Nonsuch Book

love's shadow giveaway

 

Not a bad one in the bunch with these Bloomsbury Group books. Just finished my fourth - Love's Shadow by Ada Leverson - and am still laughing a little. Will write about it in detail tomorrow, but wanted to stop for a moment to first, offer you the publisher's synopsis:

"The twists and turns of romance, misunderstanding and domestic life in Edwardian London entwine in this pin-sharp comedy by the woman Oscar Wilde called his 'Sphinx.' 

Edith and Bruce Ottley live in a very new, very small, very white flat in Knightsbridge. On the surface they are like every other respectable couple in Edwardian London and that is precisely why Edith is beginning to feel a little bored. Excitement comes in the form of the dazzling and glamorous Hyacinth Verney, who doesn’t understand why Edith is married to one of the greatest bores in society. But then, Hyacinth doesn’t really understand any of the courtships, jealousies and love affairs of their coterie: why the dashing Cecil Reeve insists on being so elusive, why her loyal friend Anne is so stubbornly content with being a spinster, and why she just can’t seem to take her mind off love… 

A wry, sparklingly observed comedy of manners, Love’s Shadow brims with the sharp humour that so endeared Ada Leverson to Oscar Wilde, who called her the wittiest woman in the world."

And then second, give five of you in the US and Canada a chance to win a copy. Just leave a comment below by end of day Sunday, May 16 for a chance. Enter only if you enjoy a good laugh.

outside the comfort zone

 

My husband reads any number of books I direct his way every year - 2666, Virginia Woolf novels, and other things that strike my fancy. But seldom do I read the books that strike his fancy. So in the name of love and fairness, the next book I will read is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. One of his favorite books. That's right, I am reading outside the comfort zone. Just for him.

So tell me, have you read this book? Or if not, how do you balance your own tastes and reading habits with those of your partner? Is there a Snow Crash in your relationship history?

sunday salon: miss pettigrew, remainders and renewal

 

Claire and Verity hosted another fantastic Persephone Week the past seven days leaving my head dizzy with the dove-grey cover possibilities in my future. I read my first two titles from the line - Cheerful Weather for the Wedding and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Was surprised by how much I enjoyed the dark depths of the former and was completely charmed by the fairy tale nature of the latter. Just loved the film version of Miss Pettigrew, and the husband was sweet enough to provide me with my own copy that I intend to watch some time today as part of my Mother's Day line-up of slothful activities. Lovely follow-up to the read. Many thanks to Claire and Verity for an extremely well-hosted event!

 

Friday's inexpensive but most appealing book haul prompted comments about remainders from a few of you including CB James who shared, "That is one good remainder table! I love a bookstore with a good remainder table." Then Thomas at My Porch shared some info that those of us in the DC area treasure. Daedalus Books, one of the largest and best remainder wholesalers in the country, supplies some of those well-priced  beauties to my in-town bookstore. Never checked them out? You must. Online. Here.

Then Thomas went a little further to suggest an excursion to another favorite shopping place - Daedalus Books Warehouse Outlet in Columbia, Maryland. "Maybe we should have a DC book blogger field trip out there one day. I'll drive!" So calling all DC area bloggers - you heard Thomas. Comment here and we will organize that trip! Start saving your pennies now. This place is dangerous. All the tiny prices on the great selections inspire free license to acquire. A back support might be a good idea for some of you in order to manage the transport of your selections.

 

Reading and blogging renewal. That is what I am beginning to feel. But a few more clever, comfort reads are still required so I am digging into another Bloomsbury Group title today - Love's Shadow by Ada Leverson. And when I finish and post about it sometime this week, I have five copies to give away so stay tuned. 

Happy, happy Mother's Day to you! How will all of you in the Sunday Salon celebrate today? 

day at the bookstore

 

Fundraiser time again at my favorite bookstore, Politics and Prose. Now this benefits the school where I work and is technically another day on the job, but the reality is that I get to hang out in a fantastic bookstore all day, and read, browse, talk to people and finish off the day with a wine and cheese happy hour. Not exactly a difficult day.

Last book fair day, I purchased a ridiculous number of books. Today, I displayed admirable self-restraint though. Just the stack you see above. All selected from the remainder section. $26 total. Awesome.

See anything you would recommend?

persephone week: cheerful weather for the wedding by julia strachey

 

What to read for my very first Persephone title? So many delicious titles, but ultimately, I decided to pick something a little close to home. When I discovered that Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey was both admired and published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, that the author was the niece of Lytton Strachey, and that she traveled in Bloomsbury circles in her life, well, this seemed like a natural fit. And I was not disappointed.

The prose is immediately attractive, taking up the material of a story about a wedding day but transparently hinting at the blackness of the house, the players, the circumstances. As Dolly, the reluctant, rum-swilling bride who has secreted herself away in her tower for hours before her wedding, gazes into the ancient mirror above the writing-table, she sees not an accurate reflection of self but a distorted image of self and surroundings "wiped free of all signs of humdrum and trivial existence."

