August Roundup

This is a picture that I took while on holiday in Hampshire at the beginning of the month, in beautiful Mottisfont Abbey gardens, owned by the National Trust.

Read - 3 and a quarter books, not a bad month at all.

Completed -

A Month in the Country by J L Carr

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Currently Reading - An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

TBR Pile - currently at 83 books (according to GoodReads) with 5 added...

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Ines of my Soul by Isabelle Allende

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint

Challenges - read and finished To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as my 'read another American classic'. Also bought another Charles de Lint (see above) to read another of his, as set by me at the beginning of the year for directional reading challenges.

Wishlist Additions -

Wildwood by Robert Deakin

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff

Juliet by Anne Fortier

Discoveries - A lovely website called Forgotten Bookmarks written by someone who works in a secondhand bookshop and records everthing that they find in the books, from photos, lists, letters, tickets and lots of unusual things. I spent ages on it and some of the finds are really moving.

Events - Of course the rest of my Jane Austen holiday at the beginning of the month, and also planning the next one! Lots of ideas and information coming in already, as well as interest from a number of people.

A Month in the Country by J L Carr

I know I only got this a month or so ago, and with over 80 odd books on my TBR pile I don't have any excuses really, except that I could not resist this one, for reasons explained on my Rural Novels post. It is only 85 pages so more of a novella really.

Set in Yorkshire just after the First World War, Tom Birkin arrives at Oxgodby to restore a medieval wall painting in a small church. He is also seeking refuge and peace after the horrors he has seen, betrayed by a stammer and a twitch. Tom is our narrator, as he reflects on that long-ago summer from old age, with nostalgia for a lost rurality and more than a little humour. Living in the bell tower during that hot summer he describes his sleepy and beautiful surroundings, and his relationships with the local's with affection, his friendship with Charles Moon who was also in the war, his crush on the vicar's wife, and his admiration for the artist who created the fresco and the mysteries it holds. During his stay amongst the quiet and rhythmic hum of the countryside, Tom Birkin begins to heal.

The humour of the narration makes this book very easy to read, and the warmth of the summer is tangible through Tom. This is not a fast paced book full of action. It is instead a wonderful meditation about people and their surroundings, and appreciating it for what it is, before it is lost forever. Tom is irresistably drawn into the lives of the locals, by his routine, and by the mysterious painter who never managed to finish the work on the chapel wall, which is of a rare quality. There are some sadnesses along the way, especially Moon's background in the war. These are only alluded to, and the rest is left to your imagination. Their experiences are not less for this. You know Tom is haunted enough to get a tic and seek some peace. This is an upbeat study about how one man tries to quiet his mind, told with witty observations and warmth.

I already knew the story having seen the film (which adds a few details where the novel holds back) so I knew what it was about. I loved the film, with Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh, and I really enjoyed reading this book. The whole thing feels like something to savour and I recommend it highly.

Bookrags has a study guide for A Month in the Country, which may be of use for book group discussion.

There is also a good article from The Independent about the author you may find interesting, entitled The Last Englishman: The Life of J L Carr by Byron Rogers

There is also A Month in the Country dedicated site.

Novel Holiday - Jane Austen in Hampshire

You may remember back in April I spoke about organising a holiday in Hampshire for some friends, our first Novel Holiday, with a set book in an area that included places to visit that celebrated either the book or the author. We got back just over a week ago.

We stayed in a lovely wood cabin in the New Forest. There were 4 of us altogether, myself L, and S, A and R. R stayed for 4 nights, and the rest of us had the cabin for a week.

Although Bath is heavily associated with Jane Austen, Hampshire is where she lived most of her life so it was perfect for this type of holiday.

Our set books were Emma by Austen, and also a contemporary novel, The Blue Fox by Sjon, which we were to discuss on holiday. I didn't know how that part of the holiday would go, but I needn't have worried because the discussions went really well.

