ON THE WAY TO LOOKING UP SOMETHING ELSE:    I just tbr’d Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell because Jim Sturgess will be in the film with Tom Hanks.  I vaguely recognize this title.   Upon thinking that I should look for it at the library, I see it has been narrated by Scott Brick who has many fans in the audio book listening fandom but alas, I don’t know what to do!  It doesn’t have an mp3 player option and I don’t own an iPod.  I can’t burn to CD so no good for car drives.   BUMMER.    But then, on doing a bit more research on goodreads, I saw a review that it was confusing to listen to so I think I will stick to the print version. I reserved it.

BACK to ONE DAY:  I found it extremely difficult to like Dex.   He was a cad most of the book.  And I grew weary of Em about a third of the way in.   However, overall, I enjoyed the framework of this book – the setting up of visiting scenes every July 15 to see what was going on with these two.

EBOOK ISSUE:   So I downloaded this to my Kindle App on my iPad.   I read this fairly soon after the book club selected it which is risky in that I might forget everything by the time we meet for discussion.    My other BIG problem with ebooks is that once I finish, I have not the physical reminder to stare at me goading me into writing a review.  Thus, the delay and why I’m not giving a traditional COBC (Care’s Online Book Club) review (aka THOUGHTS) post.   If you want to know what it is about, I suggest you click on the book cover icon at the very top of my post here and this will direct you to the goodreads.com synopsis.  Or you can wait until the end of this post where I will link to a few of my bloggy friends who have done an extremely admirable job of giving entertaining and/or insightful reviews.

FRAMING/DAY-in-the-LIFE:  One of the coolest things about this book and what I admired most even if I didn’t like the characters much was how it was all setup.   Oh, I’m mentioned this already.  Still, it’s worthy of being brought up again.  It reminds me that I have a fascination of books that concentrate on pieces of time.   Which offshoots into my interest to read more time-travel books but that’s a barely connected offshoot and not worthy of expounding on here since this book does not have any scifi or time travel.    But, back to Day-in-the-Life books…  I’m thinking of Saturday by Ian McEwan (really WANT to READ THIS!!) and Mrs. Dalloway by our lovely Virginia Woolf.  and I suppose I have to (but Softdrink will likely protest) bring up Ulysses by Joyce.   What else am I missing???  or are there any books that you can think of that return to the same date as the years go by like this one?

SETTING and TIME PERIOD:   This book is set in the UK and a few other places around the globe but the MOST relatable issue is that I graduated from college the same year as Em and Dex (1988).   The cultural references!   YES!!   I think I got most of them (or conveniently forgot any I did not.)

BOOK-MENTIONS:   If you love books that drop in titles of other books, this would count as a contender.  But I didn’t note any of the titles.

GOODREADs.com REVIEWS:   Again, looking at the synopsis on my favorite book tracking site (by clicking on the book cover at top of page – do please tell me if it doesn’t work) will also lead you to reviews by other members and they are ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.   Which excites me because I am hoping that book club next week will also be diverse and rich and engaging and controversial.  Face it, the polarizing books are the most fun to talk about, right?!    Lots of people (meaning those on goodreads.com and not my bookclubbers) hated Em and Dex or thought it boring or were just aghast at the impatience of a connection or wondered WHY it even existed. Too contrived?  or aghast at a few of the really (there seemed to be many) BAD decisions Em and (mostly) Dex make throughout.   And I guess I can see some of this but I still loved One Day and stand by my enjoyment and fun of the experience.  I thought it FUN and clever.  and the ending… WHOA!!   punch gut – or that point (you know if you read it) and OH MY.  and finally, FINALLY – yes I cried.  I especially liked the Nichols took us back to the first meeting.

piepiepiepie

     RATING:   FOUR slices of CUSTARD-PIE.

white line cuz I can’t seem to space right!

Links to some other real REVIEWS:

Jill of Rhapsody in Books, Jenny’s Books (the infamous(?) “books are like skipping stones” post), Sandy of You GOTTA Read This, and the awesome wonderful Fyrefly’s Google Search of book bloggers for this title.

POEM:

‘What are days for?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

space

Ah, solving that question

Brings the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.’

