Dracula Spin Off

From my Instagram account: the prompt for this photo was "spin off book". Newman's Dracula books rock!

Sunday Salon: Returning to Blogging

Musing for this week's Sunday Salon.

Last week I decided, after a longer-than-intended hiatus, to return to reviewing books for Amazon Vine.   I've already reviewed two books (posted on here, too) and an iPhone accessory.  It feel nice to put my mind to a task like this again.  I'm also glad to revive this blog; I didn't realize until I started just how much I've missed blogging.

I also updated my Classics Club list.  It's funny how having a goal like that can make me so excited to read.  I'm really looking forward, after I finish my current ARC, to starting one of the classics from my list.

This was my June to-be-read pile, taken at the beginning of the month.  I've read two of the library books already.  The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper was a 4.5/5 star read.  The Madwoman Upstairs was good, and it wasn't.  I'd give it 3 stars.  I took Agatha Christie's biography back to the library unread, because I found that I could get the audio book instead.  Since then, I've added a few more to the pile and had some holds come in for me at the library.  

Thus far, I've read six books this month and listened to three audio books.   I don't know if I'll finish the month at that pace, of course.

I've started another ARC, Half a Lifelong Romance.  I'm only a little into it, but am finding it slow and stilted.  The reviews are 30% 5 star and 60% 4 star, so I'm hoping it will get better.

The Altogether Unexpected Disappearance of Atticus Craftsman by Mamen Sánchez

The Altogether Unexpected Disappearance of Atticus Craftsman
Mamen Sánchez
translated by Lucy Greaves
5/5 stars

I was given this book by the Amazon Vine program in return for an honest review.

Atticus, son of Craftsman & Co, is sent away from his routine and out of his depth on a job to Madrid. The Craftsman & Co. literary magazine, Librarte, is loosing money and Mr. Craftsman wants Atticus to fire the five employees and close it down. These five employees, ladies very different from each other who have bonded into a close-knit family, are determined to find a way to save the magazine, and their livelihood. To this end, they lure Atticus to Granada on a literary treasure hunt. After three months of no contact, his father gets worried and initiates a police search for Atticus, beginning a chain of events that will touch --and change-- the lives of all five women, the police inspector, Atticus and his parents.

The story is told in chapters that alternate between between Atticus' past and the present of the Librarte employees, eventually bringing the two stories up to date with each other. It is skillfully done and most effective.

When I began, and the first person introduced was a bumbling police inspector, I thought this would be a book of stereotypes and cardboard characters, but I was so wrong. Our Inspector turned out to be more complex, than seemed at first, as did all the individuals encountered. Sánchez created a realistic cast, many of whom I cared about deeply.

At times this book was lighthearted, funny, sad, serious, romantic and dramatic. Sánchez is excellent at balancing her novel with these varied emotions. The situations never felt contrived, but always natural, as if life were really just happening to these people.

Naturally, I've not read the Spanish version, but I feel that Lucy Greaves must have done an excellent job as the prose and conversations never feel stilted. In no way would I have known that this book was translated had I not read that it was.

On a side note, though, I did wonder if Sánchez had actually read Nabokov's Lolita, as she classes it with a group of literature that it is most definitely not. This wasn't a problem for the quality of the book, though, just something that I, as a fan of Nabokov, found a bother.

Overall, this is a delightful, at time moving, but always enjoyable novel. I give it the highest recommendation and hope that more of her novels will be translated into English.

Quirky Character

From my Instagram account: the prompt for this photo was "quirky character".  This hilarious book is filled with them!

Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon

Mystery in White 
J. Jefferson Farjeon

• Series: British Library Crime Classics
• Paperback: 256 pages
• 3/5 stars

Mystery in White (originally published in 1937) takes place Christmas Eve in rural England.  A train becomes stuck in a snowdrift, and an ill assorted group of passengers decide to attempt a walk to another station.  Due to the blinding the snow, they find themselves lost, and stumble upon a well-lit house with warm fires, tea on the table and no one around.

I enjoyed how Farjeon built up the story, and I liked the characters tremendously.  Watching as they began to get to know each other and share their stories was fun, and the uncertainty of when the mystery was going to occur was a pleasant tension. When it final came, though, the mystery itself was weak and the solution relied too much on the talents of Mr. Maltby of the Royal Psychical Society and not enough on actual deduction.

That said, Farjeon's style was appealing and I'd like to read another of his books to see if the mystery aspect of the story improves.  If it does, combined with his excellent story-telling, I would expect it to be worthy of five stars.  This one gets a three, as most of the novel was a great read that the let-down wasn't a deal-breaker.

The Classics Club

For my 2023 Classics Club post, click here. 