We talked about Emma on the first morning after breakfast. Accompanied by a handout with some context, the conversation covered opinions about the book and the characters, and went on to include feminism and the rights of women, marriage, and also the historical contexts of the book. Not everyone had finished the book, but the discussion still went on for an hour and a half anyway. R, who had read all of Jane Austen's novels years ago, really enjoyed re-reading Emma so much, she said she wanted to read the others again. A had not read it but wanted to at the end of the discussion and started the book while on holiday. When we had finished talking, it seemed a good time to have our bookswap, where a number of books found new homes. I came away with 2...The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw, and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

The following day was our Jane Austen day. We visited Steventon first, where her father and brother had been rectors at the village church, and Jane lived her earlier years in a house that is no longer there. You can see her brothers grave in the church yard and the setting is really peaceful. We then drove to Chawton where her house in the village is now a Jane Austen museum. She moved here after living in Bath and there is a lot of memorabilia here, as well as information about her life. The table where she wrote her later novels, Emma and Persuasion, is still there. The gardens are also pretty, as is the village. We didn't have time to walk to the church but Jane's sister and mother are buried there. Lastly we drove to Winchester where Jane is buried in the cathedral. You can see her grave stone as well as the monument to her life and work. The cathedral has also exhibited a display about her life.

The following day we spoke about The Blue Fox. I had enjoyed it, as had R. S and A were more perplexed by it and A felt she hadn't understood it at all. Our discussion, which took about an hour, confirmed this to her. We examined the format of the book, the style, and also its 3 parts. As we did this, more meanings came to light. We also discussed whether the references to Icelandic legends enhanced or detracted from the book, with none of us knowing the background to them. Two of us thought that it added to the mysteriousness, but two of us felt they were missing out on some of it.

After talking we did our lucky dip book. I got Ines of my Soul by Isabelle Allende. We then talked about our recommendations and I compiled a list, as well as a list of all the other books that had come up during our discussions, to send on after the holiday.

Of course we did lots of other things that were not book related...walking in the New Forest, a visit to Salisbury, and also a day at Mottisfont Abbey (a National Trust property with beautiful gardens full of butterflies, including a Victorian walled garden). We also watched the excellent and very funny Lost in Austen series on DVD.

Everyone has said they really enjoyed the holiday and would be interested in doing another one next year. No one said that they were sick of Jane Austen at the end, mainly because we didn't overdo it and interspersed it with other things too. Hampshire and the New Forest were perfect for this. A beautiful part of the country. In fact A went back and immediately watched a film version of Emma while finishing the book, and wants to buy a copy of Lost in Austen.

I really enjoyed it. I thought the balance of stuff to do worked very well, the discussions went better than I could have hoped, and I loved the whole week. I also enjoyed putting the whole thing together.

I am currently researching our holiday for next year.

July Roundup

This lovely picture is of Jane Austen's House in Chawton, Hampshire, where I was exactly one week ago. You can read more about it on InfoBritain. My post about the Jane Austen holiday will be coming soon, I just couldn't resist this picture.

Read - 1 book

Completed - The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Currently Reading - The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

TBR Pile - at 81 books (according to GoodReads) with one book added...

A Month in the Country by J L Carr

Challenges - completed my own challenge to 'read another Russian' with The Master and Margarita.

Wishlist Additions -

The Allotment Book: Seasonal Planner and Cookbook by Andi Clevely

On the Plot with Dirty Nails by Joe Hashman

Discoveries - A Month in the Country by J L Carr

Events - The beginning of our Jane Austen holiday in Hampshire, to be covered in my next post.

Loving the new Sherlock series on BBC at the moment with Benedict Cumberbatch as a modern day version of the famous sleuth.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

When I said that I wanted to 'read another Russian' at the beginning of the year, a kind person e-mailed me with this book as a recommendation. I liked the sound of it so it joined my wishlist and a friend then bought it for me. It sat on my TBR pile for a few months until I saw that it was the favourite novel of Sjon, the author of The Blue Fox (review here), so it was time to give it a go.

Written just before Bulgakov's death in 1940, but not published until 1966 this novel follows the events affecting some of Moscow's literary elite when the devil and his motley band of followers (including a big black cat called Behemoth and a naked lady) pay them all a visit, resulting in carnage and chaos in the city. Posing as a magician and calling himself Woland, the devil takes over someones flat, causes several people to be admitted to the local mental hospital, undertakes a show at the Variety theatre causing the audience to strip naked and run out of the theatre with fists full of paper that they are convinced are money and lots of other mischief. The only people resistant to Woland are The Master, currently residing in the same mental institution previously mentioned, since his disappointment over his own novel about Pontius Pilate, and his ex-lover Margarita. Woland invites Margarita to a ball where history's most macabre characters are due to attend. But beforehand, she is transformed into a witch and flies over Moscow and Russia to a lakeside. This is one of the novel's more fantastical scenes, as well as the ball itself where Margarita is guest of honour and has to receive the bizarre and the wonderful while sitting naked. Margarita manages to pull this off and is rewarded by Woland. Interspersed with all of this are sections from The Master's book about Pontius Pilate and the events of the day of the trial and execution of Yeshua Ha Nostri, or Jesus of Nazareth as we know him more commonly.

