The Essex Serpent & Whose Body

 The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

This is a book I should have liked. It's an unusual story, about a woman and her slightly creepy young son moving to a village where a rumored creature in the water is being blamed for various recent misfortunes. The woman and the local minister become friends - maybe more - and her son forms a bond with the minister's ailing wife, who since her illness has become infatuated with the colour blue. There are several other romantic storylines but this is not a romance per se. Well, maybe it is, but it also touches on socialism, abuse, geology, social justice, medicine, and a woman's place in society.

So, a good story, interesting characters, and excellent writing. The first two pages, in which she writes about time and how it affects people in different situations, were breath-taking. I couldn't wait to read on, but then something seemed to stall. I can't explain it. It had everything it needed to be a good book, but I had a hard time getting into it. I pushed on and found the middle section held my attention better, but then it seemed to sort of fizzle out at the end. 

Maybe at a different time in a different frame of mind I'd have seen more in it and I wouldn't have to say with some regret that I didn't like it. Do read this outstanding review at  Kirkus Reviews though to see all the reasons why you might like it very much indeed. 

Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

This is the first of Sayers's Lord Peter Whimsey novels and I'm not quite sure I like Lord Peter. My book club read Busman's Honeymoon, which I think is #11 in the series, a couple of years ago and I very much liked it, and him, so maybe he'll grow on me as the series progresses. 

In this first book he's flippant, a little too self-confident, and his diction seemed strange. He's upper class British, but leaves the last letter off of some words, so that going becomes goin' and reading is readin'. I was hearing it in the accent of the southern U.S. and seeing him as plantation owner rather than British Lord. It was...odd. However, I love the way Sayers writes - a little less cozy than Agatha and with a bit more of an intellectual bent - and will probably try another after a while. 

It might be a long while. I still have two shelves of unread books, two dozen audio books and 4 dozen e-books waiting, almost 300 titles on my Goodreads want-to-read page, and over 160 on my wish list at the local library. And then there's a spread sheet with another 20 lists or so of authors and titles I want to check out when I get a chance. I might live long enough to read them all if I never add another title to any of those lists, but that seems unlikely. And anyway, I like lists and these ones are comforting in some way.

About Whose Body I'll just say I didn't enjoy it but I hope to try another. 

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe

This book is on so many "must read" lists that I felt almost obligated to read it. I'm not familiar with much of Edgar Allan Poe's writing, but I did like The Fall of the House of Usher and his poems Annabel Lee and The Raven. I knew this one, too, would be dark but looked forward to some excellent writing.

It started out as a sea-faring adventure that became a sea-faring disaster and finally a sea-faring horror story. Every time I thought the situation couldn't get worse, it did, and then it got worse than that. When they drew straws to see which of them to kill and eat I really wished they'd just jump overboard and let themselves be swept away by the tides. Wouldn't that have been easier?

I'm sure it's an important piece of literature - people more astute than I find much to admire in it - but I did not enjoy it. At all. Even with the excellent writing.

 

Education of a Wandering Man

 Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour

This wasn't a book I'd have picked up on my own but it was on our book club schedule this year and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I'd only known the name Louis L'Amour as a writer of old westerns, not my thing at all, and I wondered if I might find it boring. Instead I discovered a good writer with a wild personal story and wise thoughts on reading and education. 

For years L'Amour wandered the world getting work wherever he found it. At various times he was a seaman, mine caretaker, soldier, boxer, reviewer of books, and teacher. Upon marrying and starting a family he stopped wandering and settled down to a full time writing career, publishing over 100 books. He was a voracious reader of books of all genres. At the back he lists those he read from 1930-1935, and then in 1937. From Voltaire and Homer to H.G. Wells and Ellery Queen - history, plays, philosophy, fiction, poetry, science - there was nothing he wasn't interested in. He left school early, but had no lack of education. 

He makes it clear he's not writing an autobiography but a book about education - both his own and his theories on what education should be. I have to admit that those sections were the best part of the book for me, and when several consecutive pages were about his shipboard experiences or how the American west was settled, I'd be flipping ahead to see when he'd get back to the good stuff. But that's on me, not the author, and I recommend it as a book with much in it to appeal to most readers.   

A few quotes:

"Education should provide the tools for a widening and deepening of life, for increased appreciation of all one sees or experiences. It should equip a person to live life well, to understand what is happening about him, for to live life well one must live with awareness. No one can "get" an education, for of necessity education is a continuing process."

 "I suppose I was lonely. I know that often I longed for someone with whom I could talk of books, writers, and things of the mind."