I began the Classics Club a few years ago, but then took a break. I'm ready to restart it!

 Here are the basic rules of The Classics Club:

choose 50+ classics
I have chosen 50+ with the expectation that some will be terrible and I won't want to read them. I'm shooting for a goal of 50.  I have chosen some that I have always intended to read, or feel like I should read.  I've chosen others that I've read in the past and would like to read again to see if I have a better understanding, or just for the pure enjoyment of revisiting an old friend.

list them at your blog
Tada! (see below)  

choose a reading completion goal date up to five years in the future and note that date on your classics list of 50+ titles
My orginal goal was to have read my 50 by 6 July 2018. My new goal is June 2021 (Holy Cow!) The Classics Club stresses that this is a "living list/goal" and as such it the list can grow, the goal date can be extended. . . the point is to read and grow with the classics.  That being the case, I reserve the right to add to or subtract from my list.

write about each title on your list as you finish reading it, and link it to your main list
The point of this is not to write reviews, but to initiate discussion by writing about "your reading thoughts".


Here is my list; note that I completed some a few years ago and have reposted my discussion on this blog.

1. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (read my discussion here)
2. Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
3. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (read my discussion here)
4.  The Professor by Charlotte Bronte (re-read)
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (re-read) (read my discussion here)
6. The Thirty-Nine Steps by James Buchan (read my discussion here)
7. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote (re-read) (my discussion here)
8. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
9. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
10. The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (re-read)
11.  A Passage to India by E.M. Forester
12. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
13.  Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
14. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (my discussion here)
15. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
16.  Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
17. Mayor of Castlebridge by Thomas Hardy
18. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (re-read)
19. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (re-read)
20. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (my discussion here)
21. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (re-read) (my discussion here)
22. Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (my discussion here)
23. Lilith by George MacDonald (re-read) (read my discussion here)
24. Phantasties by George MacDonald (re-read) (my discussion here)
25. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
26. The Garden Party and other stories by Katherine Mansfield
27. 1984 by George Orwell (read my discussion here)
28. Animal Farm by George Orwell
29. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (read my discussion here)
30.  Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (read my discussion here)
31.  Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
32. The Heir by Vita Sackville-West (read my discussion here)
33. Seducers in Ecuador by Vita Sackville-West (read my discussion here)
34. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (re-read) (read my discussion here)
35. Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger (re-read)
36. Nine Stories by JD Salinger 
37. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction  by JD Salinger
38. Henry IV by Shakespeare (re-read)
39. Henry V by Shakespeare (re-read)
40.  King Lear by Shakespeare (re-read)
41. Measure for Measure by Shakespeare (re-read)  (my discussion here)
42. The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare (re-read)  (my discussion here)
43. The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare (re-read) (my discussion here)
44. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare (re-read) (my discussion here) 
45. Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair (read my discussion here)
46. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (read my discussion here)
47. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey (read my discussion here)
48. Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale (re-read) (read my discussion here)
49. Love Poems by Sara Teasdale
50. The Warden by Anthony Trollope (my discussion is here)
51. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (re-read)
52. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (read my discussion here)
53.  The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (read my discussion here)
54.  The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
55. Night and Day by Virginia Woolf (read my discussion here)
56. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
57.  To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (re-read) (read my discussion here)
58. The Waves by Virginia Woolf (re-read)
59. The Years by Virginia Woolf (re-read)

Wink Poppy Midnight

Wink Poppy Midnight
April Genevieve Tucholke
Reading level: YA

3/5 stars

I was given this book by the Amazon Vine program in return for an honest review.

Wink Poppy Midnight centers around three teens by those names that are involved in an unhealthy triangle of a sort. Midnight, a mostly average teenager, has been crazy about Poppy for some time, until he begins living next to Wink and falls for her. Poppy (beautiful, but self-admittedly vain and cruel), and Wink (innocent-seeming, fairy tale-addicted, and enigmatic) both strive to manipulate Midnight. Poppy uses him for sex and to boost her ego, while Wink is trying to mold him into a Hero with a capital H.

The story is told in the voices of all three, alternating and picking up where the last one left off. Sadly, the voices of Midnight and Wink aren't as fully developed as Poppy and often seem more like "generic teen" than an individual. The blurb lets the reader know from the beginning that no one is exactly as they seem, and to expect unreliable narration, which adds a pleasant sense of unease as the plot progresses, despite it being a relatively standard retelling of "boy between two girls". The prose is often lyrical and lovely, but seems out of place in the mouths of average teenagers.

Overall, this quick read was enjoyable without being unduly surprising or moving. I did like it, I just didn't find it exceptional.

Note: This is my opinion; on Amazon, 47% of the reviews were 4 stars.