The language of this translation and the literary style of the novel is not difficult to read, and certainly the narrator in my version resembled the chirpy, friendly voice that reminded me of the narrator in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (which I never completed). This constantly cheery voice may possibly be to convey humour but the resemblance to a Blue Peter TV childrens show presenter seemed to totally belie the subject matter. This is probably personal to me, and could be a voice I have concocted in my own mind, but it is one of the reasons I stopped reading the Susanna Clarke novel.

I have found the review of this book to be one of the hardest ones I have had to write, not only for the complicatedness of the novel, it's story and themes, but also because of how I feel about it. When I told a work colleague, who has also read it, that I was writing this review, he said, 'Where are you going to start...?'

There were parts of this novel that I enjoyed immensely. Mostly the beginning few chapters, and the sections about Pontius Pilate as an alternative view of an ingrained story from the Bible. I also liked it that Woland was not your conventional kind of devil, showing a generous and also a compassionate side. However there were other sections where I was aware of my attention waning. Hordes of more naked women ended up boring me. I like fantasy realism a lot (see my review of The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue) but some style of fantasy may just not be to my taste I guess.

When I was trying to think of what to say in this review I realised that I have probably enjoyed the novel more afterwards, while reading about it's innovative stance on social and literary issues in Russia at the time, rather than during the actual reading of it. There is another author, a hugely loved and inspirational writer, who has had the same effect on me, and that is Virginia Woolf. I can see the reason why they are important, I can admire their forward thinking and talent, I enjoy learning about them and their work and some parts are memorable, but the reading of the book itself was hard work.

This book is an excellent choice for reading groups however. There is such a lot to talk about both with the story and also its literary and social context and it will probably raise a whole array of opinions. I am glad I read it, some of it will stay with me, even though I didn't find all of it enjoyable.

There is a dedicated site for The Master and Margarita, click the link.

Penguin does a Master and Margarita reading guide if you click the link.

Rural and Pastoral Novels

I first saw this film many years ago. Made in 1987 it stars a young Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh and is set in the English Countryside in 1919 during one balmy summer. I have seen it a few times since and I have always loved it. So much so that I have found myself recommending it twice in the last two weeks.

Then, (how is this for a coincidence), I was in Waterstones in Southport at the weekend, and they were promoting books about the British Countryside and there was the novel of the same name by J L Carr. It was the last copy left on the display so I snapped it up and can't wait to read it.

Apparently the film has been quite scarce in recent years and there is a website dedicated to reviving A Month in the Country on DVD.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how much I love stories set in the British Countryside, 'Far from the Madding Crowd' so to speak. I can be a bit of a country bumpkin and totally buy into the nostalgia of it.

Here are some of my favourites...

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Precious Bane by Mary Webb (my all time favourite book)

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Cousin Phyllis by Elizabeth Gaskell

and numerous Catherine Cookson's from my youth.

On my TBR pile I have...

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

and now A Month in the Country by J L Carr.

Do you have any favourite pastoral novels?

June Roundup

After having a great weekend last week in Shropshire and seeing Othello at Ludlow Castle as part of the Ludlow Festival, this logo seemed a good place to start.

Read - 1 and a half books

Completed - 1 book...The Girls by Lori Lansens

Currently Reading - The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

TBR Pile - No books added so the pile is at 80 books (according to Good Reads).

Challenges - My current book by Bulgakov complies with my personal goal to 'Read another Russian' this year.

Wishlist Additions -

The Natural Navigator by Tristan Gooley

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Kings of the Earth by Jon Chich

What is left the daughter by Howard Norman

The Unit by Nimmi Holquist

Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo

Discoveries - The Ludlow Festival

Events - Othello at Ludlow Castle, really good production on a summers eve in Shropshire. Would love to go again and will be keeping an eye on the program for next year. I love outdoor theatre!

Now preparing for our Jane Austen holiday at the end of July, and also make progress on The Master and Margarita.