"I should probably say again here that I don't like to resort to the Internet, even now, and was less tolerant of it then -- what will we someday do, I always wonder, without the pleasures of turning through books and stumbling on things we never meant to find? That happens during Internet research, of course, but in a more limited way, to my mind.  And how could anyone consent to give up that smell of open books, old or new?" -- excerpt from The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Nursery Rhymes and Crimes

I wasn't really raised on nursery rhymes.  Nor fairy tales.  I didn't really read either until I was well into my teens.  Though I was well acquainted with Beatrix Potter, and I may have come across The Billy Goats Gruff while in hospital as a child (do all hospitals have children's libraries in the playroom?), and I seem to remember somehow hearing about The Gingerbread Man, generally my childhood knowledge of tales and rhymes was limited. 


All that to say I found Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear fun in so many different ways.  It was, I believe, even more enjoyable than The Eyre Affair.  The novelty of it coupled with the humour just drew me in and kept me going through the absurdities.  Not that I mind absurdities, and it's only once in a very rare while that they become groan-worthy in a Fforde novel.  I found myself looking up various nursery rhyme characters as they popped up (known in the novel as 'Persons of Dubious Reality') and I was surprised at how consistently ignorant I was.   I'd never heard of the Quangle Wangle, for example. And, although Punch and Judy and Caliban are all familiar, what or who was a Jack Spratt?  Needless to say, educating oneself on the intricacies of nursery rhyme characters is rather diverting.  


But its not all mindless fun.  There's also mindful fun.  Little gems of satire and irony about how government works,  the troubles between 'regular' people and the PDRs highlighting the prevalence of latent xenophobia that most societies still suffer from, and the dangers related to selling one's soul for a Dorian Grey car (one of those intriguing little details that make one want to exclaim aloud, awed by Fforde's imagination). And that's just scratching the surface, really.  I was surprised when I came across an interview of Jasper Fforde in which he referred to himself as sort of the dim one in his family.  These stories are so complex and intelligent (and did I mention fun?) that it made me wonder what the others are like if he's the dim one. 

Currently Listening To:  Amélie-les-crayons


Currently Reading:  The pile of books beside my bed was threatening to spill over, so culling was in order.  I stuck to the books I'm actually dipping into on a daily(ish) basis.  There's the on-sale Jasper Fforde Mr. Inkslinger brought home for me during the early days of a nausea-riddled June.  I began it, felt a bit seasick, and abandoned it.  But now I'm back reading it with a vengeance. It's one of the Nursery Crime novels. The second, to be precise, titled The Fourth Bear.  Now, why am I reading the second before reading the first? Well, Mr. Inkslinger kindly brought it home to brighten my hours, so how could I not give it a go?  Besides, it's a hoot.  And I can always go back and read the first.  


I'm still wading through Paris 1919.  I've stalled a few times over the months while reading it because it's not quite as good as I'd hoped (so far). But it covers an interesting era and I do want to finish reading it.  


I've also just begun reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova.  I loved The Historian so very much, though, that I'm suffering from a bit trepidation as I begin this read. What if it's not as good? What if I expect too much? 


Currently Enjoying: making lists of books I want to read by authors I know I love (A.S. Byatt, George Fetherling, May Sarton, Laurie R. King, Iris Murdoch).  It's been a kind of darkish, rainy day and there's nothing like anticipating some future great reads on a darkish, rainy day.  


Currently Anticipating: cheese lasagna for dinner.  Mr. Inkslinger has been so kind about making all my favourite (and healthy) foods for me while I've been under the weather and/or recuperating from the leg, etc.  And he makes a perfect cheese lasagna.


Currently Worrying About: The temptation of books!!  Once we found out we were expecting an addition to the family, I determined to limit the number of books purchased in an attempt to save money.  This was not difficult to stick to as long as the nausea lasted.  It's less easy now.  And I'm afraid I must confess to having bought a small handful of books in the last week. A few irresistible Heyers (that ebook sale!) and the Elizabeth Kostova.  The latter was purchased for much less than it normally would have been due to the existence of a few gift cards left over from my birthday.  So I feel a little less guilty than I would have otherwise. :)


And now I want to buy yet another new book. And I haven't even read the aforementioned.  But this one sounds so good!  And it's all the fault of visiting your fascinating book blogs. Sometimes, visiting book blogs is like visiting your favourite section of the grocer's.  Filled with interesting things you know you'll want to try eventually, you're still able to resist because nothing seems quite what you're looking for at that very moment. Other times, it's like everything on the shelves just jumps right out at you, screaming for immediate attention. Well, it's been rather like that lately.  I came across this post about The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller and knew it was just the kind of book I'd love to get my eyes on.  I downloaded a free sample on the Kindle -- just to make sure -- and I just don't know how I'm going to say no to it.  And then there was this post that reminded me I really should give The Host a go (as I did enjoy the Twilight series. Really. I did!).  And I've seen more than one post on the delights awaiting those who dip into the Game of Thrones books. What's a book addict to do? 

A Georgette Heyer birthday ebook sale (at Sourcebooks, but also available at Amazon)? Yes, please!!!  Too good to pass up. The self-inflicted moratorium on ebook buying must make room for exceptions such as these.  Now, which ones shall I indulge in:


The Quiet Gentleman
Corinthian
False Colours


Or should it be one of her mysteries?


A Blunt Instrument
Footsteps In the Dark


And so many more to choose from!!!! Decisions, decisions . . .