"He expresses dissenting ideas, and it is no matter whether they are important, simply that they offer a different viewpoint and so are an incentive to thinking."

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

 Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

It's been a couple of months since I read this and now I've forgotten the details. I try to organize my thoughts about a book as soon as I've finished it, but have been plagued with interruptions and distractions lately. What I do remember is enjoying reading it.

CeeCee is 7 yrs old as the story opens, and living with her unstable mother and uninvolved father. When her mother is hit and killed by an ice-cream truck, her father decides CeeCee is too much for him and hands her off to Great Aunt Tootie. This turns out to be the kind of fairytale-come-true that only happens in books. Tootie is kind, gentle, loving, generous, and wealthy. She has a cook, Oletta, and wonderful neighbours who come to love and be a family to CeeCee. 

I wouldn't call it fluff as it does touch on more serious themes - family dysfunction, racism and mental health - but with lots of down-home wisdom and a few life lessons sprinkled throughout, it is a sweet story. 

A little unrealistic but very pleasant reading. 

North And South

 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

When Margaret Hale's father gives up his post as Vicar in a quiet English village, she and her parents move to a factory town where he hopes to find work as a tutor. His first student is John Thornton, the owner of a local mill where there is unrest among workers dissatisfied with inadequate pay and poor living conditions.

Note - if you haven't read North and South yet, it would be best to stop here as the ending will be mentioned.

Margaret, taking the side of the workers, at first finds Mr. Thornton arrogant and unlikeable,  She befriends the family of a disgruntled mill worker whose daughter's health is failing, but then becomes an unexpected advocate for Mr. Thornton when a strike mob threatens him. 

The more she gets to know Mr. Thornton the more her feelings toward him soften, but a series of devasting losses in Margaret's life seem to put more distance between them. We don't find out if they'll get together until the final pages of the book but there's so much else going on that you almost don't mind the wait. Almost.

I did wish there were a few more chapters. By the end of the book their circumstances have been reversed, Margaret having come into money and property and John having lost everything, and it would be nice to read more about their life together, how they handled those changes, etc.

I listened to an audio version of this book narrated beautifully by Juliet Stevenson, who gave each character a distinct, authentic voice and brought this book to vibrant life. Her reading - performing, really - made these people so real that I missed them terribly after I finished. A week later, I still miss them, their world, and her perfectly modulated voice and lovely English accent. I'd listen to her read anything. 

I loved North and South and highly recommend it, in print or this audio version. Then watch the mini-series with Richard Armitage as John Thornton. They are all wonderful. 

The Music Shop

 The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Frank owns a rundown music shop on a back street lined with a few more old businesses and dilapidated houses. His suppliers are beginning to avoid him because he refuses to stock CDs, believing the truest sound can only be heard on vinyl. They tell him he soon won't be able to get records and will have to switch to CDs, but Frank is adamant.

Blessed with an uncanny ability to sense what people are feeling and which record would meet their need at that moment in time, he suggests Aretha Franklin to one, something classical for another, or maybe jazz, and he's never wrong. He doesn't make much money, but he likes that he's able to help people 

Also in Frank's out-of-the-way neighbourhood are a funeral parlour run by the Williams Brothers, Mr. Novak's Bakery, Maud's Tattoo Parlour, and the gift shop of ex-priest Father Anthony. Rounding out the cast is Mrs. Roussos, who owns a home on the street and is a frequent visitor to the shop, and Kit, Frank's clumsily enthusiastic young assistant. In flashbacks we are introduced to Peg, Frank's eccentric mother, and learn something of the upbringing that gave him his love for music and explains why he has trouble opening up to people.  

Into this declining neighbourhood comes Ilse, a beautiful woman recently arrived from Germany, who faints outside the music shop window and is taken inside to recover. Once she does, she departs quickly, leaving everyone wondering who she is, where she lives, and why she's here. Though she returns and they get to know her a little, her hesitancy to speak about herself keeps them wondering. and conjecturing. 

With Frank falling for Ilse and a development firm using shady tactics to buy up local properties, things get complicated. Ilse is supposed to have a fiancée back in Germany, but won't talk about him. Some of the shop owners, faced with harassment and even violence, are getting scared and selling out. Frank's shop could be the next target.

This was a touching story with authentic, relatable characters you'd want for friends. Frank and Ilse could be frustratingly reticent - just SAY it for Pete's sake! - but I loved the parts where he spoke about various pieces of music and how to listen to them properly. I want to play some of the ones mentioned and try to hear what he said to listen for. I'm afraid it will be on CDs though. Don't tell Frank.