- Philip Larkin, ‘Days’ (and featured just before Part One)

space

BOOK TIE to OTHER BOOK:    David Nicholls says, ‘A debt is owed to Thomas Hardy.”  and it must be noted here that our book club recently read Tess of the D’Ubervilles and the intro to the final section of One Day quotes from this novel.

CLUB DISCUSSION DATE:   We meet Thursday, October 20th.    A few have REALLY liked so far and some are still reading.

JiHIdein

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Yesterday Morning

Thoughts    Yesterday Morning: A Very English Childhood  by Diana Athill, Granta Books 2002, 168 pages

MOTIVATION for READING:  Because CitizenReader told me to.  Sort of.  Not this specific title, but when I searched the library, I was captured by the cover. I must rethink my oft-repeated stance that I never choose a book by its cover. I do. Rarely, but I do.

FIRST SENTENCE:   ” ‘OH MY GOD, said my mother. ‘Can I really have a daughter who is seventy?’ and we both burst out laughing.”

WHAT’s is ABOUT:  Athill shares her childhood memories and reflections growing up ‘in the country’, in a big house with servants, boarding schools, her parents and siblings and cousins, first love, horses and everything else. It was exactly a very English upbringing and she brought out all the fun,  oddities and miseries.   Nothing grand, very personal, extremely insightful and quite enjoyable.

I loved the opening – my own mother often says she will no longer celebrate my birthday because it makes her feel old.  I expect we will have this conversation a few more decades, considering her own mother lived three years past 100.  People tease me that I am still a teenager (I am in my mid-forties now.)

“This childhood memoir is remarkable for its truthfulness …  Athill writes with such skill and wit …  a vivid picture of a childhood in a distant world.”

- Spectator

AAA

Athill is an excellent writer; effortlessly transporting the reader to a different time and place.  She delights – and the reader does, too – in the joys of idyllic unchaperoned days roaming the countryside as a kid. She questions (now) the class system framed in how she was cared for and who she associated with.  She frets over ‘proper’ behavior and expectations. She exposes her ideas about her parents’ marriage from within her early recollections and against the backdrop of their letters she found many many years later. She deftly weaves along her stories and though occasionally have a feel of being random, they all come together to portray how she became the woman she is.  Actually, she teases, too.  I now want to read more of her memoirs; especially Instead of a Letter which is more indepth about her becoming engaged to marry but then…  didn’t.  I am also curious about Stet which is about her career as an editor but I suspect it will feature many authors I do not know.

I feel like I’ve met a friend inside of a book. It is highly unlikely that I will ever meet her and would probably show myself grossly under-read if I had the opportunity to do so. She mentions many books and authors* that I am unfamiliar with but this wasn’t off-putting. It only increased my tbr.    I loved that we are given plenty of photos.

QUOTES

“Five counters of different colours lined up on a table; the three-year-old child, already so good at the alphabet, being taught to count:  one, two, three, four, five. I get it right at once and Mummy is delighted:  ’Look, she can count up to five already!’  But by the time an audience has collected the counters have been shuffled, and this time I say ‘Five, two, four, three, one’. ‘No, darling…’ but I insist ‘Yes’. They try again and again, until suddenly someone understands that I had never been counting, I had been naming.  The yellow counter at the end of the row is called ‘five’, and it is still called ‘five’ when it comes at the beginning.  They have to give up or I would be in tears at their misunderstanding.  It was many days before I grasped what they meant by ‘counting’ and I was to remain a namer, not a numberer, for the rest of my life.”    p.46

WORDS  (or the only one I noted…  I probably skipped a few more.)
p. 35 chivvy – to harass, nag or torment.  Also, to tell (someone) repeatedly to do something.

RECOMMENDED for anyone who wonders what it was like to grow up in England in the Twenties and who admires terrific writing.

* Favorite fiction-writers:  Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, Par Barker, Hilary Mantel. Martin Amis (the only one I’ve read!) left her cold.  ”A recent discovery, David Foster Wallace, who seems to be obsessional almost to the point of madness so that too often he threatens to smother the reader, has nevertheless done some of the best writing I have ever read, for which I am very grateful.”

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.