I'm so glad Thomas at My Porch hosted International Anita Brookner Day in July because, even though I missed it due to those waves of nausea that were plaguing me for about three months, it put me on to a great new-to-me author and that inspires endless amounts of gratitude!  Even though I'm late (and, therefore, won't go into too many plot details as you can read much better synopses and reviews over at My Porch), I did read my chosen Anita Brookner novel, Hotel du Lac.  And, contrary to expectations (after I read up on what a few respected bloggers had to say about this particular Brookner novel), I absolutely loved it.  

Set entirely in an European hotel at the end of the season, Hotel du Lac is elegantly dismal.  From the curtains to the residents, Brookner's eye for the telling detail is unerring and can be a little stark at times.  And yet there is such beauty and humour in the grey.  Our heroine (or non-heroine) is novelist Edith Hope, who has little hope (ahem) of escaping the miasma of guilt and embarrassment that has occasioned her friends-initiated exile from home (some friends!).   The reader knows that Edith is trapped, the reader -- from the beginning of the novel* -- suspects that Edith will stay trapped, and yet the novel remains fascinating.  This is because Brookner just knows how to write stunningly well.  We're transported to an imagined reality that should feel claustrophobic and oppressive -- so deep is the loneliness and isolation of our main character -- and yet because it's all told with such ease of expression, such wry humour, such elegant detail (yes, the word elegant keeps coming up), one doesn't feel oppressed.  At least I didn't.


Edith is unflinching in her assessment of the other hotel residents, too. Which provides entertainment and insight (the interaction with the absurdly formidable Mrs. Pusey and daughter, for example!).  A sympathetic and a frustrating character, is Edith.  So intelligent and perceptive and, well, ridiculously trapped.  One wants to swoop in and say it's not all dark curtains and grey mornings! She's so fully realized as a character that one feels a stake in her happiness which, again, doesn't become oppressive, but does inevitably frustrate.  


Yes, despite the frustrations with Edith's lack of initiative and some warnings that Hotel du Lac is not Brookner's best, I definitely loved this novel (the writing style alone! Oh my goodness!) and I suspect I will return to Brookner again and again.  Because if this isn't her best, what joys await?!??!


* We're introduced to her thusly: "Edith Hope, a writer of romantic fiction under a more thrusting name, remained standing at the window, as if an access of good will could pierce the mysterious opacity with which she had been presented . . ." Now, what hope can we, as readers, have that she will end better than she began?  But note the humour in "a more thrusting name."  Love, love, love it! :)

 Quiet days, quiet destinations to local parks, some quiet reading. There can be healing in quiet, if I'd just let my restless, work-a-holic self benefit from it.  

And, fortunately now that the morning sickness has mostly left (whoever thought to call it morning sickness? It's more accurate to call it all day sickness), the open pages of books with their lovely lines of words, words, words are filling the hours.  I'm currently planning a headlong plunge into a Mary Stewart reread (thanks to this inspiring post at A Work In Progress) . . . but which novel shall I choose? Thunder on the Right? Nine Coaches Waiting? The Ivy Tree?  Decisions, decisions, decisions. I also need to finish the lovely Brookner novel I started and was unable to finish . . . what am I doing here writing when there is much reading to be done? :) 

I try to fit in a few graphic novels every once in awhile, and this latest one to come across my reading hours is a bit of fun.  Kill Shakespeare involves a whole herd of Shakespeare's characters let loose upon a so-so narrative to either track down and kill Will Shakespeare or protect him from those who are attempting to kill him.  It's fun, sometimes clever, sometimes annoying, and ultimately more interesting than not.  I might not go out of my way to read the second one, but I found the idea interesting and the execution of that idea not altogether unsatisfactory.

The story so far centres on Hamlet, mostly, and his confused role as a possible saviour figure in this world of warring wills:  Juliet, Othello, Falstaff vs. Richard III, Lady Macbeth, and Iago.  Hamlet is the one who is, evidently, key to the salvation or loss of the great Will Shakespeare.  Using some language borrowed or adapted from the plays, it's a diverting blend of styles (if you don't mind the language being borrowed or adapted and grafted onto a tale involving the Bard's own inventions).  

Missing, Inaction

Oh how I miss the summer. And it's still happening, it's just happening without me. Alas.  I'm still stuck indoors (for the most part), 'resting' and 'exercising' the leg as required.  Without going into too much detail (as medical details always seem either tiresome or frightening), the leg situation became more complicated (involving a clot and my lung) and it will take quite awhile to get back to normal.  I'm just glad it wasn't worse. It could have been.

And there's more good news!  Mr. Inkslinger and I are expecting an Inkslinger addition (in the form of a baby!) early in 2012!  This, I have to say, is the real reason I've been so often absent from the blogging world (however will I catch up?).  Between the leg issue which had to be handled very carefully due to the baby, and the nausea, etc. in the first trimester, it's been a rough summer.  I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I find it next to impossible to read while nauseated.

But there have been books.  In and around the nausea (which has now abated), I've returned to old, comfort reads like Jane Austen and C.S. Lewis.  Austen is both comforting in terms of pacing and style and challenging in terms of content and theme.  There's always something new to think about with Austen!  I've revisited Mansfield Park and I'm just reaching the end of the glorious Pride and Prejudice.  This will, of course, mean I will have to revisit some of the better P & P films!  That should improve the summer.