"This mirror was rusted over with tiny specks by the hundred, and also the quicksilver at the back had become blackened in the course of ages, so that the drawing-room, as reflected in its corpse-like face, seemed forever swimming in an eerie, dead-looking, metallic twilight, such is never experienced in the actual world outside."

The house is chock full of stereotypical English eccentrics, and we as readers are given two lenses through which to view them. We may laugh at their antics (especially an ongoing argument between brothers concerning the inappropriateness of bright green socks for wedding attire) or we may view this as social satire in which that which is considered benign or charming in the characters is actually far darker business. The multiple references to devils and serpents and forked tongues. "... her mouth sideways in a devil's grimace." The comparisons of the characters to animals, beasts - "So the animals are being fed in the library," the mother that hisses like a snake, a sister that cackles like a hen, a maid who receives the white wedding shoes "in her wrinkled claws."

The imagery of color is also interesting in the book. Things either are described in the bright colors of the English garden, reflections of the "cheerful weather" here that is anything but pleasant in reality or as black and dire and decaying like the trappings of society.

Black humor at its finest. All your darkest suspicions and chuckles validated by the wickedly clever ending. Think Stella Gibbons. Think I picked a great first Persephone.

Many thanks to Claire and Verity for hosting this week's festivities.

sunday salon: the god of the hive, persephone week and embracing small books

 

I read three books in April. That's it. Three books. They were large books of depth and complexity, and I read slowly and carefully. Glad to have done it, but it did (as previously mentioned) make my brain hurt a little at times. The grey matter needed a band-aid, and it was my good fortune that the new Laurie King book was released this week. Bit addicted to these Russell/Holmes books.

The God of the Hive did not disappoint either, but I would highly recommend reading The Language of Bees, the novel in the series that immediately precedes The God of the Hive, first if you have not already done so. Would actually recommend just reading all of them, but if inclined to jump in mid-stream ... 

This most recent King is action packed and picks up immediately where The Language of Bees leaves off. Holmes and Russell have been separated as they try and clear the name of Sherlock's son with Irene Adler, Damien. Holmes and company must save Damien from the bullet wound that nearly takes his life, and Russell must protect little Estelle, Damien's daughter. Scotland, the Dutch coastline, the Lake District and then back to London. With lots of help from both the usual and unexpected sources. All are on the run in multiple directions, all are wanted by the law. They seek not just to clear their own names, but on a variety of levels, to prove that the Holmes brothers are still relevant in a changing world. "This was an age of the death of gods." 

Won't say more. Just read it if you are so inclined. Most fun. Gone in a day.

 

Will be joining gracious hostesses Claire and Verity and what I think will be a lot of others this week for Persephone Week. Have just started Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey and have four more in the wings. No pressure for me though. Will read as far as time permits. Will you be joining in?

After this, I will be embracing a variety of small books this month. As whim strikes. April's big plan accomplished but now no big plans for May. Except for Persephone Week and group read of Tender Morsels on May 28 (please join us?). Oh, and a few short Borges pieces with Richard and company (join us here too?).

What are you reading today in the Sunday Salon?

a few last thoughts on life a user's manual

 

"He’d gone forward, greeted them with the Malayan gesture of stroking their ginders before placing his right hand on his heart, and put a gift-offering in front of each–a little bag of tea or tobacco. But they didn’t answer, didn’t nod their heads, didn’t touch the gifts.  

A little later dogs began to bark and the village filled with men, women, and children. the men were armed with spears, but were not threatening. Nobody looked at him, nobody seemed to notice he was there. 

Appenzzell spent several days in the village without succeeding in making contact with its laconic inhabitants. He exhausted his small supply to tea and tobacco to no effect; no Kubu–not even a child–ever took a single one of these little bags which the daily storm made useless by each evening. The best he could do was to watch how the Kubus lived and to begin to commit what he saw to writing."

This passage from Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec struck me as a reflection of my own position to the book in my hands. And then later I saw my thoughts voiced more articulately in a Conversational Reading post.

"I think Perec has provided us with an excellent metaphor for the act of reading. We all are like Appenzzell, trying to understand a group of people that proceed with their daily lives right before our eyes, but without acknowledging us in the least."

A reality constructed by words that reflects a corporeal and material existence. That borrows heavily through allusions and the "creative plagiarism" identified by some in our reading group. Borrows from both the reality in which the reader exists and all manner of fictional realities. When I tried to explain all of this to a friend this week, I had to laugh at their response. "It sounds like a Matrix movie."

This book is a playful manipulation of language. Not just the jigsaw puzzle that we have discussed but a myriad of ways in which language may be twisted, pulled, flipped and contorted to create pictures. Where the infinite possibilities of words defies finite representation. Where the last intended union between space and word can result in a "W" facing the impossibility of an "X" space. Where perceived failure is not failure but a desire to conquer that impossibility.

This book has me dreaming the annotator's dream. You know, where I have the time and abilities to solve this joyous puzzle piece by piece by tracking every allusion, creation, fabrication to it's origin. That is to say, not done with this one. Might never be done. Loved it most intensely.